Read the following passage and write the letter A, B, C or D on the top of the first page to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

The (46)_________ for many young people today is to communicate with others over the Internet and have a life online. They way they do this is through social networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However, the people who (47)_________ their lives online are also putting themselves at risk, and they may not even understand how they are doing so.
The key to limiting risk is to keep certain pieces of information private. If you do any banking online, for example, it is important to note that dates of birth are often used as a(n) (48)_________ feature by banks.  They will need to know your identification number and possibly your address as well, but to _________ (49). They will need to know your identification your identity, they might ask you for your date of birth. If a criminal were to gain access to your account number at a bank, and then obtain your address from public records, the one thing that he would not have would be your birth date.
These days, however, a lot of people list their dates of birth openly on Facebook (50)_________ their friends can wish them well on their birthdays. Unfortunately, doing so could end up being a recipe for disaster.
(48).................

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
An important point to remember if you like spending time out in the open air is that the human head doesn't work very well outdoors if it becomes too hot, cold or wet. That‟s why a hat is a  good investment, whenever you are planning to go out and about. Surprisingly, a single waterproof hat with a brim will do the (16)       adequately in most conditions.
In cold climates, the problem is that the head is (17)           heat all the time. As much as fifty to sixty per cent of your body‟s heat is lost through the head and neck, (18)      on which scientist  you believe. Clearly this heat loss needs to be prevented, but it‟s important to remember that hats don‟t actually keep you warm, they simply stop heat escaping.
Just as important is the need to protect your neck from the effects of bright sunlight, and the brim of your hat will do this. If you prefer a baseball cap, (19)       buying one that has a drop down tail at the back to stop your neck getting sunburnt.
And in wet weather  (20)         ,  hats are often more practical than  pooling up the hood of your waterproof coat because when you turn your head, the hat goes with you, whereas the hood usually does not.
(20)..........................

Many of the most damaging and life-threaling types of weather-torrential rains, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes-begin quickly, strike suddenly, and dissipate rapidly, devastating small regions while leaving neighboring areas untouched. One such event, a tornado, struck the northeastern section of Edmonton, Alberta, in July 1987. Total damages from the tornado exceeded $250 million, the highest ever for any Canadian storm. Conventional computer models of the atmosphere have limited value in predicting short-live local storms like the Edmonton tornado, because the available weather data are generally not detailed enough to allow computers to discern the subtle atmospheric changes that precede these storms. In most nations, for example, weather balloon observations are taken just once every twelve hours at locations typically separated by hundreds of miles. With such limited data, conventional forecasting models do a much better job predicting general weather conditions over large regions than they do forecasting specific local events.
Until recently, the observation-intensive approach needed for accurate, very short range forecasts, or “Nowcasts”, was not feasible. The cost of equipping and operating many thousands of conventional weather stations was prohibitively high, and the difficulties involved in rapidly collecting and processing the raw weather data from such a network were insurmountable. Fortunately, scientific and technological advances have overcome most of these problems. Radar systems, automated weather instruments, and satellites are all capable of making detailed, nearly continuous observation over large regions at a relatively low cost. Communications satellites can transmit data around the world cheaply and instantaneously, and modern computers can quickly compile and analyzing this large volume of weather information. Meteorologists and computer scientists now work together to design computer programs and video equipment capable of transforming raw weather data into words, symbols, and vivid graphic displays that forecasters can interpret easily and quickly. As meteorologists have begun using these new technologies in weather forecasting offices, Nowcasting is becoming a reality.

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an advance in short-range weather forecasting?

Read the following passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the blanks from 46 to 50.
University researchers have taken samples from a preserved dodo specimen in an (46)         to uncover the extinct bird‟s family tree. They worked with the British Natural History Museum to collect and study genetic material from large number of specimens: a preserved dodo, the extinct solitaire bird, and 35 kind of living pigeons and doves. Their analysis (47)           the doo and the solitaire to be close relatives with the Nicobar pigeon, their nearest living relative. The dodo lived on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It was a flightless bird, bigger than a turkey. By 1681, all dodos had been (48)      by hungry sailors. The    solitaire, which looked a bit like a dodo, had gone the same way by 1800. By extracting short pieces of the dodo‟s DNA and (49)        these with the DNA of living birds, the scientists were able to deduce when the dodo evolved away from its relatives into a separate entity. The scientists can now (50)       assume that the dodo developed its distinctive appearance and features as a result of its geographical isolation. They are now convinced that it separated from the solitaire about 25 million years ago, long before Mauritius became an island.
(46).................

