Choose the best answer:
I ____ the biography of Robbie Williams, but I'm on page 50.

 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Thirty years after ghostwriting Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal, Tony Schwartz described the experience as like putting lipstick on a pig. He felt a “deep sense of remorse” at helping bring the man who would become president gain wider attention. This week, the writer Natalie Beach joined the grand tradition of ghostwriters speaking out about their subjects, with a deeply intimate essay in the Cut laying out how she used to ghost everything for her former friend and controversial “influencer” Caroline Calloway: from Instagram captions to the aborted book that once attracted a $375,000 (£300,000) publishing deal, until their relationship broke down irretrievably. Beach’s account says that after the pair put the book proposal together, the influencer felt unable to write it. Beach says she “bought us time with the publishers by writing a quarter of the manuscript by myself”. As a ghostwriter himself, Crofts questions the ethics of speaking out about his subjects’ lives. “I do think Tony Schwartz shouldn’t have come out and said anything about Trump, because you’ve taken the money. It’s like a lawyer: if you find that the person you’re representing is a murderer you can’t then go around bewailing the fact you defended them – that was your job,” he said. “But I think he made Trump, I don’t think Trump would be president if he hadn’t written that book for him, because he’d never have got The Apprentice without the book, and the presidency without The Apprentice. So it must be weighing heavily on his conscience.”  Ghostwriters must be good at several things – being amenable to being steered by a subject, while also being firm enough to guide them away from tangents and uninteresting details. But the most important thing in ghostwriting, says Crofts, is absence of ego. “Which is maybe what went wrong [with Calloway] – Natalie isn’t a born ghost, she’s a writer herself. She was really young and well out of her depth, completely swamped by this girl’s flamboyance,” he says. “Ghostwriters do attract a lot of fantasists and people who have ideas way above the likelihood of success. They always think their story is fantastically interesting and going to be a bestseller. You’re always dealing with people with larger-than-life egos, so there’s always a danger you’re going to run up against someone who is impossible to manage.”  
3. According to paragraph 1, what thought or feeling compelled Tony Schwartz to confess after thirty years?

