Environmental Concerns

Earth is the only place we know of in the universe that can support human life. (1) ........ human activities are making the planet less fit to live on. The western world (2) ........ on consuming two-thirds of the world's resources while half of the world's population do so (3) ........ to stay alive. We are rapidly destroying the very resource we have by which all people can survive and prosper. Everywhere fertile soil is (4) ........ built on or washed into the sea. Renewable resources are exploited so much that they will never be able to recover completely. We discharge pollutants into the atmosphere without any thought of the consequences. As a (5) ........ the planet's ability to support people is being reduced at the very time when rising human numbers and consumption are (6) ........ increasingly heavy demands on it. The Earth's natural resources are there for us to use. We need food, water, air, energy, medicines, warmth, shelter and minerals to keep us fed, comfortable, healthy and (7) ……... If we are sensible in how we use the resources they will (8) ........ indefinitely. But if we use them wastefully and excessively they will soon run out and everyone will suffer.

(2) ........

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New data from the New York Fed highlights how the job situation for recent  graduates is worsening. While the rest of the labor market trends favorably, fresh graduates are more likely to be unemployed than the base U.S. working population. That has not happened before in the New York Fed data going back to 1990.  While the unemployment rate for all college graduates aged up to 65 is trending lower — currently near its lowest level of this current economic cycle — the market for recent college graduates is bucking the overall trend. With the backdrop of a robust U.S. labor market, this is “an important and worrisome trend to watch because it never dropped to prior cycle lows,” DataTrek’s Jessica Rabe wrote in a note. “Even though those who have graduated from college typically get hired before less educated workers.”  The rates are calculated as a 12-month moving average. Recent college graduates are defined as those between the ages of 22 and 27, with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates has been inching upwards, from 3.8% in May to 4% in September. In contrast, the unemployment rate for overall workers was 3.6% in September.  Fresh graduates are having a hard time because of the lack of experience and relevant education, according to Brusuelas. “There’s some concern about the unemployment rate … [but] that may have more to do with the level of experience and difficulties in finding entry level work right now for the educated class.” Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi previously told Yahoo Finance that the trend also “likely reflects in part greater caution by businesses given the slowing economy and uncertainty created by the trade war.” 
1.  Which best serves as the title for the passage?

Choose the best answer:
If/ it/ fine/ tomorrow, we/ go/ the/ dentist.

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Ask about “the population problem” to people of a certain age, and the first and perhaps only thing that comes to mind is the “population bomb” or “population explosion.” And they would be right - for their time. In the second half of the 20th century, rapid population growth - especially but not exclusively in the developing countries - created unprecedented increases in the number of people on the earth. And this growth was accompanied by crowding, malnutrition, disease, and poverty. Indeed, for many Americans, the coming “population explosion” was, along with the Cold War, the most unsettling fact about our world. But “population problems” have been part of American discourse for over 100 years. In the 1930s and 1940s, for instance, many observers feared that depopulation due to plummeting birth rates would cause chronic economic depression as the numbers of U.S. consumers and workers declined. In the 1920s, the U.S. “population problem” was rapid urbanization, reflected in a 1920 census count showing that for the first time more than onehalf the population lived in urban areas. Rural incumbents in the House of Representatives, fearing they would be voted out of office by their new urban constituents, succeeded in blocking reapportionment of the House’s seats on the basis of the census counts as mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The century’s first “population problem” was mass xenophobia about immigration. Beginning in 1880, wave after wave of European immigrants was creating congestion and social change at an unprecedented rate. In response to widespread anxiety and anger, Congress in 1924 passed the country’s most restrictive immigration legislation ever. Each problem was based in hard numbers. Each generated private emotions and public fears. Each suffered exaggeration and manipulation. And each commanded the attention of opinion leaders and elected officials.  
2. According to paragraph 1, what did the author imply when writing “And they would be right - for their time”?

