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                      My first home
When my parents married, they rented a small house and they didn’t have a lot of money for furniture. The kitchen had a sink for washing up and a cooker, but that was all. They (6)............. a old table and a chair from the market. They borrowed a sofa (7)....... _was also old but they covered it with modern materials so it was bright and cheerful.
Outside, there was a small garden behind the house, but in front of it there was only the road. (8).........., the road wasn’t busy, so I could cross it to reach the park on the opposite side. We   lived there (9)..........I was ten and we were very happy. We had to move house because it was too small when my twin sisters were born. We all (10).......... sad when we left.

(6)..........................

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   Martin Luther King, Jf., is well- known for his work in civil rights and for his many famous speeches, among which is his moving “I have a dream” speech. But fewer people know much about King’s childhood.

   M.L, as he was called, was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, at the home of his maternal grandfather. M.L.’s grandfather purchased their home on Auburn Avenue in 1909, twenty years before M.L was born. His grandfather allowed the house to be used as a meeting place for a number of organizations dedicated to the education and social advancement of blacks. M.L. grew up in the atmosphere, with his home being used as a community gathering place, and was no doubt influenced by it.

   M.L.’s childhood was not especially eventfully. His father was a minister and his mother was a musician. He was the second of three children, and he attended all black schools in a black neighborhood. The neighborhood was not poor, however. Auburn Avenue was an area of banks, insurance companies, builders, jewelers, tailors, doctors, lawyers, and other businesses and services. Even in the face of Atlanta’s segregation, the district thrived. Dr. King never forgot the community spirit he had known as a child, nor did he forget the racial prejudice that was a huge barrier keeping black Atlantans from mingling with whites.

What is the passage mainly about?

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Diversity is a hallmark of life, an intrinsic feature of living systems in the natural world. The demonstration and celebration of this diversity is an endless rite. Look at the popularity of museums, zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens. The odder the exhibit, the more different it is from the most common and familiar life forms around us, the more successful it is likely to be. Nature does not tire of providing oddities for people who look for them. Biologists have already formally classified 1.7 million species. As many as 30 to 40 million more may remain to be classified. (1)
Most people seem to take diversity for granted. If they think about it at all they assume it exists in endless supply. Nevertheless, diversity is endangered as never before in its history. Advocates of perpetual economic growth treat living species as expendable. As a result an extinction crisis of unprecedented magnitude is under way. Worse yet, when diversity needs help most, it is neglected and misunderstood by much of the scientific community that once championed it. (2)
Of the two great challenges to the legitimacy of this diversity, the familiar one comes primarily from economists. Their argument, associated with such names as Julian Simon, Malcolm McPherson and the late Herman Kahn, can be paraphrased: "First, if endangered species have a value as resources - which has been greatly exaggerated - then we should be able to quantify that value so that we can make unbiased, objective decisions about which species, if any, we should bother to save, and how much the effort is worth. Secondly, the global threat to the diversity of species, particularly in the tropics, has been overestimated. Thirdly, we have good substitutes for the species and ecosystems that are being lost, and these substitutes will nullify the damage caused by the extinctions". (3)
The structure of the argument seems to me to be identical in form to that of an old joke from the American vaudeville circuit. One elderly lady complained to another about her recent vacation at a resort in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. "The food was terrible", she moaned. "Pure poison, I couldn't eat a bite. And the portions were so tiny!" (4)
Species may be valuable, but not especially so, and the threat to them has been exaggerated. But this does not matter anyway, say the economists, because we can replace any species that vanishes.(5) 
It is not clear how much of an impact this argument has on the informed public, but it has certainly provoked an outcry among scientific conservationists. It has set the terms for, and dominated, most of the pro-diversity literature of the past few years, making it a literature of response, thus limiting its scope and creative force.

Which does the author mean by saying "Most people seem to take diversity for granted"?

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They __________ the project “Environmental preservation” at this time next Tuesday.