Choose the best answer:
My brother graduated from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology last month and ____ for a job since then.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Dr. Daniel Quon has been an oral surgeon in Jackson for over 30 years. “Growing up  in the family business, I knew that in order for you to gain something, you have to give back,” Quon said. “And being in the field of dentistry, we have a special gift that we can help people and I thought that was an appropriate way to help out.”  Quon volunteers his dental services at the Jackson Free Health Clinic to patients who can’t afford it. Through the Mississippi Dental Association, Quon also provides free dental care for the Mission Service of Mercy program. Dental Assistant Carley Welch has been a part of this experience. “We actually did that last year together and we plan on doing that again this year together,” he said. “Best boss you can ask for,” Welch continued. “Very patient, always willing to teach you; even things that most people wouldn’t go very far to teach you, he will. Just so you have the experience.” But Quon serves in other ways too. “Wife and I volunteer at the Stewpot. We serve lunch on Saturdays when we can. I was actually on the board of Stewpot for 3 years until this passed year.” And he donates blood platelet at the Mississippi Blood services. “I’m almost up to 18 gallons right now in donations. That’s a lot of blood! still got a little bit left though.” “It takes very little time to volunteer. It’s a great thing where you can help someone who needs an extra hand or helping hand.” “I think he does his part to contribute as much as possible,” Welch added. “Whether it’s helping dental wise or even just in general with the public.” 
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Choose the best answer:
The villagers had to work very _______ on the fields all day, but there was not enough food.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Once restricted to space stations and satellites, photovoltaics are now gaining popularity and becoming an increasingly viable option. Every day, the sun releases an enormous amount of energy, far more than the entire population consumes. Being that the sun is a sustainable, renewable, and inexhaustible source for generating electricity, not using it seems almost counter-intuitive, especially considering the social and environmental impacts of other forms of energy generation. But the technology to create electricity from the sun is by no means simple and still has some limitations, the most significant being price. The process of turning the sun’s rays into electrical energy all starts in the so-called photovoltaic cell. These cells are produced with two chemically altered silicon layers of which one is missing elections and the other is electron-overloaded. When the photons from the sunlight reach the surface, these electrons gain the ability to move, generating a flow that creates an electric current. Each cell generates a small amount of energy and a panel is usually made of between 36 and 72 photovoltaic cells. By connecting several panels together, a photovoltaic system is created. Eight to ten panels is enough to power a small house. Evidently, however, this statistic is influenced by some factors, such as the efficiency of the panels, the amount of sunshine in the region, and the energy demand of the residence itself.  Importantly, photovoltaic solar panels produce electricity in the form of direct current, meaning the electricity must pass through an inverter to transform it into alternating current - which is what is normally used in buildings, appliances, sockets, and light bulbs. Photovoltaic systems can facilitate energy generation in remote locations where infrastructural networks do not reach. In these cases, the system uses batteries to store electricity when less energy is used than is consumed, such as at night or on very cloudy days. However, it is also possible to use photovoltaics in systems connected to the power grid. In these cases, the excess energy goes to the electricity grid, creating energy “credits” for the building in question. In some countries, it is even possible to sell surplus energy, making the building a power plant for neighbors and method of paying off the investment more quickly.  
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
An American game that has traveled well is basketball, now played by more than 250 million people worldwide in an organized fashion, as well as by countless others in “pick-up” games. Basketball originated in 1891 when a future Presbyterian minister named James Naismith (1861-1939) was assigned to teach a physical education class at a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) training school in Springfield, Massachusetts. The class had been noted for being disorderly, and Naismith was told to invent a new game to keep the young men occupied. Since it was winter and very cold outside, a game that could be played indoors was desirable.  Naismith thought back to his boyhood in Canada, where he and his friends had played “duck on a rock,” which involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it. He also recalled watching rugby players toss a ball into a box in a gymnasium. He had the idea of nailing up raised boxes into which players would attempt to throw a ball. When boxes couldn’t be found, he used peach baskets. According to Alexander Wolff, in his book 100 Years of Hoops, Naismith drew up the rules for the new game in “about an hour.” Most of them still apply in some forms today.  Basketball caught on because graduates of the YMCA school traveled widely, because Naismith disseminated the rules freely, and because there was a need for a simple game that could be played indoors during winter. Naismith’s legacy included the first great college basketball coach, Forrest “Phog” Allen (1885-1974), who played for Naismith at the University of Kansas and went on to win 771 games as a coach at Kansas himself. Among Allen’s star players was Wilt Chamberlain, who became one of professional basketball’s first superstars – one night in 1962, he scored a record 100 points in a game.  The first professional basketball league was formed in 1898; players earned $2.50 for home games, $1.25 for games on the road. Not quite 100 years later, Juwan Howard, a star player for the Washington Bullets (now called the Washington Wizards), had competing offers of more than $100 million over seven seasons from the Bullets and the Miami Heat.  Many teams in the National Basketball Association now have foreign players, who return home to represent their native countries during the Olympic Games. The so-called Dream Team, made up of the top American professional basketball players, has represented
the United States in recent Olympic Games. In 1996 the Dream Team trailed some opponents until fairly late in the games. In Athens in 2004 Argentina took home the gold, the first time a Latin American country won the basketball honor. 
7. What is the main idea of paragraph 4?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Green-space facilities are contributing to an important extent to the quality of the urban environment. Fortunately it is no longer necessary that every lecture or every book about this subject has to start with the proof of this idea. At present, it is generally accepted, although more as a self-evident statement than on the base of a closely-reasoned scientific proof. The recognition of the importance of green-spaces in the urban environment is a first step on the right way; this does not mean, however, that sufficient details are known about the functions of green-space in towns and about the way in which the inhabitants are using these spaces. As to this rather complex subject I shall, within the scope of this lecture, enter into one aspect only, namely the recreative function of green-space facilities. The theoretical separation of living, working, traffic and recreation which for many years has been used in town-and-country planning, has in my opinion resulted in disproportionate attention for forms of recreation far from home, whereas there was relatively little attention for improvement of recreative possibilities in the direct neighbourhood of the home. We have come to the conclusion that this is not right, because an important part of the time which we do not pass in sleeping or working, is used for activities as possible, and the design of these has to be such that more obligatory activities can also have a recreative aspect. The very best standard of living is nothing if it is not possible to take a pleasant walk in the district, if the children cannot be allowed to play in the streets, because the risks of traffic are too great, if during shopping you can nowhere find a spot for enjoying for a moment the nice weather, in short, if you only feel yourself at home after the street-door of you house is closed after you.  
7. The underlined word “spot” in the passage is closest in meaning to ________

