Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also in California, South Africa and Australia. The methods used vary, but in general the fruit is spread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun. In order to prevent darkening, pears, peaches and apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur before drying. Plums for making prunes, and certain varieties of grapes for making raisins and currants, are dipped in an alkaline solution in order to crack the skins of the fruit slightly and remove their wax coating, so increasing the rate of drying.

      Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically; the conventional method of such dehydration is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about 110oC at entry to about 45oC at exit. This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced meat, and fish

In the process of drying certain kinds of fruits, sulphur fumes help ______.

Ever since humans have inhabited the earth, they have made use of various forms of communication. Generally, this expression of thoughts and feelings has been in the form of oral speech. When there is a language barrier, communication is accomplished through sign language in which motions stand for letters, words and ideas. Tourists, the deaf, and the mute have no resort to this form of expression. Many of these symbols of the whole words are very picturesque and exact and can be used internationally: spelling, however, can not.

   Body language transmits ideas or thoughts by certain actions, either intentionally or unintentionally. A wink can be a way of flirting or indicating that the party is only joking. A nod signifies approval, while shaking the head indicates a negative reaction.

   Other forms of nonlinguistic language can be found in Braille (a system of raised dots read with fingertips), signal flags, Morse code, and smoke signals. Road maps and picture signs also guide, warn and instruct people. While verbalization is the most common form of language, other systems and techniques also express human thoughts and feelings.

 How many different forms of communication are mentioned here?

 We get great pleasure from reading. The more advanced a man is, the greater delight he will find in reading. The ordinary man may think that subjects like philosophy or science are very difficult and that if philosophers and scientists read these subjects, it is not for pleasure. But this is not true. The mathematician finds the same pleasure in his mathematics as the school boy in an adventure story. For both, it is a play of the imagination, a mental recreation and exercise.

   The pleasure derived from this activity is common to all kinds of reading. But different types of books give us different types of pleasure. First in order of popularity is novel-reading. Novels contain pictures of imaginary people in imaginary situations, and give us an opportunity of escaping into a new world very much like our world and yet different from it. Here we seem to live a new life, and the experience of this new life gives us a thrill of pleasure.

 What does the passage mainly discuss?

Books are written to provide knowledge and good books enrich the mind. By putting (38)….. under the influence of superior mind, we improve our mental powers. (39)….. good books. We learnt that people everywhere are the (40)……, in all ages and in all places. This knowledge improves our love of others and helps us to live in peace with them. We also learn that the world was made not for man alone but for every creature that can feel hunger and thirst, warmth and cold. 
Though it may be possible for us to travel (41)……..the world and see the things happening today, it is not possible for us to see the things happened in the past. But good books (42)……. us to see not only into the most remote religions of the world today but also the world in which our ancestors lived.
(41)....................................
 

Hi, my name is Anna. This is the photo of my family. There are six people in my family: my grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, my father, my elder brother and me. These are my grandparents. They are old and retired. They love gardening and doing morning exercise. This is my father. He is forty-one and he is a doctor. He works in a big hospital. This is my mother. She is thirty-eight. She is an Art teacher. She teaches in a secondary school. This is my elder brother. His name is Jack. He is sixteen and he is a high school student. I'm ten and I'm the youngest in my family. Our family lives in a house on Nguyen Hue Street. The house is a little small but it's lovely. There is a living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. However, the thing I love most is that the house also has a big garden and a large pond behind it. These are the places where my family likes to relax or fish on weekends.

Who are retired?

Fill each of the numbered blanks in the following passage with the most suitable word among A, B, C or D.

When I was a little boy, I used to wander in the woods by the river flowing (32) _________ my village. In spring, I (33) _________ watching a variety of bushes and plants grow in the sunlight and listened to newly-born birds chirp in their nest high on the trees. In summer, I (34) _________ watch different kinds of kites fly high in blue sky and listen to buffalo, boys play their bamboo flutes (35) _________ they rode their water buffaloes.

Question 34.......................

As Christmas evolved in the United States, new customs were adopted and many old ones were reworked. The legend of Santa Claus, for example, had origins in Europe and was brought by Dutch settlers to New York in the early 18th century. Traditionally, Santa Claus - from the Dutch Sinter Klaas - was depicted as a tall, dignified, religious figure riding a white horse through the air. Known as Saint Nicholas in Germany, he was usually accompanied by Black Peter, an elf who punished disobedient children. In North America he eventually developed into a fat, jolly old gentleman who had neither the religious attributes of Saint Nicholas nor the strict disciplinarian character of Black Peter.

