Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

   In 1973, when the tiger appeared to (1)______ facing extinction, the World Wide Fund for Nature and (2) _____Indian Government agreed to set up “Operation Tiger”- a campaign (3) ______ save this threatened creature. They started by creating nine special parks so that tigers could live in safety. The first was at Ranthambhore, a region (4) _____ was quickly turning into a desert as too much of the grass was being eaten by the local people’s cattle. At the time there (5) ______ just fourteen tigers left there. The government had to clear twelve small villages, which mean moving nearly 1,000 people and 10,000 cattle so the land could be handed back to nature.

(1).......................

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:
Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1902 but was raised on a farm in Minnesota, where his father was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1907. From then on, he spent his boyhood alternately in Washington, D.C. Detroit, and Little Falls, Minnesota. Because Lindbergh exhibited exceptional mechanical talent, in 1921 he was admitted to the University of Wisconsing to study engineering. However, the young man was seeking more challenging endeavors, and two years later he became a stunt pilot who performed feats at county fairs and public assemblies. This unusual and dangerous undertaking paid off handsomely in the sense that it allowed him to gain a diverse and well–rounded experience in aeronautics. He particularly delighted in what he called “wing–walking” and parachute jumping.
After a year of training as a military cadet, Lindbergh completed his program at the Brooks and Kelly airfields at the top of his class and earned the rank of captain.
Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, offered him employment as a mail pilot to run the routes between St. Louis and Chicago, and Lindbergh retained his position with the company until 1927. During this period, he set out to win the Raymond B. Orteig prize of $25,000 to be awarded to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. This ambition would irreversibly change his life and accord him a prominent place in the history of aviation.
Embarking on the greatest adventure of his time, Lindbergh left Roosevelt Field at 7:52 A.M. on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Field at 5:24 P.M. the next day. Fearing that he would be unknown when he arrived, Lindbergh carried letters of introduction to dignitaries in Paris, but when his plane came to a stop, he was overwhelmed by tremendous welcoming crowds. He was decorated in France, Great Britain, and Belgium, and President Coolidge sent a specially designated cruiser, the Memphis, to bring him back, His accomplishments in aeronautics brought him more medals and awards than had ever been received by any other person in private life.

The author of the passage implies that Lindbergh did not anticipate becoming a

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).......................

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More often than not, you can't just "order up a job" by responding to an online posting and have it delivered in one or two days as if you were buying whatever your heart desires on Amazon.  Even as employers are hiring at a higher rate than they have in the last several years, it can often take months to work your way through the job search process. If you are a new graduate yet to receive a job offer, if you recently moved to a new locale with your spouse or partner or if you   are unemployed for any other reason, you may find success in your job search by spending time volunteering at a nonprofit organization.
Both the nonprofit and for-profit worlds need people with many of the same talents. The best volunteer jobs for you to consider are ones where the experience you acquire will be applicable in the "for-pay" position you want to attain. It's often the case that once you display your passion for the organization and its mission, and have demonstrated your abilities, you'll earn strong consideration when a paying position opens up that can benefit from your talents. Even if you don't have a path to employment at the place you volunteer, by highlighting your volunteer experience on your resume,  you can demonstrate that you haven't been wasting your time away staying at home watching the grass grow.
There are a few strategies you might adopt when considering at  which organization you'll  want to volunteer. You' ll probably want to make a priority of volunteering to do what you've already done, or want to do, in the for-profit sector. Alternatively, however, it might make sense to volunteer to do something where you can turn an area of professional weakness into a new strength. Remember, as well, that nonprofit organizations maintain strong relationships with their corporate sponsors, and you might look for a volunteer position that would enable you to be that nexus point between the two. And, especially if you are recently out of school, you should look for positions  that let you learn about an occupation, a field of interest or an industry.
As you try to determine what you want to volunteer to do, and where you want to do it, make three lists: your marketable skills, the roles you seek and the kinds of charitable organizations you would want to support. For example, perhaps your skills cluster around accounting, marketing or event planning. Think about how these might come in handy for organizations that need financial help figuring out how to brand the organization to attract other volunteers or donors or run anything from charitable golf tournaments to gala dinners.

The phrase "marketable skills" in the last paragraph mostly means    _.