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Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth–century, public awareness of the changes increased to new levels in the 1890's. The acute, growing public awareness of the social changes that had been taking place for some time was tied to tremendous growth in popular journalism in the late nineteenth century, including growth in quantity and circulation of both magazines and newspapers. These developments, in addition to the continued growth of cities, were significant factors in the transformation of society from one characterized by relatively isolated self–contained communities into an urban, industrial nation. The decade of the 1870's, for example, was a period in which the sheer number of newspapers doubled, and by 1880 the New York Graphic had published the first photographic reproduction in a newspaper, portending a dramatic rise in newspaper readership. Between 1882 and 1886 alone, the price of daily newspapers dropped from four cents a copy to one cent, made possible in part by a great increase in demand. Furthermore, the introduction in 1890 of the first successful linotype machine promised even further growth. In 1872 only two daily newspapers could claim a circulation of over 100,000, but by 1892 seven more newspapers exceeded that figure. A world beyond the immediate community was rapidly becoming visible.
But it was not newspapers alone that were bringing the new awareness to people in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Magazines as they are known today began publication around 1882, and, in fact, the circulation of weekly magazines exceeded that of newspapers in the period which followed. By 1892, for example, the circulation of the Ladies' Home Journal had reached an astounding 700,000. An increase in book readership also played a significant part in this general trend. For example, Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward, sold over a million copies in1888, giving rise to the growth of organizations dedicated to the realization of Bellamy's vision of the future. The printed word, unquestionably, was intruding on the insulation that had characterized United States society in an earlier period.

Why does the author mention Edward Bellamy's novel Looking Backward?

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 Few people now realize the reality of global warming and its effects on the world’s climate. Many scientists (26)...... the blame for recent natural disasters on the increase in the world’s temperatures and are convinced that, more than ever before, the Earth is  at (27)........ from the forces of the wind, rain and sun. According to them, global warming is making extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, even more severe and causing sea levels all around the world to rise.
Environmental groups are putting pressure on governments to take action to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is given (28)....... by factories and power plants, thus attacking the problems at its source. They are in  (29)........... of more money being spent on research into solar, wind and wave energy devices, which could then replace existing power (30)......... . Some scientists, however, believe that even if we stopped releasing carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere tomorrow, we would have to wait several hundred years to notice the results. Global warming, it seems, is to stay.

(28)............................

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Full Moon festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival or ‘Tet Trung Thu’ in Vietnamese is held (1) _________ the 14th and 15th of the August lunar month. This is an (2) _________ harvest festival celebrated not only in Vietnam (3) ________ in other wet rice countries in Asia such as China, Taiwan, Hongkong, Japan, and Korea. The Full Moon festival offers leisure time for family members to come back home, organize and participate in a wide range of activities including children carrying paper lanterns, lion dances, ….

In fact, there aren’t (4) _______ important customs you must follow but it is good to find wonderful places to visit during this period. Mid-Autumn festival is best enjoyed in Hoi An by strolling down and admiring (5) ______ paper lanterns floating the Thu Bong Riverside. If you base in Hanoi, it is (6) _______ recommended to go to Thang Long Royal Citadel, My Dinh National Stadium, and Hoan Kiem Lake to enjoy a festive atmosphere of fun, safety, and peace.
1.Full Moon festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival or ‘Tet Trung Thu’ in Vietnamese is held (1) _________ the 14th and 15th of the August lunar month. 

