Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The relationship between Britain and the US has always been a close one. Like all close relationship it has had difficult times. The US was first a British colony, but between 1775 and 1783 the US fought a war to become independent. The US fought the British again in the War of 1812. In general, however, the two countries have felt closer to each other than to any other country, and their foreign policies have shown this. During World War I and World War II, Britain and the US supported each other. When the US looks for foreign support, Britain is usually the first country to come forward and it is sometimes called “the 51st state of union”. But the special relationship that developed after 1945 is not explained only by shared political interests. An important reason for the friendship is that the people of the two countries are very similar. They share the same language and enjoy each other’s literature, films and television. Many Americans have British ancestors, or relatives still living in Britain. The US government and political system is based on Britain’s, and there are many Anglo-American businesses operating on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain some people are worried about the extent of US influence, and there is some jealousy of its current power. The special relationship was strong in the early 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in Britain and Ronald Reagan was President of the US.  
5. Britain and the US are close to each other NOT because of their ______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Esperanto is what is called a planned, or artifiial, language. It was created more than a century ago by Polish eye doctor Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof. Zamenhof believed that a common language would help to alleviate some of the misunderstandings among cultures. In Zamenhof's fist attempt at a universal language, he tried to create a language that was as uncomplicated as possible. This fist language included words such as ab, ac, ba, eb, be, and ce.This did not result in a workable language in that these monosyllabic words, though short, were not easy to understand or to retain. Next, Zamenhof tried a different way of constructing a simplified language. He made the words in his language sound like words that people already knew, but he simplifid the grammar tremendously. One example of how he simplifid the language can be seen in the suffies: all nouns in this language end in o, as in the noun amiko, which means "friend", and all adjectives end in -a, as in the adjective bela, which means "pretty". Another example of the simplifid language can be seen in the prefi mal-, which makes a word opposite in meaning;theword malamiko therefore means "enemy", and the word "malbela" therefore means "ugly" in Zamenhof's language. In 1887, Zamenhof wrote a description of this language and published it. He used a pen name, Dr. Esperanto, when signing the book. He selected the name Esperanto because this word means "a person who hopes" in his language. Esperanto clubs began popping up throughout Europe, and by 1950, Esperanto had spread from Europe to America and Asia. In 1905, the First World Congress of Esperanto took place in France, with approximately 700 attendees from 20 different countries. Congresses were held annually for nine years, and 4,000 attendees were registered for the Tenth World Esperanto Congress scheduled for 1914, when World War I erupted and forced its cancellation. Esperanto has had its ups and downs in the period since World War I. Today, years after it was introduced, it is estimated that perhaps a quarter of a million people are flent in it. This may seem like a large number, but it is really quite small when compared with the billion English speakers and billion Mandarin Chinese speakers in in today's world. Current advocates would like to see its use grow considerably and are taking  steps to try to make this happen.
6. According to the passage, what happened to the Tenth World Esperanto Congress?

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):
A group of Tri-City residents and volunteers from BC Housing gathered at a  neglected therapeutic garden on the old Riverview Hospital grounds last weekend to breathe life into a green space. First planted by psychiatric nurse Art Finnie in the 1950s after he was injured on the job, Finnie’s Garden grew into one of the first experiments in horticultural  therapy. As Lauren English, director of land development for Riverview, put it, gardening as therapy was a revolutionary practice. “He understood the value of nature and how therapeutic it was before it became the rage — to find peace and to find solace and to find comfort,” added MLA Selina Robinson, who attended last Saturday’s event.  At that time, Riverview Hospital was the largest psychiatric hospital in British Columbia, with more than 5,000 patients on site. And Finnie’s was more than a garden. Beyond the rows of corn, flowers and a fish pond, residents could lounge in a picnic area or curve bowls across their own bowling green. But while the idea of Finnie’s Garden was to have a place of gathering that residents created themselves, they weren’t the first ones to make themselves at home.  Archeologists, including one on site last weekend, have found evidence Indigenous people occupied the area for thousands of years. Today, the Kwikwetlem First Nation maintains a land claim over the Riverview lands, and in its language, the area is known as Smu’q wa ala," or “Place of the Great Blue Heron”. "They found fire-altered rocks, they found boiling rocks, they found arrowheads, they found tools," said English, under the watchful eye of the group’s archeologist. “It’s not just colonial history, it’s the precontact history that goes back thousands of years.” Today, while many of the former hospital’s buildings lay in disrepair, 184 people still call the hilltop facility home, and one day in the near future, perhaps, they’ll get to use it again on their road to recovery. The event comes in a year when Treefest was cancelled because of a lack of organizers, and while the renewed work at Finnie’s Garden isn’t meant to replace Treefest, it does offer a outlet for green-thumbs without a patch of dirt.  A final community gardening event at Finnie’s Garden will likely take place in October. By removing weeds, invasive plants and adding mulch, the group plans to have the area ready to plant next spring. 
