Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.
What is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and what is its purpose? The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a multilateral organization which was (26) _____ to give Southeast Asian states a forum to communicate (27) _____ each other. Since the region had a long colonial past and a history of endemic warfare, there has never been much peaceful and constructive (28) _____ between kings, presidents and other officials. A neutral forum was, (29) _____, a very useful development for all of those countries.ASEAN was formed as a result of the Bangkok (30) _____ of 1967 and initially had five members: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, (31) _____ Philippines and Singapore. Brunei (32) _____ joined in 1984 after it had won independence from Britain. Vietnam became the seventh member of the group, officially joining in 1995. (33) _____ several years of negotiation, Myanmar and Laos joined in 1997 and the final member of the ten, Cambodia, joined in 1999. The only (34) _______state in Southeast Asia which is not a member of ASEAN is now East Timor. It is still (35) _____ vulnerable and fragile to be able to participate for the foreseeable future.
(27) _____
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiCụm with each other: với nhau
....to communicate with each other.
Tạm dịch: …giao lưu với nhau.
Câu hỏi liên quan
-
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about the contributions of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly formed United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power, women were not considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some significant poetry in the seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the host contemporary history of the American Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned Important letters showing she exercised great political Influence over her husband, John, tiie second President of the United States. But little or no notice was taken of these contributions. During those centuries, women remained Invisible In history books.
Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility continued, despite the efforts of female authors writing about women, These writers, like most of their male counterparts, were amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in nature, and they were uncritical in their selection and use of sources.
During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of history by keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National, regional, and local women's organizations compiled accounts of their doings. Personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources from the core of the two greatest collections of women’s history In the United States one at the Elizabeth and Arthur Schleslnger Library at Radcliffe College, and the other the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources have provided valuable materials for later Generations of historians.
Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during the nineteenth Century, most of the writing about women conformed to the "great women" theory of History, just as much of mainstream American history concentrated on "great men," To demonstrate that women were making significant contributions to American life, female authors singled out women leaders and wrote biographies, or else important women produced their autobiographies. Most of these leaders were Involved in public life as reformers, activists working for women's right to vote, or authors, and were not representative at all of the great of ordinary woman. The lives of ordinary people continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being published.The word "representative" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to .................
-
Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.
On 8 August 1967, five leaders - the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand- sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Ministers who signed it have been considered as the founders of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. The document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.
It is a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declares the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spells out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes are about the cooperation in economy, society, culture, techniques, education and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulates that the Association will be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaims ASEAN as representing the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity. The goal of ASEAN, then, is to create, not to destroy. The original ASEAN logo presented five brown sheaves of rice stalks, one for each founding member. Beneath the sheaves is the legend "ASEAN" in blue. These are set on a field of yellow encircled by a blue border. Brown stands for strength and stability, yellow for prosperity and blue for the spirit of cordiality in which ASEAN affairs are conducted. When ASEAN celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 1997, the sheaves on the logo had increased to ten -representing all ten countries of Southeast Asia and reflecting the colors of the flags of all of them. In a very real sense, ASEAN and Southeast Asia will be one and the same, just as the founders had envisioned.
The pronoun "it" in the first paragraph refers to ______.
-
Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.According to the passage, what condition is responsible for many of the diseases of the old?
-
Although they are an inexpensive supplier of vitamins, minerals, and high-quality protein, eggs also contain a high level of blood cholesterol, one of the major causes of heart diseases. One egg yolk, in fact, contains a little more than two-thirds of the suggested daily cholesterol limit. This knowledge has caused egg sales to plummet in recent years, which in turn has brought about the development of several alternatives to eating regular eggs. One alternative is to eat substitute eggs. These egg substitutes are not really eggs, but they look somewhat like eggs when they are cooked. They have the advantage of having low cholesterol rates, and they can be scrambled or used in baking. One disadvantage, however, is that they are not good for frying, poaching, or boiling. A second alternative to regular eggs is a new type of egg, sometimes called 'designer' eggs. These eggs are produced by hens that are fed low-fat diets consisting of Ingredients such as canola oil, flax, and rice bran. In spite of their diets, however, these hens produce eggs that contain the same amount of cholesterol as regular eggs. Yet, the producers of these eggs claim that eating their eggs will not raise the blood cholesterol in humans.
