Choose the best answer:
The film was so …………… . However, my father saw it from beginning to end.

 

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:
Foot racing is a popular activity in the US. It is seen not only as a competitive sport but also as a way to exercise, to enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded people, and to donate money to a good cause. Though serious runners may spend months training to compete, other runners and walkers might not train at all. Those not competing to win might run in an effort to beat their own time or simply to enjoy the fun and excrcise. People of all ages, from those of less than one year (who may be pushed in astrollers) to those in their eighties, enter into this sport. The races are held on city streets, on college campuses, through parks, and in suburban areas, and they are commonly 5 to 10 kilometers in length.
The largest footrace in the world is the 12-kilometer Bay to Breakers race that is held in San Francisco every spring. This race begins on the east side of the city near San Francisco Bay and ends on the west side at the Pacific Ocean. There may be 80.000 or more people running in this race through the streets and hills of San Francisco. In the front are the serious runners who compete to win and who might finish in as little as 35 minutes. Behind them are the thousands who take several hours to finish. In the back of the race are those who dress in costumes and come just for fun. One year there was a group of men who dressed like Elvis Presley, and another group consisted of firefighters who were tied together in a long line and who were carrying a fire hose. There was even a bridal party, in which the bride was dressed in a long white gown and the groom wore a tuxedo. The bride and groom threw flowers to bystanders, and they were actually married at some point along the route.

Which of following is NOT implied by author?

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 :
All native peoples create artworks that use what is (1)_________ to them in terms of local resources. In the Americas, the aboriginal people created handicrafts that had both a cultural and an artistic significance. These beautiful crafts were made by master Native American craftsmen, and their skills have been (2)_________ down through countless generations. Religious or spiritual beliefs can play a major role in the arts and handicrafts of all people. One example of a Native American handicraft is made of a willow branch and thin strips of leather. The branch is formed into a circular (3)_________ that is meant to hang in a person’s living area. Often (4)_________ with feathers on the outside of the circle, it is called a dream catcher. It is related to the belief that these special crafts could catch bad dreams sent by the spirits. To Native Americans, dreams were special (5)_________ sent from the great beyond. The dream catcher would allow good dreams to pass through it; however, nightmares would be caught and then released with the first morning light

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:
Carefully conducted studies that have followed the children of working mothers have not been able to show any long-­‐term problems, compared (1)_____children whose mothers stay at home. My personal (2) _____is that mothers should be allowed to work if they wish. Whether we like it or not, there are a number of mothers who just have to work. There are many who must work out of pure economic (3) _____. Many mothers are not born to be full-time parents. After a few months at home with a much loved infant, the feel trapped and isolated. There are a number of options when it refers to choosing childcare. These range from child minders and nannies through to Granny or the kind of lady across the street. In reality, (4) _____ many parents do no have any choice; they have to accept anything they can get. Be prepared! No (5)_____ how good the children may be, some children are going to protect wildly if they are left. This is a (6) _____ normal stage of child development. Babies separate well in the first six months, but soon after that they start to get a crush on Mum and close family (7)_____. Make sure that in the first week, you allow plenty of time to help your child (8)_____. All children are different. Some are independent,(9) _____ others are more attached to their mothers. Remember that if you want to do the best for your children, it’s not the quantity of time you spend with them, it’s the (10)_____ that matters

It is not easy to _____ our beauty when we get older and older.

(168)_______

Choose the best answer:
The church is over 500 years old. Our class visited it last summer.

