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Many children in our village are still_____. They can't read or write.

 

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A question I was asked about the readiness for independence (or lack thereof) during the last stage of adolescence (ages 18 - 23) was this: “How can parents teach independence?” From what I’ve seen, there are at least four components to this training: responsibility, accountability, work, and self-help. And this instruction can start as soon as (1) ____ begins, (usually between ages 9 and 13) if not before. Young people who learn independence can often say: “I (2) ____ my freedom by acting responsibly (I did what was right even when it was hard to do),” “I was held (3) ____ for my bad choices and paid for my mistakes (I faced my consequences),” “I worked to get a lot of what I wanted (it wasn’t all handed to me),” “I developed the resourcefulness to help myself (4) ____ with difficulty (I met my problems head on).” Young people who seem to get stuck in their dependent ways often have parents who, with the most loving motivation, undermine the growth of independence. They give freedom without demanding evidence of responsibility. “If you really want to do it, that’s enough for us to say okay.” They rescue from or ignore bad choices without (5) ____ on accountability. “You didn’t know any better so we’ll overlook what you did.” They provide whatever is wanted without having the child work for any of it. “We’ll just get it for you.” They weaken with so much help when difficulties arise that the capacity for self-help is disabled. “We’ll fix what you did and take care of it.

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The leaves of most plants are green, because the leaves are full of chemicals which are that colour. The most important of these chemicals is called “chlorophyll” and it (1) __________ plants to make food so they can grow using water, air and light from the sun. this way that a plant makes food for itself is called “photosynthesis” and it is one of the most important processes taking place on the (2) __________ planet. (3) __________ photosynthesis there would be no plants or people on Earth. Dinosaurs would not have been able to breathe and the air and oceans would be very different from those we have today. So the green chemical chlorophyll is really important. All leaves contain chlorophyll, but sometimes not all of the leaf has chlorophyll in it. Some leaves have green and white or green and yellow stripes or (4)______. Only the green bits have chlorophyll and only those bits can make food by photosynthesis. If you’re really good at noticing things, you might have seen plants and trees with red or purple leaves – and the leaves are that colour all year round, not just in autumn. These leaves are still full of the important green chemical, chlorophyll, just like any other ordinary green leaf. (5) _________________, they also have lots of other chemicals that are red or purple – so much of them that they no longer look green. But deep down inside the leaves, the chlorophyll is still there and it’s still green

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Many people believe the glare from snow causes snow-blindness. Yet, dark glasses or not, they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snowblindness, when exposed to several hours of “snow light”. The United States Army has now determined that the glare from snow does not cause snow-blindness in troops in a snow-covered country. Rather, a man’s eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of a snow-covered area. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature balances this annoyance by producing more and more liquid which covers the eyeballs. The liquid covers the eyeballs in increasing quantity until vision blurs. And the result is total, even though temporary, snow-blindness. Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark-colored objects ahead on which they too can focus. The men following can then see something. Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see, stop searching through the snow-blanketed landscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time, the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snow-blind or lost: In this way the problem of crossing a solid white area is overcome
1. To prevent headaches, watering eyes and blindness caused by the glare from snow, dark glasses are ____

