The ideas of John Dewey, philosopher and educator, have influenced American thought for over one hundred years. Dewey was born in Vermont in 1859, and throughout hi life he kept the respect for experience, individuality, and fair play that shaped the character of the nineteenth century Vermonter. He viewed his own life as a continuously reconstructive process with experience and knowledge building on each other. By the 1930s, Dewey had simplified his theory of experience to its essence. As the intellectual leader of the progressive schools, he asserted that there was danger in rejecting the old unless the new was rooted in a connect idea of experience. He held that experience is an interaction between what a person already knows and the situation at hand. Previous knowledge interacting with the present environment influences future experience. Dewey be1ieved that experience could not be equated with education because all experiences as not necessarily educative. Experience is educative only when it contributes to the growth of the individual, but it can be miseducative if it distorts the growth of further experience. It is the quality of experience that matters. Thus, productive experience is both the means and the goal of education. Furthermore, since education is a social process, truly progressive education involves the participation of the learner in directing the learning experience.During his long life, Dewey lectured and published prolifically. These writings were influential both during his lifetime and after his death at the age of ninety-two. He viewed his whole life as an experiment which would produce knowledge that would lead to further experimentation. The range and diversity of Dewey’s writings and his influence on society place him among American’s great thinkers.

According to John Dewey, the interplay between a person’s previous knowledge and the present situation is_____.

 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Music can bring US to tears or to our feet, drive US into battle or lull US to sleep. Music is indeed remarkable in its power over all humankind, and perhaps for that every reason, no human culture on earth has ever lived without it. From discoveries made in France and Slovenia even Neanderthal man, as long as 53,000 years ago, had developed surprisingly sophisticated, sweet-sounding flutes carved from animal bones. It is perhaps then, no accident that music should strike such a chord with the limbic system - an ancient part of our brain, evolutionarily speaking, and one that we share with much of the animal kingdom. Some researchers even propose that music came into this world long before the human race ever did. For  example, the fact that whale and human music have so much in common even though our evolutionary paths have not interested for nearly 60 million years suggests that music may predate humans. They assert that rather than being the inventors of music, we are latecomers to the musical scene. Humpback whale composers employ many of the same tricks that human songwriters do. In addition to using similar rhythms, humpbacks keep musical phrases to a few seconds, creating themes out of several phrases before singing the next one. Whale songs in general are no longer than symphony movements, perhaps because they have a similar attention span. Even though they can sing over a range of seven octaves, the whales typically sing in key, spreading adjacent notes no farther apart than a scale. They mix percussive and pure tones in pretty much the same ratios as human composers - and follow their ABA form, in which a theme is presented, elaborated on and then revisited in a slightly modified form. Perhaps most amazingly, humpback whale songs include repeating refrains that rhyme. It has been suggested that whales might use rhymes for exactly the same reasons that we do: as devices to help them remember. Whale songs can also be rather catchy. When a few humpbacks from the Indian Ocean strayed into the Pacific, some of the whales they met there quickly changed their tunes - singing the new whales'songs within three short years. Some scientists are even tempted to speculate that a universal music awaits discovery.
10: The word "their" in paragraph 2 refers to: 

Read the passage carefully, then choose the correct answers.

Having a best friend to confide in can bring a positive effect on our emotional health. An evening out with the closest friend may be the best guarantee of a good time. In fact, our best friend can prevent us from developing serious psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.

Best friendship evolves with time - we cannot go out and pick our best friend. We become friends with people who share common interests – at school or through hobbies, for example.

Best friends have usually known each other for years and stuck together through good and bad times. If you haven't got one, perhaps you are being too distant from people, or focusing too much on your work.

Which of the following sentences is not mentioned?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
People commonly complain that they never have enough time to accomplish tasks. The hours and minutes seem to slip away before many planned chores get done. According to time management experts, the main reason for this is that most people fail to set priorities about what to do first. They get tied down by trivial, time-consuming matters and never complete the important ones. One simple solution often used by those at the top is to keep lists of tasks to be accomplished daily. These lists order jobs from most essential to least essential and are checked regularly through the day to access progress. Not only is this an effective Way to manage time, but also it serves to give individuals a much- deserved sense of satisfaction over their achievements. People who do not keep lists often face the end of the work day with uncertainty over the significance of their accomplishments, which over time can contribute to serious problems in mental and physical health  .
5. The paragraph following the passage most probably discusses: 

Choose the best anwers for the following questions.

The generation gap, which refers to a broad difference between one generation and another, especially between young people and their parents, usually leads to numerous conflicts. Such family conflicts can seriously threaten the relationship between parents and children at times.
 