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:
Ranked as the number one beverage consumed worldwide, tea takes the lead over coffee in both popularity and production with 5 million metric tons of tea produced annually. Although much of this tea is consumed in Asian, European and African countries, the United States drinks its fair share. According to estimates by the Tea Council of the United States, tea is enjoyed by no less than half of the U.S population on any given day. Black tea or green tea – iced, spiced or instant – tea drinking has spurred a billion-dollar with major tea producer in Africa and South America and throughout Asia.
Tea is made from the leaves from an evergreen plant, Camellia saneness, which grows tall and lush in tropical region. On tea plantation, the plant is kept trimmed to approximately four feet high and as new buds called flush appear; they are plucked off by hand. Even in today’s world of modern agricultural machinery, hand harvesting continues to be the preferred method. Ideally, only the top two leaves and a bud should be picked. This new growth produces the highest quality tea.
After being harvested, tea leaves are laid out on long drying racks, called withering racks, for 18 to 20 hours. During this process, the tea softens and become limp. Next, dependent on the type of tea being product, the leaves may be crushed or chopped to release flavor, and then fermented under controlled condition of heat and humidity. For green tea, the whole leaves are often steamed to retain their green color, and the fermentation process is skipped. Producing black teas requires fermentation during which the tea leaves begin darken. After fermentation, black tea is dried in vats to produce its rich brown or black color.
No one knows when or how tea became popular, but legend has it that tea as a beverage was discovered in 2737 B.C. by Emperor Shen Nung of China when leaves from camellia dropped into his drinking water as it was boiling over a fire. As the story goes, Emperor Shen Nung drank the resulting liquid and proclaimed that the drink to be most nourishing and refreshing. Though this account cannot be documented, it is thought that tea drinking probably originated in China and spread to other parts of Asia, then Europe, and ultimately to America colonies around 1650.
With about half the caffeine content of coffee, tea is often chosen by those who want to reduce, but not necessarily eliminate their caffeine intake. Some people find that tea is less acidic than coffee and therefore easier on the stomach. Others have become interested in tea drinking since the National Cancer Institute publishes its finding on the antioxidant properties of tea. But whether tea is enjoyed for it perceived health benefit, its flavor, or as a social drink, teacups continue to be filled daily with the world’ most popular beverage.

Which of the following is NOT true about the tea production process?

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.

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), who wrote under the pseudonym of O. Henry, was born in North Carolina. His only formal education was to attend his Aunt Lina’s school until the age of fifteen, where he developed his lifelong love of books. By 1881 he was a licensed pharmacist. However, within a year, on the recommendation of a medical colleague of his Father’s, Porter moved to La Salle County in Texas for two years herding sheep. During this time, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary was his constant companion, and Porter gained a knowledge of ranch life that he later incorporated into many of his short stories. He then moved to Austin for three years, and during this time the first recorded use of his pseudonym appeared, allegedly derived from his habit of calling “Oh, Henry” to a family cat. In 1887, Porter married Athol Estes. He worked as a draftsman, then as a bank teller for the First National Bank.

In 1894 Porter founded his own humor weekly, the “Rolling Stone”, a venture that failed within a year, and later wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post. In the meantime, the First National Bank was examined, and the subsequent indictment of 1886 stated that Porter had embezzled funds. Porter then fled to New Orleans, and later to Honduras, leaving his wife and child in Austin. He returned in 1897 because of his wife’s continued ill-health, however she died six months later. Then, in 1898 Porter was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment in Ohio. At the age of thirty five, he entered prison as a defeated man; he had lost his job, his home, his wife, and finally his freedom. He emerged from prison three years later, reborn as O. Henry, the pseudonym he now used to hide his true identity. He wrote at least twelve stories in jail, and after re-gaining his freedom, went to New York City, where he published more than 300 stories and gained fame as America’s favorite short Story writer. Porter married again in 1907, but after months of poor health, he died in New York City at the age of forty-eight in 1910. O. Henry’s stories have been translated all over the world.

The word “pseudonym” in the passage refers to ___________.

The concept of urban agriculture may conjure up images of rooftop, backyard or community gardens scattered among downtown city streets and surrounding neighborhoods. But in the Seattle area, and within and beyond the Puget Sound region, it means a great deal more. "Urban agriculture doesn't necessarily equate to production that occurs only in a metropolitan urban area, "says Jason Niebler, who directs the Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAgE) initiative at Seattle Central Community College. "It means we are providing for growing population food needs from surrounding rural landscapes, as well as from the core urban landscape."

Picture a series of concentric circles, with an urban core that produces some food at varying capacities, surrounded by a series of outlying rings of small farms that become increasingly more rural with distance. The hope is that such land use planning, from the inner core to the outer rings, will encourage local ecologically sound sustainable food production. This, in turn, will create local jobs and decrease reliance on distant food products that originate from petroleum-intensive large scale farms.

That's the idea behind SAgE, believed to be the nation's first metropolitan-based community college sustainable agriculture program that emphasizes farming practices across diverse landscape types from urban centers to surrounding rural environs. "It's small scale agriculture with an urban focus" Niebler says. "Any urban population, large or small, can practice sustainable agriculture, improve food security and protect the environment, which ultimately results in resilient food systems and communities."

SAgE is a part of National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program, which is providing the project with $157,375 over two years. ATE's goal is to support projects that strengthen the skills of technicians who work in industries regarded as vital to the national's prosperity and security. The support largely goes to community colleges that work in partnership with universities, secondary schools, businesses and industries, as well as government agencies, which design and implement model workforce initiatives.