Choose the best answer:
Peter said: “I will try to learn hard to pass the entrance exam.”

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 following questions:
We have all had bad experiences with restaurants, stores, or hotels. Maybe you have gone to a restaurant that served terrible food. Perhaps you have gone to a store that had high prices or bad service. Or maybe you have booked a hotel and found out later that the room was nothing like the advertisement.
These days, we have a better chance of preventing these unpleasant surprises. We can do this by using apps. “App” is short for “application”. An app is a computer programme on a smartphone. You can use apps to do almost anything. Apps can help you play games, get directions, talk to friends, and so on.
If f you want to find information about a store or a hotel, you can use a review app. Review apps help us evaluate services and products before we hand over our money. The idea is very simple. After you go to a restaurant or stay in a hotel, you can post a review with one of your apps. You can say anything you want. If you like a hotel you stayed in, you can tell people that it was wonderful. If you think that the food in a certain restaurant was bad, then you tell people not to eat there. Other people can use their apps to read your reviews.
Plenty of people prefer not to use these review apps. Many of these people prefer to go out and decide for themselves whether or not a service is good. However, review apps are getting more and more popular every day. Some apps are for specific services. For example, Tripadvisor focuses on travel, and Goodreads focuses on books. There are also other, larger apps that provide information for just about every service that you can think of. 5