It goes without saying that, however old their children are, parents still regard them as small kids and keep in mind that their offspring are too young to protect themselves cautiously or have wise choices. Therefore, they tend to make a great attempt to help their children to discover the outside world. Nevertheless, they forget that as children grow up, they want to be more independent and develop their own identity by creating their own opinions, thoughts, styles and values about life.

One common issue that drives conflicts is the clothes of teenagers. While teens are keen on wearing fashionable clothes which try to catch up with the youth trends, parents who value traditional clothes believe that those kinds of attire violate the rules and the norms of the society. It becomes worse when the expensive brand name clothes teens choose seem to be beyond the financial capacity of parents.

Another reason contributing to conflicts is the interest in choosing a career path or education between parents and teenagers. Young people are told that they have the world at their feet and that dazzling future opportunities are just waiting for them to seize. However, their parents try to impose their choices of university or career on them regardless of their children's preference.

Indeed, conflicts between parents and children are the everlasting family phenomena. It seems that the best way to solve the matter is open communication to create mutual trust and understanding.

Which kinds of clothes do teenagers want to wear?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Amid the hum and heat of Berlin’s Reuter thermal power station stands a shining contraption that looks out of place in the decades-old machine hall. Its silver pipes and vats contain a substance that the company Vattenfall, the plant’s operator, says could become a key ingredient for a fossil fuel-free future. The energy company, together with a Swedish start-up, is testing the use of salt to store heat, which accounts for more than half the power consumed in Germany. If it works well, the system could help solve a problem posed by renewable energy sources like wind and solar: unreliability, meaning they sometimes generate too much, and sometimes too little power. “Germany currently has enough installed renewable energy capacity to produce twice as much as it needs, it’s just not constant,” says Hendrik Roeglin, who oversees the salt storage project for Vattenfall. At the Reuter power plant in Berlin, which supplies 600,000 households in the capital with heat, the solution involves the use of calcium oxide, also known as quicklime. Vattenfall and Swedish start-up SaltX have been taking advantage of a simple chemical reaction that occurs when quicklime becomes wet: the salt-like grains soak up the water, becoming calcium hydroxide and releasing large amounts of heat in the process. By removing the water again, the substance turns back into calcium oxide. The process essentially mirrors how batteries work, except that instead of electricity, the system stores heat. Roeglin says the process can absorb ten times more energy than water, which is currently used for power- to-heat facilities. And unlike tanks of hot water, which slowly cool down over time, the system can retain the chemically-trapped energy for far longer. Need heat? Just add water. The pilot project in Berlin can currently store enough energy to heat about 100 large houses. But SaltX says the facility could easily be scaled up and provide heat to any of the homes or offices already connected to the capital’s district heating system. Such networks — consisting of pipes pumping hot water or steam from power plants to consumers — exist in many European countries, Canada, the United States, Japan and China. SaltX also notes that the calcium oxide currently mined in Finland could be safely recycled, giving it an edge over some battery technologies that use rare or toxic materials. “If your ambition is to be fossil-free within a generation, you have to consider various alternatives to reach that,” a representative of SaltX, Simon Ahlin, said during a visit to the facility. “This is an effective solution that’s available in a short time frame.”
1. The word “oversees” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to: 

"In American, although most men still do less housework than their wives, that gap has been halved since the 1960s. Today, 41 per cent of couples say they share childcare equally, compared with 25 percent in 1985. Men's greater involvement at home is good for their relationships with their spouses, and also good for their children. Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare. They raise sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do well in school - especially in math and science.

In 1900, life expectancy in the United States was 47 years, and only four per cent of the population was 65 or older. Today, life expectancy is 76 years, and by 2025, it is estimated about 20 per cent of the U.S. population will be 65 or older. For the first time, a generation of adults must plan for the needs of both their parents and their children. Most Americans are responding with remarkable grace. One in four households gives the equivalent of a full day a week or more in unpaid care to an aging relative, and more than half say they expect to do so in the next 10 years. Older people are less likely to be impoverished or incapacitated by illness than in the past, and have more opportunity to develop a relationship with their grandchildren.

Even some of the choices that worry people the most are turning out to bemanageable. Divorce rates are likely to remain high, and in many cases marital breakdown causes serious problems for both adults and kids. Yet when parents minimize conflict, family bonds can be maintained. And many families are doing this. More non-custodial parents are staying in touch with their children. Child-support receipts are rising. A lower proportion of children from divorced families are exhibiting problems than in earlier decades. And stepfamilies are learning to maximize children's access to supportive adults rather than cutting them off from one side of the family."