Egg producers claim that their product has been portrayed unfairly. They cite scientific studies to back up their claim. And, in fact, studies on the relationship between eggs and human cholesterol levels have brought mixed results. It may be that it is not the type of egg that is the main determinant of cholesterol but the person who is eating the eggs. Some people may be more sensitive to cholesterol derived from food than other people. In fact, there is evidence that certain dietary fats stimulate the body's production of blood cholesterol. Consequently, while it still makes sense to limit one's intake of eggs, even designer eggs, it seems that doing this without regulating dietary fat will probably not help reduce the blood cholesterol level.According to the passage, egg substitutes cannot be used to make any of following types of eggs EXCEPT?
-
Read the passage and choose the correct answer:
Vietnam’s ASEAN membership opened a new period of integration in the region. Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said: “It was the right decision to join ASEAN in 1995, when we were in dire need of socio-economic development and expansion of relations with other countries. ASEAN membership enabled Vietnam to expand ties with the EU and normalize relations with the US and China. As an ASEAN member, Vietnam has engaged deeply in ASEAN activities in line with its integration policy.”
In ASEAN Vietnam has enjoyed a favorable environment for forging closer ties with its neighbors and resolving long-standing issues, and has contributed to regional cooperative mechanisms that further its national interests. ASEAN helps amplify Vietnam’s voice worldwide and create cooperative opportunities.
ASEAN’s Secretary General Le Luong Minh: “Vietnam’s economic development has benefited from ASEAN membership. During the course of 10 years from 2006 to last year, Vietnam’s GDP share in ASEAN doubled from 3.5% to 7%. ASEAN-Vietnam trade increased 120% with tighter connectivity in infrastructure, trade mechanisms, and human resources.”
Vietnam’s ASEAN membership opened a new period of integration in the region.
-
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Many flowering plants woo insect pollinators and gently direct them to their most fertile blossoms by changing the color of individual flowers from day to day. Through color cues, the plant signals to the insect that it would be better off visiting one flower on its bush than another. The particular hue tells the pollinator that the flower is full of far more pollen than are neighboring blooms. That nectar-rich flower also happens to be fertile and ready to disperse its pollen or to receive pollen the insect has picked up from another flower. Plants do not have to spend precious resources maintaining reservoirs of nectar in all their flowers. Thus, the color-coded communication system benefits both plants and insects.
For example, on the lantana plant, a flower starts out on the first day as yellow, when it is rich with pollen and nectar. Influenced by an as-yet-unidentified environmental signal, the flower changes color by triggering the production of the pigment anthromyacin. It turns orange on the second day and red on the third. By the third day, it has no pollen to offer insects and is no longer fertile. On any given lantana bush, only 10 to 15 per cent of the blossoms are likely to be yellow and fertile. But in tests measuring the responsiveness of butterflies, it was discovered that the insects visited the yellow flowers at least 100 times more than would be expected from haphazard visitation. Experiments with paper flowers and painted flowers demonstrated that the butterflies were responding to color cues rather than, say, the scent of the nectar.
In other types of plants, blossoms change from white to red, others from yellow to red, and so on. These color changes have been observed in some 74 families of plants.
The word “woo” is closest in meaning to __________
-
PANDEMIC DISEASES
Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu spread across the world, killing over 25 million people in only six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a disease are called pandemics.
Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fight. In 1918, a new type of flu virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fight this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in common.
First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily.
Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70 -80% of all people who get the Marburg virus died from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemic because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread.
While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new diseases that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warnings may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.This passage is mainly about ................
-
Aging is the process of growing old. It occurs eventually in every living thing provided, of course, that an illness or accident does not kill it prematurely. The most familiar outward signs of aging may be seen in old people, such as the graying of the hair and the wrinkling of the skin. Signs of aging in a pot dog or cat include loss of playfulness and energy, a decline in hearing and eyesight, or even a slight graying of the coat. Plants age too, but the signs are much harder to detect.
Most body parts grow bigger and stronger, and function more efficiently during childhood. They reach their peak at the time of maturity, or early adulthood. After that, they begin to decline. Bones, for example, gradually become lighter and more brittle. In the aged, the joints between the bones also become rigid and more inflexible. This can make moving very painful.
All the major organs of the body show signs of aging. The brain, for example, works less efficiently, and even gets smaller in size. Thinking processes of all sorts are slowed down. Old people often have trouble in remembering recent events.
One of the most serious changes of old ago occurs in the arteries, the blood vessels that lead from the heart. They become thickened and constricted, allowing less blood to flow to the rest of body. This condition accounts, directly or indirectly, for many of the diseases of the aged. It may, for example, result In heart attack.
