Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

A birthday party is a celebration that occurs to celebrate the birth of the person being honored. Birthday parties are celebrated in many cultures. While a child’s party is usually at home and consists of soft drinks and sweet food as well as some main courses, adults’ birthday parties in Western countries often take place in bars or nightclubs where a range of alcoholic beverages are consumed. 

In Western cultures, particularly in the United States, birthday parties are often accompanied by colorful decorations such as streamers and balloons. A birthday cake is often served with candles that are to be blown out after a “birthday wish” has been made. While the birthday cake is brought to the table, the song Happy Birthday to You is sung. Wealthy people or celebrities may hire an event management agency or a party service to organize a birthday party. 

The birthday cake has been an integral part of the birthday tradition in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th century.

The cake, or sometimes a pastry or dessert, is served to a person on his or her birthday, and is often decorated with small novelty candles, with the person’s name and a message of congratulations inscribed with icing. The phrase “Happy Birthday” did not appear on birthday cakes until the song Happy Birthday to You was popularized in the early 1900s.

Tradition holds that the person with the birthday may make a wish, which will come true if all the candles can be blown out in one breath.

Children’s birthday parties are celebrated ____.

 Choose the best sentence -a, b, c, or d - made from the given cues.

 He/ better/ not go/ school/ because/ feel unwell//

Are you looking to get more involved with your local community?

Do you enjoy working with young people and children?

Are you passionate about big issues affecting society today and building children’s awareness and self-confidence to cope with the challenges of tomorrow?

If this sounds like you Woodcraft Folk needs you!

Woodcraft Folk is a registered charity offering you the opportunity to help build a fairer, more peaceful world for all. We run weekly groups for children aged 4-16yrs old and are looking for Volunteers to get involved for a few hours a month, whenever it suits YOU!

Perhaps you’d like to contribute a couple of hours as a one-off workshop? Or maybe you’d like to take part in a group discussion or games night once a fortnight?

We know that your time is precious so we will work with you to make sure you to get the most out of your experience with us. From working directly with the groups and running your own sessions, to representing groups at the national level there are many aspects of the organization you can choose to get involved with!

If you are a good communicator who shares our values of peace, co-operation and equality, Glasgow Woodcraft Folk invites you to get in touch. We are running induction events week starting Monday 22nd April and would love to see you there!

What are the ages of children that Woodcraft Folk focuses on?

Gardening is the art of growing plants with the goal of crafting a purposeful landscape. Residential gardening most often takes place in or about a residence, in a space referred to as the garden. Although a garden typically is located on the land near a residence, it may also be located in a roof, in an atrium, on a balcony, in a window-box, or on a patio or vivarium..

Gardening also takes place in non-residential green areas, such as parks, public or semi-public gardens amusement and theme parks, along transportation corridors, and around tourist attractions and hotels. In these situations, a staff of gardeners or groundskeepers maintains the gardens.

Indoor gardening is concerned with the growing of houseplants within a residence or building, in a conservatory, or in a greenhouse. Indoor gardens are sometimes incorporated as part of air conditioning or heating systems.

Water gardening is concerned with growing plants adapted to pools and ponds. Bog gardens are also considered a type of water garden. These all require special conditions and considerations. A simple water garden may consist solely of a tub containing the water and plant.

Indoor gardening sometimes includes…………………

University Entrance Examination is very important in Vietnamese students. High school graduates have to take it and get high results to be admitted to universities. The pressure on the candidates remains very high despite the measures that have been taken to reduce the heat around these exams, since securing a place in a state university is considered a major step towards a successful career for young people, especially those from rural areas or disadvantaged families. In the year 2004, it was estimated that nearly 1 million Vietnamese students took the University Entrance Examination, but on average only 1 out of 5 candidates succeeded. Normally, candidates take 3 exam subjects, and each lasts; 180 minutes for the fixed group of subjects they choose. There are 4 fixed groups of subjects: Group A: Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry; Group B: Mathematics, Biology, and Chemistry; Group C: Literature, History, and Geography; Group D: Literature, Foreign Language, and Mathematics.