1: Which of the following can be the most suitable heading for paragraph 1?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 36 to 40

Coal, oil, and natural gas supply modern civilization (36)............. most of its power. However, not only are supplies of these fuels limited, but they are a major source of pollution. If the energy demands of the future are to be met without seriously harming the environment, existing (37)........energy sources must be improved or further explored and developed. These include nuclear, water, solar, wind, and geothermal power, as well as energy from new, (38)........... types of fuels. Each of these alternatives, however, has advantages and disadvantages.

Nuclear power plants efficiently produce large amounts of electricity without polluting the atmosphere; however, they are costly to build and maintain, and they pose the daunting problem of what to do with nuclear wastes. Hydroelectric power is (39)........ and environmentally safe, but impractical for communities located far from moving water. Harnessing energy from tides and waves has similar drawbacks. Solar power holds great promise for the future but methods of collecting and concentrating sunlight are as yet (40).........., as are methods of harnessing wind power.

Question 39: ........................

Read the passage and choose the best option to fill in each blank.

An important part of being an adult is becoming more independent from your parents. _____(24)_____ independent, you'll need to focus on your living situation, your financial resources, your budgeting behavior and possibly how you interact with your parents in your day-to-day life.

Make sure you are living somewhere other than your parents' house or in a residence that your parents have paid ____(25)____. If you want to be independent and make your own decisions about how you live, you will need to obtain your own housing that is completely separate from your parents both physically and financially.

One of the main challenges in becoming independent as an adult is acquiring a sufficient income to allow you to live without the financial ____(26)____of your parents. This can be particularly difficult if you are still a university student, but it is not impossible. Seek scholarships and part-time jobs. If you are ___(27)____ a student, find employment that offers a salary that can cover your expenses. Avoid relying on your parents as the first option for help of any kind. Although your parents will always be an important source of social support in your life, your parents should not be the first people you approach with requests for help, or requests for financial assistance. This means that you may never ask your parents for help again, it just means that as an independent adult, there should be ___(28)____ sources of support within your life that you can turn to when necessary.

Question 25. .....................

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.

   Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn’t exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

   One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room. Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention as he dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.

   On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin’s grand entrance for a long time!

The text is mainly about __________.

Choose the correct answer to complete the  following passage.

"In a healthy relationship, both partners respect, trust and embrace (1) ____ differences. Both partners are able to communicate (2) ____ their needs and listen to their partner, and work to resolve conflict in a rational and (3) ____ way. But maintaining a healthy relationship (4) ____ for skills many young people are never taught. A lack of these skills, and (5) ____ up in a society that sometimes celebrates violence or in a community that experiences a high (6) ____ of violence, can lead to unhealthy and even violent relationships among youth.

Dating violence (7) ____ psychological or emotional violence, such as controlling behaviours or jealousy; physical violence, such as hitting or punching. More than 20 per cent of all adolescents report having experienced (8) ____ psychological or physical violence from an intimate partner - and underreporting remains a concern.

Adolescents, (9) ____ older adolescents, often have romantic relationships, which are long-term, serious, and intimate. Society has a responsibility to provide young people with the resources, skills, and space (10) ____ to safeguard their physical and emotional well being in these relationships. Youth-serving professionals, educators, and parents can help young people in need access services to (11) ____ dating abuse victimisation. Research also has shown that programmes intended to prevent dating violence can be (12) ____."

