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In the last five decades or so, the media and its influence on the societies, has grown (1)_______ with the advance of technology. First there was the telegraph and the post offices, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet and the new media including palmtops, cell phones etc. There are positive and negative influences of mass media, which we must understand as a responsible person of a society. Before (2)___________ the influence of mass media on society it is imperative to explain the three basic functions of mass media; they are providing news/information, entertainment and education. The first and foremost function of the media in a society is to provide news and information to the masses, that is why the present era is some time termed as the information age (3)__________. People need news/information for various reasons, on one hand it can be used to socialize and on the other to make decisions and formulate opinions. Entertainment would be the other function of the mass media (4)______ it is mostly used by the masses to amuse them in present day hectic environment. Educating the masses about their rights, moral, social and religious obligations is another important function of mass media, which needs no emphasis. In present era of (5)__________ , majority of people in the society depends on information and communication to remain connected with the world and do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, socialization, travelling and anything else that we have to do

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If you want to make your school green, think beyond your classrooms. Here are some  suggestions that are all easy and simple to follow, and can make a big difference in reducing your carbon footprint and creating a (1)__________ community.  One of the places where both teachers and students often spend some of their time is the library. An eco-friendly reading space is likely to create a favorable impression (2)________ library users, and bring some significant educational benefits. For example, you can install energy-saving products like fans instead of air-conditioners which consume a lot of energy. You can also use biodegradable dust cloths or old T-shirts to clean the environment. In addition, to (3)________ public awareness, allocate a clearly visible space on the noticeboard for everyday green tips like ‘Let others reuse your book’.  Sporty students may prefer to spend more time in the swimming pool than in the library.  Therefore, keeping this place safe and green will also help to raise their environmental awareness. Remember that (4)__________ pool water may cause red eyes and itchy skin to some people if they spend much time in the pool. An ideal alternative would be a salt-water pool, which can be naturally clean and economical. In case warm water is required, think of solar heating to save the environment as one pool with gas or electric heater may emit tons of carbon dioxide each year.  Finally, focus on the school gym, (5)_________ is perhaps the most interactive and exciting place for all school staff. Think of installing low-flow taps and showers to save gallons of water per minute and energy-saving lights to cut the cost of electricity. Moreover, make sure that the airflow pathways are clear and free of mould, mildew and other allergens

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Population in the world is currently (2018) growing at a rate of around 1.09% per year (down from 1.12% in 2017 and 1.14% in 2016). The current average population increase is estimated (1)________83 million people per year Annual growth rate reached its (2)__________in the late 1960s, when it was at around 2%. The rate of increase has nearly halved since then, and will continue (3)_________in the coming years. It is estimated to reach 1% by 2023, less than 0.5% by 2052, and 0.25% in 2076 (a yearly addition of 27 million people to a population of 10.7 billion). In 2100, it should be only 0.09%, or an addition of only 10 million people to a total population of 11.2 billion. World population will therefore continue to grow in the 21st century, but at a much slower rate (4)___________to the recent past. World population has doubled (100% increase) in 40 years from 1959 (3 billion) to 1999 (6 billion). It is now estimated that it will (5)_________another nearly 40 years to increase by another 50% to become 9 billion by 2037