In addition to universities, there are community colleges, art and technology institutes; professional secondary schools, and vocational schools which offer degrees or certificates from a-few-month to 2-year courses.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training, there are currently 23 non-public universities, accounting for 11% of the total number of universities. These non-public universities are currently training 119,464 students, or 11.7% of the total number of students. The government is planning to increase the number of non-public universities to 30% by 2007.

In 2004, the proportion of the students who got success in University Entrance Examination was about _______ percent.

  Unlike most plants that usually grow in the direction of light or warmth, a dodder plant will grow in the direction of, for example, tomato odor––if a tomato happens to be growing nearby.

   However, a young dodder plant must find a host plant quickly. If it cannot catch a whiff of a potential host within a few days, it will dry up and disappear—even if there is plenty of water around. Once it finds a host, the young dodder plant will attach itself to it and start growing faster. At that point, the dodder plant will drop its root.

   Dodder is thus a difficult weed to manage and a real headache for farmers. When it does get out of hand, dodder can greatly reduce a farmer’s harvest or even destroy crops completely. Before sowing their produce, farmers in warm parts of the world often check to make sure no unwanted dodder seeds have intermingled with their crop seeds. This is a good way to stop dodder plants from sneaking their way into a crop field.

 The word it refers to___________.

Today the police are able to make use of all kinds of scientific and technological aids in their fight against crime. This was not always the (28)_________, however. 

In the early days of the British police force , during the nineteenth century , the police officer's whistle was his (29) _______ way of calling for help if he got into difficulty. Gradually, in the twentieth century, things began to (30) ______ .Those police officers lucky enough to be given a patrol car rather than a bicycle could also take (31) ________ of radio communications. 

In 1903, a new system for identifying people by their fingerprints was discovered. Although it soon proved to be one of the most significant developments in crime investigation, a (32) ______ of the national fingerprint collection could take days, if not weeks, until computers were introduced in the 1970s.

(32)......................................

  Scientists do not yet thoroughly understand just how the body of an individual becomes sensitive to a substance that is harmless or even wholesome for the average person. Milk, wheat, and egg, for example, rank among the most healthful and widely used foods. Yet these foods can cause persons sensitive to them to suffer greatly. At first, the body of the individual is not harmed by coming into contact with the substance. After a varying interval of time, usually longer than a few weeks, the body becomes sensitive to it, and an allergy has begun to develop. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you have a food allergy, since it can show up so many different ways. Your symptoms could be caused by many other problems. You may have rashes, hives, joint pains mimicking arthritis, headaches, irritability, or depression. The most common food allergies are to milk, eggs, seafood, wheat, nuts, seeds, chocolate, oranges, and tomatoes. Many of these allergies will not develop if these foods are not fed to an infant until her or his intestines mature at around seven months. Breast milk also tends to be protective. Migraines can be set off by foods containing tyramine, phenathylamine, monosodium glutamate, or sodium nitrate. Common foods which contain these are chocolate, aged cheeses, sour cream, red wine, pickled herring, chicken livers, avocados, ripe bananas, cured meats, many Oriental and prepared foods (read the labels!). Some people have been successful in treating their migraines with supplementsof B-vitamins, particularly B6 and niacin. Children who are hyperactive may benefit from eliminating food additives, especially colorings, and foods high in salicylates from their diets. A few of these are almonds, green peppers, peaches, tea, grapes. This is the diet made popular by Benjamin Feingold, who has written the book “Why your Child is Hyperactive”. Other researchers have had mixed results when testing whether the diet is effective.

The author states that the reason that infants need to avoid certain foods related to allergies has to do with the infant's ___________ .

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

Though called by sweet-sounding names like Firinga or Katrina, tropical cyclones are huge rotating storms 200 to 2,000 kilometers wide with winds that blow at speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour (kph). Weather professionals know them as tropical cyclones, but they are called hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. They occur in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Large ones have destroyed cities and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Tropical cyclones begin over water that is warmer than 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) slightly north or south of the earth’s equator. Warm, humid air full of water vapor moves upward. The earth’s rotation causes the growing storm to start to rotate around its center (called the eye). At a certain height, the water vapor condenses, changing to liquid and releasing heat. The heat draws more air and water vapor upward, creating a cycle as air and water vapor rise and liquid water falls. If the cycle speeds up until winds reach 118 kilometers per hour, the storm qualifies as a tropical cyclone.