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

"Many parents believe that they should begin to teach their children to read when they are (1)….. more than toddlers. This is fine if the child shows a real interest but (2)…… a child could be counter-productive if he isn’t ready. Wise parents will have a (3)….. attitude and take the lead from their child. What they should provide is a selection of (4)….. toys, books and other activities. Nowadays there is a plenty of good (5)….. available for young children, and of course, seeing plenty of books in use about the house will also (6)…..  them to read.
 Of course, books are no longer the only (7)….. of stories and information. There Js also a huge range of videos, which can (8)…. And extend the pleasure a child finds in a book and are (9)… valuable in helping to increase vocabulary and concentration. Television gets a bad (10)…. as far as children are concerned, mainly because too many children spend too much time watching programmes not intended for their age group."

5. Nowadays there is a plenty of good (5)….. available for young children, 

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.

   One day in 1924, five men who were camping in the Cascade Mountains of Washington saw a group of huge apelike creatures coming out of the woods. They hurried back to their cabin and locked themselves inside. While they were in, the creatures attacked them by throwing rocks against the walls of the cabin.

   After several hours, these strange hairy giants went back into the woods. After this incident the men returned to the town and told the people of their adventure. However, only a few people accepted their story. These were the people who remembered hearing tales about footprints of an animal that walked like a human being.

   The five men, however, were not the first people to have seen these creatures called Bigfoot. Long before their experience, local Native Americans were certain that a race of apelike animals had been living in the neighboring mountain for centuries. They called these creatures Sasquatch.

   In 1958, workmen, who were building a road through the jungles of Northern California often found huge footprints in the earth around their camp.

   Then in 1967, Roger Patterson, a man who was interested in finding Bigfoot went into the Northern California jungles with a friend. While riding, they were suddenly thrown off from their horses. Patterson saw a tall apelike animal standing not far away. He managed to shoot seven rolls of film of the hairy creature before the animal disappeared in the hushes. when Patterson's film was shown to the public, not many people believed his story.

   In another incident, Richard Brown, a music teacher and also an experienced hunter spotted a similar creature. He saw the animal clearly through the telescopic lens of his rifle. He said the creature looked more like a human than an animal.

   Later many other people also found deep footprints in the same area. In spite of regular reports of sightings and footprints, most experts still do not believe that Bigfoot really exists.

Who were the first people to have seen these apelike creatures before the five campers?

Read the text and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the questions. 
Poles Apart
Many are surprised to learn that Antarctica is nearly twice the size of the United States. The name Antarctica was coined to mean "opposite to the Arctic." It is just that in many ways. Antarctica is a high, ice-covered landmass. In the Arctic the landmasses are grouped around the ice-covered Arctic Ocean.
Largely because of this difference, the climate of the two areas is very different. Antarctica is the coldest area in the world. On the average it is about 30 degrees colder than the Arctic. At the South Pole, nearly 10.000 feet high, monthly mean temperatures run well below zero. Only in coastal regions do temperatures sometimes rise about freezing in the summer (December to March). In contrast, near the North Pole monthly mean temperatures often rise above freezing. 
At both poles, daily temperatures may drop far below the monthly mean. At the American South Pole Station, winter temperatures sometimes fall below -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Elsewhere, on higher parts of the south polar plateau, even lower temperatures are recorded.
A temperature of -127 degrees Fahrenheit was measured in August 1960. It is the world's record low temperature.
Partly because of this climatic difference, the land animals and plants of the two regions are very different. On the continent of Antarctica, there are very few plants. In the Arctic there are many plants. In some of the few ice-free areas of Antarctica, mosses, lichens, and algae are found. Penguins populate Antarctic coastlines but do not exist in the Arctic. The land animals of the Arctic are foxes, bears, reindeer, and lemmings. These animals are unknown in the Antarctic. Old rock layers show that this "oppositeness" between north and south extends far back into the early chapters of earth history.
Ice is the great feature of Antarctica. More than 4.5 million square miles of ice sheet cover the area. Great rivers of ice, called glaciers, push down the mountains. Antarctica is the storehouse of about 85 percent of the total world supply of ice. 
The icecap is very thick, averaging nearly 8,000 feet. At one spot, scientists have found the distance from the surface to the rock underneath the ice to be more than 13,000 feet.
If this great volume of ice were to melt, the volume of the world oceans would increase, and sea level would rise. Extreme atmospheric changes would have to take place for this to happen.

