Choose the best answer:
Nam: Do you do any sports ? - Lan: ____

 

Rewrite the sentence:
Cats is one of the longest-running musicals in Britain. It was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Find synonym:
Many parents find it hard to understand their children when they are teenagers.

Choose the best answer:
Do you know the reason ……. humans are interested in Mars and other planets in thesolar system?

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I ____ the biography of Robbie Williams, but I'm on page 50.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Air pollution is the most prominent and dangerous form of pollution. It occurs dues to many reasons. Excessive burning of fuel which is a necessity of our daily lives for cooking, driving and other industrial activities releases a huge amount of chemical substances in the air every day; as a result, these pollute the air. Smoke from chimneys, factories, vehicles or burning of wood basically occurs due to coal burning. This releases sulphur dioxide into the air making it toxic. The effects of air pollution are evident too. Release of sulphur dioxide and hazardous gases into the air causes global warming and acid rain which in turn have increased temperatures, erratic rains and droughts worldwide making it tough for animals to survive. We breathe in every polluted particle from the air, the result is an increase in asthma and cancer in the lungs. Another effect of air pollution is ozone layer depletion. Ozone layer is the thin shield high up in the sky that prevents ultra violet rays from reaching the Earth. As a result of human activities, chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which play a key role, were released into the atmosphere which contributed to the destruction of ozone layer. Water pollution has taken toll of all the surviving species of the earth. Almost 60% of the species live in water bodies. It occurs due to several factors; the industrial wastes dumped into the rivers and other water bodies cause an imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and death of aquatic species. If you suspect that nearby water sources have been contaminated by a corporation then it might be a good idea to hire an expert to see you options. Moreover, spraying insecticides, pesticides like DDT on plants also pollutes the ground water system and oil spills in the oceans have caused irreparable damage to the water bodies. Eutrophication is another big source; it occurs due to daily activities like washing clothes or utensils near lakes, ponds or rivers; this forces detergents to go into water which blocks sunlight from penetrating, thus reducing oxygen and making it inhabitable. Water pollution not only harms the aquatic beings but it also contaminates the entire food chain by severely affecting humans dependents on these. Waterborne disease like cholera, diarrhea have also increased in all places. Another type of pollution common in the countryside is soil pollution. Soil pollution occurs due to the incorporation of unwanted chemicals in the soil due to human activities. Insecticides and pesticides absorb the nitrogen compounds in the soil making it unfit for plants to derive nutrition. Release of industrial waste, mining and deforestation also damages the soil. Since plants can’t grow properly, they can’t hold the soil and this leads to soil erosion.
5. What is NOT mentioned as a cause of water pollution?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In 1959 Xerox created the first plain paper copy machine. It was one of the most  successful products ever. The company name Xerox grew into a verb that means “to copy,” as in “Bob, can you Xerox this for me?” Around 50 years later, the same thing happened to Google. Their company name grew into a verb that means “to do an internet search.” Now everyone and their grandma knows what it means to Google it.  Unlike Xerox, Google wasn’t the first company to invent their product, not by a long shot. Lycos released their search engine in 1993. Yahoo! came out in 1994. AltaVista began serving results in 1995. Google did not come out until years later, in 1998. Though a few years difference may not seem like much, this is a major head start in the fast moving world of tech. So how did Google do it? How did they overtake their competitors who had such huge leads in time and money? Maybe one good idea made all the difference.  