Rewrite the sentence:
It’s very wasteful to apply lights in almost everything at night.

 

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Allowing adolescents to make more of their own choices was found to be the most common strategy used to encourage independence. Many parents also reported that they are pushing their teenager by no longer doing certain things for them. Regardless of their effort, one quarter of parents surveyed still believe they are the main barrier to their teen’s independence because they are failing to hand over more responsibility. “As children become teenagers, the role of parents shifts to helping them gain the knowledge and experience they will need for being independent adults,” explained poll codirector Sarah Clark. “This process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood includes everything from preparing for work and financial responsibility, to taking care of one’s health and well-being. Our poll suggests that parents aren’t letting go of the reins as often as they could be to help teens successfully make that transition.” The new survey from the University of Michigan involved nearly 900 parents with at least one teenager between the ages of 14 and 18. Overall, 60 percent of the respondents attributed their child’s lack of independence to characteristics such as not being mature or knowledgeable enough to take on more responsibility. By contrast, 25 percent of parents admitted that it is faster and less of a hassle to do things themselves. “It is clear that parents recognize tension in helping teens move toward independence, and they agree that valuable learning experiences often result from a poor decision,” said Clark. “Some parents justify taking control over certain responsibilities because they don’t believe their teen is ‘mature enough.’ Parents need to carve out more time for supporting teens in their transition to adulthood.”  
6. The word “hassle” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______

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Modern society has given significant attention to the promises of the digital economy over the past decade. But it has given little attention to its negative environmental footprint. Our smartphones rely on rare earth metals, and cloud computing, data centers, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies consume large amounts of electricity, often sourced from coal-fired power plants. These are crucial blind spots we must address if we hope to capture the full potential of the digital economy. Without urgent system-wide actions, the digital economy and green economy will be incompatible with each other and could lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate climate change and pose great threats to humanity. The world’s data centers-the storehouses for enormous quantities of information - consume about three percent of the global electricity supply (more than the entire United Kingdom), and produce two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions-roughly the same as global air travel. A report by Greenpeace East Asia and the North China Electric Power University found that China’s data centers produced 99 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2018, the equivalent of about 21 million cars driven for one year. Greenhouse gases aren’t the only type of pollution to be concerned about.Electronic waste (e-waste), which is a byproduct of data center activities, accounts for two percent of solid waste and 70 percent of toxic waste in the United States. Globally, the world produces as much as 50 million tonnes of electronic e-waste a year, worth over US$62.5 billion and more than the GDP of most countries. Only 20 percent of this e-waste is recycled. The world and its intractable challenges are not linear-everything connects to everything else. We must raise awareness about these major blind spots, embrace systems leadership (leading across boundaries), boost circular economy ideas (decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources), leverage an eco-economics approach (an environmentally sustainable economy) and encourage policy-makers to explore the interrelationships between government-wide, system-wide and societal results. We must also consider collective problem-solving by bringing together diverse perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South. We should take an inventory of the global and local damages caused by electronic devices, platforms and data systems, and frame issues about the digital economy and its environmental impact in broad societal terms.
5. The word “linear” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______

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While light at night can be beneficial, neutral, or damaging for individual species, its presence invariably disturbs ecosystems. For example, some species of spiders avoid lit areas, while other species are happy to build their spider web directly on a lamp post. Since lamp posts attract many flying insects, the spiders that don’t mind light gain an advantage over the spiders that avoid it. Light pollution poses a serious threat in particular to nocturnal wildlife, having negative impacts on plant and animal physiology. It can confuse animal navigation, alter competitive interactions, change predator-prey relations, and cause physiological harm. The rhythm of life is orchestrated by the natural patterns of light and dark, so disruption to these patterns impacts the ecological dynamics. Studies suggest that light pollution around lakes prevents zooplankton, such as Daphnia, from eating surface algae, causing algal blooms that can kill off the lakes’ plants and lower water quality. Light pollution may also affect ecosystems in other ways. For example, scientists have documented that night time light may interfere with the ability of moths and other nocturnal insects to navigate. Night-blooming flowers that depend on moths for pollination may be affected by night lighting, as there is no replacement pollinator that would not be affected by the artificial light. This can lead to species decline of plants that are unable to reproduce, and change an area’s long term ecology. Reducing light pollution implies many things, such as reducing sky glow, reducing glare, reducing light trespass, and reducing clutter. The method for best reducing light pollution, therefore, depends on exactly what the problem is in any given instance. Adjusting the type of lights used, so that the light waves emitted are those that are likely to cause severe light pollution problems  
5. The writer’s tone in the passage is __________________