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Although experts agree that traditional meetings are essential for making certain decisions and developing strategy, many employees view them as one of the most unnecessary parts of the workday. The result is not only hundreds of billions of wasted dollars, but the worsening of what psychologists call “meeting recovery syndrome”: time spent cooling off and regaining focus after a useless meeting.  It’s isn’t anything novel that workers feel fatigued after a meeting, but only in recent decades have scientists deemed the condition worthy of further investigation. Meeting recovery syndrome (MRS) is most easily understood as a slow replenishment of our limited mental resources. When an employee sits through an ineffective meeting their brain power is essentially being drained away, says Joseph A. Allen, a professor at the University of Utah. If they last too long, fail to engage employees or turn into lectures with little to no personal interactions, meetings will significantly diminish employees’ psychological stamina. Taking time to recover a must, but doing so comes at the expense of productivity.  As humans, when we transition from one task to another – such as from sitting in a meeting to doing normal work – it takes an effortful cognitive switch. We must make a big mental effort to stop the previous task and then expend significant mental energy to move on to the other. Some can bounce back from horrible meetings rather quickly, while others carry their fatigue until the end of the workday. It’s even worse when a worker has several meetings that are separated by only 30 minutes.  While no counter-MRS measures have been tested, Allen says one trick that might work is for employees to identify things or locations that quickly change their mood from negative to positive. As simple as it sounds, finding a personal happy place, going there and then coming straight back to work might be the key to reducing recovery time. Another solution is to ask ourselves if our meetings are even necessary in the first place. If all that’s on the agenda is a quickly catch-up, or some non-urgent information sharing, it may better for managers to send an e-mail to his or her subordinates instead. Most important, however, if for organizations to awaken to the concept of meetings being flexible, says Allen. We have to get rid of the acceptance of meetings as sites of pain, when they should be places of gain.” Allen says. 
5. The word “bounce back” in paragraph 4 can be best replaced by ___________

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

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In the past, technology and progress was very slow. People “invented” farming 12,000 years ago but it took 8,000 years for the idea to go around the world. Then, about 3,500 years ago, people called “potters” used round wheels to turn and make plates. But it took hundreds of years before some clever person thought, if we join two wheels together and make them bigger, we can use them to move things. In the last few centuries, things have begun to move faster. Take a 20th-century invention like the aeroplane, for example. The first aeroplane flight on 17 December 1903 only lasted 12 seconds, and the plane only went 37 metres. It can’t have been very exciting to watch, but that flight changed the world. Sixteen years later, the first plane flew across the Atlantic, and only fifty years after that, men walked on the moon. Technology is now changing our world faster and faster. So what will the future bring? One of the first changes will be the materials we use. Scientists have just invented an amazing new material called grapheme, and soon we will use it to do lots of things. With grapheme batteries in your mobile, it will take a few seconds to charge your phone or download a thousand gigabytes of information! Today, we make most products in factories, but in the future, scientists will invent living materials. Then we won’t make things like cars and furniture in factories - we will grow them! Thirty years ago, people couldn’t have imagined social media like Twitter and Facebook. Now we can’t live without them. But this is only the start. Right now, scientists are putting microchips in some disabled people’s brains, to help them see, hear and communicate better. In the future, we may all use these technologies. We won’t need smartphones to use social media or search the internet because the internet will be in our heads! More people will go into space in the future, too. Space tourism has already begun, and a hundred years from now, there may be many hotels in space. One day, we may get most of our energy from space too. In 1941, the writer Isaac Asimov wrote about a solar power station in space. People laughed at his idea then, but we should have listened to him. Today, many people are trying to develop a space solar power station. After all, the sun always shines above the clouds!  
3. What does the writer say about the future of communication?

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The poaching crisis wiping out Africa's elephants is costing the continent's economies millions in lost tourism revenue, according to a new study. Researchers looked at visitor and elephant data across 25 countries, and modeled financial losses from fewer visitors in protected areas due to the illegal wildlife trade, which has caused elephant numbers to plummet by more than 100,000 in the last decade. (A)

The study team combined visitor numbers across 164 protected areas in 25 countries in forest and savannah elephants, and elephant population data from 2009 to 2013, to reach a “per elephant" value in terms of tourism income.