There are millions and millions of sites on the internet. How does a search engine know which ones are relevant to your search? This is a question that great minds have been working on for decades. To understand how Google changed the game, you need to know how search engines worked in 1998. Back then most websites looked at the words in your query. They counted how many times those words appeared on each page. Then they might return pages where the words in your query appeared the most. This system did not work well and people often had to click through pages and pages of results to find what they wanted.  Google was the first search engine that began considering links. Links are those blue underlined words that take you to other pages when you click on them. Larry Page, cofounder of Google, believed that meaningful data could be drawn from how those links connect. Page figured that websites with many links pointing at them were more important than those that had few. He was right. Google’s search results were much better than their rivals. They would soon become the world’s most used search engine.  It wasn’t just the great search results that led to Google becoming so wellliked. It also had to do with the way that they presented their product. Most of the other search engines were cluttered. Their home pages were filled with everything from news stories to stock quotes. But Google’s homepage was, and still is, clean. There’s nothing on it but the logo, the search box, and a few links. It almost appears empty. In fact, when they were first testing it, users would wait at the home page and not do anything. When asked why, they said that they were, “waiting for the rest of the page to load.” People couldn’t imagine such a clean and open page as being complete. But the fresh design grew on people once they got used to it. 
3. Which best expresses the main idea of the third paragraph?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Most people have heard about how PTSD can unravel a person. Fewer have heard about posttraumatic growth, the process that lifted Curry out of his despair and into his new role as a leader in the veteran community. The term - defined as “positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises” - was coined in the mid-1990s by Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD, after studying how people develop wisdom. They identified five specific ways people can grow after a crisis. First, their relationships strengthen. One woman diagnosed with breast cancer, for example, said she realized her relationships “are the most important things you have.” Bereaved parents told Tedeschi and Calhoun that losing a child had made them more compassionate. Second, they discover new paths and purposes in life. Sometimes these are related to a particular survivor mission. One interviewee became an oncology nurse after losing her child to cancer. Other times, the crisis becomes the catalyst for a more general reconsideration of priorities, as Christine discovered when she started attending The Dinner Party in the aftermath of her mother’s death. Third, the trauma allows them to find their inner strength. The common thread among those Tedeschi and Calhoun studied is a “vulnerable yet stronger” narrative. This paradoxical outlook defined the attitude of a rape survivor who admitted the world seemed more dangerous after the assault, but that, at the same time, she felt more resilient as a result of the inner strength she’d built. Fourth, their spiritual life deepens. That could mean they renew their faith in God, or it could mean they grapple with existential questions more broadly, coming to know certain deep truths about the world or themselves, as one interviewee did after his spinal-cord surgery. Finally, they feel a renewed appreciation for life. Rather than taking for granted a stranger’s kindness or the vivid colors of autumn leaves, they savor the small moments of beauty that light up each day. The difference between those who are able to grow from adversity and those who are stymied lies in what Tedeschi and Calhoun call “deliberate rumination” or introspection. The participants they studied spent a lot of time trying to make sense of their painful experiences, reflecting on how the events changed them. Doing so helped them make the life changes associated with posttraumatic growth.  
7. The word “stymied” in paragraph 5 can be replaced by _______

