The reading is followed by several questions about it. There are four possible answers (A, B, C, or D) for each question. Choose the best answer. 

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Few people can embody the spirit of early America as much as Benjamin Franklin. He lived through almost the whole of the eighteenth century, being born six years after, and dying ten years before it ended. In this time he saw the American colonies grow from tiny settlements into a nation, and he also contributed much to the development of the new state.

At the age of 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia. He had already received some training as a printer’s apprentice, and this helped him seven years later, with his first publication, the Pennsylvania Gazette. He also received a contract to do government printing work, which helped him to rise from his poor background to become a successful entrepreneur. Some of his experience in business was shared in his famous Poor Richard’s Almanak. which established his reputation throughout the American colonies. In another of his works, the Autobiography, which was written toward the end of his life, he shows the same quiet common sense.

He was deeply interested in science and natural history, and his experiments with electricity and lightning led directly to the invention of the lightning rod. He was also interested in improving the conditions of his fellow men. He was involved in a number of projects in his native Philadelphia, including the setting up of a library, a university, a philosophical society, and because he was a pragmatic man-a fire prevention service. In 1753 he became Postmaster-General of the colonies. Through this experience, he began to develop the idea that the colonies of North America should be a single nation. Later, he went to London to try to persuade the British government to change the conditions, especially the taxes, that later led the American colonists into rebellion.

Whatever Benjamin Franklin’s personal feelings about the rebellion of the American states, he worked hard to make it succeed. As ambassador to France, he encouraged the French to help George Washington. After the war, he attended the American constitutional congress. This was his last contribution, for he died later that year. He is still fondly remembered by Americans as one of the creators of the United States.

Which of these happened first?

Choose the word (A, B, C, or D) that best fits the blank space in the following passage. 

In many Western countries, people (19)________ Halloween on October 31st. The word Halloween (20)_________ from “All Hallows’ Eve”. It is the night before All Saints’ Day, a religious holiday in some parts of the world. On this night, children dress up in special costumes, put (21)___________ masks, and go door to door saying “trick-or-treat” to get candy. Many people decorate their homes with paper ghosts, black cats, or witches to give their houses a (22) ______ look. People also decorate their homes with jack-o-lanterns. They carve scary faces on pumpkins, and (23)______ candles inside the pumpkins. In some places, both children and adults can make (24)_____ of haunted houses. They all seem very excited about the festival.

20__________

Read the text carefully and then choose the correct answers.

Three decades ago, children were considered adults at around twenty years of age. This was an age to make important life decisions. Kids were no longer kids. They found places to live, goy jobs, and planned to get married. In the 1970s, the average age for marriage was twenty-four. Now the average age is close to thirty. Many big decisions are happening later than before.

Is it really just a case of not growing up? Are people really just making their “teen” years stretch into their twenties? Are they still dependent upon their parents? Certainly, many in their twenties live with their parents after college. They like the comfortable lives they had before. They want to be able to pay off the money they borrowed to pay for college. They also want to have fun at the same time.

But this is not enough to explain the trend. People are living longer and want to put these big decisions off until later. They see that older people are retiring later. The working years have increased. The young generation believes they will take care of very old parents and their own children for many years. They do not wish to hurry into this stage of life.

The author uses the money they borrowed to pay for college as an example of which of the following?

Choose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

People use energy each day for transportation, cooking, heating and cooling rooms, manufacturing, lighting, (31)______, and many other uses. The choices people make about how they use energy – (32)______ machines off when they’re not using them or choosing to buy (33)______  vehicles and energy-efficient appliances – affects the environment and everyone’s lives. What is the difference between energy conservation and energy efficiency? Energy efficiency is using (34)______ that requires less energy to perform the same function. Using a compact (35) ________ light bulb that requires less energy instead of using an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light is an (36)____ of energy efficiency. Energy conservation is any behavior that results in the use of (37)_____ energy. Turning the lights off when leaving the room and (38)______ aluminum cans are both ways of conserving energy.

34___________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

THE BALANCE OF NATURE

All the different plants and animals in a natural community are in a state of balance. This balance is achieved by the plants and animals interacting with each other and with their non-living surroundings. An example of a natural community is a woodland, and a woodland is usually dominated by a particular species of plant, such as the oak tree in an oak wood. The oak tree in this example is therefore called the dominant species but there are also many other types of plants, from brambles, bushes, and small trees to mosses, lichens and algae growing on tree trunks and rocks.