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Practical experience is a must-have for today’s job seekers. According to Brazen Life’s Huffington Post article titled “Why Gaining Work Experience Is More Important Than Your Education,” many colleges and universities report that students who have completed an internship or gained work experience during their studies have higher rates of getting hired. For example, at Iowa State University, of all students who completed a co-op program to earn a BS in engineering, an astounding 90 percent got jobs after graduation. Why is practical experience so important? There are a number of reasons why you need practical work experience. First, it’s simply the smart thing to do when you’re preparing for a career in a specific field. Let’s say it’s your dream to work as a consultant for an international corporate relocation company because you love international travel and you like organizing things. So you get a part-time job working as an office assistant at a corporate relocation company… and you find out it’s very different from what you expected. In short, you realize this isn’t the job for you-and you can concentrate on finding another job where you can put your passion and skills to work, for example in the tourism industry. Alternatively, you might find out that you enjoy the corporate relocation business. That means you’re gaining invaluable industry experience that will look great on your resumé when you apply for a full-time job.  Second, practical work experience teaches valuable soft skills, such as discipline, perseverance, teamwork, leadership skills, communication skills and problem solving. Employers will look for these in candidates and they’ll want to see proof. If you’ve spent a month as a team leader at Homes for Heroes, the leadership skills, teamwork experience and problem-solving abilities you developed there can add significant value to your candidacy. Third, working helps you build your network and can provide you with contacts in your chosen field. These contacts can be extremely useful when it comes to hearing about job leads and interesting opportunities. In addition, if you’ve impressed someone, he or she might be willing to write you a letter of recommendation for a job or a place in a graduate program.  Finally, the company you’re working for might offer you a position after you’ve graduated. Your employer already knows your skills and abilities, and you’re already acquainted with the company-so it’s a win-win situation! 
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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The gathering of thousands of individuals representing the myriad religions of the  world for the Parliament of World Religions in Melbourne this year is a testament to the power that religion has to bring people together, to unite them in a search for truth, and to inspire them to work towards the betterment of this world. And this year the Parliament is focusing on issues of the environment through some of its subthemes.  In our day we are struggling with a number of issues related to the environment such as climate change, the pollution of the air, oceans, seas, and waterways, and the challenges of feeding a growing global population. While many of these issues are relatively new so that our forebears did not address them explicitly, our religious traditions do offer us worldviews and principles that aid us in finding solutions to our contemporary problems. One of the basic guiding principles that forms an Islamic vision of humanity’s relationship with the environment is our role as God’s deputies on earth. Islam considers human beings to be vice gerents or deputies of God on earth. Our mission as God’s deputies means that we are charged with the responsibility to care for and maintain the world. On the other hand, the fact that God has placed the world at our disposal means that we may benefit from what it has to offer us. In both cases, we must collaborate with our brothers and sisters in humanity.  One of the key characteristics of humankind’s role as deputies in the world is balance. We must find a balance between benefiting from the blessings that the world has to offer us, and preserving the order that God has established. We must find a balance between securing our own needs while not depriving others of theirs, whether those others reside in different parts of the world, such as less powerful nations, or in different times, such as our children and grandchildren. If we take seriously our role as God’s deputies on earth, not just by benefiting from the environment, but by preserving it and ensuring that other communities and generations will have the same possibilities to drink clean water, breath fresh air, and live in a world that is in harmony with itself and with ourselves, we may hope to be among those who are beloved to God due to their care for His creation
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

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Marriage is an ancient religious and legal practice celebrated around the world. However, wedding customs vary from country to country. The Wedding Dress: In many countries, it is customary for the bride to wear a white dress as a symbol of purity. The tradition of wearing a special white dress only for the wedding ceremony started around 150 years ago. Before that, most women could not afford to buy a dress that they would only wear once. Now, bridal dresses can be bought in a variety of styles. In some Asian countries and in the Middle East, colors of joy and happiness like red or orange other than white are worn by the bride or used as part of the wedding ceremony. The Wedding Rings: In many cultures, couples exchange rings, usually made of gold or silver and worn on the third finger of the left or right hand, during the marriage ceremony. The circular shape of the ring is symbolic of the couple’s eternal union. In Brazil, it is traditional to have the rings engraved with the bride’s name on the groom’s ring, an vice versa. Flowers: Flowers play an important role in most weddings. Roses are said to be the flowers of love, and because they usually bloom in June, this has become the most popular month for weddings in many countries. After the wedding ceremony, in many countries the bride throws her bouquet into a crowd of well-wishers – usually her single female friends. The person who catches this bouquet will be the next one to marry. Gifts: In Chinese cultures, wedding guests give gifts of money to the newly-weds in small red envelopes. Money is also an appropriate gift at Korean and Japanese wedding. In many Western countries, for example in the U.K, wedding guests give the bride and groom household items that they may need for their new home. In Russia, rather than receiving gifts, the bride and groom provide gifts to their guests instead. With the continued internationalization of the modern world, wedding customs that originated in one part of the world are crossing national boundaries and have been incorporated into marriage ceremonies in other countries. 
7. According to the passage, in which country would the wedding guests give the bride and groom money as a present?