Aging is not a uniform process. Different parts of the body wear out at different rates. There are great differences among people in their rate of aging. Even the cells of the body differ in the way they age. The majority of cells are capable of reproducing themselves many times during the course of a lifetime. Nerve cells and muscle fibers can never be replaced once they wear out.
Gerontologists - scientists who study the process of aging - believe this wearing out of the body is controlled by a built-in biological time-clock. They are trying to discover how this clock works so that they can slow down the process. This could give man a longer life and a great number of productive years.All of the followings may be the outward signs of aging EXCEPT ................
-
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Scientists do not yet thoroughly understand just how the body of an individual becomes sensitive to a substance that is harmless or even wholesome for the average person. Milk, wheat, and egg, for example, rank among the most healthful and widely used foods. Yet these foods can cause persons sensitive to them to suffer greatly. At first, the body of the individual is not harmed by coming into contact with the substance. After a varying interval of time, usually longer than a few weeks, the body becomes sensitive to it, and an allergy has begun to develop. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you have a food allergy, since it can show up so many different ways. Your symptoms could be caused by many other problems. You may have rashes, hives, joint pains mimicking arthritis, headaches, irritability, or depression. The most common food allergies are to milk, eggs, seafood, wheat, nuts, seeds, chocolate, oranges, and tomatoes. Many of these allergies will not develop if these foods are not fed to an infant until her or his intestines mature at around seven months. Breast milk also tends to be protective. Migraines can be set off by foods containing tyramine, phenathylamine, monosodium glutamate, or sodium nitrate. Common foods which contain these are chocolate, aged cheeses, sour cream, red wine, pickled herring, chicken livers, avocados, ripe bananas, cured meats, many Oriental and prepared foods (read the labels!). Some people have been successful in treating their migraines with supplements of B-vitamins, particularly B6 and niacin. Children who are hyperactive may benefit from eliminating food additives, especially colorings, and foods high in salicylates from their diets. A few of these are almonds, green peppers, peaches, tea, grapes. This is the diet made popular by Benjamin Feingold, who has written the book “Why your Child is Hyperactive”. Other researchers have had mixed results when testing whether the diet is effective.
The author states that the reason that infants need to avoid certain foods related to allergies has to do with the infant's ___________ .
-
The Influence of Advertising on Pricing
Advertising makes an immense difference in the popularity of a product. Studies have shown that consumers usually pay more for advertised products than non-advertised products. As a result, the marketing and advertising industry is a multibillion-dollar-a-year business. Local commercials can cost as little as several hundred dollars to produce, while national companies have been known to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single commercial. Interestingly, the source for these expensive commercials is the consumers who view the advertisements from the comfort of their living rooms. Companies influence the prices that consumers pay in two ways.
When consumers purchase any product, they are obviously paying for the cost of manufacturing the product. However, they are also paying for the advertising campaign devised to convince consumers to buy the product. The more costly the advertising campaign, the higher the price paid by consumers. Companies are allowed to set these high prices because consumers have shown that they will continue to pay them. For instance, a multinational chain of coffee shops significantly raised its prices a few years ago, due in no small part to an expensive national advertising campaign. While regular customers noticed and were not fond of the hike, one was quoted as saying, “I doubt it will make an impact [on consumers]. It won’t change my habit." Indeed, it did not; the company experienced record sales in spite of the fact its prices were higher than its competitors'.
Another way advertising tends to affect product pricing is seen in the arena of perceived value to the consumers. The perceived value is the worth that consumers assign to a product. Studies show that often the advertising for a product determines its value more than the quality or necessity of the product itself. One way a company may take advantage of this perceived value is by running commercials during prime time. These ads are usually much more expensive than others. For example, a national commercial that ran during a popular American show cost close to $745,000 to run for thirty seconds. If people watching the show perceive that the product is more valuable simply because it was advertised during prime time, they are often willing to pay higher prices. So, whether it is seen in the cost of the commercials or the advertiser-assigned value, it is obvious that advertising drives product pricing and directly affects consumers.Which of the following is true about the effect of higher-priced ad campaigns?
-
Read the passage below and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D ) to each question.
Higher education, also called tertiary, third stage or post secondary education, is the non-compulsory educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school. Tertiary education is normally taken to include undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as vocational education and training. Colleges and universities are the main institutions that provide tertiary institutions. Tertiary education generally results in the receipt of certificates, diplomas, or academic degrees.
Higher education includes teaching, research and social services activities of universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the undergraduate level and the graduate level. Higher education in that country generally involves work towards a degree-level or foundation degree qualification. It is therefore very important to national economies, both as a significant industry in its own right, and as a source of trained and educated personnel for the rest of the economy.
_________is important to national economies.
-
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
The increase in urbanization causes different problems. Air and water pollution are amongst the major issue we have to tackle.
In the first place, cars, factories and burning waste emit dangerous gases that change the air quality in our cities and pose threats to our health. Dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause respiratory diseases, for instant, bronchitis and asthma. Those are also proved to have long-term effects on the environment.
Furthermore, with the increased population, it becomes difficult to manage the waste generated in cities. Most of the waste is discharged or dumped into rivers or onto streets. The waste pollutes water and makes it unfit for human consumption. Subsequently, it becomes more and more difficult for city dwellers to get clean water. Some cities in Africa are unable to provide adequate water supply because most of the water is lost in pipe leakages. In fact, most city dwellers in developing countries are forced to boil their water or to buy bottled water, which is very expensive.
There are several actions that could be taken to eradicate the problems described above. Firstly, a simple solution would be joining community efforts to address problems affecting your city. Ask your parents, friends and relatives to join in as well. These efforts might include clean-up campaigns, recycling projects and a signature campaign to ask the government to do something about the situation. A second measure would be encouraging your teacher to talk about these problems and to discuss how young people can help to solve them. Finally, writing to local organizations working on these issues for ideas on how you can contribute to solve them.
The word Those in paragraph 2 refers to ____.
-
Some animal behaviorists argue that certain animals can remember past events, anticipate future ones, make plans and choices, and coordinate activities within a group. These scientists, however, are cautious about the extent to which animals can be credited with conscious processing.
Explanations of animal behavior that leave out any sort of consciousness at all and ascribe actions entirely to instinct leave many questions unanswered. One example of such unexplained behavior: Honeybees communicate the sources of nectar to one another by doing a dance in a figure-eight pattern. The orientation of the dance conveys the position of the food relative to the sun's position in the sky, and the speed of the dance tells how far the food source is from the hive. Most researchers assume that the ability to perform and encode the dance is innate and shows no special intelligence. But in one study, when experimenters kept changing the site of the food source, each time moving the food 25 percent father from the previous site, foraging honeybees began to anticipate where the food source would appear next. When the researchers arrived at the new location, they would find the bees circling the spot, waiting for their food. No one has yet explained how bees, whose brains weigh four ten-thousandths of an ounce, could have inferred the location of the new site.
Other behaviors that may indicate some cognition include tool use. Many animals, like the otter who uses a stone to crack mussel shells, are capable of using objects in the natural environment as rudimentary tools. One researcher has found that mother chimpanzees occasionally show their young how to use tools to open hard nuts. In one study, chimpanzees compared two pairs of food wells containing chocolate chips. One pair might contain, say, five chips and three chips, the other four chips and three chips. Allowed to choose which pair they wanted, the chimpanzees almost always chose the one with the higher total, showing some sort of summing ability. Other chimpanzees have learned to use numerals to label quantities of items and do simple sums.It can be inferred from the passage that brain size is assumed to .................
-
Choose the option among A, B, c or D that best answers the question about the passage:
"Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand (or “Land of the Free”), is a country in Southeast Asia. The country was an absolute monarchy from 1782 until 1932, when rebels seized power in a coup and established a constitutional monarchy. Since then, Thailand has come under the rule of many governments, both civil and military. The country was known as Siam until 1939 (when it was renamed Thailand), and again for a few years in the late 1940s. In 1949 the name Thailand was adopted a second time.
Central Thailand is dominated by a large fertile plain, formed by the country’s chief river, the Chao Phraya, and its tributaries. Much of the country’s rice and other crops are grown in this region. Bangkok, located on the Chao Phraya near the Gulf of Thailand, is Thailand’s Capital and largest city.
Thai people form the large majority of Thailand’s population, and most of them practise Theravada Buddhism. Other ethnic groups within the population include Chinese, Malays, and indigenous hill peoples, such as the Hmong and Karen. Thailand is known for its highly refined classical music and dance and for a wide range of folk arts. Traditionally based on agriculture, Thailand’s economy began developing rapidly in the 1980s.
The Thai have always been an agricultural people of the 1owland valleys and intermontane basins, where they cultivated wet rice with the use of water buffalo and harvested a wide range of fish and shellfish from the rivers and the sea. These occupations were often supplemented, especially in the north and northeast, by the collection of forest Products, ranging from timber, such as teak and bamboo, to foods stored for consumption during the dry season. In the northern mountain valleys, Tai-speaking peoples developed an intricate System of small-scale irrigation, called muang fai. The eventual move to the great Central plain necessitated the development of canals for transportation and, from the late-19th century onwards, of much larger irrigation and flood-control Systems. Small nuclear families occupied villages, comprising a wat and wooden houses on stilts. The pattern of life was governed above all by the seasonal rhythm of the monsoons and by a series of important religious festivals. Many of these festivals were closely associated with fertility and the arrival and ending of the rains."4. People in Thailand develop various kinds of irrigation such as ……
-
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Traditional methods of teaching no longer suffice in this technological world. Currently there are more than 100,000 computers in schoolrooms in the United States. Students mediocre and bright alike, from the first stage through high school not only are not intimidated by my computers, but have become avid participants in the computer epoch.
Kids operating computer implement their curriculum with great versatility. A music student can program musical notes so that the computer will play Beethoven or the Beatles. For a biology class, the computer can produce a picture of the intricate envisage human biology in a profound way. A nuclear reactor is no longer an enigma to students who can see its workings in minute detail on a computer. In Wisconsi, the Chippewa Indians are studying their ancient and almost forgotten language with the aid of a computer. More commonly, the computer is used for drilling math and language concepts so that youngsters may learn at their own speed without trying the patience of their human teachers. The simplest computers aid the handicapped, who learn more rapidly from the computer than from humans. Once irksome, remedial drills and exercises now on computer are conducive to learning because the machine responds to correct answers with praise and to incorrect answers with frowns and even an occasional tear.
Adolescents have become so exhilarated by computers that they have developed their own jargon, easily understood by their peers but leaving their disconcerted parents in the dark. They have shown so much fervor for computer that they have formed computer clubs, beguile their leisure hours in computer stores, and even attend computer camps. A Boy Scout can get a computer merit badge. One ingenious young student devised a computer game for Atari will earn him $100,000 in royalties This is definitely the computer age. Manufacturers of computers are presently getting tax write – offs for donating equipment to colleges and universities and are pushing for legislation to obtain further deductions for contributions to elementary and high school. Furthermore, the price of computer for home or office is being sold for less than $100. At that price every class in the country will soon have computer kids.
The price of a computer is now _____________
-
Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.
ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA) was established as a result of a Workshop on Handicraft for Export which was (1) _____ by the Royal Thai Government in February 1981 in Bangkok. AHPADA was formed as a forum for both the government and private sectors that are concerned with meeting and complementing each other in the promotion and development of handicrafts (2) _____. AHPADA is affiliated to the ASEAN and the World Craft Council. The (3) _____ members were Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Singapore and Brunei join in a little (4) _____. Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam joined in September 1999.AHPADA's objectives are: To take common approach to develop and promote the marketing of crafts (5) _____ and outside the ASEAN Region. To operate as a main point of promotion of ASEAN handicrafts and raw (6) _____ required-for production, trade fairs and exhibitions. To strengthen and improve the status of craftspeople. To create employment opportunities especially in the rural areas. To (7) _____ traditional craft skills within the context of conservation of cultural heritage. To educate and create awareness and appreciation of the authentic handicrafts of ASEAN Countries. And to build up an archive of ASEAN CRAFT information.
With the recent economic downturn in (8) _____ ASEAN Countries, AHPADA's objectives are more relevant than they have ever been before. Most producers are among the rural areas and (9) _____ majority of them are very small entrepreneurs. AHPADA works at both national level through the national focal points and at the international level through the Board of AHPADA and the Regional Secretariat which is permanently based in Bangkok, Thailand. (10) _____ 1981 AHPADA has been able to act as a catalyst and initiators in the promotion and development of ASEAN CRAFTS through seminars, workshops and exhibitions, often in partnership with several multinational and international organizations.
(1) _____
-
Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by the five original Member Countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999. The ASEAN Declaration states that the aims and purposes of the Association are: to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.
In 2003, the ASEAN Leaders resolved that an ASEAN Community shall be established comprising three pillars, namely, ASEAN Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.
The ASEAN Vision 2020, adopted by the ASEAN Leaders on the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN, agreed on a shared vision of ASEAN as a concert of Southeast Asian nations, outward looking, living in peace, stability and prosperity, bonded together in partnership in dynamic development and in a community of caring societies. ASEAN Member Countries have adopted the following fundamental principles in their relations with one another, as contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC):
• mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all nations;
• the right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion;
• non-interference in the internal affairs of one another;
• settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner;
• renunciation of the threat or use of force; and
• effective cooperation among themselvesThe Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia _______.
-
Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.
ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA) was established as a result of a Workshop on Handicraft for Export which was (1) _____ by the Royal Thai Government in February 1981 in Bangkok. AHPADA was formed as a forum for both the government and private sectors that are concerned with meeting and complementing each other in the promotion and development of handicrafts (2) _____. AHPADA is affiliated to the ASEAN and the World Craft Council. The (3) _____ members were Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Singapore and Brunei join in a little (4) _____. Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam joined in September 1999.AHPADA's objectives are: To take common approach to develop and promote the marketing of crafts (5) _____ and outside the ASEAN Region. To operate as a main point of promotion of ASEAN handicrafts and raw (6) _____ required-for production, trade fairs and exhibitions. To strengthen and improve the status of craftspeople. To create employment opportunities especially in the rural areas. To (7) _____ traditional craft skills within the context of conservation of cultural heritage. To educate and create awareness and appreciation of the authentic handicrafts of ASEAN Countries. And to build up an archive of ASEAN CRAFT information.
With the recent economic downturn in (8) _____ ASEAN Countries, AHPADA's objectives are more relevant than they have ever been before. Most producers are among the rural areas and (9) _____ majority of them are very small entrepreneurs. AHPADA works at both national level through the national focal points and at the international level through the Board of AHPADA and the Regional Secretariat which is permanently based in Bangkok, Thailand. (10) _____ 1981 AHPADA has been able to act as a catalyst and initiators in the promotion and development of ASEAN CRAFTS through seminars, workshops and exhibitions, often in partnership with several multinational and international organizations.
(2) _____
-
Very few people, groups, or governments oppose globalization in its entirety. Instead, critics of globalization believe aspects of the way globalization operates should be changed. The debate over globalization is about what the best rules are for governing the global economy so that its advantages can grow while its problems can be solved.
On one side of this debate are those who stress the benefits of removing barriers to international trade and investment, allowing capital to be allocated more efficiently and giving consumers greater freedom of choice. With free-market globalization, investment funds can move unimpeded from the rich countries to the developing countries. Consumers can benefit from cheaper products because reduced taxes make goods produced at low cost from faraway places cheaper to buy. Producers of goods gain by selling to a wider market. More competition keeps sellers on their toes and allows ideas and new technology to spread and benefit others.
On the other side of the debate are critics who see neo-liberal policies as producing greater poverty, inequality, social conflict, cultural destruction, and environmental damage. They say that the most developed nations - the United States, Germany, and Japan - succeeded not because of free trade but because of protectionism and subsidies. They argue that the more recently successful economies of South Korea, Taiwan, and China all had strong state-led development strategies that did not follow neo-liberalism. These critics think that government encouragement of "infant industries"' that is, industries that are just beginning to develop - enables a country to become internationally competitive.
Furthermore, those who criticize the Washington Consensus suggest that the inflow and outflow of money from speculative investors must be limited to prevent bubbles. These bubbles are characterized by the rapid inflow of foreign funds that bid up domestic stock markets and property values. When the economy cannot sustain such expectations, the bubbles burst as investors panic and pull their money out of the country.
Protests by what is called the anti-globalization movement are seldom directed against globalization itself but rather against abuses that harm the rights of workers and the environment. The question raised by nongovernmental organizations and protesters at WTO and IMF gatherings is whether globalization will result in a rise of living standards or a race to the bottom as competition takes the form of lowering living standards and undermining environmental regulations.
One of the key problems of the 21st century will be determining to what extent markets should be regulated to promote fair competition, honest dealing, and fair distribution of public goods on a global scale.The debate over globalization is about how .................
-
PANDEMIC DISEASES
Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu spread across the world, killing over 25 million people in only six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a disease are called pandemics.
Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fight. In 1918, a new type of flu virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fight this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in common.
First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily.
Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70 -80% of all people who get the Marburg virus died from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemic because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread.
While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new diseases that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warnings may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.According to the passage, all of the following are true of the 1918 flu pandemic EXCEPT that ..............