The plants of a community are the producers: they use carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen to build up their tissues using energy in the form of sunlight. The plant tissues form food for the plant-eating animals (herbivores) which are in turn eaten by flesh-eating animals (carnivores). Thus, plants produce the basic food supply for all the animals of a community. The animals themselves are the consumers, and are either herbivores or carnivores.

Examples of herbivores in a woodland community are rabbits, deer, mice and snails, and insects such as aphids and caterpillars. The herbivores are sometimes eaten by the carnivores. Woodland carnivores are of all sizes, from insects such as beetles and lacewings to animals such as owls, shrews and foxes. Some carnivores feed on herbivores, some feed on the smaller carnivores, while some feed on both: a tawny owl will eat beetles and shrews as well as voles and mice. These food relationships between the different members of the community are known as food chains or food webs. All food chains start with plants. The links of the chain are formed by the herbivores that eat the plants and the carnivores that feed on the herbivores. There are more organisms at the base of the food chain than at the top; for example, there are many more green plants than carnivores in a community.

Another important section of the community is made up of the decomposers. They include the bacteria and fungi that live in the soil and feed on dead animals and plants. By doing this they break down the tissues of the dead organisms and release mineral salts into the soil.

The best definition for the word “dominant" in paragraph 1 is ____.

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

Every year, 100 million sharks are killed by people in commercial and recreational fishing. In the past they were killed simply for the sport of landing a good fighting fish (make sharks for instance). Sharkskin was used for making sandpaper. Other sharks are hunted for food, and some species for other products.

Sharks are a common seafood in many places around the world, including Japan and Australia. In Australia shark is the most commonly used fish. Sharks are often killed for shark fin soup, in which many sharks are hunted for their fins, which are cut off with a hot metal blade before the live animal is tossed back into the water. There have been cases where hundreds of de-finned animals were swept up on local beaches without any way to convey themselves back into the sea. Conservationists have campaigned for changes in the law to make finning illegal in the U.S.

Sharks generally reach sexual maturity slowly and produce very few offspring in comparison to other fishes that are harvested. This has caused concern among biologists regarding the increase in effort applied to catching sharks over time, and many species are considered to be threatened. Some organizations, such as the Shark Trust, campaign to limit shark fishing.

Nowadays, people hunt sharks for ____.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

Approximately one-third of the Arctic Ocean is underlain by continental shelf, (6) _______ includes a broad shelf north of Eurasia and the narrower shelves of North America and Greenland. Seaward of the continental shelves lies the Arctic Basin proper, which is subdivided (7) _______ a set of three parallel ridges and four basins (also known as deeps). These features were discovered and explored in the late 1940s. The Lomonosov Ridge, the major ridge, cuts the Arctic Basin almost (8) _______ half, extending as a submarine bridge 1,800 km (1,100 mi) by Siberia to the northwestern tip of Greenland. Parallel with it (9) _______ two shorter ridges: the Alpha Ridge on the North American side, defining the Canada and Makarov basins, and the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge on the Eurasian side, forming the Nansen and Amundsen basins. The average (10) _______ of the Arctic Ocean is only 1,300 m (4,300 ft) because of the vast shallow expanses on the continental shelves. The deepest point in the Arctic Ocean is 5,450 m (17,880 ft).

Read the passage below carefully and choose the best option A, B, C or D.

The La Tomatina is a festival held on a Wednesday towards the end of August in the town of Bunol in the Valenela region in Spain. The weeklong festival includes music, parades, dancing, and fireworks.

About 30,000 people come to the tomato fight, while Bunol's population is only 9,000. There are not many accommodations for people who come to La Tomatina, so many participans stay in Valencia and travel by bus or train to Bunol, about 38km outside the city.

Many trucks transport tomatoes into the center of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of the cannon, and the chaos begins. Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself. People who partake in this event are strongly encouranged to wear protective safety goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squash the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions. Another rule is that no one is allowed to bring into this fight anything that may lead to a more serious fight, such as a glass bottle. People must also stay away from trucks and must not tear someone else's clothing. Somewhere between an hour and two hours, the fighting ends and the cannon is fired once more to signal the end. At this point nomore tomatoes can be thrown. The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets, with water provided from a Roman waterway. People find water to wash themselves, most likely at the Bunol River.

