The 22nd SEA Games Mascot is ________Golden Buffalo.

(433)______

Choose the best answer:
The/ that/ USB/ helpful/ stick/ love/ is/ I/ so/ it/ so/ much.

The children were eager ............................ their parents.

(531)_______

Read an article about Elizabeth Taylor and choose the best answer.

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, in London, England. One of film's most celebrated stars, Elizabeth Taylor has fashioned a career that's covered more than six decades, accepting roles that have not only showcased her beauty, but her ability to take on emotionally charged characters.

Taylor's American parents, both art dealers, were residing in London when she was born. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, the Taylors returned to the United States and settled into their new life in Los Angeles.

Performance was in Taylor's blood. Her mother had worked as an actress until she married. At the age of 3, the young Taylor started dancing, and eventually gave a recital for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Not long after relocating to California a family friend suggested the Taylors' daughter take a screen test.

She soon signed a contract with Universal Studios, and made her screen debut at the age of 10 in There's One Born Every Minute (1942). She followed that up with a bigger role in Lassie Come Home (1943) and later The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).

Her breakout role, however, came in 1944 with National Velvet, in a role Elizabeth Taylor spent four months working to get. The film subsequently turned out to be a huge hit that pulled in more than $4 million and made the 12-year-old actress a huge star.

The word ‘fashioned’ in the passage is closest in meaning to ________.

Thomas has often boasted ______ his son’s golfing ability.

(485)______

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The human criterion for perfect vision is 20/20 for reading the standard lines on a Snellen eye chart without a hitch. The score is determined by how well you read lines of letters of different sizes from 20 feet away. But being able to read the bottom line on the eye chart does not approximate perfection as far as other species are concerned. Most birds would consider us very visually handicapped. The hawk, for instance, has such sharp eyes that it can spot a dime on the sidewalk while perched on top of the Empire State Building.
It can make fine visual distinctions because it is blessed with one million cones per square millimeter in its retina. And in water, humans are farsighted, while the kingfisher, swooping down to spear fish, can see well in both the air and water because it is endowed with two foveae - areas of the eye, consisting mostly of cones, that provide visual distinctions. One fovea permits the bird, while in the air, to scan the water below with one eye at a time. This is called monocular vision. Once it hits the water, the other fovea joins in, allowing the kingfisher to focus both eyes, like binoculars, on its prey at the same time.
A frog’s vision is distinguished by its ability to perceive things as a constant motion picture. Known as “bug detectors”, a highly developed set of cells in a frog’s eyes responds mainly to moving objects. So, it is said that a frog sitting in a field of dead bugs wouldn’t see them as food and would starve. The bee has a “compound” eye, which is used for navigation. It has 15,000 facets that divide what it sees into a pattern of dots, or mosaic. With this kind of vision, the bee sees the sun only as a single dot, a constant point of reference. Thus, the eye is a superb navigational instrument that constantly measures the angle of its line of flight in relation to the sun. A bee’s eye also gauges flight speed. And if that is not enough to leave our 20/20 “perfect vision” paling into insignificance, the bee is capable of seeing something we can’t - ultraviolet light.
Thus, what humans consider to be “perfect vision” is in fact rather limited when we look at other species. However, there is still much to be said for the human eye. Of all the mammals, only humans and some primates can enjoy the pleasures of color vision.

According to the passage, why might birds and animals consider humans very visually handicapped?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Harvard University, today recognized as part of the top echelon of the world's universities, came from very inauspicious and humble beginning. This oldest of American universities was founded in 1636, just sixteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Included in the Puritan emigrants to the Massachusetts colony during this period were more than 100 graduates of England's prestigious Oxford and Cambridge universities, and these universities graduates in the New Word were determined that their sons would have the same educational opportunities that they themselves had had. Because of this support in the colony for an institution of higher learning, the General Court of Massachusetts appropriated 400 pounds for a college in October of 1636 and early the following year decided on a parcel of land for the school; this land was in an area called Newetowne, which was later renamed Cambridge after its English cousin and is the site of the present-day university. When a young minister named John Harvard, who came from the neighboring town of Charlestown, died from tuberculosis in 1638, he willed half of his estate of 1,700 pounds to the fledgling college. In spite of the fact that only half of the bequest was actually paid, the General Court named the college after the minister in appreciation for what he had done. The amount of the bequest may not have been large, particularly by today's standard, but it was more than the General Court had found it necessary to appropriate in order to open the college. Henry Dunster was appointed the first president of Harvard in 1640, and it should be noted that in addition to serving as president, he was also the entire faculty, with an entering freshmen class of four students. Although the staff did expand somewhat, for the first century of its existence the entire teaching staff consisted of the president and three or four tutors.
2. The passage indicates that Harvard is .

