Choose the best answer to complete the passage.

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN AND THINK

What is the point of the education system? Although this question may seem ridiculous at first (1) ____, it is actually not stupid as it sounds. The reason it is (2) ____ trying to answer is that schools and university clearly (3) ____ academic achievement, passing exams and gaining (4) ____ much more than acquiring skills such as (5) ____ children or car maintenance. But why is it? Why do they neglect to teach (6) ____ skills at school?

One answer may be that schools don't (7) ____ to help us gain useful knowledge about the world. At school, what we are (8) ____ learning is how to learn effectively. The idea is that we can then (9) ____ use of that ability later on in life when we come to deal (10) ____ more practical aspects of day- to-day living.

However, some people argue that the (11) ____ system is in fact a failure because it doesn't actually teach children how to become good thinkers. Learning how to learn is one thing. Learning how to learn is one thing. Learning how to think is (12) ____ another.

(7) ____

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. 
       A little while ago, the European Parliament recommended a list of 8 key competencies which they believe all (23) ____ institutions should provide their students with, to promote lifelong learning. These key competencies consist of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are central to the development of (24) ____ children, young people and eventually adults.
       Finland isn't the first country to recognize the value of ‘lifelong learning’ but Finland is the first country to base their teaching curriculum (25) ____ the eight key competencies. Instead of focusing on classic academic subjects, like. History or English, Finnish schools will now structure lessons around broader, crosscutting and interdisciplinary "topics".
       Speaking on why Finland decided to make this shift towards lifelong learning. Pasi Sahlberg. Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Education Harvard University, said: “educators in Finland think, quite correctly, that schools should teach what young people need in their lives... (26) ______Finnish youth need more than before are more integrated knowledge and skills about real world issues”.
       As Professor Sahlberg explains the key competencies don't focus on knowledge acquisition and test score results, (27) ____ on developing skills for longer term learning, with an emphasis on social and emotional development.

These key competencies consist of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which are central to the development of (24) ____ children, young people and eventually adults

It's often said that we learn things at the wrong time. University students frequently do the minimum of work because they're crazy about a good social life instead. Children often scream before their piano practice because it’s so boring. They have to be given gold stars and medals to be persuaded to swim, or have to be bribed to take exams. But the story is different when you’re older.
Over the years, I've done my share of adult learning. At 30, I went to a college and did courses in History and English. It was an amazing experience. For starters, I was paying, so there was no reason to be late - I was the one frowning and drumming my fingers if the tutor was late, not the other way round. Indeed, if I could persuade him to linger for an extra five minutes, it was a bonus, not a nuisance. I wasn't frightened to ask questions, and homework was a pleasure not a pain. When I passed an exam, I had passed it for me and me alone, not for my parents or my teachers. The satisfaction I got was entirely personal
Some people fear going back to school because they worry that their brains have got rusty. But the joy is that, although some parts have rusted up, your brain has learnt all kinds of other things since you were young. It has learnt to think independently and flexibly and is much better at relating one thing to another. What you lose in the rusty department, you gain in the maturity department.
In some ways, age is a positive plus. For instance, when you're older, you get less frustrated. Experience has told you that, if you're calm and simply do something carefully again and again, eventually you'll get the hang of it. The confidence you have in other areas - from being able to drive a car, perhaps - means that if you can’t, say, build a chair instantly, you don't, like a child, want to destroy your first pathetic attempts. Maturity tells you that you will, with application, eventually get there.
I hated piano lessons at school, but I was good at music. And coming back to it, with a teacher who could explain why certain exercises were useful and with musical concepts that, at the age of ten, I could never grasp, was magical. Initially, I did feel a bit strange, thumping out a piece that I'd played for my school exams, with just as little comprehension of what the composer intended as I'd had all those years before. But soon, complex emotions that I never knew poured out from my fingers, and suddenly I could understand why practice makes perfect.

