Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
At its narrowest point, Vietnam is only 30 miles (48 kilometers) wide. Two of Vietnam’s largest rivers, the Mekong in the south and the Red in the north, end at the South China Sea in huge swampy plains called (1)________ . These regions are home to most of the country’s people and provide (2)________ ground to grow rice and many other crops. Vietnam’s mountainous terrain, forests, wetlands, and long coastline contain many different habitats that support a great (3)________ of wildlife. Some 270 types of mammals, 180 reptiles, 80 amphibians, and 800 bird species reside in Vietnam Many rare and unusual animals live in Vietnam, (4)________ giant catfish, Indochinese tigers, Saola antelopes, and Sumatran rhinos. The government has set up 30 parks and reserves to protect its animals, but their survival is (5) ________doubt because much of their habitat has been cleared for lumber or to grow crops
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiGiải thích: Kiến thức về cách sử dụng từ
Tạm dịch: Nhiều loài động vật quý hiếm sống ở Việt Nam, bao gồm cá da trơn khổng lồ, hổ Đông Dương, linh dương Sao la và tê giác Sumatra
Câu hỏi liên quan
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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pet dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a light graying of the coat. Plants are too, but the signs are much harder to detect. Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more effiiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflxible. This can make moving very painful. All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less effiiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events. One of the most serious changes of old age occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flw to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result in heart attack. Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at the different rates. There are differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cell of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fiers can never be replaced once they wear out. Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.
9. What does the word "it" in bold refers to? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Despite the fact that humans haven’t returned to the Moon since the cancellation of the Apollo program in 1972, there have nonetheless been incredible advances in space exploration in recent years. All across the world, human time is the most valuable commodity – particularly when it comes to solving problems. Far from stealing jobs, the majority of advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are designed to automate relatively “simple” processes and free up time for humans to do what they do best. Already we have had a taste of what AI can achieve from space, even as far back as the early 2000s with the launch of the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite, which helps analyse and inform the appropriate response in the event of a disaster, such as hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. In some cases, the systems in place on EO-1 began capturing satellite images of disaster zones before ground personnel were even aware that a disaster had occurred. More recently, AI has been used on the Mars Curiosity rover, where AEGIS software is able to identify intriguing rock or soil patches that should be targeted for analysis. This significantly expedites the process of collecting data from the surface of Mars as the robot isn’t relying solely on human commands. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic – which hopes to soon begin conducting commercial flights – charges between $200,000 to $250,000 per ticket for a flight where passengers will experience just several minutes of weightlessness beyond the Karman line where space officially begins. Therefore, previous space missions have always needed to consider very carefully which astronauts they send to space, with the ultimate decision often coming down to an astronaut’s ability to act as a ‘jack-of-all-trade’. In future, it should be possible to automate the computing and engineering tasks that historically astronauts have had to train for. This would mean sending individuals with specialised expertise in science and research in place of the all-rounder astronauts of yesteryear. For success in space exploration in the years to come, we will need to continue along the exponential curve of open source uptake and see advances in the approach to how spacecraft software, hardware and infrastructure is developed and deployed. With this baseline in place, advances in AI-driven scientific research have the potential to propel us forwards.
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage? -
Each sentence has a mistake. Find it by chosing A B C or D
In any parts of the world, wood is still the main source of energy
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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Coal, oil and gas get more than $370bn a year in support, compared with $100bn for renewables, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) report found. Just 10-30% of the fossil fuel subsidies would pay for a global transition to clean energy, the IISD said. Ending fossil fuel subsidies has long been seen as vital to tackling the climate emergency, with the G20 nations pledging in 2009 to phase them out, but progress has been limited. The new analysis shows how redirecting some of the fossil fuel subsidies could decisively tip the balance in favour of green energy, making it the cheapest electricity available and instigating a rapid global rollout. The transition from polluting fossil fuels to clean energy is already under way. Annual investment in renewables has been greater than that in fossil fuel electricity generation since 2008 and new renewable capacity has exceeded fossil fuel power each year since 2014. But progress is slow compared with the urgency required, said Bridle. “There is no question that renewables can power the energy system,” he said. “The question now is can we transit quickly enough away from fuels like coal, and subsidy reform is a very obvious step towards that. Reform of fossil fuel subsidies could have a significant impact on global heating. An earlier IISD study of 20 countries with large fossil fuel subsidies found that a 30% swap to renewables would lead to emissions reductions of between 11% and 18%. Most experts define fossil fuel subsidies as financial or tax support for those buying fuel or the companies producing it. The IMF also includes the cost of the damage fossil fuel burning causes to climate and health, leading to an estimate of $5.2tn of fossil fuel subsidies in 2017, or $10m a minute. Ending the subsidies would cut global emissions by about a quarter, the IMF estimates, and halve the number of early deaths from fossil fuel air pollution. Bridle said funding fossil fuel subsidies was “madness”, but said ending them could cause short-term price rises and political difficulties, as the benefits of lower costs in the future and reduced air pollution are less obvious. “There are political problems but it is worth persevering because the prize is so big,” he said. “You have to bring people along with you.” Gençsü said governments must ensure that the most vulnerable people were not adversely affected by changes.
