Choose the best answer: 
There are many advantages of having online friends. First, they can be anywhere in the world, so you can learn about (1)..........cultures and lifestyles. Distance does not matter, as all you need is a computer. Second, you can contact them whenever you wish - (2).............. they are online- and you can end the conversation easily when you have other things to do. What’s more, you can save a lot of money as there’ll be no dinners, parties or get-togethers. You don’t have to spend money (3).............. things like food and drinks or cinema tickets. Most importantly, you can quickly end a relationship when you don’t feel comfortable with the person any more. The only thing,
perhaps, you don’t like about this kind of (4).......... is that sometimes you don’t know for sure who these friends really are. They may not use their real names and post other people’s photos

2.

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:
There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved from ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world, even the seasonal changes, as unpredictable, and they sought, through various means, to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened into fixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled the mysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believed that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that those rites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site hard to be provided for the performances, and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium". In addition, there were performers, and since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes, they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and mimed the desired effect- success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival of the Sun as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war or other feats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical  and gymnastic or that are imitation of animal movements and sounds.

The word they in paragraph 1 refers to     .

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. 
     The great debate, “Is cheerleading a sport?” It’s the topic that will get any cheerleader fired up and ready to defend their side. The definition of sport from the Oxford Dictionary is “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Cheer has a competitive nature and it takes both mental and physical ability to succeed. Hollywood has made the “cheerleading character” into a fantasy where all the boys are after them, they’re dumb and they parade around in short skirts. Of course you should never trust the appearance of movies because it’s Hollywood and not reality.
     First off, cheerleading has a purpose. The purpose is to encourage positivity and entertain at athletic games and events. Without cheerleaders the “circle of energy” in a game would be non-existent. It’s a sporting event tradition that has lasted for over 100 years.
     Also cheerleaders do train for what they do. Just as a football player would, cheerleaders train too. How else do you think the girls get thrown in the air and come down safely? Cheerleaders have to lift weights and do cardio just as any other athlete would. Stunting is the most exciting, entertaining, and dangerous part of cheerleading. Most injuries from cheer end up being concussions, broken bones, stitches, and not to mention the endless bruises. It ranks 1st in the catastrophic sports injuries for women and 2nd in all sports combined next to football.
     I believe every sport should have support from others because the athletes care and are passionate about what they do. Cheerleading has its challenges and rewards like every other sport and I believe it’s time for cheerleaders to be recognized for their hard work.

Câu 33. The word “It” in paragraph 2 refers to __________.

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.
After winter months, the days become longer, the buds (1)........ in the trees, birds sing, and the world (2) ...........a  green  dress.  Spring passes (3)........ summer. Everyone knows that summer will not (4)............. . The power of all the wisest men and women in the world cannot keep it for us. The com becomes ripe, the leaves turn brown and then drop to the ground, (5)......... the world changes its green dress for a dress of autumn colors.
(3)...........................

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. 
       The (1) _________over vending machines in schools is not new. For a long time, regional governments and public schools have been deliberating on whether or not it is a good idea to have vending machines in schools. In America, (2) ______, only one state has banned these machines in its public schools. Around the country, however, most state schools have different rules about how many and how often vending machines should be accessible to students. Although some people believe that having these drink and snack machines in schools is a good idea, others (3)_________ that there are many disadvantages, too.
      Doctors and other health workers, for instance, suggest that the main disadvantage of having vending machines in schools is based on health and (4)________. They cite statistics that show school – aged children have poorly balanced diets, often due to eating too much fast food. If vending machines are introduced to schools, children will have yet another option for eating unhealthy foods. In a survey of vending machines sales across the country, it was found that sweet drinks like colas and sugary snacks like candy bars were the biggest sellers. Sugary foods and drinks commonly cause obesity in consumers. Opponents of vending machines in schools worry that we are teaching children to be obese. (5)__________the problem of childhood obesity, it is plausible to say that children’s health problems will only get worse if vending machines are followed in schools.

