Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
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 .

Choose the best answer:
Gustave Eiffel was well-known for ____________ Eiffel tower.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The generation gap (1)_____ to the difference in attitudes or behavior between a  younger generation and the older one. In my opinion, different attitudes towards life, different views about certain problems, and a lack of communication can cause a generation gap in most societies.  The first factor is that parents and children generally see things from different (2)______. Choosing a career is a good example for this. Many parents try to impose certain careers they favor (3)_____ their children, based on their own perceptions. However, young people don’t always understand their parents’ points of views. Instead, they prefer to be free to make their own decisions on their future career. Another factor lies in differences in musical tastes, fashion, and political views between young people and their parents. (4)______, having a pierced nose might be viewed as fashionable by some teens, but for many parents, it is considered to be an act of rebellion against social norms.  The major factor (5)____ the generation gap is lack of communication between parents and their children. Parents tend to be dominant and not to trust their children to deal with crises. Also, they keep talking too much about certain problems. That is the reason why young people seldom reveal their feelings to their parents. When facing problems, young people prefer to seek help from their classmates or friends

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
My mom is a pretty talented pianist. She reads music very well and loves to play  Chopin and various other classical artists. One of my earliest memories involves sitting under her piano bench while she played. It gave her a lot of joy and a lot of personal pride, I think. I trust that she naturally wanted those things for me when she enrolled me in piano lessons when I was about seven years old.  I hated them. I was scared of my teacher. I hated practicing. I hated the songs I was being forced to learn. I hated reading music. I was a young kid, and there were other things I wanted to do instead. It just didn’t interest me, and no amount of begging and pleading on my mother’s part could get me to enjoy practicing. One thing in particular that she used to say as she was begging me to practice was, “One day, when you’re older, you will cherish the ability to sit down and play.” Nevertheless, after a couple years of once-a-week torture, she finally allowed me to quit.  Years went by. I switched schools when I was 11 years old, got a new best friend, and got interested in music. This was a critical turning point. My best friend loved the band Bush and lots of other alternative bands of the ‘90s, and listening to them unlocked a whole new sonic world for me. I fell in love, fell completely and totally in love, with rock music.  My friend taught me the form for a power chord on her acoustic guitar. If you know how to play a power chord, you can play or at least convincingly fake pretty much every single rock song in the world. It was like someone had given me my first hit of a powerful opiate.  I spent hours practicing in my room. Hours sounding out my favourite songs. More hours playing along with those songs in front of my mirror, pretending I was Scott Weiland, Dolores O’Riordan, Chris Cornell, or my personal favourite Louise Post (of Veruca Salt). I unlocked a talent within myself that had gone obscenely undiscovered and undeveloped when I was a young child banging my head against a piano keyboard, trying and failing to read a piece of music - I could play the guitar by ear. I just hadn’t had the time to figure that out because my mom was trying so hard to get me to do something that did not come naturally to me and that I had no desire to do.
5. What does the word "opiate” in Paragraph 4 closest in meaning to?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Urbanization programmes are being carried out in many parts of the world, especially in densely (1) ________ regions with limited land and resources. It is the natural outcome of economic development and industrialization. It has brought a lot of benefits to our society. However, it also (2) ________ various problems for local authorities and town planners in the process of maintaining sustainable urbanization, especially in developing countries. When too many people cram into a small area, urban infrastructure can’t be effective. There will be a (3) ________ of livable housing, energy and water supply. This will create overcrowded urban districts with no proper facilities. Currently, fast urbanization is taking place predominantly in developing countries where sustainable urbanization has little relevance to people’s lives. Their houses are just shabby slums with poor sanitation. Their children only manage to get basic education. Hence, the struggle for (4) ________ is their first priority rather than anything else. Only when the quality of their existence is improved, can they seek (5) ________ other high values in their life

Each sentence has a mistake. Find it bychosing A B C or D

 Nylon, a synthetic, make from a combination of water and a by-product of coal, was first introduced in 1938

