Choose the best answer:
Many young people choose to spend a year or two of their lives while they are still (1)______ living in a foreign country and working as a volunteer. Working as a volunteer means that you cannot only help others, but also develop a (2)______understanding of the world and yourself.
You must have a university degree and (3)______at least one year‟s experience before you can (4)______ . Suitable applicants are invited to attend a series of interviews and are then sent on a training programme. Applicants are usually offered a post (5)______ months and can be sent anywhere from the Sahara to Siberia.
The advantages of being a volunteer far (6)______ the disadvantages. Being a volunteer can enable you to get (7)______ experience that you would otherwise not have had. It can help you move up the career ladder faster. You will make (8)______ friends and return with an appreciation of another culture and language.
However, volunteering is not for everyone. It can be difficult being (9)______ from friends and family. Living on a (10)______ allowance is challenging. But, if you do choose to go, you will return a stronger and wiser person.
5.
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiGiải thích:Dựa vào nghĩa của câu chọn C
Tạm dịch:Các ứng viên thường được cung cấp một bài đăng trong vòng vài tháng và có thể được gửi đến bất cứ đâu từ Sahara đến Siberia.
Câu hỏi liên quan
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The Trump campaign ran on bringing jobs back to American shores, although mechanization has been the biggest reason for manufacturing jobs’ disappearance. Similar losses have led to populist movements in several other countries. But instead of a pro-job growth future, economists across the board predict further losses as AI, robotics, and other technologies continue to be ushered in. What is up for debate is how quickly this is likely to occur.
Now, an expert at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania is ringing the alarm bells. According to Art Bilger, venture capitalist and board member at the business school, all the developed nations on earth will see job loss rates of up to 47% within the next 25 years, according to a recent Oxford study. “No government is prepared,” The Economist reports. These include blue and white collar jobs. So far, the loss has been restricted to the blue collar variety, particularly in manufacturing.
To combat “structural unemployment” and the terrible blow, it is bound to deal the American people, Bilger has formed a nonprofit called Working Nation, whose mission it is to warn the public and to help make plans to safeguard them from this worrisome trend. Not only is the entire concept of employment about to change in a dramatic fashion, the trend is irreversible. The venture capitalist called on corporations, academia, government, and nonprofits to cooperate in modernizing our workforce.
To be clear, mechanization has always cost us jobs. The mechanical loom, for instance, put weavers out of business. But it also created jobs. Mechanics had to keep the machines going, machinists had to make parts for them, and workers had to attend to them, and so on. A lot of times those in one profession could pivot to another. At the beginning of the 20th century, for instance, automobiles were putting blacksmiths out of business. Who needed horseshoes anymore? But they soon became mechanics. And who was better suited?
Not so with this new trend. Unemployment today is significant in most developed nations and it’s only going to get worse. By 2034, just a few decades, mid-level jobs will be by and large obsolete. So far the benefits have only gone to the ultra-wealthy, the top 1%. This coming technological revolution is set to wipe out what looks to be the entire middle class. Not only will computers be able to perform tasks more cheaply than people, they’ll be more efficient too.
Accountants, doctors, lawyers, teachers, bureaucrats, and financial analysts beware: your jobs are not safe. According to The Economist, computers will be able to analyze and compare reams of data to make financial decisions or medical ones. There will be less of a chance of fraud or misdiagnosis, and the process will be more efficient. Not only are these folks in trouble, such a trend is likely to freeze salaries for those who remain employed, while income gaps only increase in size. You can imagine what this will do to politics and social stability.What does the word “they” in paragraph 5 refer to?
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The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting definitions used by the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1870 the census officially distinguished the nation's “urban” from its “rural” population for the first time. “Urban population” was defined as persons living in towns of 8,000 inhabitants or more. But after 1900 it meant persons living in incorporated places having 2,500 or more inhabitants. Then, in 1950 the Census Bureau radically changed its definition of “urban” to take account of the new vagueness of city boundaries. In addition to persons living in incorporated units of 2,500 or more, the census now included those who lived in unincorporated units of that size, and also all persons living in the densely settled urban fringe, including both incorporated and unincorporated areas located around cities of 50,000 inhabitants or more. Each such unit, conceived as an integrated economic and social unit with a large population nucleus, was named a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA).