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Egypt’s 100 millionth citizen was born last week, undoubtedly a happy occasion for one family, but a moment filled with foreboding for a country struggling to contain a population explosion. In the past year the government has scrambled to stem the birth rate with a new program called “Two is Enough.” It is establishing family planning clinics throughout the country, where Egyptians can purchase heavily subsidized contraceptives. But many doctors and activists fear that this is too little, and comes too late to reverse the uptick in population growth. Doctors complain that the new “Two is Enough” program lacks in a clear strategy to bring down birthrates. The financial resources deployed thus far have been a fraction of previous efforts; some family-planning clinics have reportedly run out of contraceptives. While clinics funded by the campaign to provide some reproductive health education, sexual education remains taboo in Egyptian schools. There is also a lack of adequate services for the poor and pensioners. Many Egyptians opt to have more children in the hope they will look after them as they age, a phenomenon common in countries with high levels of poverty and inadequate safety nets. While over 30 million Egyptians live in poverty, only 9.4 million receive means-tested cash transfers from the government’s welfare programs. Economic reforms undertaken as part of a recently completed International Monetary Fund program have cut subsidies in a number of areas, contributing a spike in inflation that at one point exceeded 30%. For newborns like the 100-millionth Egyptian, the outlook is grim. A burgeoning population exacerbates many problems. Despite Egypt’s limited supply - it depends almost exclusively on the Nile - there has been a systemic failure to adequately address water waste. From wasteful megaprojects draining the Nile to literally dumping waste in the river, Egyptian officials have consistently failed to prudently protect what is perhaps the country’s most vital natural resource. In 2018, Egypt temporarily reduced the farming of rice, a water intensive crop - only to expand cultivation the following year. The New Administrative Capital that Sisi has set out to erect is projected to need 650,000 cubic meters of water per day when finished. Failure to quickly and dramatically improve water management practices in Egypt could be disastrous, and the risk is the greater for the country’s rapid population growth  
7. The following statements are true, EXCEPT ________

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Sociologists have been carrying out research into the social pressures of being a teenager. Many adolescents are unhappy at school because they find it difficult to (1) ______ friends. This stress can bring on illness or result in poor grades. They may also worry about their appearance and often feel (2) ______ enormous pressure to dress, talk and behave the same as (3) ______. This phenomenon is called peer pressure, and it is very common in today’s society. Advertising contributes a lot to the social pressures teenagers feel. Advertisers know how important it is to feel that you belong to a group when you are in your teens, so they try to persuade teenagers that certain products will make them (4) ______ with their classmates. Sadly, many teenagers act irresponsibly and even do dangerous things just to make others accept them. Peer pressure is often the reason for teenage smoking, drug (5) ______ or dangerous driving. Teenagers need to learn to say no to social pressure and to find friends who they can talk things over with when they have a problem

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Most people have heard about how PTSD can unravel a person. Fewer have heard about posttraumatic growth, the process that lifted Curry out of his despair and into his new role as a leader in the veteran community. The term - defined as “positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises” - was coined in the mid-1990s by Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD, after studying how people develop wisdom. They identified five specific ways people can grow after a crisis. First, their relationships strengthen. One woman diagnosed with breast cancer, for example, said she realized her relationships “are the most important things you have.” Bereaved parents told Tedeschi and Calhoun that losing a child had made them more compassionate. Second, they discover new paths and purposes in life. Sometimes these are related to a particular survivor mission. One interviewee became an oncology nurse after losing her child to cancer. Other times, the crisis becomes the catalyst for a more general reconsideration of priorities, as Christine discovered when she started attending The Dinner Party in the aftermath of her mother’s death. Third, the trauma allows them to find their inner strength. The common thread among those Tedeschi and Calhoun studied is a “vulnerable yet stronger” narrative. This paradoxical outlook defined the attitude of a rape survivor who admitted the world seemed more dangerous after the assault, but that, at the same time, she felt more resilient as a result of the inner strength she’d built. Fourth, their spiritual life deepens. That could mean they renew their faith in God, or it could mean they grapple with existential questions more broadly, coming to know certain deep truths about the world or themselves, as one interviewee did after his spinal-cord surgery. Finally, they feel a renewed appreciation for life. Rather than taking for granted a stranger’s kindness or the vivid colors of autumn leaves, they savor the small moments of beauty that light up each day. The difference between those who are able to grow from adversity and those who are stymied lies in what Tedeschi and Calhoun call “deliberate rumination” or introspection. The participants they studied spent a lot of time trying to make sense of their painful experiences, reflecting on how the events changed them. Doing so helped them make the life changes associated with posttraumatic growth.  
6. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