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In the early 1800s, to reach the jump-off point for the West, a family from the East of the United States could either buy a steamboat passage to Missouri for themselves, their wagons and their livestock or, as happened more often, simply pile everything into a wagon, hitch up a team, and begin their overland trek right in their front yard.
Along the macadamized roads and turnpikes east of the Missouri River, travel was comparatively fast, camping easy, and supplies plentiful. Then, in one river town or another, the neophyte emigrants would pause to lay in provisions. For outfitting purposes, the town of Independence had been preeminent ever since 1827, but the rising momentum of pioneer emigration had produced some rival jump-off points. Westport and Fort Leavenworth flourished a few miles upriver. St. Joseph had sprung up 55 miles to the northwest; in fact, emigrants who went to Missouri by riverboat could save four days on the trail by staying on the paddle wheelers to St. Joe before striking overland.
At whatever jump-off point they chose, the emigrants studied guide books and directions, asked questions of others as green as themselves, and made their final decision about outfitting. They had various, sometimes conflicting, options. For example, either pack animals or two -wheel carts or wagons could be used for the overland crossing. A family man usually chose the wagon. It was the costliest and slowest of the three, but it provided space and shelter for children and for a wife who likely as not was pregnant. Everybody knew that a top-heavy covered wagon might blow over in a prairie wind or be overturned by mountain rocks, that it might mire in river mud or sink to its hubs in desert sand, but maybe if those things happened on this trip, they would happen to someone else. Anyway, most pioneers, with their farm background, were used to wagons.

What is the topic of this passage?

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Although management principles have been implemented since ancient times, most management scholars trace the beginning of modern management thought back to the early 19005, beginning with the pioneering work of Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) Taylor was the first person to study work scientifically. He is most famous for introducing techniques of time and motion study, differential piece rate systems, and for systemtically specializing the work of operating employees and managers. Along with other pioneers such as Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Taylor set the stage, labeling his philosophy and methods “scientific management’. At that time, his philosophy, which was concerned with productivity, but which was often misinterpreted as promoting worker interests at the expense of management, was in marked contrast to the prevailing industrial norms of worker exploitation.
The time and motion study concepts were popularized by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. The Gilbreths had 12 children. By analyzing his children’s dishwashing and bed making chores, this pioneer efficiency expert, Frank Gilbreth, hit on principles whereby workers could eliminate waste motion. He was memorialized by two of his children in their 1949 book called “Cheaper by the Dozen”.
The Gilbreth methods included using stop watches to time worker movements and special tools (cameras and special clocks) to monitor and study worker performance, and also involved
identification of “therbligs” (Gilbreth spelled backwards) - basic motions used in production jobs. Many of these motions and accompanying times have been used to determine how long it should take a skilled worker to perform a given job. In this way an industrial engineer can get a handle on the approximate time it should take to produce a product or provide a service. However, use of work analysis in this way is unlikely to lead to useful results unless all five work dimensions are considered. physical, psychological, social, cultural, and power.

The word “prevailing” is closest in meaning to     .

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The technology of the North American colonies did not differ strikingly from that of Europe, but in one respect, the colonists enjoyed a great advantage. Especially by comparison with Britain, Americans had a wonderfully plentiful supply of wood.
The first colonists did not, as many people imagine, find an entire continent covered by a climax forest. Even along the Atlantic seaboard, the forest was broken at many points. Nevertheless, all sorts of fine trees abounded, and through the early colonial period, those who pushed westward encountered new forests. By the end of the colonial era, the price of wood had risen slightly in eastern cities, but wood was still extremely abundant.
The availability of wood brought advantages that have seldom been appreciated. Wood was a foundation of the economy. Houses and all manner of buildings were made of wood to a degree unknown in Britain. Secondly, wood was used as fuel for heating and cooking. Thirdly, it was used as the source of important industrial compounds, such as potash, an industrial alkali; charcoal, a component of gunpowder; and tannic acid, used for tanning leather.
The supply of wood conferred advantages but had some negative aspects as well. Iron at that time was produced by heating iron ore with charcoal. Because Britain was so stripped of trees, she was unable to exploit her rich iron mines. But the American colonies had both iron ore and wood; iron production was encouraged and became successful. However, when Britain developed coke smelting, the Colonies did not follow suit because they had plenty of wood and besides, charcoal iron was stronger than coke iron. Coke smelting led to technologic innovations and was linked to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. In the early nineteenth century, the former colonies lagged behind Britain in industrial development because their supply of wood led them to cling to charcoal iron.