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From time immemorial, cities have been the central gathering places of human life, from where the great ideas and movements of the world have sprouted. In this country, the beginnings of our independence fomented with the Boston Tea Party, while Philadelphia served as the home of the Constitutional Convention. The seeds of economic and financial power were sowed on the streets of New York City. Around the world, the great thinkers of the Renaissance assembled in Florence, the impressionist painters flocked to Paris, and the industrial revolution sparked in Birmingham England.
Hundreds of years later, great ideas and innovations are still sprouting in cities – but this time accompanied by a growth in urbanized life over the last several decades never before seen. For the first time in history, more people are living in cities than rural areas. And, this way of living is only going to continue: by 2050, the urban share of global population is projected to surpass 66 percent (up from 30 percent in 1950). This trend to urbanization is even more dramatic beyond the borders of the United States. Take Nigeria's capital, Lagos, which had a population of approximately 7.2 million in 2000, and is expected to rise to 24 million by 2030. And, eight times more Nigerians live in cities today than in 1975. Moreover, the metro areas of Tokyo, New York and Mexico City were the only metro areas in 1975 with at least 10 million people. Today, that list would include 31 such megacities – with 10 more to join by 2030 – all of which are outside the United States.
Cities are undergoing what Brookings Institution author Bruce Katz terms the "metropolitan revolution." Financial capitals New York and London are transforming into major world tech hubs as new and innovative companies emerge within these cities. And, this shift is not exclusive to New York or London, as many cities are undergoing similar transformations driven by this global trend toward urbanization. This wave of urban growth stems, in large part, from the mass adoption of the internet and interconnected technologies. Interestingly, many sociologists predicted years ago that the advent of such interconnectivity would enable people to live and work anywhere. But the practical result has been the opposite.
Indeed, in this new 21st century economy, innovative workers seek one another to collaborate in building and developing new knowledge-based industries that are increasingly disrupting and dominating a rapidly evolving global economy. Bright, curious minds in the sciences and technology demand proximity in order to be more productive, more creative and further stimulated. This need for collaboration has propelled millennials to move to urban areas in droves. But once they get there, they desire new open physical environments – such as incubators and shared work places – to enhance their collaborative efforts. Beyond work, a growing single population – one that now outnumbers married people in the United States – seeks out other singles amid the myriad activities and diverse nightlife that only cities offer.

The word “propelled” in the last paragraph mostly means ____________.

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. 
From time immemorial, cities have been the central gathering places of human life, from where the great ideas and movements of the world have sprouted. In this country, the beginnings of our independence fomented with the Boston Tea Party, while Philadelphia served as the home of the Constitutional Convention. The seeds of economic and financial power were sowed on the streets of New York City. Around the world, the great thinkers of the Renaissance assembled in Florence, the impressionist painters flocked to Paris, and the industrial revolution sparked in Birmingham England.
Hundreds of years later, great ideas and innovations are still sprouting in cities – but this time accompanied by a growth in urbanized life over the last several decades never before seen. For the first time in history, more people are living in cities than rural areas. And, this way of living is only going to continue: by 2050, the urban share of global population is projected to surpass 66 percent (up from 30 percent in 1950). This trend to urbanization is even more dramatic beyond the borders of the United States. Take Nigeria's capital, Lagos, which had a population of approximately 7.2 million in 2000, and is expected to rise to 24 million by 2030. And, eight times more Nigerians live in cities today than in 1975. Moreover, the metro areas of Tokyo, New York and Mexico City were the only metro areas in 1975 with at least 10 million people. Today, that list would include 31 such megacities – with 10 more to join by 2030 – all of which are outside the United States.
Cities are undergoing what Brookings Institution author Bruce Katz terms the "metropolitan revolution." Financial capitals New York and London are transforming into major world tech hubs as new and innovative companies emerge within these cities. And, this shift is not exclusive to New York or London, as many cities are undergoing similar transformations driven by this global trend toward urbanization. This wave of urban growth stems, in large part, from the mass adoption of the internet and interconnected technologies. Interestingly, many sociologists predicted years ago that the advent of such interconnectivity would enable people to live and work anywhere. But the practical result has been the opposite.
Indeed, in this new 21st century economy, innovative workers seek one another to collaborate in building and developing new knowledge-based industries that are increasingly disrupting and dominating a rapidly evolving global economy. Bright, curious minds in the sciences and technology demand proximity in order to be more productive, more creative and further stimulated. This need for collaboration has propelled millennials to move to urban areas in droves. But once they get there, they desire new open physical environments – such as incubators and shared work places – to enhance their collaborative efforts. Beyond work, a growing single population – one that now outnumbers married people in the United States – seeks out other singles amid the myriad activities and diverse nightlife that only cities offer.

