The Midwest Artisanal Cheese Guild (MACG) organizes trade shows and conducts educational seminars ---135--- the cheese-crafting trade within the Midwestern United States. Cheeses from this region are recognized internationally. Many of---136--- cheeses are used by chefs at restaurants around the world.
The MACG puts on the region’s largest cheese-maker exposition, held each year in April. The prestigious Wizard of Cheese contest is held at this event. ---137---. Dan Travella was last year’s---138---. His aged cheddar cheese received a winning score of 98.7 out of 100.

136.................

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 development of genetically modified (GM) plants and animals had led to a huge global controversy. Opponents say that GM “Franken foods” are a threat to our well-being, and proponents say that the risks are minimal. There is one aspect of the war over GM that is often overlooked. Anyone who wears a cotton shirt these days is using a GM crop. Cotton is the only major non-food GM crop at present, but others are coming.
GM cotton plants that is not food has not stopped the most passionate GM opponents from objecting. If GM cotton is grown in a field next to fields of non-GM cotton, they argue, then how to keep genes from being transferred from field to field. This danger, however, is not as compelling to the public as possible health hazards in food, so there is no great fury over GM cotton.
GM cotton seeds produce higher yields, and they do without the need for pesticides. Planting of  GM cotton has increased five fold since 1997; three-quarter of cotton in America, and over half in China, is now GM. Farmers like it because it increases their profits.
Other options for non-food GM include new variety of flowers with different colors or scents, tougher grasses for lawns, and plants designed to soak up pollutants from the soil. The paper industry provides another example of potential for GM to help produce better and cheaper products. Paper is made from pulp, and pulp is generally made from trees. Researchers in New Zealand and Chile have been working on insect-resistant pines, and a Japanese firm has combined carrot genes with tree genes to make them grow better in poor soil.
Another interesting case is that of tobacco. It is not food crop, but it is consumed, and GM tobacco plants with both more and less nicotine have been created. The tobacco plant, however, is an ideal target for GM, since its genetics are very well understood and it produces a lot of leaves. The value of the drugs that could be produced by GM tobacco is so high, many farmers could switch from growing tobacco for cigarettes to growing it for medicine. Since medical cost is rising, consumers would also be happy to use drugs produced in bulk by GM tobacco.

What is the topic of the paragraph?

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.
Christina and James met in college and have been dating for more than five years. For the  past two years, they have been living together in a  condo  they  purchased jointly. While Christina and James were confident in their decision to enter into a commitment like a  20-year mortgage,  they are unsure if they want to enter into marriage. The couple had many discussions about marriage and decided that it just did not seem necessary. Wasn't it only a piece of  paper? And  didn't half of all marriages end in divorce?
Neither Christina nor James had seen much success with marriage while growing up. Christina was raised by a single mother. Her parents never married, and her father has had little contact with the family since she was a toddler, Christina and her mother lived with her maternal grandmother, who often served as a surrogate parent. James grew up in  a  two-parent household  until age seven, when his parents divorced. He lived with his mother for a  few years, and then    later with his mother and her boyfriend until he left for college. James remained close with his  father who remarried and had a baby with his new wife.
Recently, Christina and James have been thinking about having children and the subject of marriage has resurfaced. Christina likes the idea of her children growing up in a traditional  family; while James is concerned about possible marital problems down the road and negative consequences for the children should that occur. When they shared these concerns with their parents, James's mom was adamant that the couple should get married. Despite having been divorced and having a live-in boyfriend of 15  years, she believes that children are better off when  their parents are married. Christina's mom believes that the couple should do whatever they want but adds that it would "be nice" if they wed. Christina and James's friends told them, married or not married; they would still be a family.

According to the paragraph 2, which of the following statements is TRUE?

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:
As the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United States increased. The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants into American society.
The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools, extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were sponsored by public schools, corporations, unions, churches, settlement houses, and other agencies.
Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were once such population. Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for women was the home.
Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women, American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies, homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however, overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.A

The word “it” in paragraph 4 refers to .