Thank you for expressing your interest in our organization during the recent ---131---. It was a pleasure meeting you at the ASA booth during the Weber Information Systems Convention. As you may recall from our conversation, we discussed how ASA membership ---132--- your career through networking opportunities as well as the industry insights offered in our monthly newsletter. The normal fee for members is just $120 a year; however, we are currently offering a new-member discount. ---133---. If you are still interested in joining, please reply to ---134--- with your mailing address. I will then forward you an application packet.

134...................

Choose the best answer:
Susan and Mike came to work______ bus yesterday.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
With the expansion of the Wellness Recreation Center, projected to open Fall 2011, the Recreational Sports Department will be able to build on our current tradition of offering students a wide ….(1)…..of healthy activities at all ability levels. ……(2)…,of the many activities we currently offer, the City of Laredo and TAMIU community are planning to participate in an array of youth activities beginning Summer 2010. These 2-to 3-week-long activities promote health and wellness while providing fun and safe activities to the youth of Laredo and TAMIU. Activities would include softball, soccer, basketball, and other recreational events. If you are interested in …(3)…your son/daughter or our youth camp, please contact us at 326-3015 for more information

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
No More Polar Bears?
We all know that the Earth is getting warmer and warmer. This problem is called “global warming”. We also know that global warming is causing a lot of problems. Ocean levels are getting higher and higher. Because ocean levels are getting higher, storms are getting stronger and stronger. This list of problems goes on and on. Animals are suffering a lot because of global warming. Polar bears are suffering more than most animals. This is because polar bears live in the North Pole. In the North Pole, global warming is making ice melt. Polar bears hunt from large pieces of floating ice. They jump off the ice and hunt for food. Polar bears have to swim and find these floating pieces of ice. These days, they have to swim farther to find the floating ice. Many of them don’t have enough energy. They get too tired, and they die in the water. Polar bears are suffering because of other problems, too. Pollution makes their water dirty. Many countries go to the North Pole to look for oil and gas, and they damage the environment of the bears. In addition, when ships sail through the North Pole, they cause a lot of damage. Finally, people hunt and kill too many polar bears. However, melting ice is definitely the biggest problem. Right now, there are about 25,000 polar bears in the world. If global warming continues, there may be only about 12,000 in the year 2050. By the year 2080, that number might be much smaller. It is important to study polar bears. When we learn about polar bears, we also learn about the health of the North Pole. If polar bears are doing well, then the environment in the North Pole is probably healthy. If polar bears are suffering then there are probably serious problems in the North Pole. Right now, governments around the world are working to help polar bears. There are new laws that protect polar bears. However, if global warming continues to get worse, polar bears may disappear forever.
3. Why is it important to study polar bears?

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Conservation, sustainable use and protection of (1) _______ resources including plants, animals, mineral deposits, soils, clean (2) _______, clean air, and fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Natural (3) _______ are grouped into two categories, renewable and nonrenewable. A (4) _______ resource is one that may be replaced over time by natural processes, (5) _______ fish populations or natural vegetation, or is inexhaustible, such as solar energy.

Choose the best answer:
After she ________ hospital, she had a long holiday.

Choose the best answer:
The Chinese eat special ____ for the moon festival. They are sweet and are made with a lot of eggs.

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.

   My family consists of four people. There's my father whose name is Jan, my mother whose name is Marie, my brother, Peter and of course, me. I have quite a large extended family as well but, only the four of us live together in our apartment in a block of flats. My father is fifty-two years old. He works as an accountant in an insurance company. He is tall and slim, has got short brown and gray hair and blue eyes. My father likes gardening very much as well as listening to music and reading books about political science. His special hobbies are bird watching and travelling.

   Now I’ll describe my mother and my brother. My mother is forty-seven and she works as a nurse in a hospital. She is small, and slim, has short brown hair and green eyes. She likes bird watching and travelling too, so whenever my parents are able to they go someplace interesting for nature watching. Since we have a cottage with a garden they both spend a lot of time there. My brother is sixteen. He is slim and has short brown hair and blue eyes. He also attends high school. He is interested in computers and sports like football and hockey. He also spends a lot of time with his friends.

   I have only one grandmother left still living. She is in pretty good health even at the age of seventyeight so she still lives in her own flat. I enjoy spending time with her when I can. Both my grandfathers died from cancer because they were smokers, which was really a great tragedy because I didn't get chance to know them. My other grandmother died just a few years ago. I also have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. The cousin I’m closest to is my uncle’s daughter Pauline. We have a lot in common because we are both eighteen and so we are good friends.