Santa's transformation began in 1823, when a New York newspaper published the poem " A Visit from Saint Nicholas ", which Clemen Clark Moore had written to amuse his daughter. The poem introduced many Amercians to the story of a kindly saint who flew over housestops in a reindeer-drawn sleigh. Portraits and drawings of Santa Claus by American illustrator Thomas Nast further strengthened the legend during the second half of the 19th century. Living at the North Pole and assisted by elves, the modern Santa produced and delivered toys to all good children. By the late 19th century, he had become such a prominent figure of American folklore that in 1897, when Virginia O'Hanlon wrote to the New York Sun newspaper asking if Santa was real, she received a direct answer : " Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus ".

The answer Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus is an illustration for the fact that

When the weather is cold, it is not very much fun to (1) ______a bus. People have to stand at a bus-stop for minutes or even hours. They talk about the bus and (2) _______about the weather. Most of them feel cold. Some have to drink coffee to stay warm.

Traveling by buses (3) _______pollution, but people often would rather drive their cars. Many people are not used to the bus schedules, and they do not like to wait.

On the other hand, many people have been (4) ______the bus every day for many years. They are used to it. They say the bus has been coming on time every day, and they have never been late for work. In (5) _______, they do not need a parking place in all that time. Buses are very convenient when you are used to them.

(7)__________

 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.

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), who wrote under the pseudonym of O. Henry, was born in North Carolina. His only formal education was to attend his Aunt Lina’s school until the age of fifteen, where he developed his lifelong love of books. By 1881 he was a licensed pharmacist. However, within a year, on the recommendation of a medical colleague of his Father’s, Porter moved to La Salle County in Texas for two years herding sheep. During this time, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary was his constant companion, and Porter gained a knowledge of ranch life that he later incorporated into many of his short stories. He then moved to Austin for three years, and during this time the first recorded use of his pseudonym appeared, allegedly derived from his habit of calling “Oh, Henry” to a family cat. In 1887, Porter married Athol Estes. He worked as a draftsman, then as a bank teller for the First National Bank.

In 1894 Porter founded his own humor weekly, the “Rolling Stone”, a venture that failed within a year, and later wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post. In the meantime, the First National Bank was examined, and the subsequent indictment of 1886 stated that Porter had embezzled funds. Porter then fled to New Orleans, and later to Honduras, leaving his wife and child in Austin. He returned in 1897 because of his wife’s continued ill-health, however she died six months later. Then, in 1898 Porter was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment in Ohio. At the age of thirty five, he entered prison as a defeated man; he had lost his job, his home, his wife, and finally his freedom. He emerged from prison three years later, reborn as O. Henry, the pseudonym he now used to hide his true identity. He wrote at least twelve stories in jail, and after re-gaining his freedom, went to New York City, where he published more than 300 stories and gained fame as America’s favorite short Story writer. Porter married again in 1907, but after months of poor health, he died in New York City at the age of forty-eight in 1910. O. Henry’s stories have been translated all over the world.

Why did the author write the passage?

Benefits of Technology in the Classroom

There's quite a bit of evidence that technology, when used in the right way, ________ (6) students learn. One study, for example, showed that a medical school class with iPads scored 23% ________ (7) on exams than classes without this device.

Technology, such as tablets, isn't only useful for ________ (8) knowledge; it helps with communication as well. Teachers and administrators use such devices to send materials and information ________ (9) students and parents. Students ________ (10) in homework and term papers online and can access educational applications and programs to further assist with learning.

(8)_____

Choose the correct word that best fits each space.

Many parents believe that they should begin to teach their children to read when they are (34)____ more than toddlers. This is fine if the child shows a real interest but forcing a child could be counter-productive if she isn't ready. Wise parents will have a (35)____ attitude and take the lead from their child. What they should provide is a selection of (36)____ toys, books, and other activities. Nowadays there is plenty of good (37)____ available for young children, and of course, seeing plenty of books in use around the house will also (38)____ them to read.

