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When John Mills was going to fly in an airplane for the first time, he was frightened. He did not like the idea of being thousands of feet up in the air. "I also didn't like the fact that I wouldn't  be in control," says John.
"I'm a terrible passenger in the car. When somebody else is driving, I tell them what to so. It drives everybody crazy."
However John couldn't avoid flying any longer. It was the only way he could visit his grandchildren in Canada.
"I had made up my mind that I was going to do it, I couldn't let my son, his wife and their three children travel all the way here to visit me. It would be so expensive for them and I know Tom's business isn't doing so well at the moment - it would also be tiring for the children - it's a nine-hour flight!" he says.
To get ready for the flight John did lots of reading about airplanes. When he booked his seat, he was told that he would be flying on a Boeing 747, which is better known as a jumbo jet. "I  needed to know as much as possible before getting in that plane. I suppose it was a way of making myself feel better. The Boeing 747 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world at the moment.
The first one flew on February 9th 1969 in the USA. It can carry up to 524 passengers and 3.400 pieces of luggage. The fuel for airplanes is kept in the wings and the 747's wings are so big that they can carry enough fuel for an average car to be able to travel 16,000 kilometers a year for 70 years. Isn't that unbelievable? Even though I had discovered all this very interesting information about the jumbo, when I saw it for the first time, just before I was going to travel to Canada, I still couldn't believe that something so enormous was going to get up in the air and fly. I was even more impressed when I saw how big it was inside with hundreds of people!"
The biggest surprise of all for John was the flight itself. "The take-off itself was much smoother than I expected although I was still quite scared until we were in the air. In the end, I managed to relax, enjoy the food and watch one of the movies and the view from the window was spectacular. I even managed to sleep for a while!
"Of course," continues John, "the best reward of all was when I arrived in Canada and saw my son and his family, particularly my beautiful grandchildren. Suddenly, I felt so silly about all the years when I couldn't even think of getting on a plane. I had let my fear of living stop me from seeing the people I love most in the world. I can visit my son and family as often as I like now!" Question 24: Why did John Mills fly in an airplane?

How did John feel about his fears in the end?

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Dark matter in the universe is believed by some scientists to be a substance that is not readily observable because it does not directly refract light or energy. Its existence can only be deduced because of the effect that it has on surrounding matter. In fact, some members of the scientific community have argued that dark matter does not actually exist. Others, however, believe in its existence, in part because the scientific community does not have a complete understanding of gravita science. On the other hand, some would argue that it is the understanding of gravitational science that leads most scientists to believe in the existence of dark matter, because without dark matter, there are many cosmological phenomena
that are difficult to explain.
For example, dark matter in the universe may have a peculiar effect on the Milky Way galaxy. Some scientists believe that the interaction between dark matter and other smaller, nearby galaxies is causing the Milky Way galaxy to take on a warped profile. It has been asserted that not only does dark matter exist, it may also be responsible for the Milky Way’s unusual shape. The interaction referenced involves two smaller galaxies near the Milky Way, called Magellanic clouds, moving through an enormous amount of dark matter, which, in effect, enhances the gravitational pull that the two Magellanic clouds could have on the Milky Way and other surrounding bodies. Without the existence of the dark matter, the Magellanic clouds would not have sufficient mass to have such a strong effect on the bend of the Milky Way galaxy.
The strongest evidence for the validity of this hypothesis rests in Newtonian physics, and the hypothesis that anything with mass will exert a gravitational pull. The Milky Way and other galaxies with peculiar warped shapes are being molded by a gravitational force. However, there is nothing readily observable with sufficient mass that could cause such a high level of distortion via gravitational pull in the vicinity of the Milky Way. Therefore, something that is not easily observed must be exerting the necessary force to create the warped shape of the galaxy.
Aaron Romanowsky and several colleagues have questioned the effect that dark matter might have on galaxies. They point to the existence of several elliptical galaxies surrounded by very little dark matter as evidence that dark matter is not, in fact, the cause of the warped galaxies. While they do not claim that their findings should be interpreted to conclude that dark matter does not exist, they apparently believe that the results of their studies cast doubt on some of the conventional theories of galaxy formation and manipulation.
Several models constructed by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, however, point to the idea that dark matter is the most likely explanation for the distorted shape of the Milky Way and other galaxies. Using computer models, they have mapped the likely interactions between certain galaxies and the surrounding dark matter, and those models have shown not only the possibility that dark matter is responsible for the warped shape of the Milky Way, but that the relationship between the dark matter and the Magellanic clouds is dynamic; the movement of the clouds through the dark matter seems to create a wake that enhances their gravitational influence on the Milky Way.