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

Choose the item among A, B, c or D that best answers the question about the passage:

"Computer programmer David Jones earns £35,000 a year designing new Computer games, yet he cannot find a bank prepared to let him have a cheque car. Instead he has been told to wait another two years, until he is 18.
 The 16-year-old boy works for a small firm in Liverpool, where the problem of most young people of age is finding a job. David’s firm releases two new games for the expanding home Computer market each month.
 But David’s biggest headache is what to do with his money. Despite his salary, earned by inventing new programmes within tight schedules with bonus payment and profit-sharing, he cannot drive a car, take out a mortgage, or obtain credit cards.
 David got his job with the Liverpool-based company four months ago, a year after leaving school with six O-levels and working for a time in a Computer shop. “I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programmes,” he said.
 I suppose £35,000 sounds a lot but actually that’s being pessimistic. I hope it will come to records and clothes and he gives his mother £20 a week. But most of his spare time is spent working. “Unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school,” he said. “But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I knew what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young anyway.”
 David added, “I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement is a possibility. You never knew when the market might disappear.”"

2. David’s greatest problem is ……

Staggering tasks confronted the people of the United States, North and South when the Civil War ended. About a million and a half soldiers from both sides had to be demobilized, readjusted to civilian life, and reabsorbed by the devastated economy.
Civil government also had to be put back on a peacetime basis and interference from the military had to be stopped. The desperate plight of the South has eclipsed the fact that reconstruction had to be undertaken also in the North, though less spectacularly. Industries had to adjust to peacetime conditions; factories had to be retooled for civilian needs.
Financial problems loomed large in both the North and the South. The national debt had shot up from a modest $65 million in 1861, the year the war started, to nearly $3 billion in 1865, the year the war ended. This was a colossal sum for those days but one that a prudent government could pay. At the same time, war taxes had to be reduced to less burdensome levels.
Physical devastation caused by invading armies, chiefly in the South and border states, had to be repaired. This Herculean task was ultimately completed, but with discouraging slowness.
Other important questions needed answering. What would be the future of the four million Black people who were freed from slavery? On what basis were the Southern states to be brought back into the Union?
What of the Southern leaders, all of whom were liable to charges of treason? One of these leaders, Jefferson Davis, president of the Southern Confederacy, was the subject of an insulting popular Northern song, “Hang Jeff Davis from a Sour Apple Tree,” and even children sang it. Davis was temporarily chained in his prison cell during the early days of his two-year imprisonment. But he and the other Southern leaders were finally released, partly because it was unlikely that a jury from Virginia, a Southern Confederate state, would convict them. All the leaders were finally pardoned by President Johnson in 1868 in an effort to help reconstruction efforts proceed with as little bitterness as possible.

Which of the following can be inferred from the phrase “…it was unlikely that a jury from Virginia, a Southern Confederate state, would convict them”?

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. 
      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.

According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true about jobs in the future?