Choose the best answer:
The government knows the extent of the problem. The government needs to take action soon.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Rachel Carson was born in 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania. She studied biology in college and zoology at Johns Hopkins University, where she received her master's degree in 1933. In 1936, she was hired by the US Fish and wildlife service, where she worked most of her life. Carson's first book, Under the Sea Wind, was published in 1941. It received excellent reviews, but sales were poor until it was reissued in 1952. In that year, she published The Sea Around Us, which provided a fascinating look beneath the ocean's surface, emphasizing human history as well as geology and marine biology. Her language had a poetic quality. Carson consulted no less than 1,000 printed sources. She had voluminous correspondence and frequent discussions with experts in the field. However, she always realized the limitations of her non-technical readers. In 1962, Carson published Silence Spring, a book that sparked considerable controversy. It proved how much harm was done by the uncontrolled, reckless use of insecticides. She detailed how they poison the food supply of animals, kill birds, and contaminate human food. At that time, spokes men for the chemical industry mounted personal attacks against Carson and issued propaganda to indicate that her findings were flawed. However, her work was vindicated by a 1963 report of the President's Science Advisory Committee.
8. According to the passage, Silence Spring is primarily: 

Choose the best answer:
It gets ............... to understand what the professor has explained.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Vegetables are parts of (1) __________ that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, (2) __________ the flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. Originally, vegetables were collected from the wild by huntergatherers and entered cultivation in several parts of the world, probably during the period 10,000 BC to 7,000 BC, when a new agricultural way of life developed. At first, plants which grew locally would have been cultivated, but as time went on, trade brought exotic crops from (3)__________ to add to domestic types. Nowadays, most vegetables are grown all over the world as climate permits. Crops may be cultivated in protected environments in less suitable locations, and global trade in (4) __________ products allows consumers to purchase vegetables grown in faraway countries. The scale of production varies from subsistence farmers supplying the needs of their family for food, to agribusinesses with vast areas of single-product crops. Depending on the type of vegetable concerned, harvesting the crop is followed by grading, storing, processing, and marketing. Vegetables can be eaten (5) __________ raw or cooked and play an important role in human nutrition, being mostly low in fat and carbohydrates, but high in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Many nutritionists encourage people to consume plenty of fruit and vegetables, five or more portions a day often being recommended

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 following questions:
In the United States, presidential elections are held in years evenly divisible by four (1888, 1900, 1964, etc.). Since 1840, American presidents elected in years ending with zero have died in office, with one exception. William H. Harrison, the man who served the shortest term, died of pneumonia only several weeks after his inauguration.
Abraham Lincoln was one of four presidents who were assassinated. He was elected in 1860, and his untimely death came just five years later. James Garfield, a former Union army general from Ohio, was shot during his first year in office (1881) by a man to whom he wouldn’t give a job. While in his second term of office (1901), William McKinley, another Ohioan, attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. During the reception, he was assassinated while shaking hands with some of the guests. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas only three years after his election.
Three years after his election in 1920, Warren G, Harding died in office. Although it was never proved, many believe he was poisoned. Franklin Roosevelt was elected four times (1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944), the only man to serve so long a term. He had contracted polio in 1921 and eventually died of the illness in 1945.
Ronald Reagan, who was elected in 1980 and reelected four years later, suffered an assassination attempt but did not succumb to the assassin’s bullets. He was the first to break the long chain of unfortunate events. Will the candidate in the election of 2020 also be as lucky?

