choose the best answer:
During/ all/ stop/ the/ banks/ shops/ festival/ and/ servicing.

 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The custom of paying a bride price before marriage is still a well-established part of many African cultures. In paying a bride price, the family of the groom must provide payment to the family of the bride before the marriage is allowed. The bride price can vary greatly from culture to culture in Africa. In the Zulu and Swazi tribes of southern Africa, the bride price often takes the form of cattle. In Western African, kola nuts, shells, and other goods are often used for the payment of the bride price. The actual payment of money sometimes takes place, but the payment of goods is more frequent. The amount of paid in a bride price can also vary. In modern times, the bride price is occasionally quite small and its value is mainly symbolic. However, the bride price can still be quite high, especially among prominent or highly traditional families.There are a number of justifications used to explain the payment of bride price. The first is that the bride price represents an acknowledgement of the expense the bride's family has gone in order to raise her and bring her up as a suitable bride for the groom. It also represents payment for the loss of a family member, since the bride will officially become a member of her husband's family and will leave her own. On a deeper level the bride price represents payment for the fact that the bride will bring children into the family of the groom, thereby increasing the wealth of the family. This concept is reinforced by the fact that the bride price must often be returned if the bride fails to bear children.The payment of the bride price has quite a number of effects on African society. First, the payment of bride price acts to increase the stability of African family structures. Sons are dependent on their fathers and older relatives to help them pay the bride price of their wives, and this generally leads to greater levels of obedience and respect. The negotiations between the two families concerning the bride price allow the parents and other family members to meet and get to know one another before the marriage. Finally, since the bride price must often be repaid in case of divorce, the bride's family often works to make sure that any marital problems are solved quickly. Bride prices also work as a system of wealth distribution in African cultures. Wealthier families can afford to support the marriage of their son, and thus their wealth is transferred to other families.Not all of the effects of bride price are so positive, however. One major disadvantage to the system of bride price is that women are often married to men much older than themselves. In many African cultures, the typical age for marriage amongst women is still quite young, lower than in many cases. Yet few men at this age would have the ability to raise the bride price to marry. Thus there is sometimes a significant age gap between husbands and wives. This cuts short the education of many young women. In addition, the husband, being far older, may die whilst the wife is still relatively young, leaving her with the burden of raising the children alone.
2. Why does the author mention “the payment of money” in paragraph 1?

Commercial relocation may at first appear---131---, but Mester Movers will work with you to make the process as simple as possible. Whether you are relocating an office, factory, or laboratory across town or across the country, we have the people, technology, and resources to ---132--- your move with efficiency. We take special care when packing small and delicate objects. ---133---, we make sure that large items such as desks, filing cabinets, and chairs are also ready for the move by providing you with special tags. ---134---.

132................

Rewrite the sentence
Africa is large. Asia is larger.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate to each of the questions from 31 to 35
Social media marketing has increased due to the growing active user rates on social media sites. For example, Facebook currently has 2.2 billion users, Twitter has 330 million active users and Instagram has 800 million users. 
One of the main uses is to interact with audiences to create awareness of the brand or service, with the main idea of creating a two-way communication system where the audience and/or customers can interact back; providing feedback as just one example. Social media can be used to advertise; placing an advert on Facebook's Newsfeed, for example, can allow a vast number of people to see it or targeting specific audiences from their usage to encourage awareness of the product or brand. Users of social media are then able to like, share and comment on the advert, becoming message senders as they can keep passing the advert's message on to their friends and onwards. The use of new media put consumers on the position of spreading opinions, sharing experience, and has shift power from organization to consumers for it allows transparency and different opinions to be heard. 
Media marketing has to keep up with all the different platforms. They also have to keep up with the ongoing trends that are set by big influencers and draw many peoples attention. The type of audience a business is going for will determine the social media site they use. 

Which best serves as the title for the passage? 

 Water polo balls _____ with a special texture so it will not slip from the hands of a player.

(419)________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Rain pounded down on the roof. I was trying to read but the sound was too loud. I couldn’t help myself from being a little grumpy. I wanted to be outside playing, but the rain was keeping me inside. My mom had gone to the grocery store, and my dad was spending Saturday at the office. I had planned to spend the day hiking, but Mother Nature decided that today was the perfect day for rain. It meant that I would have to entertain myself. I spent most of the morning playing with my stuffed animals and reading. I was sitting next to the window staring out when I got a strange idea: why not just go outside anyway? I put on my boots and a big raincoat and stepped out into the wet world. It was raining hard but it wasn’t cold. All I could hear were raindrops and the wind. I decided to go on my hike anyway. My feet didn’t make any sound on the wet ground and the forest seemed different. I went to my favourite place and sat down. In the summer, my best friend Ellen and I would come here and sit for hours. It was our special place. All of a sudden, I thought I heard someone shouting my name. I turned and saw Ellen walking up behind me. “Oh my Gosh! It’s really you, Martha!” she said. “I can’t believe that you are out here right now. I thought I would be the only person crazy enough to go for a walk in the rain.” I was very happy to have some company. We decided that hiking in the rain was just as fun as hiking in the sunshine. We planned on hiking in the rain again.
5. The word “company” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
If we took a look at how people in Europe communicated just one hundred years ago, we would be very surprised to find out that English was hardly used outside the United Kingdom. The language most commonly used between people of different nationalities, and particularly the aristocracy, was French. In fact, French was the language of diplomacy, culture and education. However, that is not the case nowadays. English has replaced French as the international language of communication. Today there are more people who speak English as a second language than people who speak it as a first language. There are many reasons why English has become the language of international communication. Britain's colonization of many parts of the world had something to do with it, but it is mainly due to America's rise to the position of major world power. This helped spread popular American culture throughout the world bringing the language with it. But is it good that English has spread to all parts of the world so quickly? Language specialists seem to be divided over this issue. There are those who claim that it is important to have a language that the people in our increasingly globalized world have in common. According to others, English is associated with a particular culture and therefore promotes that culture at the expense of others. Linguists have suggested "Esperanto", an artificially put-together language, as a solution to international communication problems but without success. So, English will continue being the world language until some other language, maybe Chinese, which is the most widely-spoken native language in the world, takes over as the world's international language instead of English.
3. What is meant by "the language of diplomacy" (lines 4)?

