Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:The story of gold is an adventure involving kings, queens, pirates, explores, conquerors, and the native peoples they conquered. Throughout history, gold had (1)_____a magic spell over those it touch. Gold is beautiful and rare; a soft shiny metal that can be moulded into many (2)_____.It has been used for money, jewellery, and to decorate special buildings such as palaces and places of worship. (3)_____the precious metal was discovered, prospectors rushed to mine it, starting new cities and countries as they went. Gold and the people who love it have helped shape the world we live in today. Gold is one of many elements, or substances that cannot be changed by normal chemical (4)_____, that are found in the Earth’s crust. Gold has a warm, sunny colour and (5)_____it does not react (6)_____air, water, and most chemicals, its shine never fades. In its natural (7) _____, gold is soft and easily shaped. When heated to 1,062 Celsius it melts and can be poured(8)_____ moulds to form coins, gold bars, and other objects. Stories have been told, movies (9)_____and legends born about the (10)_____of the world’s great gold deposits. It is a saga of dreams, greed, ambition and exploration.

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 :
People have five senses. We have a sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Believe (1)_________, your sense of smell is very important. Our nose tells us about our environment. When your nose smells something, it sends information to our brain. Smells tell us if there is danger nearby, or if there is something to eat. Of course, these tools were more useful in the past, but they still come (2)_________ today. The things you smell can affect your (3)________. If you smell something nice, you are more likely to be happy. On the other hand, if you smell something unpleasant, you are more likely to be unhappy. That is (4)_________ there are many businesses that work to create nice scents. Businesses also work on the ways to deliver scents to people’s noses. Candles (5)_________ a whole room smell better. Oils and soaps also have health benefits.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Cleaning the World’s Oceans
Imagine taking a romantic walk on the beach with your loved one. As the sun begins to set, you hope to treasure this moment forever. Just then, your bare feet stumble over something and you hear a crack. You have just stepped upon a plastic soda bottle and some junk that the tide has washed ashore. Scenarios like this are happening more frequently due to an access amount of sea rubbish, and the worst of it is found far from land. The increasing accumulation of garbage in oceans is due to a number of factors. Studies suggest that 80 percent of all debris originated on land. The majority of this waste is in the form of plastics. This is particularly troublesome because plastic does not degrade at the same rate that other materials do. Therefore, these articles will remain there for quite some time. Some of the pollution is caused accidentally. For example, about 10,000 product-filled containers are lost at sea every year by freight ships. In other cases, the littering is more deliberate, such as the moment when people toss things into the water from boats or land. One of the most startling discoveries of recent years was an area which is now dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is a large collection of marine debris that collected in the North Pacific Ocean. Although the patch is quite massive, it is undetectable from satellites in space because most of the rubbish is underneath the surface. It was discovered in 1997 by a man who happened to spot it while returning home from a sailing race. The patch formed as a result of rubbish being carried by currents and then getting trapped in the area. Thankfully, the problem of ocean garbage is not being ignored. Organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are taking action. It has funded 76 projects that take an aggressive approach to eliminating sea rubbish. Since 2006, it has removed 3,814 metric tons of marine debris from oceans. Methods of rubbish removal include using machines that skim the surface of ocean waters and remove any drifting materials found. In addition, special traps are set by the mouths of rivers to snatch rubbish before it reaches the sea. If everyone does their part, sea rubbish seems like an issue that can be resolved.
6. All of the following are activities carried out by NOAA EXCEPT that ___________

He is very worried _____ his new job because he is not quite prepared _____ working.