5. According to paragraph 2 and 3, who is the people implied in the line “…they weren’t the first ones to make themselves at home.”?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
How busy is too busy? For some it means having to miss the occasional long lunch;  for others, it means missing lunch altogether. For a few, it is not being able to take a “sickie” once a month. Then there is a group of people for whom working every evening and weekend is normal, and frantic is the tempo of their lives. For most senior executives, workloads swing between extremely busy and frenzied. The vice-president of the management consultancy AT Kearney and its head of telecommunications for the Asia-Pacific region, Neil Plumridge, says his work weeks vary from a “manageable” 45 hours to 80 hours, but average 60 hours.  Three warning signs alert Plumridge about his workload: sleep, scheduling and family. He knows he has too much on when he gets less than six hours of sleep for three consecutive nights; when he is constantly having to reschedule appointments; “and the third one is on the family side”, says Plumridge, the father of a three-year-old daughter, and expecting a second child in October. “If I happen to miss a birthday or anniversary, I know things are out of control.” Being “too busy” is highly subjective. But for any individual, the perception of being too busy over a prolonged period can start showing up as stress: disturbed sleep, and declining mental and physical health. National workers’ compensation figures show stress causes the most lost time of any workplace injury. Employees suffering stress are off work an average of 16.6 weeks. The effects of stress are also expensive.  Comcare, the Federal Government insurer, reports that in 2003-04, claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of claims but almost 27% of claim costs. Experts say the key to dealing with stress is not to focus on relief – a game of golf or a massage – but to reassess workloads. Neil Plumridge says he makes it a priority to work out what has to change; that might mean allocating extra resources to a job, allowing more time or changing expectations. The decision may take several days. He also relies on the advice of colleagues, saying his peers coach each other with business problems. “Just a fresh pair of eyes over an issue can help,” he says. Executive stress is not confined to big organizations. Vanessa Stoykov has been running her own advertising and public relations business for seven years, specializing in work for financial and professional services firms. Evolution Media has grown so fast that it debuted on the BRW Fast 100 list of fastest-growing small enterprises last year – just after Stoykov had her first child. Stoykov thrives on the mental stimulation of running her own business. “Like everyone, I have the occasional day when I think my head’s going to blow off,” she says. Because of the growth phase the business is in, Stoykov has to concentrate on short-term stress relief – weekends in the mountains, the occasional “mental health” day – rather than delegating more work. She says: “We’re hiring more people, but you need to train them, teach them about the culture and the clients, so it’s actually more work rather than less.” 
