Choose the best answer:
If the factory continues dumping poison _______ the lake, all aquatic animals will die.

Choose the best answer:
Thomas Edison was one of the greatest __________ of the world.

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The main difference between urban growth in Europe and in the American colonies was the slow evolution of cities in the former and their rapid growth in the latter. In Europe they grew over a period of centuries from town economies to their present urban structure. In North America, they started as wilderness communities and developed to mature urbanism’s in little more than a century.
In the early colonial day in North America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic Coastline, mostly in what are now New America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic United States and in the lower Saint Lawrence valley in Canada. This was natural because these areas were nearest England and France, particularly England, from which most capital goods (assets such as equipment) and many consumer goods were imported Merchandising establishments were, accordingly, advantageously located in port cities from which goods could be readily distributed to interior settlements. Here, too, were the favored locations for processing raw materials prior to export. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, and other cities flourished, and, as the colonies grew, these cities increased in importance.
This was less true in the colonial South, where life centered around large farms, known as plantations, rather than around towns, as was the case in the areas further north along the Atlantic coastline. The local isolation and the economic self-sufficiency of the plantations were antagonistic to the development of the towns. The plantations maintained their independence because they were located on navigable streams and each had a wharf accessible to the small shipping of that day. In fact, one of the strongest factors in the selection of plantation land was the desire to have it front on a water highway.
When the United States became an independent nation in 1776, it did not have a single city as large as 50,000 inhabitants, but by 1820 it had a city of more than 10,000 people, and by 1880 it had recorded a city of over one million. It was not until after 1823, after the mechanization of the spinning and weaving industries, that cities started drawing young people away from farms. Such migration was particularly rapid following the Civil War (1861-1865).

What does the passage mainly discuss?

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Facebook users spend an average of more than 15 hours a month on the social networking site. While there are plenty who caution against such intensive use — and there are a number of studies detailing the harm Facebook could potentially cause — there also are lots of reports extolling the site's virtues. As the social media giant prepares for its upcoming initial public offering, here are some ways Facebook just might be good for you.
Spending time on Facebook can help people relax, slow down their heart rate and decrease stress levels, according to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Milan. In a study published earlier this year, researchers studied 30 students and  found that a natural high was sparked when they were on  the  social media network that led  to  the relaxed heart rates and lower levels of stress and tension. In the study, the students were monitored in three situations: looking at panoramic landscapes, performing complicated mathematical equations and using Facebook. While the first situation was the most relaxing to students and the math problems were the most stressful, the time on Facebook uncovered high levels of attractiveness and arousal. The findings support the researchers' hypothesis that Facebook's success, as well as that of other social media networks, correlates to the specific positive mental and physical state users experience.
While many may argue that social media networks only distract employees, research shows  the opposite may be true. Research from Keas.com found that a 10-minute Facebook break makes employees happier, healthier and more productive. The study examined workers in three groups: one that was allowed no  breaks, one that was allowed to do  anything but use the Internet and one  that was allowed 10 minutes to use the Internet and Facebook. The Facebook group was found to be 16 percent more productive than the group that was not allowed to use the Internet and nearly 40 percent more productive than the group that was allowed no breaks. "Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf on the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher net total concentration for a day's work, and as a result, increased productivity," said Brent Coker of the department of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Facebook is also in the business of matchmaking. Research shows that nearly 60 percent of singles will friend someone new on Facebook after meeting them in  person. If  they like what they see, 25 percent are likely to contact their new love interest via Facebook. Once the courting is over, nearly 40 percent of those social networking adults will update their relationship status on Facebook, with just 24 percent telling their friends first. Facebook use between couples will continue through the dating process, the research shows. Throughout the day, 79 percent of  couples  said they send partners Facebook messages or chat on the social network. In addition, more than 60 percent would post romantic messages on their significant other's Facebook wall. When the relationship ends, more than half of those surveyed immediately update their status to single, which automatically sends out a notification to their friend list to start the dating cycle over again.

The word "sparked" in the second paragraph probably means    _.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks
The Gerneral Cerificate of Secondary Education or the GCSE excaminations for short are the standard school-leaver qualifications taken by virually all UK students in the May and June following their 16th birthday. If you come to a UK (25)...... school before you (26)....... the age of 16, you will study towards GCSE excaminationin up to 12 subjects. Some subjects are compulory, including English and matchematics, and you can select (27)......._ , such as music,  drama, geography and history from a series of options. GCSEs provide a good all-round education (28)......... you can build (29)............. at colleage and eventually at university
(28)................................. 
 

A spokesperson for Brenda Amon ---139--- that the pianist made a sizeable donation toward the expansion of the Grenel City Conservatory of Music. "Without her generous  support,"  said  Marc Diaz, director of facility planning, "we would have  been  limited  in  our  renovation  plans  going forward."---140---. Now, a new wing will be constructed on the south end of the ---141--- conservatory. Once completed, the building will boast a 700-seat auditorium, state-of-the-art recording studios, and new faculty and administrative offices. Additionally, private practice rooms will be located---142--- the current student lounge.

142.......................

