PANDEMIC DISEASES
Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were  no diseases,  the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes  they  spread  very  quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu spread  across the world, killing over 25 million people in only six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a disease are called pandemics.
Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fight.  In 1918, a new type of flu virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fight this new flu virus, and    so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have  been  many  different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in    common.
First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very   easily.
Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70 -80% of all people who  get the Marburg virus  died  from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become  a pandemic  because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time    to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about   a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to   spread.
While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we  can  make  them  less  common. Doctors carefully monitor new diseases that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warnings may have prevented SARS from becoming a  pandemic.

The author mentions SARS in order  to    ....................

Commuting is the practice of travelling a long distance to a town or city to work each day, and then travelling home again in the evening. The word commuting comes from commutation ticket, a US rail ticket for repeated journeys, called a season ticket in Britain. Regular travellers are called commuters.
The US has many commuters. A few, mostly on the East Coast commute by train or subway, but most depend on the car. Some leave home very early to avoid the traffic jams, and sleep in their cars until their office opens. Many people accept a long trip to work so that they can live in quiet "bedroom communities" away from the city, but another reason is 'white flight'. In the 1960s most cities began to desegregate their schools, so that there were no longer separate schools  for  white and black children. Many white families did not want to send their children to desegregated schools, so they moved to the suburbs, which have their own schools, and where, for various reasons, few black people live.
Millions of people in Britain commute by car or train. Some spend two or three hours a day travelling, so that they and their families can live in suburbia or in the countryside. Cities are surrounded by commuter belts. Part of the commuter belt around London is called the stock broker belt because it contains houses where rich business people live. Some places are becoming dormitory towns, because people sleep there but take little part in local activities.
Most commuters travel to and from work at the same time, causing the morning and evening rush hours, when buses and trains are crowded and there are traffic jams on the roads. Commuters on trains rarely talk to each other and spend their journey reading, sleeping or using their mobile phones, though this is not popular with other passengers. Increasing numbers of people now work at home some days of the week, linked to their offices by computer, a practice called telecommuting.
Cities in both Britain and the US are trying to reduce the number of cars conning into town each day. Some companies encourage car pooling (called car sharing in Britain), an arrangement for people who live and work near each other to travel together. Some Us cities have a public service that helps such people to contact each other, and traffic lanes are reserved for car-pool vehicles. But cars and petrol/gas are cheap in the US, and many people prefer to drive alone because it gives them more freedom. In Britain many cities have park-and-rids schemes, car parks on the edge of the city from which buses take drivers into the centre.

The word "it" in the last paragraph refers to...................

PANDEMIC DISEASES
Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were  no diseases,  the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes  they  spread  very  quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu spread  across the world, killing over 25 million people in only six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a disease are called pandemics.
Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fight.  In 1918, a new type of flu virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fight this new flu virus, and    so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have  been  many  different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in    common.
First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very   easily.
Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70 -80% of all people who  get the Marburg virus  died  from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become  a pandemic  because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time    to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about   a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to   spread.
While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we  can  make  them  less  common. Doctors carefully monitor new diseases that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warnings may have prevented SARS from becoming a  pandemic.

