Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences

Braille _________ a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind.

Choose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

FUN AND GAMES

Do you think computer games are just for kids? Then you should think again. You might be (61)______ to learn that the game industry now (62)__________ more money than Hollywood. (63)________ a family buys a new PC, all they really want to do is to play games. It is hardly surprising that video gaming has (64)____________ one of the most popular (65)____ of entertainment today. A good game is like a good film; it will hold your (66)_____, capture your imagination and play with your emotions. The big (67)_____, however, is that watching a movie is a passive (68)_________. You have no say in how the plot (69)________ or which characters dominate the story. With computer games, you direct the (70)_________ and that is what makes them so exciting. Finding the right game is (71)_________ to signal the beginning of a lasting love (72) with the interactive (73)______________ of make-believe. It is (74)_____ to think of gaming as something simply for children and teenagers. In fact, the (75)______ growth area of the market is the 25-35 age group.

66__________

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

Bright kids are excellent at processing and retaining information. This fact, combined with their work ethic, leads to outstanding academic achievement. Gifted learners, often, do not need nearly as much repetition to become familiar with the material. As a result, gifted kids are forced to sit through hours of class time when they could simply “pass a test” and move on.

Since the gifted kid’s insatiable curiosity is not being quenched, they’ll dig more deeply into the subject – and will want to know everything about it. They’ll ask themselves questions and use Google or a book to find the answers – and effortlessly retain their newly acquired knowledge. So, when the next class comes around, the gifted kid is already well beyond anything that the teacher teaches.

Gifted children are often moved through the regular school curriculum at a faster pace than their peers. Some children with exceptionally high ability in a particular subject area may be allowed to reduce the time they spend in their other subjects to permit more time to focus on challenging content in their specialty. A high school student who is particularly gifted in math, for example, may attend advanced math classes at a local college rather than music classes at the high school. Some gifted students may also skip grades or they may enter kindergarten, high school, or college at an early age.

Some gifted students may also __________ grades or they may enter higher level at an early age.

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

Education of students _________ (1) are hard of hearing or deaf may involve the use of powerful amplification devices, such as __________ (2) aids, or it may use captions (printed words that appear on a television screen or computer monitor). Many deaf or hard _________ (3) hearing students learn sign language, an organized system of gestures for communication. Others learn to speechread (lipread), a method of interpreting speech by “reading” _________ (4) patterns of a person’s mouth as he or she speaks. Some deaf _________ (5) receive cochlear implants, which are surgically implanted behind the ear and connected to electrodes placed in the cochlea of the inner ear, enabling individuals to hear sounds to a varying degree

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

"The King of Football" better known as Pele was born in Edson Arantes Do Naselmento on October 23,1940 in Tres Coracoes Brazil. Son of "Dondinho" and Celeste Arantes, Pele's family was very poor. He grew up in poverty making Soccer not only an escape but a mind easier. His Father was a football player (Soccer) that later became Pele's mentor and trainer. Pele's natural talent showed off and at age 15 his career began in Santos. At age 16 he was recruited to play with Brazil's National Team. There just being the very first step in becoming one of the Best players to date. Pele won three FIFA World Cups in 1958 in Sweden, 1962 in Chile, and 1970 in Mexico. He retired in 1977 having 1281 goals and playing 1363 games. He is still known as the best player who has lead Brazil to three consecutive Championships. Also known as a humanitarian voicing his voice about the poverty issues in Brazil. Also encouraging many kids around the world that they can be great and make history no matter where you come from, your race, and who you are.

When was Pele born?

Choose the letter A, B, C, or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage.
David Evans is a farmer. He does the farming on his own land in Wales. The farm has (31)__________ to his family for generations. The soil is poor. David (32)__________ sheep on his land. He does not employ any full-time workers. His sons help him when they are not at school. His wife adds to the family income by selling eggs which her hens produce. In summer, she often takes paying guests into the farmhouse. The guests from the city enjoy their quiet holiday in the clean country air and Mrs. Evans enjoys having some (33)__________ money to spend on clothes for her children and herself. However, it is a lonely life for the Evans family when the guests have gone. The question is that if his children want to take over the farm when Mr. Evans (34)__________ up working. Country life is quiet and peaceful to them. It is quite likely that they will leave the farm (35)__________ the city some day.
(33)..................

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks.

The return of the airship

The first balloon flew in the 18th century. By 1900 the Germans were producing rigid airships capable of carrying (21)______ loads over long distances. These airships consisted of a cigar shaped, covered frame containing hydrogen gas. The first craft reached speeds (22) ______ 32 km/h. By the mid 1930s, the zeppelins had doubled in size. The largest airship ever built, the Hindenburg, was 245 metres long and could reach a maximum speed of 135 km/h. In 1936, this airship carried a (23)_____ of 1,002 passengers on 10 scheduled round trips between Germany and the United States. On 6 May 1937, while (24)___ at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the Hindenburg was completely destroyed when it crashed and burst into (25)_____, with a loss of 36 lives. Now, over 60 years since the last giant commercial airship was built, a new breed of high tech giant airships is being planned.