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Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more  genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.  “Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world,” said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m). Previous research has suggested that a person’s conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly. This figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people. But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure. The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends. Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face. “People see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships,” added Dr. Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. “What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people,” he said.  But to develop a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr. Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need them … It’s very easy to be deceptive on the internet."
6. The word “deceptive” in the last sentence could best be replaced by ___________

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In 1988, a year before the Soviet Union collapsed, the 13th National Congress of the  Communist Party of Vietnam adopted a resolution to have “more friends and fewer enemies”. So it was not surprising when Vietnam expressed interest in joining ASEAN as early as 1992, or when it did in fact join in July 1995.   Vietnam’s membership of the grouping integrated its security with the whole of Southeast Asia and created a favourable environment for economic development. This, in turn, raised Vietnam’s global image, leading to increased cooperation with multiple players in the region and greater bargaining clout with super powers like the United States and China. As an ASEAN member, Vietnam has worked hard to secure peace and reconciliation among Southeast Asian nations, which were once deeply divided by war. Vietnam was the first Indochinese country to join ASEAN, and its move helped end confrontation between the Indochinese bloc and ASEAN. Vietnam has also helped ASEAN partner with non-regional players.  Vietnam also led efforts within ASEAN to ensure regional security. Soon after becoming a member, Vietnam signed the Treaty on the Southeast Asian Nuclear-WeaponFree Zone and was one of the founding members of the ASEAN Regional Forum. But the most proactive steps by Hanoi towards regional stability have revolved around disputes in the South China Sea. A direct claimant in the dispute, Vietnam, along with the Philippines, has made constant efforts to put the South China Sea on ASEAN’s agenda, ensuring conflict is dealt with in a constructive way. Vietnam has shown constant support for the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, ASEAN’s Six-Point Principles on the East Sea, and the soon-to-be-concluded Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea. Vietnam calls for the settlement of disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — including through regulations on respecting exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf of coastal countries. Vietnam has remained committed to ASEAN since it joined in 1995 and Vietnam is beginning to integrate further with the global community, and  cooperation with ASEAN will always be an important pillar in its foreign policy. But Vietnam’s interest in ASEAN is not
limited to security issues. Its leadership also drives efforts toward an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). 
4. The word “clout” in paragraph is closest in meaning to _______

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College is a new and different experience for me. I’m away from home, so I have  many things to adjust to. Being on my own, talking with friendly people, and having Fridays off - these are just some things I like about college.  Living at college, first of all, gives me a sense of responsibility, of being on my own. My parents are not around to say, “No, you’re not going out tonight.” Or “Did you finish your homework?” Everything I do has to be my decision, and that gives me the responsibility of handling my own life. During the second week I was at college, I had to go out and look for a bank where I could open an account. Before that I looked in the phone book since I had no clue about any banks around here or where they were located. Someone told me to go to a bank named Continental Federal Savings. And I had to make my own decision - whether to have a checking or saving account and whether or not to get a card. I’m on my own to make my own decisions.  I also love to have Fridays off. I wouldn’t be able to deal with five days of classes in a row. I love to sleep in. One Thursday night, my roommates and I went to Georgetown. We got in rather early the next morning, and my roommates and I decided to sleep in, something I couldn’t do in high school.  I do like things about college - being on my own and having Fridays off, but this doesn’t mean I don’t think about things at home. Although I like college, I can still get homesick: New York is a pretty good place, too. 
3. The example of going to a bank in paragraph 2 shows the author

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The preparations_______by the time the guests_______.

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The Colosseum was constructed over a short decade, between 70-80 AD, by up to  100,000 slaves. Its building was overseen by different emperors who ruled under the Imperial Flavian dynasty, lending the structure its original name. Emperor Vespasian began the construction of the Flavian Amphitheater and his son Titus oversaw the construction of an additional tier after his death in 79 AD. His youngest son Domitian constructed the underground tunnels and added an extra level to increase its seating capacity. The amphitheater takes its more commonly attributed name from the Colossus of Nero, an enormous bronze statue of the Emperor which was located beside the structure.  The Colosseum was a recreational and gathering space that was used for gladiatorial contests, public spectacles, historical re-enactments, mythological theatrical performances and of course, executions. It could hold between 50,000 to 80,000 spectators and the seating arrangements reflect the stratification of Roman society: senators were seated closest to the stage while the poorest Roman citizens (and women) stood at the highest level. Its skilled architects developed an ingenious design which included 80 entrances and exits with a numbering system to allow access in and out of the structure. Unlike most ancient amphitheaters which were built into hillsides for support, the Colosseum is so impressive because it is a freestanding structure: it is made of travertine stone that was sourced from the nearby Tivoli area and held together with iron clamps.  The Colosseum is most closely associated with its gladiatorial shows, although often the combatants were not skilled professionals but rather unlucky slaves and criminals pitted against each other for the enjoyment of the public. In fact the venatio, or animal hunt, was one of the most popular shows for its novelty and shock appeal. Always in pursuit of ostentatious displays of wealth and power, the Romans procured exotic animals such as elephants, giraffes, lions, bears and crocodiles from the far reaches of the empire and sent them out into the pit, often along with unfortunate souls who would be torn to pieces. During the inaugural games of the Colosseum, most likely held in 80 AD, over 9,000 animals are believed to have been killed. The Romans also constructed elaborate stage sets on the arena floor, simulating forests and other natural environments, as backdrops to the events taking place. 
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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They will never forget _______ the man-eating shark at the beach.