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrases that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
It was a Monday morning in the office and, as usual, everyone was busy sorting through their mail before starting work. The other staff had (1)........... that Nicky , one of the computer operators, had been (2)......... rather miserable recently and they wondered what  might  have been happened to  make her so (3)........ . Suddenly Nicky accidentally knocked over a cup of coffee. As she was clearing up the mess, the girl sitting next to her happened to glance at Nicky's right hand. There was a large swelling at the wrist. "What on earth have you (4)........  to yourself? Does it hurt?"  asked the girl. " Yes, it does. I think I've injured it using the computer", replied Nicky. " I think you'd better go and let the doctor (5)............  it", said the girl. " Let's hope there's no permanent  damage to your hand" .

(5)...................................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions.
                      My first home
When my parents married, they rented a small house and they didn’t have a lot of money for furniture. The kitchen had a sink for washing up and a cooker, but that was all. They (6)............. a old table and a chair from the market. They borrowed a sofa (7)....... _was also old but they covered it with modern materials so it was bright and cheerful.
Outside, there was a small garden behind the house, but in front of it there was only the road. (8).........., the road wasn’t busy, so I could cross it to reach the park on the opposite side. We   lived there (9)..........I was ten and we were very happy. We had to move house because it was too small when my twin sisters were born. We all (10).......... sad when we left.

(8)..........................

Read the following passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the blanks.
Volunteering is generally considered an (1).............. activity and is intended to promote goodness or improve human quality of life. In return, it produces a feeling of self-worth and respect, rather than money. To volunteer simply means to be motivated and give your time or energy to work forwards an undertaking or cause you are interested in.  Volunteering (2).......... individuals the chance to explore avenues that would not usually be open to them. This experience enables an exchange of culture and social contact between volunteers and those who benefit. When children volunteer, they often find themselves in a position where responsibility is required. They gain (3)..........when they know they’ve made a real contribution to a project. Research shows those who volunteer just one hour a week are 50 percent less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, smoke cigarettes or engage in destructive behaviour. (4)............ my humble opinion, voluntary work needs to be integrated into the school curriculum.We need to motivate young people and make sure we create a culture or social activism where we insist that people help their community to empower others, (5)................ themselves.

(5)..............................

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.
                     ALFRED NOBEL
Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Sweden. His important invention was dynamite - a powerful (1)........ _. This dynamite business made him a very rich man.
One day, Alfred Nobel read about his death in a newspaper. In fact, it was his brother's death. The mass media (2).........him a saleman of death, "The dynamite king". Nobel was very upset. He had invented dynamite to save lives - lives ( 3 )............ _ were lost because other explosives were dangerous to use. He hated violence and war. And he did not like the world to    think of him as a man of war.
He thought (4)..........the  best way for people to  use  his fortune for  years. (5)................... _  he knew  what to do with his fortune. Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prize, an annual award to honour leaders of science, literature, and world peace. Alfred Nobel died on December 10, 1896. He was unmarried and had no children. His important decision changed the way the  world thought of him. He was remembered the way he wanted: Alfred Nobel, man of peace.

(4)..........................
 

Read the following passage and mark the letter A,B,C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks
                           Swim, Cycle, and Run
For athletes who like to (1).............. a variety of endurance sports in a single race, triathlons are a great fit. These competitions (2)......... running, cycling, and swimming into one race, and they take place one after the other in a single continuous timed race. Athletes who participate must be in top physical form and have the skills needed to complete each portion of the race.
 Training for triathlons means the athletes have to become proficient not only in the sport required in each stage, but they also have to become familiar with what (3).............  from one to the other does to their bodies. Many inexperienced triathletes are surprised to (4)............... hard it can be to switch from swimming to cycling to running, and how tired their muscles can suddenly feel. One thing all triathletes can agree (5).................is that no one ever told them that running a triathlon would be easy.

(1)..............................

