Choose the best answer:
He ____ this car since he ____ it

 

Find the word which has a different sound in the part underlined.
 

Choose the word that has main stress placed differently from the others.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
According to Vietnamese legend, (1) ____ giant turtle in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake reclaimed a magic sword given to King Le Loi in the 15th century that he used to win independence (2) ____ China's Ming Dynasty. The lake was thereafter named 'Ho Hoan Kiem', or 'Lake of the Returned Sword', and Hanoi has been built up (3) ____ it. Margie Mason of Associated Press wrote: "(4) ____ once was a magic golden turtle that lived in Hanoi's most enchanted lake. The giant turtle was believed so powerful, it snatched a divine sword from a warrior king and returned it to the gods of the depths nearly six centuries (5) ____. That tale has long been a (6) ____ among young and old Vietnamese living in the capital city, but folklorists soon may have to rewrite the story to (7) ____ a very sad ending. In real life, the last giant soft-shell turtle (8) ____ in Hoan Kiem Lake probably will die alone, and at least one biologist says the species (9) ____ then be extinct. The elusive creature - with a shell as big as a desk - occasionally pokes its wrinkled head out of the murky waters of the downtown lake to (10) ____ a breath, but few Vietnamese are lucky enough to glimpse it. And certainly no one knows its age."

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
India’s Classical Jewel
If you are looking for a refreshing break from the standard pop songs on the radio and you have an open mind, give Indian classical music a try. It dates back to thousands of years to when the Vedas, India’s sacred holy texts were written. This makes it one of the oldest unbroken musical traditions in the world. In fact, the music itself is closely linked to Hinduism. The songs and chants were originally parts of devotional rituals performed to please the gods. The music features several instruments that are uniquely Indian, but two in particular are featured prominently. The first is the sitar, a stringed instrument with an extremely long neck. The sitar is a far more complex instrument than the guitar, as it can have as many as 20 strings. When played, it lets off a buzzing vibration that has a relaxing effect on listeners. The other instrument which is essential for classical Indian music is the tabla. Tablas are a special kind of hand drum that provides the tempo and rhythm. Tabla players sit on the floor and keep the drum in place by locking it between their knees. Unlike Western drummers, tabla players use their hands and fingers to play the instrument. The player’s fingers keep the beat, while a sudden flick of the wrist and a slide of the palm can change the pitch of the drum. Instead of songs, classical Indian music revolves around the concept of ragas, which are more accurately defined as musical themes. Players take these ideas and begin to improvise their own melodies around them. Ragas tend to be a bit longer than typical songs, and in some cases they can go for several hours. Each raga is expected to have a wide range of tempos to help viewers experience different emotions during the performance. One of the most influential classical Indian musicians was a sitar player named Ravi Shankar. After training for years to master his craft, he travelled to the US and Europe during the 1950s to perform for Western audiences. He would eventually become close friends with Beaties’ guitarist George Harrison, and his music would influence several of the band’s songs. Although he passed away in 2012, his music continues to inspire both Eastern and Western musicians alike.
5. Why does the speed of the music change during ragas?

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 :
Human beings are notorious for making mistakes. If you look at the police log in any given city on any given day, you will definitely (1)_________ that one of the biggest problems all cities face is car accidents. People do all sorts of things that (2)_________ them into trouble on the roadways. Sometimes, they feel sleepy or they talk on cell phones while they are driving. Whatever the case may be, the accidents that are caused are almost always due to human error. The car accident as a human error might be in for a big shake-up that will make the roadways much safer. We may soon be (3)_________ into an area of self-driving cars that communicate with other cars on the road while (4)_________ the areas around them to avoid obstacles and keep the passengers safe. The technology is already here, and it is proving to be successful. One company that has fully been (5)___________ the idea of driverless car is Google. The company’s driverless car programme is run by Sebastian Thun, who gained fame in 2005 when his team from Stanford won the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge

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:
Most people can remember a phone number for up to trirty seconds. When this short amount of time elapses, however, the numbers are eerased from the memory. How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makes its way to the short term memory (STM) does so via the sensory storage area. The brain has a filter which only allows atimuli that is of immediate interest to pass on to the STM, also known as the working memory.
There is much debate about the capacity an duration of the short term memory. The most accepted theory comes from George A.Miller, a cognitive psychologist who suggested that humans can remember approximately seven chunks of information. A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information, such as a word or nam rather than just a letter or number. Modern theorists suggest that one can increase the capacity of the short term memory by chunking or classifying similar information together. By organizing information, one can optimize the STM, and improve the chances of a memory being passed on to long term storage.
When making a conscious effort to memorize something, such as information for an exam, many people engage in “rote rehearsal”. By repeating something over and over again, one is able to keep a memory alive. Unfortunately, this type of memory maintenance only succeeds if there are no interruptions. As soon as a person stops rehearsing the information, it has the tendency to disappear. When a pen and paper are not handy, people often attempt to remember a phone number by repeating it aloud. If the doorbell rings or the dog barks to come in before a person has the opportunity to make a phone call, he will likely forget the number instantly. Therefore, rote rehearsal is not an efficient way to pass information from the short term to long term memory. A better way is to practice “elaborate rehearsal”. This involves assigning semantic meaning to a piece of information so that it can be filed along with other pre-existing long term memories.
Encoding information semantically also makes it more retrievable. Retrieving information can be done by rocognition or recall. Humans can easily recall memories that are stored in the long term memory and used often; however, if a memory seems to be forgotten, it may eventually be retrieved by prompting. The more cues a person is given (such as pictures), the more likely a memory can be retrieved. This is why multiple choise tests are often used for subjects that require a lot of memorization.

The word “elaborate” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to     .

 I am flying to the States tonight. I _____ you a ring if can find a phone.

(245)_____

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
The life of a Professional Gamer
Gordon Hayward has a pretty cool job – he plays basketball for the team Utah Jazz in the American National Basketball Association (NBA). But in his free time, he also works as a professional gamer, competing in StarCraft 2 tournaments. Even as a top – level athletes, Gordon is impressed with the amount of commitment needed for these competitions. “These guys are professionals”, he says. “They play this game for their job, so they take this as seriously as I take playing basketball for a living.” Competitive gaming has been around for almost as long as video games themselves, but it’s only recently that people have started earning money from it. This is because companies sponsor gamers, and tournaments. The gaming industry is now worth about $6 billion, and it is growing every year. Michel Masquelier, President of IMG Media (one of the world’s largest entertainment companies), called gaming the number one activity in the world for men aged 18 to 24. Just as young people aspire to play in the NBA, many also dream of becoming professional gamer. There are now big global tournaments like World Cyber Games and Major League Gaming Championships, where hundreds of gamers come to compete in popular game like StarCraft, WarCraft, Counterstrike, and the football game FIFA in front of an audience. The prize money in a tournament can reach a few million dollars. One thing gamer, and athletes have in common is that they often play in teams. These “clans”, as gamers call them, usually play tournaments together and practise against one another. Professional gamers and their clans earn money through sponsorships, winning tournament, and teaching and training people to play video games better. Like athletes, gamers must train long and hard to become the best at the game that they play. Most gamers only compete in one game, the same way that most professional athletes only play one sport. Adrian Kwong, a professional gamer, says that he usually practises StarCraft 2 for more than three hours a day. Some days he even plays for more than five hours. “To become a pro player, it takes determination, skill, and extensive practice,” says Katie Goldberg, who is vice – president of communications at Major’s League Gaming. Gordon Hayward isn’t going to give up his basketball career anytime soon, but he says that athletes and gamers are not that different: “You have to train hard if you want to be the best, and that goes for everything, not just basketball. That also goes for video games like StarCraft”.
4. What is a “clan”?

Choose the best answer:
I have never felt as …………..as I did when I watched that horror film.

Food critics from two ---131--- newspapers, the Toronto Day and Toronto Rising are expected to dine here this week. Let's make a special effort to do our work flawlessly. Photographs of the critics will be placed at our welcome station. Using these ---132---, hosts will be responsible for identifying the critics and telling the wait staff, who should alert the kitchen. Servers must strive to be prompt. They should also recommend our daily specials. ---133---. I am confident that everyone ---134--- these critics with our great food and service.

