Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Plants that Can Help You
We have already talked about some dangerous plants, but we don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea. Please don’t think that most plants are dangerous. The truth is that although some plants can hurt you, most are completely harmless. In fact, there are plenty of plants that are actually very useful to humans. That is why plants are so popular in Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine has been using plants for at least 4,800 years. One of the most popular plants in Chinese medicine is ginseng. Doctors of Chinese medicine believe that ginseng can help your lungs, clean your blood, and do many other things. Ginseng is also a source of energy. In fact, many modern energy drinks that you see in stores contain ginseng. In some parts of the US, there is a plant called lady fern. This is the plant you need if you have been stung by a bee, or if you have got a small burn or a cut. Lady ferns are great for making your skin feel better. All you have to do is roll one of its leaves and crush it in your hands. The juices inside the leaf will help your skin feel better. If you are ever hiking in Europe, look for a flower called tansy. This yellow flower is a natural insect repellent. You just rub it on your skin, and insects will leave you alone. Sage is one of the most useful plants in the world. Because it has so many uses, it is also quite valuable. Human beings have been using sage for a very long time. In Europe, before refrigerators existed, people often used sage to preserve food. Over the years, people have used sage to fight all kinds of health problems. Sage has been used to treat colds, stop muscle problems, and reduce swelling. There are all kinds of other things that people have used sage for. In fact, sage is so useful that it comes from the Latin word “salvere” which means “to be saved”.
6. The word “repellent” in paragraph 4 means __________

Choose the best answer:
She keep ______me if I could help her.

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:
There are three valid arguments to support the preservation of endangered species. Aesthetic justification contends that biodiversity contributes to the quality of life because many of the endangered plants and animals are particularly appreciated for their unique physical beauty. The aesthetic role of nature in all its diverse forms is reflected in the art and literature of every culture attaining symbolic status in the spiritual life of many groups. According to the proponents of the aesthetic argument, people need nature in all its diverse and beautiful forms as part of the experience of the world.
Another argument that has been put forward, especially by groups in the medical and pharmacological fields, is that of ecological self-interest. By preserving all species, we retain a balance of nature that is ultimately beneficial to humankind. Recent research on global ecosystems has been cited as evidence that every species contributes important or even essential functions that may be necessary to the survival of our own species. Some advocates of the ecological argument contend that important chemical compounds derived from rare plants may contain the key to a cure for one of the diseases currently threatening human beings. If we do not protect other species, then they cannot protect us.
Apart from human advantage in both the aesthetic and ecological arguments, the proponents of a moral justification contend that all species have the right to exist, a viewpoint stated in the United Nations World Charter for Nature, created in 1982. Furthermore, if humankind views itself as the stewards of all the creatures on Earth, then it is incumbent upon human beings to protect them, and to ensure the continued existence of all species. Moral justification has been extended by a movement called “deep ecology,” the members of which rank the biosphere higher than people because the continuation of life depends on this larger perspective. To carry their argument to its logical conclusion, all choices must be made for the biosphere, not for people.

It can be inferred from the passage that the author     .

Thank you for agreeing to consult on the Canterbury Airport redesign project. ---139---. As a result, I am particularly eager to hear your ideas about upgrading our main terminal. Can we meet this week? There are a number of ---140--- restaurants near my office. If you are available this Friday, we could meet at Celia's Café on   Cumberland Street. I would also like a few of my colleagues to ---141--- us. They would appreciate ---142-- ways to enhance the airport user's experience.

140...............

Choose the best answer:
The/ by/ festival / as/ recognized / UNESCO / was/ of/ an/ intangible/ the/ cultural heritage / mankind.

Choose the best answer:
The cellphone/ be/ portable/ so/ I/ can/ bring/ everywhere.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
The Particle that Started the Big Bang
In 2013, the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Francois Englert and Peter W. Higgs for their discovery of a particle that is vital to our understanding of the universe. Although its official name is the Higgs boson, many refer to it as the God particle, because it’s considered to be the building block of the universe. Many believe that the Higgs boson may be the cause for the Big Bang explosion which led to the creation of the universe. In the 1960s, Higgs came up with the concept that particles had no mass when the universe started. In a split-second, however, it came into contact with something that gave it mass. This, Higgs theorized, was the Higgs boson. Many scientists initially laughed at the idea, but in the upcoming years, Higgs along with Englert and several of their peers continued to work on these concepts. Their ideas would eventually help lead the way to the discovery of the Higgs boson decades later. The search for the Higgs boson certainly didn’t come up cheap, as it cost nearly $10 billion to build the machinery necessary to perform the tests to find it. Yet nearly every physicist would agree that it was worth it, as the Higgs boson has already been labeled as one of the most important discoveries in particle physics. The finding is also a huge boost for physics in general because it proves that the Standard Model of Physics which researchers have been using for years is correct. The Higgs was the last remaining question mark as all of the other particles and elements had been found. Still, many ordinary people may question how such a discovery affects their lives at all. Although quantum mechanics may seem weird, it has actually led to several important technological breakthroughs over the past century. These findings have led to laser and X-ray technologies that work in the real world. There is still much to be learned with further observation of the Higgs boson in action. Scientists hope to learn more about dark matter, a strange substance that constitutes 25 percent of the mass of the universe. The research could also lead to some other technologies as well.
1. Why did Higgs and Englert win the Nobel Prize for Physics?

