Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Getting Focused and Flexible with Yoga
In a small room, men and women are getting a great workout. However, there are no weights in this gym. The only piece of equipment is a small rubber mat. On it, they strike unusual poses which are held for minutes at a time. An instructor goes from student to student urging them to relax and breathe deeply, while inspecting their posture. In the end, through the art of yoga they hope to balance their body, mind, and spirit. Yoga originated in India over 2,000 over years ago. The first yogis weren’t looking to lose weight or get themselves in great shape. Instead, they practise yoga to help them achieve liberation. Yoga became an important part of Hindu culture, and it is mentioned in nearly all of the religion’s ancient scriptures. It wasn’t until the 19th century, however, that Westerners took notice of yoga. In the 1890s, Swami Vievekananda became the first yoga teacher to take on Western students when he toured the US and Europe. His lessons focused primarily on the spiritual aspects, and his speeches intrigued many intellectuals, but it would take some time before yoga would catch on with the masses. That didn’t happen until the 1980s when many Americans and Europeans embraced yoga during a worldwide exercise boom. Yet once it took hold, yoga has increased popularity year by year. It is estimated that over 20 million Americans now practice yoga regularly. A main reason why contemporary people are hooked on yoga is that it helps to relieve work-related stress. Students are taught to breathe slowly and deeply while concentrating on the present moment and letting go of the past. The challenging postures help to balance the negative effects people experience from sitting in chairs all day. The poses also help people to regain flexibility and improve circulation, which is particularly useful to the elderly. As yoga became commercialized in the West, many new branches were formed. Ashtanga yoga moves at a fairly quick pace, flowing from pose to pose, power yoga, on the other hand, offers workouts that are designed to increase strength. Another popular style, hot yoga, has students practise in hot environments to help them burn more calories. If you are thinking of studying yoga, try them all and let your heart decide which one is best for you.
4. What did Swami Vievekananda do?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences with given words:
 In 1778, he went/ London/ study/ Benjamin West/ for/ four years.

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If I ______ in your shoes, I’d take it easy and try to forget it.

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning
The island has diverse plants species.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
In most discussions of cultural diversity, attention has focused on visible, explicit aspects of culture, such as language, dress, food, religion, music, and social rituals. Although they are important, these visible expressions of culture, which are taught deliberately and learned consciously, are only the tip of the iceberg of culture. Much of culture is taught and learned implicitly, or outside awareness. Thus, neither cultural insiders nor cultural outsiders are aware that certain “invisible” aspects of their culture exist.
Invisible elements of culture are important to us. For example, how long we can be late before being impolite, what topics we should avoid in a conversation, how we show interest or attention through listening behaviour, what we consider beautiful or ugly- these are all aspects of culture that we learn and use without being aware of it. When we meet other people whose invisible cultural assumptions differ from those we have learned implicitly, we usually do not recognize their behaviour as cultural in origin.
Differences in invisible culture can cause problems in cross-cultural relations. Conflicts may arise when we are unable to recognize others’ behavioural differences as cultural rather than personal. We tend to misinterpret other people’s behaviour, blame them, or judge their intentions or competence without realizing that we are experiencing cultural rather than individual differences.

Formal organizations and institutions, such as schools, hospitals, workplaces, governments, and the legal system are collection sites for invisible cultural differences. If the differences were more visible, we might have less misunderstanding. For example, if we met a man in a courthouse who was wearing exotic clothes, speaking a language other than ours, and carrying food that looked strange, we would not assume that we understood his thoughts and feelings or that he understood ours. Yet when such a man is dressed similarly to us, speaks our language, and does not differ from us in other obvious ways, we may fail to recognize the invisible cultural differences between us. As a result, mutual misunderstanding may arise.

The word “deliberately” in bold in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to     .

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....................... that he was poor, I offered to pay his fare.

Find synonyms:
GCSE are not compulsory, but they are the most common qualifications taken by students.

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:
Rachek Carson was born 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 vindicated a 1963 report of the President’s Science Advisory Committee.

When she published her first book, Carson was closest to the age of     .