 It is implied in the last paragraph that when you learn later in life, you ...........................

Read the following passage and choose among A, B, C or D the correct answer to each of the questions.

In my experience, freshmen today are different from those I knew when I started as a counselor and professor 25 years ago. College has always been demanding both academically and socially. But students now are less mature and often not ready for the responsibility of being in college.

It is really too easy to point the finger at parents who protect their children from life's obstacle. Parents, who handle every difficulty and every other responsibility for their children writing admission essays to picking college courses, certainly may contribute to their children's lack of coping strategies. But we can look even more broadly to the social trends of today.

How many people do you know who are on medication to prevent anxiety or depression? The number of students who arrive at college already medicated for unwanted emotions has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. We, as a society, don't want to "feel" anything unpleasant and we certainly don't want our children to "suffer".

The resulting problem is that by not experiencing negative emotions, one does not learn the necessary skills to tolerate and negotiate adversity. As a psychologist, I am well aware of the fact that some individuals suffer from depression and anxiety and can benefit from treatment, but I question the growing number of medicated adolescents today.

Our world is more stressful in general because of the current economic and political realities, but I don't believe that the college experience itself is more intense today than that of the past 10 years. What I do think is that many students are often not prepared to be young "adults" with all the responsibilities of life.

What does this mean for college faculty and staff? We are required to assist in the basic parenting of these students - the student who complains that the professor didn't remind her of the due date for an assignment that was clearly listed on the syllabus and the student who cheats on an assignment in spite of careful instructions about plagiarism.

As college professors, we have to explain what it means to be an independent college student before we can even begin to teach. As parents and teachers we should expect young people to meet challenges. To encourage them in this direction, we have to step back and let them fail and pick themselves up and move forward. This approach needs to begin at an early age so that college can actually be a passage to independent adulthood.

The phrase "on medication" in paragraph 3 is similar in meaning to ____.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Successful students often do the following while studying. First, they have an overview before reading. Next, they look for important information and pay greater attention to it (which often needs jumping forward or backward to process information). They also relate important points to one another. Also, they activate and use their prior knowledge. When they realize that their understanding is not good, they do not wait to change strategies. Last, they can monitor understanding and take action to correct or "fix up" mistakes in comprehension.

Conversely students with low academic achievement often demonstrate ineffective study skills. They tend to assume a passive role in learning and rely on others (eg, teachers, parents) to monitor their studying, for example, low achieving students often do not monitor their understanding of content they may not be aware of the purpose of studying, and they show little evidence of looking back, or employing "fix-up strategies to fix understanding problems.

Students who struggle with learning new information seem to be unaware that they must extent effort beyond simply reading the content to understand and remember it. Children with learning disabilities do not plan and judge the quality of their studying. Their studying may be disorganized. Students with learning problems face challenges with personal organization as well. They often have difficulty keeping track of materials and assignments, following directions, and completing work on time. Unlike good studiers who employ a variety of study skills in a flexible yet purposeful manner, low-achieving students use a restricted range of study skills. They cannot explain why good study strategies are important for learning, and they tend to use the same, often ineffective study approach for all learning tasks, ignoring task content, structure or difficulty.

According to the passage, what can be learnt about passive students?