The passage states that some members of the scientific community are reluctant to believe in the existence of dark matter because:

Read the following passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the blanks.
Global warming is the current increase in temperature of the Earth’s surface (both land and water) as well as its atmosphere. Average temperature around the world have risen by 0.75°C (1.4°F) (1)....... the last 100 years. About two thirds of this increase has occured since 1975 in the past, when the Earth experienced increases in temperature it was the result of natural causes, but today it is being caused by accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere produced by human(2)........... .
The natural greenhouse effect maintains the Earth’s temperature at a safe level making it (3)...............for humans and many other life forms to exist. However, since The Industrial Revolution what benefits human has significantly enhanced the greenhouse effect (4)............ the Earth’s average temperature to rise by almost 1°C. This is creating the global warming (5)..............we see today

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

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Did you ever watch a video on the Internet? Maybe you used YouTube. YouTube is a Website where people can share their video. Today, YouTube is an important part of the Internet. However, that wasn’t always true.
YouTube started with a young man named Jawed Karim and two friends. One day, Karim was on the Internet. He wanted information about the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. He found news stories about it, but he couldn't find any videos. This gave Karin an idea. He wanted to help people put video on the Internet. Karim told his friends about this idea. Together, they created a company - YouTube.
YouTube become a global success. Millions of people around the world Visited the Website. It was clear to Google, another Internet company, that YouTube had a lot of value. Google made a deal. It bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. As a result, YouTube investors and its employees made a lot of money. The three friends who started YouTube were very big investors. Therefore, they made an enormous amount of money.
Karim became very rich, and he continued to work toward his PhD. There was something else he wanted to do. He wanted to help young people go into business. He used money and experience to start a new company called Youniversity Ventures. This company helps young people who have good business ideas. It gives them advice and money to start Internet businesses. Milo is one business that students started with the help of Youniversity Ventures.
Milo is a shopping Website. It helps people find products in stores near their homes. Another example is AirBoB. This Web site helps people find for video conferences. People in different places can use this site to have business meetings.
Karim has some advice for students who want to start business. First, find a successful company. Do a lot of research about the company and the top people in the company. There, copy the way they do things. For students who wants to start Interner business, Karim is probably a very good example to copy. 

What does Youniversity Ventures do?

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“When a snow leopard stalks its prey among the mountain walls, it moves softly, slowly,” explains Indian biologist Raghunandan Singh Chundawat, who has studied the animal for years. “If it knocks a stone loose, it will reach out a foot to stop it from falling and making noise.” One might be moving right now, perfectly silent, maybe close by. But where? And how many are left to see?

Best known for its spotted coat and long distinctive tail, the snow leopard is one of the world’s most secretive animals. These elusive cats can only be found high in the remote, mountainous regions of central Asia. For this reason, and because they hunt primarily at night, they are very rarely seen.

Snow leopards have been officially protected since 1975, but enforcing this law has proven difficult. Many continue to be killed for their fur and body parts, which are worth a fortune on the black market. In recent years, though, conflict with local herders has also led to a number of snow leopard deaths. This is because the big cats kill the herders’ animals, and drag the bodies away to eat high up in the mountains.

As a result of these pressures, the current snow leopard population is estimated at only 4,000 to 7,000, and some fear that the actual number may already have dropped below 3,500. The only way to reverse this trend and bring these cats back from near extinction, say conservationists, is to make them more valuable alive than dead.

Because farming is difficult in Central Asia’s cold, dry landscape, traditional cultures depend mostly on livestock (mainly sheep and goats) to survive in these mountainous regions. At night, when snow leopards hunt, herders’ animals are in danger of snow leopard attacks. Losing only a few animals can push a family into desperate poverty. “The wolf comes and kills, eats, and goes somewhere else,” said one herder, “but snow leopards are always around. They have killed one or two animals many time. Everybody wanted to finish this leopard.”

To address this problem, local religious leaders have called for an end to snow leopard killings, saying that these wild animals have the right to exist peacefully. They’ve also tried to convince people that the leopards are quite rare and thus it is important to protect them. Financial incentives are also helping to slow snow leopard killings. The organization Snow Leopard Conservancy–India has established Himalayan Homestays, a program that sends visitors to the region to herders’ houses. For a clean room and bed, meals with the family, and an introduction to their culture, visitors pay about ten U.S. dollars a night. Having guests once every two weeks through the tourist season provides the herders with enough income to replace the animals lost to snow leopards. In addition, Homestays helps herders build protective fences that keep out snow leopards. The organization also conducts environmental classes at village schools and trains Homestays members as nature guides, available for hire. In exchange, the herders agree not to kill snow leopards.

In Mongolia, a project called Snow Leopard Enterprises (SLE) helps herder communities earn extra money in exchange for their promise to protect the endangered cat. Women in Mongolian herder communities make a variety of products—yarn for making clothes, decorative floor rugs, and toys—using the wool from their herds. SLE buys these items from herding families and sells them abroad. Herders must agree to protect the snow leopards and to encourage neighbors to do the same.

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If the salinity of ocean waters is analyzed, it is found to vary only slightly from place to place. Nevertheless, some of these small changes are important. There are three basic processes that cause a change in oceanic salinity. One of these is the subtraction of water from the ocean by means of evaporation-conversion of liquid water to water vapor. In this manner, the salinity is increased, since the salt behind. If this is carried to the extreme, of course, white crystals of salt would be left behind.
The opposite of evaporation is precipitation, such as rain, by which water is added to the ocean. Here the ocean is being diluted so that the salinity is decreased. This may occur in areas of high rainfall or in coastal regions where rivers flow into the ocean. Thus salinity may be increased by the subtraction of water by evaporation, or decreased by the addition of fresh water by precipitation or runoff.
Normally, in tropical regions where the sun is very strong, the ocean salinity is somewhat higher than it is in other parts of the world where there is not as much evaporation. Similarly, in coastal regions where rivers dilute the sea, salinity is somewhat lower than in other oceanic areas.
A third process by which salinity may be altered is associated with the formation and melting of sea ice. When seawater is frozen, the dissolved materials are left behind. In this manner, seawater directly beneath freshly formed sea ice has a higher salinity than it did before the ice appeared. Of course, when this ice melts, it will tend to decrease the salinity of the surrounding water.
In the Weddell Sea, off Antarctica, the densest water in the ocean is formed as a result of this freezing process, which increases the salinity of cold water. This heavy water sinks and is found in the deeper portions of the oceans of the world.

According to the passage, the ocean generally has more salt in .

