Vincent Van Gogh is a very famous painter from the 19th century. Van Gogh’s paintings are sold at very high prices because many collectors want his paintings. But unfortunately, when he was (i) _______ he did not have a happy life. Van Gogh was from a poor family in Holland and lived (ii) _______ his life at home. He lived a rather sad and (iii) _______ life. He drew things that he could sec cither around the quiet town of his parents’ home or outside his window. This was why he painted things like the sky, his room and even himself. Van Gogh once cut off his own car after drawing a picture of himself. He cut it off to show the person that said the ear in Van Gogh’s painting was not correct. It was very (iv) _______ him to do such a thing. Van Gogh was also (v) _______ a crazy man. He really did become crazy, and was sent to a mental hospital. Sadly, he killed himself when he was just 37.

(v)____

The professor (i) _______ the ancient symbol in the course of researeh for a visual history of the 20th century, to be published by the Trecca in Encyclopedia. The first (ii) _______ instance of its use, he says, occurred in a letter written by a Florentine merchant on May 4th, 1536. He says the sign made its (iii) ________  along trade routes to northern Europe, where it came to represent “at the price of” – its contemporary accountancy (iv) _______  . Professor Stabile believes that Italian banks may possess even earlier documents (v) _______ the symbol lying forgotten in their arehives. The oldest example could be of great value. The race is on between the mercantile world and the banking world to sec who has the oldest documentation of @.

(iv)_____

Gounod’s Faust made its debut at the Theatre Lyrique in Paris in 1853 after having been refused by other playhouses on (i) _______ that it wasn’t spectacular enough. In fact, the music is very spiritual and pure to match Marguerite’s nobleness of heart and Faust’s trials and tribulations, (ii) _______ his desperate seareh for meaning in life. In an age where grandeur and luxury were the norm, Faust was not well received by the publiC. It was (iii) _______ in 1862 with an added ballet scene at the start of the first act, and the opera became a tremendous success. Marguerite’s famous aria, the jewel song, was included in (iv) _______ comic strips and children adventure stories, (v) _______ the New York House regularly opened its season with a Faust performance.

(ii)______-

Based on measurements of the expansion of the universe, of the position of galaxies, as well as of the cosmic microwave background radiation, the birth of the universe is said to (i) _______  13.7 billion years ago, when the early cosmos was a dense gaseous fireball of plasma, with temperatures 100,000 times higher than (ii) _______  of the sun’s core. 10 microseconds after the initial explosion, the universe experienced a period of huge exponential (iii) _______  called cosmic inflation, allowing basic particles such as quarks and gluons to stop moving around willy-nilly without purpose and form strong bonds of protons and neutrons. 100 seconds later, as temperatures dropped even further, these protons and neutrons would form helium and other hydrogen composites in a period cissalled nucleosynthesis. Matter would (iv) _______  to a halt and stop moving, (v) _______  gravitational forces come into play, and after 380,000 years the first atoms would make their appearance.

(iii)______-

In retrospect, it is believed that the land (i) _______ by Hcrjolfsson was indeed part of North America, and the first European to actually touch its grounds was (ii) _______ other than the Red’s son, Leif Ericsson. (iii) _______ to follow in his father’s footsteps and become as respected as his parents, Leif Ericsson left Greenland (iv) _______  1,000 AD and sailed southwest towards the promised land.

Evidence unearthed at the arehaeological site of L’Anse aux Meadows proves that the Vikings had landed at three points of the eastern American coast, which (v) _______ termed “Markland” or “forest land” in today’s Labrador, “Hcluland” or “slab-land” after Baffin Island’s rocky landscape, and finally “Vinland” or “vine-land”, located either in New England or

(iii)___

Are the years you (i) ________ at school the best years of your life? Personally, I found most lessons rather uninteresting. We had to sit at our desks in silence and (ii) ________ attention. The teachers used to  write on the blackboard and ask US difficult questions. We also had to do lots of homework, and (iii) ________ it in on time. We had to wear a school uniform, and wc had to obey lots of rules. I left school as soon as I could and started work. I read books al the public library, and later I decided to (iv) ________ college. I really enjoyed studying because I was older and knew that I wanted some (v) ________  When I was at school, I was just the wrong age!

(iv)_____

The Solar System is (i) _______ the Sun and eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The first four planets are (ii) _______ terrestrial planets because they are rocky. They are smaller and denser than the outer planets. They contain a high amount of metals and they have less gas than the outer planets. Mercury has no atmosphere, but Venus, Earth and Mars have atmospheres of varying thicknesses. Their rotation is slower and their orbits are closer together. The outer four planets are known as gas giants. They are also known as Jovian planets, (iii) _______ the planet Jupiter because of their gigantic Jupiter-like (iv) _______. They have a large diameter and a very thick atmosphere. Although their surfaces contain large amounts of gases, their cores are probably solid. All four Jovian planets have rings although only Saturn’s ring system is (v) _______ from Earth.

(ii)_____-

Choose the underlined part among A, B, C, or D that needs correcting: It was the event that had talked about a lot.

I will see you again. We are all looking forward _______ again.

The arehitects who designed the London Eye (i) _______ drew it for a competition in 1993. Subsequently, they formed a (ii) _______ with British Airways to develop the project. As the biggest observation wheel ever built, its covnstruction involved 1,700 people in five countries. Most of its (iii) _______had to be invented, and delivering them had to be coordinated with the tides in the River Thames. On average, 350 hours a week are spent (iv) _______ the maintenance of the Eye, and only distilled water is used to (v) _______ the glass.

(v)_______

Instead of throwing in the towel, Shakira kept her focus on music and participated (i)  ______  a televised singing competition for children, (ii) ______  she started being invited to various events in Barranquilla and became a local celebrity. When she turned 13, she caught the eye of theatre producer Monica Ariza, who took her under her wing and made her name (iii) ______  outside Barranquilla. On a flight from her hometown to the Colombian capital of Bogota, Ariza happened to sit next to Sony executive C’iro Vargas, who agreed to hold an audition for Shakira a few weeks later inside a hotel lobby. Vargas was (iv) ______  impressed with the budding new artist and praised her in lavish terms to the Sony artist directors. They, (v) ______  , were less excited and thought Shakira was a “lost cause’’ until Vargas tricked them into a surprise audition with the singer at a bar in Bogota, which resulted in Shakira’s signing a deal with Sony for three recorded albums.

(iii)_____

Let's not enter _____ details at this stage. 

To many people the idea of graffiti has negative images and responses. If the drawings are done on surfaces without permission, it is thought of as vandalism. And in many instances, a crime. In most countries of the world graffiti, not only has negative connotations but is also considered illegal. One of the reasons is that graffiti is placed on buildings and property not owned by the painter. And where it is applied without (i) _______ , it is usually done quickly W’ith products such as permanent markers and spray paint. Historically, though, graffiti was important to the Romans because it was a way of expressing the knowledge they had as a people as well as a way of expressing their appreciation of beauty of (ii) _______      subjects. Today, tourists can see for themselves examples of ancient graffiti when they visit the catacombs in Rome or Pompeii. Modem graffiti is considered an art form, but it is one whichis greatly misunderstood by most people. In the 1970s, when the punk rock movement was big, many of the anti­establishment groups wrote and drew on walls and other surfaces to draw attention to their cause, group, or agenda. A lot of bands also used graffiti to (iii) _______ recognition and notoriety. For about a (iv) _______ of a century, from the mid 1960s to the late 1980s, graffiti was considered in its prime as an art form. In urban areas, graffiti could be seen on the walls of vacant buildings, on subway station walls, and on the subway cars themselves. Political activities used the medium to transmit their messages because it was an easy and inexpensive way to do (v) _______.

(ii)______

Choose the underlined part among A, B, C, or D that needs correcting: Either you nor John is going to help Peter with his work.

