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Last month, cycling safety groups are planning to lobby for better facilities for cyclists

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Clare Harrison rarely falls ill and hates going to the doctor’s when she does. So when she recently (46) _____ out in a painful rash down one side of her body she emailed her symptoms, (47) _____ also included a (48) _____ fever, to e–doc, the internet medical service. Two hours later she was diagnosed as having shingles (Herpes Zoster) by her online doctor, who prescribed a special cleansing solution for the rash and analgesics to help relieve the pain. Health advice is now the second most popular topic that people search for on the internet, and online medical consultation is big business. Sites vary enormously in what they offer, with services ranging from the equivalent of a medical agony aunt to a live chat with a doctor via email. They are clearly (49) _____ a demand from people who are too busy or, in some cases, too embarrassed to discuss their medical (50) ______ with their GP

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Can you imagine your life without advertisements? They are present in all sectors of our lives, in our homes on TV, on public means of transport, in the streets, in newspapers, you name it. It is only natural that all this advertising with its intrusive nature would have an impact on our lives, and many people would agree that this impact is on the whole a negative one. Adverts are very creative and attract our attention; they are also highly persuasive and influence the way we think. Their aim is to make us believe we will feel a certain way if we purchase the product which is being advertised. For example, many adverts for products show good-looking, successful people enjoying themselves and consuming or using a specific product. This plays on our psychology and our sense of self-worth, and it makes us want to buy the product so that we can look and feel like the models in the adverts. Images and lifestyles aren't the only thing that advertising imposes on us. Artificial needs are also imposed on us. We are constantly exposed to visual and verbal adverts which try to convince us that our lives will be improved if we buy a particular product. Don't tell me the plasma TV or the air freshener advertised on TV is a necessity. However, clever advertising creates in people a sense of need for material goods, which if they don't acquire, can often lead to feelings of inferiority and unhappiness. Advertising also gives a distorted picture of reality, which creates unrealistic expectations, particularly among young children and teenagers. Many adverts are targeted specifically at these age groups, creating an intense desire to own a particular product. The resulting pressure on parents is so great that they often give in to the demands of their children in order to avoid confrontation and tantrums, thus creating patterns of consumption and gratification at the expense of other values in life. This vicious cycle can have a very detrimental effect on children and, consequently, the future of society. Advertising today, with its ubiquity and aggressive nature, poisons our minds with false ideals and instils in people a sense of dissatisfaction. It turns people into materialistic consumers; this is a far cry from the self-assured, informed individuals who know the real value of money and are able to develop the sensible shopping habits that any healthy society needs.
6. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?

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Sociologists have been carrying out research into the social pressures of being a teenager. Many adolescents are unhappy at school because they find it difficult to (17) _____ friends. This stress can bring on illness or result in poor grades. They may also worry about their appearance and often feel (18) _____ enormous pressure to dress, talk and behave the same as (19) _____. This phenomenon is called peer pressure, and it is very common in today’s society. Advertising contributes a lot to the social pressures teenagers feel. Advertisers know how important it is to feel that you belong to a group when you are in your teens, so they try to persuade teenagers that certain products will make them (20) _____ with their classmates. Sadly, many teenagers act irresponsibly and even do dangerous things just to make others accept them. Peer pressure is often the reason for teenage smoking, drug (21) _____ or dangerous driving. Teenagers need to learn to say no to social pressure and to find friends who they can talk things over with when they have a problem

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Dear Sir or Madam, I am sending you this letter of (1) ____, together with my CV, in view of the possibility of obtaining a job inside your company. (2) ____ very well aware of the fact that you will choose the best, I would be honoured (3) ____ myself among them in order to occupy an intermediary position between your company and your clients. Considering that my experience and my education are appropriate (4) ____ the job you could be offering and for the competence of your company, I decided to (5) ____ my CV to your attention. I have a very high interest in becoming a competent person in a (6) ____ company (7) ____ experience, motivation and ambition will be proven to be the strongest points for the best interest of the company and for my future experience. You will find details (8) ____ my education, my (9) ____ experience and my skills in the attached CV. I would be very glad with the opportunity of an interview, (10) ____ you consider it necessary and useful, in order to analyze the possibility of me being a part of the team. For any explanations that will be necessary please do not hesitate to contact me at the following number: 0723.456.789 Yours faithfully, George Airinei!