Choose the best answer:
It is common ____________ by car among Europe countries.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Why is it that many teenagers have the energy to play computer games until late at night but can’t find the energy to get out of bed (1) ________ for school? According to a new report, today’s generation of children are in danger of getting so (2)_______ sleep that they are putting their mental and physical health at (3)_______. Adults can easily survive on seven to eight hours’ sleep a night, (4)_______teenagers require nine or ten hours. According to medical experts, one in five youngsters (5)________ anything between two and five hours’ sleep a night less than their parents did at their age.

Choose the answer A, B, c or D to fill the blank space in the following passage.

"Speech is one of the most important ways of communicating. It consists of far more than just (1)….. noises. To talk or to (2)…. by other people, we have to master a language, that is, we have to use combinations of sound that (3)….. for a particular object or idea. Communication (4)…. impossible if everyone (5)….. up their own language.
Learning a language is very important. The basic vocabulary of English is not very large, and only about 2,000 words are needed to speak (6)…. quite well. But the more words you know, the more ideas you can express, and the more precise you can be (7)…. their meaning. Words are the main things we use (8)…. what we want to say. The way we say the words (9)…. also very important. One tone of voice can express (10)…. emotions and show whether we are pleased or angry for instance."

7. But the more words you know, the more ideas you can express, and the more precise you can be (7)…. their meaning. 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Next time your boss asks you to work late and miss your band rehearsal or board game night, point them to a new study in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. Researchers have found that spending more time on a hobby can boost people’s confidence in their ability to perform their job well. Ciara Kelly at Sheffield University and colleagues recruited 129 hobbyists — from amateur climbers to improv comedians — to look at how the time spent on their hobbies shaped their work life. To begin with, the team measured the seriousness of each participant’s hobby, asking them to rate their agreement with statements like “I regularly train for this activity”, and also assessed how similar the demands of their job and hobby were. Then, each month for seven months, participants recorded how many hours they had dedicated to their activity, and completed a scale measuring their belief in their ability to effectively do their job, or their “self-efficacy”, in which they rated themselves on statements like “At work I am able to successfully overcome many challenges”.  The researchers found that when participants spent longer than normal doing their leisure activity, their belief in their ability to perform their job increased. But this was only the case when they had a serious hobby that was dissimilar to their job, or when their hobby was similar to their work but they only did it casually. When their hobby was both serious and similar to their job, then spending more time on it actually had a detrimental effect, decreasing their self-efficacy. Why might that be? To maintain a serious hobby, people need to invest significant psychological resources, so if the activity has the same kinds of demands as their work, they may be left drained and unable to perform as well at their job. But if their hobby is quite different from their career, it may not interfere in the same way but instead help them develop other knowledge and skills that can boost their confidence at work. Of course, the data don’t provide conclusive evidence about the direction of the effect. Still, the results suggest that companies may want to encourage employees to pursue interests outside of work, as long as those activities differ from their day-to-day tasks. And they also may give pause to those who dream of packing it all in and turning their hobby into a career.  
7. The word “they” in paragraph 4 refers to _____

Choose the best answer:
Each year about fifty hundred_________ of plants and animals are already being eliminated.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions:
In 1972. a century after the first national park in the United States was established at Yellowstone, legislation was passed to create the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. The intent of this legislation was to provide protection to selected coastal habitats similar to that existing for land areas designated as national parks. The designation of an areas a marine sanctuary indicates that it is a protected area, just as a national park is. People are permitted to visit and observe there, but living organisms and their environments may not be harmed or removed.
The National Marine Sanctuaries Program is administered by the National Oceanic and  Atmospheric Administration, a branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Initially, 70 sites were proposed as candidates for sanctuary status. Two and a half decades later, only fifteen sanctuaries had been designated, with half of these established after 1978. They range in size from the very small (less than 1 square kilometer) Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary in American Samoa to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California, extending over 15,744 square kilometers.
The National Marine Sanctuaries Program is a crucial part of new management practices in which whole communities of species, and not just individual species, are offered some degree of protection from habitat degradation and overexploitation. Only in this way can a reasonable degree of marine species diversity be maintained in a setting that also maintains the natural interrelationships that exist among these species.
Several other types of marine protected areas exist in the United States and other countries. The National Estuarine Research Reserve System managed by the United States government, includes 23 designated and protected estuaries. Outside the United States, marine protected-area programs exist as marine parks, reserves and preserves.
Over 100 designated areas exist around the periphery of the Caribbean Sea. Others range from the well-known Australian Great Barrer Reef Marine Park to lesser-known parks in countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, where tourism is placing growing pressures on fragile coral reef systems. As state, national, and international agencies come to recognize the importance of conserving marine biodiversity, marine projected areas whether as sanctuaries,parks, or estuarine reserves, will play an increasingly important role in preserving that diversity.