Most deaths in tropical cyclones are caused by storm surge. This is a rise in sea level, sometimes seven meters or more, caused by the storm pushing against the ocean’s surface. Storm surge was to blame for the flooding of New Orleans in 2005. The storm surge of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar pushed seawater nearly four meters deep some 40 kilometers inland, resulting in many deaths.

It has never been easy to forecast a tropical cyclone accurately. The goal is to know when and where the next tropical cyclone will form. “And we can’t really do that yet,” says David Nolan, a weather researcher from the University of Miami. The direction and strength of tropical cyclones are also difficult to predict, even with computer assistance. In fact, long-term forecasts are poor; small differences in the combination of weather factors lead to very different storms. More accurate forecasting could help people decide to evacuate when a storm is on the way.

Which of the following comes first in the process of storm formation?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

A birthday party is a celebration that occurs to celebrate the birth of the person being honored. Birthday parties are celebrated in many cultures. While a child’s party is usually at home and consists of soft drinks and sweet food as well as some main courses, adults’ birthday parties in Western countries often take place in bars or nightclubs where a range of alcoholic beverages are consumed. 

In Western cultures, particularly in the United States, birthday parties are often accompanied by colorful decorations such as streamers and balloons. A birthday cake is often served with candles that are to be blown out after a “birthday wish” has been made. While the birthday cake is brought to the table, the song Happy Birthday to You is sung. Wealthy people or celebrities may hire an event management agency or a party service to organize a birthday party. 

The birthday cake has been an integral part of the birthday tradition in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th century.

The cake, or sometimes a pastry or dessert, is served to a person on his or her birthday, and is often decorated with small novelty candles, with the person’s name and a message of congratulations inscribed with icing. The phrase “Happy Birthday” did not appear on birthday cakes until the song Happy Birthday to You was popularized in the early 1900s.

Tradition holds that the person with the birthday may make a wish, which will come true if all the candles can be blown out in one breath.

Birthday parties are celebrated ___.

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.

   Hummingbirds are small, often brightly colored birds of the family Trochilidae that live exclusively in the Americas. About 12 species are found in North America, but only the ruby-throated hummingbird breeds in eastern North America and is found from Nova Scotia to Florida. The greatest variety and number of species are found in South America. Another hummingbird species is found from southeastern Alaska to northern California.

   Many hummingbirds are minute. But even the giant hummingbird found in western South America, which is the largest known hummingbird, is only about 8 inches long and weighs about two-thirds of an ounce. The smallest species, the bee hummingbird of Cuba and the Isle of Pines, measures slightly more than 5.5 centimeters and weighs about two grams.

   Hummingbirds' bodies are compact, with strong muscles. They have wings shaped like blades. Unlike the wings of other birds, hummingbird wings connect to the body only at the shoulder joint, which allows them to fly not only forward but also straight up and down, sideways, and backward. Because of their unusual wings hummingbirds can also hover in front of flowers so they can suck nectar and find insects. The humming- bird's bill, adapted for securing nectar from certain types of flowers, is usually rather long and always slender, and it is curved slightly downward in many species.

   The hummingbird’s body feathers are sparse and more like scales than feathers. The unique character of the feathers produces brilliant and iridescent colors, resulting from the refraction of light by the feathers. Pigmentation of other feathers also contributes to the unique color and look. Male and female hummingbirds look alike in some species but different in most species; males of most species are extremely colorful.

   The rate at which a hummingbird beats its wings does not vary, regardless of whether it is flying forward, flying in another direction, or merely hovering. But the rate does vary with the size of the bird - the larger the bird, the lower the rate, ranging from 80 beats per second for the smallest species to 10 times per second for larger species. Researchers have not yet been able to record the speed of the wings of the bee humming-bird but imagine that they beat even faster. Most hummingbirds, especially the smaller species, emit scratchy, twittering, or squeaky sounds. The wings, and sometimes the tail feathers, often produce humming, hissing, or popping sounds, which apparently function much as do the songs of other birds.