The SAgE project focuses on the environmental, socioeconomic, political and cultural issues related to sustainable food systems, within Puget Sound watersheds through student and community education and research, and technological innovation. The curriculum offers courses that cover such issues as agricultural ecology, urban food systems, food politics and ethics, soil science, sustainable food production and technology, the integration of food and forests, and career opportunities.

"We've created a curriculum that is fundamental in nature, addressing the principles of sustainable agriculture and what a food system is - how it functions both locally and globally," Niebler says. "These courses are challenging, robust and inspirational. One of the really wonderful things about them is that we offer service learning opportunities, where students volunteer a portion of their time to working with local partner organizations. They can do a research project, or a service learning option. The ideal would be to prompt students into careers that involve sustainable practices in an urban agriculture setting."

Adapted from "Promoting Sustainable Agriculture" by Mariene Cimons

The word "them" in paragraph 6 refer to________.

Find mistakes:
Building thousands of years ago, the ancient palace is popular with modern tourists.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Exobiology is the study of life that originates from outside of Earth. As yet, of course, no such life forms have been found. Exobiologists, however, have done important work in the theoretical study of where life is most likely to evolve, and what those extrateưestrial life forms might be like. What sorts of planets are most likely to develop life? Most scientists agree that a habitable planet must be terrestrial, or rock-based, with liquid surface water and biogeochemical cycles that somewhat resemble Earth’s. Water is an important solvent involved in many biological processes. Biogeochemical cycles are the continuous movement and transformation of materials in the environment. These cycles include the circulation of elements and nutrients upon which life and the Earth’s climate depend. Since (as far as we know) all life is carbon-based, a stable carbon cycle is especially important. The habitable zone is the region around a star in which planets can develop life. Assuming the need for liquid surface water, it follows that most stars around the size of our sun will be able to sustain habitable zones for billions of years. Stars that are larger than the sun are much hotter and bum out more quickly; life there may not have enough time to evolve. Stars that are smaller than the sun have different problem. First of all, planets in their habitable zones will be so close to the star that they will be “tidally locked” – that is one side of the planet will always face the star in perpetual daylight with the other side in the perpetual night. Another possible obstacle to life on smaller stars is that they tend to vary in their luminosity, or brightness, due to flares and “star spots”. The variation can be large enough to have harmful effects on the ecosystem. Of course, not all stars of the right size will give rise to life; they also must have terrestrial planets with the right kind of orbits. Most solar systems have more than one planet, which influence each other’s orbits with their own gravity. Therefore, in order to have a stable system with no planets flying out into space, the orbits must be a good distance from one another. Interestingly, the amount of space needed is roughly the width of a star’s habitable zone. This means that for life to evolve, the largest possible number of life-supporting planets in any star’s habitable zone is two. Finally, not all planets meeting the above conditions will necessarily develop life. One major threat is large, frequent asteroid and comet impacts, which will wipe out life each time it tries to evolve. The case of Earth teaches that having large gas giants, such as Saturn and Jupiter,.in the outer part of the solar system can help keep a planet safe for life. Due to their strong gravitation, they tend to catch or deflect large objects before they can reach Earth.
7. It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that: 

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Ocean Currents and the Turning of the Tide
If you take a seat at the beach and look out across the water, you’ll soon notice that oceans have a rhythm of their own. Throughout the course of the day, sea levels will rise and fall, and water will flow through routes and end up in different places. But how does it all work? One force at play is tides, which are the alternating water levels of the ocean. There are two major gravitational forces which cause tides: the sun and the moon. The moon’s force has a tugging effect on oceans which causes them to bulge outwards on opposite sides of the planet. Solar tides operate according to the same principles. However, they are only about 50 percent as strong due to the distance between the sun and the earth. As tides rise and fall, they create tidal currents. The strongest tidal currents occur at the height of both high and low tides. Unlike other currents, they do not flow in a continuous stream. Far from shore, tidal currents don’t have much of an effect. Yet when they pass through narrow area, like harbours and bays, tidal currents can displace plants, animals, and sediment. Although they may certainly shake things up, not all of the damage is negative. Tidal currents can spread fish eggs across long distances to assist fertilization, in addition to transporting key nutrients. Another category of currents is ocean currents. These currents occur near the top of the water, and are mainly powered by the wind. One example of these is coastal currents, which are those beachgoers encounter when going for a swim. One of the strongest and most well-known currents is the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Western Europe. Meanwhile, Deep Ocean currents are a powerful force in the depths of oceans. The strongest of these has been nicknamed the global conveyor belt, and it moves much slower than surface currents. Although we can’t see it in operation, it’s about 16 times as powerful as all the earth’s rivers put together. As the global conveyor belt pushes water around the planet, it carries nutrition and carbon dioxide to places that truly need them. In the end, although there are several currents working on oceans simultaneously, they each seem to perform a necessary function that creates balance for life in the sea.
5. What can be inferred from the passage?