The word 'monitor' in the passage 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 answer to each of the questions:
Humans are bringing about another global-scale change in the atmosphere: the increase in what are called greenhouse gases. Like glass in a greenhouse, these gases admit the Sun's light but tend to reflect back downward the heat that is radiated from the ground below, trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere. This process is known as the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is the most significant of these gases – there is 25 percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than there was a century ago, the result of our burning coal and fuels derived from oil. Methane, nitrous oxide, and CFCs are greenhouse gases as well.
Scientists predict that increases in these gases in the atmosphere will make the Earth a warmer place. They expect a global rise in average temperature somewhere between 1.0 and 3.5 degrees Celsius in the next century. Average temperatures have in fact been rising and the years from 1987 to 1997 were the warmest years on record. Some scientists are reluctant to say that global warming has actually begun because climate naturally varies from year to year and decade to decade, and it takes many years of records to be sure of a fundamental change. There is little disagreement, though, that global warming is looming.
Global warming will have different effects in different regions. A warmed world is expected to have more extreme weather, with more rain during wet periods, longer droughts, and more powerful storms. Although the effects of future climate changes are unknown, some predict that exaggerated weather conditions may translate into better agricultural yields in areas such as the western United States, where temperature and rainfall are expected to increase, while dramatic decreases in rainfall may lead to severe droughts and plunging agricultural yields in parts of Africa, for example.
Warmer temperatures are expected to partially melt the polar ice caps, leading to a projected sea level rise of 50 centimeters by the year 2050. A sea level rise of this magnitude would flood coastal cities, force people to abandon low-lying islands, and completely inundate coastal wetlands. Diseases like malaria, which at present are primarily found in the tropics, may become more common in the regions of the globe between the tropics and the polar regions, called the temperate zones. For many of the world's plant species, and for animal species that are not easily able to shift their territories as their habitat grows warmer, climate change may bring extinction.

The word "They" in paragraph 2 refers to ................

Choose the best answer to complete the sentence.

_______ in Rome than he was kidnapped

Some animal behaviorists argue that certain animals can remember past events, anticipate future ones, make plans and choices, and coordinate activities within a group. These scientists, however, are cautious about the extent to which animals can be credited with conscious   processing.
Explanations of animal behavior that leave out any sort of consciousness at all and ascribe actions entirely to instinct leave many questions unanswered. One example of such unexplained behavior: Honeybees communicate the sources of nectar to one another by doing a dance in a figure-eight pattern. The orientation of the dance conveys the position of the food relative to the sun's position in the sky, and the speed of the dance tells how  far  the food source is from  the  hive. Most researchers assume that the ability to perform and  encode the dance is innate and  shows no special intelligence. But in one study, when experimenters kept changing the site of the food source, each time moving the food 25 percent father from the previous site, foraging honeybees began to anticipate where the food source would appear next. When the researchers arrived at the new location, they would find the bees circling the spot, waiting for their food. No one has yet explained how bees, whose brains weigh four ten-thousandths of an  ounce,  could  have inferred the location of the new  site.
Other behaviors that may indicate some cognition include tool use. Many animals, like the otter who uses a stone to crack mussel shells, are capable of using objects in the natural environment as rudimentary tools. One researcher has found that mother  chimpanzees  occasionally show their young how to use tools to open hard nuts. In one study, chimpanzees compared two pairs of food wells containing chocolate chips. One pair might contain, say, five chips and three chips, the other four chips and three chips. Allowed to choose which pair they wanted, the  chimpanzees  almost always chose the one with the higher total, showing some sort  of summing ability. Other chimpanzees have learned to use numerals to label quantities of items and do simple sums.

The phrase "the one" refer  to the..................

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

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN _________ (1) on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam joined _________ (2) 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999. Brunei Darussalam joined ASEAN _________ (3) its sixth member soon after assuming her full independence in January 1984. Present at the admission ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia was His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brunei Darussalam. Since then, ASEAN became the cornerstone of Brunei's foreign policies. Through ASEAN, Brunei Darussalam participates in various other regional frameworks including ASEAN regional Forum, ASEAN Plus Three and East Asia Summit.

His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam _________ (4) other ASEAN leaders signed the ASEAN Charter on 20 November 2007 in Singapore. Brunei Darussalam was _________ (5) second member state after Singapore to ratify the Charter on 31 January 2008. Brunei officials who have served in the ASEAN secretariat included Dato Roderick Yong, ASEAN Secretary-General (July 1986 - July 1989), Dato Haji Mahadi Wasli, Deputy Secretary-general (1994 - 1997), and Pengiran Dato Mashor Pg. Ahmad (2003 - 2005).

(4)............................