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. 
Times are tough. The nightly news is filled with stories of people who have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis, or lost their homes in a fire or natural disaster. Have you ever seen people who have just endured an awful situation? Some focus on what they have lost, and this is easy to understand. But other people focus on what they did not lose, and they start thinking about a better future.
One good piece of advice to remember is that you cannot always control situations or other people. The only thing you can control is your own personal reaction to bad situations. Sometimes a situation may really be overwhelming. However, in many cases, you really can influence our own moods by the way you think about negative situations.
Imagine two families: Both have lost their homes and all their belongings in a devastating storm. One family cannot mask their grief. They feel that everything they hold dear has been destroyed. They cannot imagine how they will ever be able to replace things and start over again. Their normal life seems to have been completely lost. In contrast, a second family is crying with joy. All of the people in their family are unharmed and safe. This family is just happy that everyone has survived. This family is already trying to figure out how they can recover. You can’t really blame the first family for experiencing a very normal reaction to a terrible situation. However, the second family certainly seems to be better off. They are thinking about making progress rather than focusing on the tragic events. 
Though this scenario is extreme, everyone experiences setbacks that seem just awful at the time. This could be a job loss, illness, or problems with family members. Nobody gets through life without having some bad things happen. In these situations, try to focus on the steps you can take to remedy the situation, instead of how awful the setback is. By doing this, you will be laying the foundation for a better tomorrow. And you will not suffer as much pain today.
Actually, controlling how you feel and trying to maintain a positive attitude can help you through many tough situations. The bottom line is, no matter what the problem is, you are more likely to fix it if you can stay positive and work out a plan. Also, never be afraid to seek help when you need it. The advice of a friend, family member, or even a professional may be all it takes to get back on track. 
It may sound like a cliché. While a positive attitude may not be the answer to every problem, it can certainly give you an advantage in surviving most of life’s minor setbacks.

According to paragraph 5, what is the major thing you should do when you have troubles?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international (26) _____- governmental organization for the (27) _____, research, and restoration of the environment. The organization was (28) _____ as a charitable trust on September 11, 1961, in Morges, Switzerland, under the name World Wildlife Fund. It was an initiative of Julian Huxley and Max Nicholson.It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million (29) _____ worldwide, working in more (30) _____ 90 countries, supporting 100 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity, with (31) ____ 9% of its funding coming from voluntary (32) ___ by private individuals and businesses.The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the (33) _____ of our environment". Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned (34) _____ endangered species, pollution, and climate change. The organization (35) ____ more than 20 field projects worldwide. In the last few years, the organization set up offices and operations around the world.

(28) _____

Choose the best answer to complete the passage.

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN AND THINK

What is the point of the education system? Although this question may seem ridiculous at first (1) ____, it is actually not stupid as it sounds. The reason it is (2) ____ trying to answer is that schools and university clearly (3) ____ academic achievement, passing exams and gaining (4) ____ much more than acquiring skills such as (5) ____ children or car maintenance. But why is it? Why do they neglect to teach (6) ____ skills at school?

One answer may be that schools don't (7) ____ to help us gain useful knowledge about the world. At school, what we are (8) ____ learning is how to learn effectively. The idea is that we can then (9) ____ use of that ability later on in life when we come to deal (10) ____ more practical aspects of day- to-day living.

However, some people argue that the (11) ____ system is in fact a failure because it doesn't actually teach children how to become good thinkers. Learning how to learn is one thing. Learning how to learn is one thing. Learning how to think is (12) ____ another.