They concluded that Africa was most likely losing $26m in tourism revenue a year. (B) Around $9m of that is lost from tourists' direct spending, such as staying at hotels and buying crafts, with the rest through indirect value in the economy such as farmers and other suppliers supporting the tourist industry.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that in most cases the revenue losses were higher than paying for stronger anti-poaching measures to keep elephant populations stable. (C) Dr. Robin Naidoo, the paper's lead author and , senior conservation wildlife scientist at WWF and his team found. In the case of central Africa's forest elephants, which are harder for tourists to see and therefore attract fewer visitors, the costs of protecting them exceed the benefits from tourism. Demand from south-east Asia has seen the price of ivory triple since 2009 and it is estimated that one elephant is killed every 15 minutes. (D) Corruption, a lack of resources, and, most importantly, increasingly sophisticated poachers have hamstrung African countries' efforts to stem the trade.

Naidoo said that the research was not suggesting economic issues should be the only consideration when protecting elephants, but framing the poaching crisis as a financial one could motivate African governments and communities.

“It gives an additional reason for some groups of people, who may not necessarily be motivated by intrinsic reasons for conversation, to engage with biodiversity conservation. It makes it clear to them that it's not just in the best interests of the world to conserve this stuff, but tangible reasons for a whole different group," he said.

The overall profit that the continent lost a year can be estimated to ____.

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People have been donating blood since the early twentieth century to help accident victims and patients undergoing surgical procedures. Usually a pint of whole blood is donated, and it is then divided into platelets, white blood cells, and red blood cells. People can donate blood (for red blood cells) about once every two months. Transfusing the blood from the donor to the recipient is straightforward. It involves taking the blood from a donor’s arm vein by means of a hypodermic syringe. The blood flows through a plastic tube to a collection bag or bottle that contains sodium citrate, which prevents the blood from clotting. When the blood is given to a patient, a plastic tube and hypodermic needle are connected to the recipient’s arm. The blood flows down from the container by gravity. This is a slow process and may last as long as 2 hours to complete the infusion of blood into the recipient. The patient is protected from being infected during the transfusion. Only sterile containers, tubing and needles are used, and this helps ensure that transfused or stored blood is not exposed to disease- causing bacteria. Negative reactions to transfusions are not unusual. The recipient may suffer an allergic reaction or be sensitive to donor leukocytes. Some may suffer from an undetected red-cell incompatibility. Unexplained reactions are also fairly common. Although they are rare, other causes of such negative reactions include contaminated blood, air bubbles in the blood, overloading of the circulatory system through administration of excess blood, or sensitivity to donor plasma or platelets. Today, hospitals and blood banks go to great lengths to screen all blood donors and their blood. All donated blood is routinely and rigorously tested for diseases, such as RIV (which causes AIDS), hepatitis B, and syphilis. When the recipient is a new born or an infant, the blood is usually irradiated to eliminate harmful elements. Donated blood is washed, and the white blood cells and platelets are removed. Storing the blood sometimes requires a freezing process. To freeze the red blood cells, a glycerol solution is added. To unfreeze, the glycerol is removed. The ability to store blood for long periods has been a boon to human health
1. All of the following are mentioned as potential negative reactions to transfusion EXCEPT: 

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Most languages have several levels of vocabulary that may be used by the same speakers. In English, at least three have been identified and described. Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries. Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal speech or writing, but not considered acceptable for more formal situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language. Slang, refers to words and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as appropriate formal usage by the majority. Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Both colloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than writing. Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiar objects and events. It has been pointed out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majority population. Finally, it is worth noting that the terms "standard", "colloquial", and "slang" exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use three types of expressions.
1. The word "appropriate" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .

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Andrew Jackson Beard lived an extraordinary life for a black American inventor. Unlike the vast majority of inventors who never profit from their patents, he profited from his inventions. Andrew Beard was born a slave on a plantation in Woodland, Alabama, in 1849, shortly before slavery ended. He received emancipation at age 15 and he married at age 16. Andrew Beard was a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, a railroad worker, a businessman and finally an inventor. He grew apples as a farmer near Birmingham, Alabama for five years before he built and operated a flour mill in Hardwicks, Alabama. His work in agriculture led to tinkering with improvement for plows. In 1881, he patented his first invention, an improvement to the double plow, and sold the patent rights for $4,000 in 1884. His design allowed for the distance between the plow plates to be adjusted. That amount of money would be the equivalent of almost $100,000 today. In 1887, Andrew Beard patented a second plow and sold it for $5,200. This patent was for a design that allowed the pitch of the blades of plows or cultivators to be adjusted. The amount he received would be the equivalent of about $130,000 today. In 1897, Andrew Beard patented an improvement to railroad car couplers. His improvement came to be called the Jenny Coupler. It was one of many that aimed to improve the knuckle coupler patented by Eli Janney in 1873 (patent US138405). The knuckle coupler did the dangerous job of hooking railroad cars together, which formerly was done by manually placing a pin in a link between the two cars. Beard, himself had lost a leg in a car coupling accident. As an ex-railroad worker, Andrew Beard had the right idea that probably saved countless lives and limbs. Beard received three patents for automatic car couplers. These are US594059 granted November 23, 1897, US624901 granted May 16, 1899, and US807430 granted on May 16, 1904. While there were thousands of patents filed at the time for car couplers, Andrew Beard received $50,000 for the patent rights to his Jenny coupler. This would be just shy of 1.5 million dollars today. Congress enacted the Federal Safety Appliance Act at that time to enforce using automatic couplers. Andrew Jackson Beard was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 in recognition of his revolutionary Jenny coupler
3. According to paragraph 2, what is NOT correct about period of plow inventions of Beard?

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Rome is the capital of Italy. This sprawling modern city has many ancient monuments. Rome’s history goes (1) __________ more than 2,500 years. Because of its age, Rome is often called the Eternal City. Rome’s many art treasures and historic buildings make the city an important center of European culture. In ancient times, Rome was the center of a (2)_________ Roman empire. The empire lasted nearly 500 years, into the ad 400s. Roman armies conquered the lands that are now Italy, Greece, Great Britain, France, and Egypt. The Romans built many roads from Rome to distant parts of their empire. This network of roads led to a saying that “All roads lead to Rome.” The Roman Empire’s influence is still present. (3) ___________ Romans spread their language, Latin, throughout Europe. Latin is the basis for Italian, French, Spanish, and other European languages. The ancient Romans were great builders. Several of their buildings still stand today. They are among Rome’s famous landmarks.The Pantheon is a temple (4)_________ to the many Roman gods of mythology. The Roman Colosseum is a four-story amphitheater. An amphitheater is like a football stadium. The Colosseum is (5)_________ Roman citizens once watched gladiators fight to the death. The Roman Forum was the political center of ancient Rome. The senate building and law courts were there, along with shops and religious buildings 

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He wants to buy an .................... car because he doesn’t have much money.

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Environmentalists often fear that tourists will trample all over sensitive natural resource areas, but tourism may bring the needed and only economic incentives to help drive conservation, said Bynum Boley. Ecotourism and natural resource conservation already have a mutually beneficial relationship that is ideal for creating a sustainable partnership. “Ecotourism destinations benefit in the form of enhanced tourism competitiveness from the protection of quality natural resources,” he said. "Meanwhile, the conservation of these natural resources is increasingly valued since these pristine natural resources are the foundation of the ecotourism industry and the driver of all economic benefits associated with ecotourism." Tourism is a $7.6 trillion global industry, provides 277 million jobs and is a primary income source for 20 of the world’s 48 least-developed countries. It also subsidizes environmental protection and helps protect, conserve and value cultural resources that might otherwise be undervalued by the host community, Boley said. In the newpaper, Boley and coauthor Gary Green said that despite past tension between the tourism industry and environmentalists, the two should team up as allies to fight off increasing conversion of land away from its natural state. Ecotourists not only provide a boost to the economy in such places, they can also motivate landowners into keeping the environment in its natural state instead of converting it into something unsustainable. They could also influence the public perception of conservation, Boley explained, which does not often favor environmental protection. “The public has become increasing less prone to respond to environmental messages,” he said. “Economic messages are needed in order to attract the public’s interest.” Too often, Boley and Green said, unique natural resource areas are converted into urban, suburban and agricultural developments without considering their ecotourism potential. In addition to the lost ecotourism revenue, there are a host of negative environmental consequences such as biodiversity loss, water and food shortages and the land being unable to mitigate the effects of climate change. These areas are not valued for their unique attributes or the valuable natural resources they provide, Green said, “so we lose them.” Tourists have historically been seen as having a negative impact on the environment. Critics complain that they violate fragile and threatened natural environments while contributing to greenhouse gases from the increased number of flights to these exotic and often remote locales. While these criticisms are justified, Boley and Green said responsible programs promote education of ecological conservation and environmental sustainability, fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of these exotic areas  
4. The word “perception” can be replaced by ______