4. What does the word “reform” in paragraph 3 most likely mean? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
My children can’t live without media. At age 14, 15 and 18, my daughters Sussy and Anni and my son Bill don’t use media. They inhabit media. And they do so exactly as fish inhabit a pond. Gracefully, and without consciousness and curiosity as to how they got there. They don’t remember a time before email or instant messaging or Google. When my children laugh, they don’t say “Ha, ha”. They say “LOL”. These are children who shrug indifferently when they lose their iPods, with all 5000 tunes plus video clips, feature films, and TV shows (like who watches TV on a television anymore?). “There is plenty more where that came from”, their attitude says. And they seem right. The digital content that powers their world can never truly be destroyed. As a social scientist, journalist, and mother, I’ve always been an enthusiastic user of information technology. But I’d noticed that the more we seemed to communicate as individuals, the less we seemed to function together as a family. And on a broader scale, that the more facts we have at our fingertips, the less we seem to know. That the “convenience” of messaging media (email, SMS, IM) consumes ever larger amounts of our time. That as a culture we are practically swimming in entertainment, yet remain more depressed than any people who have ever lived. Our family’s self-imposed exile from the information age changed our lives infinitely for the better. I watched as my children became more focused. I watched as their attention spans increased, allowing them to read for hours at a time; to hold longer and more complex conversations with adults and among themselves. They probably did no more homework during The Experiment than they had done before, but they all completed it far more efficiently and far more quickly The Experiment also forced us to notice food more. Before, eating had been a side dish. Now it was the main course, or at least one of them. Our approach to cooking changed, too, especially for the girls. They’d started out as reasonably competent cooks, but by the end of The Experiment they were capable of turning out entire meals with ease The Experiment also confirmed my strong suspicion that media has been robbing Sussy of sleep for years. Unplugged, the changes to her sleep patterns were dramatic. The evidence strongly suggests she is no isolated case. One study found that children who spend more time online also drink more caffeinated beverages, with a resulting effect on their prospects of sleeping well
5. In what way did the relationship with food change? -
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There are a number of initiatives, some already introduced and some in the pipeline, that are specifically designed to ensure that the economic value of nature is recognised. One example is reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, under which forest owners are paid not to cut down trees. A number of governments across the world have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to these projects. Another is habitat banking, the market for which currently stands at around $3bn in the US, where companies that degrade natural areas are forced to restore nature elsewhere. Trade in forest conservation obligations in Brazil and ground-water salinity credits in Australia have also proved successful. Alongside these schemes and those like them, there are various compensation arrangements that make those causing environmental damage pay for it, just like carbon credits that currently exist. Exemptions from these various taxes, charges and fees, as well as subsidies, are also used to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour. There is also growing pressure for companies to begin incorporating the costs of the damage that they do to the Earth’s natural resources into their profit and loss accounts. Only by incorporating these costs into their accounts, many argue, will companies be forced to reduce their impact on the natural world. "Directors’ bonuses don’t have to be included in company accounts from a pure profit and loss point of view, but they are. Environmental externalities should be the same," says Pavan Sukhdev, a career banker and team leader of the United Nations’ The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study. “This is not a straightforward process and needs standard methodologies accepted by everyone, but it could be achieved within 10 years.” The next step would be to incorporate environmental assets into national accounts.
2. The word “degrade” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Individual differences in temperament or behavioral styles are important in family life in several ways because they affect the nature of the interactions among family members. Some children adapt quickly and easily to family daily routines and get along well with their siblings. Others, especially highly active, intense and “prickly” children have a more difficult time adjusting to everyday demands, and their interactions with parents and siblings may lead to friction and stress. Consider how an active, impulsive child can bother an older sibling who is trying to complete a school project, or how a distractible child who is low in persistence can frustrate parents’ efforts to get him to complete his homework or to finish a household chore. It is important to note that parents, like children, also differ in temperament. Some are quick reacting and intense, while others are quiet and slow to respond; some are flexible and adaptable, and others are not. The “mix” between parents’ and children’s temperaments has a strong effect on family life, sometimes leading to positive interactions, sometimes to frustrations, and sometimes even to conflicts. It is interesting to note that parents also differ in the expectations they have about their children’s behavior, and how they view and tolerate differences in temperaments. For example, certain constellations of temperament such as high activity, intensity, and persistence may be tolerated and valued in boys, but not in girls. Conversely, shyness and sensitivity may be viewed as acceptable in girls, but not in boys. This leads to the notion of “goodness of fit”, which can be a useful framework for helping parents figure out how temperament affects relationships in the family. “Goodness of fit” refers to the match or mismatch between a child and other family members. For example, a high-activity, intense child may upset and irritate a quiet, slow-paced, reflective parent. An active, quick-responding parent may be impatient with a slow-to-warm-up child, whom the parent may see as lazy or indifferent. Sparks may fly when both parent and child are intense and quick responding. Life in a family is not the same for all children, and temperament is one of the ingredients in the “fit” between child and family. Don’t assume family friction is a result of your child having LD or ADHD. It could be because of your child’s temperament — and yours!
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Many prehistoric people subsisted as hunters and gatherers. Undoubtedly, game animals, including some very large species, provided major components of human diets. An important controversy centering on the question of human effects on prehistoric wildlife concerns the sudden disappearance of so many species of large animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Most paleontologists suspect that abrupt changes in climate led to the mass extinctions. Others, however, have concluded that prehistoric people drove many of those species to extinction through overhunting. In their “Pleistocene overkill hypothesis,” they cite what seems to be a remarkable coincidence between the arrival of prehistoric peoples in North and South America and the time during which mammoths, giant ground sloths, the giant bison, and numerous other large mammals became extinct. Perhaps the human species was driving others to extinction long before the dawn of history. Hunter-gatherers may have contributed to Pleistocene extinctions in more indirect ways. Besides overhunting, at least three other kinds of effects have been suggested: direct competition, imbalances between competing species of game animals, and early agricultural practices. Direct competition may have brought about the demise of large carnivores such as the saber-toothed cats. These animals simply may have been unable to compete with the increasingly sophisticated hunting skills of Pleistocene people. Human hunters could have caused imbalances among game animals, leading to the extinctions of species less able to compete. When other predators such as the gray wolf prey upon large mammals, they generally take high proportions of each year’s crop of young. Some human hunters, in contrast, tend to take the various age-groups of large animals in proportion to their actual occurrence. If such hunters first competed with the larger predators and then replaced them, they may have allowed younger to survive each year, gradually increasing the populations of favored species. As these populations expanded, they in turn may have competed with other game species for the same environmental niche, forcing the less hunted species into extinction. This theory, suggests that human hunters played an indirect role in Pleistocene extinctions by hunting one species more than another.
3. Which of the following is mentioned as supporting the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
More than a decade ago the UK investigative journalist Nick Davies published Flat Earth News, an exposé of how the mass media had abdicated its responsibility to the truth. Newsroom pressure to publish more stories, faster than their competitors had, Davies argued, led to journalists becoming mere “churnalists”. Shocking as Davies’ revelations seemed in 2008, they seem pretty tame by today’s standards, writes Ben Lorica, Chief Data Scientist at O’Reilly. We now live in a post-truth world of Fake News and “alternative facts”; where activists don’t just seek to manipulate the news agenda with PR but now use advanced technology to fake images and footage. A particularly troubling aspect of these ‘”deepfake” videos is their use of artificial intelligence to fabricate people saying or doing things with almost undetectable accuracy. The result is that publishers risk running completely erroneous stories – as inaccurate as stating that the world is flat – with little or any ability to check their source material and confirm whether it is genuine. The rise of unchecked fakery has serious implications for our liberal democracy and our ability to understand what’s truly going on in the world. The technology to manipulate imagery has come a long way since Stalin had people airbrushed out of history. Creating convincing yet fake digital content no longer requires advanced skills or a well-resourced (mis)information bureau. Anyone with a degree of technical proficiency can create content that will fool even the experts. Take the faked footage of Nancy Pelosi earlier this year, which was doctored to make her look incoherent and was viewed two and a half million times before Facebook took it down. This story shows how social media is giving new life to the old aphorism that “a lie can go halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its boots on”. The propagation of lies and misinformation is immeasurably enhanced by platforms like Twitter and Facebook that enable virality. What’s more, the incentives for creating fake content now favour malicious actors, with clear economic and political advantages for disseminating false footage. Put simply, the more shocking or extreme the content, the more people will share it and the longer they will stay on the platform. Meanwhile, counterfeiters can manipulate the very tools being developed to detect and mitigate deepfak content, just as the security industry inadvertently supplies software that can be misused for cybercrime.
3. According to paragraph 2, what is the most discernible feature of deepfake video? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
While family relationships can bring support, joy, and other wonderful benefits into our lives, these relationships can also bring stress, particularly when there’s unresolved conflict. Because it’s more difficult to let go of conflicted relationships with family than it would be if these relationships were mere friendships, unresolved conflicts with family members can be particularly painful. We have certain expectations of trust and closeness toward family members, and it can be more than merely disappointing to realize that this may not be possible with all family members. Unresolved family conflicts bring additional stress at family gatherings in particular. Past unresolved conflicts can become the elephant in the room, felt by everyone, but not directly addressed in the situation. This can be stressful for everyone before and during the family gatherings, sometimes leaving a lasting sense of stress afterward as well. Without a heartfelt discussion, an apology or another form of resolution, the trust on both sides is compromised, and may not know what to expect from this person in the future. For example, that one time your mother-in-law criticized your cooking may come up in your mind every time she comes for a visit, and others may sense your tension. This leads many people to assume the worst when they interpret each other’s behavior in the present and future interactions rather than giving the benefit of the doubt as most of us do with people we trust. Also, references or reminders of past conflicts can sting and create new pain. Once a conflict has gone on a while, even if both parties move on and remain polite, the feelings of pain and mistrust are usually lingering under the surface, and are difficult to resolve: bringing up old hurts in an effort to resolve them can often backfire, as the other party may feel attacked; avoiding the issue altogether but holding onto resentment can poison feelings in the present. So what do you do at a family gathering when there’s someone there with whom you’ve had an unresolved conflict? Just be polite. Contrary to how many people feel, a family gathering is not the time to rehash old conflicts, as such conversations often get messy before they get resolved — if they get resolved. Again, be polite, redirect conversations that get into areas that may cause conflict, and try to avoid the person as much as you politely can.
2. The word “this” in paragraph 2 refers to _____ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In the early decades of the United States, the agrarian movement promoted the farmer as society’s hero. In the minds of agrarian thinkers and writers, the farmer was a person on whose well-being the health of the new country depended. The period between the Revolution, which ended in 1783, and the Civil War, which ended in 1865, was the age of the farmer in the United States. Agrarian philosophers, represented most eloquently by Thomas Jefferson, celebrated farmers extravagantly for their supposed centrality in a good society, their political virtue, and their Superior morality. And virtually all policy makers, whether they subscribed to the tenets of the philosophy held by Jefferson or not, recognized agriculture as the key component of the American economy. Consequently, government at all levels worked to encourage farmers as a social group and agriculture as economic enterprise. Both the national and state governments developed transportation infrastructure, building canals, roads, bridges, and railroads, deepening harbors, and removing obstructions from navigable streams. The national government imported plant and animal varieties and launched exploring expeditions into prospective farmlands in the West. In addition, government trade policies facilitated the exporting of agricultural products. For their part, farmers seemed to meet the social expectations agrarian philosophers had for them, as their broader horizons and greater self-respect, both products of the Revolution, were reflected to some degree in their behavior. Farmers seemed to become more scientific, joining agricultural societies and reading the farm newspapers that sprang up throughout the country. They began using improved implements, tried new crops and pure animal breeds, and became more receptive to modern theories of soil improvement. They also responded to inducements by national and state governments. Farmers streamed to the West, filling frontier lands with stunning rapidity. But farmers responded less to the expectations of agrarians and government inducements than to growing market opportunities. European demand for food from the United States seemed insatiable. War, industrialization, and urbanization all kept demand high in Europe. United States cities and industries grew as well; even industries not directly related to farming thrived because of the market, money, and labor that agriculture provided.
5. According to the passage, the national and state governments did all of the following EXCEPT ____ -
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Air pollution is the most prominent and dangerous form of pollution. It occurs dues to many reasons. Excessive burning of fuel which is a necessity of our daily lives for cooking, driving and other industrial activities releases a huge amount of chemical substances in the air every day; as a result, these pollute the air. Smoke from chimneys, factories, vehicles or burning of wood basically occurs due to coal burning. This releases sulphur dioxide into the air making it toxic. The effects of air pollution are evident too. Release of sulphur dioxide and hazardous gases into the air causes global warming and acid rain which in turn have increased temperatures, erratic rains and droughts worldwide making it tough for animals to survive. We breathe in every polluted particle from the air, the result is an increase in asthma and cancer in the lungs. Another effect of air pollution is ozone layer depletion. Ozone layer is the thin shield high up in the sky that prevents ultra violet rays from reaching the Earth. As a result of human activities, chemicals, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which play a key role, were released into the atmosphere which contributed to the destruction of ozone layer. Water pollution has taken toll of all the surviving species of the earth. Almost 60% of the species live in water bodies. It occurs due to several factors; the industrial wastes dumped into the rivers and other water bodies cause an imbalance in the water leading to its severe contamination and death of aquatic species. If you suspect that nearby water sources have been contaminated by a corporation then it might be a good idea to hire an expert to see you options. Moreover, spraying insecticides, pesticides like DDT on plants also pollutes the ground water system and oil spills in the oceans have caused irreparable damage to the water bodies. Eutrophication is another big source; it occurs due to daily activities like washing clothes or utensils near lakes, ponds or rivers; this forces detergents to go into water which blocks sunlight from penetrating, thus reducing oxygen and making it inhabitable. Water pollution not only harms the aquatic beings but it also contaminates the entire food chain by severely affecting humans dependents on these. Waterborne disease like cholera, diarrhea have also increased in all places. Another type of pollution common in the countryside is soil pollution. Soil pollution occurs due to the incorporation of unwanted chemicals in the soil due to human activities. Insecticides and pesticides absorb the nitrogen compounds in the soil making it unfit for plants to derive nutrition. Release of industrial waste, mining and deforestation also damages the soil. Since plants can’t grow properly, they can’t hold the soil and this leads to soil erosion.
1. What is NOT mentioned as a cause of air pollution? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
There are many types of family systems around the world. In North America and northern Europe, the nuclear family (with two generations - a father, a mother and one or more children) is often seen as the most typical. In contrast, in most other parts of the world, extended families, which include other family members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, are seen as the norm. The common view is that the nuclear family has become the norm in many Western societies as a result of industrialization and urbanization. This trend began in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when people were forced to move to cities to find work in the factories that sprang up during the Industrial Revolution. In the twentieth century, greater industrialization resulted in even more people leaving their large extended families. Urbanization also meant that people lived in much smaller houses, which were not big enough for an extended family. The trend towards nuclear families meant that many of the duties and responsibilities of a family, such as providing food and shelter, cleaning the home, preparing the food, caring for children and their education, and caring for the sick and elderly are no longer shared among the members of the extended family. The parents (or parent) now have to do this, with some help from the state. However, this is the price that people pay for the higher standard of living that may come from living in a city. We may think we know what we mean by a ‘nuclear’ family and an extended family, but reality is more complicated than most people believe. Most nuclear families are part of extended families: children have grandparents and, in many cases, aunts, uncles and cousins as well. Part of what makes them ‘nuclear’ is that they live in their own separate household, but it is not the whole story. In Greece or Italy, for example, a nuclear family may live in its own flat, but the extended family may live in the same apartment block or in the same street and family members see each other and even eat together every day. There is at least one more factor to consider. Family members may be separated from each other by geographical distance, but they may have close emotional ties. Even in North America and northern Europe, grandparents usually have close bonds with their grandchildren, and families often travel long distances so that they can see each other. Grandparents often help their adult children, for example, by cooking and looking after their children in emergencies. In the same way, when their parents become too old to live on their own, adult children may take them into their own homes. As a result, they turn their nuclear family into an extended family. The structure of families changes over time. The effects of urbanization and industrialization are enormous, but they are not the only reasons for the changes. People marry, have children, become widowed, divorce and die. Children grow up and adults grow old. Nuclear families become extended families and extended families become nuclear families. Family ties stay strong or become weak. One thing is certain: in a changing world, the family will continue to change, but ultimately, it is likely to continue to be the basic unit of society
5. The word "ties" in the passage is closest in meaning to ____ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Leisure reading, also known as recreational reading, pleasure reading, free voluntary reading, and independent reading, is independent, self-selected reading of a continuous text for a wide range of personal and social (1)__________. It can take place in and out of school, at any time. Readers (2)__________from a wide range of extended texts, including but not exclusive to narrative fiction, nonfiction, picture books, e-books, magazines, social media, blogs, websites, newspapers, comic books, and graphic novels. Leisure reading is (3)_______intrinsically or socially motivated and a pleasurable activity for the reader. Students’ home environment, where parents/caregivers encourage reading and model their enjoyment of reading, has a substantial (4)___________impact on children’s performance in reading. In classrooms, leisure reading often takes place during times designated as SSR (sustained silent reading), DEAR (drop everything and read), LTR (love to read), or POWER (providing opportunities with everyday reading), which are the most common terms for classroom leisure reading. It may take place (5) _____individual classrooms or be part of a school-wide activity -
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Technology has become a fantastic and useful tool in the classroom. Teachers are expected to make (1) _________________ if it to enhance the learning experience and information dissemination. However, knowledge of the different tools available, what they can do, and their impact allows teachers to use them (2) _____________. With numerous technology users actively involved in developing gadgets of the future, we can only specular what new advances will be making their way (3) _______________ classrooms in the coming days. Following the evolution of technology, educational capabilities are changing and growing daily. The internet is a vast library of data that is useful in (4) _________________ the landscape of education as we know it. All in all, technology alone will not change education. Good grades and practical knowledge are as important as ever. Technology in education is therefore simply a catalyst, a tool for conveying lessons (5) _______________ effectiveness cannot be overlooked -
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Sophia is a humanoid robot developed by Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. She has been designed to learn and adapt to human behavior and work with humans, and has been interviewed around the world. In October 2017, she became a Saudi Arabian citizen, the first robot to receive citizenship of a country. According to herself, Sophia was activated on April 19, 2015. She is modeled after actress Audrey Hepbum,and is known for her human-like appearance and behavior compared to previous robotic variants. According to manufacturer, David Hanson, Sophia has artificial intelligence, visual data processing and facial recognition. Sophia also imitates human gestures and facial expressions and is able to answer certain questions and to make simple conversations on predefined topics (e.g. on the weather). The robot uses voice recognition technology from Alphabet Inc. (parent company of Google) and is designed to get smarter over time. Sophia’s intelligence software is designed by SingularityNET. The AI program analyses conversations and extracts data that allows her to improve responses in the future. It is conceptually similar to the computer program ELIZA, which was one of the first attempts at simulating a human conversation. Hanson designed Sophia to be a suitable companion for the elderly at nursing homes, or to help crowds at large events or parks. He hopes that she can ultimately interact with other humans sufficiently to gain social skills. Sophia has been interviewed in the same manner as a human, striking up conversations with hosts. Some replies have been nonsensical, while others have been impressive, such as lengthy discussions with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes. In a piece for CNBC, when the interviewer expressed concerns about robot behavior, Sophia joked that he had “been reading too much Elon Musk, and watching too many Hollywood movies”. Musk tweeted that Sophia could watch The Godfather and suggested “What’s the worst that could happen?”. On October 11, 2017, Sophia was introduced to the United Nations with a brief conversation with the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed. On October 25, at the Future Investment Summit in Riyadh, she was granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. This attracted controversy as some commentators wondered if this implied that Sophia could vote or marry, or whether a deliberate system shutdown could be considered murder. Social media users used Sophia’s citizenship to criticize Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
7. The word “this” in the last paragraph refers to_______ -