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Life expectancy is the period of time that a person can expect to live. Life expectancy varies greatly between genders and cultures. It used to be that women had a lower life expectancy than men (1 in every 4 women died in childbirth), but now they live an average of four to five years longer than men. Life expectancy has been increasing rapidly over the last centuries. With the advent of such modern miracles as sewers, medicine and a greater understanding of how diseases are spread, our life expectancy has increased by 25-30 years.
In developing countries like Swaziland, where there is a high HIV/ AIDS rate, life expectancy is as low as 32.6 years. In developed countries like Australia, life expectancy rates are as high as 81 years. There are an increasing number of factors which can cancel out the disadvantages you have. The one that we are looking at now is how your career can affect your life expectancy. Choosing the wrong career can result in a shorter life!
If you want your career to positively influence your life expectancy, you have to be made of money. That's right. Rich people in wealthy areas of England and France live 10 years longer than the people in poorer areas. Having a successful career has its drawbacks, too if the result of hard work is stress.
Stress can lead to a number of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, fatigue, tension and aggression. These conditions may result in a lack of concentration and an increase in serious injuries at work. They can also lead to high blood pressure and heart attacks which seriously affect life expectancy.
If you are worried that your job might decrease your life expectancy, you probably need to avoid careers on "dangerous jobs" list such as timber cutters, pilots, construction workers, roofer, truck drivers.
So if you don't want to kick the bucket at an early age, choose a career in something other than timber cutting, but above all, remember to relax.

What is the main idea of the 1st paragraph?

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.
           Criticism
 The volume of traffic in many cities in the world today continues to expand. This (46)......many problems, including serious air pollution, lengthy delays, and the greater risk (47).......accidents. Clearly, something must be done, but it is often difficult to persuade people to change their habits and leave their cars at home.
One possible approach is to make it more expensive for people to use their cars be increasing changes for parking and bringing in tougher fines for anyone who (48)...........the law. In addition, drivers could be required to pay for using particular routes at different times of the day. This system, also known as ‘road pricing’, is already being introduced in a number of cities, using a special electronic card (49) ....... to windscreen of the car.
Another ways of dealing with the problem is to provide cheap parking on the outskirts of the city, and strictly control the number of vehicles allowed into the centre. Drivers and their passengers then use a special bus service for the final stage of their journey.
Of course, the most important (50).............. is to provide good public transport. However, to get people to give up the comfort their cars, public transport must be felt to be reliable, convenient and comfortable, with fares charged at an acceptable level.
(47).................................

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Facebook users spend an average of more than 15 hours a month on the social networking site. While there are plenty who caution against such intensive use — and there are a number of studies detailing the harm Facebook could potentially cause — there also are lots of reports extolling the site's virtues. As the social media giant prepares for its upcoming initial public offering, here are some ways Facebook just might be good for you.
Spending time on Facebook can help people relax, slow down their heart rate and decrease stress levels, according to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Milan. In a study published earlier this year, researchers studied 30 students and  found that a natural high was sparked when they were on  the  social media network that led  to  the relaxed heart rates and lower levels of stress and tension. In the study, the students were monitored in three situations: looking at panoramic landscapes, performing complicated mathematical equations and using Facebook. While the first situation was the most relaxing to students and the math problems were the most stressful, the time on Facebook uncovered high levels of attractiveness and arousal. The findings support the researchers' hypothesis that Facebook's success, as well as that of other social media networks, correlates to the specific positive mental and physical state users experience.
While many may argue that social media networks only distract employees, research shows  the opposite may be true. Research from Keas.com found that a 10-minute Facebook break makes employees happier, healthier and more productive. The study examined workers in three groups: one that was allowed no  breaks, one that was allowed to do  anything but use the Internet and one  that was allowed 10 minutes to use the Internet and Facebook. The Facebook group was found to be 16 percent more productive than the group that was not allowed to use the Internet and nearly 40 percent more productive than the group that was allowed no breaks. "Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf on the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher net total concentration for a day's work, and as a result, increased productivity," said Brent Coker of the department of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Facebook is also in the business of matchmaking. Research shows that nearly 60 percent of singles will friend someone new on Facebook after meeting them in  person. If  they like what they see, 25 percent are likely to contact their new love interest via Facebook. Once the courting is over, nearly 40 percent of those social networking adults will update their relationship status on Facebook, with just 24 percent telling their friends first. Facebook use between couples will continue through the dating process, the research shows. Throughout the day, 79 percent of  couples  said they send partners Facebook messages or chat on the social network. In addition, more than 60 percent would post romantic messages on their significant other's Facebook wall. When the relationship ends, more than half of those surveyed immediately update their status to single, which automatically sends out a notification to their friend list to start the dating cycle over again.