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Millions of people tune into the weather forecast each evening on televisions. Most of them imagine that the presenter does little more than arrive at the studio a few minutes before the broadcast, read the weather, and then go home.
In fact, this imagine is far from the truth. The two-minute bulletin which we all rely on when we need to know tomorrow’s weather is the result of a hard day’s work by the presenter, who is actually a highly-qualified meteorologist.
Every morning after arriving at the TV studios, the first task of the days is to collect the latest data from the national Meteorological Office. This office provides up-to-the- minute information about weather conditions throughout the day, both in Britain and around the world. The information is very detailed and includes predictions, satellite and radar pictures, as well as more technical data. After gathering all the relevant material from this office, the forecaster has to translate the scientific terminology and maps into images and word which viewers can easily understand.
The final broadcast is then carefully planned. It is prepared in the same way as other programmes. The presenter decides what to say and in what order to say it. Next, a “story board” is drawn up which lay out the script word for word. What make a weather forecast more complicated than other programmes are the maps and electronic images which are required. The computer has to be programmed so that the pictures appear in the correct order during the bulletin.
The time allocated for each broadcast can also alter. This is because the weather report is screened after the news, which can vary in length. The weather forecaster doesn’t always know how much time is available, which means that he/ she has to be thoroughly prepared so that the material can be adapted to the time available.
Another related complication is that the weather forecast has to be a live broadcast; it cannot be pre- recorded. Live shows are very nerve- racking for the presenter because almost anything can go wrong. Perhaps the most worrying aspect for every weather
forecaster is getting the following day’s predictions wrong. Unfortunately for them this is not an unusual occurrence; the weather is not always possible to predict accurately.
The weather is a national obsession in Britain, Perhaps because it is so changeable. It’s the national talking point, and most people watch at least one daily bulletin. It can be mortifying for a weather man or woman who has predicted rain for the morning to wake up to brilliant sunshine. These days, a weather forecaster’s job is even more complicated because they are replied upon to predict other environmental conditions. For example, in the summer the weather forecast has to include the pollen count for hay fever sufferers. Some also include reports on ultraviolet radiation intensity to help people avoid sunburn.
The job of the weather forecaster is certainly far more complicated than just pointing at a map and describing weather conditions. It’s a job for professionals who can cope with stressful and demanding conditions.

What perception do most people have a weather forecasters?

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.

There are already many, many people who have passed the landmark age of 100. In fact, there are now so many healthy, elderly people that there's a new term for them: the wellderly. These are people over the age of 80 who have no diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease or diabetes and have never taken medicines for these conditions.

There have been many scientific studies of communities where a healthy old age is typical. These include places like Calabria in southern Italy and the island of Okinawa in Japan.

The small village of Molochio in Calabria has about 2,000 inhabitants. And of these there are at least eight centenarians. When researchers ask people like this the secret of their long life, the answer is almost always to do with diet and is almost always the same: 'I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.' 'A little bit, but of everything.’ ‘No smoking, no drinking.’

While in the past scientists have looked at things such as diet and lifestyle for an explanation of long life, these days they are investigating genetics. One such researcher is Eric Topol, who says, "There must be genes that explain why these individuals are protected from the aging process."

The new research into long life looks at groups of people who have a genetic connection. For example, one group of interest lives in Ecuador. In one area of the country there are a number of people with the same genetic condition. It's called Laron syndrome. The condition means that they don't grow to more than about one, but it also seems to give them protection against cancer and diabetes. As a result, they live longer than other people in their families. Meanwhile, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, there's another group of long-lived men, Japanese-Americans. They have a similar gene to the Laron syndrome group.

Back in Calabria, scientists are trying to work out exactly how much of the longevity is due to genetics and how much to environment. By checking public records going back to the 19th century, researchers have reconstructed the family trees of 202 nonagenarians and centenarians. They concluded that there were genetic factors involved.

Diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure ___________.

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.
Most adults struggle to recall events from their first few years of life and now scientists have identified exactly when these childhood memories are lost forever. A new study into childhood amnesia has found that it tends to take (1).......around the age of seven. The rapid decline of memories persisting while children are five and six is owing to the change in the way memories are formed.
Before the age of seven, children tend to have  an (2)......form of recall with no sense of time and place in their memories. In older children, however, the early recollected events tend to be more adult like in their content and the way they are formed. Faster rate of forgetting in children and higher turnover of memories means early memories are less likely to survive. (3)........, memories of younger children tend to lack autobiographical narrative leading to a process known as ‘retrieval induced forgetting’ (4).....the action of remembering causes other information to be forgotten. Consequently, if childhood memories can survive into the ninth or tenth year of life, they may stay a chance of (5).... it into adulthood.
(4).......................