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

The player ______.

(422)_______

 Despite _____ , we knew that he was guilty.

(299)_____

_____ instructed me how to make a good preparation for a job interview.

(277)_______

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Music, artful arrangement of sounds (1) _______ time. This definition is obviously very broad, but a narrower one would exclude (2) _______ much. Music is part of virtually every culture on (3) _______, but it varies widely among cultures in style and structure. Definitions of music can (4) _______ dramatically over a short time, as they have across the world during the 20th (5) _________.

Choose the best answer:
I’m afraid very few people know about the concert and almost no one will come. If only the posters _____ on time.

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

Beginning on March 15, we will be using a new payroll service that will affect a number of our current payroll processes. First, weekly payroll checks will be mailed on Thursday instead of Friday. Direct-deposit payroll payments will also be processed a day---139---. Second, pay stubs for direct-deposit payments will no longer be e-mailed. Instead,  employees will be able to  ---140--- this information by accessing their payroll accounts online.

Other processes will remain the same. All-time cards will continue to be due to the payroll department by Monday at 6:00 P.M.---141---. A complete, updated list of instructions for payroll procedures ---142--- to all employees on or before March 1. If you have any questions before then, please contact Leonti Belousov at ext. 5810.

141...................

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:
An air pollutnt is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or materials adversely. Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled – a far cry from the extensive list of harmful subtances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions.
Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and notrigen oxides, are found in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentration of these pollutants was altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis, nature’s output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities.
However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as as city. In such a region, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need not be large for a subtance to be a pollutant; in fact, the numerial value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over ther concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm), which is about 400 times its natural level. Carbon monoxide, however, has a natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

Choose the best answer:
He/ usually/ go/ herd/ buffaloes/ other boys/ village.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Alemur is a unique animal. When you look at a lemur, it might be hard to tell what you are really looking at. With their huge dark eyes and lush fur, lemurs are very cute, but what animal family are they from? Some lemurs look like a cross between a cat and a dog. Some look a little like squirrels, while others resemble monkeys. Why do they look so strange? To answer to this question we need to understand the lemur's history and genetics. In modern biology, lemurs are called prosimians. This means before monkeys. Remarkably, lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans all share a common ancestor from about 50 million years ago. Monkeys, apes, and humans developed together in one direction. However, lemurs developed differently and slowly because of their geographical location. All lemurs come from the island of Madagascar, located off the east coast of Africa. Madagascar split off from mainland Africa 50 million years ago. It is believed that the first prosimians traveled to Madagascar on floating trees and plants. The prosimians that traveled to Madagascar were isolated from the rest of Africa. Predators, like dogs or cats, did not make it to Madagascar. Since there were no dangerous threats, prosimians did not have to evolve as quickly as other primates did. (primates: any nimal that belongs to the group of mammals that includes humans, apes, and monkeys.) Over time, the original prosimians evolved into lemurs. Lemurs have changed in some ways over those 50 million years, but they are much more similar to our shared ancestor than either humans, monkeys, or apes. Because of this, their bodies and behaviors hold clues about what out common ancestor looked like. Lemurs have four fingers and a thumb on their hands, and five toes on their feet, just like humans do. They have eyes and jaw bones that are similar to humans as well, but they have a wet nose, like a dog. Lemur behavior is also comparable to human behavior, as they live in social groups. Like apes and humans, lemurs travel together, groom one another, fight each other, and play together. Lemurs, however, have simpler friend and family relationships. Recently, lemurs have been studied in captivity. Like their distant chimpanzee and monkey cousins, they can be taught to use tools and to solve complicated problems. The word lemur means ghost. While the name probably comes from their huge reflective eyes and their strange, haunting cries, lemurs are ghosts in a way. They are living ghosts that remind US where we came from, and also give US clues about how humans evolved.
6. Paragraph 1 States, "When you look at a lemur, it might be hard to tell what you are really looking at". What can be inferred from this?