On Friday, April 14, the city hall’s electricity is scheduled to be shut down at 7 A.M. and restored at 6 P.M. The building ---131--- for the day. During the power outage, the emergency lighting system will be upgraded. ---132---, all circuit panels will be replaced to bring them into compliance with current safety codes.---133--- exiting city hall offices on Thursday, please disconnect all desktop computers, wireless servers, and other computer-related equipment. Furthermore, employees are asked to remove any personal contents from the kitchenette.---134---.Please direct questions or concerns to the director of building maintenance.

134...................

On behalf of the Australia Wildlife Park Association, thank you for your donation of 40 AUD to our national park.---143---.  Individual
contributions have helped it stay open to visitors for more than 50 years. Our goal is to keep the park system running effectively for future ---144----to enjoy.
Enclosed please find a copy of our brochure, which lists various programs ---145--- to benefit both park visitors and our wildlife habitats. Please consider---146--- one of these programs in the future. The money would be used wisely and would be deeply appreciated.

146............

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U.N. diplomats abandoned efforts to draft a treaty that would outlaw human cloning. They will likely settle for a weaker statement, and won’t seek a widespread ban, officials said. The debate began when Italy introduced a document into the UN. to stop any attempt at cloning human life. The Belgians objected to the use of the term “human life” in the document, because they feared it would put a stop to all forms of human cloning.
[1] There is near universal support among the United Nations’ 191 members for a ban on reproductive cloning-creating cloned babies. [2] Many countries have wrestled over whether to allow cloning for stem cell and other types of research. [3] Indeed, many researchers believe that stem cells could be used to repair nerve tissue or cure diseases, including Alzheimer’s. [4] Stem cells are taken from embryos and cloned, but extracting these cells kills the embryo. Opponents say that this is equal to murder.

Which of the following best describes the organization of this passage?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions.
                      My first home
When my parents married, they rented a small house and they didn’t have a lot of money for furniture. The kitchen had a sink for washing up and a cooker, but that was all. They (6)............. a old table and a chair from the market. They borrowed a sofa (7)....... _was also old but they covered it with modern materials so it was bright and cheerful.
Outside, there was a small garden behind the house, but in front of it there was only the road. (8).........., the road wasn’t busy, so I could cross it to reach the park on the opposite side. We   lived there (9)..........I was ten and we were very happy. We had to move house because it was too small when my twin sisters were born. We all (10).......... sad when we left.

(6)..........................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
                   Why read books?
Is it worth reading books, (16)........ nowadays there are so many other forms  of entertainment? Some people say that even paperback books are expensive, and not everyone can borrow books from a library. They might add that television is more exciting and that viewers can relax as they watch their favourite (17)........... . All that may be true, but books are still very popular. They encourage the reader to use his or her imagination for a start. You can read a chapter of a book, or just a few pages, and then stop. Of course, it may be so (18).......... _ that you can’t stop!  There are many different kinds of books, so you can choose a crime novel or an autobiography, or a book (19).........gives you interesting information. If you find it hard to choose, you can read  reviews, or ask friends for ideas. Personally, I can’t do without books, but I can (20)............. up television easily enough. You can’t watch television at bus stops!
(16)...................................

Read the passage and decide whether the statement is true or false.

The Owners of the "News”

The role of the media is essentially defined by the manipulation of information-oriented towards the control of "public opinion", but their goals are not social as described in the mythology of "journalistic objectivity".

The famous ethical flags of journalism: fairness, objectivity and freedom of expression, are nothing more than myths concealing the billionaire media business that moves daily market information on a global scale. The process of manufacturing and distributing information is not motivated by the need to "inform" but by the capitalist need to sell news. To do this, the media, like any capitalist company, generates massive consumer needs in society and plots information strategies aimed at encouraging business growth, positioning themselves in order to successfully compete in the market.

First, information is a commodity to produce economic returns like any other commercial product offered in the capitalist market. In functional terms (and beyond the legend that is produced around it) the newspaper businesses are not guided by social purposes but for the pursuit of economic gain. Secondly, in the light of the strategic nature of the communication function to develop from the point of view of preservation of the "governance", system the media is a key tool for the control and manipulation of the economic, political and social processes.

In the news business, like any business venture, the media only works for those who can pay for their "informative" services. This is why a relationship of mutual survival between the media, governments and major economic groups exists. These groups decide what is news and what is not and use this strategy to control political, economic and social trends.

True or False:

Journalism is a billion dollar business that moves information on a global scale.

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Trees are useful to man in three very important ways: they provide him with wood and other products, they give him shade, and they help to prevent drought and floods.
Unfortunately, in many parts of the world man has not realized that the third of these services is the most important. In his eagerness to draw quick profit from the trees, he has cut them down in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had.
Two thousand years ago a rich and powerful country cut down its trees to build warships, with which to gain itself an empire. It gained the empire but, without its trees, its soil became hard and poor. When the empire fell to pieces, the country found itself faced by floods and starvation.
Even though a government realizes the importance of a plentiful supply of trees, it is difficult for it to persuade the villager to see this. The villager wants wood to cook his food with, and he can earn money by making charcoal or selling wood to the townsman. He is usually too lazy or too careless to plant and look after trees. So unless the government has a good system of control, or can educate the people, the forests will slowly disappear.
This does not only mean that there will be fewer trees. The results are even more serious. For where there are trees their roots break the soil up, allowing the rain to sink in and also bind the soil, thus preventing it being washed away easily, but where there are no trees, the soil becomes hard and poor. The rain falls on hard ground and flows away on the surface, causing floods and carrying away with it the rich topsoil, in which crops grow so well. When all the topsoil is gone, nothing remains but a worthless desert. 