Each SMSA would contain at least (a) one central city with 50,000 inhabitants or more or
two cities having shared boundaries and constituting, for general economic and social purposes, a single community with a combined population of at least 50,000, the smaller of which must have a population of at least 15,000. Such an area included the county in which the central city is located, and adjacent counties that are found to be metropolitan in character and economically and socially integrated with the county of the central city. By 1970, about two-thirds of the population of the United States was living in these urbanized areas, and of that figure more than half were living outside the central cities.
While the Census Bureau and the United States government used the term SMSA (by 1969 there were 233 of them), social scientists were also using new terms to describe the elusive, vaguely defined areas reaching out from what used to be simple “towns” and “cities”. A host of terms came into use: “metropolitan regions,” “polynucleated population groups”, “conurbations,” “metropolitan clusters,” “megalopolises,” and so on.According to the passage, the population of the United States was first classified as rural or urban in
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As customers choose brands based on how they make them feel, rather than their actual products or services, there is an intrinsic advantage to those organizations who use designed experiences as a weapon to cut through the most competitive of markets. Those that don’t, operate in what we call the “experience gap”, the space between them and their customer’s expectation of them. Make no mistake, in our high paced and digitally connected economies, the experience gap is driving markets, fast.
For example, take Instagram and Twitter. These brands filled the demand for a whole new human experience that did not exist before the evolution of digital technologies enabled that. They were pioneers, and there were no established players to unseat. But we are also seeing a similar dynamic in existing industries. New entrants are coming in and taking the space, also using whole new experiences, purely because the incumbents left the door open.
Closer to home, this can be seen with Australian neobanks who are giving customers a better experience than the incumbents. Robert Bell is the CEO at neobank 86400. He says banking has already become quite complicated and he wanted to make a change. His neobank is working to solve customers problems more holistically. Bell said, “It’s significantly harder work and takes more time to become a bank, but having done that we can have a much better relationship with our customers and we can offer them a lot more products and services.”
Think about that for a moment. Do you notice how better experiences, leads to better relationships, which is then the stepping stone for more offerings? Many brands still jump straight to modified offerings, without gaining that customer connection and the necessary foundation of trust first.What does the phrase “stepping stone” in paragraph 4 mean?
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Telecommuting-substituting the computer for the trip to the job-has been hailed as a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work. For workers, it promises freedom from the office, less time wasted in traffic, and help with child-care conflicts. For management, telecommuting helps keep high performers on board, minimizes tardiness and absenteeism by eliminating commutes, allows periods of solitude for high-concentration tasks, and provides scheduling flexibility. In some areas, such as Southern California and Seattle, Washington, local governments are encouraging companies to start telecommuting programs in order to reduce rush-hour congestion and improve air quality, but these benefits do not come easily. Making a telecommuting program work requires careful planning and an understanding of the differences between telecommuting realities and popular images.
Many workers are seduced by rosy illusions of life as a telecommuter. A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack Mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer. A manager comes into his Office three days a week and works at home the other two. An accountant stays home to care for child; she hooks up her telephone modem connections and does office work between calls to the doctor.
These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality. Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a certain age, young children cannot recognize, much less respect, the necessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support is necessary if the parent is to get any work done.
Management, too, must separate the myth from the reality. Although the media has paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting, in most cases it is the employee’s situation, not the availability of technology, that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.
That is partly why, despite the widespread press coverage, the number of companies with work-at-home programs or policy guidelines remains small.According to the passage, what is the most important tool for a telecommuter to work at home?
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Tides are the periodic rise and fall of the Earth’s waters that are caused by the Moon’s and Sun’s forces of gravity acting on the Earth .It is important to distinguish natural tidal phenomena from huge tsunamis , with the latter being caused by earthquakes and undersea volcanic eruptions.
The Moon is a main factor controlling ordinary tides. At the location on the Earth closest to the Moon, it exerts a powerful gravitational pull on the water. The resulting rise in the water produces higher tides. The water on the side of the Earth farthest away from the Moon also gets pulled by this lunar gravity, but not as strongly. The Earth itself has its own gravitational force that is constantly pulling waters downward, which is why the oceans do not simply bulge out toward the Moon. Ordinary tides usually feature high and low waters alternating in relation to the Earth’s rotation. Most shores around the world have high waters and two low waters for each day, which last about 24 hours and 50 minutes. The difference in height between the high water and low water is called the range of tide, and it can be quite dramatic in narrower bays
.Canada’s bays of Fundy , for example , commonly experiences the world’s most extreme tidal ranges , with daily differences of the 16 meters.