According to paragraph 2, what do the scientists discover in their study?

Read the passage and choose the best option A, B, C, D to complete it.

Full Moon festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival or ‘Tet Trung Thu’ in Vietnamese is held (1) _________ the 14th and 15th of the August lunar month. This is an (2) _________ harvest festival celebrated not only in Vietnam (3) ________ in other wet rice countries in Asia such as China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, and Korea. The Full Moon festival offers leisure time for family members to come back home, organize and participate in a wide range of activities including children carrying paper lanterns, lion dances, ….

In fact, there aren’t (4) _______ important customs you must follow but it is good to find wonderful places to visit during this period. Mid-Autumn festival is best enjoyed in Hoi An by strolling down and admiring (5) ______ paper lanterns floating the Thu Bong Riverside. If you base in Hanoi, it is (6) _______ recommended to go to Thang Long Royal Citadel, My Dinh National Stadium, and Hoan Kiem Lake to enjoy a festive atmosphere of fun, safety, and peace.
2.  This is an (2) _________ harvest festival celebrated not only in Vietnam (3) ________ in other wet rice countries in Asia such as China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, and Korea.

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

Children in (1) _____ Netherlands must be at least four years old to (2) _____ primary education. Almost all 4-year-olds (99. 3%) in the country indeed attend primary school, (3) _____ this is not compulsory until children reach the age (4) _____5 . Primary school is free of charge. In most schools, children are grouped by (5) _____ in mixed ability classes, with one teacher for all subjects. Primary school (6) _____ of 8 groups, thus schooling (7) _____ for 8 years. During the first two years, which (8) _____ kindergarten, children receive an average of 22 hours of (9) _____, during the last 6 years children receive an average of 25 hours per week. Schools are open 5 days a week, but children are free on Wednesday afternoon. At the end of primary school, or in group 8, schools advice on secondary school choice. Most schools use a national test to support this advice, for instance the 'Citotoets', a test (10) ____ by the Central Institute for Test development.

(1) _____

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Why are there so many grandmothers and so few grandfathers? In other words, why do men die younger than women? Is this because men are afraid of getting old and helpless and so they prefer to die before that happens? Perhaps they fear to be left alone by their women and so decide to do the leaving first.
Many explanations are given for the fact that men die earlier than women. Men are stronger physically, yet women can hang on longer to life. Both men and women are emotional creatures but women are not afraid or ashamed to cry while men refuse to do so. They are afraid of being thought "soft". Some men, when they are upset, play loud music or dig in the garden to relieve their feelings. Many men like an orderly life so that they bury themselves in their work or want a wife with some children or long to take part in wars where there is a definite chain of command. There is a leader to give orders and a known enemy to fight against and defeat. All these make men feel they live in a rational world.
So the majority of men like a rational world. Rationality is fine but it does not include everything that makes life joyful and fun or even messy and frustrating. When a man refuses to cry he is refusing to accept that his emotions are part of him. Of course some men do not follow this pattern. Bob Hawke is capable of crying in public whereas Margaret Thatcher is probably incapable of crying at any time.
We need to cry because that shows our ability to suffer. If we do not suffer we are not really alive at all. Suffering can be creative or destructive. If we can all learn to cry and laugh and shout and dance openly, we are living creatively and adding something to the human race. We often say men suffer more from stress and therefore they die earlier. Are we not saying in another way that they do not know how to suffer in the right way – with tears and laughter instead of silence – and so they are miserable and just give up? That is just my theory of course. Have you a better one?

What’s the main question the article is intended to discuss?