What topic does the passage mainly discuss?

Carnegie Hall, the famous concert hall in New York City, has again undergone a restoration. While this is not the first, it is certainly the most extensive in the building’s history. As a result of this new restoration, Carnegie Hall once again has the quality of sound that it had when it was first built.
Carnegie Hall owes its existence to Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy owner of a steel company in the late 1800s. The hall was finished in 1891 and quickly gained a reputation as an excellent performing arts hall where accomplished musicians gained fame. Despite its reputation, however, the concert hall suffered from several detrimental renovations over the years. During the Great Depression, when fewer people could afford to attend performances, the directors sold part of the building to commercial businesses. As a result, a coffee shop was opened in one corner of the building, for which the builders replaced the brick and terra cotta walls with windowpanes. A renovation in 1946 seriously damaged the acoustical quality of the hall when the makers of the film Carnegie Hall cut a gaping hole in the dome of the ceiling to allow for lights and air vents. The hole was later covered with short curtains and a fake ceiling, but the hall never sounded the same afterwards.
In 1960, the violinist Isaac Stern became involved in restoring the hall after a group of real estate developers unveiled plans to demolish Carnegie Hall and build a high-rise office building on the site. This threat spurred Stern to rally public support for Carnegie Hall and encourage the City of New York to buy the property. The movement was successful, and the concert hall is now owned by the city. In the current restoration, builders tested each new material for its sound qualities, and they replaced the hole in the ceiling with a dome. The builders also restored the outer walls to their original appearance and closed the coffee shop. Carnegie has never sounded better, and its prospects for the future have never looked more promising.

The word “it” in the first paragraph refers to .........

Choose the option that best completes each of the following sentences

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 card. Instead, he has been told to wait another two years, until he is 18.

The 16-year-old works for a small firm in Liverpool, where the problem of most young people of his 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 programs within tight schedules, with bonus payments and profit-sharing, he cannot drive a car, take out a mortgage, or obtain credit cards. He lives with his parents in their council house in Liverpool, where his father is a bus driver. His company has to pay £150 a month in taxi fares to get him the five miles to work and back every day because David cannot drive.

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 programs," he said.

"I suppose £35,000 sounds a lot but actually that's being pessimistic. I hope it will come to more than that this year." He spends some of his money on records and clothes, and gives his mother £20 a week. But most 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 know when the market might disappear."

Why is David different from other young people at his age?

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     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.

The word “bruises” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _________.

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Sometimes people add to what they say even when they don't talk. Gestures are the "silent language" of every culture. We point a finger or move another part of the body to show what we want to say. It is important to know the body language of every country or we may be misunderstood. In the United States, people greet each other with a handshake in a formal introduction. The handshake must be firm. If the handshake is weak, it is a sign of weakness or unfriendliness. Friends may place a hand on the other's arm or shoulder. Some people, usually women, greet a friend with a hug.
Space is important to Americans. When two people talk to each other, they usually stand about two and a half feet away and at an angle, so they are not facing each other directly. Americans get uncomfortable when a person stands too close. They will move back to have their space. If Americans touch another person by accident, they say, "Pardon me." or "Excuse me." Americans like to look the other person in the eyes when they are talking. If you don't do so, it means you are bored, hiding something, or are not interested. But when you are stare at someone, it is not polite. For Americans, thumbs-up means yes, very good, or well done. Thumbs down means the opposite. To call a waiter, raise one hand to head level or above. To show you want the check, make a movement with your hands as if you are signing a piece of paper. It is all right to point at things but not at people with the hand and index finger. Americans shake their index finger at children when they scold them and pat them on the head when they admire them. Learning a culture's body language is sometimes confusing. If you don't know what to do, the safest thing to do is to smile.