(320)_________

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning young people all over the world that they are also at risk from COVID-19. The WHO said young people are not exempt from catching the coronavirus. Many young people ___ (1) _____believe they will not catch the virus because of their age. They think it is a disease that only older people catch. The WHO said the truth is ____ (2) ____young people are catching the coronavirus and becoming ill or dying from it. It added that young people are also spreading the disease to their parents, grandparents and _____ (3) ___people. The White House also urged young adults to follow advice and to avoid gathering in large groups to help prevent the spread of the virus. The Director-General of the WHO said: "Today, I have a message for young people: You are not invincible." He added: "This coronavirus could put you in hospital for weeks, or even kill you. Even if you don't get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else." The WHO said: "A significant proportion of patients___ (4) _____in hospital for COVID-19 around the world are aged under 50." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said many young people are not ___ (5)_____the state's social-distancing rules. He told young people that: "This is a public health issue and you cannot be endangering other peoples' health."

Vietnam was host____ country of the 22nd SEA Games.

(432)______

Choose the best answer:
Marie, ................ I met at the party, called me last night.

Choose the best answer:
I can’t go to the park with you________ it is raining.

Choose the best answer:
Smith had a lucky escape. He ___________.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Explosions in the Sky
If you attend a major outdoor event in the evening, whether it is in Paris, Beijing, or New York City, there is a good chance that it will end in a sensational way. After all of the other activities have concluded, the sky will be lit up by a colourful firework display. Although the show may only last for a few minutes, during that time every eye will look on with amazement as they work their magic in the air. Fireworks were invented in the seventh century by the Chinese. They were quickly absorbed into the culture and became a part of many celebratory events and festivals. Eventually, emperors would organize large firework displays to entertain and impress their subjects. Fireworks didn’t become big in Europe until the mid-17th century. People became interested in fireworks after reading accounts from monks and travellers who saw them while in China. Once they did arrive, it was obvious they were there to stay. Fireworks were frequently paired with triumphant classical symphonies to celebrate the end of wars and other great victories. As time went on, the fireworks continued to evolve and get better in many ways. Fireworks now come in every colour imaginable. The colour comes from different chemicals that are placed inside of each firework. Thanks to modern technology, it is also possible to create firework arrangements in the shape of hearts, smiley faces, and even the planet Saturn. This is because of the way that the aerial shells, or casings, of fireworks are constructed. The cases are packed with exploding pellets and a piece of cardboard. The cardboard enables the designers to arrange the pellets in pattern or shape of the object of their choice. The first time this technology was used was in Washington DC, during a celebration to welcome home American troops who fought in the Gulf War. The visual aspect is only part of the reason fireworks are appealing. The sounds that fireworks make also add a healthy dose of excitement to the display. There are several noises that fireworks can make. The most common is the “bang” which sounds a lot like a gunshot. Fireworks can also crackle, hum, and whistle as they streak across the night sky. The world’s largest firework show was held in Kuwait in 2012. 77,282 fireworks exploded during the incredible 64-minute show. But with people’s love for fireworks at an all-time high, who knows how long that record will last?
7. What does the author suggest about the 2012 firework show in Kuwait?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) that best fits each of the numbered blanks .
Around 200 million people are employed in tourism worldwide, making it the largest industry in the modern global economy. It is estimated that three-quarters of a billion people go on holiday each year, and  industry  planners  expect  this  figure  to  double  (1)............... 2020. Some of the biggest beneficiaries are less developed countries, where it is often their main source of income.
(2)......... , along with the economic benefits, this mass movement of people has resulted in environment. People often forget the damage caused by carbon emissions from aircraft, (3)............  contribute directly to global warming. Deforestation has cleared land in order to build hotels, airports and roads, and this has destroyed wildlife. In some areas, water shortages are now common because of the need to fill swimming pools and water golf courses for tourists. By pushing up prices for goods and services, tourism can also be harmful to people living in tourist destinations.
In  response  to  these  (4)....................... , some travel operators now offer  environment-friendly holidays. Many of these aim to reduce the negative effects of tourism  by (5)............only hotels that have invested equipment to recycle waste and use energy and water efficiently. Increasingly, tourists are also being reminded to show respect for customs of the people whose countries they are going to visit, and to support local businesses, such as restaurants and shops which depend on tourism for their main income.

(4).....................

Only one of the people__________ was qualified for the job.
(132)_______

Read the passage, and choose the correct answer A, B, C or D for each question.