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Since 2015, the annual Women in the Workplace benchmarking report has covered over 600 of the largest U.S. companies employing more than 20 million people, and has individually surveyed more than a quarter-million employees. That research base shows us how better sponsorship and improved training to counter unconscious bias can speed our progress to gender equality. And it reveals the changes that have—and haven’t—happened over the past few years. There are some bright spots. In 2019, nearly 90% of respondent companies say that gender equality is a top priority. Almost half report having at least three women on their leadership team And greater openness to flexible working is allowing many more women— and men—to work remotely. But some areas are proving stubbornly difficult to improve. Most strikingly, it’s much harder for women than men to achieve their first promotion. Indeed, for every 100 men who step up from an entry level position to a management role, only 78 women—and just 52 black women—will receive the same promotion. Over five years, that gap adds up to a difference of one million promoted women, with lasting repercussions further along the talent funnel: only 1 in 5 C-suite members are women, and only 1 in 25 are women of color. Moving up the ladder, the 21% figure for women in the C-suite is also less encouraging than it seems. Women are much more likely to have a staff role—chief human resources officer, general counsel, or CFO—while men take more of the line roles, running the largest business units with their own P&L lines. It’s rare for any leader in a staff role to be promoted to CEO.  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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Japan’s Mount Fuji will become a World Heritage Site in June. The United Nations (U.N.) decided on April the 30th to give the famous mountain UNESCO World Heritage (1)__________. The U.N. team (2)__________ made the decision said Fuji was very important to Japanese religion and art. They also said that the 3,776-meter-high volcano was important outside of Japan too. Fuji-san (as Japanese people call it) has been a mountain for more than 1,000 years. Priests say that when you climb it, you move from the “everyday world” at the bottom, to the “world of gods, Buddha and death” at the top. They believe people can (3)________ their sins by climbing to the top and coming back down again. (4)_________, Mount Fuji is a major tourist destination. It is very popular with hikers, who want to see the rising sun from its peak. More than 318,000 hikers visited the mountain last summer, with up to 15,000 people climbing each day. Local residents are now worried the World Heritage status will mean more visitors. That means there will be more litter and environmental problems. The local government may ask people to pay to climb the mountain to help preserve its (5) __________. Governor Shomei Yokouchi said: “It’s likely we’ll ask mountain climbers to help financially with keeping the mountain clean.” Another idea being talked about is to limit the daily number of hikers allowed to the top

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The understanding of friendship in children tends to be more heavily focused on areas such as (1)___________ activities, physical proximity, and shared interests. These friendships provide opportunity (2)____________ playing and practicing self-regulation. Most children tend to describe friendship in terms of things like sharing, and children are more likely to share with someone they consider to be a friend. As children mature, they become less individualized and are more aware of others. They gain the ability to (3)_________ with their friends, and enjoy playing in groups. They also experience peer rejection as they move through the middle childhood years. Establishing good friendships at a young age (4)________________ a child to be better acclimated in society later on in their life. Potential benefits of friendship include the opportunity to learn about empathy and problem solving. Coaching from parents can be useful in helping children to make friends. Eileen Kennedy-Moore describes three key ingredients of children’s friendship formation: (1) openness, (2) similarity, and (3) shared fun. Parents can also help children understand social guidelines they haven’t learned on their (5)____________.

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Where smart cities were once regarded purely as a vision of the future, they are now  becoming a reality in numerous urban centres across the globe. From Dubai, Singapore, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Madrid to Southampton in the UK, we’re already beginning to see smart cities provide inhabitants with improved living conditions, easier mobility and cleaner, safer environments, by using cloud computing to power services. But as with all public sector initiatives, smart city services need to be delivered as cost effectively as possible to minimise the taxpayer burden. Often, key decision makers are met with obstacles when it comes to deploying smart services, preventing smart cities initiatives from reaching their full potential – or worse, blocking them altogether.  Central to the functioning of most ‘normal’ city ecosystems is the underlying data they run on. Regardless as to whether that data is stored on local servers or using cloud storage, when that data is fragmented or incomplete, identifying emerging trends for strategic planning and cost reduction becomes extremely difficult – and because of this, authorities have to adopt an entirely reactive approach. Conversely, in a smart city environment, connected sensors forming an Internet of Things (IoT) provide valuable data for analysis and, in turn, insight into the specific city’s behavioural trends. With this level of information, services can be optimised to reduce costs and risk, increase urban flows and manage assets. Importantly, they can also provide real-time connections and interactions between the city’s businesses, local governments, service providers and citizens.  In this way, operations and services are elevated through the integration and connection of physical devices via IoT networks, ultimately transforming how a city runs. 
3. The word “they” in paragraph 2 refers to _______