How long did Warren G, Harding work as a president?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Water is of vital importance to all living things. Without it, all living things will  surely die. We also use a great (1)_____ of water daily in our homes, in factories, and in power stations. Most of this water is fresh water and it comes to us from reservoirs, rivers and lakes.  The Earth’s surface is (2)_____ by large areas of water which we call oceans and seas. If you have tasted the water from the sea, you will know that, unlike fresh water, seawater tastes salty. This is due to the (3)_____ of sodium chloride which comes from the land. Rivers carry it to the sea.  Although (4)_______salt nor fresh water has (5)________color, the sea often looks blue in the sunlight. The reason is that sunlight is made up of many colors. Some colors disappear quickly in the sea but blue light bounces back or is reflected, to the surface. This makes the sea look blue. Hence, a stormy sky will make the sea look grey

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 following questions:
There is substantial evidence that students going off to college have changed over the years. For one thing, studies show that they are emotionally closer to their parents and their parents to them. One thing that means is that they depend on each other more for happiness. It puts a burden on children for parents to use their children as vehicles for their own happiness - although today’s young people seem complicit in this arrangement, perhaps because they have known no other way even if it creates anxiety in the children. That’s one reason parents like to be involved in their children’s college experiences, and colleges have had to devise novel ways of getting parents off campus when they transport their kids to school.
There’s also evidence that students today seem to be choosing schools with reference to proximity to home. The closer a student is to home, the easier it is to bring the laundry home and to land in your old bed with tea and sympathy when you have the sniffles. And the easier it is for parents to visit you at university whenever the mood strikes. The amount of visiting parents do is far more than in generations past.
But in a real sense, students don’t really leave their parents behind. Their parents go to college right along with them - in their front pockets. That is, the parents are a speed dial away by cellphone. This, of course, significantly reduces independence. A student doesn’t get the chance to solve minor problems on his own
- he just calls Mom or Dad. A student has initial problems getting along with a roommate? A roommate doesn’t do laundry as often as the other roommate wishes? A student gets a C grade on her first paper? Instead of absorbing the negative information and figuring out how to resolve the problem or how to do better, the call gets made to home, where Mom or Dad solves the problem, often by calling the school administration. This kind of behavior is, sadly, commonplace today and is a mark of the lack of coping skills among students because all the lumps and bumps have been taken out of life for them until now.
In addition to being tethered to parents, incoming freshmen are now very heavily connected by cellphone to classmates from high school, who are presumably at other colleges. So there isn’t the great impetus to mix and venture forth to meet new people, to get out of one’s comfort/one, to get drawn into new experiences, that has traditionally marked the beginning of freshman year. The laws of physics still apply, 6 and it is difficult to be meeting new people and seeking novel experiences while you are talking to your old pals.

Parents like to be involved in their children’s college experiences because     .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Common methods of deforestation are burning trees and clear cutting. These tactics leave the land completely barren and are controversial practices. Clear cutting is when large swaths of land are cut (1) ______ all at once. A forestry expert quoted by the Natural Resources Defense Council describes clear cutting as “an ecological trauma that has no precedent in nature (2) _____ for a major volcanic eruption.” Burning can be done quickly, in vast swaths of land, or more slowly with the slash-andburn technique. Slash-and-burn agriculture entails cutting down a patch of trees, (3) __________ them and growing crops on the land. The ash from the (4) _____ trees provides some nourishment for the (5) ______ and the land is weed-free from the burning. When the soil becomes less nourishing and weeds begin to reappear over years of use, the farmers move on to a new patch of land and begin the process again

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In an educational context, the term “learner independence” has gained increasing importance in recent years. It is of particular (25) ________ to language learning and commonly refers to the way students confidently control and organize their own language learning process. While some people seem to have an almost (26) ________ flair for languages, others have rely on strategies to maximize their skills and learn a foreign language more effectively. The main thing to remember is that becoming a truly independent learner ultimately depends above all on taking responsibility for your own learning and being prepared to take every opportunity available to you to learn. You also increase your chances of (27) ________ by learning according to your own needs and interests, using all available resources. Research shows that learners (28) ________ adopt this approach will undoubtedly manage to broaden their language abilities considerably and, (29) ________, are more likely to achieve their objectives in the longer term