The passage mentions which of the following as a threat to marine areas outside the United States?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Certain birds are, more often than not, considered bad luck, or even a sign of impending death. For example, all over the world, both crows and ravens have some connection to war, and death. In early times, crows and ravens were thought to accompany the gods of war, or be signs of the gods’ approaching arrival. This idea later changed. Crows in particular were thought to be harbingers of ill fortune or, in some cases, guides to the afterlife. Woe be it to the person who saw a single crow or raven flying overhead, for this was most certainly a portent of death in the near future. Interestingly, though potentially bad luck for people individually, the raven is considered to be good luck for the crown of England. So much so, in fact, that a “raven master” is, even today, an actual government position in London. He takes care of the ravens there and also clips their wings, ensuring that these birds can never fly far from the seat of the British government. This way, the kingdom will never fall to ill fortune. Another bird that is thought to play a part in forecasting the fortunes of people is the swallow. Depending on how and when it is seen, the swallow can be a harbinger of either good or ill fortune. Perhaps inspired by the swallow’s red-brown breast, Christian people initially related the swallow to the death of Jesus Christ. Thus, people who saw a swallow fly through their house considered it a portent of death. Later, however, farmers began to consider swallows signs of good fortune. Any barn that has swallows living in it is sure to be blessed in the following year. Farmers also have to beware of killing a swallow; that would be certain to end any good luck they might have had. Though many people think these superstitions are old wives’ tales, there is actually some evidence to support them. For example, crows and ravens, being scavengers, appear at the aftermath of battles. Thus, large numbers of crows and ravens could be good indications of war in an area. As well, swallows feed on insects that can cause infections in cattle. Thus, a farmer who has many swallows in his barn may actually have healthier animals on his farm. Therefore, the next time you feel inclined to laugh at an old wives’ tale, maybe you had better find out if there is any truth to it first!
8. Which of the following most accurately reflects the author’s suggestion in the last paragraph?

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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
5. According to paragraph 4, what can we deduce from the balance feature of our holy responsibility?

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Hidden beneath the waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea near southwestern Italy lies a newfound volcanic mosaic dotted with geothermal chimneys and flat-topped seamounts. This complex is new to both science and the planet, geologically speaking; it’s only about 780,000 years old. Scientists aren’t particularly surprised to find volcanism in the region, which is home to active volcanoes like Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna. But the new complex is unusual because it was created by a rare kind of fault, said study leader Fabrizio Pepe. The western Mediterranean is seismically restless because of the collision of three tectonic plates: the African, the Eurasian and the Anatolian. Making matters more complex is a small chunk of crust called the Adriatic-Ionian microplate, which broke off of the African Plate more than 65 million years ago and is now being pushed under the larger Eurasian Plate in a process called subduction. Previously, scientists discovered a series of undersea volcanic arcs created by this tectonic unrest, starting near the Sardinian coast, with increasingly younger arcs southward and eastward. These arcs were like an arrow pointing ever farther eastward, prompting Pepe and his colleagues to search for an even younger arc about 9 miles off the coast of Calabria. There, based on seafloor mapping, seismic data and magnetic anomalies, the researchers found a 772-square-mile region of lava flows, volcanic mountains and hydrothermal chimneys; vents in the seafloor allow hot minerals to spew out and form chimney-like structures. They dubbed the new area the Diamante‐Enotrio‐Ovidio Volcanic‐Intrusive Complex, after three flat-topped seamounts that dominate the seafloor. Those fractures are what allowed magma to rise to the surface at the Diamonte-EnotrioOvidio complex, creating an undersea landscape of lava flows and mountainous volcanoes. These volcanic seamounts are now plateaus because they protruded from the ocean when the sea level was lower, and they eroded into their present, flat-topped shape, Pepe said. The volcanic complex is inactive, but there are small intrusions of lava in some parts of the seafloor there. However, the area could become active in the future, Pepe said, and active volcanism is ongoing on the eastern side of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The researchers are working to build a volcanic risk map of the complex to better understand if it could endanger human life or property. They are also investigating the possibility of tapping the complex to produce geothermal energy.  
5. According to paragraph 3, what did they label the newly discovered complex after?