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If cartoons are anything to go by, then the attitude of the British towards the family, and of British men towards the (31) ________ sex, has not changed much recently, despite attempts to shame people into admitting their prejudices. The mother-in-law, frequently of horrific (32)______ and usually either about to visit, or being somehow driven from the house is still a favorite butt of this kind of humor. Marriage itself has been reduced to the skinny male, dominated by a massive female who habitually lies in wait with the rolling pin behind the door for the return of her drunken spouse. Children are rarely shown other than as screaming infants, or else as ill-favoured urchins who (33) _____ all their time being objectionable or asking for money. The old are simply (34) _____ as comic characters. The problem is, how do such cartoons relate to the way people truly see each other? Does a joke always contain some grain of truth, however much we may dislike to admit it? In other words, is life really a series of mother- in-law jokes? Or do jokes have a life of their own, with a (35) _______ of stereotypes we can recognize, like the Englishman with his umbrella and bowler hat, or the Frenchman with his striped jumper and beret?

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has issued a stark warning about the future of the world's natural World Heritage sites. It says half of the sites are at (1) ____ from different industries. The WWF warned that harmful industrial (2) ____ such as mining, dredging or drilling for oil are endangering the future of 114 of 229 sites. (3) ____ factors adding to the risk include illegal logging and unsustainable water use. All of these are in addition to the damage being (4) ____ by climate change. The WWF says the sites affected include Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon National Park in the USA, and China's Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, which are home (5) ____ more than 30 per cent of the world's endangered pandas.  The director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre said it was (6) ____ everyone to protect these sites. She said: "World Heritage is humankind's (7) ____ heritage, and the responsibility for its conservation is shared by everyone." She welcomed government efforts at reducing what they take from the Earth, saying: "The WWF's report comes at a time (8) ____ governments and the private sector around the world are stepping up their action against harmful extractive uses." However, the WWF said that more than 11 million people worldwide (9) _____ on World Heritage sites for food, water, shelter, jobs and medicine, and that non-stop development could harm (10) ____ as well as the environment

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I went to Australia on a student program last year and I like to (26)_______ you about it. I was very (27)_______when I knew I was going to Australia because I had never been there before. I didn’t think about the problems of speaking English (28)_______I met my host family. At first I couldn’t communicate with them because my English was so bad. All the five years I had been learning English wasn’t much used at all (29)_______we didn’t have real practice at school. Even though my grammar was good, my pronunciation wasn’t. My problem is (30)_______ ‘l’ and ‘r’. For example, Australian people often asked “What do you eat in Vietnam?” I wanted to tell them that we eat rice, but they didn’t understand when I said “We eat lice”

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People often find that success eludes them. But how often is this their own fault. One thing that we are all good at doing is procrastinating. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a prime example of someone (26) _______ failed to act and, in fact, was rendered incapable of action by his need to put things off – in other words, to procrastinate. And because this is such a universal failing, it may be that it is that very quality that (27) _______ him to us all. But it’s not a good thing. We should force ourselves to get over it. Procrastinators are less wealthy and less healthy and regret their inability to make quick decisions. So why so many of you like it? What is it that prevents us from fulfilling our true potential? Are we attempting to become perfectionists, claiming that we need time to polish our work – or even that we can only do our best work under pressure? The latter is untrue, as work done at the last minute contains more mistakes than that done on time. Our procrastinating behaviour (28) _______ others and leaves us feeling flustered and guilty. Social scientists are struggling to understand the causes of this malaise and from that knowledge work out strategies to overcome it. There are various suggestions they have come up with for (29) having trouble getting things done. They say we should consider breaking a task down into manageable chunks so that it seems less daunting and keep on trying to accept why we are delaying in the first place: is it fear, wishing to produce something perfect or boredom with the task? (30) _______ , knowing the reason means we can do with it. As for me, I’m off to have a rest and think about it all

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

Bang is a student. He’s 12 years old. He studies at Yen Hoa primary school. He usually leave home for school at 6.30 a.m. He lives quite near the school, so he usually walks to school with some of his friends. But today his father is driving him to school. He loves Literature and English. Today he has Physics, Chemistry and English. At school, he often plays volleyball with his best friends.