(12) ____

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. 
       Although television was first regarded by many as “radio with pictures,” public reaction to the arrival of TV was strikingly different from that afforded the advent of radio. Radio in its early days was perceived as a technological wonder rather than a medium of cultural significance. The public quickly adjusted to radio broadcasting and either enjoyed its many programs or turned them off. Television, however, prompted a tendency to criticize and evaluate rather than a simple on-off response.
      One aspect of early television that can never be recaptured is the combined sense of astonishment and glamour that greeted the medium during its infancy. At the midpoint of the 20th century, the public was properly agog about being able to see and hear actual events that were happening across town or hundreds of miles away. Relatively few people had sets in their homes, but popular fascination with TV was so pronounced that crowds would gather on the sidewalks in front of stores that displayed a working television set or two. The same thing happened in the typical tavern, where a set behind the bar virtually guaranteed a full house. Sports events that might attract a crowd of 30,000 or 40,000 suddenly, with the addition of TV cameras, had audiences numbering in the millions. By the end of television’s first decade, it was widely believed to have greater influence on American culture than parents, schools, churches, and government-institutions that had been until then the dominant influences on popular conduct. All were superseded by this one cultural juggernaut.
       The 1950s was a time of remarkable achievement in television, but this was not the case for the entire medium. American viewers old enough to remember TV in the ’50s may fondly recall the shows of Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, and Lucille Ball, but such high-quality programs were the exception; most of television during its formative years could be aptly described, as it was by one Broadway playwright, as “amateurs playing at home movies.” The underlying problem was not a shortage of talented writers, producers, and performers; there were plenty, but they were already busily involved on the Broadway stage and in vaudeville, radio, and motion pictures. Consequently, television drew chiefly on a talent pool of individuals who had not achieved success in the more popular media and on the young and inexperienced who were years from reaching their potential. Nevertheless, the new medium ultimately proved so fascinating a technical novelty that in the early stages of its development the quality of its content seemed almost not to matter.
      Fortunately, the dearth of talent was short-lived. Although it would take at least another decade before areas such as news and sports coverage approached their potential, more than enough excellence in the categories of comedy and drama emerged in the 1950s to deserve the attention of discriminating viewers. They are the most fondly remembered of the Golden Age genres for both emotional and intellectual reasons. Live TV drama was, in essence, the legitimate theatre’s contribution to the new medium; such shows were regarded as “prestige” events and were afforded respect accordingly. The comedies of the era are remembered for the same reason that comedy itself endures: human suffering and the ever-elusive pursuit of happiness render laughter a necessary palliative, and people therefore have a particular fondness for those who amuse them.

Which of the following does the word “aptly” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

Choose the best answer to complete the passage.

Most people (1) ____ learning with formal education at school, college, university etc. We are all told, from an early age, that we should get a good education'. Generally speaking, it is true that a formal education and the resulting qualifications are important. Education may (2) ____ our potential to find better, more satisfying jobs, earn more and perhaps, become more successful in our chosen career.

However, 'schooling' is only one type of learning. There are many other opportunities to further your (3) ____ and develop the skills you need throughout life. Knowledge can be acquired and skill sets developed anywhere - learning is unavoidable and happens all the (4) ____. However, lifelong learning is about creating and maintaining a positive attitude to learning both for personal and professional development.

Lifelong learners are self-motivated to learn and develop because they want to. (5) ____ learning can enhance our understanding of the world around us, provide us with more and better opportunities and improve our quality of life. People learn for personal development and for professional (6) ____. There are many reasons why people learn for personal development. You may want to increase your knowledge or (7) ____ around a particular hobby or pastime that you enjoy. Perhaps you want to develop some entirely new skill that will in some way enhance your life – take a pottery (8) ____ car mechanic course for example. Perhaps you want to research a medical condition or your ancestry.

If you do find yourself unemployed, then use the time wisely. Learning something new can pay off with new opportunities which might not otherwise have (9) ____. While you are employed, take advantage of training, coaching or mentoring opportunities and work on your continuous professional development as you will likely (10) ____ better at what you do and more indispensable to your current or future employer.

(10) ____

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. 
        I was an MBA student in the USA and I lived in the university’s coed dormitory. In my culture, usually, if a woman talks to a man, it is a sign of romantic interest. (23)_______, in the first few days of school, I found it strange that so many women were talking to me and I was under the impression that some women on my dormitory floor were interested in me. To (24) _____ their politeness, I would buy them flowers or offer small gifts, as is done in my country. However, I was quite surprised to see that these same women now seemed (25) _______ around me. One was even quite offended and told me to leave her alone. Eventually I talked to the residence adviser on my floor to see what I was doing wrong, and he explained to me the way men and women usually interact in the USA. I was quite relieved to hear that (26) _____ was wrong with me, but rather with the way I was interpreting my conversations with women. Even though I did not find the love of my life while I was in the USA, I still made many good female friends afterwards (27) _______I still maintain contact.