What does the author imply about the rate hummingbirds’ wings beat?

Choose the sentence - a, b, c, or d - which is closest in meaning to the sentence above.

It's waste of time to try to explain anything to Tony.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences with given words

The second/ priority/ train/ young people/ job application skills

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.

   If we believe that clothing has to do with covering the body, and costumes with the choice of a particular form of garment for a particular use, then we can say that clothing depends primarily on such physical conditions as climate, health, and textile manufacture, whereas costumes reflect social factors such as religious beliefs, aesthetics, personal status, and the wish to be distinguished from or to emulate our fellows.

   The ancient Greeks and the Chinese believed that we first covered our bodies for some physical reason such as protecting ourselves from the weather elements. Ethnologists and psychologists have invoked psychological reasons: modesty in the case of ancients, and taboo, magical influence and the desire to please for the moderns.

   In early history, costumes must have fulfilled a function beyond that of simple utility, perhaps through some magical significance, investing primitive man with the attributes of other creatures. Ornaments identified the wearer with animals, gods, heroes or other men. This identification remains symbolic in more sophisticated societies. We should bear in mind that the theater has its distant origins in sacred performances, and in all periods children at play have worn disguises, so as to adapt gradually to adult life.

   Costumes helped inspire fear or impose authority. For a chieftain, costumes embodied attributes expressing his power, while a warrior's costume enhanced his physical superiority and suggested he was superhuman. In more recent times, professional or administrative costume has been devised to distinguish the wearer and express personal or delegated authority; this purpose is seen clearly in the judge's robes and the police officer’s uniform. Costume denotes power, and since power is usually equated with wealth, costume came to be an expression of social caste and material prosperity. Military uniform denotes rank and is intended to intimidate to protect the body and to express membership in a group. At the bottom of the scale, there are such compulsory costumes as the convict’s uniform. Finally, costume can possess a religious significance that combines various elements: an actual or symbolic identification with a god, the desire to express this in earthly life, and the desire to enhance the wearer's position of respect.

Which of the following would most likely NOT be reflected in a person's costume, as it is defined in the passage?

The Blackening of the Bride: Scotland

The bride and groom are slathered from head ____________ (6) toe in every disgusting substance their friends can get their hands on. Curdled milk, rotten eggs, spoiled curry, fish sauces, mud, flour, sausages, every nasty thing you can imagine. As if that weren’t enough, the couple is then paraded about, with well-wishers making ____________ (7) much noise as possible. Depending on the region, sometimes it’s just the bride or groom alone ____________ (8) is the victim of this particular pre-wedding tradition.

(7)____-

Animation traditionally is done by hand-drawing or painting successive frame of an object, each slightly different than the proceeding frame. In computer animation, although the computer may be the one to draw the different frames, in most cases the artist will draw the beginning and ending frames and the computer will produce the drawings between the first and the last drawing. This is generally referred to as computer-assisted animation, because the computer is more of a helper than an originator.

   In full computer animation, complex mathematical formulas are used to produce the final sequences of pictures. These formulas operate on extensive databases of numbers that defines the objects in the pictures as they exist in mathematical space. The database consists of endpoints, and color and intensity information. Highly trained professionals are needed to produce such effects because animation that obtains high degrees of realism involves computer techniques from three-dimensional transformation, shading, and curvatures.

Which of the following statement is supported by the passage?

Research has shown that over half the children in Britain who take their own lunches to school do not eat (1)______ in the middle of the day. In Britain schools have to (2)_____ meals at lunchtime. Children can choose to bring their own food or have lunch at the school canteen. One shocking finding of this research is that school meals are much healthier than lunches prepared by parents. There are strict (3) ___ for the preparation of school meals which have to include one (4) ___ of fruit and one of vegetables, as well as meat, a dairy item and starchy food like bread or pasta. Lunchboxes (5) ___ by researchers contained sweet drinks, crisps and chocolate bars. Children consume twice as much sugar as they should at lunchtime.