Two other types of tides are influenced by the Sun, which is much farther away from the Earth and exerts less than half of the Moon’s gravitational force. When the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are directly in line, the solar and lunar gravitational forces add up to produce higher spring tides. The range of spring tides is intensified, with higher water marks and lower low water marks. However, when the Moon is in the first or third quarter, it is at a 90–degree angle with the Sun in relation to the Earth .The opposing solar and lunar forces partially cancel each other out, and the result is a lower tide. This is called a neap tide, which comes twice a month and has lower high water marks and higher low water marks. The range of neap tides is minimum.
Some tides do not occur over water at all. The solid body of the Earth has slight elasticity, so lunar and solar gravity cause it to stretch very subtly. These changes in the Earth’s shape, although imperceptible to humans, are known as Earth tides.
Another tidal phenomenon, atmospheric tides, is caused by the Sun’s heating of the Earth’s atmosphere. Like ordinary tides, they usually occur over 12–hour periods.What can be inferred about Canada’s Bay of Fundy ?
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The legal limit for driving after drinking alcohol is 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood, when tested. But there is no sure way of telling how much you can drink before you reach this limit. It varies with each person depending on your weight, your sex, if you’ve just eaten and what sort of drinks you’ve had. Some people might reach their limit after only about three standard drinks.
In fact, your driving ability can be affected by just one or two drinks. Even if you’re below the legal limit, you could still be taken to court if a police officer thinks your driving has been affected by alcohol.
It takes about an hour for the body to get rid of the alcohol in one standard drink. So, if you have a heavy drinking session in the evening you might find that your driving ability is still affected the next morning, or you could even find that you’re still over the legal limit. In addition, if you’ve had a few drinks at lunchtime, another one or two drinks in the early evening may well put you over the legal limit.
In a test with professional drivers, the more alcoholic drinks they had had the more certain they were that they could drive a test course through a set of moveable posts … and the less able they were to do it!
So the only way to be sure you’re safe is not to drink at all.
Alcohol is a major cause of road traffic accidents. One in three of the drivers killed in road accidents have levels of alcohol which are over the legal limit, and road accidents after drinking are the biggest cause of death among young men. More half of the people stopped by the police to take a breathalyzer test have a blood alcohol concentrate of more than twice the legal limit.
It is important to remember that driving after you’ve been drinking doesn’t just affect you. If you’re involved in an accident it affects a lot of other people as well, not least the person you might kill or injure.When might you be taken to court by the police for drinking and driving?
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Except for a few unfortunate individuals, no law in this world can go against the fact that for most of us our family is an essential part of our lives. The moment you enter this cruel world, where each man is for himself, there are some near and dear ones out there who will do anything to ensure your happiness. We are nothing more than a vulnerable and fragile object, without someone taking care of us on our arrival in this world. Despite all the odds, your family will take care of your wellbeing, and try their best to provide you the greatest comforts in the worled. No one out there, except your family must forgive the endless number of mistakes you may make in your life. Apart from teaching you forgive and forget
lessons, they are always there for you, when you need them the most.
Family is the only place where children study a lot after school. In school, teachers teach children about the subjects which will help them to find a good job in future. But at home, parents teach children about good habits. They are not only the elements which help the children to shape their personalities but they also prepare them a suitable and bright future.
A good family makes a greater society. Father, mother, and children have to work in order to build a strong family. If any one of them fails, the whole family may collapse. The good name of the whole family can be ruined by a single member of the family. In order to avoid that unhappy scenario, every family member has to work hard and try their best. As a result, they will set good examples for the whole society. Families have a powerful impact on society and societies create countries.To children, family plays a role in .
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Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1902 but was raised on a farm in Minnesota, where his father was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1907. From then on, he spent his boyhood alternately in Washington, D.C. Detroit, and Little Falls, Minnesota. Because Lindbergh exhibited exceptional mechanical talent, in 1921 he was admitted to the University of Wisconsing to study engineering. However, the young man was seeking more challenging endeavors, and two years later he became a stunt pilot who performed feats at county fairs and public assemblies. This unusual and dangerous undertaking paid off handsomely in the sense that it allowed him to gain a diverse and well–rounded experience in aeronautics. He particularly delighted in what he called “wing–walking” and parachute jumping.
After a year of training as a military cadet, Lindbergh completed his program at the Brooks and Kelly airfields at the top of his class and earned the rank of captain.
Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, offered him employment as a mail pilot to run the routes between St. Louis and Chicago, and Lindbergh retained his position with the company until 1927. During this period, he set out to win the Raymond B. Orteig prize of $25,000 to be awarded to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. This ambition would irreversibly change his life and accord him a prominent place in the history of aviation.
Embarking on the greatest adventure of his time, Lindbergh left Roosevelt Field at 7:52 A.M. on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Field at 5:24 P.M. the next day. Fearing that he would be unknown when he arrived, Lindbergh carried letters of introduction to dignitaries in Paris, but when his plane came to a stop, he was overwhelmed by tremendous welcoming crowds. He was decorated in France, Great Britain, and Belgium, and President Coolidge sent a specially designated cruiser, the Memphis, to bring him back, His accomplishments in aeronautics brought him more medals and awards than had ever been received by any other person in private life.The author of the passage implies that Lindbergh did not anticipate becoming a
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Set in the red desert of central Australia is the mining town of Coober Pedy. At first sight, the town looks similar to many other such communities, but Coober Pedy is different. Sixty per cent of its population of 4,000 people lives underground. There are today about 800 underground houses as well as shops, hotels and even churches in the town and the surrounding hills. Once a site has been chosen, special tunneling machines are (1)............in to create passages and rooms in the sandstone. Rock pillars are left to support the roof, and doors and windows are cut into the front. Houses are of all shapes and (2)......., the largest having twenty rooms, and some even have their own swimming poll.
Living underground may sound strange but in fact it has a number of advantages. In summer, the temperature outside can reach an astonishing 47°C, and in winter the nights can be (3)...... cold.
However, inside the houses it remains a steady 25°C all year round. Many people say that living underground makes they feel very secure. There is no problem with noise from the neighbours and the houses are not affected. By the fierce dust storms that regularly sweep (4)........the area. And of course, if your family (5)........... or lots of friends come to stay, you can always dig another room.
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Today, there are 600 million cars in the world. They may seem like a lot. However, there are over 7 million people on our planet. Most of the world’s population uses public transportation to get around. The number of people using public transportation continues to rise. Subway systems worldwide carry 155 million passengers each day. That’s more than 30 times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes. Every day in Tokyo passengers take more than 40 million rides on public transportation.
Yet many people see public transportation as ‘a depressing experience’, says author Taras Gresco. They say it is slow, crowded, or too expensive. In fact, Gresco says, it is actually ‘faster, more comfortable and cheaper’ than driving a car.Like millions of people, Taras Gresco is a ‘straphanger’ - a person who rides public transportation. In his book straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile, Gresco describe the benefits of public transportation. Firstly, it is better for the environment. When people use public transportation, they use less fuel. Twenty people on one bus use much less fuel than 20 people in 20 cars. Fewer cars mean less pollution and cleaner air.
Using public transportation can be good for your health in other ways. It can even help you lose weight. In one study, a group of people took public transportation every day for six months. Each day they walked to a bus stop or train station. In six months, each person lost an average of six pounds - almost three kilograms. Taking public transportation has another benefit, says Gresco. It helps people become part of their community. When you are alone in your car, you don’t talk to anyone. One Tokyo straphanger told Gresco, “To use public transport is to know how to cooperate with other people,’ It teaches you ‘how to behave in a public space’. So, public transportation is more than a way to get to work or school. It can help lead to cleaner cities. It may also lead to a healthier and more cooperative world population.Which of the following can be the best title of the reading passage?
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There are many different metaphors used to describe culture. My favorite one is the iceberg. I think, it demonstrates so vividly what can happen to us if we believe only in the visible and ignore or underestimate the invisible part. The hidden part of our culture is that part which we know instinctively because we absorbed it from childhood on. It's handed down to us from generation to generation. We could also say, it's the "thinking" and "feeling" part of culture: habits, assumptions, attitudes, desires, values, tastes, etc.
Now, if we are in a new culture, our customary evaluations and interpretations are likely not to be on target because we see everything through our own cultural glasses. Imagine yourself in a new city trying to get around with a map from your own hometown. It wouldn't take long for you to get lost and completely frustrated! When we experience an encounter in the new culture that puzzles us, the most common reaction is to judge it through our own cultural glasses.