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Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet and is fifth in order of distance from the sun. It is well placed for observation for several months in every year and on average is the brightest of the planets apart from Venus, though for relatively brief periods Mars may outshine it. Jupiter’s less than 10 hour rotation period gives it the shortest day in the solar system in so far as the principal planets are concerned. There are no true seasons on Jupiter because the axial inclination to the perpendicular of the orbital plane is only just over 3°-less than that for any other planet. The most famous mark on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot. It has shown variations in both intensity and color, and at times it has been invisible, but it always returns after a few years. At its greatest extent it may be 40,000 kilometers long and 14,000 kilometers wide, so its surface area is greater than that of Earth. Though the latitude of the Red Spot varies little, it drifts about in longitude. Over the past century the total longitudinal drift has amounted to approximately 1200°. The latitude is generally very close to – 22°. It was once thought that the Red Spot might be a solid or semisolid body floating in Jupiter’s outer gas. However, the Pioneer and Voyager results have refuted that idea and proven the Red Spot to be a phenomenon of Jovian meteorology. Its longevity may well due to its exceptional size, but there are signs that it is decreasing in size, and it may not be permanent. Several smaller red spots have been seen occasionally but have not lasted.
6. According to the passge, which of the following is NOT true?

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Why has Holmes continued to (1) _________________ generation after generation when other fictional detectives of the Victorian period are forgotten? One can break the answers down into a mix of elements. But first it will be useful to summarize the life of Holmes’s (2)____________. Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859, one of nine children of an alcoholic Irish artist who was consigned, in later life, to a lunatic asylum. Young Arthur Doyle was educated at the fee-paying Jesuit college, Stony Hurst. (3)___________ 16 he spent a year in Austria before enrolling at Edinburgh University’s medical school. In 1880 he spent seven months in the Arctic as ship’s doctor on a whaler. The following year he graduated with a (4)__________ degree, and made another trip to Africa before setting up, less adventurously, in medical practice near Portsmouth, in July 1882. His income had reached £300 a year by 1885, enabling him to marry the sister of one of his patients. Doyle had long written on the side and in 1886 he played around with stories (5)____________ on an ‘amateur private detec-tive’, called ‘J. Sherrinford Holmes’. The outcome was the Sherlock Holmes novella, A Study in Scarlet (1887). No top-drawer publisher would take it and it was eventually serialized as a Christmas giveaway in a magazine and then as what was called a ‘shilling shocker’ – pulp fiction for the masses

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:
Carefully guiding a needle that's longer than his tiny fingers, a young boy in Pakistan stitches together the leather pieces of a soccer ball. He sits crouched in the corner of a hot, airless shed for 12 hours. For his long day's work, he will earn 60 cents.
The boy is one of more than 200 million children who work at hard, sometimes dangerous jobs all over the world. Child labor exists in two-thirds of the world's nations. From Indonesia to Guatemala, poor children as young as six are sent off to work. Often they are mistreated and punished for not working hard enough. Children mix the gunpowder for firecrackers in China and knot the threads for carpets in India, all for pennies a day. Sometimes they are sold as slaves.
In a speech to the Child Labor Coalition when he was U.S. Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich expressed gratitude for the organization's work to end abuse of child labor, "You turned up the heat, and you got results." He also congratulated Craig Kielburger, then 13, of Canada, who traveled the world for a year fighting for kids' rights. Craig believes kids can make a difference. He offers this advice, "Write letters to companies and government officials. Put pressure on leaders to make changes and to stop the misuse of children."
One solution to the child-labor problem in poor countries is education. "The future of these countries," Secretary Reich declared, "depends on a work force that is educated. We are prepared to help build schools."
Education has helped to make the world a brighter place for one youth, Aghan of India. When he was nine, Aghan was kidnapped from his home and sold to a carpet maker. Aghan's boss was very cruel. "I was always crying for my mother," he recalls. Aghan's dream was to learn to write so that he could send letters to his parents. Fortunately, a group that opposes child labor rescued Aghan from the factory. He was sent to a shelter in New Delhi where he worked hard to learn to write.