The International Red Cross works as _____ impartial, neutral, and independent organization.

(465)_____

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Make Home a Little Nicer
Some people think that if they don’t have a yard, they can’t keep a garden. Fortunately, that’s not true. For people who live in apartment buildings, there is another option: rooftop gardens. A rooftop garden is just a garden that you keep on your roof. Rooftop gardens are very popular in cities. Most building roofs go to waste – people don’t use that space for anything. Putting a garden on your roof is a nice way to turn an empty space into something that is pretty and relaxing. Rooftop gardens are not a new idea. About 2,600 years ago, people in Ancient Mesopotamia planted rooftop gardens. There were similar gardens in Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt. These gardens had a very important purpose. Many ancient cities had walls. The enemy army usually tried to destroy the city’s food, so the people in the city kept their gardens on top of their walls. That way, they could continue to grow food. Today’s rooftop gardens don’t keep us alive, but they still have nice benefits. Plants absorb heat, so if there are a lot of them on a rooftop, they make the whole building cooler. As a result, people in the building use the air conditioning less which means they use less electricity. One study said that if every roof in Tokyo had a garden, the city would save more than one million dollars a day on electricity. Rooftop gardening is harder than regular gardening. Here are some tips. First of all, be safe. Build a fence around your garden. You don’t want the wind to blow plants off your roof! Also, remember that rooftop gardens get more sun. If you have a plant that shouldn’t get too much sun, remember to put it in the shade sometimes. There are many other things that you need to know before you start a rooftop garden. Do some research and then give it a try. You’ll make your little part of the city much nicer.
5. The word “they” in paragraph 4 refers to _________

Choose the best answer:
The society was set up to ...... endangered species from extinction.

Chọn câu đồng nghĩa:
The water was so cold that the children couldn't swim in it.

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.
                      MODERN SCIENCE
It seems entirely natural to us that there are teams of scientists in universities and (1)............. institutions around the world, attempting to discover the way the world works. (2).............. , it hasn’t always been that way. Although the scientific method is now four or five hundred years old, the ancient Greeks, for example, believed that they could (3)............ the cause of natural events just by the power of thought. During the 17th century, more and more people began to realize that they could test their scientific ideas by designing a relevant experiment and seeing what happened. A lot of (4)......... was made in this way by individual scientists. These men and women often worked alone, carrying out research into many different areas of science, and they often received very little (5).............. for their hard work. At the start of the 20th century, though, it became clear that science was becoming more complicated and more expensive. The individual scientists disappeared, to be replaced by highly qualified teams of experts. Modern science was born.

(3).........................

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 :
All native peoples create artworks that use what is (1)_________ to them in terms of local resources. In the Americas, the aboriginal people created handicrafts that had both a cultural and an artistic significance. These beautiful crafts were made by master Native American craftsmen, and their skills have been (2)_________ down through countless generations. Religious or spiritual beliefs can play a major role in the arts and handicrafts of all people. One example of a Native American handicraft is made of a willow branch and thin strips of leather. The branch is formed into a circular (3)_________ that is meant to hang in a person’s living area. Often (4)_________ with feathers on the outside of the circle, it is called a dream catcher. It is related to the belief that these special crafts could catch bad dreams sent by the spirits. To Native Americans, dreams were special (5)_________ sent from the great beyond. The dream catcher would allow good dreams to pass through it; however, nightmares would be caught and then released with the first morning light

Choose the best answer:
Students ought to do homework after class.

Read the reading below carefully, and then complete it with the best option A, B, C or D given below:

LOWELL (March 3) – Just one year after opening, Viggo's Sweet Shop on Park Street has become the place to go for residents wishing to satisfy their sugary cravings. Says owner Viggo Magnusson, "Returning customers bring friends and relatives with them, so the shop is always ---1---." Mr. Magnusson credits the success of his business to the recipes he inherited from his grandmother about a decade ago. ---2---. But the popularity of the pastry shop ---3--- Mr. Magnusson with an unanticipated problem: lack of store space. So when the shoe store next door went out of business recently, he purchased the property to allow for the ---4--- of his shop. Renovations will start in April.