The word “them” in paragraph 2 refers to .

 Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:

"Around the age of eighteen, you must make one of the biggest decisions of your life. “Do I stay on at school and hopefully go on to university (1)….. ? Do I leave and start work or beginning a training (2)…… ?”
 The decision is yours, but it may be (3)…… remembering two things: there is more unemployment (4)….. people who haven’t been to university, and people who have the right (5)….. will have a big advantage in the competition for jobs. If you decide to go (6)…. into a job, there are many opportunities for training.
Getting qualifications will (7)…… you to get on more quickly in many careers, and evening classes allow you to learn (8)…. you earn. Starting work and taking a break to study when you are older is (9)…. possibility. This way, you can save up money for your student days, as well as (10)…. practical work experience."

7. Getting qualifications will (7)…… you to get on more quickly in many careers,

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If "suburb" means an urban margin that grows more rapidly than its already developed interior,  the process of suburbanization began during the emergence of the industrial city in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Before that period the city was a small highly compact cluster in which people moved about on foot and goods were conveyed by horse and cart. But the early factories built in the 1830's and 1840's were located along waterways and near railheads at the edges of cities, and housing was needed for the thousands of people drawn by the prospect of employment. In time, the factories were surrounded by proliferating mill towns of apartments and row houses that abutted the older, main cities.
As a defense against this encroachment and to enlarge their tax bases, the cities appropriated their industrial neighbors. In 1854, for example, the city of Philadelphia annexed most of Philadelphia County. Similar municipal maneuvers took place in Chicago and in New York. Indeed, most great cities of the United States achieved such status only by incorporating the communities along their borders.
With the acceleration of industrial growth came acute urban crowding and accompanying social stress conditions that began to approach disastrous proportions when, in 1888, the first commercially successful electric traction line was developed. Within a few years the horse-drawn trolleys were retired and electric streetcar networks crisscrossed and connected every major urban area, fostering a wave of suburbanization that transformed the compact industrial city into a dispersed metropolis. This first phase of mass-scale suburbanization was reinforced by the simultaneous emergence of the urban Middle class 64whose desires for homeownership in neighborhoods far from the aging inner city were satisfied by the developers of single-family housing tracts.

Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

The ocean bottom - a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of Earth - is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep-ocean floor was completely inaccessible, hidden beneath waters averaging over 3,600 meters deep. Totally without light and subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earth’s surface, the deep-ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void of outer space.
Although researchers have taken samples of deep-ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundation’s Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDP’s drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the ocean’s surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rock from the ocean floor.
The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15-year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around the world.. The Glomar Challenger’s core samples have allowed geologists to reconstruct what the planet looked like hundreds of millions of years ago and to calculate what it will probably look like millions of years in the future. Today, largely on the strength of evidence gathered during the Glomar Challenger’s voyages, nearly all earth scientists agree on the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift that explain many of the geological processes that shape the Earth.
The cores of sediment drilled by the Glomar Challenger have also yielded information critical to understanding the world’s past climates. Deep-ocean sediments provide a climatic record stretching back hundreds of millions of years, because they are largely isolated from the mechanical erosion and the intense chemical and biological activity that rapidly destroy much land-based evidence of past climates. This record has already provided insights into the patterns and causes of past climatic change - information that may be used to predict future climates.

Which of the following is true of the Glomar Challenger?

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Have you ever had the feeling that people older than you are hard to understand? Or, have you felt like people from younger generations just don't get it? Maybe you find it easier to connect with people (1) __________ are closer to your age than those who are older or younger than you. You can probably thank the generation gap for these feelings. 
There are (2) ________six generations living in the United States: the Greatest Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. Each generation has its own unique set of characteristics and norms. (3)________, the Greatest Generation (born 1901-1924) is known for its patriotism, hard workers, and loyalty to institutions. The Millennials (born 1980-2000) are (4) ____ by their dependence on technology, detachment from traditional institutions, optimism, and open-mindedness. It is no wonder that many people from different generations have a hard time understanding each other.
Generation gap refers to differences in actions, beliefs, interests, and opinions that exist between (5) ________ from different generations. So, what causes these differences? 