When children are used to work for unfair wages in poor working conditions, it is best described as     .

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Generation gap refers to a vast difference in cultural norms between a younger generation and their elders. It’s a distressing thing for the phenomenon (1) ____ occurs around the world. The (2) ____ of communication, different views on certain problems and different attitudes towards life may cause the generation gap or even widen it. First, one of the major factors for this misunderstanding between two generations is that parents and children lack communication. Young people (3) ____ reveal their feelings to their parents, and often complain that their parents are out of (4) ____ with modern days, that they are dominant, that they do not trust their children to deal with crises, and that they talk too much about certain problems. So when young people meet some problems, they would rather (5) ____ to their classmates or their friends for help. The lack of communication widens the generation gap Another factor is that parents and their children see almost everything from different (6) ____. Take choosing career as an example. Parents generally believe it is their responsibility to plan the career for their children. Some hope their children will (7) ____ professions that will bring them greatest prestige and economic benefits. Some hope children will have a stable job with a regular income. But the youth may think they should be free to (8) ____ their own decisions as to their future career. Young people explain that true success is not a matter of money or position, instead, it is a matter of self-fulfillment. Finally, with the change of the world over decades, the attitude of the young has altered too. There are differences in (9) ____ matters as musical tastes, fashions, drug use, sex and politics between the young people and their elders. Nowadays long hair on young males is viewed as fashion by the young, but it is frequently considered a shocking act of rebellion against (10) ____ norms by parents

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Industrialization has provided us with material comfort and modem (1) ____. Electrical appliances and efficient gadgets ease our daily chores. Yet, there is a heavy price tag attached to this convenience. Large-scale industrialization is killing the world. Today there is a strong emphasis on the halt of CFC usage. CFCs, otherwise known as chloro-fluoro-carbons, are ozone depleting chemicals. They (2) ____ burn a hole in the earth’s atmosphere and we, on the Earth, suffer from the strong radiation (3) ____ by the sun’s rays. Household (4) ____ like refrigerators, aerosol cans, air-conditioners and styrofoam containers contain ozone depleting chemicals. The hole in the sky allows harmful radiation to reach the Earth. As a result, the temperature on the Earth will (5) ____. This is alarming because polar ice-caps will melt in the heat. Ocean levels will rise and islands will gradually be flooded

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Generation gaps form when two age groups begin to see the world from significantly different perspectives. Generation gaps existed long before the 1960s - in the early 19th century, political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville commented, “Among democratic nations, (1) ____ generation is a new people.” But they tend to emerge with greater frequency as the (2) ____ of societal change increases. For example, in the 1800s, chances were that your father’s world looked a lot (3) ____ your own. In the 21st century, even a short span of 20 years can bring radical changes in technology (and the way we use it), moral and religious beliefs, and attitudes about education, work, friends and family life. Longer life spans also increase the prevalence of generation gaps. For babies born in 1920, life (4) ____ in the United States was 56.4 years. For babies born in 2009, it’s 78.7 years. Longer life spans mean that more generations are living and working simultaneously. That means (5) ____ for the first time in history, there are four distinct generations (and four generation gaps) in the workplace