In Korea, in former days, the marriage between a man and woman represented the joining of two families, rather (i) _______ the joining of two individuals. The event (ii) _______ Tacryc (Great Ritual), and people from all over the village or neighborhood participated. The ceremonies and events surrounding the actual marriage were long and (iii) _______. Professional matchmakers paired up likely candidates for marriage, with the new couple often meeting for the first time at their wedding. The families considered many factors in the decision, consulting with fortune tellers for (iv) _______ about the couple’s future life together. During the Chosun period, people married (v) _______ their early teens, with the girl often being several years older than the boy.

(iii)______

Around 1190, Tcmujjin and his close allies and advisers began to unite many (i) _____ Mongol clans. Using his strong will and charisma, he managed to persuade (ii) _____ of those fighting and warring clans to accept him as the one and only leader. It seems Tcmujjin had a gift, the unusual ability to act as a leader and (iii) _____ respect. Several tribes tried to oppose him. There were a lot of betrayals and killings, but eventually Tcmujjin managed to do what nobody had ever done before: unite all Mongols (iv) _____  one nation in 1206. In honor of his achievements, the Mongol clan chiefs (v) _____Tcmujjin the title Khan, or “leader”.

(v)_____

As Key watched the British open fire on Fort McHenry, the massive fort which guarded the harbor, he caught a (i) ________  of the American flag flying in the breeze as cannon volleys caused flashes of gunfire and rising smoke all around the nation’s symbol. As the sun slid behind the edge of the earth and darkness fell, Key watched, waited, and worried as the bombardment continued. He was unable to leam – or even guess – what was transpiring in front of his eyes because he could only see the flashes sent forth by the cannons and gunfire as they targeted the huge fort (ii) ________  that very dark night. In the early morning hours, as Key peered out over the horizon toward the fort’s ramparts to try to determine what had happened during that long night, he saw the glorious sight of the American flag still flying in the breeze. The battle was over. Fort McHenry had withstood the attack. And the flag was still there. The British naval officers permitted Key and the other Americans (iii) ________  to shore, and as he did Key began scribbling furiously on a (iv) ________  of paper the words he believed described the bombardment of Fort McHenry and the thrill he felt after the battle when he saw the American flag still waving in the breeze. Key wrote about the events in verse and within a short time, the Words were put to music. Unofficially, the song became the national Anthem and in 1931, more than a hundred years after the battle at Ft.McHrnry in 1814, the United States Congress passed a law which formally (v) ________  the song as the national anthem.

(iv)____

Many European countries had heard about the wealth and (i) _______ of the Aztecs. The Spanish King sent his ships across the Atlantic to bring home the famous Aztec gold. Thus many Spanish sailors and soldiers went (ii) _______  the New World and found America. These adventurers were called ‘conquistadors’ because they were ruthless and cruel. They only cared about money, not people, and destroyed (iii) _______ civilizations to get (iv) _______ they wanted. One of these conquistadors was Hernando Cortes. He arrived in Cuba in 1511, but (v) _______ got in trouble with the Cuban governor, Diego Velasquez, who eventually sent him far away to find the Aztec gold

(iii)_____

They've fixed ____ Paris for their honeymoon. 

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:

Winslow Homer, who had no formally training in art, became famous for his paintings of the sea and sea coast. 

Projecting actual changes and the effects of those changes over the (i) _______ several centuries cannot be accomplished with exactness. Not only will the overall effects be difficult to predict, the real problem comes in predicting the effects on regions and specific localities. For example, the scientists know that if global warming makes the ocean temperatures warmer then the result can be hurricanes of more intensity and frequency. But, “can be” and “will be” are not (ii) _______ synonymous. The causes of global wanning are known but the exact results and the degrees of the results aren’t. Uncertainty as to the gravity and extent of global warming will continue until some certainty is extracted (iii) _______ factual, current, and objective data. At this point in time, the “wait and see” philosophy has to come into play. Although uncertainty is a serious concern, there are things people can do. If there is a “no ozone” day in your community, try to (iv) _______ to the guidelines set forth by government officials. Don’t bum leaves and don’t drive unless it is necessary. Carpooling is good not only on “no ozone” days, but all the (v) _______. Don’t continue to send unnecessary items to the landfills. Recycle. And plant trees – for shade and cooling – as well as for decorative

(iv)_____