(2).....................

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Grandparents are becoming the forgotten generation, with youngsters now too busy to listen to their stories from the olden days.
A study of 1,000 five to 18 year-olds reveals just 21 per cent will visit their older relatives to hear about how their lives were different in the  past; such as  where they worked, how it was living in the war, and how they met the love of their life. More than half of youths have no idea what job their grandparent did before retirement - admitting they'd never thought to ask. Sadly, one in 10 admitted they are simply not interested in their grandmother's or grandad's previous job or talents and interests, and a quarter only turn up to see  them for pocket money. But 23 per cent claim the reason they don't know  anything about their older relatives is  because they don't really get  the chance to talk properly.
Geoff Bates, spokesman for McCarthy 8/. Stone's Inspirational Generation campaign, said: We know this generation have lived full lives with heroic tales to tell and so much to offer, but how many  of us have actually thought to ask these questions of our older family members? We want to shout about the amazing feats retirees have achieved in their lifetime and put the spotlight on the wonderfully colorful lives of today's older people. We are calling on parents and children to talk to   their grandparents, to find out what they have done in their lives - and continue to do, and tell us all about it so we can give them the credit they deserve."
Researchers found that although 65 per cent of youngsters do see their grandparents every single week, 37 per cent claim this is only because their parents want them to. And while 39 per cent talk to their grandparents on the phone, Facebook or Skype at least once a week -  16  per cent once a day - conversation is rarely focused on what they are doing or have done in  the past.  Four in 10 kids have no idea what their grandparents proudest achievements are, while 30 per cent don't know if they have any special skills or talents. And 42 per cent don't spend any time talking about their grandparent's history -and are therefore clueless about what their grandmother or grandad was like when they were younger. Perhaps due to this lack of communication and respect, just six per cent of children say they look up to their grandparents as a role model and inspiration. However, grandchildren are agreed their grandparents are both loving and friendly, while 43 per cent think they're funny - with 23 per cent admitting they often have more fun with their elderly relatives than their parents.

It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that McCarthy & Stone's Inspirational Generation campaign     .

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The word robot first appeared in a 1921 stage play by Czech writer Karel Capek. In the play, a man makes a machine that can think, which he calls a robot and which ends up killing its owner. In the 1940s, the American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote a series of stories about robots and invented the term robotics, the science of robots. Meanwhile, in the real world, the first robots were developed by an engineer, Joseph F. Engelberger, and an inventor, George C. Devol. Together they started Unimation, a manufacturing company that produces the first real robot in 1961, called the Unimate. Robots of this type were installed at a General Motors automobile plant and proved to be a success. They worked reliably and saved money for General Motors, so other companies were soon acquiring robots as well.
These industrial robots were nothing like the terrifying creatures that can often be seen in science fiction films. In fact, these robots looked and behaved nothing like humans. They were simply pieces of computer-controlled machinery, with metal “arms” or “hands”. Since they were made of metal, they could perform certain jobs that were difficult or dangerous for humans, particularly jobs that involve high heat. And since robots were tireless and never got hungry, sleepy, or distracted, they were useful for tasks that would be tiring or boring for humans. Industrial robots have been improved over the years, and today they are used in many factories around the world. Though the use of robots has meant the loss of some jobs, at the same time other jobs have been created in the design, development, and production of the robots.

What is Unimation?

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 tradition of gift giving is a worldwide (1)_________ that is said to have been around since the beginning of human beings. Over time, different cultures have developed their own gift giving customs and traditions.
         In France, the gift of wine for the hostess of a dinner party is not an appropriate gift as the hostess would prefer to choose the vintage for the night. In Sweden, a bottle of wine or flowers are an appropriate gift for the hostess. In Viet Nam, a gift of whisky is appropriate for the host, and some fruit or small gifts for the hostess, children or elders of the home. Besides, gifts should never be wrapped in black paper because this color is unlucky and associated with funerals in this country. Gifts (2)____________symbolize cutting such as scissors, knives and other sharp objects should be avoided because they mean the cutting of the relationship. Also, in some countries you should not open the gift in front of the giver and in (3)__________ it would be an insult if you did not open the gift.
       Beyond the gift itself, give careful consideration to the manner in which it is presented. Different cultures have different customs regarding how a gift should be offered - using only your right hand or using both hands, (4)_____. Others have strong traditions related to the appropriate way to accept a gift. In Singapore, for instance, it is the standard to graciously refuse a gift several times before finally accepting it. The recipient would never unwrap a gift in front of the giver for fear of appearing greedy.
       Understanding these traditions and customs, as well as taking time to choose an appropriate gift, will help you to avoid any awkwardness or (5)__________ as you seek to build a better cross-cultural relationship.