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:
Students working for their first degree at university are called undergraduates. Then they take their degree we say they graduate, and then they are called graduates. If they continue studying at university after they have graduated, they are called post-graduates. Full-time university students spend all their free time studying. They have no other employment. Their course usually lasts for three or four years. Medical students have to follow a course lasting for six or seven years. Then they graduate as doctors. In Britain, full-time university students have three terms of about ten weeks in each year. During these terms they go to lectures or they study by themselves. Many students become members of academic societies and sports clubs and take part in their activities. Between the university terms they have vacations (or holiday periods). Their vacations are long, but of course they can use them to study at home.

According to the passage, the  full-time university students have  .........   of about 10 weeks in each year.

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After dinner, Mom ______ the lamp and Dad used to tell us stories.

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A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
In 1826, a man named Joseph Nicephore Niepce went to the upstairs window of his home in France. He used a new invention called a camera to take the world’s first photograph of nature. Niepce’s photograph shows us the view from his window. However, it is very difficult to know that when you look at the picture. The image is not very clear at all. That doesn’t matter. On that day, Niepce changed the world forever. Photography first became very popular in the 1850s and 1860s. People liked it because it showed more details than other kinds of art. A painting or a statue might be more beautiful than a photograph, but a photograph can tell you a much clearer story. Many people believe that colour photographs didn’t exist until the 1920s, but that’s not true. The first colour photograph was taken in 1855. It shows a colourful ribbon. Before the 1920s, people didn’t often use colour photography because it was very complicated and expensive. Even after colour photography became easier and cheaper, many people still preferred black and white pictures. They felt that black and white had a more “classic photo” feeling. In the 1940s, colour photography finally replaced black and white. When we think of the history of photography, it is amazing to think of how easy it is to take pictures today. Many years ago, only professionals had cameras. These days, just about everybody has one. One of the biggest reasons for this change is the popularity of smartphones. Almost every modern smartphones. Almost every modern smartphone has a camera. These smartphone cameras are very easy to use and they also take very clear pictures. Most of them have a video function.  One thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of photography. These days, a picture can still create all kinds of feelings and emotions inside of us. There is a saying. “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
5. What happened in the 1940s?

Offensive players may be called for a foul by pushing off a defender to provide space for a _____ or shot.

(415)_______

The concept of urban agriculture may conjure up images of rooftop, backyard or community gardens scattered among downtown city streets and surrounding neighborhoods. But in the Seattle area, and within and beyond the Puget Sound region, it means a great deal more. "Urban agriculture doesn't necessarily equate to production that occurs only in a metropolitan urban area, "says Jason Niebler, who directs the Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAgE) initiative at Seattle Central Community College. "It means we are providing for growing population food needs from surrounding rural landscapes, as well as from the core urban landscape."

Picture a series of concentric circles, with an urban core that produces some food at varying capacities, surrounded by a series of outlying rings of small farms that become increasingly more rural with distance. The hope is that such land use planning, from the inner core to the outer rings, will encourage local ecologically sound sustainable food production. This, in turn, will create local jobs and decrease reliance on distant food products that originate from petroleum-intensive large scale farms.

That's the idea behind SAgE, believed to be the nation's first metropolitan-based community college sustainable agriculture program that emphasizes farming practices across diverse landscape types from urban centers to surrounding rural environs. "It's small scale agriculture with an urban focus" Niebler says. "Any urban population, large or small, can practice sustainable agriculture, improve food security and protect the environment, which ultimately results in resilient food systems and communities."

SAgE is a part of National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program, which is providing the project with $157,375 over two years. ATE's goal is to support projects that strengthen the skills of technicians who work in industries regarded as vital to the national's prosperity and security. The support largely goes to community colleges that work in partnership with universities, secondary schools, businesses and industries, as well as government agencies, which design and implement model workforce initiatives.

The SAgE project focuses on the environmental, socioeconomic, political and cultural issues related to sustainable food systems, within Puget Sound watersheds through student and community education and research, and technological innovation. The curriculum offers courses that cover such issues as agricultural ecology, urban food systems, food politics and ethics, soil science, sustainable food production and technology, the integration of food and forests, and career opportunities.

"We've created a curriculum that is fundamental in nature, addressing the principles of sustainable agriculture and what a food system is - how it functions both locally and globally," Niebler says. "These courses are challenging, robust and inspirational. One of the really wonderful things about them is that we offer service learning opportunities, where students volunteer a portion of their time to working with local partner organizations. They can do a research project, or a service learning option. The ideal would be to prompt students into careers that involve sustainable practices in an urban agriculture setting."