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
A massage is relaxing, and makes you feel great, but did you know that it's also good for you? That's what doctors are now saying. Massage relieves pain and anxiety, eases depression and speeds up recovery from medical problems.
Research has shown that people of all ages benefit from touch. Premature infants who are held develop faster than those left alone, and healthy babies who get a lot of physical contact cry less and sleep better. Researchers are not sure why this occurs but they have also found out that touch can slow heart rate, lower blood pressure and increase levels of seratonin, the brain chemical that is linked to well-being. It also decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and this in turn increases your resistance to illness.
Massage also speeds up healing. Bone-marrow transplant patients who were given massages had better neurological function than those who weren't. Furthermore, massage reduced pain by 37% in patients with chronic muscle aches.
Giving someone a massage may be as good as getting one. A study conducted by the university of Miami found that mothers suffering from depression felt better after massaging their infants. In that same study, elderly volunteers who massaged infants reported feeling less anxious and depressed.
It even works when you do it yourself; 43% of headache sufferers reported getting relief after massaging their temples and neck and smokers who were taught self-massage while trying to quit felt less anxiety and smoked less.

What has recently been said about getting a massage?

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Simmons Research conducted a survey of American adults in order to learn how much Americans at large trust the media, and we are pleased to present the results in this first Simmons News Media Trust Index. We asked respondents to let us know how trustworthy or untrustworthy they found 38 of the largest and most well-known news sources commonly available in the US. News sources included represented a wide variety of mediums, including print, online, radio, and television with many of them operating across platforms. The average percentage of respondents who rated news sources as trustworthy or very trustworthy was just 40.1% - not a ringing endorsement for journalism in general. Topping the list across all news sources, and the only newspaper in the top five, was the Wall Street Journal with 57.7% of Americans trusting them. The major television network news organizations also fared quite well in our survey, taking the second (ABC 55.9%), third (CBS 55.4%), and sixth (NBC 54.1%) most trusted positions. Among cable news, the most trusted network in the US was ironically not American. BBC News was trusted by 55.2% of Americans and was the fourth most trusted news source. CNN, which touts itself as the “most trusted name in news,” trailed the list at number 14 with the trust of 46.1% of Americans. Forbes was the most trusted magazine and rounded out the top five, trusted by 54.2% of Americans. The New York Times and the Washington Post were both among the most trusted news organizations in our survey. The New York Times came in at the seventh position trusted by 53.8% of Americans, and the Washington Post in eighth trusted by 53.6%. USA Today (51.1%) and the Washington Times (50.0%) were the final two sources trusted by at least a majority of Americans. The least trusted news sources were all Internet-first and hyper-partisan in nature representing brands that have been consistently rated as misleading and inaccurate by factcheckers. The six organizations trusted least were split evenly between far-left and far-right news sources, and on average were trusted by only about one in four Americans. Daily Caller was the bottom of our list, with just 22.5% trusting them. They were followed by another extremely conservative platform, InfoWars, at 24.3% which was recently banned or had content deleted from Facebook, YouTube, iTunes, and Spotify for violating terms of service around hate speech, harassment, and bullying
2. The word “they” in paragraph 1 refers to _____.