I was quite relieved to hear that (26) _____ was wrong with me, but rather with the way I was interpreting my conversations with women

Read the passage and answer the questions.

During my last couple of years as a student here at Union High, I have noticed that there is nothing to do during our occasional free periods. Hanging around in the hallways or in the library with friends isn't productive or relaxing. The student body council noticed this as well and brought it to the attention of Mr. Swanson and the rest of the faculty. A meeting to discuss the issue occurred last Friday, February 10th, in the all - school meeting room.

The faculty not only agreed that there wasn't much to do during these free periods, but also seemed determined to find a solution. The student body council and the faculty talked about different ideas for a long time. The faculty had noticed that some students don't like using their free periods for studying. Instead, they spend their time disrupting the students who want to study by being noisy in the library. By the end of the meeting, the faculty had decided to put a pool table and a ping pong table in our student lobby at the start of next semester.

I know some people will be concerned about getting their work done with these potential distractions, but I believe this will help us all in enjoying our time at school. I agree that it's important to complete our work but it is just as important to enjoy ourselves and to relax with our friends. School is already such a stressful place. It makes many students feel worried and anxious. We want our school to be a friendly place so that students want to come every day. Students should remember that this change will make the library a lot quieter. Because of this, the students who want to study will be able to do so in peace.

To all the students at Union High, I sincerely hope that you enjoy the new additions to our lobby. Hopefully, they will make our free periods a lot more relaxing. If you happen to have one of the same free periods as I do, then please challenge me to a game of pool!

What is the meeting on February 10th about?

Read the passage below and decide whether the statements are TRUE or FALSE?

   According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, more than 30 of the highest-ranked 45 institutions are in the United States, as measured by awards and research output. Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States. An even stronger pattern is shown by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities with 103 US universities in the World's Top 200 universities.

   The 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau found that 19.5 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree, 7.4 percent held an associate's degree, 17.1 percent held a bachelor's degree, and 9.9 percent held a graduate or professional degree.

   Educational attainment in the United States is similar to that of other developed countries. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above. Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each.'

20 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree

Read the following passage and choose among A, B, C or D the correct answer to each of the questions.

In my experience, freshmen today are different from those I knew when I started as a counselor and professor 25 years ago. College has always been demanding both academically and socially. But students now are less mature and often not ready for the responsibility of being in college.

It is really too easy to point the finger at parents who protect their children from life's obstacle. Parents, who handle every difficulty and every other responsibility for their children writing admission essays to picking college courses, certainly may contribute to their children's lack of coping strategies. But we can look even more broadly to the social trends of today.

How many people do you know who are on medication to prevent anxiety or depression? The number of students who arrive at college already medicated for unwanted emotions has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. We, as a society, don't want to "feel" anything unpleasant and we certainly don't want our children to "suffer".

The resulting problem is that by not experiencing negative emotions, one does not learn the necessary skills to tolerate and negotiate adversity. As a psychologist, I am well aware of the fact that some individuals suffer from depression and anxiety and can benefit from treatment, but I question the growing number of medicated adolescents today.

Our world is more stressful in general because of the current economic and political realities, but I don't believe that the college experience itself is more intense today than that of the past 10 years. What I do think is that many students are often not prepared to be young "adults" with all the responsibilities of life.

What does this mean for college faculty and staff? We are required to assist in the basic parenting of these students - the student who complains that the professor didn't remind her of the due date for an assignment that was clearly listed on the syllabus and the student who cheats on an assignment in spite of careful instructions about plagiarism.

As college professors, we have to explain what it means to be an independent college student before we can even begin to teach. As parents and teachers we should expect young people to meet challenges. To encourage them in this direction, we have to step back and let them fail and pick themselves up and move forward. This approach needs to begin at an early age so that college can actually be a passage to independent adulthood.