Adapted from "Promoting Sustainable Agriculture" by Mariene Cimons

Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

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

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 beautiful white bears found in the Arctic are in grave danger, and human beings are very (1) _______ the cause of this danger. As we bum fossil fuels to generate electricity or get us around town in our cars and trucks. We create a massive amount of carbon dioxide. This gas has increased in (2) _______. so much over the past few centuries that it is causing global warming. Polar bears need sea ice in order to live because this ice is their hunting (3) _______, The bears’ main source of food is the meat and blubber of seals. These animals come to the surface holes in the ice to breathe. It is there that the polar bears have (4) _______to ambush the seals. Without any ice, there is nowhere for the bears to stalk their prey. The seals rarely venture onto land and spend their time out on the sea ice. In recent years, the sea ice has disappeared in the Arctic during the late summer. This is dangerous for the polar bears, as they rely almost exclusively on seals for food. (5) _______ brown and black bears, polar bears do not hibernate during the winter.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Incredible Shrinking Microchips
There is a popular old saying that “bigger is better”. Although this may be true in some regards, the exact opposite often applies in technology. As electronic components get smaller, it allows companies to manufacture tinier devices with more features. Thus began the never-ending quest to create the smallest microchips on the planet. Yet as these vital electronic components get smaller, they are also getting stronger and clever inventors are finding new ways in which to use them to do incredible things. Currently, the biggest limitation microchip producers face when trying to reduce chips’ size is the copper wires that provide electrical current throughout the chip. Although they can be made smaller, this can cause a whole host of problems such as melting and overheating. Thanks to the work of a few scientists from the UK though, this problem may soon be a thing of the past. Their solution is getting rid of the copper wiring altogether and using carbon nanotubes instead. Not only would this allow for smaller sizes but it would also increase the power that microchips can generate. In the end, this would translate into smaller and more powerful devices much to the delight of consumers all over the world. Corporate powerhouse Intel® has announced plans to create a line of tiny, low power chips that can be used in bracelets, smart watches, and other tiny devices. The chips will be called Intel® Quark, and they are being designed primarily to fit in biomedical devices. A key selling point to biomedical technology is that the devices have to be nonintrusive because people don’t want to carry around heavy equipment to monitor their health. If they can do this, Intel® will likely find several tablet and smartphone manufacturers who are willing to corporate Quark microchips into their devices. In a somewhat unusual project, researchers are working on a special microchip that will serve as miniature human organs in experiments. These “organ” chips could be used to test different medicines and study diseases. If realized, the technology could put an end to the use of lab mice and other animals for testing. Everyone from the largest pharmaceutical companies to the US military has shown interest in the project. Currently, the research team in charge of the project believes that within five years the organ chips will be used in practical research. It goes to show that thinking small often produces the biggest results.
8. Which of the following is NOT the benefit of the “organ” chips?

Choose the best answer:
My teacher _______ while he _______ a car.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The custom of paying a bride price before marriage is still a well-established part of many African cultures. In paying a bride price, the family of the groom must provide payment to the family of the bride before the marriage is allowed. The bride price can vary greatly from culture to culture in Africa. In the Zulu and Swazi tribes of southern Africa, the bride price often takes the form of cattle. In Western African, kola nuts, shells, and other goods are often used for the payment of the bride price. The actual payment of money sometimes takes place, but the payment of goods is more frequent. The amount of paid in a bride price can also vary. In modern times, the bride price is occasionally quite small and its value is mainly symbolic. However, the bride price can still be quite high, especially among prominent or highly traditional families.There are a number of justifications used to explain the payment of bride price. The first is that the bride price represents an acknowledgement of the expense the bride's family has gone in order to raise her and bring her up as a suitable bride for the groom. It also represents payment for the loss of a family member, since the bride will officially become a member of her husband's family and will leave her own. On a deeper level the bride price represents payment for the fact that the bride will bring children into the family of the groom, thereby increasing the wealth of the family. This concept is reinforced by the fact that the bride price must often be returned if the bride fails to bear children.The payment of the bride price has quite a number of effects on African society. First, the payment of bride price acts to increase the stability of African family structures. Sons are dependent on their fathers and older relatives to help them pay the bride price of their wives, and this generally leads to greater levels of obedience and respect. The negotiations between the two families concerning the bride price allow the parents and other family members to meet and get to know one another before the marriage. Finally, since the bride price must often be repaid in case of divorce, the bride's family often works to make sure that any marital problems are solved quickly. Bride prices also work as a system of wealth distribution in African cultures. Wealthier families can afford to support the marriage of their son, and thus their wealth is transferred to other families.Not all of the effects of bride price are so positive, however. One major disadvantage to the system of bride price is that women are often married to men much older than themselves. In many African cultures, the typical age for marriage amongst women is still quite young, lower than in many cases. Yet few men at this age would have the ability to raise the bride price to marry. Thus there is sometimes a significant age gap between husbands and wives. This cuts short the education of many young women. In addition, the husband, being far older, may die whilst the wife is still relatively young, leaving her with the burden of raising the children alone.
4. The phrase "The first" in the passage refers to the first _________

 Rewrite the sentence
Turn off all the lights before you go out.

Choose the best answer:
When _______ is not known.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.
More effort and money are needed to bolster the industry

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning
Skateboarding is her hobby.