The author implies that if Antarctica's ice melted _________.

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
Statesmen define a family as ―a group of indivi duals having a commo n  dwelling andrelated by blood, adoption or marriage, (1) includes common law relationships.‖ Most people are born into one of these groups and (2) live their lives as a family in such a group.Although the definition of a  family may not change, (3).relationship of people to each other within the family  group changes as society changes. More and more wives are (4) paying jobs,  and, as a result, the roles of husband, wife and children are changing. Today,  men expect to(5) . for pay for about 40 years of their lives, and, in today‘s  marriages(6) . which both spouses have paying jobs, women can expect to  work for about 30 to 35 years of their lives. This mean that man must learn to do  their share of family tasks such as caring for the children and daily (7) chores.  Children, too, especially adolescents, have to (8) with the members od their  family in sharing household tasks. The widespread acceptance of contraception  has meant that having (9) is as matter of choice, not an automatic result of  marriage. Marriage itself has become a choice. As alternatives (10)  common-law relationships and single-parent families have become socially  acceptable, women will become more independent. 

9)..........................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word(s) for each of the blanks from 41 to 45.
The United States has many different types of families. While most American families are traditional,(41)_________ a father, mother and one or more children, 22 percent of all American families in 1998 were headed by one parent, usually a woman. In a few families in the United States, there are no children. These childish couples may believe that they would not make good parents; they may want freedom from the (42)_________ of childbrearing or, perhaps they (43)_________ physically able to have children. Other families in the United States have one adult (44)_________ a stepparent. A stepmother or stepfather is a       person who joins a family by marrying a father or mother Americans tolerate and accept these different types of families. In the United States, people have the right to privacy and Americans do not believe in telling other Americans what type of family group they must belong to. They respect each other’s (45) _________ regarding family groups. Families are very important to Americans.
(42)...................

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 from 36 to 40.
Vietnamese generally shake hands when greeting and parting. Using both hands shows respect as does a (36)_________ bow of the head. In rural areas, elderly people who do not extend their hand are greeted with a slight bow. Women are more likely to bow the head than to shake hands. Vietnamese names begin with the family name andare (37)_________ by a given name. People address one another by their given names,    but add a title that indicates their perceived relationship to the other person. These titles are family related rather than professional. Among colleagues, for example, the younger of the two might combine the given name with the title of - Anh(OlderBrother). A/n (38)_________ greeting combined with the given name and titleis “Xin chao” (Hello). Classifiers for gender and familiarity are also combined with the greeting. In formal meetings, business cards are sometimes exchanged on greeting.
Vietnamese have astrong (39)_________ of hospitality and feel embarrassed if they cannot show their guests  full respect by preparing for their arrival. Therefore, it is (40)_________ to visit someone without having been invited. Gifts are not required, but are appreciated. Flowers, incense, or tea may be appropriate gifts for the hosts. Hosts also appreciate a small gift for their children or elderly parents.
(37).................

 Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:

"Books which give instructions on how to do things are very popular in the United States today. Thousands of these How-to books are useful: in fact, there are about four thousand books with titles that begin with the words “How to”. One book, may tell you how to earn more money, another may tell you how to save or spend it, and another may explain how to give your money away.
 Many How-to books give advice on careers. They tell you how to choose a career and how to succeed in it. If you fail, however, you can buy the book “How to Turn Failure into Success”. If you would like to become very rich, you can buy the book “How to Make a Millionaire”. If you never make any money at all, you may need a book called “How to Live on Nothing”.
 One of the most popular types of books is one that helps you with personal problems. If you want to have a better love of life, you can read “How to Succeed in Love every Minute of Your Life”. If you tired of books on happiness, you may prefer books which give step-by-step instructions on how to redecorate or enlarge a house.
 Why have How-to books become so popular? Probably because life has become so complex. Today people have far more free time to use, more choices to make, and more problems to solve. How-to books help people deal with modern life."

1. From the first paragraph, we know How-to books are ……

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.

GLOBAL WARMING

Few people now question the reality of global warming and its effects on the world's climate. Many scientists (1) _____________the blame for recent natural disasters on the increase in the world's temperatures and are convinced that, more than ever before, the Earth is at risk from the forces of the wind, rain and sun. According to them, global warming is making extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, even more (2) _____________and causing sea levels all around the world to rise.

     Environmental groups are putting pressure on governments to take action to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is given (3) _____________by factories and power plants, thus attacking the problem at its source. They are in favor of more money being spent on research into solar, wind and wave energy devices, (4) _____________ could then replace existing power station.