2. The word “consecutive” in paragraph 2 mostly means ____________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Human’s avarice for ivory has resulted in thousands of unfathomable elephant atrocities and senseless suffering that has pushed the species to the brink of extinction. In 2015, the U.S. and China announced they will work together to enact a near complete ban on the import and export of ivory. As an industry that has largely been driven by China and, if substantiated, these claims could be a ray of light for one of the most endangered animals in the kingdom. However, as the famous saying goes, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” With the worldwide attention on elephant ivory, hippo teeth, which can grow up to three-feet-long, have become the next target. Since the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species officially imposed a ban on ivory trading in 1990, about 30,000 pounds per year of hippo teeth have been exported from Africa. On a recent trip to Kenya, I had the unfortunate displeasure of meeting these facts face-to-face. On the banks of the Mara River, the infamous transient point of the great wildebeest migration, I met a Conservancy Ranger, a local Kenyan, named Ivan. He led me along a narrow path above the riverbed to view pods of hippos. They clumped together in the river, every few minutes lifting their heads above the waterline to welcome my arrival. Despite their label as one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, they were playful to watch. Their tiny ears and eyes would appear from the murky river and then, with a splash, they would disappear. The river is everything to the hippo, Ivan explained, it is their lifeline. The only real time they leave the river is during their nightly ritual of traveling to nearby plains to consume grasses. Contrary to their aggressiveness, they are vegetarians. As we neared the end of our trek, we reached the Mara Bridge, spanning the divide between Kenya and Tanzania. An undeniable stench filled the air. Our gaze fell to the water beneath the structure, and as if to mark the metaphorical significance of the passage, lay a poached hippo. It had been killed the previous night, probably as it grazed unsuspectingly under the cover of darkness. They had found spear punctures in its body, and its teeth were missing. It had somehow, in unthinkable pain, made its way back to the river, its home, to die.
4. What does the word “which” in the second paragraph refer to?

Choose the best answer:
What ............... should we take to reduce pollution?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
A new report by the Pew Research Center has provided more documentation on the growing popularity of audiobooks. In a survey of 1,502 American adults conducted from January 8 to February 7 this year, Pew found that 20% of adults listened to an audiobook in the 12 months prior to the period in which the survey was conducted. In 2011, only 11% of them said they listened to an audiobook. The strongest gains have come since 2016—the dawning of the digital audiobooks age. The percentage of adults listening to audiobooks rose six percentage points between 2016 and the 2019 survey, after rising only three percentage points between 2011 and 2016. According to Pew, since 2018, college students and adults with household incomes over $75,000 are the two groups who have adopted listening to audiobooks the quickest. The Pew survey also found that while listening to audiobooks has risen steadily since the 2016 survey, reading e-books had declined. Twenty-eight percent of adults reported reading an e-book in 2016—double the number who listen to audiobooks that year. By the most recent survey, ebooks had only a 5% edge over audiobook usage. Overall, the Pew survey found a gradual reduction in the percentage of Americans who are reading. In 2011, 79% of those surveyed said they had read a book in the previous 12 months, a number that fell to 72% in early 2019. Print remained by far the book format of choice, with 65% or adults surveyed reporting that had read a print book within the last year, down from 71% in 2011. The percentage of adult who read a book in any format fell from 79% in 2011 to 72% in 2019.  
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage?

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:
We have all heard the expression, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” However, it seems that is exactly what most people do. The human brain seems to be wired in such a way that we make very strong, lasting judgments about the people we meet within the first 30 seconds. And it is true, you may be able learn a lot about a person by their first impression. But can you really learn all you need to know?
May be there is something affecting your first impression. Possibly the person is nervous or upset. Maybe you are in a bad mood or not feeling well. All of these factors and more could influence a first impression, so should people place so much weight on it?
Many people feel that a first impression is extremely important. Once those people form an idea of you, it is often difficult for them to get beyond it. If someone feels that you are something you really aren’t because of your first impression, then that is obviously not a good thing.
Yet many people really do still rely deeply on first impressions. One good example is the job interview. We dress nicely for job interviews for a very good reason: to make a good first impression. In addition to our outward appearance, many people tend to put on something of an act. By being extremely polite and showing interest, we feel that we will make a good first impression and have a better chance getting the job.