What time does he usually go to school?

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Why do people like to chew gum? Some people say they like the taste.(31)________say they can think better if they chew gum. Some people chew it when they have some boring work to do. Others chew gum when they are nervous. Gum is a mixture of things. For many years gum companies made gum from chicle. Chicle is a natural gum from a tree in Mexico and Central America. Now companies use plastic and rubber made from petroleum (32)________of chicle. Gum must be soft so that you can chew it. A softener keeps it soft. The gum company makes the softener from vegetable oil. A sweetener makes the gum sweet. The sweetener is usually sugar. Then the company (33)________the flavor. Thomas Adams made the first gum from chicle in 1836. However , chewing gum was not new. The Greeks chewed gum from a tree (34)________2,000 years ago. Mayan Indians in Mexico chewed chicle. Indians in the Northeastern United States taught Europeans to chew gum from a tree there. People first made bubble gum in 1928. Children like to (35)________bubble with bubble gum. Some university students do too

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I grew up with precious little choice about anything. You ate what you were given, went to school where you were told, wore your sister's hand-me-downs. And twice a year - birthday, Christmas - you got a present. We weren't poor at all but that was entirely normal and I don't remember feeling remotely deprived. Today, as we can see all around us, children seem to have everything - designer clothes, computer games, fussy eating habits and the attention span of itchy gnats. A report yesterday from the Children's Society found that one in ten kids now has mental illness diagnosed and it concluded that materialistic consumer pressure may be partly to blame, with children from poor backgrounds the main victims. Where is it coming from, this consumer pressure? First, from television, and the false dreams on offer there. Children from poor backgrounds, as well as having less money to buy the latest clothes or electronic games, are more likely to have parents without time to spend with them, and homes without access to outside space, so are far more likely to end up spending hours in front of the telly soaking up adverts alongside the easy gratification offered by cartoon; fantasy or drama. You cannot just blame the parents for this; many will be working hard, with no choice, just to put food on the table; after all, how many can afford a house with a garden in a city or suburb these days? Of course parents can correct bouts of consumerism in their children by teaching them what is and is not affordable, but why subject them to the clever traps of marketing people in the first place? Pressure is bad enough as it is, from schoolfriends and celebrity excess, without allowing some of the cleverest adult minds in the sharpest advertising agencies in the world to manipulate them as well. But why is it in a child's interests to be treated like a consumer? It has yet to be proven that giving even adults a wide range of choices improves their lives. In many instances, from too many yoghurts in the supermarket all the way up to a supposed choice of doctor or school, it is just confusing and stressful. I think the fewer, carefully selected, choices we can give young children, the more we help them. Watch the exhausted face of a six-year-old confronted by all this year's Christmas presents, without the time to play with any of them for more than a few minutes, and see what I mean. We are spoilt, and we are spoiling our children. They need to be taught to look down as well as up; to choose to feel fortunate, and not envious -and to recognise that gratification isn't as easy as buying a new toy or switching on a dream. And, as my mother would have been delighted to hear, it will not cost a thing.
3. According to paragraph 2, what is the major concern surrounding poor children being exposed to the television?

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Part of what makes summers so hot is also what causes thunderstorms. As heat from the sun beats down on Earth, the heat evaporates some of the water in lakes and oceans. The evaporated water stays in the air. This evaporated water makes the air feel heavy and humid. Humid air is what makes you feel hot and sticky (1) _______ the summer. Warm humid air usually does not stay in one place. The wind can move it higher in the sky (2) _______ it will cool off. When warm humid air cools, it forms clouds. As more water is moved from lakes and oceans to the airs, the clouds get bigger and bigger. Since summer, the air near the ground is hotter than it is during other seasons of the year. When this hot air mixes with cool air from (3) _______ area, there will be changes in the weather. Greater differences between the (4) _______ of the hot and cold air will cause greater changes in the weather. Imagine putting an ice (5) _______ in a warm drink. As soon as the ice hits the warm drink, it will crack and pop. But if you put the ice cube in a cool drink, it will not crack or pop as much. When warmer and cooler clouds get close to one another, there may be some popping and cracking as the weather changes. There may be more clouds or storms. A thunderstorm may be on its way.