(21)................

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the questions. (10 pts)

The development of so-called keyhole surgery means that the surgeon’s knife may soon disappear altogether as it is replaced by miniature cameras, microscopic scissors, and staplers. Instead of making long cuts in the patient’s body, surgeons look at the site through an “endoscope”, or operating telescope. This is passed into the body through a small hole that will barely leave a scar.

As long as the operation is carried out skillfully by an experienced surgeon, keyhole surgery damages the patient far less than a conventional operation. “Minimal access surgery is a real breakthrough,” says Alf Cuschieri, a leading endoscopic surgeon. “I wish we’d developed it years ago. Not only does it reduce the trauma to the patient – but it also means that we no longer have to make major incisions to perform major operations.”

The viewing technology that allows doctors to see what is happening deep inside the human body has been borrowed from the aerospace industry. Although in the 1960s flexible scopes were developed by technicians to check engine interiors without them having to be taken apart, today’s endoscopes are not just simple tubes you can see through; they are equipped with very small television cameras. An image of the operation – magnified eight times – is transmitted by the camera onto a strategically placed TV screen. Doctors and nurses needn’t crowd round to look into the wound. Instead, they keep their eyes on the screen with straight backs and plenty of elbow room. As surgeons cannot work in the dark, light is beamed into the area of the body being operated on through optical fibers – strands of special glass, each as thin as a human hair, through which light travels.

Keyhole surgeons hope that miniaturization will make it possible for patients to have their operations performed by robots small enough to crawl through the patient’s body. Despite the fact that, until now, even the smallest robots have been too large to be exploited in endoscopic surgery, in Massachusetts the Institute of Technology’s Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Laboratory is working on ever-smaller miniature and microrobots. These robots could be used for filming, taking biopsy specimens, or on-the-spot analysis.

One of the most exciting future developments involves telesurgery, where doctors will operate by remote control. This means that a patient can be operated on by two surgeons who are hundreds of kilometers away from each other – and from the patient.

Some believe that such techniques will have been perfected in the next ten years or so.

According to the passage, Alf Cuschieri______ .

Read the following passage and choose the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbers blanks.

Plants provide food, clothing, and shelter for people. Many of our most useful medicines are also (31) _____ from plants. Besides, plants add beauty and pleasure (32) _____ our lives. Most people enjoy the smell of flowers, the sight field of waving grain, and the quiet of a forest. Not all plants are helpful to man. Some species grow in fields and gardens as weeds that choke off useful plants. Tiny hits of pollen from certain plants cause such (33) _____ as asthma and hay fever. Some plants are (34) ______ if we eat them. (35) _______ irritate the skin.

(33).............. 

Read the passage, then decide if the statements that follow it are True or False.
Are you looking for a cheap, clean, effective source of power that doesn’t cause pollution or waste natural resources? Look no further than solar energy from our sun. Many countries are already using solar energy. Solar panels are placed on the roof of a house and the sun’s energy is used to heat water. The energy can be stored for a number of days, so on cloudy days you can use solar energy too. Sweden has an advanced solar energy program. There, all buildings will be heated by solar energy; cars and buses will use solar power instead of gas by the year 2015.
We can hardly use solar energy on cloudy days.

Read the passage and decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F).

The Beatles

The Beatles were one of the most influential music groups of the rock era, and many consider them the best musical group on Earth. Initially, they affected the post-war baby boom generation of Britain and the U.S during the 1960s, and later the rest of the world. Certainly, they were the most successful group, with global sales exceeding 1.1 billion records.

While they were originally famous for light-weight pop music (and the extreme hysterical reaction they received from young women), their later works achieved a combination of popular and critical acclaim perhaps unequalled in the 20th century.

Eventually, they became more than recording artists, branching out into film and - particularly in the case of John Lennon - political activism. They achieved an iconic status beyond mere celebrity, with far reaching effects difficult to exaggerate. The members of the group were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, all from Liverpool, England.

Beatlemania began in the UK and exploded following the appearance of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States, on February 9,1964. The pop-music band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful fans, hysterical adulation, and denunciations by culture commentators and others such as Frank Sinatra.

Some of this was confusion over the sources of their music (a similar confusion was evinced in 1956 over Elvis Presley by commentators who were unaware of the tradition of blues, R&B and gospel out of which Presley emerged), and some of it was simply an incredulous reaction to the length of their hair. At any rate, it was regarded by the band members with both awe and resentment.

They were the best selling group in history.