4. But maintaining a healthy relationship (4) ____ for skills many young people are never taught.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness and its originality of perspective. Satire itself, however, rarely offers original ideas. Instead, it presents the familiar in a new form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish, harmful, or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd; Brave New World ridicules the pretensions of science; A Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley, and people were aware of famine before Swift. It was not the originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was the manner of expression, the satiric method, that made them interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition, and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude. Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that they live in a world of platitudinous thinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people into an awareness of truth, though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in only a slight degree the popular image of it.
7. The word "sanctimonious" may be new to you. It most probably means " " in this context: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Fiberscopes are one of the most are one of the most important outcomes of he science of fiber optics. Fibers made of glass and transparent acrylic plastic are capable of conveying light energy, and when thousands of these fibers are combined in what is called a fiberscope, they can transmit images. The most common fiberscopes contain about 750,000 fibers, each 0.001 centimeter, or 10 microns, in diameter. For certain uses, the diameter of the fiber may be as small as 5 microns. Fiberscopes have a wide range of applications. In the medical field, physicians use fiberscopes to examine internal organs and as an aid in delicate surgeries. Miniature probes have also been developed to view muscle fiber, skin tissue, and blood cells. Fiberscopes have also found varied uses in industry, particularly to inspect or control operations in inaccessible areas. Bundles of fiberscopes fused together in a solid plate, called a faceplate, are being used in the manufacture of television tubes and other cathode- ray tube devices. The most far reaching applications of fiber-optic technology are in communication. Optical fibers carry voice messages for telephone service. The sound of the voice is electronically broken down into thousands of pulses per second, which causes a transmitting laser to send coordinated pulses of light through the optical fibers. At the receiving end, the light pulses are converted to electrical signals and the voice message is reconstructed. Light-wave communication systems can handle an immensely greater number of telephone calls and television programs than the current system, and they will form the basis of the “electronic superhighway” expected to crisscross the nation in the near future of the information age.
10. The passage is most likely to be followed by a discussion of: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Fifty-five delegates representing all thirteen states except Rhode Island attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia from May to September 1787. The delegates had been instructed by the Continental Congress to revise the old Articles of Confederation, but most believed that a stronger central government was needed. There were differences, however, about what structure the government should take and how much influence large states should have. Virginia was by far the most populous state, with twice as many as people as New York, four times as many as New Jersey, and ten times as many as Delaware. The leader of the Virginia delegation, James Madison, had already drawn up a plan for government, which became known as the Large State Plan. Its essence was that congressional representation would be based on population. It provided for two or more national executives. The smaller states feared that under this plan, a few large states would lord over the rest. New Jersey countered with the Small State Plan. It provided for equal representation for all states in a national legislature and for a single national executive. Angry debate, heightened by a stifling heat wave, led to deadlock. A cooling of tempers seemed to come with lower temperatures. The delegates hammered out an agreement known as the Great Compromise - actually a bundle of shrewd compromises. They decided that Congress would consist of two houses. The larger states were granted representation based on population in the lower house, the House of Representatives. The smaller states were given equal representation in the upper house, the Senate, in which each state would have two senators regardless of population. It was also agreed that there would be a single executive, the president. This critical compromise broke the logjam, and from then on, success seemed within reach.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that the Articles of Confederation: 

"In American, although most men still do less housework than their wives, that gap has been halved since the 1960s. Today, 41 per cent of couples say they share childcare equally, compared with 25 percent in 1985. Men's greater involvement at home is good for their relationships with their spouses, and also good for their children. Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare. They raise sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do well in school - especially in math and science.

In 1900, life expectancy in the United States was 47 years, and only four per cent of the population was 65 or older. Today, life expectancy is 76 years, and by 2025, it is estimated about 20 per cent of the U.S. population will be 65 or older. For the first time, a generation of adults must plan for the needs of both their parents and their children. Most Americans are responding with remarkable grace. One in four households gives the equivalent of a full day a week or more in unpaid care to an aging relative, and more than half say they expect to do so in the next 10 years. Older people are less likely to be impoverished or incapacitated by illness than in the past, and have more opportunity to develop a relationship with their grandchildren.

Even some of the choices that worry people the most are turning out to bemanageable. Divorce rates are likely to remain high, and in many cases marital breakdown causes serious problems for both adults and kids. Yet when parents minimize conflict, family bonds can be maintained. And many families are doing this. More non-custodial parents are staying in touch with their children. Child-support receipts are rising. A lower proportion of children from divorced families are exhibiting problems than in earlier decades. And stepfamilies are learning to maximize children's access to supportive adults rather than cutting them off from one side of the family."

4: Which of the following is NOT true about divorce rates in the USA?

Read the passage and choose one correct answer for each question.

     PARENTS’ DREAMS

     Parents often have dreams for their children’s future. They hope their children will have a better life than they had. They dream that their children will do things that they couldn’t do.

Parents who come to the U.S from foreign countries hope their children will have better education here. They think their children will have more career choices and more successful lives. They make many sacrifices so that their children will have more opportunities. They think their children will remain close to them because of this. Some children understand and appreciate these sacrifices and remain close to their parents. However, other children feel ashamed that their parents are so different from other Americans.

Parents often dream of ___

Read the following passage and mark the letter A,B,C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from. 
Nowadays, teenagers have (18)______ more money and expensive possessions than their parents ever did. Articles like radios and bicycles, which cost a fortune (19) _____ decades ago, are now mass-produced and cheap. And items that nobody even dreamed of possessing twenty years ago, such as mobile phones and computers, are now in common places. Teenagers are definitely better off financially. However life is not easy for them. There is much more to worry about than there was in the past. Jobs are not as secure (20)_____ they used to be and teenagers can no (21) _____ be confident that the world will always be peaceful and free of pollution. 
Teenagers drive their parents crazy (22)_____ many ways. Some of them spray their hair with amazing color, while others wear clothes that shock their parents. They all want (23)_____ own stereos, mobile phones and televisions. But these young people are not really behaving differently from how their parents behaved when they were young. Many today’s parents and grandparents will laugh when they (24)_____ crazy fashions they wore. Those adults, (25) _____ are parents now fought with their own parents about clothes and lifestyle. In fact, teenagers have fought with their parents (26)_____ time began and no doubt they will always.
(20).....................................