As many of you have noticed, the main entrance of our building is in ---131--- condition. It is in desperate need of attention. Therefore, beginning at 6 P.M. on Friday, the main entrance ---132--- for approximately one month as it is renovated. The changes will give the entryway a more streamlined and contemporary appearance.
---133--- the main entrance is closed, employees and visitors may use the side entrances to gain access to the building. 134---.

133..................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrases that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
It was a Monday morning in the office and, as usual, everyone was busy sorting through their mail before starting work. The other staff had (1)........... that Nicky , one of the computer operators, had been (2)......... rather miserable recently and they wondered what  might  have been happened to  make her so (3)........ . Suddenly Nicky accidentally knocked over a cup of coffee. As she was clearing up the mess, the girl sitting next to her happened to glance at Nicky's right hand. There was a large swelling at the wrist. "What on earth have you (4)........  to yourself? Does it hurt?"  asked the girl. " Yes, it does. I think I've injured it using the computer", replied Nicky. " I think you'd better go and let the doctor (5)............  it", said the girl. " Let's hope there's no permanent  damage to your hand" .

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

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:
Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth–century, public awareness of the changes increased to new levels in the 1890's. The acute, growing public awareness of the social changes that had been taking place for some time was tied to tremendous growth in popular journalism in the late nineteenth century, including growth in quantity and circulation of both magazines and newspapers. These developments, in addition to the continued growth of cities, were significant factors in the transformation of society from one characterized by relatively isolated self–contained communities into an urban, industrial nation. The decade of the 1870's, for example, was a period in which the sheer number of newspapers doubled, and by 1880 the New York Graphic had published the first photographic reproduction in a newspaper, portending a dramatic rise in newspaper readership. Between 1882 and 1886 alone, the price of daily newspapers dropped from four cents a copy to one cent, made possible in part by a great increase in demand. Furthermore, the introduction in 1890 of the first successful linotype machine promised even further growth. In 1872 only two daily newspapers could claim a circulation of over 100,000, but by 1892 seven more newspapers exceeded that figure. A world beyond the immediate community was rapidly becoming visible.
But it was not newspapers alone that were bringing the new awareness to people in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Magazines as they are known today began publication around 1882, and, in fact, the circulation of weekly magazines exceeded that of newspapers in the period which followed. By 1892, for example, the circulation of the Ladies' Home Journal had reached an astounding 700,000. An increase in book readership also played a significant part in this general trend. For example, Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward, sold over a million copies in1888, giving rise to the growth of organizations dedicated to the realization of Bellamy's vision of the future. The printed word, unquestionably, was intruding on the insulation that had characterized United States society in an earlier period.

The word "exceeded" in line 16 is closest in meaning to     .

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrases that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
When I was at school, sports day was the highlight of the year. Let me set the scene. First of all, on sports day, it  was  always  bound (1)...... rain. Sunny weather? No such luck. Despite the previous two months of soaring temperatures, as likely as not, on the morning of the games, The temperature  would plummet. So, imagine  a hundred (2)........ small children, dressed in tight shorts and thin vests, shivering in the cold, unaware of the heartbreak that lies in store for them. Swept up by the excitement and desperate to win, tempers soon get frayed. One girl finds herself disqualified from the egg and spoon race despite giving it everything she’s got, and another boy, (3)......... jealous of the winner of the sack race, makes the mistake of being rude to him within earshot of the teachers. Scores of tiny children, bitterly disappointed at tasting defeat for the first time, break down and cry. Twenty years on, I’m certainly not (4)......... any young, but I do have some really lasting (5)............. _of those days at school!
(2)...........................