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In the future, maybe all cars that run on petrol will be replaced by solar cars, which have been around for a while, but with recent (1)__________ in solar car design and the measurement of photovoltaic cells becoming smaller, the dream of a truly efficient solar car is more reality than fantasy. A solar car is a vehicle (2)__________ by photovoltaic cells, also called solar cells, which convert sunlight (light energy) into electrical energy. As a source of energy on earth, there is nothing like the sun: in a mere one thousandth of one second (.001), the sun emits enough energy to fulfill our planet’s (3)_______ needs for the next 5,000 years. It is a staggering fact, and an exciting one. Since the energy from the sun is responsible for renewable resources such as wind, tides, and heat, solar energy seems to offer the brightest future for not only cars, but for the entire energy crisis. Despite the appearance that solar energy may be the least feasible among the current crop of (4)_________ fuel propositions, new solar powered devices and more specifically solar powered cars are beginning to be developed. How do solar cars work? The photo-voltaic cells absorb photons from sunlight. This action generates heat, which the cells then convert into electrical energy and stores in an on-board battery. This process of conversion is called the photovoltaic effect. Not surprisingly, such a vehicle has zero emissions, and is very (5)________ friendly. Unfortunately, at the moment photovoltaic cells are extremely inefficient, yet as time progresses the efficiency of these cells will grow. This will make solar energy and solar cars the fuel and car of the future-a closer reality -
Rewrite the sentence:
The film is not exciting enough for me to see. -
A considerable body of research has demonstrated a correlation between birth order and aspects such as temperament and behavior, and some psychologists believe that birth order significantly affects the development of personality. Psychologist Alfred Adler was a pioneer in the study of the relationship between birth order and personality. A key point in his research and in the hypothesis that he developed based on it was that it was not the actual numerical birth position that affected personality; instead, it was the similar responses in large numbers of families to children in specific birth order positions that had an effect. For example, first-borns, who have their parents to themselves initially and do not have to deal with siblings in the first part of their lives, tend to have their first socialization experiences with adults and therefore tend to find the process of peer socialization more difficult. In contrast, later-born children have to deal with siblings from the first moment of their lives and therefore tend to have stronger socialization skills.
Numerous studies since Adler's have been conducted on the effect ofbirth order and personality. These studies have tended to classify birth order types into four different categories: first-born, second-born and/or middle, last, and only child.
Studies have consistently shown that first-born children tend to exhibit similar, positive and negative personality traits. First-borns have consistently been linked with academic achievement in various studies; in one study, the number of National Merit scholarship winners who are first- borns was found to be equal to the number of second-and third-borns combined. First-borns have been found to be more responsible and assertive than those born in other birth-order positions and tend to rise to positions of leadership more often than others; more first-borns have served in the u.s. Congress and as u.s. presidents than have those born in other birth-order positions. However, studies have shown that first-borns tend to be more subject to stress and were considered problem children more often than later-borns.
Second-born and/or middle children demonstrate markedly different tendencies from first- borns. They tend to feel inferior to the older child or children because it is difficult for them to comprehend that their lower level of achievement is a function of age rather than ability, and they often try to succeed in areas other than those in which their older sibling or siblings excel. They tend to be more trusting, accepting, and focused on others than the more self-centered first-borns, and they tend to have a comparatively higher level of success in team sports than do first-borns or only children, who more often excel in individual sports.
The last-born child is the one who tends to be the eternal baby of the family and thus often exhibits a strong sense of security. Last-borns collectively achieve the highest degree of social success and demonstrate the highest levels of self-esteem of all the birth-order positions. They often exhibit less competitiveness than older brothers and sisters and are more likely to take part in less competitive group games or in social organizations such as sororities and fraternities.
Only children tend to exhibit some of the main characteristics of first-borns and some of the characteristics of last-borns. Only children tend to exhibit the strong sense of security and self-esteem exhibited by last-borns while, like first-borns, they are more achievement oriented and more likely than middle-or last-borns to achieve academic success. However, only children tend to have the most problems establishing close relationships and exhibit a lower need for affiliation than other children
The word it in paragraph 1 refers to________.
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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Driving along the motorway in busy traffic, the driver suddenly presses a button on his steering wheel. The car is now driving itself. This may (1) _________________ like something from the future, but driverless cars are already in reality on California’s roads. Many cars can already park themselves on the roadside, brake automatically when the car needs to slow down, and warn the driver (2) __________ they are slipping out of the right lane, so going driverless is just the next step towards automated driving. Driverless cars are equipped with fast broadband, allowing them to overtake other cars (3), and even communicate with traffic lights as they approach junctions. Being stuck in traffic jams could become a thing of the past, as driverless cars will be able to drive at speed (4) ___________ to each other. More than fifty million people die or are injured in road accidents every year, and the majority of these accidents is caused by human (5) _________________. Google’s driverless car sticks of to the speed limit and doesn’t get tired. So wouldn’t it be a great idea if all cars were driverless