Which of the following is a common assumption about the forests of North America during the colonial period?

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   For centuries, time was measured by the position of the sun with the use of sundials. Noon was recognized when the sun was the highest in the sky, and cities would set their clock by this apparent solar time, even though some cities would often be on a slightly different time. Daylight Saving Time (DST), sometimes called summer time, was instituted to make better use of daylight. Thus, clocks are set forward one hour in the spring to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening and then set back one hour in the fall to return to normal daylight.

   Benjamin Franklin first conceived the idea of daylight saving during his tenure as an American delegate in Paris in 1984 and wrote about it extensively in his essay, "An Economical Project." It is said that Franklin awoke early one morning and was surprised to see the sunlight at such an hour. Always the economist, Franklin believed the practice of moving the time could save on the use of candlelight, as candles were expensive at the time.

   In England, builder William Willett (1857–1915) became a strong supporter for Daylight Saving Time upon noticing blinds of many houses were closed on an early sunny morning. Willet believed everyone, including himself, would appreciate longer hours of light in the evenings. In 1909, Sir Robert Pearce introduced a bill in the House of Commons to make it obligatory to adjust the clocks. A bill was drafted and introduced into Parliament several times but met with great opposition, mostly from farmers. Eventually, in 1925, it was decided that summer time should begin on the day following the third Saturday in April and close after the first Saturday in October.

   The U.S. Congress passed the Standard Time Act of 1918 to establish standard time and preserve and set Daylight Saving Time across the continent. This act also devised five time zones throughout the United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, and Alaska. The first time zone was set on "the mean astronomical time of the seventy-fifth degree of longitude west from Greenwich" (England). In 1919, this act was repealed.

   President Roosevelt established year-round Daylight Saving Time (also called War Time) from 1942–1945. However, after this period, each state adopted its own DST, which proved to be disconcerting to television and radio broadcasting and transportation. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson created the Department of Transportation and signed the Uniform Time Act. As a result, the Department of Transportation was given the responsibility for the time laws. During the oil embargo and energy crisis of the 1970s, President Richard Nixon extended DST through the Daylight Saving Time Energy Act of 1973 to conserve energy further. This law was modified in 1986, and Daylight Saving Time was reset to begin on the first Sunday in April (to spring ahead) and end on the last Sunday in October (to fall back).

The word “obligatory” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to

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Mandatory volunteering made many members of Maryland high school class of 1997 rumble with indignation. They didn’t like a new requirement that made them take part in the school’s community service program.
Future seniors, however, probably won't be as resistant now that the program has been broken in. Some, like John Maloney, already have completed their required hours of approved community service. The Bowie High School sophomore earned his hours in eighth grade by volunteering two nights a week at the Larkin-Chase Nursing and Restorative Center in Bowie. He played shuffleboard, cards, and other games with the senior citizens. He also helped plan parties for them and visited their rooms to keep them company. That experience inspired him to continue volunteering in the community.
John, 15, is not finished volunteering. Once a week he videotapes animals at the Prince George County animal shelter in Forestville. His footage is shown on the Bowie public access television channel in hopes of finding homes for the animals."Volunteering is better than just sitting around," says John, "and I like animals; I don't want to see them put to sleep. "
He's not the only volunteer in his family. His sister, Melissa, an eighth grader, has completed her hours also volunteering at Larkin-Chase. "It is a good idea to have kids go out into the community, but it's frustrating to have to write essays about the work," she said. "It makes you feel like you're doing it for the requirement and not for yourself."
The high school's service learning office, run by Beth Ansley, provides information on organizations seeking volunteers so that students will have an easier time fulfilling their hours. "It's ridiculous that people are opposing the requirements," said Amy Rouse, who this summer has worked at the Ronald McDonald House and has helped to rebuild a church in Clinton. "So many people won't do the service unless it's mandatory," Rouse said, "but once they start doing it, they'll really like it and hopefully it will become a part of their lives - like it has become a part of mine."