Nonrenewable resources include fossil fuels and mineral deposits, such as (1) _______ ore and gold ore. Conservation activities for nonrenewable resources focus (2) _______ maintaining an adequate supply of these resources well into the future. Natural resources are conserved for their biological, economic, and recreational values, (3) _______ their natural beauty and importance to local cultures. (4) _______, tropical rain forests are protected for their important role in both global ecology and the economic livelihood of the local culture; a coral reef may be (5) _______ for its recreational value for scuba divers; and a scenic river may be protected for its natural beauty.
(33)_________

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That city is most famous …………. its fashion shops.

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I do not have …………. oranges, but I have …………… apples.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Ever since it was first possible to make a real robot, people have been hoping for the invention of a machine that would do all the necessary jobs around the house. If boring and repetitive factory work could be (1) ________ by robots, why not boring and repetitive household chores too? For a long time the only people who really gave the problem their attention were amateur inventors And they came up against a major difficulty. That is, housework is actually very complex It has never been one job it has always been many. A factor robot (2) ________ one task endlessly until it is reprogrammed to do something else. It doesn’t run the whole factory. A housework robot on the other hand, has to do several different (3) ________ of cleaning and carrying jobs and also has to cope (4) ________ all the different shapes and positions of rooms, furniture, ornaments, cats and dogs. (5) ________, there have been some developments recently. Sensors are available to help the robot locate objects and avoid obstacles. We have the technology to produce the hardware. All that is missing the software- the programs that will operate the machine

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 :
We are truly at a(n) (1)__________ between imagination and reality, especially when it comes to film. No longer are we able to tell what is real and what isn’t. In the past, it was easy to tell if a scene in a film was created artificially, as the special effects were never very good. To a person who grew up with the special effects that Hollywood can create today, the effects in films from 50 years ago are laughable. The scenes from these films come (2)__________ as so obviously fake that they are almost painful to watch. Today, however, a line has been crossed. Computer-generated animation has made it nearly impossible to (3)_________ between what was actually filmed and what was created by lines of computer code by a programmer. Not only is scenery created by computers, but also many actors known as extras. In the past, a film director would have to hire dozens and possibly hundreds of extras in order to show a crowd scene. This is no longer the (4)____________, and the one film that proved thus was achievable was Titanic, directed by James Cameron. However, years later, computer animation was taken to yet another (5)__________ by the same director with the movie Avatar

Choose the best answer:
The red double-decker bus is London’s famous ……………

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Can you name some countries having subtropical climate ___________ the world?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
It's only 36 centimeters tall, but to fans throughout the world, it represents the highest achievement in football. Every four years, teams from all over the globe compete to take home the FIFA World Cup Trophy, yet nobody ever does. Do you know why? Nobody ever takes it home because the 18-carat gold trophy is kept under lock and key by FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association). The champions of each World Cup tournament receive only a replica. This is to protect the valuable prize from thieves, who have stolen the World Cup trophy twice in its 75-year history. The little trophy has certainly had a troubled existence. The original trophy was made by a French sculptor, Abel LaFleur, and was called the "Jules Rimet Cup," in honor of the founder of the World Cup tournament. Sometime during the first three World Cup events (1930, '34 and '38), the name changed to simply the "World Cup." Then during World War II, not much was seen or heard of the trophy. It was being kept hidden in a shoe box under the bed of Dr. Ottorino Barassi, the Italian vice-president of FIFA, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Nazi army. Although the trophy made it safely through the war, it didn't fare so well during the turbulent 1960s. In 1966, the Cup was stolen during a public showing of the trophy prior to the World Cup tournament in England. Luckily, it was found a short time later none the worse for wear in a trash container, by a little dog named Pickles. Four years later, Brazil earned permanent possession of the original trophy by winning its third World Cup title. Unfortunately, the trophy was stolen a second time, in 1983, and was never recovered. The Brazilian Football Association had to have a duplicate trophy made. After the first trophy became the possession of Brazil's football association, a new World Cup Trophy for FIFA was designed by an Italian artist, Silvio Gazazniga, in 1974. This trophy cannot be won outright, but remains in the possession of FIFA, and rest assured they are keeping a close eye on it. Today, World Cup winners are awarded a replica of the trophy that is gold-plated, rather than solid gold like the real one. Gazazniga's World Cup trophy weighs almost five kilograms. Its base contains two layers of a semi-precious stone called malachite, and has room for 17 small plaques bearing the names of the winning teams -enough space to honor all the World Cup champions up to the year 2038. After that, a new trophy will have to be made.
1. This reading is mainly about......