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Facebook users spend an average of more than 15 hours a month on the social  networking site. While there are plenty who caution against such intensive use — and there are a number of studies detailing the harm Facebook could potentially cause — there also are lots of reports extolling the site’s virtues. As the social media giant prepares for its upcoming initial public offering, here are some ways Facebook just might be good for you.  Spending time on Facebook can help people relax, slow down their heart rate and decrease stress levels, according to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Milan. In a study published earlier this year, researchers studied 30 students and found that a natural high was sparked when they were on the social media network that led to the relaxed heart rates and lower levels of stress and tension. In the study, the students were monitored in three situations: looking at panoramic landscapes, performing complicated mathematical equations and using Facebook. While the first situation was the most relaxing to students and the math problems were the most stressful, the time on Facebook uncovered high levels of attractiveness and arousal. The findings support the researchers’ hypothesis that Facebook’s success, as well as that of other social media networks, correlates to the specific positive mental and physical state users experience.  While many may argue that social media networks only distract employees, research shows the opposite may be true. Research from Keas.com found that a 10-minute Facebook break makes employees happier, healthier and more productive. The study examined workers in three groups: one that was allowed no breaks, one that was allowed to do anything but use the Internet and one that was allowed 10 minutes to use the Internet and Facebook. The Facebook group was found to be 16 percent more productive than the group that was not allowed to use the Internet and nearly 40 percent more productive than the group that was allowed no breaks. “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf on the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher net total concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity,” said Brent Coker of the department of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia.  Facebook is also in the business of matchmaking. Research shows that nearly 60 percent of singles will friend someone new on Facebook after meeting them in person. If they like what they see, 25 percent are likely to contact their new love interest via Facebook. Once the courting is over, nearly 40 percent of those social networking adults will update their relationship status on Facebook, with just 24 percent telling their friends first. Facebook use between couples will continue through the dating process, the research shows. Throughout the day, 79 percent of couples said they send partners Facebook messages or chat on the social network. In addition, more than 60 percent would post romantic messages on their significant other’s Facebook wall. When the relationship ends, more than half of those surveyed immediately update their status to single, which automatically sends out a notification to their friend list to start the dating cycle over again
3. According to paragraph 2, what do the scientists discover in their study?

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While light at night can be beneficial, neutral, or damaging for individual species, its presence invariably disturbs ecosystems. For example, some species of spiders avoid lit areas, while other species are happy to build their spider web directly on a lamp post. Since lamp posts attract many flying insects, the spiders that don’t mind light gain an advantage over the spiders that avoid it. Light pollution poses a serious threat in particular to nocturnal wildlife, having negative impacts on plant and animal physiology. It can confuse animal navigation, alter competitive interactions, change predator-prey relations, and cause physiological harm. The rhythm of life is orchestrated by the natural patterns of light and dark, so disruption to these patterns impacts the ecological dynamics. Studies suggest that light pollution around lakes prevents zooplankton, such as Daphnia, from eating surface algae, causing algal blooms that can kill off the lakes’ plants and lower water quality. Light pollution may also affect ecosystems in other ways. For example, scientists have documented that night time light may interfere with the ability of moths and other nocturnal insects to navigate. Night-blooming flowers that depend on moths for pollination may be affected by night lighting, as there is no replacement pollinator that would not be affected by the artificial light. This can lead to species decline of plants that are unable to reproduce, and change an area’s long term ecology. Reducing light pollution implies many things, such as reducing sky glow, reducing glare, reducing light trespass, and reducing clutter. The method for best reducing light pollution, therefore, depends on exactly what the problem is in any given instance. Adjusting the type of lights used, so that the light waves emitted are those that are likely to cause severe light pollution problems  
4. The phrase “interfere with” in the passage can be used interchangeably with__________