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The cake tastes ____.

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Stabilisation work means the Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning slightly less than it used to, experts have said. The tower, which has leaned to one side ever since it began to take shape in 1173, has lost 4cm of its tilt over the past two decades, according to a report from the surveillance group that meets every three months to give updates on the monument’s condition “Since restorative work began, the tower is leaning about half a degree less,” said Nunziante Squeglia, a geotechnics professor at the University of Pisa who works with the group. “But what counts is the stability of the tower, which is better than initially predicted.” The structure, which was badly damaged during the second world war, was closed to the public in 1990 over safety fears and did not reopen for 11 years. The surveillance group was set up in 2001 ago after Michele Jamiolkowski, an engineer of Polish origin, coordinated an international committee to save the landmark. The bell tower, a symbol of the power of the maritime republic of Pisa in the Middle Ages, was defective from the beginning due to the porous clay soil beneath its foundations. After three floors were completed, construction stopped and did not resume until 90 years later when workers started building additional floors on a diagonal to offset the lean. But work was again disrupted before finally being completed in 1372. The tower, located behind Pisa’s cathedral, attracts more than 5 million visitors a year. Reaching the top requires climbing 269 steps. The surveillance group’s work, which is funded by the non-profit Opera della Primaziale Pisana, includes improving the quality of the structure’s conservation and promoting research.
4. The word “offset” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____

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Would you believe that your diet can make a big difference in keeping a youthful appearance? It seems strange to think that the food we take in could result in fewer wrinkles. Wouldn’t it be better to put things on our skin rather than in our mouths? Well, according to one scientific theory, our bodies start aging because of oxidation. This is caused by certain oxygen-containing molecules in our cells, called free radicals. Free radicals have the capability to attach to and damage parts of our cells, including our DNA. Our bodies have the ability to repair this damage. However, as we get older, these repair mechanisms start to break down, resulting in signs of aging, such as wrinkles. Free radicals are actually produced by our bodies, but their numbers can also increase because of the food we eat. Besides avoiding foods that could potentially produce more free radicals, eating foods that contain certain vitamins and micro-nutrients can also keep us looking young. These vitamins help produce molecules called antioxidants, which actually help reduce the production of free radicals. Even better, foods containing antioxidants are not rare. Common antioxidants, like vitamins A and E, can be found in many dark-colored vegetables. For example, carrots, seaweed, spinach, and broccoli are all excellent sources of these helpful vitamins. Also, you can eat orange-colored fruits like apricots and peaches. Vitamins A and E are particularly good for helping your skin remain young-looking. These nutrients strengthen your skin and make it soft. However, if you really want to stock up quickly on nutrients that benefit your skin, you should eat cow’s liver. One small piece of cooked cow’s liver contains twice as much vitamin A as half a cup of cooked carrots.  More recently, green tea has also been tentatively added to the list of youthpromoting substances. Research on green tea’s effects on our bodies is still in the early stages. Scientists certainly believe that it is good for us, but they are cautious about predicting its ability to keep us looking youthful. However, recent experiments seem to show that green tea’s antioxidant properties can repair cell damage already sustained as well as prevent damage in the future. In fact, green tea works even better if you apply it directly to your skin as an ingredient in facial cream. “You are what you eat.” The more we find out about how our bodies work, the more this old proverb seems to be true. Think about that the next time you sit down at the table.  
4. As mentioned in the passage, the following are good foods for the skin, EXCEPT _____