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 member countries.  It stabilizes the global economy in three ways. First, it monitors global conditions and identifies risks. Second, it advises its members on how to improve their economies. Third, it provides technical assistance and short-term loans to prevent financial crises. The IMF’s goal is to prevent these disasters by guiding its members. These countries are willing to give up some of their sovereign authority to achieve that aim.  The IMF has the rare ability to look into and review the economies of all its member countries. As a result, it has its finger on the pulse of the global economy better than any other organization. The IMF produces a wealth of analytical reports. It provides the World Economic Outlook, the Global Financial Stability Report, and the Fiscal Monitor each year. It also delves into regional and country-specific assessments. It uses this information to determine which countries need to improve their policies. Hence, the IMF can identify which countries threaten global stability. The member countries have agreed to listen to the IMF’s recommendations because they want to improve their economies and remove these threats.  Since the Mexican peso crisis of 1994–95 and the Asian crisis of 1997–98, the IMF has taken a more active role to help countries prevent financial crises. It develops standards that its members should follow. For example, members agree to provide adequate foreign exchange reserves in good times. That helps them increase spending to boost their economies during recessions. The IMF reports on members countries’ observance of these standards. It also issues member country reports that investors use to make well-informed decisions. That improves the functioning of financial markets. The IMF also encourages sustained growth and high living standards, which is the best way to reduce members’ vulnerability to crises.  The IMF provides loans to help its members tackle balance of payments problems, stabilize their economies, and restore sustainable growth. Because the Fund lends money, it’s often confused with the World Bank. The World Bank lends money to developing countries for specific projects that will fight poverty. Unlike the World Bank and other development agencies, the IMF does not finance projects. Traditionally, most IMF borrowers were developing countries. They had limited access to international capital markets due to their economic difficulties. An IMF loan signals that a country’s economic policies are on the right track. That reassures investors and acts as a catalyst for attracting funds from other sources. All that shifted in 2010 when the Eurozone crisis prompted the IMF to provide short-term loans to bail out Greece. That was within the IMF’s charter because it prevented a global economic crisis.  The role of the IMF has increased since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis. In fact, an IMF surveillance report warned about the economic crisis but was ignored. As a result, the IMF has been called upon more and more to provide global economic surveillance. It’s in the best position to do so because it requires members to subject their economic policies to IMF scrutiny. Member countries are also committed to pursuing policies that are conducive to reasonable price stability, and they agree to avoid manipulating exchange rates for unfair competitive advantage.
8. According to paragraph, which of the following is TRUE about the International Monetary Fund?

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This French expansion can be traced back to Isle of France, or Ile-de-France, the  administrative region for Metropolitan Paris. It is often referred to as “the city of love” or “the city of lights”, now it can officially be called “Paris, the city of incredibly talented soccer players”.  In order to preserve the integrity of the international competition, FIFA tightened the rules on nationality and representation in 2004. The decision arrived amid a growing trend of so called “lesser” footballing nations naturalising players from a greater talent pool, typically from Brazil, to play for their national team. For example, Qatar offered citizenship to three Brazilians within a week having never lived or played football in the country, while Togo managed to naturalise five Brazilians for their national team. To prevent this, FIFA declared that any player wishing to represent a “new” nation must have a “clear connection” to it. A “clear connection”, according to FIFA, means that a player must have at least one parent or grandparent who were born in their newly chosen country.  The diversity of France, and Paris in particular, lends a hand to the range of national teams its citizens can represent. Along with many European migrants residing in Paris, France’s colonial history also means that a large proportion of African and Caribbean immigrants call Paris home. Famed French nationals Claude Makalele and Lilian Thuram both migrated with their families to Paris from Zaire and Guadeloupe respectively. By law, the French INSEE census does not collect data on religion or ethnicity so it is difficult to estimate the extent of diversity in the Ile-de-France region, but approximately 20% of its inhabitants were born abroad. One might conclude that an even larger percentage have at least one parent or grandparent who were part of the sizeable waves of immigrants arriving to Paris since WWI. These waves of migrations chiefly occurred in the late 19th century and up until WWI. It is unlikely that the current crop of footballers would have many feelings of nationalism toward the faraway countries of their grandparents. The advantage Paris has is that a vast majority of professional footballers may feel that their best opportunity to play for a national team would be with the country of their heritage. 
4. The word “it” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to _______