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
There has been much debate over the past few decades concerning fears that automation will lead to robots replacing human workers on a massive scale.
The increasing use of robotics, computers and artificial intelligence is a reality, but its full implications are far from cut and dried. Some forecasts present the future in a utopian way, claiming that robots will take over the tedious heavy work thus freeing up human time and potential, allowing for more creativity and innovation. At the other end of spectrum are those who foresee an employment apocalypse, predicting that almost fifty percent of all American jobs could vanish within the next few decades. Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates states that in 20 years robots could be in place in a number of job categories, particularly those at lower end of the scale in terms of skills.
The bottom line is that while the future is always uncertain, robots are a fixture of our society, which is not going to disappear. As with the Industrial Revolution, where machines were utilized in many tasks in place of manual laborers and social upheaval followed, the Digital Revolution is likely to place robots in various jobs. In spite of that, many of today’s jobs were not in existence before the Industrial Revolution, such as those of programmers, engineers and data scientists. This leads other experts to criticize this alarmist approach of robot scare-mongering, which is invariably compared to the 19th-century “Luddites”. This group was textile workers who feared being displaced by machines and resorted to violence, burning down factories and destroying industrial equipment – their rejection of inevitable progress has come to symbolize mindless ignorance.
Needless to say, exactly what new kinds of jobs might exist in the future is difficult to envision at present. Therefore, the crux of the issue is not whether jobs will be lost, but whether the creation of new vacancies will outpace the ever-increasing number of losses and what skills will be required in the future.
It is clearly not all doom and gloom, as demand for employees with skills in data analysis, coding, computer science, artificial intelligence and human-machine interface is rising and will continue to do so. Furthermore, the demand for skills in jobs where humans surpass computers, such as those involving  care, creativity and innovative craftmanship, are likely to increase considerably. Ultimately, the key lies in the adaptation of the workforces, through appropriate education and training, to keep pace with our world’s technological progress.

What is the main concern associated with technological advances in the workplace?

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Today, population growth largely means urban population growth. UN projections  show the world’s rural population has already stopped growing, but the world can expect to add close to 1.5 billion urbanites in the next 15 years, and 3 billion by 2050. How the world meets the challenge of sustainable development will be intimately tied to this process.  For many people, cities represent a world of new opportunities, including jobs. There is a powerful link between urbanization and economic growth. Around the world, towns and cities are responsible for over 80 per cent of gross national product. While urban poverty is growing around the world, this is largely because many people – including the poor – are moving to urban areas.  The opportunities there extend beyond just jobs. Cities also offer greater opportunities for social mobilization and women’s empowerment. Many young people, especially young women, regard the move to cities as an opportunity to escape traditional patriarchy and experience new freedoms. Urban areas also offer greater access to education and health services, including sexual and reproductive health care, further promoting women’s empowerment and the realization of their reproductive rights. This contributes to significantly reduced fertility in urban areas, changing the trajectory of overall population growth.  The urbanization process – which is particularly pronounced in Africa and Asia, where much of the world’s population growth is taking place – is also an enormous opportunity for sustainability, if the right policies are put in place. Urban living has the potential to use resources more efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems. Still, the face of inequality is increasingly an urban one. Too many urban residents grapple with extreme poverty, exclusion, vulnerability and marginalization. Urban land is expanding much faster than urban population, a phenomenon known as urban sprawl. It is driven in part by increasing urban land consumption by the wealthy and the increasing separation of rich and poor communities within cities. Sprawl undermines the efficiencies of urban living, and it marginalizes poor people in remote or peripheral parts of cities, often in dense informal settlements or slums.  This phenomenon can eliminate the very opportunities people seek when they move to cities. Many people in slums lack ready access to health facilities. Others rely on private, unregulated providers for health services that are free in rural areas. In some urban slums, poor women have fertility rates closer to those of rural women. The urban poor also face risky and unhealthy living conditions, such heavy pollution or high vulnerability to disasters.  The total estimated number of slum dwellers is rising – from over 650 million in 1990 to about 863 million in 2012. Almost 62 per cent of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa lived slums in 2010, the highest proportion of any region. But slum growth is not the same as urbanization. Most evidence suggests that global urbanization is an inevitable trend, while slum growth results from the decisions to limit poor people’s access to cities, through limited service provision to informal settlements or by forced evictions and resettlement of the urban poor to peripheral or under-serviced areas. 
2. The word “sustainable” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to _____