Choose the best word from the box to complete the following paragraph:
There are many ways of spending free time (23) ____________ Australia. Some people are (24) ____________ of skiing in Snowy Mountain or riding a surfboard in Queensland, Others
love watching Kangaroos and Koalas in the wild (25) ____________ My sister says she only enjoys (26) ____________ Sydney from the skywalk. But I like going to Sydney Opera House (27) ____________ the great opera singers of the world can be heard. If you are bored with listening to opera singing, there will always be at least two (28) ____________ three other shows to suit your taste.

(26)....................

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 19 to 23:

Many people believe only animals are endangered. They think wild plants can just grow back after damage. This is not true. Our plants are declining at an alarming rate. Among them are some of the most beautiful and useful species on Earth. The importance of plants to life on Earth is immeasurable. The landscape and wildlife we enjoy, the food we eat, even the air we breathe is connected to plant life.

Plants support wildlife. The U.S. Forest Service has stated that for every plant species that goes extinct, up to 30 other species of plants, insects and other animals may also decline. Plants provide the food and habitat for wildlife.

Plants support a healthy environment. They provide clean air, help hold soil in place, clean water, moderate wind and water impacts, and shade the earth.

Plants support people. Plants give many gifts to man. They provide food, fiber, and fuels. Many plants are known to contain chemicals that can be used to treat human illnesses. Others have the ability to fight agricultural pests and improve existing crops.

This is a real crisis. Habitat destruction, over collection, and other environmental damage are eroding our natural plant communities. Some species have declined to such small numbers that a bad storm or a plant collector could wipe them out in minutes. Without intervention, they will be lost forever.

According to the passage, which statement is TRUE?

Read the following passage carefully, and then select the best option A, B, C or D to complete it:

"Football, game played on a rectangular (1) _______ by two opposing teams with an inflated leather ball that is roughly (2) _______ in shape. The object of the game is to score points by carrying the ball (3) _______ the opponent’s goal line or by (4) _______ the ball through the opponent’s goalposts. Football is (5) _______ a full-contact sport, meaning that play involves bodily contact by (6) _______ of checking, blocking, grabbing, and tackling. (7) _______ the rough physical nature of the game, playing football can cause injuries. This article (8) _______ on the game of American football, a distinct type of football that developed in (9) _______ in the 19th century. It developed out of two other sports, soccer ((10) _______ known as association football) and rugby football, each of (11) _______ remains a separate sport with its own specific set of rules. American football differs slightly in (12) _______ and field size from a style of football (13) _______ mostly in Canada, called Canadian football. Other varieties of the game popular in (14) _______ parts of the world (15) _______ Australian football and Gaelic football."

12.  American football differs slightly in (12) _______ 

Read the passage below carefully and choose the correct answer a, b, c, or d.

Scientists believe that something very serious is happening to the Earth. It is becoming warmer. Scientists predict that there will be major changes in the climate during the 21st century. Coastal water will have higher temperatures. This will have a serious effect on agriculture. The farmer will have trouble producing good crops. In warm regions, the weather will be too dry. The amount of water could decrease by 50 percent. This would cause a large decrease in agricultural production.

World temperature could increase from 1.5 to 5.6 degrees Celsius by the middle of the 21st century. And the increase in, temperature could be even greater in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. A rise in temperature could cause the great ice sheets to melt, which, in turn, would raise the level of the oceans by one to two meters. Many coastal cities would be underwater. Why is all this happening?

The Earth and its atmosphere are kept warm by the Sun. The atmosphere lets most of the light from the Sun pass through to warm the Earth. The Earth is warmed by the sunlight and sends heat energy back into the atmosphere. Much of this energy escapes from the Earth’s atmosphere. However, some of it remains. Gases such as carbon dioxide, ozone, and water vapor absorb this energy and create more heat. Then this heat is sent back down to Earth, and the Earth becomes warmer.

The Earth wouldn’t become warmer if_____________ .

Read the passage then choose the best answer for the following questions by marking the corresponding letter: A, B, C, or D from 7 to 11.
Most people are afraid of sharks, but they usually do not know much about them. For example, there are about 350 species of sharks that live in oceans over the world. All of the sharks are carnivores, but most of them don't attack people. Some sharks are very small – the smallest shark is about 6 inches long - about as long as your hand. But some sharks are very large. The largest species of sharks may be 60 feet long and weigh 15 tons. Unlike many other kinds of fish, sharks do not have bone. Their bodies are made up of a kind of tough white flexible material (called cartilage). Sharks do not have ears. However, they 'hear' sounds and movements in the wade. Any sound or movement makes the water vibrates. Sharks can feel these vibrations and they help the sharks find food. Sharks use their large eyes to find food, too. Most sharks see best in low light. They often hunt for food at dawn in the evening, or in the middle of the night.
Nowadays scientists want to learn more about sharks for several reasons. For example, cancer is common in many animals, including, people. However, it is rare in sharks. Scientists want to find out why sharks almost never get cancer. Maybe this information can help people prevent cancer too.