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It’s probably the most painstaking, heart wrenching, and stress inducing test of dedication a marriage can face. But the reward at the end is pretty sweet. At the annual Wife Carrying World Championships in Sonkajärvi, Finland, male competitors race around a track hauling their female partners on their backs. Winner takes home his wife’s weight in beer. It’s no ordinary racetrack, either. Competitors must wade through a neck-deep pool of water, climb over hurdles, and run through pits of sand before crossing the finish line. While some participants don crazy costumes for the pre-race, the actual event is pretty straightlaced. Wives must weigh at least 49 kilograms (108 pounds). Any woman lighter than that is required to carry a heavy rucksack until she reaches this minimum. A participant who drops his wife will be penalized 15 seconds. But there is one catch: contestants don’t have to carry their own wives. A friend’s wife, stranger’s wife, or even a random grandmother will do – as long as she’s over 17. Contestants flock from 47 countries across the globe to show their stuff in this epic display of brute strength. This year, Finnish couple Taisto Miettinen and Kristiina Haapanen captured the title for the fourth consecutive year. The 46-year-old lawyer and his wife completed the 235-meter course in one minute and four seconds. Like any dedicated athlete, Miettinen reported that he’d been training for a while. “In last autumn, I started running in the track, one hundred, two hundred and four hundred meters,” Miettinen said in a post-race interview. He also practiced the course in ski boots to build leg strength. The competition, which began in 1992, is supposedly rooted in the legend of Ronkainen the Robber — a hardnosed gang leader who hazed potential members by making them lug sacks of grain or live pigs over a similar course. He and his comrades also made a habit of stealing women from neighboring villages as a nod to this practice, many men “steal” friends’ wives for the competition. If you want to compete but can’t make it to Finland, there’s a North American version of the contest held in October at Sunday River Resort in Maine. With 100-plus pounds of brewski on the line, you might want to tell your significant other to start shaping up.
6. The word “who” in paragraph 4 refers to ______

Rewrite the sentence:
“I am sorry but I won’t do the extra work,” Carol said.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
By Celsi’s account, Alison has changed her mind a dozen times. Now she was utterly torn. She wanted to (1)_________ her lifelong dream of climbing to K2, adding it to Everest to become the only British woman (2)______the world’s two highest summits. And she (3) _______wanted to be back with her children, Tom, six and Kate, four. But early in that morning, while having a light English breakfast, Alison reopened that burning question once again, (4)__________endless cups of coffee with Celsi as she turned it over and over in her mind. “It was a very emotional thing for her,” says Celsi. “She really went through a lot of things, filling for divorce, raising the kids all by herself and changing a lot of jobs”. Finally, just 15 minutes before the porter was due to depart, she (5) ______ Celsi she had decided to stay, reasoning that, since she had been away for so long, one more week wouldn’t matter. “She said it was logical to give the weather a chance to clear.”

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The cities in the United States have been the most visible sponsors and beneficiaries  of projects that place art in public places. They have shown exceptional imagination in applying the diverse forms of contemporary art to a wide variety of purposes. The activities observed in a number of “pioneer” cities sponsoring art in public places - a broadening exploration of public sites, an increasing awareness among both sponsors and the public of the varieties of contemporary artistic practice, and a growing public enthusiasm - are increasingly characteristic of cities across the country. With many cities now undergoing renewed development, opportunities are continuously emerging for the inclusion or art in new or renewed public environments, including buildings, plazas, parks, and transportation facilities. The result of these activities is a group of artworks that reflect the diversity of contemporary art and the varying character and goals of the sponsoring communities.  In sculpture, the projects range from a cartoonlike Mermaid in Miami Beach by Roy Lichtenstein to a small forest planted in New York City by Alan Sonfist. The use of murals followed quickly upon the use of sculpture and has brought to public sites the work of artists as different as the realist Thomas Hart Benton and the Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg. The specialized requirements of particular urban situations have further expanded the use of art in public places: in Memphis, sculptor Richard Hunt has created a monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., who was slain there; in New York, Dan Flavin and Bill Brand have contributed neon and animation works to the enhancement of mass transit facilities. And in numerous cities, art is being raised as a symbol of the commitment to revitalize urban areas.  By continuing to sponsor projects involving a growing body of art in public places, cities will certainly enlarge the situations in which the public encounters and grows familiar with the various forms of contemporary art. Indeed, cities are providing artists with an opportunity to communicate with a new and broader audience. Artists are recognizing the distinction between public and private spaces, and taking that into account when executing their public commissions. They are working in new, often more durable media, and on an unaccustomed scale.
6. The word "enhancement" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ____