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"Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
 
In some modem countries it has, for some time, been fashionable to think that by free education for all - whether rich or poor, clever or stupid - one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a larger number of people with university degree; they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our house, we should get terrible diseases in your towns.
 
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to our brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society."

1. The writer of the passage thinks that ……

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For hundreds of years, giving flowers have been a social means of communication. In the United States, flowers are often given during rites of passage, for commemorating special occasions or as a heartfelt gift between loved ones and friends. Flower gifting also occurs in most countries around the world. However, the meanings and traditions often vary.
While students traditionally gave their favorite teacher an apple in past years, in China, teachers are given flowers. Peonies are by far the  flower most often  given  in  China. They are also quite popularly used for weddings. Strangely, potted plants are not considered a pleasant gift among Asian cultures. The people believe that like a plant confined by a pot, the gift  symbolizes a binding or restriction.
In Russia, in lieu of giving birthday presents, the guest of honor receives a single flower or an unwrapped bouquet. Floral arrangements or baskets are not given. Russians celebrate a holiday known as Woman's Day. Traditional gifts include red roses, hyacinths or tulips. When   there is a funeral or other occasion where someone wishes to express sympathy, carnations, lilies or roses are given in circular configurations, which signify the transition of birth, life and death to   rebirth. In this instance, the color of choice is commonly yellow. For joyous occasions, arrangements and bouquets generally contain an odd number of flowers.
In the times of ancient Rome, brides carried flowers to scare away evil spirits and encourage fertility. The Dutch believed that flowers were food for the soul. When invited to someone's home in Great Britain, it is tradition to bring a gift of flowers. All types are acceptable except white lilies, which are usually seen at funerals. Unlike the United States, red roses are a symbol of love.
Flowers are generally gifted in odd numbered increments regardless of the occasion. However, the Brits also have superstitions regarding the number 13, so the number is avoided.
In the southern region of the continent, flowers are traditionally given during Christmas. Egyptians are much more conservative and restrict flower gifting to funerals and weddings. While certain flowers may have significant meanings for some, flowers in Las Vegas and across the United States flowers are an accepted gift for any reason desired.

What does the topic mainly discuss?

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The (1)........... of the earth is caused by exhaust gas from automobile engines, factories and power  stations. Carbon dioxide goes up into the atmosphere, and it forms a kind of factories that keeps or rather allows the sunshine in but stop the earth’s heart (2).........  getting out. It works like a greenhouse, that’s why we call it the Greenhouse Effect.
Because of this effect, the earth is getting warmer all the time. This (3).........    in temperature will  cause big changes to the world's climate. The sea level will rise, the ice covering the poles will melt and cause the sea level to rise.
The second problem is the (4)......... of the ozone layer. Certain chemicals float up to the sky and react with the ozone layer, and they make holes in it. Because of these holes the ultraviolet rays can shine directly to the earth. Many people are now starting to suffer from skin cancer.
The sulfurous smoke from factories and power stations mixes with rain clouds and gets blown by the wind and then falls as acid rain (5)......... destroys lakes and forests.
These three problems threaten our environment at the end of the twentieth century. Unless we do something about them quickly, we, human race, may disappear from the face of the earth.
(2)...........................

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Everyone needs a home where they feel sheltered and safe. Today we live in modern flats and houses, (1)........ have air-conditioning to keep us cool, and heating to keep us warm. There is electricity for lighting and supplies of gas or oil for the heating. Hot and cold water (2)........ from the taps and dirty water disappears (3)...........the drains. Many of our homes have balconies or gardens. In the past, people made their homes from materials that they found nearby. When we look at different houses we can tell how old they are from the materials used and the way they were built. It was different long (4)........ people did not have water in their homes and there were no electric lights. To keep warm, they sometimes made (5)..............inside their homes. With a fire started they could cook their food and heat water