The word "they" underlined in the passage refers to_______.

Read the passge and choose the best answer:

Special Education, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs and abilities of disabled or gifted children. Disabled children have conditions that adversely affect their progress in conventional education programs. Gifted children, who demonstrate high capacity in intellectual, creative, or artistic areas, may also fare poorly in regular education programs. Special education services can help both disabled and gifted children make progress in education programs. Most children served by special education programs are between the ages of 6 and 17.

In the United States, federal law requires states to identify and serve all children with disabilities. Public education and health officials in the United States identified approximately 5.4 million infants, toddlers, children, and youth as disabled in 1994. That same year, the U.S. Department of Education reported that 12.2 percent of all children at the age of 21 received some form of special education. The most frequently reported disabilities are speech or language impairments; mental retardation and other developmental disorders; serious emotional disturbance; and specific learning disorders, such as memory disorders. Other disabilities include hearing, visual, or orthopedic impairments; autism; and traumatic brain injury. An increasing number of children in the United States are identified as having attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and receive special education services.

The most frequently reported disabilities are hearing and visual disorder.

Choose the correct option (A, B, C or D) that best fits each space in the following passage.
Newspapers, magazines, (17) _____________ books are the print media. Newspapers are one of the (18) ___________ sources for spreading news and events (19) ___________ the world.
Radio and television supply information and entertainment to the public. Motion pictures are one of the most (20) ____________ forms of entertainment. Movies can also teach people many (21) _____________ subjects.
The multimedia computer (22) _____________ students learn about a particular topic in a (23) _____________ of ways.

(20)........................

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

If you are unable to work or maintain a full-time job that allows you to pay rent or a mortgage, ___________ (1) housing assistance through the US Department of Urban Housing (HUD). This government-run agency can help you with home buying assistance such as locating suitable housing and securing financing. Make ___________ (2) your new domicile is handicapped-friendly with an FHA 203k loan. Add wheelchair ramps, make counter adjustments and add safety bars ___________ (3) your home with government support. Remember, suitable, safe and clean housing is your right. HUD offers information on specific laws such as the Fair Housing Act and disability rights to guide you during your house hunt.

Whether you or a loved one is physically ___________ (4) mentally challenged, a strong support system to assist you with everyday tasks can alleviate the stress and burden of disability. You can seek assistance in a variety of ways, from your neighbors' help to government-funded programs, to bring you closer to living an independent, productive life. Before you commit to any program, perform due diligence to ensure it is legitimate -- most help for ___________ (5) disabled comes from nonprofit organizations, so be wary of a company that demands cash up front.

(2) __________

Read the following passage and choose the best answers to the questions.

          In many ways, the increasingly rapid pace of climate change is a direct result of the growth of the human population. In the last 100 years, the world population has more than tripled. Obviously, this has meant that the world has needed to produce three times as much food, energy, and other natural resources.

          In addition, the average person uses more energy and natural resources than the average person one hundred years ago, meaning that the rates of consumption are actually much higher than just the increase in population would imply.

            All of these activities: food production, energy usage, and the use of natural resources, contribute to climate change in some way. The greater amounts of oil and other fuels burned to create energy release chemicals which add to global warming. In order to produce more food, farmers cut down trees to gain more land for their fields. In addition, we cut down trees to build the houses needed for a larger population. Those trees are an essential part of controlling global warming.

          In addition to a growing population, the world also has a population that desires a higher standard of living than in the past, and a higher standard of living requires the use of even more natural resources. For example, China is the world’s most populous nation, with 1.3 billion people. Currently, the standard of living for most of those people is far below that of people in first world nations. Therefore, the average Chinese citizen uses far fewer natural resources and less energy than the average citizen of the US or Japan. If every Chinese person attains a first world lifestyle, the amount of energy and natural resources needed in the world will double, even if the standard of living in every other nation on Earth remains the same as it is today.

 According to the passage, how does food production contribute to global warming?

Reading the passage carefully, then choose the correct answers:
Sydney is Australia’s most exciting city. The history of Australia begins here. In 1788 Captain Arthur Philips arrived in Sydney with 11 ships and 1624 passengers from Britain (including 770 prisoners). Today there are about 3.6 million people in Sydney. It is the biggest city in Australia, the busiest port in the South Pacific and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In Sydney, the buildings are higher, the colors are brighter and the nightlife is more exciting.
There are over 20 excellent beaches close to Sydney and its warm climate and cool winter have made it a favorite city for immigrants from overseas. There are two things that make Sydney famous; its beautiful harbor, Sydney Harbor Bridge, which was built in 1932 and Sydney Opera House. It was opened in 1973.

Where did Captain Arthur Philips arrive in 1788?