Of course, books are no longer the only source of stories and information. There is also a huge range of videos, which can reinforce and extend the pleasure a child finds in a book and are (39)____ valuable in helping to increase vocabulary and concentration. Television gets a bad review as far as children are concerned, mainly because too many children spend too much time watching programs not intended for their age (40)____. Too many television programs induce an incurious, uncritical attitude that is going to make learning much more difficult. However, (41)____  viewing of programs designed for young children can be useful. Just as adults enjoy reading a book after seeing it serialized on television, so children will pounce on books which (42)____ their favorite television characters, and videos can add a new (43)____ to a story known from a book.

Question 34.........................

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences with given words

In 1778, he went/ London/ study/ Benjamin West/ for/ four years.

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

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

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

Nowadays, ____ of men help take care of children.

 For centuries, time was measured by the position of the sun with the use of sundials. Noon was recognized when the sun was the highest in the sky, and cities would set their clock by this apparent solar time, even though some cities would often be on a slightly different time. Daylight Saving Time (DST), sometimes called summer time, was instituted to make better use of daylight. Thus, clocks are set forward one hour in the spring to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening and then set back one hour in the fall to return to normal daylight.

   Benjamin Franklin first conceived the idea of daylight saving during his tenure as an American delegate in Paris in 1984 and wrote about it extensively in his essay, "An Economical Project." It is said that Franklin awoke early one morning and was surprised to see the sunlight at such an hour. Always the economist, Franklin believed the practice of moving the time could save on the use of candlelight, as candles were expensive at the time.

   In England, builder William Willett (1857–1915) became a strong supporter for Daylight Saving Time upon noticing blinds of many houses were closed on an early sunny morning. Willet believed everyone, including himself, would appreciate longer hours of light in the evenings. In 1909, Sir Robert Pearce introduced a bill in the House of Commons to make it obligatory to adjust the clocks. A bill was drafted and introduced into Parliament several times but met with great opposition, mostly from farmers. Eventually, in 1925, it was decided that summer time should begin on the day following the third Saturday in April and close after the first Saturday in October.

   The U.S. Congress passed the Standard Time Act of 1918 to establish standard time and preserve and set Daylight Saving Time across the continent. This act also devised five time zones throughout the United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, and Alaska. The first time zone was set on "the mean astronomical time of the seventy-fifth degree of longitude west from Greenwich" (England). In 1919, this act was repealed.

The word “devised” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to

The American type of football was developed in the 19th century from soccer and rugby football. Played by professionals, amateurs, college and high school students, or young children, football in American is one of the most popular sports besides basketball and baseball. It attracts millions of fans each fall and people are very supportive of their favourite teams. The football playing field of today is rectangular in shape and measures 100 yards long and 53.5 yards wide. White lines are painted on the playing field to mark off the distances to the end zone. The games is divided into four quarters, each fifteen minutes long. The first two quarters are known as the first half. There is a rest period between two halves which usually last about fifteen minutes. Each team has eleven players. Each team has offensive players who play when the team has possession of the ball and defensive players who play when the other team has the possession of the ball. Because of the body contact players have during the game, helmets are worn to protect their head and face area, whereas pads are worn to protect the shoulders, arms, and legs. Also, there are officials carrying whistles and flags to make certain that the rules of the game are followed during the game. The football is made of leather and is brown in colour. It is shaped much like an oval and has white rings near each end of the football. These rings help the players see the ball when it is thrown or someone is running with it. The eight stitches on the top of the football help the players to grip the ball when throwing or passing. The most famous game of the year is Super Bowl that is played in January or February. It is televised around the world and is watched by millions of people each year.

As mentioned in the text, who are the most active when their team has the ball?

Hi, my name is Anna. This is the photo of my family. There are six people in my family: my grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, my father, my elder brother and me. These are my grandparents. They are old and retired. They love gardening and doing morning exercise. This is my father. He is forty-one and he is a doctor. He works in a big hospital. This is my mother. She is thirty-eight. She is an Art teacher. She teaches in a secondary school. This is my elder brother. His name is Jack. He is sixteen and he is a high school student. I'm ten and I'm the youngest in my family. Our family lives in a house on Nguyen Hue Street. The house is a little small but it's lovely. There is a living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. However, the thing I love most is that the house also has a big garden and a large pond behind it. These are the places where my family likes to relax or fish on weekends.

 Is Anna's elder brother a student in a secondary school?

Last week I went to visit Atlantic College, an excellent private college in Wales. Unusually, it gives people much needed experience of life outside the classroom, as well as the opportunity to study for their exams. The students, who are aged between 16 and 18 and come from all over the word, spend the morning studying. In the afternoon they go out and do a really useful activity, such as helping on the farm, looking after people with learning difficulties, or checking for pollution in rivers.

One of the great things about Atlantic College students is that they come from many different social backgrounds and countries. As few can afford the fees of £20,000 over two years, grants are available.

A quarter of students are British, and many of those can only attend because they receive government help.

“I really admire the college for trying to encourage international understanding among young people", as Barbara Molenkamp, a student from the Netherlands, said. ''You learn to live with people and respect them, even the ones you don't like. During the summer holidays my mother couldn't believe how much less I argued with my sister."

To sum up, Atlantic College gives its students an excellent education, using methods which really seem to work.

What is the writer trying to do in the text?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

REMEMBER?

Your mind's ability to bring back experiences you have had is your memory. There are two kinds of remembering, recall and recognition. For instance, you may not be able to recall the poem you read yesterday in class, but if you see it again, you will know it instantly because you recognize it.

Some few people have 'total recall,' often spoken of as photographic memory. A person with total recall can recite a whole page of a book he has read only once, or play a musical composition after hearing it once. This is very unusual, however, and most people have difficulty in remembering even names they heard the day before. This is not because most people lack the ability to remember, but because they had not paid much attention to what they heard. They felt no personal reasons to remember. Having a personal reason for remembering is one of the most important factors in a good memory.

When you have a strong reason for remembering, concentrate as you read or listen, and try to connect the new information to things you I already know. A detail is easy to remember when it fits into a whole that makes sense. If you understand the entire history lesson before you try to remember any particular dates, your memory may surprise you.

Which sentence is not true?

Before the mid-nineteenth century, people in the United States ate most foods only in season. Drying, smoking and salting could preserve meat for a short time, but the availability of fresh meat, like that of fresh milk, was very limited; there was no way to prevent spoilage. But in 1810, a French inventor named Nicolas Appert developed the cooking-and-sealing process of canning. And in the 1850’s an American named Gail Borden developed a means of condensing and preserving milk. Canned goods and condensed milk became more common during the 1860’s, but supplies remained low because cans had to be made by hand. By 1880, however, inventors had fashioned stamping and soldering machines that massproduced cans from tinplate. Suddenly all kinds of food could be preserved and bought at all times of the year.

   Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary their daily diets. Growing urban population created demand that encouraged fruit and vegetable farmers to raise more produce. Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer periods. Thus, by the 1890’s, northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes, previously available for a month at most, for up to six months of the year.

The author implies that in the 1920’s and 1930’s home deliveries of ice _________ .

Let's see if you can correctly answer the following question: At what age are Latter-day Saint youth allowed to date? Of course, you probably immediately said, "16". OK, then, how about this one: At what age are you allowed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend? You may be thinking, “Um, 16. Didn't I just answer that?" Well, if that was your answer, then, even though you aced the first question, you missed the second one. Just because you can date when you turn 16 doesn't mean you should immediately start looking for a steady boyfriend or girlfriend. [….]

To begin with, there are two different types of dating: casual dating and steady (or serious) dating. The distinction between the two has to do with exclusivity. With casual dating, there is no exclusivity. The two people aren't “a couple” or “an item”, and they don't refer to each other as a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”. They don't pair off. People who are casually dating are simply friends. This is the kind of dating the Church encourages you to do after you turn 16. You should put aside a need to find a “one and only”. If you're dating casually, you don't expect a relationship to become a romance. You have fun; you do a variety of things with a variety of people. On the other hand, steady dating means the couple is exclusive with one another. They expect each other not to date anyone else or to be emotionally or physically close with other people. Couples who date seriously consider the future, because there is a real possibility they could stay together. This is the kind of dating the Church encourages young adults (generally, people in their 20s) to progress toward, because that's the age when they should be thinking of marrying. [….]

The word “aced” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ____.

Also, there are officials carrying whistles and flags to make certain that the rules of the game are followed during the game. The football is made of leather and is brown in colour. It is shaped much like an oval and has white rings near each end of the football. These rings help the players see the ball when it is thrown or someone is running with it. The eight stitches on the top of the football help the players to grip the ball when throwing or passing. The most famous game of the year is Super Bowl that is played in January or February. It is televised around the world and is watched by millions of people each year.

Why are there white rings on each end of the football?