A Tale of Two Cities: Seoul and Dhaka

The city of Seoul, with a population of 10.3 million on 1998, forms part of South Korea’s capital region. As the capital city, Seoul has been at the center of South Korea’s remarkable economic transformation over the last four decades.

In the 1960s, much of South Korea’s industrial growth was focused on greater Seoul, which by 1970 had 52 percent of the country’s industrial workers. The major contributor to this growth was rural-urban migration, which accounted for 50 percent of the country’s urban increase in the 1960s. This very rapid growth of Seoul’s population placed pressure on the city’s infrastructure, leading to marked growth in new settlements, increasing  traffic congestion, and growing air pollution. This led the government to adopt a national decentralization strategy in the 1970s that attempted to divert industry to other areas of the country. In the 1980s, continuing efforts were made to decentralize economic activity.

Dhaka’s population of 6.5 million is crowded into 360 square kilometers, creating one of the highest urban densities in the world. Unlike South Korea, Bangladesh has not experienced rapid economic change, and agriculture remains the major component of GDP and the main resource of employment. While general economic conditions have improved somewhat over the last twenty years, Bangladesh is still a very poor country.

Dhaka’s rate of population growth has declined slightly over the past three decades, but it still remains among the highest in Asia (4.2 percent annually). The continuing growth reflects ongoing migration from rural areas to the Dhaka urban region. Recently, the city’s population has also grown as a result of the expansion of its administrative boundaries, a process that added 1 million people to the city in the 1980s. Dhaka’s growth has not been associated with an expansion of productive employment opportunities in relatively high wage areas. Instead, there has been growing employment in the low productivity, low-income sector, such as petty retailing or rickshaw driving.

The main reason of Seoul’s population growth in the 1960s was_________ 

Choose the best answer:
John _______ him carry the package.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Poor Pluto! Once the ninth planet in our solar system, Pluto has now been demoted to the status of a "dwarf planet". It is no longer even part of our solar system, but rather of a separate area called the Kuiper Belt. The decision came about after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) tried to shed some light on Pluto's status. It came up with a new definition for planets that Pluto did not fit. Many in the astronomical disagreed with it, especially since the Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune would not be planets either according to this definition! Only five percent of the astronomical community voted on this issue, and critics say this decision was not based on the community as a whole. In the state of New Mexico, a resolution has been passed that Pluto will always be a planet. This was done in honor of Clyde Tombaugh who discovered Pluto and lived most of his life in New Mexico. Pluto's demotion was also influenced by its size - it's only half the size of our moon! It consists of rock and ice. Pluto has one big moon (Charon) an two smaller ones (Nix and Hydra). Lowell realized that there must be a ninth planet as the gravitational pull of a large body was influencing the orbit of Uranus. He called it "Planet X". He spent his whole life searching for "Planet X" but to no avail. It was until 1930 that it was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. Now that "Planet X" has finally been discovered, it needed a name. Suggestions poured in from all over the world, but it was an 11 -year-old girl. Venetia Burnet, who came up with the name "Pluto". Venetia was interested in Greek history, and "Pluto", was another name for Hades, god of the Underworld (Hell). As she imagined it to be a cold and dark place, she felt that "Pluto" would be an appropriate name. The Lowe Observatory (where Clyde Tombaugh worked) agreed and Pluto was born! Pluto is so far away from Earth that it is difficult to study. That will change in 2015 when the "New Horizons" spacecraft arrives on Pluto. It was launched on January 19.2006. It carries with it the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh Pluto's discover who died in 1997. It is hoped that the mission will give scientists more information about Pluto. Even though Pluto has lost its place in the sun, it is still important enough for scientists to study!
4. What can be inferred from Venetia Burnet's choice of "Pluto" as a name?

Choose the best answer:
Of the four dresses, which is ………………..expensive?

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 “those” in paragraph 2 refers to     .