According to the writer, students' difficulties to cope with college life are partly due 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.
Engineers have dreaming of an underwater link between Britain and France (35)_____1802. Finally in 1994 the Channel Tunnel ( nicknamed "The Chunnel" by the English) was (36)______ opened.
This fifteen billion dollar project took seven years to (37)_____. It is about 50 km long and built 45metres under the seabed .The trains which go through the Chunnel can travel at up 300 km/h due to the (38)_______electrical system.
The journey from London to Paris via the Chunnel takes just three hours. It is also (39)______ for drivers since they can load their cars onto the trains. They don't need to book in (40)______ , as trains (41)_______every few minutes. However, while on the train, there isn't much to do and many (42)_________ the Chunnel for this (43)________ the ferries , there is no duty-free shopping , no videogame parlou or refreshment stand (44)________can you look outside and enjoy the view . As a result, many would find the Chunnel unappealing and would take the ferry instead.
(42).........................................

Choose the best answer

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international (1) ____ governmental organization for the (2) ____, research, and restoration of the environment. The organization was (3) ____ as a charitable trust on September 11, 1961, in Morges, Switzerland, under the name World Wildlife Fund. It was an initiative of Julian Huxley and Max Nicholson. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million (4) ____ worldwide, working in more (5) ____ 90 countries, supporting 100 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity, with (6) ____ 9% of its funding coming from voluntary, (7) ____ by private individuals and businesses.

The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the (8) ____ of our environment". Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned (9) ____ endangered species, pollution, and climate change. The organization (10) ____ more than 20 field projects worldwide. In the last few years, the organization set up offices and operations around the world.

(4) ____

Chọn từ thích hợp điền vào chỗ trống:

THE THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT

Nowadays people are more aware that wildlife all over the world is in danger. Many (1)________of animals are threatened, and could easily become (2)______ if we do not make an effort to protect them. There are many (3)_______ for this. In some cases, animals are hunted for their fur or for othervaluable parts of their bodies. Some birds, such as parrots, are caught (4)________and sold as pets. For many animals and birds, the problem is that their habitat - the (5)________where they live - is disappearing. More (6)________is used for farms, for houses or industry, and there are fewer open (7)________than there once were. Farmers use powerful chemicals to help them grow better (8)________, but these chemicals pollute the environment and (9)________wildlife. The most successful animals on earth - human beings - will soon be the only Ones left, unless we can (10)________this problem.

(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. 
Exactly 50 years ago, humanity stepped foot on the surface of the Moon for the first time. It was a miracle, and one made so powerful because it was so very unlikely. It was hailed as an incredible success. But the chance of failure was such that authorities had to prepare for the possibility of losing the astronauts. Those preparations offer a humbling insight into how risky that mission was, and how high the stakes were. Probably the most potent document from those preparations is the speech that would have been used to hail the bravery of the astronauts as they were left to their death on the Moon.
It was written to announce to the world that the astronauts had been lost, and that the Moon mission was a failure. After it was read, the two astronauts would be given a ceremony something like the burial at sea, but one entirely without precedent. The document was hidden for many years – unused, it was "quietly tucked away into the record" after the astronauts returned home, as the National Archive that now holds it notes. But over time it became public, after being revealed by the man who wrote it, and is now available for the public to read.
It was prepared in the case that the astronauts and their moon lander failed to get back to the main craft that was floating around in the Moon's orbit ready to bring them home, and contained Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's colleague Michael Collins. In that case, it was most likely that those pioneering explorers would not lose their lives in a single spectacular moment. Instead, they would most likely be stranded, stuck 250,000 miles from Earth with no way of getting back home. "If they couldn't get back safely, they'd have to be abandoned on the moon, left to die there," speechwriter William Safire said in 1999. "The men would either have to starve to death or commit suicide."
In the end, and despite some very anxious moments, the crew would explore the lunar surface and come back down safely. That meant that, instead of announcing their loss, Nixon could instead share in the astronaut's success. In one of the most famous moments of the mission, he spoke to them in a phone call that was beamed around the world. He recognised the triumph of their achievement, and wished them safety for their return.