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Adharanand Finn is a British journalist and a keen runner. Recently, he did the Fluorspar run in Kenya with a group of top Kenyan athletes. Here is the story he told the press after the event. The route of the Fluorspar run is exactly 21 km long and is uphill from start to finish. When I arrived at the start of the run at the bottom of the hill, the morning sun was up, and it was already hot. The ten athletes and I stood together for a group photograph and then immediately started our run up to the top. Most of the athletes who live in this part of Kenya have done it at least once. After about five minutes, I was already starting to fall behind other runners. I’ve never been that good at hill climbing, so I always knew I’d find it thorny. ‘Sure and steady,’ I told myself as I ran along, avoiding the biggest stones and trying to take the shortest line up the hill. But whenever I looked up, the others were further ahead, until soon they disappeared completely. At first I felt fine, but towards the end I began to feel a bit weak and strange. I don’t know now if I was imagining things but the people I passed, who were travelling down the road, seemed to be laughing at me. Finally, I reached the top. The rest of the runners were sitting on the grass, drinking lemonade and eating peanuts and boiled eggs. It took me one hour and fifty eight minutes, which is not bad at all. The others told me kindly that anyone who can run it in under two hours is very strong. They completed it much faster, in around one hour 30 minutes. I honestly have no idea how they do it.  
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

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Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu across the world, killing over 25 million people only in six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a diseases are called pandemics. Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fiht. In 1918, a new type of fl virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fiht this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in common. First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily. Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70%-80% of all people who get the Marburg virus died from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemics because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread. While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new disease that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warming may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.
5. According to the passage, all of the following are true of the 1918 fl pandemic EXCEPT that....

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As places transformed, so did the people. When researchers at Yale University and the University of Westminster studied what images people associated with climate change, they found a shift this decade. When they began their study in 2003, the majority of people surveyed thought of melting polar ice. By 2016, more and more people had weather top of mind. Climate, to be clear, is not weather. It’s the difference between a trend and a one-off event. But with wetter storms and hotter summers unfolding over the course of the decade, people were making new connections between climate change and the weather. Seeing climate change through the lens of something they experience every day opens the door for people to see the weight of the issue over their own lives. “Americans are just beginning to connect the dots and to say, wait a second, what’s going on here,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, a lead author of the study and director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. “There’s been this increasing dawning of awareness among many Americans that climate change is actually starting to harm people here and now.” New renewable energy projects outpaced new fossil fuel installations in worldwide growth for the first time in 2015. In a pivotal moment for the whole planet, every country on Earth agreed to take on climate change when they adopted the Paris climate accord in 2015. That committed countries to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep the Earth from warming beyond roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold that could be catastrophic for people and ecosystems if it’s crossed. It was the culmination of years of political wrangling. “It is rare to have the opportunity in a lifetime to change the world,” former French president François Hollande told delegates gathered on the final day of negotiations. “Seize it so that the planet can live on, so that humanity can live on.” But cooperation, even when the health of the whole planet is on the line, can be a fragile, fleeting thing. After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he began the process of formally withdrawing the US from the Paris accord. One by one, Trump backtracked on existing federal efforts to cut down on pollution, too. The words “climate change” began disappearing from government websites and documents  
5. The word “wrangling” in paragraph 3, is closest in meaning to _______

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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
3. According to paragraph 2, what do the scientists discover in their study?

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During the past half-century, our species has embarked on a remarkable social  experiment. For the first time in human history, great numbers of people – at all ages, in all places, of every political persuasion – have begun settling down as singletons. Until the second half of the last century, most of us married young and parted only at death. If death came early, we remarried quickly; if late, we moved in with family, or they with us. Now we marry later. We divorce, and stay single for years or decades.  The rise of living alone has produced significant social benefits, too. Young and middle-aged solos have helped to revitalise cities, because they are more likely to spend money, socialise and participate in public life. Contemporary solo dwellers in the US are primarily women: about 18 million, compared with 14 million men. The majority, more than 16 million, are middle-aged adults between the ages of 35 and 64. The elderly account for about 11 million of the total. Young adults between 18 and 34 number increased more than 5 million, compared with 500,000 in 1950, making them the fastest-growing segment of the solo-dwelling population.  Despite fears that living alone may be environmentally unsustainable, solos tend to live in apartments rather than in big houses, and in relatively green cities rather than in cardependent suburbs. There’s good reason to believe that people who live alone in cities consume less energy than if they coupled up and decamped to pursue a single-family home.
3. The word “them” in paragraph 2 refers to_______________?