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

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Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth–century, public awareness of the changes increased to new levels in the 1890's. The acute, growing public awareness of the social changes that had been taking place for some time was tied to tremendous growth in popular journalism in the late nineteenth century, including growth in quantity and circulation of both magazines and newspapers. These developments, in addition to the continued growth of cities, were significant factors in the transformation of society from one characterized by relatively isolated self–contained communities into an urban, industrial nation. The decade of the 1870's, for example, was a period in which the sheer number of newspapers doubled, and by 1880 the New York Graphic had published the first photographic reproduction in a newspaper, portending a dramatic rise in newspaper readership. Between 1882 and 1886 alone, the price of daily newspapers dropped from four cents a copy to one cent, made possible in part by a great increase in demand. Furthermore, the introduction in 1890 of the first successful linotype machine promised even further growth. In 1872 only two daily newspapers could claim a circulation of over 100,000, but by 1892 seven more newspapers exceeded that figure. A world beyond the immediate community was rapidly becoming visible.
But it was not newspapers alone that were bringing the new awareness to people in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Magazines as they are known today began publication around 1882, and, in fact, the circulation of weekly magazines exceeded that of newspapers in the period which followed. By 1892, for example, the circulation of the Ladies' Home Journal had reached an astounding 700,000. An increase in book readership also played a significant part in this general trend. For example, Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward, sold over a million copies in1888, giving rise to the growth of organizations dedicated to the realization of Bellamy's vision of the future. The printed word, unquestionably, was intruding on the insulation that had characterized United States society in an earlier period.

The word "acute" in line 3 is closest in meaning to     .

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 It’s difficult ___________ an astronaut.

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A number of factors related to the voice reveal the personality of the speaker. The first is the broad area of communication, which includes imparting information by use of language, communicating with a group or an individual and specialized communication through performance. Aperson conveys thoughts and ideas through choice of words, by a tone of voice that is pleasant or unpleasant, gentle or harsh, by the rhythm that is inherent within the language itself, and by speech rhythms that are flowing and regular or uneven and hesitant, and finally, by the pitch and melody of the utterance. When speaking before a group, a person’s tone may indicate uncertainty or fright, confidence or calm. At interpersonal levels, the tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen, or may believe them.Here the participant’s tone can consciously or unconsciously reflect intuitive sympathy or antipathy, lack of concern or interest, fatigue, anxiety, enthusiasm or excitement, all of which are usually discernible by the acute listener. Public performance is a manner of communication that is highly specialized with its own techniques for obtaining effects by voice and /or gesture. The motivation derived from the text, and in the case of singing, the music, in combination with the performer’s skills, personality, and ability to create empathy will determine the success of artistic, political, or pedagogic communication. Second, the voice gives psychological clues to a person’s self-image, perception of others, and emotional health. Self- image can be indicated by a tone of voice that is confident, pretentious, shy, aggressive, outgoing, or exuberant, to name only a few personality traits. Also the sound may give a clue to the facade or mask of that person, for example, a shy person hiding behind an overconfident front. How a speaker perceives the listener’s receptiveness, interest, or sympathy in any given conversation can drastically alter the tone of presentation, by encouraging or discouraging the speaker. Emotional health is evidenced in the voice by free and melodic sounds of the happy, by constricted and harsh sound of the angry, and by dull and lethargic qualities of the depressed.

What does the author mean by stating that, “At interpersonal levels, tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen”?

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The main difference between urban growth in Europe and in the American colonies was the slow evolution of cities in the former and their rapid growth in the latter. In Europe they grew over a period of centuries from town economies to their present urban structure. In North America, they started as wilderness communities and developed to mature urbanism’s in little more than a century.
In the early colonial day in North America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic Coastline, mostly in what are now New America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic United States and in the lower Saint Lawrence valley in Canada. This was natural because these areas were nearest England and France, particularly England, from which most capital goods (assets such as equipment) and many consumer goods were imported Merchandising establishments were, accordingly, advantageously located in port cities from which goods could be readily distributed to interior settlements. Here, too, were the favored locations for processing raw materials prior to export. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, and other cities flourished, and, as the colonies grew, these cities increased in importance.
This was less true in the colonial South, where life centered around large farms, known as plantations, rather than around towns, as was the case in the areas further north along the Atlantic coastline. The local isolation and the economic self-sufficiency of the plantations were antagonistic to the development of the towns. The plantations maintained their independence because they were located on navigable streams and each had a wharf accessible to the small shipping of that day. In fact, one of the strongest factors in the selection of plantation land was the desire to have it front on a water highway.
When the United States became an independent nation in 1776, it did not have a single city as large as 50,000 inhabitants, but by 1820 it had a city of more than 10,000 people, and by 1880 it had recorded a city of over one million. It was not until after 1823, after the mechanization of the spinning and weaving industries, that cities started drawing young people away from farms. Such migration was particularly rapid following the Civil War (1861-1865).

The word “drawing” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to     .

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The development of genetically modified (GM) plants and animals had led to a huge global controversy. Opponents say that GM “Franken foods” are a threat to our well-being, and proponents say that the risks are minimal. There is one aspect of the war over GM that is often overlooked. Anyone who wears a cotton shirt these days is using a GM crop. Cotton is the only major non-food GM crop at present, but others are coming.
GM cotton plants that is not food has not stopped the most passionate GM opponents from objecting. If GM cotton is grown in a field next to fields of non-GM cotton, they argue, then how to keep genes from being transferred from field to field. This danger, however, is not as compelling to the public as possible health hazards in food, so there is no great fury over GM cotton.
GM cotton seeds produce higher yields, and they do without the need for pesticides. Planting of  GM cotton has increased five fold since 1997; three-quarter of cotton in America, and over half in China, is now GM. Farmers like it because it increases their profits.
Other options for non-food GM include new variety of flowers with different colors or scents, tougher grasses for lawns, and plants designed to soak up pollutants from the soil. The paper industry provides another example of potential for GM to help produce better and cheaper products. Paper is made from pulp, and pulp is generally made from trees. Researchers in New Zealand and Chile have been working on insect-resistant pines, and a Japanese firm has combined carrot genes with tree genes to make them grow better in poor soil.
Another interesting case is that of tobacco. It is not food crop, but it is consumed, and GM tobacco plants with both more and less nicotine have been created. The tobacco plant, however, is an ideal target for GM, since its genetics are very well understood and it produces a lot of leaves. The value of the drugs that could be produced by GM tobacco is so high, many farmers could switch from growing tobacco for cigarettes to growing it for medicine. Since medical cost is rising, consumers would also be happy to use drugs produced in bulk by GM tobacco.

Why does the author mention a cotton shirt in paragraph 1?

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She wants to be a singer; you think she should go for a long–term career with job security and eventually retire with a good pension. But a new report suggests that in fact she’s the practical one. Why do parents make terrible career advisers?
Today’s 14 and 15–year–olds are ambitious. They are optimistic about their prospects, but their career ideas are rather vague. Although 80% of them have no intention of following in their parents’ footsteps, 69% still turn to their parents for advice. They look at their working future in a different way to their parents.
A job for life is not in their vocabulary; neither is a dead–end but secure job that is boring but pays the bills. Almost half the boys surveyed expected that their hobbies would lead them into the right sort of job, while most girls seemed determined to avoid traditionally female careers such as nursing.
In the past, this might have counted as bad news. Certainly when I was 15, my guidance counsellors were horrified at my plans to become a writer. I’m glad I didn’t change my plans to suit them. Even so, their faith in rigid career paths was well–founded. In those days, that was the way to get ahead.
But the world has changed. The global economy is not kind to yesterday’s diligent and dependable worker. The future belongs to quick–thinking people who are resourceful, ambitious and can take the initiative. This means that a 14–year–old who sees her working future as a kind of adventure, to be made up as she goes along is not necessarily being unrealistic.
However, she has to have the training and guidance to help her develop the right skills for today’s market; not the rigid preparation for a workplace that disappeared twenty years ago. Many young people are very aware of the pitfalls of the flexible workplace; they understand that redundancy, downsizing and freelancing are all part of modern working life, but no one is telling them how they might be able to turn the new rules of the employment game to their advantage. This is what they need to know if they are to make a life for themselves.

So what is to be done? A good first step would be to change the way in which schools prepare young people for adult life. The education system is becoming less flexible and more obsessed with traditional skills at just the time that the employment market is going in the opposite direction.
Accurate, up–to–date information on new jobs and qualifications can help guidance counsellors to help their students. Young people need solid information on the sort of training they need to pursue the career of their dreams. Also, a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. If nothing else, a bit of optimism from an adult can serve as an antidote to the constant criticism of teenagers in the press.
What, then, can we as parents do to help them? The best thing is to forget all the advice that your parents gave you, and step into your teenager’s shoes. Once you’ve done that, it’s easier to see how important it is that they learn how to be independent, resourceful and resilient. Give them the courage to follow their dreams –however odd they might sound right now. In a world that offers economic security to almost no one, imagination is a terrible thing to waste.

What does the writer believe about her guidance counsellors?

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Newspapers can be traced back to 16th century Venice. In 1566, handwritten news sheets - called 'avis' or ‘gazette' – filled with information on wars and politics in Europe were distributed weekly in Venice. Similar news sheets soon started to appear in other European countries. By 1615, Germany and Austria were publishing weeklies. And in 1621, the first news sheets appeared in England.
At first, these news sheets only printed news which came from outside the country in which they were printed. Discussion of local or national issues was avoided. Europe’s governments did not tolerate anything negative being said about them as it could lead to national unrest.
Such censorship slowed the development of newspapers. Nevertheless, a belief in the importance of a 'free press’ slowly began to take hold in Europe. England was among the first countries to escape government control of the press. This occurred during the reign of King Charles I in the 17th century, when, during a period of breakdown in the king's authority, people began to publish what they wanted.
Eventually, free press had the right to criticize government and voice other ideas freely. In the middle of the 18th century, Sweden became the first country to make press freedom a part of its law.
In the 19th century, the newspaper industry was transformed by the invention of the telegraph. The telegraph was a communication system that allowed messages to be sent over long distances in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t long before newspapers became society's primary means of spreading and receiving information. In 1880, the first photographs appeared in newspapers and, by the end of the century, all the basic technical tools for the modern newspaper were in place.
The story of newspapers in the 20th century was one of adaptation to changing consumer and media markets. The invention of radio, TV, and later the Internet, repeatedly drove newspapers to re-invent themselves. Also, during the 20th century, mass-market advertising increased profitability for newspapers. This attracted large, publicly-owned corporations who began buying newspapers from the descendants of company founders.
Over the years, people have periodically predicted the extinction of newspapers. In fact, every time a new media has come into being, dire predictions have been made for existing forms (e.g. television was supposed to have replaced radio, radio was supposed to have replaced newspapers). Yet history has repeatedly shown that new media do not replace existing media. Instead, what happens is that media consumption grows, which creates the necessary space for the new media to become a part of the media landscape.
According to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), each day more than 1.5 billion people around the world read a newspaper. The WAN has also estimated the total annual worth of the global newspaper industry and put it at just under 180 billion USD. Such statistics suggest the newspaper industry is healthier than at any other time in its history. Indeed, if the industry proves itself as capable of adapting to change as it has done in the past, it is unlikely that newspapers will be disappearing from newsstands anytime soon.

In paragraph 1, we learn that     .

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Industrialization came to the United State after 1790 as North American entrepreneurs increased productivity by reorganizing work and building factories. These innovations in manufacturing boosted output and living standards to an unprecedented extent; the average per capita wealth increased by nearly 1 percent per year - 30 percent over the course of a generation. Goods that had once been luxury items became part of everyday life.
The impressive gain in output stemmed primarily from the way in which workers made goods, since the 1790’s, North American entrepreneurs - even without technological improvements - had broadened the scope of the outwork system that made manufacturing more efficient by distributing materials to a succession of workers who each performed a single step of the production process. For example, during the 1820’s and 1830’s the shoe industry greatly expanded the scale of the outwork system. Tens of thousands of rural women, paid according to the amount they produced, fabricated the “uppers” of shoes, which were bound to the soles by wage-earning journeymen shoemakers in dozens of Massachusetts towns, whereas previously journeymen would have made the enduring shoe. This system of production made the employer a powerful “shoe boss” and eroded workers’ control over the pace and conditions of labor. However, it also dramatically increased the output of shoes while cutting their price.
For tasks that were not suited to the outwork system, entrepreneurs created an even more important new organization, the modem factory, which used power-driven machines and assemblyline techniques to turn out large quantities of well-made goods. As early as 1782 the prolific Delaware inventor Oliver Evans had built a highly automated, laborsaving flour mill driven by water power. His machinery lifted the grain to the top of the milt, cleaned it as it fell into containers known as hoppers, ground the grain into flour, and then conveyed the flour back to the top of the mill to allow it to cool as it descended into barrels. Subsequently, manufacturers made use of new improved stationary steam engines to power their mills. This new technology enabled them to build factories in the nation’s largest cities, taking advantage of urban concentrations of inexpensive labor, good transportation networks, and eager customers.

The word “prolific” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to     .

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When living and working in another country, there are numerous things to consider apart from the more obvious ones of climate, language, religion, currency, etc. Some important considerations are less obvious. For example, do you have a pet or do you enjoy a hobby such as horse riding? Your animal or hobby may be perceived in a completely different light in another culture so it’s important to consider the significance given to specific animals in different parts of the world and general perceptions towards them.
One example which is often mentioned in popular press is the case of dogs. In some cultures, like the US or UK, dogs are loved and considered a great pet to have at home and with the family. In other cultures, such as those where Islam is the majority religion, dogs may be perceived as dirty or dangerous. Muslims treatment of dogs is still a matter of debate amongst Islamic scholars. While these animals are widely considered by many Western cultures to be „man’s best friend’, the Koran describes them as “unhygienic”. Muslims will therefore avoid touching a dog unless he can wash his hands immediately afterwards, and they will almost never keep a dog in their home.
In Iran, for instance, a cleric once denounced „the moral depravity’ of dog owners and even demanded their arrest. If you are an international assignee living and working in Saudi Arabia or another Arabic country, you should remember this when inviting Arab counterparts to your house in case you have a dog as a pet. This is just one example of how Islam and other cultural beliefs can impact on  aspects of everyday life that someone else may not even question. A Middle Eastern man might be very surprised when going to Japan, for instance, and seeing dogs being dressed and pampered like humans and carried around in baby prams!
Dogs are not the only animals which are perceived quite differently from one culture to another. In India, for example, cows are sacred and are treated with the utmost respect. Conversely in Argentina, beef is a symbol of national pride because of its tradition and the high quality of its cuts. An Indian working in Argentina who has not done his research or participated in a cross cultural training programme such as Doing Business in Argentina may be surprised at his first welcome dinner with his Argentinean counterparts where a main dish of beef would be served.
It is therefore crucial to be aware of the specific values assigned to objects or animals in different cultures to avoid faux–pas or cultural misunderstandings, particularly when living and working in another culture. Learning how people value animals and other symbols around the world is one of the numerous cultural examples discussed in Communicaid’s intercultural training courses. Understanding how your international colleagues may perceive certain animals can help you ensure you aren’t insensitive and it may even provide you with a good topic for conversation.

What does the word “this” in paragraph 3 refer to?

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Humans have struggled against weeds since the beginnings of agriculture. Marring our gardens is one of the milder effects of weeds - any plants that thrive where they are unwanted. They clog
waterways, destroy wildlife habitats, and impede fanning. Their spread eliminates grazing areas and accounts for one-third of all crop loss. They compete for sunlight, nutrients, and water with useful plants. The global need for weed control had been answered mainly by the chemical industry. Its herbicides are effective and sometimes necessary, but some pose serious problems, particularly if misused.
Toxic compounds threaten animal and public health when they accumulate in food plants, groundwater, and drinking water. They also harm workers who apply them.
In recent years, the chemical industry has introduced several herbicides that are more ecologically sound. Yet new chemicals alone cannot solve the world's weed problems. Hence, scientists are exploring the innate weed-killing powers of living organisms, primarily insects and microorganisms.
The biological agents now in use are environmentally benign and are harmless to humans. They can be chosen for their ability to attack selected targets and leave crops and other plants untouched. In contrast, some of the most effective chemicals kill virtually all the plants they come in contact with, sparing only those that are naturally resistant or have been genetically modified for resistance. Furthermore, a number of biological agents can be administered only once, after which no added applications are needed. Chemicals typically must be used several times per growing season.

With what topic does this passage primarily deal?

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Because the low latitudes of the Earth, the areas near the equator, receive more heat than the latitudes near the poles, and because the nature of heat is to expand and move, heat is transported from the tropics to the middle and high latitudes. Some of this heat is moved by winds and some by ocean currents, and some gets stored in the atmosphere in the form of latent heat. The term “latent heat” refers to the energy that has to be used to convert liquid water to water vapor. We know that if we warm a pan of water on a stove, it will evaporate, or turn into vapor, faster than if it is allowed to sit at room temperature. We also know that if we hang wet clothes outside in the summertime, they will dry faster than in winter, when the temperature is lower. The energy used in both cases to change liquid water to water vapor is supplied by heat - supplied by the stove in the first case and by the Sun in the latter case. This energy is not lost. It is stored as vapor in the atmosphere as latent heat. Eventually, the water stored as vapor in the atmosphere will condense to liquid again, and the energy will be released to the atmosphere.
In the atmosphere, a large portion of the Sun’s incoming energy is used to evaporate water, primarily in the tropical oceans. Scientists have tried to quantify this proportion of the Sun’s energy. By analyzing temperature, water vapor, and wind data around the globe, they have estimated the quantity to be about 90 watts per square meter, or nearly 30 percent of the Sun’s energy. Once this latent heat is stored within the atmosphere, it can be transported, primarily to higher latitudes, by prevailing, large - scale winds. Or it can be transported vertically to higher levels in the atmosphere, where it forms clouds and subsequent storms, which then release the energy back to the atmosphere.

It can be inferred from the passage that terra-cotta had which of the following advantages?

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           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.
(48).................................

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Some time ago, scientists began experiments to find  out (1).......it would be possible to set up a “village” under the sea. A special room was built and lowered (2).................the water of Port Sudan in the Red Sea. For 29 days, five men lived at a depth of 40 feet. At a (3).............. lower level, another two divers stayed for a week in a smaller “house”. On returning to the surface, the men said that they had experienced no difficulty in breathing and had (4)............many interesting scientific observations. The captain of the party, Commander Cousteau, spoke of the possibility of (5)...........the seabed. He said that some permanent stations were to be set up under the sea, and some undersea farms would provide food for the growing population of the world.

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

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After twenty years of growing student enrollments and economic prosperity, business schools in the United States have started to face harder times. Only Harvard’s MBA School has shown a substantial increase in enrollment in recent years. Both Princeton and Stanford have seen decreases in their enrollments. Since 1990, the number of people receiving Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degrees, has dropped about 3 percent to 75,000, and the trend of lower enrollment rates is expected to continue.
There are two factors causing this decrease in students seeking an MBA degree. The first one is that many graduates of four-year colleges are finding that an MBA degree does not guarantee a plush job on Wall Street, or in other financial districts of major American cities. Many of the entry- level management jobs are going to students graduating with Master of Arts degrees in English and the humanities as well as those holding MBA degrees. Students have asked the question, “Is an MBA degree really what I need to be best prepared for getting a good job?” The second major factor has been the cutting of American payrolls and the lower number of entry-level jobs being offered. Business needs are changing, and MBA schools are struggling to meet the new demands.

What is the main focus of this passage?

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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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During the second half of the nineteenth century, the production of food and feed crops in the United States rose at an extraordinarily rapid rate. Com production increased by four and a half times, hay by five times, oats and wheat by seven times. The most crucial factor behind this phenomenal upsurge in productivity was the widespread adoption of labor-saving machinery by northern farmers. By 1850 horse- drawn reaping machines that cut grain were being introduced into the major grain-growing regions of the country. Horse-powered threshing machines to separate the seeds from the plants were already in general use. However, it was the onset of the Civil War in 1861 that provided the great stimulus for the mechanization of northern agriculture. With much of the labor force inducted into the army and with grain prices on the rise, northern farmers rushed to avail themselves of the new labor-saving equipment. In 1860 there were approximately 80,000 reapers in the country; five years later there were 350,000.
After the close of the war in 1865, machinery became ever more important in northern agriculture, and improved equipment was continually introduced. By 1880 a self-binding reaper had been perfected that not only cut the grain, but also gathered the stalks and bound them with twine. Threshing machines were also being improved and enlarged, and after 1870 they were increasingly powered by steam engines rather than by horses. Since steam-powered threshing machines were costly items-running from $ 1,000 to $4,000 - they were usually owned by custom thresher owners who then worked their way from farm to farm during the harvest season. “Combines” were also coming into use on the great wheat ranches in California and the Pacific Northwest. These ponderous machines - sometimes pulled by as many as 40 horses - reaped the grain, threshed it, and bagged it, all in one simultaneous operation.
The adoption of labor-saving machinery had a profound effect upon the sale of agricultural operations in the northern states-allowing farmers to increase vastly their crop acreage. By the end of century, a farmer employing the new machinery could plant and harvest two and half times as much com as a farmer had using hand methods 50 years before.

The word “they” in paragraph 2 refers 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.
Do you feel like your teenager is spending most of the day glued to a phone screen? You're not too far off. A new survey from the Pew  Research Center reveals the  surprising  ways that technology intersects with teen friendships —  and the results show that 57  percent  of teens have made at least one new friend online. Even more surprisingly, only 20 percent of those digital friends ever meet in person.
While teens do connect with their friends face-to-face outside of school, they spend 55 percent of their day texting with friends, and only 25 percent of teens are spending actual time with their friends on a daily basis (outside of school hallways). These new forms of communication are key in maintaining friendships day-to-day — 27 percent of teens instant message their friends every day, 23 percent connect through social media every day, and 7 percent even video chat daily. Text messaging remains the main form of communication — almost half of survey respondents say it's their chosen method of communication with their closest friend.
While girls are more likely to text with their close friends, boys are meeting new friends (and maintaining friendships) in the gaming world-89 percent play with friends they know, and  54 percent play with online-only friends. Whether they're close with their teammates or not, online garners say that playing makes them feel "more connected" to friends they know, or garners they've never met.
When making new friends, social media has also become a major part of the teenage identity-62 percent of teens are quick to share their social media usernames when connecting with a new friend (although 80 percent still consider their phone number the best method of contact). Despite the negative consequences-21 percent of teenage users feel worse about their  lives because of posts they see on social media — teens also have found  support  and  connection through various platforms. In fact, 68  percent of  teens received support during a challenging time  in their lives via social media platforms.
Just as technology has become a gateway for new friendships, or a channel to  stay  connected with current friends, it can also make a friendship breakup more public. The study reveals that girls are more likely to block or unfriend former allies, and 68 percent of all teenage  users report experiencing "drama among their friends on social media."

The word "digital" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to     .