What happens right after the firing of the second cannon?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

Approximately one-third of the Arctic Ocean is underlain by continental shelf, (6) _______ includes a broad shelf north of Eurasia and the narrower shelves of North America and Greenland. Seaward of the continental shelves lies the Arctic Basin proper, which is subdivided (7) _______ a set of three parallel ridges and four basins (also known as deeps). These features were discovered and explored in the late 1940s. The Lomonosov Ridge, the major ridge, cuts the Arctic Basin almost (8) _______ half, extending as a submarine bridge 1,800 km (1,100 mi) by Siberia to the northwestern tip of Greenland. Parallel with it (9) _______ two shorter ridges: the Alpha Ridge on the North American side, defining the Canada and Makarov basins, and the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge on the Eurasian side, forming the Nansen and Amundsen basins. The average (10) _______ of the Arctic Ocean is only 1,300 m (4,300 ft) because of the vast shallow expanses on the continental shelves. The deepest point in the Arctic Ocean is 5,450 m (17,880 ft).

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

THE BALANCE OF NATURE

All the different plants and animals in a natural community are in a state of balance. This balance is achieved by the plants and animals interacting with each other and with their non-living surroundings. An example of a natural community is a woodland, and a woodland is usually dominated by a particular species of plant, such as the oak tree in an oak wood. The oak tree in this example is therefore called the dominant species but there are also many other types of plants, from brambles, bushes, and small trees to mosses, lichens and algae growing on tree trunks and rocks.

The plants of a community are the producers: they use carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen to build up their tissues using energy in the form of sunlight. The plant tissues form food for the plant-eating animals (herbivores) which are in turn eaten by flesh-eating animals (carnivores). Thus, plants produce the basic food supply for all the animals of a community. The animals themselves are the consumers, and are either herbivores or carnivores.

Examples of herbivores in a woodland community are rabbits, deer, mice and snails, and insects such as aphids and caterpillars. The herbivores are sometimes eaten by the carnivores. Woodland carnivores are of all sizes, from insects such as beetles and lacewings to animals such as owls, shrews and foxes. Some carnivores feed on herbivores, some feed on the smaller carnivores, while some feed on both: a tawny owl will eat beetles and shrews as well as voles and mice. These food relationships between the different members of the community are known as food chains or food webs. All food chains start with plants. The links of the chain are formed by the herbivores that eat the plants and the carnivores that feed on the herbivores. There are more organisms at the base of the food chain than at the top; for example, there are many more green plants than carnivores in a community.

Another important section of the community is made up of the decomposers. They include the bacteria and fungi that live in the soil and feed on dead animals and plants. By doing this they break down the tissues of the dead organisms and release mineral salts into the soil.

The word “organism" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ____.

Read the following passage carefully, and then select the best option A, B, C or D to complete it:

"Approximately one-third of the Arctic (1) _______ is underlain by continental shelf, (2) _______ includes a broad shelf north of Eurasia and the narrower shelves of North America and Greenland. Seaward of the continental shelves (3) _______ the Arctic Basin proper, which is subdivided (4) _______ a set of three parallel ridges and four basins (also (5) _______ as deeps). These features were discovered and explored (6) _______ in the late 1940s. The Lomonosov Ridge, the major ridge, cuts the Arctic Basin (7) _______ in half, extending as a submarine bridge 1,800 km (1,100 mi) (8) _______ Siberia to the northwestern tip of Greenland. Parallel (9) _______ it are two shorter ridges: the Alpha Ridge on the North American (10) _______, defining the Canada and Makarov basins, (11) _______ the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge on the Eurasian side, (12) _______ the Nansen and Amundsen basins. The average (13) _______ of the Arctic Ocean is only 1,300 m (4,300 ft) (14) _______ the vast shallow expanses on the continental shelves. The deepest (15) _______ in the Arctic Ocean is 5,450 m (17,880 ft)."