According to the passage, why do some people prefer NOT to use review apps?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In Viet Nam festivals often take place during the three months in spring and in autumn when people have a lot of leisure time. In addition, the climate in spring and autumn is especially suitable for holding festivals and for festivals goers to enjoy. Traditional festivals constitute a form of cultural activities, a spiritual product which the people have created and developed during the course of history. From generation to generation, the Vietnamese people preserve the fine tradition of “remembering the source while drinking water.” Festivals are events which represent this tradition of the community as well as honor the holy figures named as “gods” – the real persons in national history or legendary persons. The images of gods converge the noble characteristics of mankind. They are national heroes who fought against foreign invaders, reclaimed new lands, treated people, fought against natural calamities, or those legendary characters who affect the earthly life. Accordingly, first and foremost, festivals are events when people pay tribute to divinities that rendered merits to the community and the nation. These are occasions when people come back to either their natural or national roots, which form a sacred part in their mind. Furthermore, festivals represent the strength of the commune or village, the local region or even the whole nation. Worshipping the same god, the people unite in solidarity to overcome difficulties, striving for a happy and wealthy life. Moreover, festivals display the demand for creativity and enjoyment of spiritual and material cultural values of all social strata. Festivals become a form of education under which fine traditional moral values can be handed from one generation to the next in a unique way of combining spiritual characters with competition and entertainment games. Festivals are also the time people can express their sadness and worries in a wish that gods might bestow favor on them to help them strive for a better life.  
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a value of festivals?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
While good grades are important and should be something every student strives for, they do not necessarily correlate with a student’s intelligence. Students should worry less about their grades and instead care more about retaining the content they are learning and gaining actual knowledge. David Thomas, a principal lecturer at ASU, said there are varying theories about intelligence. One of them is the entity theory of intelligence, which describes intelligence as being stable throughout someone’s life. Thomas said there are also people who think just the opposite, and that a person can become more intelligent throughout their life. While there are varying theories on what intelligence is and whether it can improve, you can gain knowledge throughout the course of your life. This principle should be the focus of education, not a person’s grades. Every student at ASU is preparing for a career and learning the necessary skills to do well in their desired industry. Getting an “A” on a test will not mean anything if you cannot apply the material you learned to real-life situations. Just because someone gets an “A” in a class or is in Barrett, the Honors College, it doesn’t define intelligence. Similarly, someone who gets a “D” in a class is not necessarily unintelligent, as there are other factors that play into grades. Take Bill Gates for example, a very wealthy and successful man who dropped out of Harvard University two years into his degree and later became the co-founder of Microsoft. He is intelligent, and yet he did not have a college degree when he started his company. Additionally, Thomas said motivation plays a big part in a person’s grades. A student with mastery-oriented motivation approaches a class with curiosity and an interest in the subject, whereas a student with performance-orientated motivation does so solely from a grade standpoint. If people spent the same amount of time working to ensure they retain important information as they did pulling all-nighters to cram for finals, they could become be more intelligent. Students should focus on developing their critical thinking and problemsolving skills rather than simply memorizing information for a test. A transcript only shows a student’s motivation, dedication and work ethic — not their personality, humor, work or life experiences. While grades still matter, we need to stop weighing our intelligence through grades and instead recognize that intelligence comes in all forms.
4. The word “them” in paragraph 2 refers to _____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
All relationships go through difficult times. In the past, when married couples had problems they usually didn’t (1) _____. They had to either get on well with each other or continue to live together in an unhappy relationship. Getting divorced wasn’t an (2)_____ for most people due to economic and social reasons. Some people believe that this wasn’t such a bad thing. They say that relationships require hard work and (3) ______. “If a relationship is going to last a lifetime, you have to keep working at it,” says Doreen, who is celebrating her fiftieth wedding anniversary this year. “It isn’t all roses and romance. No one perfect all of the time. These days young people give up (4)_______ there’s the slightest argument.” Experts agree that communication is key. The most important thing is to keep talking. How many times have you heard yourself say to somebody, “If only you’d listen!” or “I wish you wouldn’t do that!” The truth is, the (5) ______ couples talk, the better their relationship can be

Each sentence has a mistake. Find it by chosing A B C or D

Every second, a hectare of the world rainforest is destroyed. That is equivalent to two football fields