What is the main idea of the passage?

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The elements other than hydrogen and helium exist in such small quantities that it is accurate to say that the universe is somewhat more than 25 percent helium by weight and somewhat less than 75 percent hydrogen.
Astronomers have measured the abundance of helium throughout our galaxy and in other galaxies as well. Helium has been found in old stars, in relatively young ones, in interstellar gas, and in the distant objects known as quasars. Helium nuclei have also been found to be constituents of cosmic rays that fall on the earth (cosmic rays are not really a form of radiation; they consist of rapidly moving particles of numerous different kinds). It doesn’t seem to make very much difference where the helium is found. Its relative abundance never seems to vary much. In some places, there may be slightly more of it; in others, slightly less, but the ratio of helium to hydrogen nuclei always remains about the same.
Helium is created in stars. In fact, nuclear reactions that convert hydrogen to helium are responsible for most of the energy that stars produce. However, the amount of helium that could have been produced in this manner can be calculated, and it turns out to be no more than a few percent. The universe has not existed long enough for this figure to be significant greater. Consequently, if the universe is somewhat more than 25 percent helium now, then it must have been about 25 percent helium at a time near the beginning.
However, when the universe was less than one minute old, no helium could have existed. Calculations indicate that before this time temperature were too high and particles of matter were moving around much too rapidly. It was only after the one-minute point that helium could exist. By this time, the universe had cooled so sufficiently that neutrons and protons could stick together. But the nuclear reactions that led to the formations of helium went on for only relatively short time. By the time the universe was a few minutes old, helium production had effectively ceased.

 The word "they" refers to      

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   Animation traditionally is done by hand-drawing or painting successive frame of an object, each slightly different than the proceeding frame. In computer animation, although the computer may be the one to draw the different frames, in most cases the artist will draw the beginning and ending frames and the computer will produce the drawings between the first and the last drawing. This is generally referred to as computer-assisted animation, because the computer is more of a helper than an originator.

   In full computer animation, complex mathematical formulas are used to produce the final sequences of pictures. These formulas operate on extensive databases of numbers that defines the objects in the pictures as they exist in mathematical space. The database consists of endpoints, and color and intensity information. Highly trained professionals are needed to produce such effects because animation that obtains high degrees of realism involves computer techniques from three-dimensional transformation, shading, and curvatures.

   High-tech computer animation for film involves very expensive computer systems along with special color terminals or frame buffers. The frame buffer is nothing more than a giant image memory for viewing a single frame. It temporarily holds the image for display on the screen.

   A camera can be used to film directly from the computer’s display screen, but for the highest quality images possible, expensive film recorders are used. The computer computers the positions and colors for the figures in the picture, and sends this information to the recorder, which captures it on film. Sometimes, however, the images are stored on a large magnetic disk before being sent to the recorder. Once this process is completed, it is replaced for the next frame. When the entire sequence has been recorded on the film, the film must be developed before the animation can be viewed. If the entire sequence does not seem right, the motions must be corrected, recomputed, redisplayed, and rerecorded. This approach can be very expensive and time – consuming. Often, computer-animation companies first do motion tests with simple computer-generated line drawings before selling their computers to the task of calculating the high-resolution, realistic-looking images.

The word “Once” in the fourth paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.