15. The deepest (15) _______ in the Arctic Ocean is 5,450 m (17,880 ft).

Read the passage below carefully and fill in each blank with the best option A, B, C, or D:

Bags and purses came in a variety of designs for a number of purposes. The introduction of pockets towards the end of the 16th century meant that the men's bags slowly disappeared. From then on, bags belonged almost only to (11) _____.
(12)_____ the 20th century, more and more women went out to work and became more mobile. This resulted in all sorts of bags for (13) _____ purposes such as leather document cases for going to the office, practical leather and plastic daytime bags for walking and visiting, elegant, sparkling bags for evening use.
Branding became more and more important during the 20th century. Famous designers include Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada. For (14) ____ designers such as Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Versace, Donna Karan and Dolce & Gabbana, the handbag has become an important accessory. In contrast with the past centuries, the (15) _____ has now developed into a fashion accessory and it changes with every season.

(12)...................

Choose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

About twenty percent of the world’s present (31)_______ already comes from the sun in one form or another. Special devices have already been made available to put on the roof of houses and flats to (32)______ the sun’s rays and thus heat water. Thousands of these devices are now being used to provide (33)________ in homes throughout the United States while more than a million solar water-heating units have already been (34)____ in homes in Japan. Other purposes for (35)_____ solar energy is at present being used include the separation of salt (36)___________ seawater, irrigation, and sewage disposal. For most people in developing countries, the (37)___________ is not for air conditioners or central heating (38)________ for cheap ways of cooking food, drying crops and lighting homes.

36____________

Read the passage below and choose the best answer for each question. 
People have been playing with marbles for thousands of years. The first marbles were probably either river stones that happened to be naturally round enough to roll or, more likely, rounded globs of clay that were baked hardness. Such very old clay marbles have been found in both Greek and Roman ruins, and quartz spheres have been dated at around 6000 B.C. Harder and more durable marbles tend to inspire different kinds of games than soft clay marbles, which crack very easily. So with the advent of hand-rounded and polished marbles made of agate or some other rugged, igneous rock, the ‘golden age’ of marbles and marble play flowered. Stone marbles began to appear in the early 1800s in what is now the southern part of Germany. Shortly after, handmade glass marbles appeared in the same part of Europe. For the next 120 years, marbles and marble playing-there were hundred of games – flourished in both Europe and America. Marble players developed their vocabulary for different sizes and materials of marbles, as well as for the many kinds of games to be played and the way marbles were used in the games. For example, if you were going to play a game of Ring-Taw, one of the most popular and enduring marbles games, you would lag for the first shot, and then knuckle down from the balk, trying your best to get a mib or two with your opponent’s immie.

It can be inferred from the passage that the use of marbles became very popular in Europe and America ________ .

 Read the passage below carefully and choose the correct answer a, b, c, or d.

The invention of the phonograph happened quite a by accident. Thomas Edison moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876, where he established an industrial research laboratory. There, Edison was working on a carbon telephone transmitter to improve the existing Bell telephone system.

In that laboratory a year later, Edison invented the phonograph while he was trying to improve a telegraph repeater. He attached a telephone diaphragm to the needle in the telegraph repeater; in this way, he was able to produce a recording that could be played back. After he made some improvements to the machine, he tested it. He recited ‘Marry Had a Little Lamb’ into the machine and played his voice back to a very surprised audience.

What is the best title for the passage?

Choose the word or phrase that best fits each space in the following passage.

     In child development, there is an important phenomenon that shows very clearly the process of preparation for the future: play. (1)____________ to popular belief, its importance should never be underestimated. Games are not the haphazard creations of parents or educators. They should be seen as educational (2)___________and as stimuli for the child’s (3)___________ , imagination and life skills. Every game is a preparation for the future. The manner in which children (4)____________ a game, their choice of game and the importance they (5) ___________ upon it, show their attitude and relationship to their environment and how they relate to their (6)_______ human beings. Whether they are hostile or whether they are friendly, and particularly whether they show qualities as leaders, are clearly (7)____________ in their play. In observing children at play we can see their whole attitude towards life; play is of the (8) _______importance to every child. 

But play is more than preparation for life. Games are (9)__________ communal exercises that enable children to develop their social feeling. Children who avoid games and play are always (10)__________ to the suspicion that they have not (11)______ satisfactorily to life. These children gladly withdraw from all games, or when they are sent to the playground with other children usually (12)____________ the pleasure of others. Pride, lack of (13)__________ and the consequent fear of ‘getting it wrong’ are the main reasons for this behavior. In general, by watching children at play, we can determine (14)__________ great certainty the (15)__________ and quality of their social feeling.