Is this the way things should be? Probably not. Will this situation ever change? The answer to that question is the same - probably not. It is just human nature to rely on a first impression. Everyone knows that they do it and most people know that it's not the right thing to do.AQ

The word “it” in paragraph 3 means     .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
That’s all well and good, but if a potential new friend doesn’t see the same joyous  charms in you, it’s (1)_________that anything deep and lasting will come of it. That said, there’s no telling when and where a friendship will develop. Often, they arise from a shared interest or hobby, and people are typically drawn together (2)________ they’re in the same stage of life, like new parents or retirees. People of similar backgrounds and cultures also tend to come together by bonding (3)______ shared lifelong experiences. Although most of these relationships take time to get really deep, occasionally friendship is more like a lightning (4) __________. “Sometimes you can be in a big group of new people and you catch someone’s eye and it’s like ‘boom!’ – instant friendship,” Degges-White says about an experience she’s termed the “clicking phenomenon.” “It’s kind of like that burst of ‘love at first sight,’ but it’s a friendship, not (5)_________ .”

Choose the best answer:
I have much homework that I ought ____.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The number of people accessing the State’s and community’s priority policies and  programmes is increasing, said Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung. Vietnam has around 6.2 million people over the age of two with disabilities, making up 7.06 per cent of the country’s population. Of those, 28 per cent are severely disabled, 58 per cent female, 28 per cent children and 10 per cent living in poverty. Most live in rural areas and many are victims of Agent Orange.  Minister Dung said in the past, the State, the Party and Vietnamese people had paid much care to people with disability. Vietnam ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of People with Disability in 2014. In March this year, the country ratified the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 159 about jobs for people with disability. It strongly confirmed Vietnam’s commitment ensuring the disabled would not be discriminated at work.  Last month, the Secretariat Committee issued the Instruction 39 about the Party’s leading work on affairs related to people with disability. The National Assembly later ratified the amended Law on Labour with many adjustments relating to disabled people. Dung said that every year, millions of disabled people receive an allowance from the State and all of provinces and cities had rehabilitation centres. Attending the event, Truong Thi Mai, head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilisation, said besides the achievements, Vietnam still sees many obstacles. Infrastructure is still limited demand for people with disability and many live below the poverty line depending heavily on their families.  Mai asked organisations to improve education to raise people’s awareness of the meaning of supportive work to people with disability. This year, more than VNĐ17 trillion (US$735.4 million) from the State budget was allocated to provinces and cities to implement policies for people with disability, according to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.  The Ministry of Planning and Investment on Thursday launched the programme “White stick for Vietnamese visual impaired people”. Its aim is to present one million white sticks to visually impaired people across the country. Training to use the device will also be provided. Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said the ministry will listen to disabled people’s demands and wishes and put them into its policies. Deputy chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong said Vietnam has committed to developing socioeconomy, taking care of social equality and improving social management ability.  
5. The word “implement” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Just as optical fibers have transformed communication, they are also revolutionizing medicine. These ultra - thin, flxible fiers have opened a window into the living tissues of the body. By inserting optical fibers through natural openings or small incisions and the threading them along the body's established pathways, physicians can look into the lungs, intestines, heart and other areas that were formerly inaccessible to them. The basic fiber-optics system is called fiberscope, which consists of two bundles of fibers. One, the illuminating bundle, carries light to the tissues. It is coupled to a high-intensity light source. Light enters the cores of the high-purity silicon glass and travels along the fibers. A lens at the end of the bundle collects the light and focuses it into the other bundle, the imaging bundle. Each fibers in the bundle transmits only a tiny fraction of the total image. The reconstructed image can be viewed through an eyepiece or displayed on a television screen. During the last five years, improved methods of fabricating optical fibers have led to a reduction in fiberscope diameter and an increase in the number of fibers, which in turn has increased resolution. Optical fibers can also be used to deliver laser light. By use of laser beams, physicians can perform surgery inside the body, sometimes eliminating the need of invasive procedures in which healthy tissue must be cut through to reach the site of disease. Many of these procedures do not require anesthesia and can be performed in a physician's office. These techniques have reduced the risk and the cost of medical care.
8. The word "resolution" is closest in meaning to which of the following?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain structure that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been speculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary. The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’ responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free ranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact. This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole is also particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to being touched there  The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species. Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater – specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whales and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii – have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision. On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has an extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air–water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’s hand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.  
2. What does the word “these” in the first paragraph refer to?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people. In his book Counting Sheep, Paul Martin - a behavioral biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which does not give sleeping the importance it deserves. Modern society has invented reasons not to sleep. We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours. We spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work. Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV and the Internet tempt us away from our beds. When we need more time for work or pleasure, the easy solution is to sleep less. The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half hours’ sleep to feel at their best. Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they live in an almost permanent state of “sleep debt”.  Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend on the hours of daylight. People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall. But nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life) and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock. During the day caffeine, the world’s most popular drug, helps to keep us awake. 75% of the world’s population habitually consume caffeine, which up to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation. What does a chronic lack of sleep do to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work. This has serious implications for society in general. Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially when they are on “night call”, and may get less than three hours’ sleep. Lack of sleep can seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions. Tired engineers, in the early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophic results. On our roads and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year. Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn’t. As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible. Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight hours a night  
2. The writer mentions the Internet in the passage as ______.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
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  
5. It can be inferred from the phrase “Economic messages are needed in order to attract the public’s interest.” is ______

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:
The human criterionfor perfect vision is 20/20 for reading the standard lines on a Snellen eye chart without a hitch. The score is determined by how well you read lines of letters of different sizes from 20 feet away. But being able to read the bottom line on the eye chart does not approximate perfection as far as other species are concerned. Most birds would consider us very visually handicapped. The hawk, for instance, has such sharp eyes that can spot a dime on the sidewalk while perched on top of the Empire State Building. It can make fine visual distinctions because it is blessed with one million cones per square millimetre in its retina. And in water, humans are farsighted, while the kingfisher, swooping down to spear fish, can see well both in the air and water because it is endowed with two foveae – areas of the eyes, consisting mostly of cones that provide visual distinctions. One foveae permits the bird, while in the air, to scan the water below with one eye at a time. This is called monocular vision. Once it hits the water, the other foveae joins in, allowing the kingfisher to focus both eyes, like binoculars, on its prey at the same time. A frog’s vision is distinguished by its ability to perceive things as a constant moving picture. Known as “bug detectors”, a highly developed set of cells in a frog’s eyes responds mainly to moving objects. So, it is said that a frog sitting in a field of dead bugs wouldn’t see them as food and would starve.
The bee has a “compound” eye, which is used for navigation. It has 15,000 facets that divide what it sees into a pattern of dots, or mosaic. With this kind of vision, the bee sees the sun only as a single dot, a constant point of reference. Thus, the eye is a superb navigational instrument that constantly measures the angle of its line of flight in relation to the sun. A bee’s eye also gauges flight speed. And if that is not enough to leave our 20/20 “perfect vision” paling into insignificance, the bee is capable of seeing something we can’t – ultraviolet light. Thus, what humans consider to be “perfect vision” is in fact rather limited when we look at other species. However, there is still much to be said for the human eye. Of all mammals, only humans and some primates can enjoy pleasures of colour vision.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Can a performance go viral? Ben Platt’s should. As the title character in Dear Evan Hansen, the new musical from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, he offers acting so precise yet so painfully lucid that it should overwhelm the operating systems by which most contemporary musicals operate. Platt’s gestures, his expressions, his phrasing, even his vocal range – which is impressive but tends to thin out toward the top notes – all combine to communicate the fretfulness, uncertainty and timorous goodness that define his character. He plays Evan, a friendless high school senior terrified of life, the universe, everything. His harried single mother, Heidi, (Rachel Bay Jones) tells him, “You can’t succeed if you never try.” Evan nods, but you can that he believes more strongly in the corollary: “If you don’t try, you can’t fail.” A therapist has instructed him to write pep-talk letters to himself. On the first day of school, one of them falls into the hands of Connor Murphy (Mike Faist), another outcast with drug problems and a look a peer describes as “school shooter chic”. When Connor kills himself, his parents find the letter and mistakenly believe that Evan was a friend to their son. At first this attention panics Evan, but he soon accepts the role and even briefly becomes an internet sensation. Often he is tempted to tell Connor’s family the truth, but he fears disappointing them and sacrificing his newfound confidence Watching Dear Evan Hansen, one often thinks of Next to Normal, another Second Stage show about a mentally distressed protagonist. But with its tuneful pop score and teenage protagonist, Dear Evan Hansen is a gentler affair, even as it takes occasional pains not to oversentimentalize the material. When Evan presents a surprisingly rosy picture of her brother, his sister Zoe (Laura Dreyfuss) sings, “Don’t say it wasn’t true/ That you were not the monster/ That I knew.” Near the play’s end, Platt positively glistens with sweat and spit and tears. Yet one never has the sense of an actor deliberately winding himself up to deliver a visceral performance. There’s obvious care taken in the way he offers Evan’s cringing smile, his swallowed laugh, his habit of pulling at his clothes as though searching for someone to hold onto. But all of these details feel lived, organic, unrehearsed. And Platt’s ability to convey emotion through song is simply superb and often deeply heartrending.  
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Globalization can be seen as increased economic, cultural and technological exchange between countries. Examples might be McDonald's in Calcutta and Japanese motor technology in Britain. Many international organizations are pro-globalization, while many others are anti- ones. The main organizations against globalization are the environmental organizations, such as Friends of the Earth and reenpeace, who put forward the belief that globalization harms the environment. In general, these organizations blame global corporations for global warning and the depletion of natural resources. The most obvious is oil and gas, but there are others such as tropical rainforests, which are cut down for timber, and the resources of the sea, which may be affected by pollution. Organizations which represent developing countries, including international aid agencies such as Oxfam, are also against globalization. They are concerned that the global organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, are not doing enough to help the poor and indeed, may be adding to their problems. Some are critical of the World Trade Organization (WTO). They argue that the WTO is making difficult for poor countries to protect and build their own industries. On the contrary, many organizations are in favor of globalization. Perhaps the most important one is the WTO. This organization was set up in 1995 and has 123 member countries. It administers the rules of international trade agreed by its member countries. The WTO's rules make it difficult for a country to favor their own industry over imports from other countries. The WTO argues that the growth of trade between countries increases the wealth of everyone. Trade allows those who can produce goods most cheaply to do so, thus giving everyone the best possible price. Another pro-globalization organization is IMF. This was established after World War II in 1946. It aims to promote international cooperation on finance and provide temporary help for countries suffering financial problems. The IMF has 182 member countries. Finally, the United Nations, which was established after the Second World War, has become a promoter of globalization. It aims to  promote a shared set of values in the areas of labour standards, human rights and environmental practices between the UN and the business community.
4. The word "others" in paragraph 2 refers to: 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Once restricted to luxury or super-tech buildings, home automation is proving to be an increasingly fundamental and affordable addition to architectural projects. The idea is to connect devices, which in turn connect and talk through a centralized control unit, accessible by computers, tablets, and mobile phones. For example, home automation users can turn the lights on or off at specific times each day, adjust the heater or air conditioner to turn on a few minutes before they arrive home. In addition to these immediate effects, monitoring applications can also provide accurate home information by generating detailed reports on equipment that could be working better or spending less. That is, in addition to smartphones and personal computers, appliances and sensors are able to identify patterns, process information, and perform tasks both through commands and automatically. Although it sounds like a science fiction script, these are technologies that are not so far from us.  Artificial intelligence can be used to automate threat detection and perhaps more proactively alert us if something looks wrong, such as heat sensors and video cameras setting off alarms and calling firefighters in the event of a short circuit. Through facial recognition algorithms on social media, the system itself can tell if someone outside your circle of acquaintances is trying to access your space and send a message to your mobile phone. This type of technology can improve the efficiency of security systems and reduce false alarms. Automation can be useful for people with disabilities and for the elderly. People with Parkinson’s disease or other motor diseases can trigger switches without touching them, and motion sensors can trigger safety lights automatically. Blood pressure sensors and blood sugar levels can be incorporated into these systems, providing peace of mind to close relatives. The ability to automate repetitive housekeeping can free time for more important things. For example, an internet-connected refrigerator can check for missing items and make purchases online. It is important to mention that these systems must be highly protected, as a single attempt to break into this centralized system can lead to the invasion of privacy and the loss of valuable confidential information. Still, most people who have experienced life in an automated space will likely be uncomfortable returning to traditional systems  
7. The word “confidential” in paragraph 5 can be replaced by _______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Children’s behaviour has worsened over the past five years, according to a survey of  teachers which found that a fifth thought girls were more likely to cause trouble than boys. The survey, published after teachers at a Lancashire school went on strike over discipline, found low-level disruption, including chatting and “horsing around”, was the biggest problem. Boys were more likely to be physically aggressive while girls tended to ostracise other pupils. The behaviour of boys was more of a challenge than that of girls but the actions of each sex had deteriorated, according to 56.5% of staff surveyed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).  Among male pupils the most challenging behaviour for teachers was physical aggression, such as pushing, spitting, kicking and hitting. A secondary teacher quoted in the survey said boys were usually aggressive with other pupils, while girls tended to call one another names. Teachers criticised a lack of role models in the home. A primary teacher said: “The boys are far more willing to be aggressive to adults, verbally and even physically. There don’t seem to be any parental boundaries set of what is an appropriate way to speak and deal with another adult.” Teachers at Darwen Vale high school, Lancashire, walked out over unruly pupil behaviour this month. They said children challenged them to fights and threatened to film lessons and post them online. The survey of more than 850 teachers, heads and other school staff found that more than 21% thought girls’ behaviour was more challenging than boys, compared with 68% who said male pupils caused more trouble. In schools that have excluded pupils, 57% said more boys and 5% said more girls had been excluded. A department head in a primary school told the survey, carried out in March, that “classes with a majority of boys tend to be louder, less co-operative and harder to teach”. Nearly half of the staff surveyed said boys’ bravado was behind their disruption. For girls, the most likely trigger was a break-up between friends. A primary school teacher from Bedfordshire said: "Boys are generally more physical and their behaviour is more noticeable. Girls often say nasty things, which end up disrupting the lesson just as much as the boys, as other children get upset and can’t focus on their work. They are usually the ones who refuse to comply with instructions." Some staff had noticed girls’ behaviour worsening.” A teaching assistant from Weston-super-Mare said: “Girls are definitely getting more violent, with gangs of girls in school who are getting worse than the gangs of boys.” The ATL annual conference in Liverpool on Monday is due to debate a motion expressing concern at increasing numbers of girls being excluded from secondary school.  Government figures for 2008-9 showed that boys represented 78% of the total number of permanent exclusions from schools in England. This proportion was unchanged from the year before. The ATL general secretary, Mary Bousted, said: "Staff get ground down daily by the chatting and messing around, which disrupts lessons for other pupils and takes the pleasure out of teaching. Even more worrying is the physical aggression, most often among boys but also among some girls, which puts other pupils and staff at risk. Schools need to have firm and consistent discipline policies and work with parents to keep schools and colleges safe places for pupils and staff alike." The education bill, now going through the Commons, will give teachers the right to search pupils for banned items and will remove the requirement to give parents a day’s notice of detention. The education secretary, Michael Gove, said the measures in the bill would “restore discipline” in the classroom.
7. Which of the following best reflects the suggestion of the author to reduce bad behavior of children in the last paragraph?