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In the 1960s, it took pop and rock groups one or two days to record other their songs. Nowadays, it can take months and months. Many rock groups begin by recording only one instrument, for example, the voice. Then they record (1)________ instruments – electric piano, synthesizer, guitars, drums and so on. Next, they might use a computer to add special effects. Finally, they ‘mix’ all the instruments until they get the sound that they want. This means that a CD or cassette will always sound very different from a (2) ______ concert. Music engineers have developed a new computer programme that will change the future of music. A computer can analyze a singer’s voice. Then if you give the computer the (3)_________ and music of a song, the computer can ‘sing’ it in that voice. This means that a singer only needs to record one song and the computer can then sing other songs in the singer’s own voice. Singers can sing new songs many years after they have died. Most of us listen to music for pleasure, but for the record companies, music is a product, the same as soap powder. (4)___________ a record company finds a new group (or ‘band’), they first try to develop the band’s ‘profile’. They will try to create an ‘image’ for the band that they think will attract young people. Instead of allowing the band’s full artistic freedom, they will often (5)_______ the band what they should wear, what they should say and how they should sing and play. In recent year, many rock groups have started their own record companies because they say that the big companies are too commercial

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:
Pollution emitted in industrial areas represents a threat to human health and the surrounding natural resources. We have a tendency to believe that the production processes are the only source of environmental damage, and often forget about the possible long-term effects of harmful production practices. We may think that the closure of these huge industrial areas would improve the quality of the environment. Unfortunately, this ignores the threat of the remaining waste, which is abandoned and poorly stored. It represents an even bigger danger because it stands neglected as it degrades and leaks into the earth without any control at all.
Changes in the water chemistry due to surface water contamination can affect all levels of an ecosystem. It can affect the health of lower food chain organisms and, consequently, the availability of food up through the food chain. It can damage the health of wetlands and damage their ability to support healthy ecosystems, control flooding, and filter pollutants from storm water runoff. The health of animals and humans are affected when they drink or bathe in contaminated water. In addition water-based organisms, like fish and shellfish, can pile up and concentrate contaminants in their bodies. When other animals or humans eat these organisms, they receive a much higher dose of contaminant than they would have if they had been directly exposed to the original contamination.
Contaminated groundwater can badly affect animals, plants and humans if it is removed from the ground by manmade or natural processes. Depending on the study of rocks of the area, groundwater may rise to the surface through springs or seeps, flow sideways into nearby rivers, streams, or ponds, or sink deeper into the earth. In many parts of fhe world, groundwater is pumped out of the ground to be used for drinking, bathing, other household uses, agriculture, and industry.
Contaminants in the soil can harm plants when they take up the contamination through their roots. Eating, breathing in, or touching contaminated soil, as well as eating plants or animals that have piled up soil contaminants can badly affect the health of humans and animals.
Air pollution can cause breathing-related  problems  and  other  bad  health  effects  as  contaminants  are absorbed from the lungs into other parts of the body. Certain air contaminants can also harm animals and humans when they contact the skin. Plants rely on breathing for their growth and can also be affected by exposure to contaminants moved in the air.

Which of the followings is NOT badly affected by contaminated groundwater?

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I enjoy _________ to classical music in my free time.

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A generation gap in the workplace can make workers both young and old feel inferior, as well as hamper productivity and teamwork. Differences between generations can be seen in work ethics, habits and communication styles. Younger workers might fear not being taken seriously by their older colleagues, while older workers might fear that their experience is not valued but replaced by workers with knowledge of more current technology. However, members of each generation can close the gap between them if they’re willing to meet one another halfway. Older workers can show respect to the younger set by asking for their opinions and recognizing their contributions to the workplace as valid, or complimenting them on a job well done. Younger workers can show their elders respect by asking for advice on how to manage a situation with work, based on the older worker’s many years of experience. It’s important for both entry- and senior-level workers to see each other as equals, regardless of the type of position in which they work. No one wants to feel inferior or irrelevant just because of their age. Rather, a generation gap at work can be a learning opportunity. Workers can also put themselves in their colleagues’ shoes to determine what might be bothering them about their generational age difference. If a person is much older than another, perhaps it is bitterness about fewer job opportunities, or fear that a younger worker might seem more relevant and edge him out of his job. If workers open their minds to understand where co-workers are coming from, it can help ease any tension between them and appreciate each other’s work contributions.  If age seems to be a problem for someone at the workplace, it can be helpful to do the very opposite of what a co-worker might expect from someone of a different age set due to stereotypes. For example, if a worker is considerably younger such as right out of college, she can share researched information to indicate that she knows what she’s doing, or show curiosity instead of upset to indicate emotional maturity if the person makes a disparaging remark about her youth. Older workers can maintain an enthusiastic attitude about work instead of showing boredom or bitterness from past experiences. Workers can, moreover, directly address the concern of age differences at work with the colleague at odds with them by asking the person for constructive advice on how to handle the issue. For example, older workers who are unfamiliar with new software that younger colleagues understand might acknowledge to them that they did the same tasks differently in years past but show interest in learning the program to keep up with modern technology. Learning to speak their technological language can make them feel more connected. Likewise, a younger worker can admit to being green on the work scene, but eager to gain experience by learning from senior colleagues.  
7. The word “acknowledge” is closest in meaning to ___________