What did Nixon do after the crew landed safely?

Culture is a word in common use with complex meanings, and is derived, like the term broadcasting, from the treatment and care of the soil and of what grows on it. It is directly related to cultivation and the adjectives cultural and cultured are part of the same verbal complex. A person of culture has identifiable attributes, among them are knowledge of and interest in the arts, literature, and music. Yet the word culture does not refer solely to such knowledge and interest nor, indeed, to education. At least from the 19th century onwards, under the influence of anthropologists and sociologists, the word culture means has come to be used generally both in the singular and the plural (cultures) to refer to a whole way of life of people, including their customs, laws, conventions, and values.
Distinctions have consequently been drawn between primitive and advanced culture and cultures, between elite and popular culture, between popular and mass culture, and most recently between national and global cultures. Distinctions have been drawn too between culture and civilization; the latter is a word derived not, like culture or agriculture, from the soil, but from the city.The two words are sometimes treated as synonymous. Yet this is misleading. While civilization and barbarism are pitted against each other in what seems to be a perpetual behavioural pattern, the use of the word culture has been strongly influenced by conceptions of evolution in the 19th century and of development in the 20th century. Cultures evolve or develop. They are not static. They have twists and turns. Styles change. So do fashions. There are cultural processes. What, for example, the word cultured has changed substantially since the study of classical (that is, Greek and Roman) literature, philosophy, and history ceased in the 20th century to be central to school and university education. No single alternative focus emerged, although with computers has come electronic culture, affecting kinds of study, and most recently digital culture. As cultures express themselves in new forms not everything gets better or more civilized.
The multiplicity of meanings attached to the word made and will make it difficult to define. There is no single, unprobfematic definition, although many attempts have been made to establish one. The only non-problematic definitions go back to agricultural meaning (for example cereal culture or strawberry culture) and medical meaning (for example, bacterial culture or penicillin culture). Since in anthropology and sociology we also acknowledge culture clashes, culture shock and counter- culture, the range of reference is extremely wide

The passage mainly discusses ....................

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.
Engineers have dreaming of an underwater link between Britain and France (35)_____1802. Finally in 1994 the Channel Tunnel ( nicknamed "The Chunnel" by the English) was (36)______ opened.
This fifteen billion dollar project took seven years to (37)_____. It is about 50 km long and built 45metres under the seabed .The trains which go through the Chunnel can travel at up 300 km/h due to the (38)_______electrical system.
The journey from London to Paris via the Chunnel takes just three hours. It is also (39)______ for drivers since they can load their cars onto the trains. They don't need to book in (40)______ , as trains (41)_______every few minutes. However, while on the train, there isn't much to do and many (42)_________ the Chunnel for this (43)________ the ferries , there is no duty-free shopping , no videogame parlou or refreshment stand (44)________can you look outside and enjoy the view . As a result, many would find the Chunnel unappealing and would take the ferry instead.
(44).......................................... 

Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.

Scientists believe they now have scientific evidence to prove that ecosystems work better when there is a greater variety of species within them. This biodiversity loss destroys natural mechanisms that could repair the damage caused by man.

Findings show that losing plants and animals is not only reducing our quality of life but actually endangering our very existence. We cut down rich rain-forests and replace them with one species plantations, such as pine and eucalyptus. We plough up meadows rich in different grasses and herbs and replace them with one grass, for instance, rye or wheat.

When a natural ecosystem is simplified the basic processes in the ecosystem are altered arid even damaged. Without their biodiversity, they are not able to serve as the natural cleaners of our planet. No longer are they able to absorb the carbon dioxide that is being produced in excess. The result is global warming, caused by the increase in the "greenhouse effect", and ultimately, or even sooner, there will be a change in the world's climate.

The word "them" in line 5 refers to _____