I want to propose an alternate approach to our initial gut reaction. Instead of immediately and instinctively judging a situation through our own glasses, we might first just pause and notice what is happening and then realize that this is a cultural learning situation. Remember the iceberg metaphor! The new culture becomes your mirror that shows you a hidden part of your own culture. What an opportunity for personal growth and new insight! You can compare two different approaches, that of the new culture and of your own culture. This gives you a choice. Now you can decide what fits best for you or even take the best from both sides.Which best serves as the title for the passage?
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Human memory, formerly believed to be rather inefficient, is really more sophisticated than that of a computer. Researchers approaching the problem from a variety of points of view have all concluded that there is a great deal more stored in our minds than has been generally supposed. Dr. Wilder Penfield, a Canadian neurosurgeon, proved that by stimulating their brains electrically, he could elicit the total recall of specific events in his subjects’ lives. Even dreams and other minor events supposedly forgotten for many years suddenly emerged in detail.
The memory trace is the term for whatever is the internal representation of the specific information about the event stored in the memory. Assumed to have been made by structural changes in the brain, the memory trace is not subject to direct observation but is rather a theoretical construct that we use to speculate about how information presented at a particular time can cause performance at a later time. Most theories include the strength of the memory trace as a variable in the degree of learning, retention, and retrieval possible for a memory. One theory is that the fantastic capacity for storage in the brain is the result of an almost unlimited combination of interconnections between brain cells, stimulated by patterns of activity. Repeated references to the same information support recall. Or, to say that another way, improved performance is the result of strengthening the chemical bonds in the memory.Compared with a computer, human memory is...................
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Nature has always provided a stimulus for inventive minds. Early flying machines clearly were an attempt to emulate the freedom of birds. Architects and engineers have often consciously modeled buildings on forms found in nature. A more recent example of the inspiration given by nature is the invention of Velcro®. The inventor of this now common fastening device noticed that small burrs attached to his dog's coat grasped the hairs by means of tiny hooks. This led him to invent a synthetic fabric whose surfaces mimic the clasping properties of this natural seedpod.
Animals and plants have evolved solutions to the kinds of problems that often interest engineers and designers. Much current research in material science is concerned with actively examining the natural world, especially at the molecular level, for inspiration to develop materials with novel properties. This relatively new field of study is sometimes known as biomimetics, since it consciously attempts to mimic nature.
Researchers have investigated several interesting areas. For example, they have studied how the molecular structure of antler bone contributes to its amazing toughness, how the skin structure of a worm contributes to its ability to crawl, how the sea cucumber softens its skeleton and changes shape so that it can squeeze through tiny gaps in rocks, or what gives wood its high resistance to impact. These investigations have led to several breakthroughs in the development of composite materials with remarkable properties.
Predictions for future inventions that may be developed from these lines of research include so- called smart structures that design and repair themselves in a similar way to a variety of processes in the natural world. For example, engineers have envisaged bridges that would detect areas heavily stressed by vehicle movement or wind. The bridge structure would then automatically add or move material to the weak areas until the stress is reduced. The same principle might be used to repair damaged buildings. Other new materials that have been imagined are substances that would copy photosynthesis in green plants in order to create new energy sources. The potential impact of biomimetic research is so great that the twenty-first century may come to be known as the "Age of Materials."The word “emulate” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to .
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The first thing to do when you have a trip abroad is to check that your passport is valid. Holders of out–of–date passports are not allowed to travel overseas. Then you can prepare for your trip. If you don't know the language, you can have all kinds of problems communicating with local people. Buying a pocket dictionary can make a difference. You'll be able to order food, buy things in shops and ask for directions. It's worth getting one. Also there's nothing worse than arriving at your destination to find there are no hotels available. The obvious way to avoid this is to book in advance. This can save you money too. Another frustrating thing that can happen is to go somewhere and not know about important sightseeing places. Get a guide book before you leave and make the most of your trip. It's a must.
Then, when you are ready to pack your clothes, make sure they are the right kind. It's no good packing sweaters and coats for a hot country or T–shirts and shorts for a cold one. Check the local climate before you leave.