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Vocational training in the UK is intended to give people the skills and knowledge they  need to perform a particular job, and involves practical instruction as well as theory. Most vocational training takes place not in universities but in colleges of further education and in colleges specializing in art, accountancy, etc. some secondary schools now also offer an introduction to vocational training.  NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) are qualifications that can be obtained by people already working in a particular industry. Colleges of further education run courses to provide a theoretical background. NVQs are awarded on the basis of practical work, spoken and written test, and coursework. There are five levels, from Foundation to Management. Since 1992 many students in schools and colleges have been working for GNVQs (General National Vocational Qualifications), as an alternative to GCSEs and A levels. GNVQs cover similar areas to NVQs and are intended as introductions to a particular field of work and the skills required. Students can choose from over 500 subjects. At the lowest of its three levels foundation, a GNVQ is equivalent to a GCSE and from 2002 they are being replaced by new vocational GCSEs.  In the US there are no national qualifications like NVQs, though some professional organizations decide on their own qualifications and some of these have become widely accepted. Much vocational training is done by private institutions which are sometimes called proprietary schools. Although many of these are good, in general they have a bad reputation. This is partly because there are no controls over who can operate such a school. Some proprietary schools try to get as many students as possible, including some who will probably not be able to complete their training.  Most US secondary schools programs do not provide a choice between an academic and a practical track (a program of study), but most do give students an opportunity to take some practical or vocational classes. Large school districts may have magnet schools, schools that attract students with certain interests, and some of these may have a large choice of vocational courses.  
5.  It can be inferred from the reading about the vocational training in the US that _______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
There’s a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  Employees are the driving factor behind customer satisfaction. Employee interactions set the tone for a positive or negative customer experience. When employees aren’t happy at work, their interactions with customers can, and almost always will, suffer. Over the course of time, this can have serious repercussions for a business. The place where this becomes the most critical is any business where employees are directly interacting with customers, such as retail or food service. Historically underpaid and overworked, employees in these jobs are tasked with spending their entire shifts serving customers.  This is where employee experience comes in. If even a fraction of a customer experience budget was spent on employee experience, there would be a huge return on investment. One of the easiest ways to enhance employee experience is to ask for and welcome employees’ feedback. They have great insight into customer needs. After all, they’re the ones who are directly interacting with customers and hearing their criticisms and compliments firsthand. Employees can be your biggest asset when it comes to customer satisfaction.  A large part of employee experience revolves around understanding what employees need and want and gaining insight into their work preferences. Another critical piece of the employee experience is training and development. Employees should be equipped with the skills they need to excel at their jobs and have opportunities to continue to learn and develop. They should be able to check in and touch base with their managers to keep track of their progress and discuss any questions or concerns as they arise. Showing employees that you value the work they’re doing is one of the easiest ways to boost their motivation. It can be as simple as saying thank you, to publicly acknowledging and celebrating their contributions. It’s not just the younger generations who crave recognition - no one likes to feel like the work they’re doing is going unnoticed.  It’s time to shift the mindset from employees working just to work, to acknowledging that they’re valuable contributors to a company’s success. Employees need to understand how important their role is and how their work fits into the bigger picture. They need to feel like their voices are being heard and they have respect from their managers. Most importantly, they need to be able to come to work and know that the next eight hours won’t be pure torture. 
4. The word “asset” in paragraph 2 can be replaced by _______