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Tax Service Representative wanted
Heartfiled Financial Inc, a leading financial services firm (1)------- Tax Service Representatives for the tax reporting department, who will be (2)------- for reclassifying income payments to ensure accurate formal tax reporting. Other duties include reviewing, interpreting   and validating tax related information, mathematically determining  reclassification  amounts. (3)-------  candidates  must  have  a  college degree and previous tax or brokerage experience as well as strong analytical skills. They must be able to work overtime and weekends as needed. To apply, please send your resume to
Gabriel Hill
Heartfiled Financial Inc.
132 Woodland Street
Irvine, CA 92612

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 from 36-42
From smartphones and tablets to apps and social media, society is ambushed from all sides with technology. Naturally, all generations embrace it differently, with younger “digital natives” generally being more connected, more switched-on and more tech literate than older age groups.
According to Pew Research, 92% of Millennials (born 1981–1996) own smartphones, compared with 85% of Gen Xers (born 1965–1980) and 67% of Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964). In terms of tech behavior, older generations tend to use their phones mostly for making calls, whereas for younger generations, a phone is their digital window to the world. Phones are used for social media, going online, texting, emailing, playing games, listening to music, and recording and watching videos.
The daily media consumption of different generations also vastly differs. Gen Z and Millennials favor streaming and online services, with 46% of teens saying they use Netflix compared to 31% of those aged over 16. Furthermore, 16-24s spend 30% of their downtime watching TV or video, compared to 40% of time spent on these activities by the average UK adult. Boomers spend a whopping 344 minutes a day watching regular TV, significantly more than any other age group.
Size also matters more depending on your decade of birth. Younger generations prefer smaller screens sizes, opting for a smartphone as their go-to tech, while Generation X and technology newbies - the Boomers, are going bigger, owning more desktops and tablets. Always in the front of the queue for the hottest tech, younger generations see technology as an integral part of their existence, and since few Millennials and Gen Z can remember a time without social media, they’re more fearless and carefree when it comes to technology. So much so, that a LivePerson report revealed 65% of Millennials and Gen Z interact more with each other online than they do in the real world.
Fundamentally, these behaviors and preferred technologies combine to create a technological generation gap, where employees, shaped by their personal experiences, demonstrate different levels of ability and willingness to adopt new tech. Constantly chasing the next update or device, switched on Millennials and Gen Z are quick to lap up the latest apps, games, and platforms, while Gen X and Boomers are generally slower to embrace technology - both at home and in the workplace.

The word “embrace” in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to _______.

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
What Is Heritage Protection?
Heritage is traditional beliefs, customs, and culture. We use the word “heritage” in many different ways. People talk about their family’s heritage, their city’s heritage, and their country’s heritage. Here are some examples of heritage. During Chinese New Year, people in China give red envelopes. That is part of Chinese heritage. Every year in the American city New Orleans, there is a huge party called Mardi Gras. That is a part of New Orleans’ heritage. Heritage can also be more private and personal. If your family has a big dinner every Sunday night, that’s part of your family’s heritage. Today, heritage is changing. The Internet connects people around the world. In many ways, this is a good thing, because we can learn about the heritage of other countries, and we can show our own heritage to the world. However, some people worry that traditional heritage is disappearing. Think about it. In many ways, countries are becoming more and more alike. In just about every country around the world, you can find McDonald’s, Nike shoes, Starbucks coffee, and American films. Some people think this is a good change, but others don’t like it. You can decide whether or not you think it is a good thing. However, almost everyone wants to protect their traditional heritage, and sometimes this is hard. For example, when a new McDonald’s opens in your town, a traditional restaurant might have to close. This is why heritage protection is so important. Heritage protection is a simple idea. It means keeping your country’s or your city’s heritage alive. People do this in many ways. The biggest part of heritage protection is probably preserving old buildings. A few other examples of heritage protection are making sure your children speak your traditional language, and teaching your heritage to children. The world is changing very fast. This change brings a lot of good things. But as the world is changing, it is important to remember the heritage of our parents and our grandparents.
6. The word “_beliefs_” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _________

Choose the best answer:
Some high school students ____ in helping the handicapped.