Read the passage and choose the best answers:
Most of us tend to think of production when we think of mass media industries. After all, it  is the output of this production – the papers we read, the cable TV shows we watch – that grab our attention, make us happy or angry, interested or bored. Moreover, most public discussion about  mass communication tends to be about production. The latest gossip about that actor will be in what film, the angry comments a mayor makes about the violence on local TV news, the newest  CDs by an up-and-coming group – these are the kinds of topics that focus our attention on the  making of content, not its distribution or exhibition. Media executives know, however, that production is only one step in the arduous and risky process of getting a mass media idea to an audience. Distribution is the delivery of the produced  material to the point where it will be shown to its intended audience. The activity takes place out of public view. We have already mentioned the NBC acts as a distributor when it disseminates television programming via satellite to TV stations. When Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. delivers  its Philadelphia Inquirer to city newsstands, when Twentieth – Century – Fox moves its Musicland  stores, they are involved in distribution to exhibitions. 
5. The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to: 

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We're all faced with difficult problems on a regular basis. In fact, sometimes you might feel like you'll be crushed by the weight of your problems. But how many of us use special creative problem-solving techniques to tackle these problems? "I didn't know there were special techniques," you say. Believe it or not, many experts have given a lot of thought to the problem of problem solving. The obvious first step to solving a problem is to churn out possible solutions, right? Well, some experts say that the first thing you should do is define the problem in detail, even if it seems obvious. Write the problem down on a piece of paper and start asking yourself questions about it: Why is this a problem for me? What is the source of the problem? What will happen if I don't solve the problem? What do I really want to accomplish? Keep asking questions until the well has run dry. Once you've asked these questions and answered them, potential solutions may start popping up like popcorn. Or they may not. If you're still stuck, some experts recommend going for a walk. That's right- you should literally walk away from the problem. A change of scenery can inspire new ideas, and not focusing on the problem can actually open your mind to new possibilities. If you still come up empty-handed at this point, you might try an unusual technique that some experts recommend. Open a dictionary, or any book or magazine, and pick out the first word you see. Write down anything that word makes you think of. Then look at your problem again. Something that you've written down may change your perspective and help you see the problem in a different light.
3. According to paragraph 2, what is said about the nature of problem-solving?

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Learning to manage your time involves using a variety of life skills together. First of all, you need to know yourself. Only you know (1) ____ you are a morning or an evening person, for example. Understanding when you are (2) ____ your best can help you decide when to do certain things you have to do - like studying. Then, you need to prioritise and decide which things are the most (and least) important. After that, you need to get organised and start planning a schedule, (3) ____ could include when to study, as well as when to relax. It is important to be (4) ____ when you are trying to manage your time. You need to factor in time to sleep, (5) ____, and this should be based on your normal sleep patterns there is no (6) ____ in planning to study at six in the morning if you have never managed to get out of bed before eight. Many people forget to include socialising, but this is a mistake because it is unhealthy to avoid seeing people, just as it is a mistake to (7) ____ all your time socialising while your list of things to do grows longer and longer.  On the subject of lists, it is important to remember that these may have to change. You need to plan for the unexpected - a visit from a friend, for example - and this means that you may have to (8) ____ your to-do list, perhaps (9) ____ something that is less important. Flexibility is the key here, (10) ____ you risk becoming extremely disorganised. It is better to have to change a plan than to lose it completely.  Finally, remember the old saying - 'If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. In the end, managing your time better will help you avoid stress, and that can only be a good thing