PANDEMIC DISEASES
Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were  no diseases,  the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes  they  spread  very  quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu spread  across the world, killing over 25 million people in only six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a disease are called pandemics.
Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fight.  In 1918, a new type of flu virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fight this new flu virus, and    so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have  been  many  different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in    common.
First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very   easily.
Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70 -80% of all people who  get the Marburg virus  died  from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become  a pandemic  because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time    to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about   a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to   spread.
While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we  can  make  them  less  common. Doctors carefully monitor new diseases that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warnings may have prevented SARS from becoming a  pandemic.

Based on the information in the passage the term "pandemics'' can be explained as.....................

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 from 31 to 35.
Graphic novels, as the name suggests, are books written and illustrated in the style of a comic book. Adults may feel that graphic novels do not help children become good readers. They believe that this  type of  reading material  somehow prevents  "real"   reading. (31) , many quality graphic novels are now being seen as a method of storytelling on the same level as novels, films or audiobooks. Many librarians and teachers are now accepting graphic novels as proper literature for children as they (32) young people and motivate them to read. This has been especially true with children who are not (33) to read, especially boys.
Language learners are also motivated by graphic novels because the pictures provide clues to the meaning of the words. Therefore, they   will (34) new vocabulary more quickly. Many teachers have reported great success when they used graphic novels with their students, especially in the areas of English, social studies and art. The idea that graphic novels are too simple to be regarded as serious reading is no longer valid. Reading them can, undoubtedly, help students develop the skills (35) are necessary to read more challenging works.
(31).................

Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits, In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in dense vegetation or enter a cavity- horned, larks dig holes In the ground and ptarmigan burrow into snow banks- but the effect of sheltering is magnified by several birds huddling together in the roost, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers, bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air, so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to reduce their heat losses by a quarter and three together saved a third of their heat.

The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as "information centers". During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roost and hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can learn from others where to find insect swarms. Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch small birds perching at the margins of the roost

Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage as an advantage derived by birds that huddle together while sleeping?

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:
Humans are bringing about another global-scale change in the atmosphere: the increase in what are called greenhouse gases. Like glass in a greenhouse, these gases admit the Sun's light but tend to reflect back downward the heat that is radiated from the ground below, trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere. This process is known as the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide is the most significant of these gases – there is 25 percent more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than there was a century ago, the result of our burning coal and fuels derived from oil. Methane, nitrous oxide, and CFCs are greenhouse gases as well.
Scientists predict that increases in these gases in the atmosphere will make the Earth a warmer place. They expect a global rise in average temperature somewhere between 1.0 and 3.5 degrees Celsius in the next century. Average temperatures have in fact been rising and the years from 1987 to 1997 were the warmest years on record. Some scientists are reluctant to say that global warming has actually begun because climate naturally varies from year to year and decade to decade, and it takes many years of records to be sure of a fundamental change. There is little disagreement, though, that global warming is looming.
Global warming will have different effects in different regions. A warmed world is expected to have more extreme weather, with more rain during wet periods, longer droughts, and more powerful storms. Although the effects of future climate changes are unknown, some predict that exaggerated weather conditions may translate into better agricultural yields in areas such as the western United States, where temperature and rainfall are expected to increase, while dramatic decreases in rainfall may lead to severe droughts and plunging agricultural yields in parts of Africa, for example.
Warmer temperatures are expected to partially melt the polar ice caps, leading to a projected sea level rise of 50 centimeters by the year 2050. A sea level rise of this magnitude would flood coastal cities, force people to abandon low-lying islands, and completely inundate coastal wetlands. Diseases like malaria, which at present are primarily found in the tropics, may become more common in the regions of the globe between the tropics and the polar regions, called the temperate zones. For many of the world's plant species, and for animal species that are not easily able to shift their territories as their habitat grows warmer, climate change may bring extinction.

What may be the benefit of exaggerated weather conditions for the western United States?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand- sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it have been considered as the founders of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. The document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.