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.

   A rather surprising geographical feature of Antarctica is that a huge freshwater, one of the world’s largest and deepest, lies hidden there under four kilometers of ice. Now known as Lake Vostok, this huge body of water is located under the ice block that comprises Antarctica. The lake is able to exist in its unfrozen state beneath this block of ice because its waters are warned by geothermal heat from the earth’s core. This thick glacier above Lake Vostok actually insulates it from frigid temperatures (the lowest ever recorded on Earth) on the surface.

   The lake was first discovered in the 1970s while a research team was conducting an aerial survey of the area. Radio waves from the survey equipment penetrated the ice and revealed a body of water of indeterminate size. It was not until much more recently that data collected by satellite made scientists aware of the tremendous size of the lake; satellite-borne radar detected an extremely flat region where the ice remains level because it is floating on the water of the lake.

   The discovery of such a huge fresh water lake trapped under Antarctica is of interest to the scientific community because of the potential that the lake contains ancient microbes that have survived for thousands upon thousands of years, unaffected by factors such as nuclear fallout and elevated ultraviolet light that have conducting research on the lake in such a harsh climate and in the problems associated with obtaining uncontaminated sampled from the lake without actually exposing the lake to contamination. Scientists are looking for possible ways to accomplish this.

It can be interfered from the passage that ice would not be flat if _______.

Choose the correct answer to complete the  following passage.

"In a healthy relationship, both partners respect, trust and embrace (1) ____ differences. Both partners are able to communicate (2) ____ their needs and listen to their partner, and work to resolve conflict in a rational and (3) ____ way. But maintaining a healthy relationship (4) ____ for skills many young people are never taught. A lack of these skills, and (5) ____ up in a society that sometimes celebrates violence or in a community that experiences a high (6) ____ of violence, can lead to unhealthy and even violent relationships among youth.

Dating violence (7) ____ psychological or emotional violence, such as controlling behaviours or jealousy; physical violence, such as hitting or punching. More than 20 per cent of all adolescents report having experienced (8) ____ psychological or physical violence from an intimate partner - and underreporting remains a concern.

Adolescents, (9) ____ older adolescents, often have romantic relationships, which are long-term, serious, and intimate. Society has a responsibility to provide young people with the resources, skills, and space (10) ____ to safeguard their physical and emotional well being in these relationships. Youth-serving professionals, educators, and parents can help young people in need access services to (11) ____ dating abuse victimisation. Research also has shown that programmes intended to prevent dating violence can be (12) ____."

1. In a healthy relationship, both partners respect, trust and embrace (1) ____ differences.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness and its originality of perspective. Satire itself, however, rarely offers original ideas. Instead, it presents the familiar in a new form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies. What they do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish, harmful, or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd; Brave New World ridicules the pretensions of science; A Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas is original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous Huxley, and people were aware of famine before Swift. It was not the originality of the idea that made these satires popular. It was the manner of expression, the satiric method, that made them interesting and entertaining. Satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar objects into incongruous juxtaposition, and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude. Satire exists because there is need for it. It has lived because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that they live in a world of platitudinous thinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people into an awareness of truth, though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles in only a slight degree the popular image of it.
6. The word "refreshing" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Simply being bilingual doesn’t qualify someone to interpret. Interpreting is not only a mechanical process of converting one sentence in language A into the same sentence in language B. Rather, its a complex art in which thoughts and idioms that have no obvious counterparts from tongue to tongue - or words that have several meanings must be quickly transformed in such a way that the message is clearly and accurately expressed to the listener. At one international conference, an American speaker said, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear”, which meant nothing to the Spanish audience. The interpretation was, “A monkey in a silk dress is still a monkey” - an idiom the Spanish understood and that expressed the same idea. There are 2 kinds of interpreters, simultaneous and consecutive. The former, sitting in a separated booth, usually at a large multilingual conference, speaks to listeners wearing headphones, interpreting what a foreign language speaker says - actually a sentence behind. Consecutive interpreters are the ones most international negotiations use. They are employed for smaller meetings without sound booths and headphones. Consecutive interpretation also requires two-person teams. A foreign speaker says his piece while the interpreter, using a special shorthand, takes notes and during a pause, tells the client what was said. 
1. What is the purpose of the passage?