Some scientists, (5) _____________, believe that even if we stopped releasing carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere tomorrow, we would have to wait several hundred years to notice the results. Global warming, it seems, is to stay.

(5) _________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the answer to each of the question. 
The world’s oldest post office, which has been operating in Sanquhar, Scotland, for more than 300 years, faces an uncertain future. Current owner and stamp collector, Manzoor Alam, and his wife, Nazra, have been forced to put the business and its accompanying cottage on the market due to ill health.
The Alams are “heartbroken” to leave the post office, and are concerned that if a buyer cannot be found its rich history could be lost. “It was my husband who was always the one most interested in stamps and the postal service but over the last few years of working here it has grown on me too,” said Mrs Alam. The couple are the post office’s 16th postmasters, and if they become the last, the title will fall to a Stockholm branch, which opened in 1720.
Dumfries and Galloway councillor, Andrew Wood, said lots of rural areas were struggling to keep their post offices open. He said it would be a “sad day” if the business folded. “I was wondering if the community could arrange a buyout but it shouldn’t come down to that,” he said. “We’re a wealthy country and should be able to have them in good-sized towns.”
The property is on the market for £275,000, and includes a three-bed cottage with two bathrooms, a large living room, and garden with outbuildings. Agent Humberstones suggests the outbuilding could be a holiday let, tea room or postal museum, as Mr Alam had planned. “My ambition is to promote the rich heritage of the past by establishing a postal museum — the only one in Scotland — and combining it with a modern business, securing this wonderful post office for future generations,’” he had said when he took on the business.

Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
Postsecondary institutions and private schools are corporations under U.S. law.  They are approved to operate as non-profit, for-profit, or public corporations (1)  _______ education and training. Increasingly, state authorities are requiring  approved educational providers to apply (2) _______ and receive accreditation  as a condition of final and continued approval. 
As corporate entities, U.S. institutions are internally self-governing and are (3)  _______ to make property, facilities, equipment, and utilities transactions; make  their own personnel decisions; decide whom to admit to study and to graduate;  (4) _______ their own funds from outside sources; enter into contracts and  compete for grants; and do most of the other things that corporations do.  Institutions compete (5) _______ one another for students, research funding,  faculty, and other benefits. Public institutions may compete within the same  state or territory for budget appropriations. It is the corporate nature of  institutions and the competition within the system that (6) _______ Americans  to refer to the concept of the educational or academic marketplace - an important distinctive element of the way U.S. education is organized. 
Some institutions are governed (7) _______ under multi-campus arrangements.  These include most local public schools (governed by school districts) and many  state community college and university systems. Whether single- or multi campus, institutional corporations (8) _______ by boards of citizens, both  alumni and non- alumni, who are ultimately responsible for all operations. They  appoint senior (9) _______, such as principals, headmasters, presidents, and  deans; and approve the actions taken (10) ______ their name. 

3.....................

Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learn all the other things they learn to do without being taught - to talk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle - compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end all this nonsense of grades, exams, and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible to them, with our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential, something they will need to get on in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.

The word “complicated” in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
Postsecondary institutions and private schools are corporations under U.S. law.  They are approved to operate as non-profit, for-profit, or public corporations (1)  _______ education and training. Increasingly, state authorities are requiring  approved educational providers to apply (2) _______ and receive accreditation  as a condition of final and continued approval. 
As corporate entities, U.S. institutions are internally self-governing and are (3)  _______ to make property, facilities, equipment, and utilities transactions; make  their own personnel decisions; decide whom to admit to study and to graduate;  (4) _______ their own funds from outside sources; enter into contracts and  compete for grants; and do most of the other things that corporations do.  Institutions compete (5) _______ one another for students, research funding,  faculty, and other benefits. Public institutions may compete within the same  state or territory for budget appropriations. It is the corporate nature of  institutions and the competition within the system that (6) _______ Americans  to refer to the concept of the educational or academic marketplace - an important distinctive element of the way U.S. education is organized. 
Some institutions are governed (7) _______ under multi-campus arrangements.  These include most local public schools (governed by school districts) and many  state community college and university systems. Whether single- or multi campus, institutional corporations (8) _______ by boards of citizens, both  alumni and non- alumni, who are ultimately responsible for all operations. They  appoint senior (9) _______, such as principals, headmasters, presidents, and  deans; and approve the actions taken (10) ______ their name. 

2........................

Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learn all the other things they learn to do without being taught - to talk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle - compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end all this nonsense of grades, exams, and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible to them, with our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential, something they will need to get on in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.

The word “he” in the first paragraph refers 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.

A scientist said robots will be more intelligent than humans by 2029. The scientist's name is Ray Kurzweil. He works for Google as Director of Engineering. He is one of the world's (1)______ experts on artificial intelligence (A.I.). Mr Kurzweil believes computers will be able to learn from experiences, just like humans. He also thinks they will be able to tell jokes and stories, and even flirt. Kurzweil's 2029 prediction is (2)______ sooner than many people thought. The scientist said that in 1999, many A.I. experts said it would be hundreds of years before a computer was more intelligent than a human. He said that it would not be long before computer intelligence is one billion times more powerful than the human brain.

Mr Kurzweil joked that many years ago, people thought he was a little crazy (3)______ predicting computers would be as intelligent as humans. His thinking has (4)______ the same but everyone else has changed the way they think. He said: "My views are not radical any more. I've actually stayed consistent. It's the (5)______ of the world that's changing its view." He highlighted examples of high-tech things we use, see or read about every day. These things make us believe that computers have intelligence. He said people think differently now: "Because the public has seen things like Siri [the iPhone's voice-recognition technology] where you talk to a computer; they've seen the Google self-driving cars."

(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 41 to 45.
SOCIAL NETWORK
A 16-year-old girl from Essex has been sacked after describing her job as boring on the social networking website, Facebook. The teenager, who had been working (41)      an administrative assistant at a    marketing company for just three weeks, didn‟t feel very enthusiastic about the duties she was asked to do. (42)       of moaning to her friends she decided to express her thoughts on her Facebook page to a colleague, who (43)       the boss‟s attention to it. He immediately fired her on the (44)       that her public display of dissatisfaction made it impossible for her to continue working for the company. She later told newspapers she had been treated totally unfairly, especially as she hadn‟t even mentioned the company‟s name. She claimed she‟s been perfectly happy with her job and that her light-hearted comments shouldn‟t (45)      taken seriously. A spokesperson from a workers‟ union said the incident demonstrated two things: firstly, that people need to protect their privacy online and secondly, that employers should be less sensitive to criticism.
(42).......................

Light from a living plant or animal is called bioluminescence, or cold light, to distinguish it from incandescence or heat-generating light. Life forms could not produce incandescent light without being burned. Their light is produced in chemicals combining in such a way that little or no measurable heat is produced, and the life forms generating it are unharmed. Although bioluminescence is a relatively complicated process, it can be reduced to simple terms. Living light occurs when luciferin and oxygen combine in the presence of luciferase. In a few cases, fireflies the most common, an additional compound called ATP is required.
The earliest recorded experiments with bioluminescence in the late 1800s are attributed to Raphael Dubois, who extracted a luminous fluid from a clam, observing that it continued to glow in the test tube for several minutes. He named the substance luciferin, which means “the bearer of life”. In further research, Dubois discovered that several chemicals were required for bioluminescence to occur. In his notes, it was recorded that a second important substance, which he called luciferase, was always present. In later study of small, luminous sea creatures, Newton Harley concluded that luciferin was composed of carbon, hydrosen, and oxygen, which are the building blocks of all living cells. He also proved that there are a variety of luciferin and luciferase, specific to the plants and animals that produce them.
Much remains unknown, but many scientists who are studying bioluminescence now believe that the origin of the phenomenon may be traced to a time when there was no oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. When oxygen was gradually introduced to the atmosphere, it was actually poisonous to life forms, plants and animals produced light to use up the oxygen in a gradual but necessary adaptation. It is speculated that millions of years ago, all life may have produced light to survive. As the millennia passed, life forms on Earth became tolerant of, and finally dependent on oxygen, and the adaptation that produced bioluminescence was no longer necessary, but some primitive plants and animals continued to use the light for new functions such as mating or attracting prey.

Bioluminescence is described as all of the following EXCEPT ________.

Read the passage carefully, then choose the correct answer. 
A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension, will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and, the general principles apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much. more rapidly than physics or economics textbook — but you tan raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned with. 
The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you might skim through a newspaper at perhaps 650 - 700 words per minute while with a difficult textbook you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty. Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds is common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, USA, for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy's War and Peace in translation, at speed of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim that after twelve-half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.

______ book Jubilee, which was based on the life of their great-grand-mother, Margaret Walker was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.