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Many of us experience multiple queues on an average day. If the move quickly,  they’re soon forgotten. But a slow line can be extremely annoying. What separated a good queuing experience from a bad one, however, is not just the speed of the line. In fact, how the wait makes us feel can have a greater impact on our perception of a queues than how much time we spend in it.  To understand how, consider the story of an airport getting complaints for the long waits at the baggage carousel. After trying fruitlessly to make baggage delivery faster, the airport simple moved the arrival gates outside of the main terminal, making people walk six times longer. Time was spent walking instead of waiting around and complaints dropped to almost zero as a result. A similar example can be observed during the postwar boom in high rise buildings in many elevator halls, where mirrors are installed to give people a chance to adjust their clothes and make sure that they look great, which distracts them from the long wait for their elevator.
For many people, the golden standard of line design and management can be found in theme parks, where waiting lines are such as integral part that companies are not afraid to invest. Some of the tricks theme parks use to make waits more bearable are hiding the line behind corners or walls to make it appear shorter and inflating the waiting times announced at each attraction. If the sign says the wait is an hour, often it will actually be more like 45 minutes, which will make people feel like they’re 15 minutes ahead of schedule. At Disneyland, designers and engineers also add games and other activities in order to give guests plenty to do, which keeps them from measuring the passage of time. According to Larson, Disney lines are so entertaining that on rainy days, when attendance is low, rides in the parks may fill up too slowly because families linger in the queue for too long.  Clever line design can also be found in supermarkets. Multiple parallel lines, each in front of a checkout, can be great if you’re in a fast one, but can feel very unfair if you’re stuck in a slow one. That’s why businesses are increasingly switching to the serpentine line, in which all customers are funneled into a single queue and then sent to the first available checkout. Compared to parallel lines, the serpentine triumphs in the key department of fairness: it’s strictly first come, first served, so no one arriving after you can be served before you
5. The word “them” in paragraph 3 refers to ____________________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
“Parents today want their kids spending time on things that can bring them success, but (1) ___________, we’ve stopped doing one thing that’s actually been a proven predictor of success—and that’s household chores,” says Richard Rende, a (2)_________ psychologist in Paradise Valley, Ariz., and co-author of the forthcoming book “Raising Can-Do Kids.” Decades of studies show the benefits of chores—academically, emotionally and even professionally. Giving children household chores at an early age (3)_____ to build a lasting sense of mastery, responsibility and self-reliance, according to research by Marty Rossmann, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. In 2002, Dr. Rossmann analyzed data from a longitudinal study (4)____________ followed 84 children across four periods in their lives—in preschool, around ages 10 and 15, and in their mid-20s. She found that young adults who began chores at ages 3 and 4 were more likely to have good relationships with family and friends, to achieve academic and early career success and to be self-sufficient, as (5)__________ with those who didn’t have chores or who started them as teens. Chores also teach children how to be empathetic and responsive to others’ needs, notes psychologist Richard Weissbourd of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
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.” 
5. What does the phrase “these effects” in paragraph 4 refer to?