It is a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declares the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spells out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes are about the cooperation in economy, society, culture, techniques, education and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulates that the Association will be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaims ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. The goal of ASEAN, then, is to create, not to destroy.

The original ASEAN logo presented five brown sheaves of rice stalks, one for each founding member. Beneath the sheaves is the legend "ASEAN" in blue. These are set on a field of yellow encircled by a blue border. Brown stands for strength and stability, yellow for prosperity and blue for the spirit of cordiality in which ASEAN affairs are conducted. When ASEAN celebrated its 30^th Anniversary in 1997, the sheaves on the logo had increased to ten -representing all ten countries of Southeast Asia and reflecting the colors of the flags of all of them. In a very real sense, ASEAN and Southeast Asia will be one and the same, just as the founders had envisioned.

The pronoun "it" in the first paragraph refers to ________.

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

ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA) was established as a result of a Workshop on Handicraft for Export which was (1) _____ by the Royal Thai Government in February 1981 in Bangkok. AHPADA was formed as a forum for both the government and private sectors that are concerned with meeting and complementing each other in the promotion and development of handicrafts (2) _____. AHPADA is affiliated to the ASEAN and the World Craft Council. The (3) _____ members were Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Singapore and Brunei join in a little (4) _____. Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam joined in September 1999.AHPADA's objectives are: To take common approach to develop and promote the marketing of crafts (5) _____ and outside the ASEAN Region. To operate as a main point of promotion of ASEAN handicrafts and raw (6) _____ required-for production, trade fairs and exhibitions. To strengthen and improve the status of craftspeople. To create employment opportunities especially in the rural areas. To (7) _____ traditional craft skills within the context of conservation of cultural heritage. To educate and create awareness and appreciation of the authentic handicrafts of ASEAN Countries. And to build up an archive of ASEAN CRAFT information.

With the recent economic downturn in (8) _____ ASEAN Countries, AHPADA's objectives are more relevant than they have ever been before. Most producers are among the rural areas and (9) _____ majority of them are very small entrepreneurs. AHPADA works at both national level through the national focal points and at the international level through the Board of AHPADA and the Regional Secretariat which is permanently based in Bangkok, Thailand. (10) _____ 1981 AHPADA has been able to act as a catalyst and initiators in the promotion and development of ASEAN CRAFTS through seminars, workshops and exhibitions, often in partnership with several multinational and international organizations.

(9) _____

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

Born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Fred and Debbie Phelps, the youngest of three children, Michael Phelps and his sisters grew up in the neighbourhood of Rodger Forge. His father, Fred, a former all-rounded athlete, was a state trooper and his mother Debbie was a middle-school principal. When Phelps's parents divorced in 1994, he and his siblings lived with their mother, with whom Michael grew very close. Even at the age of 7, Phelps was still a little scared to put his head under water, so his instructors allowed him to float around on his back. Not surprisingly, despite the fact that later he is very good at butterfly swimming, the first stroke he mastered was not the easily-practised breaststroke but the backstroke.

At the age of 15, Phelps became the youngest American male swimmer to compete at an Olympic Games in 68 years. While he didn't win any medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, he would soon become a major force in competitive swimming.

In the spring of 2001, Phelps set the world record in the 200-meter butterfly, becoming the youngest male swimmer in history at the age of 15 years and 9 months. At the 2001 World Championships in Japan, he then broke his own record with a time of 1:54:58, earning his first international medal. In 2002, Phelps continued to establish several records including the 100-meter butterfly and the 200-meter individual medley. The following year, at the same event, he broke his own world record in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:09.09.

After the London Olympics in 2012, Phelps announced he was retiring from his sport. However, at the 2016 Olympic Games, he came out of retirement and returned to professional competition. This was also the event in which he won one silver and five gold medals, becoming the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history, as well as the first swimmer to win four consecutive golds in the same event, the 200 meter individual medley.