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Stonehenge, the prehistoric stone circle in southern England, is one of the most distinctive and mysterious monuments in the world. The monument, which attracted more than one and a half million visitors last year, is thought to be up to 5,000 years old, and the heaviest stone weighs 38 tons. No one really knows how the stones got there, or the reason they look the way they do – but a piece removed from one of the stones six decades ago could bring some answers. At first glance, the new “discovery” - a cylinder of rock - might look unremarkable. But for Lewis and Robin Phillips, it meant one thing: their dad, Robert. In 1958, Robert Phillips worked on a major restoration project commissioned by the British government. The goal was to make the monument safer, and help historians better understand what Stonehenge was and why it was there. The team drilled through the largest of the sarsen rocks, removing three stone cores. Robert Phillips was gifted one as a souvenir. At the time, the core sample was considered to be “waste material,” Lewis said. “I think that the standards of the day, in conservation, were a bit different to what they are now,” Robert added. Six decades later, Robert - who’s now in his 90s - asked his sons to return the “waste material.” But what had become a family heirloom for the Phillips’ was “the Holy Grail” of Stonehenge for geologists, according to Susan Greaney, an archaeologist at English Heritage. “When the Phillips family first got in touch with us, we had no idea that this existed,” Greaney said. “We’d just assumed that they’d been thrown away.” In 1958, samples like this couldn’t provide much information - but now, Greaney added, it can help archaeologists understand where the stones were from and how they were transported. It could even provide clues to one of the biggest questions: why move all these rocks to one location? Right now, “we don’t know” is the answer to that, Greaney said. "We think this is a prehistoric temple. It’s aligned with the movements of the sun, so we think it’s some kind of ceremonial space. But exactly what the stones mean, why they built them in this way and set them up in the way we see today, there are lots of mysteries about Stonehenge that we have yet to get to the bottom of. 
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Every summer, when the results of university entrance exam come out, many newspaper stories are published about students who are top-scorers across the country. Most portray students as hard-working, studious, smart and, generally, from low-income families. They are often considered heroes or heroines by their families, communes, villages and communities. And they symbolise the efforts made to lift them, and their relatives, out of poverty. The students are often too poor to attend any extra-classes, which make their achievements more illustrious and more newsworthy. While everyone should applaud the students for their admirable efforts, putting too much emphasis on success generates some difficult questions. If other students look up to them as models, of course it’s great. However, in a way, it contributes to society’s attitude that getting into university is the only way to succeed. For those who fail, their lives are over. It should be noted that about 1.3 million high school students take part in the annual university entrance exams and only about 300,000 of them pass. What’s about the hundreds of thousands who fail? Should we demand more stories about those who fail the exam but succeed in life or about those who quit university education at some level and do something else unconventional? “I personally think that it’s not about you scoring top in an entrance exam or get even into Harvard. It’s about what you do for the rest of your life,” said Tran Nguyen Le Van, 29. He is the founder of a website, vexere.com, that passengers can use to book bus tickets online and receive tickets via SMS. His business also arranges online tickets via mobile phones and email. Van dropped out of his MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona in the United States. His story has caught the attention of many newspapers and he believes more coverage should be given to the youngsters who can be role-models in the start-up community. Getting into university, even with honours, is just the beginning. "We applaud them and their efforts and obviously that can give them motivation to do better in life. However, success requires more than just scores," Van said. Van once told a newspaper that his inspiration also came from among the world’s most famous drop-outs, such as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or Bill Gates who also dropped out of Harvard University. Alarming statistics about unemployment continues to plague us. As many as 162,000 people with some kind of degree cannot find work, according to Labour Ministry’s statistics this month. An emphasis on getting into university does not inspire students who want to try alternative options. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training is still pondering on how to reform our exam system, which emphasises theories, but offers little to develop critical thinking or practice. Vu Thi Phuong Anh, former head of the Centre for Education Testing and Quality Assessment at Viet Nam National University in HCM City said the media should also monitor student successes after graduation. She agreed there were many success stories about young people, but added that it was imbalanced if students taking unconventional paths were not also encouraged. Viet Nam is, more than ever, in desperate need of those who think outside the box. Time for us to recognise talent, no matter where it comes from or how.
2. What is NOT stated in the passage about the top-scorers in the entrance exam?

Choose the best answer:
The scarf embroidered with gold .................... is the most expensive one in our shop.

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.

   As viewed from space, Earth’s distinguishing characteristics are its blue waters and white clouds. Enveloped by an ocean of air consisting of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, the planet is the only one in our solar system known to harbor life. Circling the Sun at an average distance of 149 million kilometers (93 million miles), Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest planet in the solar system.

   Our planet’s rapid spin and molten nickel-iron core give rise to an extensive magnetic field which, coupled the atmosphere, shields us from nearly all of the harmful radiation coming from the Sun and other stars. Earth’s atmosphere protects us from meteors as well, most of which burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere before they can strike the surface. The planet active geological processes have left no evidence of the ancient pelting it almost certainly received soon after it formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The Earth has a single natural satellite – the moon.