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:
Most of the fastening devices used in clothing today, like the shoelace, the button, and the safely pin. have existed in some form in various cultures for thousands of years. But the zipper was the brainchild of one American inventor, namely Whitcomb Judson of Chicago. At the end of the 19th century. Judson was already a successful inventor, with a dozen patents to his credit for mechanical items such as improvements to motors and railroad braking system.
He then turned his mind to create a replacement for the lengthy shoelaces which were then used in both men’s and women's boots. On August 29th 1893, he won another patent, for what he called the case “locker”. Though the model was somewhat clumsy, and frequently jammed, it did work: in fact, Judson and his business associate Lewis Walker had sewn the device into their own boots. Although Judson displayed his clasp–locker at the World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893, the public largely ignored it. The company founded by Judson and Walker, Universal Fastener, despite further refinements, never really succeeded in marketing the device.
The earliest zip fasteners were being used in the clothing industry by 1905, but it was only in 1913, after a Swedish–American engineer, Gideon Sundbach, had remodeled Judson's fastener into a more streamlined and reliable form, that the zipper was a success. The US Army applied zippers to the clothing and equipment of the troops of World War I. By the late 1920s, zippers could be found in all kinds of clothing, footwear, and carrying cases; by the mid–1930s, zippers had even been embraced by the fashion industry.
The term “zipper" was coined as onomatopoeia (resembling the sound it makes) by B.F. Goodrich whose company started marketing rubber shoes featuring the fastener in 1923. Regrettably. Whitcomb Judson died in 1909, and never heard the term, or saw the success by which his invention would become popular.

Which of the following statements can best be inferred from the passage about zippers?

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   Earth is richly supplied with different types of living organisms which co-exist in their environments, forming complex, interrelated communities. Living organisms depend on one another for nutrients, shelter, and other benefits. The extinction of one species can set off a chain reaction that affects many other species, particularly if the loss occurs near the bottom of the food chain. For example, the extinction of a particular insect or plant might seem inconsequential. However, there may be fish or small animals that depend on that resource for foodstuffs. The loss can threaten the survival of these creatures and larger predators that prey upon them. Extinction can have a ripple effect that spreads throughout nature.

   In addition to its biological consequences, extinction poses a moral dilemma for humans, the only species capable of saving the others. The presence of humans on the planet has affected all other life forms, particularly plants and animals. Human lifestyles have proven to be incompatible with the survival of some other species. Purposeful efforts have been made to eliminate animals that prey on people, livestock, crops, or pose any threat to human livelihoods. Some wild animals have been decimated by human desire for meat, hides, fur, or other body parts with commercial value. Likewise, demand for land, water, and other natural resources has left many wild plants and animals with little to no suitable habitat. Humans have also affected nature by introducing non-native species to local areas and producing pollutants having a negative impact on the environment. The combination of these human-related effects and natural obstacles such as disease or low birthrates has proven to be too much for some species to overcome. They have no chance of survival without human help.

   As a result, societies have difficult choices to make about the amount of effort and money they are willing to spend to save imperiled species. Will people accept limits on their property rights, recreational activities, and means of livelihood to save a plant or an animal? Should saving such popular species as whales and dolphins take priority over saving obscure, annoying, or fearful species? Is it the responsibility of humans to save every kind of life form from disappearing, or is extinction an inevitable part of nature, in which the strong survive and the weak perish? These are some difficult questions that people face as they ponder the fate of other species living on this planet.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