The first style of swimming Phelps was good at is ____.

Water scarcity is fast becoming one of the major limiting factors in world crop production.  In many areas, poor agricultural practices have led to increasing desertification and the loss of formerly arable lands. Consequently, those plants species that are well adapted to survival in dry climates are being looked at for an answer in developing more efficient crops to grow on marginally arable lands.
Plants uses several mechanisms to ensure their survival in desert environments. Some involve purely mechanical and physical adaptations, such as the shape of the plant's surface, smaller leaf size, and extensive root systems. Some of the adaptations are related to chemical mechanisms. Many plants, such as cacti, have internal gums and mucilages which give them water-retaining properties. Another chemical mechanism is that of the epicuticular wax layer. This wax layer acts as an impervious cover to protect the plant. It prevents excessive loss of internal moisture. It also protects the plant from external aggression, which can come from inorganic agents such as gases, or organic agents which include bacteria ant plant pets.
Researchers have proposed that synthetic waxes with similar protective abilities could be prepared based on knowledge of desert plants. If successfully developed, such a compound could be used to greatly increase a plant's ability to maintain health in such adverse situations as inadequate water supply, limited fertilizers availability, attacked by pets, and poor storage after harvesting

It can be inferred that synthetic simulated waxes.......................

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

ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA) was established as a result of a Workshop on Handicraft for Export which was (1) _____ by the Royal Thai Government in February 1981 in Bangkok. AHPADA was formed as a forum for both the government and private sectors that are concerned with meeting and complementing each other in the promotion and development of handicrafts (2) _____. AHPADA is affiliated to the ASEAN and the World Craft Council. The (3) _____ members were Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Singapore and Brunei join in a little (4) _____. Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam joined in September 1999.AHPADA's objectives are: To take common approach to develop and promote the marketing of crafts (5) _____ and outside the ASEAN Region. To operate as a main point of promotion of ASEAN handicrafts and raw (6) _____ required-for production, trade fairs and exhibitions. To strengthen and improve the status of craftspeople. To create employment opportunities especially in the rural areas. To (7) _____ traditional craft skills within the context of conservation of cultural heritage. To educate and create awareness and appreciation of the authentic handicrafts of ASEAN Countries. And to build up an archive of ASEAN CRAFT information.

With the recent economic downturn in (8) _____ ASEAN Countries, AHPADA's objectives are more relevant than they have ever been before. Most producers are among the rural areas and (9) _____ majority of them are very small entrepreneurs. AHPADA works at both national level through the national focal points and at the international level through the Board of AHPADA and the Regional Secretariat which is permanently based in Bangkok, Thailand. (10) _____ 1981 AHPADA has been able to act as a catalyst and initiators in the promotion and development of ASEAN CRAFTS through seminars, workshops and exhibitions, often in partnership with several multinational and international organizations.

(7) _____

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.

   Scientists do not yet thoroughly understand just how the body of an individual becomes sensitive to a substance that is harmless or even wholesome for the average person. Milk, wheat, and egg, for example, rank among the most healthful and widely used foods. Yet these foods can cause persons sensitive to them to suffer greatly. At first, the body of the individual is not harmed by coming into contact with the substance. After a varying interval of time, usually longer than a few weeks, the body becomes sensitive to it, and an allergy has begun to develop. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you have a food allergy, since it can show up so many different ways. Your symptoms could be caused by many other problems. You may have rashes, hives, joint pains mimicking arthritis, headaches, irritability, or depression. The most common food allergies are to milk, eggs, seafood, wheat, nuts, seeds, chocolate, oranges, and tomatoes. Many of these allergies will not develop if these foods are not fed to an infant until her or his intestines mature at around seven months. Breast milk also tends to be protective. Migraines can be set off by foods containing tyramine, phenathylamine, monosodium glutamate, or sodium nitrate. Common foods which contain these are chocolate, aged cheeses, sour cream, red wine, pickled herring, chicken livers, avocados, ripe bananas, cured meats, many Oriental and prepared foods (read the labels!). Some people have been successful in treating their migraines with supplements of B-vitamins, particularly B6 and niacin. Children who are hyperactive may benefit from eliminating food additives, especially colorings, and foods high in salicylates from their diets. A few of these are almonds, green peppers, peaches, tea, grapes. This is the diet made popular by Benjamin Feingold, who has written the book “Why your Child is Hyperactive”. Other researchers have had mixed results when testing whether the diet is effective.