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.
Owning a car has several advantages. .......................(1), you can go wherever you want, whenever you want. You  don’t  have  to  depend  on  public  transport,  and ................ (2), you will feel more independent.
 ..................(3), you are able to give lifts to friends, or carry heavy loads of shopping. ....................(4), there can be certain financial problems, especially if you live in a city. Running a car can be costly, since you have to spend quite an amount on items................... (5) petrol, servicing the car, and repairs. You might also have problem with parking, as every where is more and more crowded with cars. ............ (6) most people feel that the advantages of owning a car outweigh the disadvantages.
(2)...............

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Will Shortz: Puzzle Maker
When you ask a child what they would like to be when they grow up, common responses might include firefighter, pilot, doctor, or athlete. But those jobs don’t capture the attention of all kids. Take Will Shortz, for example. In eighth grade, at the age of 14, Shortz had to write an essay about what he wanted to do with his life. He wrote about his desire to become a puzzle maker – someone who creates games and puzzles, such as sudoku or crossword puzzles. That same year, he sold his first puzzle to the magazine Venture. By the age of 16, Shortz was regularly contributing puzzles to magazines. In college, Shortz found that there was no traditional way to study puzzles or become a puzzle maker. There were no classes offered on puzzles. Fortunately, after becoming bored with his economics studies, Shortz learned that his university offered a special programme that allowed students to suggest and create unique fields of study. After creating and completing two courses on word and math puzzles, Shortz switched his major to enigmatology – the study of puzzles. Shortz and his professors then created new classes that explored all aspects of puzzle-making. He studied the history, construction, and psychology of puzzles, mostly on his own. Because there were no professors of enigmatology, Shortz realized that he probably was the only student at his university to know more about his field than any of his professors. He did well in school, but upon graduating, Shortz did not know how to get a job creating puzzles. For summer work, he joined the magazine Penny Press, where he realized that he could find work as a puzzle editor. Shortz then found a job creating and editing puzzles for Games magazine. This seemed like a dream job because he could create new kinds of puzzles and be surrounded by great puzzle makers. After 15 years at Games, Shortz accepted a position as the editor of The New York Times’ crossword puzzle. When he first joined, the newspaper’s crossword puzzle was seen as very difficult, and few readers could complete it. Shortz made fundamental changes, such as including everyday language in the clues and answers so that many more people could enjoy it. Today, he credited with making the crossword appealing to a wider audience. Some of Shortz’s most famous puzzles have related to the news for that day, such as the name of the winning president on Election Day, and a love-themed puzzle on Valentine’s Day.
7. At The New York Times, Will Shortz ________

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:

LOWELL (March 3) – Just one year after opening, Viggo's Sweet Shop on Park Street has become the place to go for residents wishing to satisfy their sugary cravings. Says owner Viggo Magnusson, "Returning customers bring friends and relatives with them, so the shop is always ---1---." Mr. Magnusson credits the success of his business to the recipes he inherited from his grandmother about a decade ago. ---2---. But the popularity of the pastry shop ---3--- Mr. Magnusson with an unanticipated problem: lack of store space. So when the shoe store next door went out of business recently, he purchased the property to allow for the ---4--- of his shop. Renovations will start in April.

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.
The fictitious androids written about in the mid-1900s are becoming a reality with advances in the field of robotics. Japan and Korea have been pioneers in this field. They regularly compete to be the first. The focus on most reseachers is in (1)............. life-like, attractive female androids. A Japanese research group led by Hiroshi Ishiguro created ther world’s first female android, which is called Actroid in 2003. The early model was limited so upgrades were made and the dramatic entertainment model was released in 2006. Actroids are covered with a silicone skin and have built-in sensors making them (2)................ of reacting  to  humans,  and  they  can  also  mimic  many  human behaviors. (3)................... , they can be programmed to speak in any language. The Korean android, EveR-2, released in 2006, was designed by a team from Kitech. They claim that she is more life-like than Actroids, and she can mimic emtions. She can also speak and move her lips to match  her (4)..................... . Future models are expected to have higher mobility and even be proficient in dancing. Research teams have also created male androids. One in particular is the Germinoid HI-I.
Regardless of the competition, it’s clear that this technology will one day present us (5)..................the dilemma of determining human from machine.

(3).......................................