Also, be careful how much you pack in your bags. It's easy to take too many clothes and then not have enough space for souvenirs. But make sure you pack essentials. What about money? Well, it's a good idea to take some local currency with you but not too much. There are conveniently located cash machines (ATMs) in most big cities, and it's usually cheaper to use them than change your cash in banks. Then you'll have more money to spend. When you are at your destination, other travellers often have great information they are happy to share. Find out what they have to say. It could enhance your travelling experience.According to the passage, you should do all of the following before leaving EXCEPT
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The first thing to do when you have a trip abroad is to check that your passport is valid. Holders of out–of–date passports are not allowed to travel overseas. Then you can prepare for your trip. If you don't know the language, you can have all kinds of problems communicating with local people. Buying a pocket dictionary can make a difference. You'll be able to order food, buy things in shops and ask for directions. It's worth getting one. Also there's nothing worse than arriving at your destination to find there are no hotels available. The obvious way to avoid this is to book in advance. This can save you money too. Another frustrating thing that can happen is to go somewhere and not know about important sightseeing places. Get a guide book before you leave and make the most of your trip. It's a must.
Then, when you are ready to pack your clothes, make sure they are the right kind. It's no good packing sweaters and coats for a hot country or T–shirts and shorts for a cold one. Check the local climate before you leave.
Also, be careful how much you pack in your bags. It's easy to take too many clothes and then not have enough space for souvenirs. But make sure you pack essentials. What about money? Well, it's a good idea to take some local currency with you but not too much. There are conveniently located cash machines (ATMs) in most big cities, and it's usually cheaper to use them than change your cash in banks. Then you'll have more money to spend. When you are at your destination, other travellers often have great information they are happy to share. Find out what they have to say. It could enhance your travelling experience.The word “essentials” in paragraph 4 mostly means .
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Certainly no creature in the sea is odder than the common sea cucumber. All living creature, especially human beings, have their peculiarities, but everything about the little sea cucumber seems unusual. What else can be said about a bizarre animal that, among other eccentricities, eats mud, feeds almost continuously day and night but can live without eating for long periods, and can be poisonous but is considered supremely edible by gourmets?
For some fifty million years, despite all its eccentricities, the sea cucumber has subsisted on its diet of mud. It is adaptable enough to live attached to rocks by its tube feet, under rocks in shallow water, or on the surface of mud flats. Common in cool water on both Atlantic and Pacific shores, it has the ability to suck up mud or sand and digest whatever nutrients are present.
Sea cucumbers come in a variety of colors, ranging from black to reddish – brown to sand – color and nearly white. One form even has vivid purple tentacles. Usually the creatures are cucumber – shaped – hence their name – and because they are typically rock inhabitants, this shape, combined with flexibility, enables them to squeeze into crevices where they are safe from predators and ocean currents.
Although they have voracious appetites, eating day and night, sea cucumbers have the capacity to become quiescent and live at a low metabolic rate-feeding sparingly or not at all for long periods so that the marine organisms that provide their food have a chance to multiply. If it were not for this faculty, they would devour all the food available in a short time and would probably starve themselves out of existence.
But the most spectacular thing about the sea cucumber is the way it defends itself. It major enemies are fish and crabs, when attacked; it squirts all its internal organs into the water. It also casts off attached structures such as tentacles. The sea cucumber will eviscerate and regenerate itself if it is attacked or even touched; it will do the same if surrounding water temperature is too high or if the water becomes too polluted.Which of the following would NOT cause a sea cucumber to release its internal organs into the water?
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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:
Have you ever thought about inventing something? Did you worry that your idea was too strange or unrealistic? Well, maybe you should think again. Strange or unrealistic ideas never stopped Arthur Pedrick. Pedrick was a British inventor. Originally a government clerk, he spent his retirement in the 1960s and 1970s developing new and unusual ideas. Some of these ideas contradicted basic physics, but that didn’t stop Pedrick. One of his strangest ideas was a plan to connect large tubes from the continent of Australia all the way to Antarctica, a distance of 10,000 km! These tubes would carry giant ice balls from Antarctica to Australia. This ice would then melt in the Australian desert, and the water would be used in irrigation. Another of Pedrick’s inventions was a radio-controlled golf ball. A golfer could change the speed and direction of the golf ball by small flaps, controlled by computer chips. Using radio waves, the golfer could also find lost golf balls. Arthur Pedrick had thousands of bizarre ideas for inventions, most of which were never built.