The word "these" refers to ___________.

Read the passage and choose the correct answer:

Vietnam’s ASEAN membership opened a new period of integration in the region. Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said: “It was the right decision to join ASEAN in 1995, when we were in dire need of socio-economic development and expansion of relations with other countries. ASEAN membership enabled Vietnam to expand ties with the EU and normalize relations with the US and China. As an ASEAN member, Vietnam has engaged deeply in ASEAN activities in line with its integration policy.”

In ASEAN Vietnam has enjoyed a favorable environment for forging closer ties with its neighbors and resolving long-standing issues, and has contributed to regional cooperative mechanisms that further its national interests. ASEAN helps amplify Vietnam’s voice worldwide and create cooperative opportunities.

ASEAN’s Secretary General Le Luong Minh: “Vietnam’s economic development has benefited from ASEAN membership. During the course of 10 years from 2006 to last year, Vietnam’s GDP share in ASEAN doubled from 3.5% to 7%. ASEAN-Vietnam trade increased 120% with tighter connectivity in infrastructure, trade mechanisms, and human resources.”

 ASEAN helps amplify Vietnam’s voice worldwide and create cooperative opportunities.

The Influence of Advertising on Pricing

Advertising makes an immense difference in the popularity of a product. Studies have shown that consumers usually pay more for advertised products than non-advertised products. As a result, the marketing and advertising industry is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business. Local commercials can cost as little as several hundred dollars to produce, while national companies have been known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single commercial. Interestingly, the source for these expensive commercials is the consumers who view the advertisements from the comfort of their living rooms. Companies influence the prices that consumers pay in two ways.

When consumers purchase any product, they are obviously paying for the cost of manufacturing the product. However, they are also paying for the advertising campaign devised to convince consumers to buy the product. The more costly the advertising campaign, the higher the price paid by consumers. Companies are allowed to set these high prices because consumers have shown that they will continue to pay them. For instance, a multinational chain of coffee shops significantly raised its prices a few years ago, due in no small part to an expensive national advertising campaign. While regular customers noticed and were not fond of the hike, one was quoted as saying, “I doubt it will make an impact [on consumers]. It won’t change my habit." Indeed, it did not; the company experienced record sales in spite of the fact its prices were higher than its competitors'.

Another way advertising tends to affect product pricing is seen in the arena of perceived value to the consumers. The perceived value is the worth that consumers assign to a product. Studies show that often the advertising for a product determines its value more than the quality or necessity of the product itself. One way a company may take advantage of this perceived value is by running commercials during prime time. These ads are usually much more expensive than others. For example, a national commercial that ran during a popular American show cost close to $745,000 to run for thirty seconds. If people watching the show perceive that the product is more valuable simply because it was advertised during prime time, they are often willing to pay higher prices. So, whether it is seen in the cost of the commercials or the advertiser-assigned value, it is obvious that advertising drives product pricing and directly affects consumers.

The author mentions commercials running during prime time in order to ______.

Picture a society where learning can happen at any time, in any place and can be completed without ever going to class. This is could be new wave of education and the internet technology now exists to support such a system. The virtual classroom is here. If you are interested in English or Civil Engineering, then head to the University and click yourself a degree. Well, maybe it’s not that easy, but you would be on the right track. The flexibility of studying at your own pace, and the money you save with online courses, are two of the main attractions.