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Cooking shows on TV are usually all about exotic foods. Thanks to globalization, people everywhere are introducing their taste buds to dishes from every corner of the world. At the same time, other people are discovering that food from their area is the best kept secret. In the past few years, this movement of purchasing local produce keeps picking up steam because it offers a lot of benefits. For starters, local food is often tastier because it is fresher. Goods that are imported from abroad must be flown or shinped in from far away, so they naturally lose some of their freshness during the journey. A simple way to test this is to sample a banana from overseas versus one that was grown locally and compare the tastes. Imported goods must also be washed and packaged in plastic or other containers so they can survive the journey. These materials may cause the nutritional value of these goods to decline during the shipping process. Food safety is another reason why people are choosing local produce. Today's laws regarding foods vary from country to country. This causes confusion and makes it difficult to detect if any harmful pesticides were used. When you know the local farmer who grows your food and the fields that are used to produce it, the chances of it being contaminated are greatly reduced.
Buying local foods can also have beneficial impact on the environment. By supporting local growers, consumers can maintain green space and farmland in their communities. Buying locally also helps to build the local community. If farmers can sell directly to consumers instead of a middleman, they will earn more money for their families. Additional profits also enable farmers to better care for their soil and keep quality standards high. In the end, it is a win-win situation for both parties.
If you are interested in incorporating more local foods into your diet, you can start by attending a farmers' market in your area. This is an open market where farmers sell fruits, vegetables, and meat directly to the public. If you have any questions about the production process or quality of these goods, you can ask the farmers directly. Once you experience the freshness of local foods for yourself, it might be tough to go back to the supermarket.

The phrase “picking up steam” in paragraph 1 can be    .

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:
How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch; for others,     it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a "sickie" once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy  and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a “manageable” 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.
Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly having to reschedule appointments; "and the third one is on the family side", says Plumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a second child in October. "If I happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, I know things are out of control." Being "too busy" is highly subjective. But for any individual, the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing up as stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health. National workers' compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks. The effects of stress are also expensive. Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs. Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief - a game of golf or a massage - but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time  or  changing expectations. The decision  may take several days. He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. "Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help," he says.
Executive stress is not confined to big organizations. Vanessa Stoykov has been running her own advertising and public relations business for seven years, specializing in work for financial and professional services firms, Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list of fastest-growing small enterprises last year - just after Stoykov had her first child. Stoykov thrives   on the mental stimulation of running her own business. "Like everyone, I have the occasional day when I think my head's going to blow off," she says. Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief - weekends in the mountains, the occasional "mental health" day -rather than delegating more work, She says:  “We're hiring more people, but  you need to train them, teach them about the culture and the clients, so  it's actually more work  rather than less.”a

The word "consecutive" in paragraph 2  mostly means    _.

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You have learned about dinosaurs in school. Maybe you have seen them in museums. But how much do you really know about these animals? Not all dinosaurs were just big reptiles. For years, scientists thought dinosaurs were big, dumb, and cold blooded - in other words, just giant reptiles. Some dinosaurs were huge. But many were about the size of modern-day birds or dogs. Were dinosaurs warm- or cold blooded? Paleontologists- are not sure. But they believe some were intelligent. Of course, no dinosaur was as smart as a human or even a monkey. However, some smaller dinosaurs - like the two- meter (six-foot) Troodon — had fairly large brains.
Was Tyrannosaurus rex a powerful predator? Some scientists think the opposite is true. In the movies, T.rex is often a speedy giant, but in fact, this dinosaur could not run very fast. Physically, it was too large. In reality, T.rex probably moved as fast as an elephant. Also, T. rex had very small arms. Without strong legs or arms, this dinosaur probably wasn’t a powerful hunter. It may have been a scavenger instead, only eating animals that were already dead.
Did an asteroid kill the dinosaurs? An asteroid hit Mexico’s Yucantan Peninsula about 65 million years ago. It created a 180-kilometer (HO-mile) wide crater called Chicxulub. Many believe this asteroid caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. But even before this, dinosaurs were already dying out around the world, for many reasons. At the end of the Cretaceous period, for example, the global climate was changing and Earth's temperature was getting colder.Dinosaurs completely disappeared about 65 million years ago. However, scientists believe modern-day birds are descendants of certain dinosaurs. If this  true, then dinosaurs' relatives are still walking - and flying - among us!

The word “it” in paragraph 2 refers to     ?