4._________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each question.

It is sometimes very difficult to decide which career to choose when you leave school. British students are helped by careers teachers, who inform them about different careers, the qualifications needed and try to help them make up their minds. Mr. Hemmings, a careers teacher as well as a History teacher, talks about his experience.

I’ve been a careers teacher for around five years and, on the whole, I’ve found it a rewarding experience. Our students have careers lessons once a week for the fourth and the fifth years (15 and 16 years old). My task consists of explaining as accurately as possible the qualifications required for each job, as well as the type of work and personal skills involved.

Advising teenagers can be rather difficult – some youngsters have no idea at all of what they want to do, or of what the real world outside school is. They come to me and say ‘I don’t like routine nine-to-five jobs… I’d like something exciting that pays well…’ What can I say? That we’re running out of exciting jobs? But they usually end up facing reality and come down to their senses after a while…

Anyway here in school, we only give them a piece of advice according to what we know about their favorite and weakest subjects, pastimes and personality. But if you ask me, things are happening so quickly around here, with our economy in the dumps that sometimes you just don’t know what to say. A few days ago I asked a fifteen-year-old boy what job he had in mind and he replied ‘I haven’t any plans. You see, Sir, I don’t know what new jobs will replace today. What could I say?

How has Mr Hemmings found his job as a careers teacher?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each question.

Where will you go on your next vacation? Disneyland? Sea World? Outer space?

That’s right; tourists are now paying big bucks to travel into space with astronauts! The first space tourist was Dennis Tito, an American businessman. In 2001, he paid about $20 million to ride on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. The Space Station circles 220 miles above Earth. Tito stayed on the station for a week, hanging out with astronauts and eating space food.

The latest space tourist was Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-born woman from the United States who went to the Space Station in mid-September 2006.

How safe is space travel? Apart from the risk of crashing, space tourists have some special things to worry about. Earth’s atmosphere protects us from dangerous radiation from the sun. Space travellers are exposed to more of the sun’s rays. But for tourists spending only a few days or weeks in space, the radiation probably isn’t harmful.

A bigger problem might be space sickness. Without Earth’s gravity to hold them down, visitors to the Space Station float around inside the craft. It may look like fun on TV, but it can make first-time space travellers dizzy and sick. Luckily, the sickness usually wears off quickly. Then space tourists can enjoy their trip and the amazing view of Earth.

It is probably so expensive to travel to space because_____.

Read the passage and choose the correct answer:

Life underwater is one of the most exciting things in the world. The same is characterized by plants which exist in a wide variety, aquatic animals which are both dangerous and sober, microscopic organisms which are the basic food of the animals. Even the largest mammal in the world, the blue whale, resides in the oceans. Thus, life underwater is a part of the life on earth. The life underwater is no less rich than the life on the surface of the water or the terrestrial life. The aesthetic beauty of underwater life is one of the prominent features. Coral reefs are splendid examples of the aesthetic beauty of underwater life. These span the length which extends to kilometers at a stretch. The underwater life also provides man with a variety of minerals and other resources for consumption. Terrestrial life has certain disadvantages which are absent in the life underwater.

Coral reefs are splendid examples of the aesthetic beauty of underwater life.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

Finding Innovative Applications of Technology

While technology, in and of itself, does not always spur innovation in the classroom, there are countless innovative ways to use technology to better teach and engage students. Here are some examples:

Robots in the Classroom – South Korean schools have experimented with robot teachers. This makes lessons more interesting and entertaining for kids and enables teachers from anywhere in the world to be “present” in the classroom.

Mobile Technology – Smartphones and other mobile devices are increasingly used in education. Mobile apps let teachers conduct digital polls, enhance verbal and presentation skills, and incorporate technological skills with core competency lessons.

3D Learning – Kids enjoy 3D games and movies, so why not use this technology to help them learn? GEMS Modern Academy in Dubai does just this, providing students with a 3D lab that offers interactive multimedia presentations.

Assisting Special Needs Students – Assistive technology is especially useful for students with learning disabilities. For example, phonetic spelling software helps dyslexic students and others with reading problems to convert words to the correct spelling.

Which country provide students with a 3D lab that offers interactive multimedia presentations?