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

 The White House, the official home of the United States president, was not built in time for George Washington to live in it. It was begun in 1792 and was ready for its first inhabitants. President and Mrs.John Adams, who moved in on November 1, 1800. When the Adamses moved in, the White House was not yet complete, and the Adamses suffered many inconveniences; for example, the main staircase was incomplete, which hindered movement from floor to floor, and the future laundry yard was merely a pool of mud, so wet laundry was hung in the unfinished East Room to dry. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, improved the comfort of the White House in many respects and added new architectural features such as the terraces on the east and west ends.

   When the British forces burned the White House on August 24, 1814, President Madison was forced to leave.All the remained after the fire was the exterior walls, the interior was completely destroyed. It was not until December of 1817 that the following president, James Monroe, was able to move into a rebuilt residence. Since then, the White House has continued to be modified but has been continuously occupied by each succeeding U.S president.

 The word “forces” in line 9 could best be replaced by:

The major problem is that the planet appears to be warming up. According to some experts, this warming process, known as global warming, is occurring at a rate unprecedented in the last 10,000 years. The implications for the planet are very serious. Rising global temperatures could give rise to such ecological disasters as extremely high increases in the incidence of flooding and of droughts. These in turn could have a harmful effect on agriculture.

   It is thought that this unusual warming of the Earth has been caused by so-called greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, being emitted into the atmosphere by car engines and modern industrial processes, for example. Such gases not only add to the pollution of the atmosphere, but also create a greenhouse effect, by which the heat of the sun is trapped. This leads to the warming up of the planet.

   Politicians are also concerned about climate change and there are now regular summits on the subject, attended by representatives from around 180 of the world’s industrialized countries. Of these summits, the most important took place in Kyotoin Japanin 1997. There it was agreed that the most industrialized countries would try to reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions and were given targets for this reduction of emissions.

According to the passage, agriculture could ____.

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.

   Sound moves form its source to the ear by wavelike fluctuations in air pressure, something like the crests and troughs of ocean waves. Once way to keep from hearing sound is to use ear plugs. Another way is to cancel out the sound with anti-sound. Using a noisemarker controlled by a microprocessor, engineers have produced sound waves that are half a wavelength out of phase with those of the noise to be quieted-each crest is matched to a trough, and vice versa. Once the researchers have recorded the offending sound, a microprocessor calculates the amplitude and wavelength of sound that will cancel out the crests and troughs of noise. It then produces an electric current that is amplified and fed to a loudspeaker, which produces antisound and wipes out the noise. If the anti-sound goes out of synchronization, a microphone picks up the leftover sound and sends it back to the microprocessor, which changes the phase of the anti- sound just enough to cause complete silence.

   The research team has concentrated on eliminating low-frequency noise from ship engines, which causes fatigue that can impair the efficiency and alertness of the crew, and may mask the warning sounds of alarm and fog signals.

The researcher mentioned in the passage are concerned about unwanted noise because it can_________.

Let's see if you can correctly answer the following question: At what age are Latter-day Saint youth allowed to date? Of course, you probably immediately said, "16". OK, then, how about this one: At what age are you allowed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend? You may be thinking, “Um, 16. Didn't I just answer that?" Well, if that was your answer, then, even though you aced the first question, you missed the second one. Just because you can date when you turn 16 doesn't mean you should immediately start looking for a steady boyfriend or girlfriend. [….]

To begin with, there are two different types of dating: casual dating and steady (or serious) dating. The distinction between the two has to do with exclusivity. With casual dating, there is no exclusivity. The two people aren't “a couple” or “an item”, and they don't refer to each other as a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”. They don't pair off. People who are casually dating are simply friends. This is the kind of dating the Church encourages you to do after you turn 16. You should put aside a need to find a “one and only”. If you're dating casually, you don't expect a relationship to become a romance. You have fun; you do a variety of things with a variety of people. On the other hand, steady dating means the couple is exclusive with one another. They expect each other not to date anyone else or to be emotionally or physically close with other people. Couples who date seriously consider the future, because there is a real possibility they could stay together. This is the kind of dating the Church encourages young adults (generally, people in their 20s) to progress toward, because that's the age when they should be thinking of marrying. [….]

The word “aced” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ____.