The web is a powerful educational tool. Some feel that virtual classrooms will isolate students from each other, which will result in problems developing interpersonal relationships and that these skills are much more important than computer skills. Should teachers teach kids how to behave in society, how to respect others and how to co-operate, or should kids have already learned this from their parents? No one is saying that social skills aren’t important, however, virtual classrooms are far more than just computer skills. Some strongly believe that education can be taught via the web and social skills can be gained from joining sports teams, summer camps, or just by hanging out! Others argue that this virtual classroom may place pressure on students: to become computer literate or be left behind in life. Is this undue pressure or reality? Maybe being left behind in life is a little dramatic, but the reality is that the computer age is here. Whether you want to pay for your new jeans with your debit card, or check to see if the library has the book you want, you’re going to need some computer skills.

The development of flexible, inquiring minds has rarely been the main concern in the design of educational systems. After all, if you have over thirty inquiring minds and only one teacher, flexibility could be a problem. It seems that developing students’ proper social behavior has always exceeded the concern to develop students’ creativity. Computer technology can make individualized attention a real possibility. At the Institute for the Learning Sciences, systems are being developed to allow people to try out things in simulated worlds. This technology will allow for the individual creative growth in students.

The web will provide amazing opportunities for the education of our society. Anyone with a computer and internet access can peruse effectively unlimited amounts of knowledge and programs, designed to help them learn and understand. The teachers and parents involved with these programs will be given the job of making sure that students lead well-balanced lives that combine Web-education and positive social interaction with their friends and neighbors. Imagine that your recreation room has now become your classroom, and your parents seem to be doing as much homework as you are! So, be prepared as the virtual classroom may find its way to a computer screen near you!

What is the author’s overall attitude towards a virtual classroom?

Ranked as the number one beverage consumed worldwide, tea takes the lead over coffee in both popularity and production with more than 5 million metric tons of tea produced annually. Although much of this tea is consumed in Asia, European and African countries, the United  States drinks it fair share. According to estimates by the Tea Council of the United States, tea is enjoyed by no less than half of the U.S population on any given day. Black tea or green tea - iced, spiced, or instant - tea drinking has spurred a billion - dollar business with major tea produces in Africa and South America and throughout Asia.
Tea is made from the leaves of an evergreen plant, Camellia sinensis, which grows tall and lush in tropical regions. On tea plantation, the plant is kept trimmed to approximately four feet high, and as new buds called flush appear, they are plucked off by hand. Even in today's world of modern agricultural machinery, hand harvesting continues to be preferred method. Ideally, only the top two leaves and bud should be picked. This new growth produces the highest quality tea.
After being harvested, tea leaves are laid out on long drying racks, called withering racks, for 18 to 20 hours. During this process, the tea softens and becomes limp. Next, depending on the type of the tea being produced, the leaves may be crushed or chopped to release flavor, and then steamed to retain their green color, and the fermentation process is skipped. Producing black teas requires fermentation during which the tea leaves begin to darken. After fermentation, black tea is dried in vats to produce its rich brown or black color.
No one knows when or how tea became popular, but legend has it that tea as a beverage was discovered in 2737 B.C. by Emperor Shen Nung of China when leaves from Camellia dropped into his drinking water as it was boiling over a fire. As the story goes, Emperor Shen Nung drank the resulting liquid and proclaimed that the drink to be most nourishing and refreshing. Though this account cannot be documented, it is thought that tea drinking probably originated in China and spread to other parts of Asia, then to Europe, and ultimately to America colonies around 1650.
With about half of the caffeine content as coffee, tea is often chosen by those who want to reduce, but not necessarily eliminate their caffeine intake. Some people find that tea is less acidic than coffee and therefore easier on the stomach. Others have become interested in tea drinking since the National Cancer Institute published its findings on the antioxidant properties of tea. But whether tea is enjoyed for its perceived health benefits, its flavor, or as a social drink, teacups continue to be filled daily with the world's most popular beverage.

What best describes the topic of the passage?