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During the second half of the nineteenth century, the production of food and feed crops in the United States rose at an extraordinarily rapid rate. Com production increased by four and a half times, hay by five times, oats and wheat by seven times. The most crucial factor behind this phenomenal upsurge in productivity was the widespread adoption of labor-saving machinery by northern farmers. By 1850 horse- drawn reaping machines that cut grain were being introduced into the major grain-growing regions of the country. Horse-powered threshing machines to separate the seeds from the plants were already in general use. However, it was the onset of the Civil War in 1861 that provided the great stimulus for the mechanization of northern agriculture. With much of the labor force inducted into the army and with grain prices on the rise, northern farmers rushed to avail themselves of the new labor-saving equipment. In 1860 there were approximately 80,000 reapers in the country; five years later there were 350,000.
After the close of the war in 1865, machinery became ever more important in northern agriculture, and improved equipment was continually introduced. By 1880 a self-binding reaper had been perfected that not only cut the grain, but also gathered the stalks and bound them with twine. Threshing machines were also being improved and enlarged, and after 1870 they were increasingly powered by steam engines rather than by horses. Since steam-powered threshing machines were costly items-running from $ 1,000 to $4,000 - they were usually owned by custom thresher owners who then worked their way from farm to farm during the harvest season. “Combines” were also coming into use on the great wheat ranches in California and the Pacific Northwest. These ponderous machines - sometimes pulled by as many as 40 horses - reaped the grain, threshed it, and bagged it, all in one simultaneous operation.
The adoption of labor-saving machinery had a profound effect upon the sale of agricultural operations in the northern states-allowing farmers to increase vastly their crop acreage. By the end of century, a farmer employing the new machinery could plant and harvest two and half times as much com as a farmer had using hand methods 50 years before.

The word “crucial” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to     .

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Dark matter in the universe is believed by some scientists to be a substance that is not readily observable because it does not directly refract light or energy. Its existence can only be deduced because of the effect that it has on surrounding matter. In fact, some members of the scientific community have argued that dark matter does not actually exist. Others, however, believe in its existence, in part because the scientific community does not have a complete understanding of gravita science. On the other hand, some would argue that it is the understanding of gravitational science that leads most scientists to believe in the existence of dark matter, because without dark matter, there are many cosmological phenomena
that are difficult to explain.
For example, dark matter in the universe may have a peculiar effect on the Milky Way galaxy. Some scientists believe that the interaction between dark matter and other smaller, nearby galaxies is causing the Milky Way galaxy to take on a warped profile. It has been asserted that not only does dark matter exist, it may also be responsible for the Milky Way’s unusual shape. The interaction referenced involves two smaller galaxies near the Milky Way, called Magellanic clouds, moving through an enormous amount of dark matter, which, in effect, enhances the gravitational pull that the two Magellanic clouds could have on the Milky Way and other surrounding bodies. Without the existence of the dark matter, the Magellanic clouds would not have sufficient mass to have such a strong effect on the bend of the Milky Way galaxy.
The strongest evidence for the validity of this hypothesis rests in Newtonian physics, and the hypothesis that anything with mass will exert a gravitational pull. The Milky Way and other galaxies with peculiar warped shapes are being molded by a gravitational force. However, there is nothing readily observable with sufficient mass that could cause such a high level of distortion via gravitational pull in the vicinity of the Milky Way. Therefore, something that is not easily observed must be exerting the necessary force to create the warped shape of the galaxy.
Aaron Romanowsky and several colleagues have questioned the effect that dark matter might have on galaxies. They point to the existence of several elliptical galaxies surrounded by very little dark matter as evidence that dark matter is not, in fact, the cause of the warped galaxies. While they do not claim that their findings should be interpreted to conclude that dark matter does not exist, they apparently believe that the results of their studies cast doubt on some of the conventional theories of galaxy formation and manipulation.
Several models constructed by researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, however, point to the idea that dark matter is the most likely explanation for the distorted shape of the Milky Way and other galaxies. Using computer models, they have mapped the likely interactions between certain galaxies and the surrounding dark matter, and those models have shown not only the possibility that dark matter is responsible for the warped shape of the Milky Way, but that the relationship between the dark matter and the Magellanic clouds is dynamic; the movement of the clouds through the dark matter seems to create a wake that enhances their gravitational influence on the Milky Way.