Though many of Pedrick’s inventions were never developed, a lot of other strange ideas were. In 1989, a company designed and sold a theft-prevention device for expensive cars. As part of this device, several tubes were attached to the bottom of a car. If someone tried to steal the car, super hot flames would come out of the tubes and burn the car thief. Some people who were not thieves, however, were seriously injured. They accidentally set off the device by walking past the car. Other strange inventions include underwear for dogs and pens with drinkable ink. The underwear keeps dogs from making a mess when they go out for a walk. Also, if you are ever thirsty during a test, a pen with drinkable ink would be very handy! If you have an idea that seems a little out in left field, don’t let that stop you from trying it. You’ll be in good company.In the passage, what is implied when a dog “makes a mess”?
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It is hard to get any agreement on the precise meaning of the term "social class". In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to those they consider their equals from which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in social scale. The criteria we use to 'place' a new acquaintance, however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a part.
In ancient civilizations, the Sumerian, for example, which flourished in the lower Euphrates valley from 2000 to 5000 B.C. social differences were based on birth, status or rank, rather than on wealth. Four main classes were recognized. These were the rulers, the priestly administrators, the freemen (such as craftsmen, merchants or farmers) and the slaves.
In Greece, after the sixth-century B.C., there was a growing conflict between the peasants and the aristocrats, and a gradual decrease in the power of the aristocracy when a kind of ‘middle class’ of traders and skilled workers grew up. The population of Athens, for example, was
divided into three main classes which were politically and legally distinct. About one-third of the total population was slaves, who did not count politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise Athens as the nursery of democracy. The next main group consisted of resident foreigners, the, ‘metics’ who were freemen, though they too were allowed no share in political life. The third group was the powerful body of ‘citizens”, who were themselves divided into sub- classes.
In the later Middle Ages, however, the development of a money economy and the growth of cities and trade led to the rise of another class, the ‘burghers’ or city merchants and mayors. These were the predecessors of the modern middle classes. Gradually high office and occupation assumed importance in determining social position, as it became more and more possible for a person born to one station in life to move to another. This change affected the towns more than the country areas, where remnants of feudalism lasted much longer.The decline of the Greek aristocracy's power in the sixth century B.C .............
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
In the United States in the early 1800's, individual state governments had more effect on the economy than did the federal government. States chartered manufacturing, banking, mining, and transportation firms and participated in the construction of various internal improvements such as canals, turnpikes, and railroads. The states encouraged internal improvements in two distinct ways; first, by actually establishing state companies to build such improvement; second, by providing part of the capital for mixed public-private companies setting out to make a profit.
In the early nineteenth century, state governments also engaged in a surprisingly large amount of direct regulatory activity, including extensive licensing and inspection programs. Licensing targets reflected both similarities in and differences between the economy of the nineteenth century and that of today: in the nineteenth century, state regulation through licensing fell especially on peddlers, innkeepers, and retail merchants of various kinds. The perishable commodities of trade generally came under state inspection, and such important frontier staples as lumber and gunpowder were also subject to state control. Finally, state governments experimented with direct labor and business regulation designed to help the individual laborer or consumer, including setting maximum limits on hours of work and restrictions on price-fixing by businesses.
Although the states dominated economic activity during this period, the federal government was not inactive. Its goals were the facilitation of western settlement and the development of native industries. Toward these ends the federal government pursued several courses of action. It established a national bank to stabilize banking activities in the country and, in part, to provide a supply of relatively easy money to the frontier, where it was greatly needed for settlement. It permitted access to public western lands on increasingly easy terms, culminating in the Homestead Act of 1862, by which title to land could be claimed on the basis of residence alone. Finally, it set up a system of tariffs that was basically protectionist in effect, although maneuvering for position by various regional interests produced frequent changes in tariff rates throughout the nineteenth century.The word “ends” in line 20 is closest in meaning to
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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
Some people return to college as mature students and take full- or part-time training courses in a skill will help them to get a job. The development of open learning, (1)................. it possible to study when it is convenient for the students, has increased the opportunities available (2)................. many people. Thistype of study was formerly restricted to book-based learning and (3) ................. course but now includes courses on TV, CD-ROM or the Internet, and self-access courses at language or computer centers.
Americans believe that education is important at all stage of life and should not stop (4) ................. people get their first job. About 40% of adults take part in some kind of formal education. About half of them are trying to get qualifications and skills to help them with their jobs, the (5)................. are taking recreational subjects for personal satisfaction. Schools and community colleges arrange evening classes, and a catalog of courses is published by local boards of education.Thistype of study was formerly restricted to book-based learning and (3) ................. course but now includes courses on TV, CD-ROM or the Internet, and self-access courses at language or computer centers