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In the United States, it is important to be on time, or punctual, for an appointment, a class, a meeting, etc... This may not be true in some other countries, however. An American professor discovered this difference while teaching a class in a Brazilian university. The two-hour class was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m, and end at 12 a.m. On the first day, when the professor arrived on time, no one was in the classroom. Many students came after 11 a.m. Although all of the students greeted the professor as they arrived, few apologised for their lateness. Were these students being rude? He decided to study the students’ behavior.
In American university, students are expected to arrive at the appointed hour. On the other hand, in Brazil, neither the teacher nor the students always arrive at the appointed hour. Classes not only begin at the scheduled time in the United States, but they also end at the scheduled time. In the Brazilian class, only a few students left the class at noon, many remained past 12:30 to discuss the class and ask more questions. While arriving late may not be important in Brazil, neither is staying late.
The explanation for these differences is complicated. People from Brazilian and North American cultures have different feelings about lateness. In Brazil, the students believe that a person who usually arrives late is probably more successful than a person who is always on time. In fact, Brazilians expect a person with status or prestige to arrive late, while in the United States, lateness is usually considered to be disrespectful and unacceptable. Consequently, if a Brazilian is late for an appointment with a North America, the American may misinterpret the reason for the lateness and become angry.
As a result for his study, the professor learned that the Brazilian students were not being disrespectful to him. Instead, they were simply behaving the appropriate way for a Brazilian student in Brazil. Eventually, the professor was able to adapt his own behavior to feel comfortable in the new culture.

It can be inferred from the passage that     .

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How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch;  for others, it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a “sickie” once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a “manageable” 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.  Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly having to reschedule appointments; “and the third one is on the family side”, says Plumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a second child in October. “If I happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, I know things are out of control.” Being “too busy” is highly subjective. But for any individual, the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing up as stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health. National workers’ compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks. The effects of stress are also expensive.  Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs. Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief – a game of golf or a massage – but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time or changing expectations. The decision may take several days. He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. “Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help,” he says. Executive stress is not confined to big organizations. Vanessa Stoykov has been running her own advertising and public relations business for seven years, specializing in work for financial and professional services firms. Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list of fastest-growing small enterprises last year – just after Stoykov had her first child. Stoykov thrives on the mental stimulation of running her own business. “Like everyone, I have the occasional day when I think my head’s going to blow off,” she says. Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief – weekends in the mountains, the occasional “mental health” day – rather than delegating more work. She says: “We’re hiring more people, but you need to train them, teach them about the culture and the clients, so it’s actually more work rather than less.” 
4. As mentioned in paragraph 2, the following sentences are true about the work stress, EXCEPT _____________

Each sentence has a mistake. Find it by chosing A B C or D 

It is estimated that the population of Vietnam will reach 100 million for the next 25 years and will stabilize at 120 million by the middle of this century

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Seniors in China are still highly likely to believe rumors and pseudoscience, according to reports. In recent years, China has seen more scientists and science communicators using digital platforms to combat pseudoscience, which is classified as rumors, statements, beliefs, ideas or practices that are stated as fact, but are often fabricated and scientifically untested. Despite that, many young Chinese have experienced difficulties when trying to pass on that message to older people. For example, last year, Dingxiang Doctor, a digital platform that debunks medical rumors online, released 101 articles that disproved common, inaccurate claims. However, many netizens said that when they forwarded the articles to family chat groups, they were questioned, scolded and even removed from the group by older family members. An online survey last year by Tencent, one of China’s biggest online businesses, indicated that nearly 40 percent of middle-aged and senior people had experienced online fraud, mostly related to healthcare products. Yun Wuxin, a food engineering expert who has popularized food science for more than 10 years, believes that, in general, members of the older generation lacked training in logical or critical thinking when they were young, so they have an exaggerated belief in personal experience, tradition or superstition. He said young people, especially today’s younger generation, have received better training and tend to hold skeptical or critical attitudes toward convention. He added that new media that popularize science in fresh, innovative ways － such as short videos, video blogs and animations － are very effective with young people. However, traditional methods, including television, community visits by scientists, neighborhood exhibitions and science columns in newspapers, are very important for middle-aged and elderly people who really need to understand science  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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Pollution is a threat to many species on Earth, but sometimes it can cause species to thrive. Such is the case with Pfiesteria piscicida. A one-celled creature called a dinoflagellate, Pfiesteria inhabits warm coastal areas and river mouths, especially along the eastern United States. Although scientists have found evidence of Pfiesteria in 3,000-year-old sea floor sediments and dinoflagellates are thought to be one of the oldest life forms on earth, few people took notice of Pfiesteria.
Lately, however, blooms – or huge, dense populations – of Pfiesteria are appearing in coastal waters, and in such large concentrations the dinoflagellates become ruthless killers. The blooms emit powerful toxins that weaken and entrap fish that swim into the area. The toxins eventually cause the fish to develop large bleeding sores through which the tiny creatures attack, feasting on blood and flesh. Often the damage is astounding. During a 1991 fish kill, which was blamed on Pfiesteria on North Carolina’s Neuse River, nearly one billion fish died and bulldozers had to be brought in to clear the remains from the river. Of course, such events can have a devastating effect on commercially important fish, but that is just one way that Pfiesteria causes problems. The toxins it emits affect human skin in much the same way as they affect fish skin. Additionally, fisherman and others who have spent time near Pfiesteria blooms report that the toxins seem to get into the air, where once inhaled they affect the nervous system, causing severe headaches, blurred vision, nausea, breathing difficulty, short-term memory loss and even cognitive impairment.
For a while, it seemed that deadly Pfiesteria blooms were a threat only to North Carolina waters, but the problem seems to be spreading. More and more, conditions along the east coast seem to be favorable for Pfiesteria. Researchers suspect that pollutants such as animal waste from livestock operations, fertilizers washed from farmlands and waste water from mining operations have probably all combined to promote the growth of Pfiesteria in coastal waters.