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has issued a stark warning about the future of the world's natural World Heritage sites. It says half of the sites are at (1) ____ from different industries. The WWF warned that harmful industrial (2) ____ such as mining, dredging or drilling for oil are endangering the future of 114 of 229 sites. (3) ____ factors adding to the risk include illegal logging and unsustainable water use. All of these are in addition to the damage being (4) ____ by climate change. The WWF says the sites affected include Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon National Park in the USA, and China's Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries, which are home (5) ____ more than 30 per cent of the world's endangered pandas.  The director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre said it was (6) ____ everyone to protect these sites. She said: "World Heritage is humankind's (7) ____ heritage, and the responsibility for its conservation is shared by everyone." She welcomed government efforts at reducing what they take from the Earth, saying: "The WWF's report comes at a time (8) ____ governments and the private sector around the world are stepping up their action against harmful extractive uses." However, the WWF said that more than 11 million people worldwide (9) _____ on World Heritage sites for food, water, shelter, jobs and medicine, and that non-stop development could harm (10) ____ as well as the environment

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Coincident with concerns about the accelerating loss of species and habitats has been a growing appreciation of the importance of biological diversity, the (18) _______ of species in a particular ecosystem, to the health of the Earth and human well-being. Much has been written about the diversity of terrestrial organisms, particularly the exceptionally rich life associated tropical rainforest habitats. Relatively little has been said, (19) _______ , about the diversity of life in the sea even though coral reef systems are comparable to rain forest in terms of richness of life.
An alien exploring Earth would probably (20) _______ priority to the planet's dominants – most distinctive feature - the ocean. Humans have a bias toward land (21) _______ sometimes gets in the way of truly examining global issues. Seen from far away, it is easy to realize that landmasses occupy only one-third of the Earth's surface. Given that two thirds of the Earth's surface is water and that marine life lives at all levels of the ocean, the total three-dimensional living space of the ocean is perhaps 100 times (22) _______ than that of land and contains more than 90 percent of all life on Earth even though the ocean has fewer distinct species

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Life span usually is measured in units of time. Although this may seem eminently logical, certain difficulties may arise. In cold blooded animals in general, the rate of metabolism that determines the various life processes varies with the temperatures to which they are exposed. If aging depends on the expenditure of a fixed amount of vital energy, an idea first proposed in 1908, life span will vary tremendously depending on temperature or other external variables that influence life span. There is considerable evidence attesting at least to the partial cogency of this argument. So long as a certain range is not exceeded, cold blooded invertebrates do live longer at low than at high temperalures. Rats in the laboratory live longest on a somewhat restricted diet that does not permit maximum metabolic rate. Of perhaps even greater significance is the fact that many animals undergo dormant periods. Many small mammals hibernate; a number of arthropods have life cycles that include periods during which development is arrested. Under both conditions the metabolic rate becomes very low. It is questionable whether such periods should be included in computing the life span of a particular organism. Comparisons between species, some of which have such inactive periods while others do not, are dangerous. It is possible that life span could be measured more adequately by total metabolism; however, the data that are necessary for this purpose are almost entirely lacking.  Length of life is controlled by a multitude of factors, which collectively may be termed environment, operating on a genetic system that determines how the individual will respond. It is impossible to list all the environmental factors that may lead to death. For analytical purposes it is, however, useful to make certain formal separations. Every animal is exposed to (1) a pattern of numerous events, each with a certain probability of killing the individual at any moment and, in the aggregate, causing a total probability of death or survival; (2) climatic and other changes in the habitat, modifying the frequency with which the various potentially fatal events occur; and (3) progressive systemic change, inasmuch as growth, reproduction, development, and senescence are characteristics intrinsic in the organism and capable of modifying the effects of various environmental factors. 
6. The word "which" in the passage refers to ____

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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

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Love is very different from friendship. If you've got a crush on someone you can't wait to see them.  If it's just an acquaintance you (1) ____ probably wait until tomorrow, or the day after. One thing is for sure: You'll probably see your blood relatives every day! Luckily, you don't need to see your (2) ____ relatives quite as often, though. When (3) ____ comes to business, you'll probably see your business partner daily, but you'll stay away from nemesis as often as you can.  Let's face it: love is complicated. I've heard from a number of people (4) ____ have experienced unrequited love, and they're never the same! There are also all kinds of (5) ____. For example, if you've had a casual date, do you want to go out again? Are you tired of your steady date? Well, maybe it's time for a new love-interest!