The word “they” in paragraph 5 refers to:

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When living and working in another country, there are numerous things to consider apart from the more obvious ones of climate, language, religion, currency, etc. Some important considerations are less obvious. For example, do you have a pet or do you enjoy a hobby such as horse riding? Your animal or hobby may be perceived in a completely different light in another culture so it’s important to consider the significance given to specific animals in different parts of the world and general perceptions towards them.
One example which is often mentioned in popular press is the case of dogs. In some cultures, like the US or UK, dogs are loved and considered a great pet to have at home and with the family. In other cultures, such as those where Islam is the majority religion, dogs may be perceived as dirty or dangerous. Muslims treatment of dogs is still a matter of debate amongst Islamic scholars. While these animals are widely considered by many Western cultures to be „man’s best friend’, the Koran describes them as “unhygienic”. Muslims will therefore avoid touching a dog unless he can wash his hands immediately afterwards, and they will almost never keep a dog in their home.
In Iran, for instance, a cleric once denounced „the moral depravity’ of dog owners and even demanded their arrest. If you are an international assignee living and working in Saudi Arabia or another Arabic country, you should remember this when inviting Arab counterparts to your house in case you have a dog as a pet. This is just one example of how Islam and other cultural beliefs can impact on  aspects of everyday life that someone else may not even question. A Middle Eastern man might be very surprised when going to Japan, for instance, and seeing dogs being dressed and pampered like humans and carried around in baby prams!
Dogs are not the only animals which are perceived quite differently from one culture to another. In India, for example, cows are sacred and are treated with the utmost respect. Conversely in Argentina, beef is a symbol of national pride because of its tradition and the high quality of its cuts. An Indian working in Argentina who has not done his research or participated in a cross cultural training programme such as Doing Business in Argentina may be surprised at his first welcome dinner with his Argentinean counterparts where a main dish of beef would be served.
It is therefore crucial to be aware of the specific values assigned to objects or animals in different cultures to avoid faux–pas or cultural misunderstandings, particularly when living and working in another culture. Learning how people value animals and other symbols around the world is one of the numerous cultural examples discussed in Communicaid’s intercultural training courses. Understanding how your international colleagues may perceive certain animals can help you ensure you aren’t insensitive and it may even provide you with a good topic for conversation.

Which of the following could be the main idea of the passage?

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The main difference between urban growth in Europe and in the American colonies was the slow evolution of cities in the former and their rapid growth in the latter. In Europe they grew over a period of centuries from town economies to their present urban structure. In North America, they started as wilderness communities and developed to mature urbanism’s in little more than a century.
In the early colonial day in North America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic Coastline, mostly in what are now New America, small cities sprang up along the Atlantic United States and in the lower Saint Lawrence valley in Canada. This was natural because these areas were nearest England and France, particularly England, from which most capital goods (assets such as equipment) and many consumer goods were imported Merchandising establishments were, accordingly, advantageously located in port cities from which goods could be readily distributed to interior settlements. Here, too, were the favored locations for processing raw materials prior to export. Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Montreal, and other cities flourished, and, as the colonies grew, these cities increased in importance.
This was less true in the colonial South, where life centered around large farms, known as plantations, rather than around towns, as was the case in the areas further north along the Atlantic coastline. The local isolation and the economic self-sufficiency of the plantations were antagonistic to the development of the towns. The plantations maintained their independence because they were located on navigable streams and each had a wharf accessible to the small shipping of that day. In fact, one of the strongest factors in the selection of plantation land was the desire to have it front on a water highway.
When the United States became an independent nation in 1776, it did not have a single city as large as 50,000 inhabitants, but by 1820 it had a city of more than 10,000 people, and by 1880 it had recorded a city of over one million. It was not until after 1823, after the mechanization of the spinning and weaving industries, that cities started drawing young people away from farms. Such migration was particularly rapid following the Civil War (1861-1865).

The word “drawing” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to     .