(2).................. 

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In most families, conflict is more likely to be about Clothing, music, and leisure time than about more serious matters such as religion and core values. Family conflict is rarely about such major issues as adolescents' drug use and delinquency. Nevertheless, it has been estimated that in about 5 million American families (roughly 20 percent), parents and adolescents engage in intense, prolonged, unhealthy conflict. In its most serious form, this highly stressful environment is associated with a number of negative outcomes, including juvenile delinquency, moving away from home, increased school dropout rates, unplanned pregnancy, membership in religious cults, and drug abuse (Steinberg & Morris, 2001).
Many of the changes that define adolescence can lead to conflict in parent- adolescent relationships. Adolescents gain an increased capacity for logical reasoning, which leads them to demand reasons for things they previously accepted without question, and the chance to argue the other side (Maccoby, 1984). Their growing critical-thinking skills make them less likely to conform to parents' wishes the way they did in childhood. Their increasing cognitive sophistication and sense of idealism may compel them to point out logical flaws and inconsistencies in parents' positions and actions. Adolescents no longer accept their parents as unquestioned authorities. They recognize that other opinions also have merit and they are learning how to form and state their own opinions. Adolescents also tend toward ego- centrism, and may, as a result, be ultra-sensitive to a parent's casual remark. The dramatic changes of puberty and adolescence may make it difficult for parents to rely on their children's preadolescent behavior to predict future behavior. For example, adolescent children who were compliant in the past may become less willing to cooperate without what they feel is a satisfactory explanation.

The word “unplanned” the first paragraph is closest in meaning to     ?

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During the past half-century, our species has embarked on a remarkable social experiment. For the first time in human history, great numbers of people - at all ages, in all places, of every political persuasion - have begun settling down as singletons. Until the second half of the last century, most of us married young and parted only at death. If death came early, we remarried quickly; if late, we moved in with family, or they with us. Now we marry later. We divorce, and stay single for years or decades.
The rise of living alone has produced significant social benefits, too. Young and middle-aged solos have helped to revitalise cities, because they are more likely to spend money, socialise and participate in public life. Contemporary solo dwellers in the US are primarily women: about 18 million, compared with 14 million men. The majority, more than 16 million, are middle-aged adults between the ages of 3S and 64. The elderly account for about 11 million of the total. Young adults between 18 and 34 number increased more than 5 million, compared with 500,000 in 1950, making them the fastest-growing segment of the solo-dwelling population.
Despite fears that living alone may be environmentally unsustainable, solos tend to live in apartments rather than in big houses, and in relatively green cities rather than in car-dependent suburbs. There's good reason to believe that people who live alone in cities consume less energy than if they coupled up and decamped to pursue a single-family home.

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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.

What is the author's main point in the second paragraph?

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Music influences people in different ways or the same person differently at different times.
Music may seem to influence people differently. That is because people can react differently to the
music. We are able to apply a choosing process to the music we hear. If someone hates jazz, then a
jazz piece with a positive effect will probably not make him feel good. A happy song might appear
to make an angry person angrier, yet it is not the music itself that is creating the anger; rather it is the
positive effect of the music. The angry person does not want to accept the song's happy feeling: it
points out his already existing anger, and makes that anger come to the surface. When a piece of
music is played and we are listening to it, our body, mind, and feelings are being affected. The
musicians of ancient cultures such as China, India, Turkey and Greece understood the effects of
music. In fact, Pathagoras, in ancient Greece, introduced a whole science that concerned them.
Because the musicians of these ancient cultures understood these effects, they created music that was
positive, uplifting, and beneficial. Once the effects of music are better understood, the next step is to
gain a better understanding of the music around us, and what effect it is actually having.
2. Music_____.