Choose the best answer:
After more than fifty years of television, it might seem only obvious to conclude that it is here to (1) ______ . There have been many objections to it during this time, of course, and (2) ______ a variety of grounds. Did it cause eye-strain? Was the (3) ______ bombarding us with radioactivity? Did the advertisements contain subliminal messages, persuading us to buy more? Did children turn to violence through watching it, either because so (4) ______ programmes taught them how to shoot, rob, and kill, or because they had to do something to counteract the hours they had spent glued to the tiny screen? Or did it simply create a vast passive (5) ______ drugged by glamorous serials and inane situation (6) ______ ? On the other hand did it increase anxiety by sensationalizing the news [or the news which was (7) ______ by suitable pictures] and filling our living rooms with war, famine and political unrest? (8) ______ in all, television proved to be the all-purpose scapegoat for the second half of the century, blamed for everything, but above all, eagerly watched. For no (9) ______ how much we despised it, feared it, were bored by it, or felt that it took us away from the old paradise of family conversation and hobbies such as collecting stamps, we never turned it off. We kept staring at the screen, aware that our own tiny (10) ______ was in if we looked carefully.
10. 

Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density, or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources. Only a certain number of people can be supported o a given area of land, and that number depends on how much food and other resources the land can provide. In countries where people live primarily by means of simple farming, gardening, herding, hunting, and gathering, even large areas of land can support only small numbers of people because these labor - intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food.
In developed countries such as the United States, Japan and the countries of Western Europe, overpopulation generally is not considered a major cause of poverty. These countries produce large quantities of food through mechanized farming, which depends on commercial fertilizers, large - scale irrigation, and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of people in metropolitan areas.
A country's level of poverty can depend greatly on its mix of population density and agricultural productivity. Bangladesh, for example, has one of the world's highest population densities, with 1,147 persons per sq km. A large majority of the people of Bangladesh engage in low - productivity manual farming, which contributes to the country's extremely high level of poverty. Some of the smaller countries in Western Europe, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, have high population densities as well. These countries practice mechanized farming and are involved in high - tech indutries, however, are therefore have high standards of living.
At the other end of the spectrum, many countries in sub - Saharan Africa have population densities of less than 30 persons per sq km. Many people in these countries practice manual subsistence farming, these countries also have infertile land, and lack the economic resources and technology to boost productivity. As a consequence, these nations are very poor. The United States has both relatively low population density and high agricultural productivity; it is one of the world's weathiest nations.
High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labor, usually for farming. Cultural norms in traditionally rural societies commonly sanction the value of large families. Also, the goverments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for farming planning; even people who wish to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all those reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth.

Which of the following is TRUE, according to the passage?

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. 
More than 200 reindeer have died of starvation on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, with scientists blaming their deaths on climate change. The wild deer carcasses were found on the Arctic islands this summer by researchers from the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), which said it had never logged so many deaths at once in 40 years of monitoring the animals’ population level. “It’s scary to find so many dead animals,” project leader Ashild Onvik Pedersen told state broadcaster NRK. “This is an example of how climate change affects nature. It is just sad.”
Svalbard’s capital Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on earth, is thought to be warming quicker than any other settlement on the planet, climate scientists warned earlier this year. The milder temperatures in the region led to unusually heavy rainfall in December, leaving a thick layer of ice when the precipitation froze. This meant the reindeer could not dig through the hardened tundra to reach the vegetation they graze on in their usual pastures, the NPI said. Svalbard’s reindeer have been observed eating seaweed and kelp when food is scarce, but these are less nutritious and cause them stomach problems.
A relatively high number of calves born last year increased the death toll, as the youngest and weakest are often the first to die in harsh conditions. “Some of the mortality is natural because there were so many calves last year. But the large number we see now is due to heavy rain, which is due to global warming,” said Ms Onvik Pedersen.
A team of three scientists spent 10 weeks investigating population of the Svalbard reindeer earlier this year. Researchers warned the decline of reindeer would cause unwanted plant species, currently kept in check by the animals’ grazing, to spread across Arctic ecosystems in Europe, Asia and North America.
Arctic reindeer and caribou populations have declined 56 per cent in the last two decades, a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last year. The report said food security was partly to blame for falling herd numbers, while warmer summers could also put the animals at greater risk of diseases spread by flies and parasites. The average temperature in Longyearbyen has risen by 3.7C since 1900, more than three times the global average increase of about 1C. In 2016, the entrance to the town’s “Doomsday” seed vault – which stores specimens of almost all the world’s seeds – was flooded following heavy rainfall.

What does the word “these” in paragraph 2 refer to?

Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage: 

"Do you want to take part in the battle to save the world’s wildlife? “Animal Watch” is a book which will (1)….. you in the fight for survival that (2)….  many of our endangered animals and show how they struggle on the (3)…. of extinction. As you enjoy the book’s 250 pages and over 150 coloured photographs, you will have the (4)…..  of knowing that part of your purchase money is being used to help animals (5)…. . From the comfort of your armchair, you will be able to observe the world’s animals close-up and explore their habitats. You will aỉso discover the terrible results of human greed for land, flesh and skins.
 “Animal Watch” is packed with fascinating facts. Did you know that polar bears cover their black noses (6)…. their paws so they can hunt their prey in the snow without being seen, for example? Or that for each orangutan which is captured, one has to die?
 This superb (7)…. has so (8)….. Britain’s leading wildlife charity that it has been chosen as Book of the Year, a (9)….. awarded to books which are considered to have made a major contribution to wildlife conservation. You will find “Animal Watch” at a special low introductory at all good bookshops, but hurry while (10)….. last."

2. that (2)….  many of our endangered animals

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 television was first regarded by many as “radio with pictures,” public reaction to the arrival of TV was strikingly different from that afforded the advent of radio. Radio in its early days was perceived as a technological wonder rather than a medium of cultural significance. The public quickly adjusted to radio broadcasting and either enjoyed its many programs or turned them off. Television, however, prompted a tendency to criticize and evaluate rather than a simple on-off response.
      One aspect of early television that can never be recaptured is the combined sense of astonishment and glamour that greeted the medium during its infancy. At the midpoint of the 20th century, the public was properly agog about being able to see and hear actual events that were happening across town or hundreds of miles away. Relatively few people had sets in their homes, but popular fascination with TV was so pronounced that crowds would gather on the sidewalks in front of stores that displayed a working television set or two. The same thing happened in the typical tavern, where a set behind the bar virtually guaranteed a full house. Sports events that might attract a crowd of 30,000 or 40,000 suddenly, with the addition of TV cameras, had audiences numbering in the millions. By the end of television’s first decade, it was widely believed to have greater influence on American culture than parents, schools, churches, and government-institutions that had been until then the dominant influences on popular conduct. All were superseded by this one cultural juggernaut.
       The 1950s was a time of remarkable achievement in television, but this was not the case for the entire medium. American viewers old enough to remember TV in the ’50s may fondly recall the shows of Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, and Lucille Ball, but such high-quality programs were the exception; most of television during its formative years could be aptly described, as it was by one Broadway playwright, as “amateurs playing at home movies.” The underlying problem was not a shortage of talented writers, producers, and performers; there were plenty, but they were already busily involved on the Broadway stage and in vaudeville, radio, and motion pictures. Consequently, television drew chiefly on a talent pool of individuals who had not achieved success in the more popular media and on the young and inexperienced who were years from reaching their potential. Nevertheless, the new medium ultimately proved so fascinating a technical novelty that in the early stages of its development the quality of its content seemed almost not to matter.
      Fortunately, the dearth of talent was short-lived. Although it would take at least another decade before areas such as news and sports coverage approached their potential, more than enough excellence in the categories of comedy and drama emerged in the 1950s to deserve the attention of discriminating viewers. They are the most fondly remembered of the Golden Age genres for both emotional and intellectual reasons. Live TV drama was, in essence, the legitimate theatre’s contribution to the new medium; such shows were regarded as “prestige” events and were afforded respect accordingly. The comedies of the era are remembered for the same reason that comedy itself endures: human suffering and the ever-elusive pursuit of happiness render laughter a necessary palliative, and people therefore have a particular fondness for those who amuse them.

Which of the following is TRUE according to the paragraph?

Choose the best answer

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international (1) ____ governmental organization for the (2) ____, research, and restoration of the environment. The organization was (3) ____ as a charitable trust on September 11, 1961, in Morges, Switzerland, under the name World Wildlife Fund. It was an initiative of Julian Huxley and Max Nicholson. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million (4) ____ worldwide, working in more (5) ____ 90 countries, supporting 100 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity, with (6) ____ 9% of its funding coming from voluntary, (7) ____ by private individuals and businesses.

The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the (8) ____ of our environment". Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned (9) ____ endangered species, pollution, and climate change. The organization (10) ____ more than 20 field projects worldwide. In the last few years, the organization set up offices and operations around the world.

(2) ____

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. 
More than 200 reindeer have died of starvation on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, with scientists blaming their deaths on climate change. The wild deer carcasses were found on the Arctic islands this summer by researchers from the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), which said it had never logged so many deaths at once in 40 years of monitoring the animals’ population level. “It’s scary to find so many dead animals,” project leader Ashild Onvik Pedersen told state broadcaster NRK. “This is an example of how climate change affects nature. It is just sad.”
Svalbard’s capital Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on earth, is thought to be warming quicker than any other settlement on the planet, climate scientists warned earlier this year. The milder temperatures in the region led to unusually heavy rainfall in December, leaving a thick layer of ice when the precipitation froze. This meant the reindeer could not dig through the hardened tundra to reach the vegetation they graze on in their usual pastures, the NPI said. Svalbard’s reindeer have been observed eating seaweed and kelp when food is scarce, but these are less nutritious and cause them stomach problems.
A relatively high number of calves born last year increased the death toll, as the youngest and weakest are often the first to die in harsh conditions. “Some of the mortality is natural because there were so many calves last year. But the large number we see now is due to heavy rain, which is due to global warming,” said Ms Onvik Pedersen.
A team of three scientists spent 10 weeks investigating population of the Svalbard reindeer earlier this year. Researchers warned the decline of reindeer would cause unwanted plant species, currently kept in check by the animals’ grazing, to spread across Arctic ecosystems in Europe, Asia and North America.
Arctic reindeer and caribou populations have declined 56 per cent in the last two decades, a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said last year. The report said food security was partly to blame for falling herd numbers, while warmer summers could also put the animals at greater risk of diseases spread by flies and parasites. The average temperature in Longyearbyen has risen by 3.7C since 1900, more than three times the global average increase of about 1C. In 2016, the entrance to the town’s “Doomsday” seed vault – which stores specimens of almost all the world’s seeds – was flooded following heavy rainfall.

Which could best serve as the title of the passage?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions:
Alligators have always been the most dangerous predators of the Florida Everglades, but their long-held position is now being challenged by a growing population of Burmese pythons.
The Burmese python, a giant snake measuring up to 20 feet long and weighing up to 200 pounds, is very popular among exotic pet owners. However, as the dead snakes grow, they become more difficult to cage and handle. To avoid dealing with the snakes, the owners irresponsibly release them into the wild. Since the Everglades is quietly similar to the python's native environment of Southeast Asia, they survive and prosper without difficulty.
The issue with the Burmese pythons is their choice of meals. They eat alligators and endangered birds, which creates strain on an already fragile ecosystem. Recently a 13-foot long Burmese python was found with a 5-foot alligator bursting from its stomach. The python died tried to eat the alligator but a larger one would have easily won the struggle. With over 30,000 Burmese pythons now living over the Everglades, a solution to stop this invasive species is necessary. If the pythons are left unchecked, there is a strong possibility they will wipe out a variety of species needed for the functioning of the Everglades ecosystem.

How many Burmese pythons are there in the Everglades?

Read the passage below and decide whether the statements are TRUE or FALSE?

   According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, more than 30 of the highest-ranked 45 institutions are in the United States, as measured by awards and research output. Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States. An even stronger pattern is shown by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities with 103 US universities in the World's Top 200 universities.

   The 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau found that 19.5 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree, 7.4 percent held an associate's degree, 17.1 percent held a bachelor's degree, and 9.9 percent held a graduate or professional degree.

   Educational attainment in the United States is similar to that of other developed countries. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above. Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each.'

Educational attainment in the United States is similar to that of other developed countries.

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:
    Animation traditionally is done by hand-drawing or painting successive frame of an object, each slightly different than the proceeding frame. In computer animation, although the computer may be the one to draw the different frames, in most cases the artist will draw the beginning and ending frames and the computer will produce the drawings between the first and the last drawing. This is generally referred to as computer-assisted animation, because the computer is more of a helper than an originator. 
    In full computer animation, complex mathematical formulas are used to produce the final sequences of pictures. These formulas operate on extensive databases of numbers that defines the objects in the pictures as they exist in mathematical space. The database consists of endpoints, and color and intensity information. Highly trained professionals are needed to produce such effects because animation that obtains high degrees of realism involves computer techniques from three-dimensional transformation, shading, and curvatures.
    High-tech computer animation for film involves very expensive computer systems along with special color terminals or frame buffers. The frame buffer is nothing more than a giant image memory for viewing a single frame. It temporarily holds the image for display on the screen.
    A camera can be used to film directly from the computer’s display screen, but for the highest quality images possible, expensive film recorders are used. The computer computers the positions and colors for the figures in the picture, and sends this information to the recorder, which captures it on film. Sometimes, however, the images are stored on a large magnetic disk before being sent to the recorder. Once this process is completed, it is replaced for the next frame. When the entire sequence has been recorded on the film, the film must be developed before the animation can be viewed. If the entire sequence does not seem right, the motions must be corrected, recomputed, redisplayed, and rerecorded. This approach can be very expensive and time – consuming. Often, computer-animation companies first do motion tests with simple computer-generated line drawings before selling their computers to the task of calculating the high-resolution, realistic-looking images.

According to the passage, the positions and colors of the figures in high-tech animation are determined by _________

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 reason women appear to be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than men might be due to a number of genetic, anatomical and even social influences, researchers have suggested.
      Recent figures show about 65% of those with living with dementia in the UK are women, with a similar statistic seen in the US for Alzheimer’s disease, while dementia is the leading cause of death for women in England. Alzheimer’s disease is only one of the types of dementia, but the most common form. While one explanation is that dementia risk increases with age, and women have longer life expectancies than men, new research suggests there might be more to the matter, including that protein tangles found within neurons and linked to Alzheimer’s disease might spread differently in women’s brains than men’s.
      The study, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Los Angeles by researchers from Vanderbilt University and which has not yet been peer-reviewed, used scans from a method called positron emission tomography. That allowed them to look at the way clumps of a protein called tau were spread in the brains of 123 men and 178 women without cognitive problems, as well as 101 men and 60 women with mild cognitive problems – although not yet diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitively normal older people often have small amounts of tau in certain areas of their brain.
      From the data the team could build maps showing which areas of the brain show similar signals relating to tau in the scans, suggesting they are somehow connected. “Based on that we kind of try to reconstruct the pattern of spread,” Dr Sepideh Shokouhi, who is presenting the research, told the Guardian. “It is kind of like reconstructing a crime scene.” The team says the results suggest these maps look different in women and men, suggesting tau might be able to spread more rapidly across the female brain.
     Other research presented at the conference – and also not yet peer reviewed – added weight to the idea that there might be differences between men and women that affect dementia risk. Research by scientists at the University of Miami has revealed a handful of genes and genetic variants appear to be linked to Alzheimer’s disease in just one biological sex or the other. While the actual importance of these factors has yet to be unpicked, and the study only looked at white participants, the team says it underscores that there could be a genetic reason for differences in the risk of dementia in men and women, and the way it develops.

The word “tangles” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ___________.

 Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"Nowadays people are more aware that wildlife all over the world is in (1)….  . Many species of animals are threatened, and could easily become (2)….   if we do not make an effort to (3)….. them. There are many reasons for this. In some cases, animals are (4)….. for their fur or for other valuable parts of their bodies. Some birds, such as parrots, are caught (5)…. , and sold as pets. For many animals and birds, the problem is that their habitats - the place where they live - is (6)…. . More (7)….  is used for farms, for houses and industry, and there are fewer open spaces than there once were. Farmers use powerful Chemicals to help them grow better (8)…. , but these Chemicals pollute the environment and (9)… wildlife. The most successful animals on Earth, human beings, will soon be the only ones (10)….. unless we can solve this problem."

9. but these Chemicals pollute the environment and (9)… wildlife. 

Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.

Scientists believe they now have scientific evidence to prove that ecosystems work better when there is a greater variety of species within them. This biodiversity loss destroys natural mechanisms that could repair the damage caused by man.

Findings show that losing plants and animals is not only reducing our quality of life but actually endangering our very existence. We cut down rich rain-forests and replace them with one species plantations, such as pine and eucalyptus. We plough up meadows rich in different grasses and herbs and replace them with one grass, for instance, rye or wheat.

When a natural ecosystem is simplified the basic processes in the ecosystem are altered arid even damaged. Without their biodiversity, they are not able to serve as the natural cleaners of our planet. No longer are they able to absorb the carbon dioxide that is being produced in excess. The result is global warming, caused by the increase in the "greenhouse effect", and ultimately, or even sooner, there will be a change in the world's climate.

What, according to the passage, might be the final result of the simplification of natural ecosystems?

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

An endangered species is an animal or plant that's considered at …..(1)… of extinction. A species can be listed as endangered at the state, federal, and international level. On the federal level, the endangered species list is managed …..(2)…. the Endangered Species Act.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was ….. (3)…. by Congress in 1973. Under the ESA, the federal government has the responsibility to protect endangered species (species that are likely to become extinct throughout all or a large portion of their range), threatened species (species that are likely to become endangered in the near future), and critical habitat (areas vital to the survival of endangered or threatened species).

The Endangered Species Act has lists of protected plant and animal species….(4)….. nationally and worldwide. When a species is given ESA protection, it is said to be a "listed" species. Many additional species are evaluated for possible protection under the ESA, and they …..(5)…called “candidate” species.

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

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 reason women appear to be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than men might be due to a number of genetic, anatomical and even social influences, researchers have suggested.
      Recent figures show about 65% of those with living with dementia in the UK are women, with a similar statistic seen in the US for Alzheimer’s disease, while dementia is the leading cause of death for women in England. Alzheimer’s disease is only one of the types of dementia, but the most common form. While one explanation is that dementia risk increases with age, and women have longer life expectancies than men, new research suggests there might be more to the matter, including that protein tangles found within neurons and linked to Alzheimer’s disease might spread differently in women’s brains than men’s.
      The study, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Los Angeles by researchers from Vanderbilt University and which has not yet been peer-reviewed, used scans from a method called positron emission tomography. That allowed them to look at the way clumps of a protein called tau were spread in the brains of 123 men and 178 women without cognitive problems, as well as 101 men and 60 women with mild cognitive problems – although not yet diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitively normal older people often have small amounts of tau in certain areas of their brain.
      From the data the team could build maps showing which areas of the brain show similar signals relating to tau in the scans, suggesting they are somehow connected. “Based on that we kind of try to reconstruct the pattern of spread,” Dr Sepideh Shokouhi, who is presenting the research, told the Guardian. “It is kind of like reconstructing a crime scene.” The team says the results suggest these maps look different in women and men, suggesting tau might be able to spread more rapidly across the female brain.
     Other research presented at the conference – and also not yet peer reviewed – added weight to the idea that there might be differences between men and women that affect dementia risk. Research by scientists at the University of Miami has revealed a handful of genes and genetic variants appear to be linked to Alzheimer’s disease in just one biological sex or the other. While the actual importance of these factors has yet to be unpicked, and the study only looked at white participants, the team says it underscores that there could be a genetic reason for differences in the risk of dementia in men and women, and the way it develops.

As mentioned in paragraph 3, positron emission tomography is a method to __________.

Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteenth century the term "reading" undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during thenineleenthcenturydid silent reading become commonplace.
One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud was a distraction to others. Examinations of factors related to the historical development of silent reading have revealed that it became the usual mode  of reading for most adults mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy and thus in the number of readers. As the number of readers increased, the number of potential listeners declined and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.
Towards the end of the century, there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully and over whether the reading of  materials such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed, this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues, the old shared literacy  culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialised readership on the other.
By the end of the twentieth century, students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use reading skills which were inappropriate, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term "reading" implied.

Silent reading, especially in public places, flourished mainly because of:

Choose the best answer

No more polar bear?

We all know that the Earth is growing warmer and warmer. This problem is called “global warming”. We also know that global warming is causing a lot of problems. Ocean levels are getting higher and higher. Because ocean levels are getting higher, storms are getting stronger and stronger. This list of problems goes on and on.

Animals are suffering a lot because of global warming. Polar bears are suffering more than most animals. This is because polar bears live in the North Pole. In the North Pole, global warming is making ice melt. Polar bears hunt from large pieces of floating ice. They jump off the ice and hunt for food. Polar bears have to swim and find these floating pieces of ice. These days, they have to swim farther to find the floating ice. Many of them don’t have enough energy. They get too tired, and they die in the water.

Polar bears are suffering because of other problems, too. Pollution makes their water dirty. Many countries go to the North Pole to look for oil and gas, and they damage the environment of the bears. In addition, when ships sail through the North Pole, they cause a lot of damage. Finally, people hunt and kill too many polar bears. However, melting ice is definitely the biggest problem.

Right now, there are about 25,000 polar bears in the world. If global warming continues, there may be only about 12,000 in the year 2050. By the year 2080, that number might be much smaller.

It is important to study polar bears. When we learn about polar bears, we also learn about the health of the North Pole. If polar bears are doing well, then the environment in the North Pole is probably healthy. If polar bears are suffering then there are probably serious problems in the North Pole.

Right now, governments around the world are working to help polar bears. There are new laws that protect polar bears. However, if global warming continues to get worse, polar bears may disappear forever.

The word “this” in paragraph 2 refers to ____.

Choose the best answer:
After more than fifty years of television, it might seem only obvious to conclude that it is here to (1) ______ . There have been many objections to it during this time, of course, and (2) ______ a variety of grounds. Did it cause eye-strain? Was the (3) ______ bombarding us with radioactivity? Did the advertisements contain subliminal messages, persuading us to buy more? Did children turn to violence through watching it, either because so (4) ______ programmes taught them how to shoot, rob, and kill, or because they had to do something to counteract the hours they had spent glued to the tiny screen? Or did it simply create a vast passive (5) ______ drugged by glamorous serials and inane situation (6) ______ ? On the other hand did it increase anxiety by sensationalizing the news [or the news which was (7) ______ by suitable pictures] and filling our living rooms with war, famine and political unrest? (8) ______ in all, television proved to be the all-purpose scapegoat for the second half of the century, blamed for everything, but above all, eagerly watched. For no (9) ______ how much we despised it, feared it, were bored by it, or felt that it took us away from the old paradise of family conversation and hobbies such as collecting stamps, we never turned it off. We kept staring at the screen, aware that our own tiny (10) ______ was in if we looked carefully.
6.

Read the passage and choose the best answer to compete each of the statements that follow
The hippopotamus is the third largest land animal, smaller only than the elephant and the rhinoceros. Its name comes from two Greek words which mean "river horse". The long name of this animal is often shortened to the easier to handle term "hippo."
The hippo has a natural affinity for the water. It does not float on top of the water; instead, it can easily walk along the bottom of a body of water. The hippo commonly remains underwater for three to five minutes and has been known to stay under for up to half an hour before coming up for air.
In spite of its name, the hippo has relatively little in common with the horse and instead has a number of interesting similarities in common with the whale. When a hippo comes up after a stay at the bottom of a lake or river, it releases air through a blowhole, just like a whale. In addition, the hippo resembles the whale in that they both have thick layers of blubber for protection and they are almost completely hairless.

The last line states that the hippo does not_____________

Choose the best answer to complete the passage.

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN AND THINK

What is the point of the education system? Although this question may seem ridiculous at first (1) ____, it is actually not stupid as it sounds. The reason it is (2) ____ trying to answer is that schools and university clearly (3) ____ academic achievement, passing exams and gaining (4) ____ much more than acquiring skills such as (5) ____ children or car maintenance. But why is it? Why do they neglect to teach (6) ____ skills at school?

One answer may be that schools don't (7) ____ to help us gain useful knowledge about the world. At school, what we are (8) ____ learning is how to learn effectively. The idea is that we can then (9) ____ use of that ability later on in life when we come to deal (10) ____ more practical aspects of day- to-day living.

However, some people argue that the (11) ____ system is in fact a failure because it doesn't actually teach children how to become good thinkers. Learning how to learn is one thing. Learning how to learn is one thing. Learning how to think is (12) ____ another.

(1) ____

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The poaching crisis wiping out Africa's elephants is costing the continent's economies millions in lost tourism revenue, according to a new study. Researchers looked at visitor and elephant data across 25 countries, and modeled financial losses from fewer visitors in protected areas due to the illegal wildlife trade, which has caused elephant numbers to plummet by more than 100,000 in the last decade. (A)
The study team combined visitor numbers across 164 protected areas in 25 countries in forest and savannah elephants, and elephant population data from 2009 to 2013, to reach a “per elephant" value in terms of tourism income.
They concluded that Africa was most likely losing $26m in tourism revenue a year. (B) Around $9m of that is lost from tourists' direct spending, such as staying at hotels and buying crafts, with the rest through indirect value in the economy such as farmers and other suppliers supporting the tourist industry. 
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that in most cases the revenue losses were higher than paying for stronger anti-poaching measures to keep elephant populations stable. (C) Dr. Robin Naidoo, the paper's lead author and , senior conservation wildlife scientist at WWF and his team found. In the case of central Africa's forest elephants, which are harder for tourists to see and therefore attract fewer visitors, the costs of protecting them exceed the benefits from tourism. Demand from south-east Asia has seen the price of ivory triple since 2009 and it is estimated that one elephant is killed every 15 minutes. (D) Corruption, a lack of resources, and, most importantly, increasingly sophisticated poachers have hamstrung African countries' efforts to stem the trade.
Naidoo said that the research was not suggesting economic issues should be the only consideration when protecting elephants, but framing the poaching crisis as a financial one could motivate African governments and communities.
“It gives an additional reason for some groups of people, who may not necessarily be motivated by intrinsic reasons for conversation, to engage with biodiversity conservation. It makes it clear to them that it's not just in the best interests of the world to conserve this stuff, but tangible reasons for a whole different group," he said.

Which of the following statements is NOT true?