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
               School lunch
Research has shown that over half the childrn in Britain who take their own lunches to school do not eat (1) .......in the middle of the day. In Britain, schools have to (2)...... meals at lunchtime. Children can choose to bring their own food or have lunch at the school canteen.
One shocking finding of the research is that school meals are much healthier than lunches prepared by parents. There are strict (3)..... _ for the preparation of school meals, which have to include one (4)............of fruit and one of vegetables, as well as meat, a dairy item and starchy food like break or pasta. Lunchboxes examined by researchers contained sweet drinks, crisps and chocolate bars. Children consume twice as much sugar as they should at lunchtime.
The research will provide a better understanding (5)......... why the percentage of overweight in Britain has increased in the last decade. Unfortunately, the government can’t criticize parents, but it can remind them of the nutritional value of milk, fruit and vegetables. Small changes in their children’s diet can affect their future health. Children can easily develop bad eating habits at this age, and parents are the only ones who can prevent it.
(4).................

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:
In the early 1800s, to reach the jump-off point for the West, a family from the East of the United States could either buy a steamboat passage to Missouri for themselves, their wagons and their livestock or, as happened more often, simply pile everything into a wagon, hitch up a team, and begin their overland trek right in their front yard.
Along the macadamized roads and turnpikes east of the Missouri River, travel was comparatively fast, camping easy, and supplies plentiful. Then, in one river town or another, the neophyte emigrants would pause to lay in provisions. For outfitting purposes, the town of Independence had been preeminent ever since 1827, but the rising momentum of pioneer emigration had produced some rival jump-off points. Westport and Fort Leavenworth flourished a few miles upriver. St. Joseph had sprung up 55 miles to the northwest; in fact, emigrants who went to Missouri by riverboat could save four days on the trail by staying on the paddle wheelers to St. Joe before striking overland.
At whatever jump-off point they chose, the emigrants studied guide books and directions, asked questions of others as green as themselves, and made their final decision about outfitting. They had various, sometimes conflicting, options. For example, either pack animals or two -wheel carts or wagons could be used for the overland crossing. A family man usually chose the wagon. It was the costliest and slowest of the three, but it provided space and shelter for children and for a wife who likely as not was pregnant. Everybody knew that a top-heavy covered wagon might blow over in a prairie wind or be overturned by mountain rocks, that it might mire in river mud or sink to its hubs in desert sand, but maybe if those things happened on this trip, they would happen to someone else. Anyway, most pioneers, with their farm background, were used to wagons.

Which of the cities that served as a jump-off point can be inferred from the passage to be farthest west?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions.
                      My first home
When my parents married, they rented a small house and they didn’t have a lot of money for furniture. The kitchen had a sink for washing up and a cooker, but that was all. They (6)............. a old table and a chair from the market. They borrowed a sofa (7)....... _was also old but they covered it with modern materials so it was bright and cheerful.
Outside, there was a small garden behind the house, but in front of it there was only the road. (8).........., the road wasn’t busy, so I could cross it to reach the park on the opposite side. We   lived there (9)..........I was ten and we were very happy. We had to move house because it was too small when my twin sisters were born. We all (10).......... sad when we left.
(9)..........................

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
Parents and teachers are always making (1)......... between the time when they were children and the present generation . They say everything was better than it is today, especially in education. (2)........ , they say they used to work much harder in school, and that nowadays, we aren’t very interested. I disagree, because we spend hours every day doing homework after our lessons or (3)........... for exammination. I wonder (4)..........our parents really had to study so much after school every day. In my opinion, it is no exaggeration to say we have forgotten how to play. I think one reason why kids (5)........... in class is because they need to get rid of stress.

(1)............................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrases that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
HOW TO AVOID MISCOMMUNICATION IN THE WORKPLACE
As a small-business owner, you can avoid many problems simply by improving communication in your office. By clarifying everyone's expectations and roles, you'll help to (46)............ greater trust and increase productivity among employees. Here are a few tips for doing so.
Practice active listening. The art of active listening includes (47)........ close attention to what another person is saying, then paraphrasing what you've heard and repeating it back. Concentrate (48)............ the conversation at hand and avoid unwanted interruptions (cell phone calls, others walking into your office, etc.). Take note of how your own experience and values may color your perception.
Pay attention to non-verbal cues. We don't communicate with words alone. Every conversation comes with a host of non-verbal cues -  facial  expressions,  body language,  etc.  -  that  may (49)......... contradict  what  we're saying.  Before addressing a staff member or (50).............. a project conference, think carefully about your tone of voice, how you make eye contact, and what your body is "saying." Be consistent throughout. Be clear and to the point. Don't cloud instructions or requests with irrelevant details, such as problems with past projects or issues with long-departed personnel. State what you need and what you expect. Ask, "Does anyone have any questions?" Demonstrate that you prefer questions up-front as opposed to misinterpretation later on.