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Cities develop as a result of functions that they can perform. Some functions result directly from the ingenuity of the citizenry, but most functions result from the needs of the local area and of the surrounding hinterland (the region that supplies goods to the city and to which the city furnishes services and other goods). Geographers often make a distinction between the situation and the site of a city. Situation refers to the general position in relation to the surrounding region, whereas site involves physical characteristics of the specific location. Situation is normally much more important to the continuing prosperity of a city. If a city is well situated in regard to its hinterland, its development is much more likely to continue. Chicago, for example, possesses an almost unparalleled situation: it is located at the southern end of a huge lake that forces east-west transportation lines to be compressed into its vicinity, and at a meeting of significant land and water transport routes. It also overlooks what is one of the world’s finest large farming regions. These factors ensured that Chicago would become a great city regardless of the disadvantageous characteristics of the available site, such as being prone to flooding during thunderstorm activity.
Similarly, it can be argued that much of New York City’s importance stems from its early and continuing advantage of situation. Philadelphia and Boston both originated at about the same time as New York and shared New York’s location at the western end of one of the world’s most important oceanic trade routes, but only New York possesses an easy-access functional connection (the Hudson-Mohawk lowland) to the vast Midwestern hinterland. This account does not alone explain New York’s primacy, but it does include several important factors. Among the many aspects of situation that help to explain why some cities grow and others do not, original location on a navigable waterway seems particularly applicable. Of course, such characteristic as slope drainage, power resources, river crossings, coastal shapes, and other physical characteristics help to dertermine city location, but such factors are normally more significant in early stages of city development than later.

The author mentions each of the following as an advantage of Chicago’s location EXCEPT its     .

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
Parents and teachers are always making (1)......... between the time when they were children and the present generation . They say everything was better than it is today, especially in education. (2)........ , they say they used to work much harder in school, and that nowadays, we aren’t very interested. I disagree, because we spend hours every day doing homework after our lessons or (3)........... for exammination. I wonder (4)..........our parents really had to study so much after school every day. In my opinion, it is no exaggeration to say we have forgotten how to play. I think one reason why kids (5)........... in class is because they need to get rid of stress.

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

Read the following passage and then choose the best answer.

It is commonly believed that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The difference between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.

Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling. Education knows no limits. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or on the job, whether in the kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in school and the whole universe of informal learning. The agent (doer) of education can vary from respected grandparents to the people arguing about politics on the radio, from a child to a famous scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions. People receive education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one's entire life.

Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.

The word "they" in the last paragraph refers to ………………

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On March 15, Dunes View Middle School held a contest for school bands. Student bands tried  out for the opportunity to perform at the school picnic, which will be held at the end of June. The winner of the contest was the band called Four Square. "We're very proud that we won the contest  and are excited to perform at the picnic," says Peter Zandt, who plays the guitar in the band. "And     since we hope to perform someday at other local places, like restaurants and parks, this will be  a  great first step."
The contest was the creation of music teacher Mr. Lopez and drama teacher Ms. Cho. The two thought of the idea while discussing recent years' school picnics. "The picnic is one of the biggest events of the year, but it has become a bit formulaic ," said Ms. Cho. "The activities are the same every year. We thought that a performance by a student band would make the school picnic more interesting and fun." Mr. Lopez, Ms. Cho, and three other teachers judged the contest, which took place  in the gym. Eight student bands signed up to audition. The bands varied in their musical forms: there  were several rock bands, a folk band, and even a jazz band. "I'm disappointed that my band didn't win,  but I think the judges made the right choice," says student Marisol Varga, a member of the folk trio called The Bell Girls. "Four Square is really excellent."
To see if the bands could present a wide range of musical skills, the teachers asked them  each to prepare two songs: one song with original words, and another in which students played instrumental music only. The judges finally chose the band Four Square as the winner of the contest. Four Square is a rock band with an unusual twist: it includes a violin player! The members of Four Square write their own songs and practice three times a week after school. Students and teachers agreed that the band competition was a big success. All are  looking forward  to the school picnic in June.

Why did the teachers ask each band to play two songs?

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

"Most of us are interested in one kind of sport or another, even if we don't go in for it actively. Lots of people take up a particular sport at an early age, for example tennis, skiing, or ice-skating. If they get up to a suitably high standard, they may go in for local competitions or even championships. But special training is hard work and most young people don't keep it up. Many of them opt out when they come up against tough competition.

