When the war ended, Romania became a Communist country. For 50 years, people suffered (i) _______ the Communist rule. There was (ii) _______ food, no electricity or hot water in villages and small cities. Many important pieces of Romanian literature and art from the Golden Age were destroyed. People were (iii) _______ in jail; others ran illegally across the border to (iv) _______ countries. On December 16th, 1998, Romanians had had enough. There was a bloody revolution, the government was overthrown, and new elections (v) _______. Today, Romanians are trying to rebuild their future into a free country.

(ii)___

The Amazon rainforest is in very big danger of disappearing. 9,169 square miles of forest (i) _______ down in 2003 in Brazil (ii) _______. An area of the size of a football field is burned down basically every minute, which means that the rain forest may be gone by the year 2030. The dangers related to this type of activity are very obvious. Trees (iii) _______ poisonous carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen. There is more oxygen and (iv) _______ carbon dioxide around a rainforest. When trees are cut down, however, the amount of carbon dioxide increases and the air gets wanner. This leads to global wanning, which is extremely harmful to the environment. (v) _______ is estimated that the burning of Brazilian rainforests alone produces 200 million metric tones of carbon dioxide a year.

(iii)_____

The origins of golf have been debated for quite a long time, but the Scots get the credit for practicing the sport sometime during the 15th century. Reports dating back to the Song Dynasty as early as the 10lh century (i) ________ that the Chinese nobility also used (ii) ________ a game named “chuiwan” by means of 10 different clubs, a game which later must have been imported to Europe during the Middle Ages by Mongolian travellers. Regardless of these claims, however, it remains a fact (iii) ________ the game of golf players as we know it over a distance of 18 holes is of Scottish descent. Thus a golf course is a tract of land that includes up to 18 or 19 holes, but (iv) ________ less than 9. A hole designates both the open in the ground into which a golf ball is displaced, as well as the total distance from the tee, or the starting point, to the green, or the grassy area surrounding the actual hole, which is also termed a cup. The bar of grill of the clubhouse where most golfers meet at the end of a game is referred to in colloquial terms (v) ________ “the 19th hotel”.

(ii)______

Liza Cooke works (i) _______ vso, a voluntary charity organization. For the last three years she (ii) _______ English in a primary school in a small village in Nigeria. Before that she lived with her parents in a semi-detached house in Croydon, and worked in an office in north London. Her life changed dramatically after she decided to join vso as a volunteer worker. “I used to travel to work every day by train. The journey would take between forty minutes and an hour. Now it only takes me a few minutes. I used to work in a large office with about thirty other people. Now 1 teach classes of up to fifty children. I still work (iii)         _______  well, more or less. The classroom has walls but no windows! I used to hale my office job. It was so boring. But teaching is so different -I really enjoy it. Of course, working in an office and living at home (iv) _______ that I had a lot of free time. I would go out every night of the week and enjoy myself. I never stayed at home. Now 1 find 1 have hardly (v) _______ free time, but I don’t mind. I seem to spend most of my free time doing

(i)______

Following his release, Mandela declared that violence and war are not the answer to the end of apartheid in South Africa, but rather peaceful opposition to this change of heart proved to be (i) _______ as he won the first free democratic elections in South Africa and (ii) _______  the country’s first black president in 1994. During his presidency (May 1994 – June 1999), Nelson Mandela succeeded in bringing peace to South Africa by promoting racial tolerance and understanding and by coming to an understanding with the white population. (iii) _______ an international level, Mandela also managed to peacefully solve the long-running conflict between the USA and the UK on one hand, and the African country of Libya on the (iv) _______. Even though he was criticized for not being able to stop the spread of HIV in South Africa and for not achieving social reforms, Nelson Mandela was highly respected for his policy of peace and (v) _______ and received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993.

(iii)_____

For some, the advent of television marked the beginning of the end of civilised society. More and more, people have watched TV at the (i)  _______  of playing cards or board games, or other communal pastimes. Many fear that the Internet too will further limit social interaction. That may be true but, as researehers at Stanford University in the USA are the first to say, further study is needed. In a recent survey they found that the Internet and the use of email have actually increased some forms of human interaction. What’s more, people who go online are (ii) _______  watch less television than others. The study makes two things clear. Contrary to all the fuss in the media, the Internet’s popularity is still in its infancy. More than half of US households are not connected yet, but the Internet’s potential impact (iii) _______  we live and interact is enormous. Workers may be using the Web on the job for such personal ends as checking sports scores but, according to the study, they also use the Internet to work from home. Just 4 per cent of the surveyed Internet users said they had cut back on their working hours since getting connected to the Internet.But will the Internet make US more isolated socially? While a fourth of the Internet users say they spend less lime talking on the telephone with friends and relatives, email allows them to stay in touch, regardless of distance. Since email is (iv) _______  and can be sent and received at any hour of the day, it has many built-in advantages. For some, it has actually revived the highly social art of letter writing. As for spending less time on the telephone, the continuing boom in mobile phone use makes an overall decrease less and less likely. Few would argue that the Internet has had a profound effect on the lives of many in its first decade of common use. But assessing its long-term impact is difficult. That’s why for all the questions they raise, studies such as Stanford’s are so useful. If we don’t pay close attention to how we use the Internet, it will change our lives not just for (v) _______  , but for worse.

(v)_____

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions: 

It was too late to stop the panic that had resulted from the false news report.