According to the paragraph 2, what will NOT happen if one breathes the toxic air?

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Over the past 600 years, English has grown from a language of few speakers to become the dominant language of international communication. English as we know it today emerged around 1350, after having incorporated many elements of French that were introduced following the Norman invasion of 1066. Until the 1600s, English was, for the most part, spoken only in England and had not extended even as far as Wales, Scotland or Ireland. However, during the course of the next two centuries, English began to spread around the globe as a result of exploration, trade (including slave trade), colonization, and missionary work. Thus, small enclaves of English speakers became established and grew in various parts of the world. As these communities proliferated, English gradually became the primary language of international business, banking and diplomacy.
Currently, about 80 percent of the information stored on computer systems worldwide is in English. Two-thirds of the world’s science writing is in English, and English is the main language of technology, advertising, media, international airports, and air traffic controllers. Today there are more than 700 million English users in the world, and over half of these are non-native speakers, constituting the largest number of non-native users than any other language in the world.

The word “elements” is most similar to    .

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The concept of exotic holidays is not new. Cruises and other travel packages to tropical locations have long been popular and are more (1) ____ now than ever. The wealthy have gone on trips to exotic places since the 19th century, but now ordinary people have enough money for this kind of holiday. Holidaymakers are increasingly interested in doing something different and want more exciting (2) ____. A number of tour companies have responded with a new range of options, including African safaris. Going on a safari is a totally (3) ____ form of holiday. Accompanied by a safari guide, groups travel into the African wilderness to experience close up the thrill of the wild. Being so close to the animals is an once-in-a-lifetime experience. (4) ____ species, which are rarely seen outside the zoo, provide a great (5) ____

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Amy Johnson was born in 1903 and grew up in Hull, England. The pioneering British aviator is one of the inspiring female figurehead of the 20th century. After university, Amy got a badly-paid (1)_____managed to save enough money to take flying lessons. She went on to qualify as a pilot, (2)___ receiving her license in 1929. In 1930, (3)_______only flown for seventy-five hours, she persuaded a rich businessperson to give her money to buy a plane, and set off alone for Darwin, Australia, in the hope of breaking the record for flying solo from England to Australia in fourteen days. Amy was the first woman to make this flight, (4) _______ took her nineteen days. She failed to breathe record, but was welcomed home as a hero. Over the next ten years, Amy made many record-breaking flights. During these years, she was admired for her skill and courage, and she is still fondly remembered as Britain’s first “Queen of the Air”. She is also remembered in many ways, one of which is the British Women Pilot’s Association award - a scholarship to help outstanding women pilots (5)______their careers

Rewrite the sentence:
I/ have never/ be/ more beautiful/ a waterfall/ before.

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Rains that are almost biblical, heat waves that don’t end - there’s been a change in the weather lately. What’s going on? Extreme weather is an unusual weather event such as rainfall, a drought or a heat wave in the wrong place or at the wrong time. In theory, they are very rare. But these days, our TV screens are constantly showing such extreme weather events. Take just three news stories from 2010: 28 centimetres of rain fell on Rio de Janeiro in 24 hours, Nashville, USA, had 33 centimetres of rain in two days and there was record rainfall in Pakistan. The effects of this kind of rainfall are dramatic and lethal. In Rio de Janeiro, landslides followed, burying hundreds of people. In Pakistan, the floods affected 20 million people. Meanwhile, other parts of the world suffer devastating droughts. Australia, Russia and East Africa have been hit in the last ten years. And then there are unexpected heat waves, such as in 2003 in Europe. That summer, 35,000 deaths were said to be heat-related. Peter Miller, a National Geographic columnist, says what is happening to our weather is probably a mixture of numerous factors. On the one hand, the most important influences on weather events are natural cycles in the climate. Two of the most famous weather cycles, EI Nino and La Nina, originate in the Pacific Ocean. The heat from the warm ocean rises high into the atmosphere and affects weather all around the world. On the other hand, the temperature of the Earth’s oceans is slowly but steadily going up. And this is a result of human activity. We are producing greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This heat warms up the atmosphere, land and oceans. Warmer oceans produce more water vapour - think of heating a pan of water in your kitchen. Turn up the heat, it produces steam more quickly. Satellite data tells us that the water vapour in the atmosphere has gone up by four percent in 25 years. This warm, wet air turns into the rain, storms, hurricanes and typhoons that we are increasingly experiencing. Climate scientist, Michael Oppenheimer, says that we need to face the reality of climate change. And we also need to act now to save lives and money in the future
1. The article says extreme weather is ________