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Scientists have uncovered a new threat to the world’s endangered coral reefs. They  have found that most are incapable of growing quickly enough to compensate for rising sea levels triggered by global warming. The study suggests that reefs – which are already suffering serious degradation because the world’s seas are warming and becoming more acidic – could also become overwhelmed by rising oceans.  The research – led by scientists at Exeter University and published in Nature this week – involved studying growth rates for more than 200 tropical western Atlantic and Indian Ocean reefs. It was found only 9% of these reefs had the ability to keep up with even the most optimistic rates of sea-level rises forecast by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “For many reefs across the Caribbean and Indian Ocean regions, where the study focused, rates of growth are slowing due to coral reef degradation,” said Professor Chris Perry, of Exeter University. “Meanwhile, rates of sea-level rise are increasing – and our results suggest reefs will be unable to keep up. As a result, water depths above most reefs will increase rapidly through this century.”  Sea levels rose by several inches over the past century and measurements indicate the speed of this increase is now rising significantly. Two key factors are involved: climate change is making ocean water warmer and so it expands. And as ice sheets and glaciers melt, they increase amounts of water in the oceans.  At the same time, reefs are being weakened by ocean warming and also by ocean acidification, triggered as the seas absorb more and more carbon dioxide. These effects lead to bleaching events that kill off vast stretches of coral and limits their ability to grow.  “Our predictions, even under the best case scenarios, suggest that by 2100, the inundation of reefs will expose coastal communities to significant threats of shoreline change,” said co-author Prof Peter Mumby of Queensland University. This point was backed by US marine scientist Ilsa Kuffner writing in a separate comment piece for Nature. “The implications of the study are dire. Many island nations and territories are set to quickly lose crucial natural resources.” 
1. Which of the following does the passage mainly discuss?

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As places transformed, so did the people. When researchers at Yale University and the University of Westminster studied what images people associated with climate change, they found a shift this decade. When they began their study in 2003, the majority of people surveyed thought of melting polar ice. By 2016, more and more people had weather top of mind. Climate, to be clear, is not weather. It’s the difference between a trend and a one-off event. But with wetter storms and hotter summers unfolding over the course of the decade, people were making new connections between climate change and the weather. Seeing climate change through the lens of something they experience every day opens the door for people to see the weight of the issue over their own lives. “Americans are just beginning to connect the dots and to say, wait a second, what’s going on here,” says Anthony Leiserowitz, a lead author of the study and director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. “There’s been this increasing dawning of awareness among many Americans that climate change is actually starting to harm people here and now.” New renewable energy projects outpaced new fossil fuel installations in worldwide growth for the first time in 2015. In a pivotal moment for the whole planet, every country on Earth agreed to take on climate change when they adopted the Paris climate accord in 2015. That committed countries to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep the Earth from warming beyond roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a threshold that could be catastrophic for people and ecosystems if it’s crossed. It was the culmination of years of political wrangling. “It is rare to have the opportunity in a lifetime to change the world,” former French president François Hollande told delegates gathered on the final day of negotiations. “Seize it so that the planet can live on, so that humanity can live on.” But cooperation, even when the health of the whole planet is on the line, can be a fragile, fleeting thing. After Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he began the process of formally withdrawing the US from the Paris accord. One by one, Trump backtracked on existing federal efforts to cut down on pollution, too. The words “climate change” began disappearing from government websites and documents  
4. According to paragraph 3, what is the result of heightened awareness of global citizens?