For some, the advent of television marked the beginning of the end of civilised society. More and more, people have watched TV at the (i)  _______  of playing cards or board games, or other communal pastimes. Many fear that the Internet too will further limit social interaction. That may be true but, as researehers at Stanford University in the USA are the first to say, further study is needed. In a recent survey they found that the Internet and the use of email have actually increased some forms of human interaction. What’s more, people who go online are (ii) _______  watch less television than others. The study makes two things clear. Contrary to all the fuss in the media, the Internet’s popularity is still in its infancy. More than half of US households are not connected yet, but the Internet’s potential impact (iii) _______  we live and interact is enormous. Workers may be using the Web on the job for such personal ends as checking sports scores but, according to the study, they also use the Internet to work from home. Just 4 per cent of the surveyed Internet users said they had cut back on their working hours since getting connected to the Internet.But will the Internet make US more isolated socially? While a fourth of the Internet users say they spend less lime talking on the telephone with friends and relatives, email allows them to stay in touch, regardless of distance. Since email is (iv) _______  and can be sent and received at any hour of the day, it has many built-in advantages. For some, it has actually revived the highly social art of letter writing. As for spending less time on the telephone, the continuing boom in mobile phone use makes an overall decrease less and less likely. Few would argue that the Internet has had a profound effect on the lives of many in its first decade of common use. But assessing its long-term impact is difficult. That’s why for all the questions they raise, studies such as Stanford’s are so useful. If we don’t pay close attention to how we use the Internet, it will change our lives not just for (v) _______  , but for worse.

(iii)_____

A: “Thanks for your help.” B: “ ……… .” 

While the hair, skin, and nails show outward signs of aging, the heart and other internal organs are also (i) ________ by the aging process. Usually there is restricted blood flow to the heart as people age. Part of the reason is that there is a normal atrophy of the heart muscle and the heart valves begin calcifying.

Additionally, the arteries (ii) ________ the blood passes may become less elastiC. Because of some or all of these factors, the reduced flow of blood results in a reduced stamina for people (iii) ________ there is less oxygen passing through and being exchanged in a person’s system. As people age normally, there is also a reduced efficiency of the respiratory system. People have less ability to (iv) ________ deeply and the airway passages become less elastic as a result. Smoking and pollution do not help the respiratory changes in older adults, nor docs the loss of muscle tone and strength. Physical exercise, however, seems to be one of the best ways to (v) ________ improve some cases, slop the changes breathing and muscle tone that develop as people age.

(ii)______

There’s a lot of stock missing. wonder how he will try to ______ that away. 

Every country has its own traditions, some of which have existed for centuries. In my opinion, we should do everything possible to preserve them. Some people think that in today’s high-tech world, traditional celebrations are too old-fashioned and (i) _______ to our lives. However, events such as Carnival, are important, as they bring communities together and make US think about other people and not just computers. (ii) _______ argument against traditional festivals is that they are expensive to organise. To some extent this is true, particularly when there are firework (iii) _______ or parades. On the other hand, it is a small price to pay for brightening up our lives with entertainment and colour. Moreover, celebrations like the ‘Fallas’ in my home town of Valencia attract many tourists and their money. Finally, although 1 agree that some traditional customs (iv) _______ their original significance, they can provide an opportunity for US to learn about our past. For example, Bonfire Night teaches British children about a particular period of their country’s history. To conclude, traditional celebrations are a source of great pleasure and interest, and they are certainly (v) _______ keeping

(iii)_____

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.

(v)____

Cotton fiber, like other vegetable fibers, are composed mostly of cellulose.

Ang Lee’s work caught the (i) _______ of the William Morris Agency. This agency became interested in Ang’s movies and hired him. But in the end, they did not give Ang Lee a chance to make movies in the USA. (ii) _______ 6 years, Lee stayed home to take (iii) _______ of the house and his two children. His wife, Jane Ling, was a molecular (iv) _______ and supported the family. This situation was embarrassing for Lee because of the culture he grew (v) _______  in. But, during this hard time, he wrote many screenplays for movies

(i)____

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.

(v)______-

The battle was on, and the Canadians delivered. After (i) ________ minor step errors by Sikharulidze, Sale and Pelletier gave a mesmerizing performance and people were expecting them to win. The shock came when 4 (ii) ________ 5 judges placed the Canadians in second place. The public booed as the gracious, yet the confused pair accepted their silver medal. An official protest was launched and, following the results of a formal investigation, it was determined that the French judge had been pressured into giving the highest mark to the Russian skaters in return for a win of the French couple Marina Anissina and Gwcndal Pcizcrat in the ice dancing competition. The judge at (iii) ________ was promptly suspended, and a second gold medal was awarded to the Canadian team. A new marking system was (iv) ________  place in order to (v) ________ any future possibilities for misconduct.

(iv)_____

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 blanks.
The Black Cauldron, for example, failed, mainly because it was too _______ for children and too childish for adults

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is a city of contrasts. It is an exciting, (i) _______ , modem city and, at the same time, a city that is full of history. The streets of Bangkok are usually noisy and have too many people. Some people are selling food; (ii) _______  are selling clothing, cassette tapes, flowers, or souvenirs. Visitors love the river markets, the beautiful temples and arehitecture, and the nightlife. They also enjoy the food, the shopping, and the friendly Thai people. (iii) _______ seems to smile there. Most of the year, Bangkok is hotter than any other capital city in Asia, but from December to February, the weather is not as warm and so it is much more comfortable. Actually, it’s an interesting city to visit at any time of the year. The shopping is excellent, and the prices are not as high as in many other large cities in Southeast Asia. There is always so much to do in Bangkok any time of the day or night – (iv) _______ watching Thai dancing or boxing to taking a boat trip on the river or trying some of the delicious and spicy food. And if you get (v) _______ the city and want fewer crowds, there are beautiful beaches only two hours away by bus.

(iv)_____

 When you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for ___________ such as coal, oil, and natural gas and that is a great way to play a part in saving the planet.

Choose the best option:

I think we should use hydroelectric power, _____.