Rewrite the sentence:
I have to do homework so I won’t watch TV tonight.

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In addition to improved physical health, sport plays a primarily positive role in youth  development, including improved academic achievement, higher self-esteem, fewer behavioral problems, and better psychosocial development. Many studies focus on the effects of sport on the five “C’s” - competence, confidence, connections, character, and caring. The many facets of playing sport - the discipline of training, learning teamwork, following the leadership of coaches and captains, learning to lose - provide lifelong skills for athletes.  The literature on youth sport stresses the positive effects of participation in learning the important life skills of goal setting and time management combined with enjoyment; the development of a strong sense of morality; and the development of an appreciation of diversity. Studies have shown that children and youth participating in sport, when compared to peers who do not play sport, exhibit higher grades, expectations, and attainment; greater personal confidence and self-esteem; greater connections with school – that is, greater attachment and support from adults; stronger peer relationships, more academically oriented friends, greater family attachment and more frequent interactions with parents; more restraint in avoiding risky behavior; and greater involvement in volunteer work.  Sport provides opportunities for children and youth to engage in valuable and positive relationships with adults. Thus, it is a missed opportunity for children who are "gated" - or not included in sport - during early stages of childhood because they are less well behaved than other children. These children are being prevented from participating in the very thing that could help them learn to control and regulate their behavior. Sport provides an opportunity for children to safely navigate and negotiate between right and wrong as they learn to interact with peers and adults. Research by Taliaferro et al. suggests that playing sport can even protect against suicide risk in youth. Compared to non-athletes, male athletes exhibit lower levels of hopelessness and suicidal ideation. Young males involved in multiple sports seem to garner even more protection in this regard. Similar results were found for girls. Research on the role of exercise in adults confirms that it improves mood and alleviates many forms of depression. Bartko and Eccles les found that youth who are highly involved in sport are more “psychologically resilient,” that is, better able to recover from problems. Eccles et al. found that sport participation protects young athletes against social isolation
4. Which of the followings is NOT mentioned as a benefit for teenagers playing sport in comparison with those who do not?

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While good grades are important and should be something every student strives for, they do not necessarily correlate with a student’s intelligence. Students should worry less about their grades and instead care more about retaining the content they are learning and gaining actual knowledge. David Thomas, a principal lecturer at ASU, said there are varying theories about intelligence. One of them is the entity theory of intelligence, which describes intelligence as being stable throughout someone’s life. Thomas said there are also people who think just the opposite, and that a person can become more intelligent throughout their life. While there are varying theories on what intelligence is and whether it can improve, you can gain knowledge throughout the course of your life. This principle should be the focus of education, not a person’s grades. Every student at ASU is preparing for a career and learning the necessary skills to do well in their desired industry. Getting an “A” on a test will not mean anything if you cannot apply the material you learned to real-life situations. Just because someone gets an “A” in a class or is in Barrett, the Honors College, it doesn’t define intelligence. Similarly, someone who gets a “D” in a class is not necessarily unintelligent, as there are other factors that play into grades. Take Bill Gates for example, a very wealthy and successful man who dropped out of Harvard University two years into his degree and later became the co-founder of Microsoft. He is intelligent, and yet he did not have a college degree when he started his company. Additionally, Thomas said motivation plays a big part in a person’s grades. A student with mastery-oriented motivation approaches a class with curiosity and an interest in the subject, whereas a student with performance-orientated motivation does so solely from a grade standpoint. If people spent the same amount of time working to ensure they retain important information as they did pulling all-nighters to cram for finals, they could become be more intelligent. Students should focus on developing their critical thinking and problemsolving skills rather than simply memorizing information for a test. A transcript only shows a student’s motivation, dedication and work ethic — not their personality, humor, work or life experiences. While grades still matter, we need to stop weighing our intelligence through grades and instead recognize that intelligence comes in all forms.
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?