Choose the best answer:
Nam is ____________ boy in my class.

Choose the best answer:
Some people applied for the job, but two of them were ______

Choose the best answer:
Skateboarding is her hobby.

Any change in one part of an ecosystem can cause changes in other parts. Droughts, storms and fires can change ecosystems. Some changes harm ecosystems. If there is too (1)____ rainfall, plants will not have enough water to live. If a kind of plant dies off, the animals that feed on it may also die or move away. Some changes are good for ecosystems. Some pine forests need fire for the pine trees to reproduce. The seeds are sealed inside pinecones. Heat from a forest fire melts the seal and lets the seeds (2)_____. Polluting the air, soil, and water can harm ecosystems. Building (3)_______ on rivers for electric power and irrigation can harm ecosystems around the rivers. Bulldozing wetlands and cutting down (4)________ destroy ecosystems. Ecologists are working with companies and governments to find better ways of catching fish, cutting down trees, and building dams. They are looking for ways to get food, lumber, and other products for people (5)________ causing harm to ecosystems

(62)_________

Choose the best answer:
"If I were you, I wouldn't buy that book."

 Someone who is _____ is hopeful about the future or the success of something in particular.

(310)_______

Choose the best answer:
My sister............for you since yesterday.

The museum is open to everybody. It ______ between 9am and 5pm.

(394)_______

Please be advised it is time for the IT department to ---131---mandatory server maintenance and updates.---132---. There will be no Internet service in the building from 7:00 P.M. Wednesday, March 12, until 9:00 A.M. Thursday, March 13. In addition, please note there will be no remote access available. Therefore, you will not be able to log in to the server from outside the office. ---133--- this regularly scheduled maintenance, you will not have access to your e-mail, calendar, or contacts. Employees should plan accordingly. We ---134--- any inconvenience this may cause.

133..................

Rewrite sentences without changing the meaning
 I do judo every Tuesday and Thursday.

The concept of urban agriculture may conjure up images of rooftop, backyard or community gardens scattered among downtown city streets and surrounding neighborhoods. But in the Seattle area, and within and beyond the Puget Sound region, it means a great deal more. "Urban agriculture doesn't necessarily equate to production that occurs only in a metropolitan urban area, "says Jason Niebler, who directs the Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAgE) initiative at Seattle Central Community College. "It means we are providing for growing population food needs from surrounding rural landscapes, as well as from the core urban landscape."

Picture a series of concentric circles, with an urban core that produces some food at varying capacities, surrounded by a series of outlying rings of small farms that become increasingly more rural with distance. The hope is that such land use planning, from the inner core to the outer rings, will encourage local ecologically sound sustainable food production. This, in turn, will create local jobs and decrease reliance on distant food products that originate from petroleum-intensive large scale farms.

That's the idea behind SAgE, believed to be the nation's first metropolitan-based community college sustainable agriculture program that emphasizes farming practices across diverse landscape types from urban centers to surrounding rural environs. "It's small scale agriculture with an urban focus" Niebler says. "Any urban population, large or small, can practice sustainable agriculture, improve food security and protect the environment, which ultimately results in resilient food systems and communities."

SAgE is a part of National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program, which is providing the project with $157,375 over two years. ATE's goal is to support projects that strengthen the skills of technicians who work in industries regarded as vital to the national's prosperity and security. The support largely goes to community colleges that work in partnership with universities, secondary schools, businesses and industries, as well as government agencies, which design and implement model workforce initiatives.

The SAgE project focuses on the environmental, socioeconomic, political and cultural issues related to sustainable food systems, within Puget Sound watersheds through student and community education and research, and technological innovation. The curriculum offers courses that cover such issues as agricultural ecology, urban food systems, food politics and ethics, soil science, sustainable food production and technology, the integration of food and forests, and career opportunities.

"We've created a curriculum that is fundamental in nature, addressing the principles of sustainable agriculture and what a food system is - how it functions both locally and globally," Niebler says. "These courses are challenging, robust and inspirational. One of the really wonderful things about them is that we offer service learning opportunities, where students volunteer a portion of their time to working with local partner organizations. They can do a research project, or a service learning option. The ideal would be to prompt students into careers that involve sustainable practices in an urban agriculture setting."

Adapted from "Promoting Sustainable Agriculture" by Mariene Cimons

The word "concentric" in paragraph 2 is closet in meaning to________.

Thank you for expressing your interest in our organization during the recent ---131---. It was a pleasure meeting you at the ASA booth during the Weber Information Systems Convention. As you may recall from our conversation, we discussed how ASA membership ---132--- your career through networking opportunities as well as the industry insights offered in our monthly newsletter. The normal fee for members is just $120 a year; however, we are currently offering a new-member discount. ---133---. If you are still interested in joining, please reply to ---134--- with your mailing address. I will then forward you an application packet.

133................

Choose the best answer:
Learners can feel very ...... if an exercise is too difficult.