Trees are useful to man mainly in three ways, the most important of which is that they can

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 the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United States increased. The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants into American society.
The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools, extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were sponsored by public schools, corporations, unions, churches, settlement houses, and other agencies.
Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were once such population. Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for women was the home.
Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women, American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies, homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however, overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.A

The word “it” in paragraph 4 refers to .

Conference Room 120 can be booked for meetings and conference calls. First, make a reservation request online at www.gzpoffice.com/confroom. When your request ---135---, the system automatically checks for availability. Your request will be accepted if no other event is scheduled at that time. The system will then immediately send you an e-mail message to ---136--- your reservation. However, if another meeting is scheduled that conflicts with yours, you will be notified that the request has been declined.
---137---. It is therefore ---138--- that you schedule your will event well ahead of time. This way, if a given time slot is already reserved, you will be able to reschedule your meeting.

137.................

Choose the best answer:
Future homes will ________ advantage of robots to do chores such as cleaning, cooking and washing.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrases that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Most educational specialists believe that early schooling should provide children with an (56)..........of their own abilities and the self-confidence to use their abilities. One approach recognised by many (57)........... as promoting these qualities is the Montessori method, first practised by Maria Montessori of Italy in the early 1900s. Nancy McCormick Rambusch is credited with (58)........... the method in the United States, where today there are over 400 Montessori schools.
The  method  helps  children  learn  for  themselves by (59)........ them with instructional materials and tasks that facilitate acts of discovery and manipulation. Through such exploration, children develop their sense of touch and learn (60)............ to do everyday tasks without adult assistance. Other benefits include improvement in language skills, and acquaintance with elements of science, music, and art.

(59).............................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions.
                      My first home
When my parents married, they rented a small house and they didn’t have a lot of money for furniture. The kitchen had a sink for washing up and a cooker, but that was all. They (6)............. a old table and a chair from the market. They borrowed a sofa (7)....... _was also old but they covered it with modern materials so it was bright and cheerful.
Outside, there was a small garden behind the house, but in front of it there was only the road. (8).........., the road wasn’t busy, so I could cross it to reach the park on the opposite side. We   lived there (9)..........I was ten and we were very happy. We had to move house because it was too small when my twin sisters were born. We all (10).......... sad when we left.
(10)..........................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks
Most Americans eat three  meals (10)...... the day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast begins between 7:00 and 8:00am, lunch between 11:00 am and noon, and dinner between 6:00 and 8:00 pm. On Sundays  "brunch" is  a (11) ..................of breakfast and lunch, typically beginning at 11:00 am. Students often enjoy a "study break" or evening snack around 10:00 or 11:00 pm. Breakfast and lunch tend to be light meals, with only one course. Dinner is the main meal.
For breakfast Americans will eat cereal with milk which are often mixed (12)......... in a bowl, a glass of orange juice, and toasted bread or muffin with jam, butter, or margarine. Another common breakfast meal is scrambled eggs or an omelet with potatoes and breakfast meat (bacon or sausage). People who are on a diet eat just a cup of yogurt. Lunch and dinner are more (13)............ . When eating at a formal dinner, you may be overwhelmed by the number of utensils. How do you (14)..........the difference between a salad fork, a butter fork, and a dessert fork? Most Americans do not know the answer. But knowing which fork or spoon to use first is simple: use the outermost utensils first and the utensils closest to the plate last.

(11)..............................

Choose the best answer:
If we ________ more, we will help the Earth.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
          NEIGHBOURS INFLUENCE BUYING DECISIONS
However objective we believe ourselves to be, most of us do not judge a product solely on its merits, considering quality, value and style before making a decision. (6)........., we are easily influenced by the people around us.
There is nothing wrong with this. It is probably a smarter way to make decisions than (7)........on only our own opinions. But it does make life hard for companies. They have long understood that groups of friends and relatives tend to buy the same products, but understanding the reasons has been tricky. It is because they are so similar with (8)....... to how much money they make and what television ads they watch that they independently arrive at the same decision? Or do they copy one another, perhaps (9)............ envy or perhaps because they have shared information about the products?
Research in Finland recently found overwhelming evidence that neighbours have a big influence on buying decisions. When one of a person’s ten nearest neighbours bought a car, the chances (10)......... that person would buy a car of the same brand during the next week and a half rose by 86 per cent. The researchers argued that it was not just a matter of envy. Used cars seemed to attract neighbours even more than new cars. This suggested that people were not trying to keep up with their neighbours, they were keen to learn from them. Since used cars are less reliable, a recommendation of one can strongly influence a buying decision.
(6)..............................