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Life originated in the early seas less than a billion years after the Earth was formed. Yet another three billions years were to pass before the first plants and animals appeared on the continents. Life's transition from the sea to the land was perhaps as much of an evolutionary challenge as was the genesis of life.
What forms of life were able to make such a drastic change in lifestyle? The traditional view of the first terrestrial organisms is based on megafossils - relatively large specimens of essential whole plants and animals. Vascular plants, related to modern seed plants and ferns, left the first comprehensive megafossil record. Because of this, it has been commonly assumed that the sequence of terrestrialization reflected the evolution of 10 modern terrestrial ecosystems. In this view, primitive vascular plants first colonized the margins of continental waters, followed by animals that fed on the plants, and lastly by the animals that preyed on the plant-eaters. Moreover, the megafossils suggest that terrestrial life appeared and diversified explosively near the boundary between the Silurian and the Devonian periods, a little more than 400 million years ago.
Recently, however, paleontologists have been taking a closer look at sediments below this Silurian- Devonian geological boundary. It turns out that some fossils can be extracted from these sediments by putting the rock in an acid bath. The technique has uncovered new evidence from sediments that were deposited near the shores of the ancient oceans - plant microfossils and microscopic pieces of small animals. In many instances, the specimens are less than one-tenth of a millimeter in diameter. Although they were entombed in the rocks for hundreds of millions of years, many of the fossils consist of the organic remains of the organism.
These discovered fossils have not only revealed the existence ofpreviously unknown organisms, but have also pushed back these dates for the invasion of land by multicellular organisms. Our view about the nature of the early plants and animal communities are now being revised. And with those revisions come new speculations about the first terrestrial life-forms.

The word "drastic" is closest in meaning to     .

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks
We can (29)............ other people in many different ways. We can talk and write, and we can send messages with our hands and faces. There is also the phone (including the mobile!), the fax, and e-mail. Television, film, painting, and photography can also communicate ideas.
Animals have ways of exchanging information, too. Bees dance and tell other bees where (30)................. food. Elephants make sounds that humans can’t hear. Whales sing songs. Monkeys use their faces to show anger and love. But this is nothing (31)............._ to what people can do. We have language - about 6,000 languages, in fact. We can write poetry, tell jokes, make promises, explain, persuade, tell the truth, or tell lies. And we have a sense of past and future, not just present.
Radio, film, and television (32)......... a huge influence on society in the last hundred years. And now we have the Internet, which is infinite. But what is this doing to this? We can give and get a lot of information very quickly. But there is (33)........... information that it is difficult to know what is important and what isn’t. Modem media is changing our world every minute of every day.
(33)..................

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:
Although social changes in the United States were being wrought throughout most of the nineteenth–century, public awareness of the changes increased to new levels in the 1890's. The acute, growing public awareness of the social changes that had been taking place for some time was tied to tremendous growth in popular journalism in the late nineteenth century, including growth in quantity and circulation of both magazines and newspapers. These developments, in addition to the continued growth of cities, were significant factors in the transformation of society from one characterized by relatively isolated self–contained communities into an urban, industrial nation. The decade of the 1870's, for example, was a period in which the sheer number of newspapers doubled, and by 1880 the New York Graphic had published the first photographic reproduction in a newspaper, portending a dramatic rise in newspaper readership. Between 1882 and 1886 alone, the price of daily newspapers dropped from four cents a copy to one cent, made possible in part by a great increase in demand. Furthermore, the introduction in 1890 of the first successful linotype machine promised even further growth. In 1872 only two daily newspapers could claim a circulation of over 100,000, but by 1892 seven more newspapers exceeded that figure. A world beyond the immediate community was rapidly becoming visible.
But it was not newspapers alone that were bringing the new awareness to people in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Magazines as they are known today began publication around 1882, and, in fact, the circulation of weekly magazines exceeded that of newspapers in the period which followed. By 1892, for example, the circulation of the Ladies' Home Journal had reached an astounding 700,000. An increase in book readership also played a significant part in this general trend. For example, Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward, sold over a million copies in1888, giving rise to the growth of organizations dedicated to the realization of Bellamy's vision of the future. The printed word, unquestionably, was intruding on the insulation that had characterized United States society in an earlier period.

According to the passage, the New York Graphic's inclusion of photographs contributed to