(49).....................

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:
She wants to be a singer; you think she should go for a long–term career with job security and eventually retire with a good pension. But a new report suggests that in fact she’s the practical one. Why do parents make terrible career advisers?
Today’s 14 and 15–year–olds are ambitious. They are optimistic about their prospects, but their career ideas are rather vague. Although 80% of them have no intention of following in their parents’ footsteps, 69% still turn to their parents for advice. They look at their working future in a different way to their parents.
A job for life is not in their vocabulary; neither is a dead–end but secure job that is boring but pays the bills. Almost half the boys surveyed expected that their hobbies would lead them into the right sort of job, while most girls seemed determined to avoid traditionally female careers such as nursing.
In the past, this might have counted as bad news. Certainly when I was 15, my guidance counsellors were horrified at my plans to become a writer. I’m glad I didn’t change my plans to suit them. Even so, their faith in rigid career paths was well–founded. In those days, that was the way to get ahead.
But the world has changed. The global economy is not kind to yesterday’s diligent and dependable worker. The future belongs to quick–thinking people who are resourceful, ambitious and can take the initiative. This means that a 14–year–old who sees her working future as a kind of adventure, to be made up as she goes along is not necessarily being unrealistic.
However, she has to have the training and guidance to help her develop the right skills for today’s market; not the rigid preparation for a workplace that disappeared twenty years ago. Many young people are very aware of the pitfalls of the flexible workplace; they understand that redundancy, downsizing and freelancing are all part of modern working life, but no one is telling them how they might be able to turn the new rules of the employment game to their advantage. This is what they need to know if they are to make a life for themselves.

So what is to be done? A good first step would be to change the way in which schools prepare young people for adult life. The education system is becoming less flexible and more obsessed with traditional skills at just the time that the employment market is going in the opposite direction.
Accurate, up–to–date information on new jobs and qualifications can help guidance counsellors to help their students. Young people need solid information on the sort of training they need to pursue the career of their dreams. Also, a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. If nothing else, a bit of optimism from an adult can serve as an antidote to the constant criticism of teenagers in the press.
What, then, can we as parents do to help them? The best thing is to forget all the advice that your parents gave you, and step into your teenager’s shoes. Once you’ve done that, it’s easier to see how important it is that they learn how to be independent, resourceful and resilient. Give them the courage to follow their dreams –however odd they might sound right now. In a world that offers economic security to almost no one, imagination is a terrible thing to waste.

What kind of employment would teenagers like to have?

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:
She wants to be a singer; you think she should go for a long–term career with job security and eventually retire with a good pension. But a new report suggests that in fact she’s the practical one. Why do parents make terrible career advisers?
Today’s 14 and 15–year–olds are ambitious. They are optimistic about their prospects, but their career ideas are rather vague. Although 80% of them have no intention of following in their parents’ footsteps, 69% still turn to their parents for advice. They look at their working future in a different way to their parents.
A job for life is not in their vocabulary; neither is a dead–end but secure job that is boring but pays the bills. Almost half the boys surveyed expected that their hobbies would lead them into the right sort of job, while most girls seemed determined to avoid traditionally female careers such as nursing.
In the past, this might have counted as bad news. Certainly when I was 15, my guidance counsellors were horrified at my plans to become a writer. I’m glad I didn’t change my plans to suit them. Even so, their faith in rigid career paths was well–founded. In those days, that was the way to get ahead.
But the world has changed. The global economy is not kind to yesterday’s diligent and dependable worker. The future belongs to quick–thinking people who are resourceful, ambitious and can take the initiative. This means that a 14–year–old who sees her working future as a kind of adventure, to be made up as she goes along is not necessarily being unrealistic.
However, she has to have the training and guidance to help her develop the right skills for today’s market; not the rigid preparation for a workplace that disappeared twenty years ago. Many young people are very aware of the pitfalls of the flexible workplace; they understand that redundancy, downsizing and freelancing are all part of modern working life, but no one is telling them how they might be able to turn the new rules of the employment game to their advantage. This is what they need to know if they are to make a life for themselves.