Choose the best answer:
Houses in Hoi An were made _________ wood and their pillars were carved with ornamental designs.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Where humans have planted crops for food, unless they are organic, poisonous chemicals have been sprayed on them; insecticides are used to kill insect pests and herbicides are used to kill weeds. Fungicides fight off fungal diseases. Artificial fertilizers are added to the soil to increase the yield of the crops. If these chemicals are used in excess, some of them dissolve in rainwater and drain into rivers, streams and ponds, polluting the water and killing the wildlife. The “weeds” competing with the farmers’ crops include wild flowers and many of these have become endangered through the use of herbicides. Insects rely on plants for food and breeding sites so the number of these are affected by a reduction in the number of plants. Many birds depend on insects for food so the numbers of birds may be affected by the use of both insecticides and herbicides. One of the reasons why the Barn Owl is endangered is due to a shortage of insects and it may also be poisoned by eating insects affected by chemical sprays. The case of DDT and other chemicals known as organo-chlorines is well known. These were first used extensively in the 1950s, sprayed onto crops to kill insect pests. Unfortunately, after a few years, it was noticed that birds of prey were rapidly declining in numbers and thousands of seed-eating birds were dying. By the 1960s, the once common sparrow hawk was a rare bird in Britain. The sparrow hawk’s prey was the seed-eating birds which were carrying the poisonous insecticides in their bodies. Consequently, many sparrow hawks and other birds of prey were being indirectly poisoned by the chemical sprays. The organo-chlorines also caused many birds to lay thin shelled eggs, which cracked easily. Research showed that the chemicals were entering the food chains and being stored in the fat of the animals’ bodies. For example, a thrush may eat snails which have eaten a sprayed cabbage plant. The thrush may not have eaten enough poison to be actually killed but a sparrowhawk eating several thrushes accumulates so much of the poison that it is killed. The chemicals become more concentrated as they travel up the food chain. Even most humans still have small amounts of organo-chlorines in their fatty tissues although these chemicals had been withdrawn from use by 1976. They are still used, however, in some Third World countries. By the 1980s, the sparrowhawk population had recovered dramatically and it is once again a common bird. This example shows just how dangerous the use of chemicals in the environment can be. As mentioned earlier, some plants are endangered through collectors such as the Venus fly-trap and some tropical orchids, but most threatened plants have become so through the destruction of their habitat. Once very common plants have almost disappeared because of the way humans have changed the land. For example, the Egyptian Papyrus, a type of reed, had been used for thousands of years for all sorts of things such as paper, medicine, boats, baskets, food etc. Then, when changes in the irrigation methods on the river Nile were introduced, this valuable plant almost completely disappeared. It was thought to be extinct until 1968 when a few plants were found in an undisturbed waterway. Orchids have been also collected from rainforests to become household favourites, causing many species to become endangered.  
7. According to the last paragraph, which of the following is NOT true?

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:
Thanks to electricity, candles are no longer a necessity in our lives, but they are still a pleasure. The warm flame of candlelight can quickly alter the mood and atmosphere of a room, often creating a  peaceful scene that electric light just cannot match.
Candles are an important part of many cultural and religious festival and have been burnt in various forms for centuries. The ancient Romans and Egyptians made candles from a type of fiber coated with wax. However, up until the nineteenth century, most candles were made from a substance called tallow, obtained from beef fat. Tallow candles were very smoky and, understandably, had an unpleasant odor.
In the 19th century, candle makers learned to separate stearin, the solid form fat used as a type of glue, from tallow and used it to harden other fats. Candles that contained stearin would burn longer than previous ones and had a better smell. Stearin is still one of the main components of modern candle- making, and the techniques used to create candles today are much the same as they have been for many years. These days, the increase range of wax dyes, perfumes and other additives that are now available make candle making a very exciting and rewarding hobby.
Sales of candles have increased greatly over the last few years, showing that they have become part of our lives again, not through necessity, but because of the magical atmosphere they create. In our increasingly stressful lives, the calming quality of candlelight has a relaxing effect that many enjoy.
For those would like to learn to make candles, finding and buying candle-making kits is easy. Candle- making is definitely enhanced by the exciting possibilities of experimentation with various materials. Be brave and try out different effects – some of the most wonderful creations can happen by accident. With a bit of practice, you will be amazed at the very professional finish that can be achieved.
Despite their delicate beauty, candles can, of course, be highly dangerous. One should never leave lit candles unattended, even for a few moments. Always make sure candles are securely placed within candleholders.
Teach your children to respect a burning candle, and of course keep burning candles away from flammable materials. Keep your home safe by remembering that a candle is magical, but fire can be very destructive. Be careful, and enjoy the beauty of your candles!

What does the passage warn readers not to do?