To become a professional in any sport, you have to go through with a strict training schedule. And it's not easy! It means doing without some of life's little pleasures, too. For example, to build up your physical strength you may have to stick to a special diet and give up some of your favorite foods. Smoking and alcohol are out, and to keep fit you have to work out regularly every day.

Sometimes it all pays off, but the road to success is long and there are no guarantees. No wonder that countless young talents decide to settle for a regular job instead, and, as far as professional sport is concerned, for looking on as spectators."

1: The term of “go in for” in the passage means _________

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
Water is necessary for life. People can live only a few days (44)........  it. Yet nearly 25 million   people die each year because of it. Both industrial nations and less-developed countries are worried about the (45).................... and quantity of water in the world.
Even though people, animals, agriculture, and industry use a lot of water, there is more than enough on the Earth. Water covers about three-fourths of the Earth's surface. However, 97.4 percent of it is salt water. Three-fourths of the Earth's fresh water is frozen in glaciers and in the great polar ice caps. Most of the water we use (46)................     from rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere. Less than one percent of the Earth's water is usable, and we use it over and over again.
One of the (47)......... about water is distribution. Water is not always distributed where the large (48)..........centers are. Some regions get enough rain, but it is all in one or two short rainy seasons.

(46)................................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
The term "Hudson River school" was applied to the foremost representatives of nineteenth–century North American landscape painting. Apparently unknown during the golden days of the American landscape movement, which began around 1850 and lasted until the late 1860's, the Hudson River school seems to have emerged in the 1870's as a direct result of the struggle between the old and the new generations of artists, each to assert its own style as the representative American art. The older painters, most of whom were born before 1835, practiced in a mode often self–taught and monopolized by landscape subject matter and were securely established in and fostered by the reigning American art organization, the National Academy of Design. The younger painters returning home from training in Europe worked more with figural subject matter and in a bold and impressionistic technique; their prospects for patronage in their own country were uncertain, and they sought to attract it by attaining academic recognition in New York. One of the results of the conflict between the two factions was that what in previous years had been referred to as the "American", "native", or, occasionally, "New York" school–the most representative school of American art in any genre–had by 1890 become firmly established in the minds of critics and public alike as the Hudson River school.
The sobriquet was first applied around 1879. While it was not intended as flattering, it was hardly inappropriate. The Academicians at whom it was aimed had worked and socialized in New York, the Hudson's port city, and had painted the river and its shores with varying frequency. Most important, perhaps, was that they had all maintained with a certain fidelity a manner of technique and composition consistent with those of America's first popular landscape artist, Thomas Cole, who built a career painting the Catskill Mountain scenery bordering the Hudson River. A possible implication in the term applied to the group of landscapists was that many of them had, like Cole, lived on or near the banks of the Hudson. Further, the river had long served as the principal route to other sketching grounds favored by the Academicians, particularly the Adirondacks and the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire.

The word "monopolized" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to     .

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
                     ALFRED NOBEL
Alfred Nobel was born on October 21, 1833 in Sweden. His important invention was dynamite - a powerful (1)........ _. This dynamite business made him a very rich man.
One day, Alfred Nobel read about his death in a newspaper. In fact, it was his brother's death. The mass media (2).........him a saleman of death, "The dynamite king". Nobel was very upset. He had invented dynamite to save lives - lives ( 3 )............ _ were lost because other explosives were dangerous to use. He hated violence and war. And he did not like the world to    think of him as a man of war.
He thought (4)..........the  best way for people to  use  his fortune for  years. (5)................... _  he knew  what to do with his fortune. Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prize, an annual award to honour leaders of science, literature, and world peace. Alfred Nobel died on December 10, 1896. He was unmarried and had no children. His important decision changed the way the  world thought of him. He was remembered the way he wanted: Alfred Nobel, man of peace.

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