The word consisting most nearly means ________.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
There is no conflict between big business and the green movement towards the fight  against climate change and the two are “totally compatible”. That’s according to Mike Hughes, Zone President, Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, who believes while there may be differences on how organisations play their part in the move towards the net zero target and the speed at which it happens, the two are “totally aligned”.  Speaking to ELN at the Energy Live Expo event last week, which attracted more than 450 people from across the industry, he said: “Big business goes where there is opportunity. Big business is a force for good. It has to be involved in this transition, in this change, in this climate change. If you look at it, there are two things that have happened in the last five to seven years that have really accelerated this topic. One is the general public getting on board with the whole concept of climate change, the emergency. The second is actually the business community and particularly the financial community starting to look at the financial risks around climate change and moving its money and where it will invest.”  Mr Hughes added the UK’s target for net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is a “hugely ambitious step” and it shows leadership, direction and ambition, enabling businesses to focus on where they can invest. He is also “extremely optimistic” and from a technology point of view, he believes there are technologies available to support the transition. He said: “It’s now around awareness, incentives from government, the right regulations to get people to make the right step and boosting the use of these technologies. I’m extremely positive.”
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Globally we use more energy than ever before, and the demand is rapidly growing. Economic expansion of emerging market economies, population growth and our increasing use of energy-consuming devices are among the most important contributing factors. About one-third of the radiation hitting Earth’s atmosphere is reflected back out into space by clouds, ice, snow, sand and other reflective surfaces. The other two-thirds is absorbed by the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere. As the land, oceans and atmosphere heat up, they re-emit energy as infrared thermal radiation, which passes through the atmosphere. Heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) absorb this infrared radiation and prevent it from dissipating into space, giving rise to what we know as the greenhouse effect. The accumulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is the dominating driver of recent climate change. CO2 is estimated to be responsible for 64 % of man-made global warming. Other greenhouse gases are released in much smaller amounts but still contribute significantly to the overall warming effect, as they are much more potent heat-trapping gases than CO2. The EU is taking action on many levels. One example is on fluorinated gases that are contributing less than CO2 but still a particular point of concern in addressing climate change. They are used in several types of products, such as in refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump equipment. While fluorinated gases are released into the atmosphere in smaller quantities than other greenhouse gases, they are extremely potent – they produce a warming effect 23 000 times greater than CO2. For this reason the EU has decided to control their use. The EU’s regulation on fluorinated greenhouse gases aims at cutting the Union’s emissions by two-thirds compared to 2014 levels. Chemicals are not only part of the problem – they are also part of the solution. Sustainable energy sources like solar power rely on chemical innovation using, for example, nanomaterials. One of the main challenges with renewable energy is how to increase its viability with the help of energy storage solutions. For example, solar panels have the best conditions in the desert, but that is not where most people live. Windmills also produce power during the night, which is when our energy consumption is at its lowest. In other words, technologies to improve energy storage and transportation is one of the important areas of research where innovation is needed  
1. The passage mainly discusses_________.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Super Size Me is a 2004 film by Morgan Spurlock, in which he (1)____ his experiment to eat only McDonald’s fast food three times a day, every day, for thirty days. Spurlock made himself a short list of rules for the experiment, including an obligation to eat all of the three meals he ordered. He also had to ‘Super Size’, which means (2) ______ a giant portion every time the option was offered to him. He ended up vomiting after the first Super Size meal he finished, after taking nearly twenty minutes to consume it. After five days Spurlock put on almost 5kg, and he soon found himself feeling depressed, with no energy. The only thing that got rid of his headaches and made him feel better was another McDonald’s meal, so his doctors told him he was addicted. More seriously, around day twenty, he started experiencing heart (3)________ and one of the doctors detected liver problems. However, in spite of his doctor’s advice, Spurlock continued to the end of the month and achieved a total weight gain of 11kg. His body mass index also increased from a healthy 23.2 to an overweight 27. It took Spurlock fifteen months to recover (4)_______ his experiment and return to his original weight, but the film also had a wider impact. Just after its showing in 2004, McDonald’s phased out the Super Size option and healthier options like salads appeared on the menu. Unfortunately, McDonald’s denied the connection between the film and the changes, but it is interesting to note how closely they (5)________ with the release of the film