So what is to be done? A good first step would be to change the way in which schools prepare young people for adult life. The education system is becoming less flexible and more obsessed with traditional skills at just the time that the employment market is going in the opposite direction.
Accurate, up–to–date information on new jobs and qualifications can help guidance counsellors to help their students. Young people need solid information on the sort of training they need to pursue the career of their dreams. Also, a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. If nothing else, a bit of optimism from an adult can serve as an antidote to the constant criticism of teenagers in the press.
What, then, can we as parents do to help them? The best thing is to forget all the advice that your parents gave you, and step into your teenager’s shoes. Once you’ve done that, it’s easier to see how important it is that they learn how to be independent, resourceful and resilient. Give them the courage to follow their dreams –however odd they might sound right now. In a world that offers economic security to almost no one, imagination is a terrible thing to waste.

What does the writer feel will happen if the education system does not change?

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:
Translators and interpreters for tech jobs of the future are expected to be one of the fastest growing occupations in the nation, according to a just released survey by Vietnamworks. Almost all positions for programmers, application developers, database and network administrators, engineers, designers, architects, scientists, technicians, and tech support will require bilingual or multilingual fluency. In just the last two years the demand for tech professionals with foreign language skills has increased more than two and one-half fold, said the survey, and the uptick shows no signs of abating anytime soon. Roughly 400,000 jobs are expected to open for interpreters (who focus on spoken language) and translators (who focus on written language) in the tech segment, between 2017 and 2020, says Tran Anh Tuan. Tuan, who works for the Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information in Ho Chi Minh City doesn't include other industries in his prediction,
which are also recruiting ferociously for more people with these same language skills.
While that claim might seem a bit overblown (and amounts to little more than a guess by Tuan), it is clear that innovative technologies like robotics, 3D printing, drones, artificial intelligence   and virtual reality will create major upheavals in all sorts of labor markets, not just technology over     the next few years. In the last month alone, most every job posted on employment websites throughout Vietnam included the word bilingual. Far higher salaries go to people who work in high    tech positions and can speak a foreign language such as English in addition to Vietnamese, says Tran Quang Anh from the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology.
Unfortunately, the surveys show that most graduating Vietnamese students are unable to do more than understand a few basic phrases of foreign languages, and practically none of them  can speak any foreign language coherently, The good paying jobs with high salaries and benefits are only available to translators and interpreters who specialize in high tech jobs, says Anh. But it's    not just English— graduates are needed with fluency in middle eastern languages like  Arabic, Farsi and Pashto (Afghani) as well as German, Japanese and Korean to name just a few. Spanish is  also in high demand in Vietnam, primarily because it is the second most common language in the US after English.
A recent tech expo in Hanoi sponsored by Vietnamworks and the Navigos Group attracted nearly 4,000 young tech graduates and recruiters from 14 leading companies looking to fill job  vacancies with skilled bilingual workers. The job applicants were young and industrious, said the recruiters. However, missing were candidates with the requisite language skills and most lacked  basic 'soft skills' such as written and verbal communication abilities to effectively communicate  even in their native Vietnamese language.
Notably, the recruiters said they considered language abilities and soft skills just as, if not more important, than academic ability. Yet virtually all the prospective academically qualified employees lacked even the most basic of interpersonal communication abilities.

According to the passage, interpreters and translators are described as the jobs that