   My parents have assigned me certain duties around the house. I don't mind helping out because everyone in a family should contribute in some way. I help with the washing up, the vacuuming and the shopping. Of course I also have to help keep my room tidy as well. My brother is responsible for the dusting and mopping. He also has to clean his own room. Even though my brother and I sometimes fight about who has to do what job, we are still very close. I am also very close to my parents and I can rely on them to help me. My parents work together to keep our home well maintained and it seem they always have a project or another that they are working on. They respect each other's opinions and even if they disagree they can always come to a compromise. I hope in the future that 1 have a family like ours.

What does the writer's father do?

Choose the underlined words or phrases that are not correct in standard written English.
I feel really tired. I wish I didn’t go to the party last night.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The economic expansion prompted by the Second World War triggered a spectacular population boom in the West. Of course, the region was no stranger to population booms. Throughout much of its history, western settlement had been characterized by spurts, rather than by a pattern of gradual and steady population growth, beginning with the gold and silver rushes of the 1850's and 1860's. The decade after the First World War - the 1920's - witnessed another major surge of people pouring into the West, particularly into urban areas. But the economic depression of the 1930's brought this expansion to a halt; some of the more sparsely settled parts of the region actually lost population as migrants sought work in more heavily industrialized areas. By 1941 when the United States entered the Second World War and began to mobilize, new job opportunities were created in the western part of the nation.

If the expansion of industries, such as shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing, was most striking on the pacific coast, it also affected interior cities like Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. Equally dramatic were the effects of the establishment of aluminum plants in Oregon and Washington and the burgeoning steel industry in Utah and California. The flow of people into these areas provided an enormous impetus to the expansion of the service industries - banks, health care services and schools. Although strained to the limit by the influx of newcomers, western communities welcomed the vast reservoir of new job opportunities. At the same time, the unprecedented expansion of government installations in the West, such as military bases, created thousands of new civilian openings. As land had served as a magnet for western migrants in the late nineteenth century, so wartime mobilization set in motion another major expansion of population. Indeed, it could be said that the entire western United States became a giant boomtown during the Second World War. This was especially true of California. Of the more than eight million people who moved into the West in the decade after 1940, almost one-half went to the Pacific coast. In fact, between 1940 and 1950, California's population surged by more than three million people.

The word “it” in paragraph 2 refers to     .

Choose the best answer:
The/ volcanic eruption/ be/ so destructive/ that/ many lives/ be threatened.

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:
On the fourth Thursday in November, in houses around the United States, families get together for a feast, or a large meal. Almost all families eat turkey and cranberry sauce for this meal, and have pumpkin pie for dessert. This feast is part of a very special day, the holiday of Thanksgiving.
In 1620 the Pilgrims made a difficult trip across the ocean from England. They landed in what is now Massachusetts. In England the Pilgrims had not been allowed to freely practice their religion. So they went to the New World in search of religious freedom.
The Pilgrims' first winter was very hard. Almost half the group died of cold, hunger and disease. But the Indians of Massachusetts taught the Pilgrims to plant corn, to hunt and to fish. When the next fall came, the Pilgrims had plenty of food. They were thankful to God and the Indians and had a feast to give thanks. They invited the Indians to join them. This was the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving became a national holiday many years later because of the effort of a woman named Sarah Hale. For forty years Sarah Hale wrote to each president and asked for a holiday of Thanksgiving. At last she was successful. In 1863 President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday.
How much is Thanksgiving today like the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving? In many ways they are different. For example, historians think that the Pilgrims ate deer, not turkey. The idea of Thanksgiving, though, is very much the same: Thanksgiving is a day on which we celebrate and give thanks.

The word “they” in paragraph 3 refer to     .

 l am going shopping for food this evening_____ I do not have to go at the weekend.

(343)_______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Psychology recognizes two types of research, experimental and differential. The former is concerned mainly with the overall processes governing human activities, and the latter sets out to establish individual differences in performance. More recent studies have demonstrated the need for a third type of psychological study, namely, that which has to do with human development. Rather than considering this aspect of human performances as a part of the first two types, scientists have noted that developmental research indeed belongs in a separate category in and of itself. Piaget's work would indisputably fall in the area of developmental theories that have had great impact on both experimental and differential research. When examining Piaget's studies, it is necessary to keep in mind that, while his theories have been highly influential, his methodology has been strongly criticized. The primary shortfall of his work had to do with a lack of definition and standardization in his data and experiment design.
7. In the passage, the word "namely" is closest in meaning to: