Choose the best answer:
Could you keep ______ while I’m on the phone, please? Don’t make so much noise

 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions:
Alison bought the big house because she wanted to open a hotel

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 (1)_________ for many young people today is to communicate with others over the Internet and have a life online. The way they do this is through social networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However, the people who (2)_________ their lives online are also putting themselves at risk, and they may not even understand how they are doing so. The key to limiting risk is to keep certain pieces of information private. If you do any banking online, for example, it is important to note that dates of birth are often used as a(n) (3)_________ feature by banks. They will need to know your identification number and possibly your address as well, but to (4)___________ your identity, they might ask you for your date of birth. If a criminal were to gain access to your account number at a bank, and then obtain your address from public records, the one thing that he would not have would be your birth date. These days, however, a lot of people list their dates of birth openly on Facebook (5)_________ their friends can wish them well on their birthdays. Unfortunately, doing so could end up being a recipe for disaster.

The International Red Cross works as _____ impartial, neutral, and independent organization.

(465)_____

Choose the best answer:
Do / exercise / regularly / help / you / stay / healthy.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
With the expansion of the Wellness Recreation Center, projected to open Fall 2011, the Recreational Sports Department will be able to build on our current tradition of offering students a wide ….(1)…..of healthy activities at all ability levels. ……(2)…,of the many activities we currently offer, the City of Laredo and TAMIU community are planning to participate in an array of youth activities beginning Summer 2010. These 2-to 3-week-long activities promote health and wellness while providing fun and safe activities to the youth of Laredo and TAMIU. Activities would include softball, soccer, basketball, and other recreational events. If you are interested in …(3)…your son/daughter or our youth camp, please contact us at 326-3015 for more information

A _____ is a spacecraft that is designed to travel into space and back to earth several times.

(312)_______

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:
In ancient times, some of the first celebrities were Roman gladiators. Rather like today’s TV talent-show contestants, these men fought each other for the audience’s entertainment. Fast forward to the 18th century, it was politicians and preachers who were able to become celebrities through public (1)__________. George Whitefield, for example, a preacher from England, (2)___________ a crowd of 30,000 when he visited the US city of Boston. It’s no wonder he was called ‘Anglo-America’s first modern celebrity’. In the 19th century, the arrival of cheap newspapers created a sudden (3)___________ for exciting stories. All kinds of people began to get their 15 minutes of fame, including the legendary American outlaw and bank robber, Jesse James, and one of the world’s first media celebrities, Sam Patch. Patch became famous for jumping into rivers from high places, and he became a (4)___________ name by leaping into Niagara Falls. He survived every jump, except the last one into the Genesee River in New York. In the same way that the media is held (5)___________ for celebrity problems today, people blamed the pressure of the media for Patch’s sudden end.

Those problems will be worse if the government does not ______ any measures to reduce the negative effects of urbanisation.
(155)________

Choose the best answer:
Are there any good programs ………… teenagers on TV tonight?

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
The LED Lighting Revolution
If you have picked up any electronics magazines recently, you have probably heard about LEDs; yet chances are, you probably don’t realize why they are so special. The truth is that these tiny light bulbs are helping to improve watches, remote controls, televisions, and a host of other projects. Diodes are components that enable energy to flow in one direction, while simultaneously blocking the current from the opposite direction. This is similar to how a valve works on a faucet. If electronic manufacturers require currents to flow in several directions, then multiple diodes will be included in the circuit design. With LEDs, every time a current passes through them, a light is emitted. LED is short for light-emitting diode. Although they have only recently waves in the past decade or so, early models have been around since 1962. There are several benefits that LEDs offer when compared to incandescent or fluorescent lighting. For starters, they have extremely long-life spans in the range of l00,000 hours even in the toughest conditions. They also require far less energy than power sources, which can save users money over the long run. Since LEDs don’t contain moving parts like other bulbs, they can withstand heavy impacts without getting damaged. Finally, they don’t require any _warm-up time_ so they instantly light up when switched on. The only drawback is that they are still a more expensive to purchase at the moment. LEDs were first used on digital clocks, but they have come a long way since then. They have certainly done a lot to improve TV technology. LED TVs have been a hit because they can be built extremely thin, yet also offer power-saving benefits. LED TVs also provide a wider range of colour, which allows for more lifelike and vivid images. In the future, organic LEDs, or OLEDs, will bring additional benefits for viewers. OLEDs are even more flexible than LEDs, so manufacturers will be able to create bent display screens and lights. Therefore, you will be able to roll up your living room TV set and pack it in your suitcase. In other words, LED and OLED technology will likely be lighting up your life for years to come.
4. The word “_this_” in paragraph 2 refers to ________

Read a text about some young people who write for a TV show and decide if the following statements are True, False or Not Given.

Teen writers on TV hit Catch

Dan Finelli is a normal teenager from North London; he goes to school, enjoys hanging out with his mates and only occasionally misses his classes. But Dan also happens to be a writer for the popular teen drama, Catch. The second series starts this week and the one-hour episode that Dan wrote, his very first for the show, will be on screen later in the year. This will make him one of the youngest writers of a peak-time drama ever.

'What's great about Catch is that the characters are exactly like the people around you,' says Dan, who also plays the part of Computer Chris in the show. 'When I'm at school and one of my friend says something funny, I write it down in my notebook and use it later in the script. I never tell them I'm doing it. I just want it to sound as real as possible,' Dan adds.

Catch is about the lives of a group of 16-18-year-olds in a sixth-form college. The school doesn't really exist, but the whole show does feel very true to life. There's an episode every week and each one concentrates on an individual member of the group and tells his or her story.

The idea for the programme came from an unusual source, a father-and-son pair of writers, Ken Thomas and his son, Callum. They took their idea to a TV company and were very surprised when the company said they were keen to make it. Now, Ken and Callum are central members of the writing team but in order to build that team, Ken had to go to theatre companies and writing groups all over London to find both writers and teens to advise on the stories.

Catch is about a group of teenagers at a real college.

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:
Glass is a remarkable substance made from the simplest raw materials. It can be colored or colorless, monochrome or polychrome, transparent, translucent, or opaque. It is lightweight impermeable to liquids, readily cleaned and reused, durable yet fragile, and often very beautiful. Glass can be decorated in multiple ways and its optical properties are exceptional. In all its myriad forms - as table ware, containers, in architecture and design - glass represents a major achievement in the history of technological developments.
Since the Bronze Age about 3,000 B.C., glass has been used for making various kinds of objects. It was first made from a mixture of silica, line and an alkali such as soda or potash, and these remained the basic ingredients of glass until the development of lead glass in the seventeenth century. When heated, the mixture becomes soft and malleable and can be formed by various techniques into a vast array of shapes and sizes. The homogeneous mass thus formed by melting then cools to create glass, but in contrast to most materials formed in this way (metals, for instance), glass lacks the crystalline structure normally associated with solids, and instead retains the random molecular structure of a liquid. In effect, as molten glass cools, it progressively stiffens until rigid, but does so without setting up a network of interlocking crystals customarily associated with that process. This is why glass shatters so easily when dealt a blow. Why glass deteriorates over time, especially when exposed to moisture, and why glassware must be slowly reheated and uniformly cooled after manufacture to release internal stresses induced by uneven cooling.
Another unusual feature of glass is the manner in which its viscosity changes as it turns from a cold substance into a hot, ductile liquid. Unlike metals that flow or "freeze" at specific temperatures glass progressively softens as the temperature rises, going through varying stages of malleability until it flows like a thick syrup. Each stage of malleability allows the glass to be manipulated into various forms, by different techniques, and if suddenly cooled the object retains the shape achieved at that point. Glass is thus amenable to a greater number of heat-forming techniques than most other materials.

According to the passage, why can glass be more easily shaped into specific forms than can metals

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
My family lives near a small school. There are four ................. (1) in it: my parents, sister and me. I am the youngest member. My father is a worker in the factory. He works such as an engineer. He ............... (2) up early in the morning. First he brushes his teeth and ................. (3) his face. Then he has a bread ............... (4) breakfast. His work starts from7.00 a.m to 4.00 pm so He comes ............... (5) home very early. In the evening He stays at home, watches TV and goes to bed at 10.00 pm. And my mother is an English teacher at Hung Ha town. My parents are very young. My sister is a student .................... (6) Minh Khai primary school. She is thirteen years old. She is in her classroom. She is studying Arts subject. She can draw many pictures. They are very beautiful. She likes Arts the most because she wants to be an artist. I am a student too, I like ................... (7) football, go fishing, go camping and go swimming in summer. Last year my family went to Ho Chi Minh city to visit our uncles and aunts. They ..................... (8) many photos with my family. I bought a lot of souvenirs ................. (9) my friends. Now I am in my class I am learning English because tomorrow my school is holding the English language Festival. All the teachers and students are going to .............. (10) beautiful school uniforms. We are going to have a good time

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
The Great Debate over GM Foods
One of the hottest topic in agriculture today is genetically modified (GM) foods. GM foods are foods that come from plants that have had their DNA altered using biotechnology. GM foods have been on the market since 1994, when a company called Calgene started selling GM tomatoes. Since then, other GM foods including papaya, corn, and plums to name a few have been developed. The main benefit of GM foods is that they can be a more economical solution than non GM foods. Scientists found a way to modify many plants to make them more resistant to weeds, diseases, and pests. This allows the plants to grow in tougher climates and conditions, which should lead to lower food prices and increase the overall food supply. However, many consumers still have their doubts about GM foods. For one they feel that by eating GM foods people are messing with nature. Until now humans have survived on food that was produced without any interference from science. Even though many lab studies show that GM foods are safe in the short term, opponents feel that not enough long-term testing has been done yet. Another major issue in the GM foods debate is its labelling. Current US laws do not require producers to label their foods as GM. This has upset many consumers who feel they have the right to clearly know how the food they are buying is produced. On the other hand, producers are afraid to label their foods as GM because they feel it will result in less product sales, as people may assume that there is something wrong with GM foods. This controversy is not just on the level of consumers and producers. The issue of non GM foods has also become a block to a major free trade agreement between the US and Europe. GM foods are banned throughout most of Europe, while they are quite common throughout the US. Since many American GM food producers would like to sell their foods overseas in Europe, the US is requesting that European nations eliminate laws banning GM foods. However, many European nations are not fully convinced that these products are safe.
5. The phrase “messing with” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to __________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Chess, often (1)______ to as the Royal Game, is the oldest of all board games which do not contain an element of chance. The origins of chess are uncertain, (2)______ there are a number of legends regarding its invention. One story says that it was King Solomon who invented chess, another that it was the Greek god Hermes, and yet another that the Chinese mandarin Han-Sing was responsible for its creation. In fact, chess almost certainly originated in India in the sixth or seventh century AD. The game’s popularity then spread quickly through Persia (now known as Iran) and from there came to Europe. The first documented reference to chess in literature is in a Persian romance which was written about 600 AD. It is (3)_______ the word ‘chess’ comes from ‘shah’, the Persian word for ‘king’ and that ‘checkmate’, the game’s winning (4)_______, comes from the phrase ‘shah mat’, (5)______ ‘the king is dead’. The rules and pieces used in the game have undergone changes over the centuries. Modem chess owes much to the Spaniard Lopez de Segura, who in 1561 wrote the first book on how to play the game. In it, he introduced the concept of ‘castling’, which had not been part of the game until then.

ASEAN’s aims include the acceleration of economic growth, _____ progress, cultural development among its members, and the promotion of regional peace.

(493)______

LONDON LANDMARKS

Millions of people visit London every year from all (1) _______ the world. If you travel there, you’ll find many (2) _______ things to see and do. During August and September, you can visit Buckingham (3) _______. That’s where the queen lives most of the year. It has about 600 (4) _______, but you’ll see only state rooms where the queen entertains guests. In the morning, a colorful ceremony (5) _______ “changing of the guard” takes place in the palace courtyard. One group of palace guards (6) _______ off duty, and another troop arrives to replace them.

(44)______

Choose the best answer:
compass/ There/ a/ books/ is/ three/ bookshelf/ and/ a/ on the/ pencil.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
These features were discovered and explored (1) _______ in the late 1940s. The Lomonosov Ridge, the major ridge, cuts the Arctic Basin (2) _______ in half, extending as a submarine bridge 1,800 km (1,100 mi) (3) _______ Siberia to the northwestern tip of Greenland. Parallel (4) _______ it are two shorter ridges: the Alpha Ridge on the North American (5) _______, defining the Canada and Makarov basins, (6) _______ the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge on the Eurasian side, (7) _______ the Nansen and Amundsen basins. The average (8) _______ of the Arctic Ocean is only 1,300 m (4,300 ft) (9) _______ the vast shallow expanses on the continental shelves. The deepest (10) _______ in the Arctic Ocean is 5,450 m (17,880 ft).