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It weighed about 10,000 tons, entered the atmosphere at a speed of 64,000 km/h and exploded over a city with a blast of 500 kilotons. But on 15 February 2013, we were lucky. The meteorite that showered pieces of rock over Chelyabinsk, Russia, was relatively small, at only about 17 metres wide. Although many people were injured by falling glass, the damage was nothing compared to what had happened in Siberia nearly one hundred years ago. Another relatively small object (approximately 50 metres in diameter) exploded in mid–air over a forest region, flattening about 80 million trees. If it had exploded over a city such as Moscow or London, millions of people would have been killed.
By a strange coincidence, the same day that the meteorite terrified the people of Chelyabinsk, another 50m–wide asteroid passed relatively close to Earth. Scientists were expecting that visit and know that the asteroid will return to fly close by us in 2046, but the Russian meteorite earlier in the day had been too small for anyone to spot.
Most scientists agree that comets and asteroids pose the biggest natural threat to human existence. It was probably a large asteroid or comet colliding with Earth which wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. An enormous object, 10 to 16 km in diameter, struck the Yucatan region of Mexico with the force of 100 megatons. That is the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb for every person alive on Earth today.
Many scientists, including the late Stephen Hawking, say that any comet or asteroid greater than 20 km in diameter that hits Earth will result in the complete destruction of complex life, including all animals and most plants. As we have seen, even a much smaller asteroid can cause great damage.
The Earth has been kept fairly safe for the last 65 million years by good fortune and the massive gravitational field of the planet Jupiter. Our cosmic guardian, with its stable circular orbit far from the sun, sweeps up and scatters away most of the dangerous comets and asteroids which might cross Earth’s orbit. After the Chelyabinsk meteorite, scientists are now monitoring potential hazards even more carefully but, as far as they know, there is no danger in the foreseeable future.A

The word “it” in paragraph 1 refers to     .

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:
How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch; for others,     it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a "sickie" once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy  and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a “manageable” 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.
Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly having to reschedule appointments; "and the third one is on the family side", says Plumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a second child in October. "If I happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, I know things are out of control." Being "too busy" is highly subjective. But for any individual, the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing up as stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health. National workers' compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks. The effects of stress are also expensive. Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs. Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief - a game of golf or a massage - but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time  or  changing expectations. The decision  may take several days. He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. "Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help," he says.
Executive stress is not confined to big organizations. Vanessa Stoykov has been running her own advertising and public relations business for seven years, specializing in work for financial and professional services firms, Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list of fastest-growing small enterprises last year - just after Stoykov had her first child. Stoykov thrives   on the mental stimulation of running her own business. "Like everyone, I have the occasional day when I think my head's going to blow off," she says. Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief - weekends in the mountains, the occasional "mental health" day -rather than delegating more work, She says:  “We're hiring more people, but  you need to train them, teach them about the culture and the clients, so  it's actually more work  rather than less.”a

The word "reassess" in  the second paragraph is  closest in  meaning to    _.

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.
Most adults struggle to recall events from their first few years of life and now scientists have identified exactly when these childhood memories are lost forever. A new study into childhood amnesia has found that it tends to take (1).......around the age of seven. The rapid decline of memories persisting while children are five and six is owing to the change in the way memories are formed.
Before the age of seven, children tend to have  an (2)......form of recall with no sense of time and place in their memories. In older children, however, the early recollected events tend to be more adult like in their content and the way they are formed. Faster rate of forgetting in children and higher turnover of memories means early memories are less likely to survive. (3)........, memories of younger children tend to lack autobiographical narrative leading to a process known as ‘retrieval induced forgetting’ (4).....the action of remembering causes other information to be forgotten. Consequently, if childhood memories can survive into the ninth or tenth year of life, they may stay a chance of (5).... it into adulthood.
(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:
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.

According to the passage, the number of people travelling by planes each day is about

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:
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.

Which of the following does not relate to Ordinary Tides ?