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:
Of all modern instruments, the violin is apparently one of the simplest. It consists in essence of a hollow, varnished wooden sound box, or resonator, and a long neck covered with a fingerboard, along which four strings are stretched at high tension. The beauty of design, shape, and decoration is no accident. The proportions of the instrument are determined almost entirely by acoustical; considerations. Its simplicity of appearance is deceptive. About 70 parts are involved in the construction of a violin. Its tone and its outstanding range of expressiveness make it an ideal solo instrument. No less important, however, is its role as an orchestral and chamber instrument. In combination with the larger and deeper-sounding members of the same family, the violins form the nucleus of the modern symphony orchestra.
The violin has been in existence since about 1550. Its importance as an instrument in its own right dates from the early 1600’s, when it first became standard in Italian opera orchestras. Its stature as an orchestral instrument was raised further when in 1626 Louis XIII of France established at his court the orchestra known as Les vinq-quatre violons du Roy (The King’s 24 Violins), which was to become widely famous later in the century.
In its early history, the violin had a dull and rather quiet tone resulting from the fact that the strings were thick and were attached to the body of the instrument very loosely. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, exciting technical changes were inspired by such composer- violinists as Vivaldi and Tartini. Their instrumental compositions demanded a fuller, clearer, and more brilliant tone that was produced by using thinner strings and a far higher string tension. Small changes had to be made to the violin’s internal structure and to the fingerboard so that they could withstand the extra strain. Accordingly, a higher standard of performance was achieved, in terms of both facility and interpretation. Left-hand technique was considerably elaborated, and new fingering patterns on the fingerboard were developed for very high notes.

According to the passage which of the following contributes to a dull sound being produced by a violin?

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
                   A YEAR WITH OVERSEAS VOLUNTEERS
I was with Overseas Volunteers (OV) for a year after leaving university, and I was sent to an isolated village in Chad, about 500 kilometers from the capital N'Djamena. Coming from a rich country, I got quite a shock, as conditions were much harder than I had expected. But after a few days I got used to (1).................there. The people were always very friendly and helpful, and I soon began to appreciate how beautiful the countryside was.
 One of my jobs was to supply the village (2).............. water. The well was a long walk away, and the women  used  to  spend  a  long  time  every day (3)....................heavy  pots  backwards  and forwards. So I contacted the organization and arranged to have some pipes delivered. (4)......... these pipes were not really perfect, they still made a great difference to the villagers.
All in all, I think my time with OV was a good experience. Although it was not paid, it was well worth doing and I would recommend it to anyone (5).............. was considering working for a charity.

(4)....................................................

Rewrite the sentence
My father promised to reward me if I passed the English test.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Aspirin's origins go back at least as early as 1758. In that year, Englishman Edward Stone noticed a distinctive bitter flvor in the bark of the willow tree. To Stone, this particular bark seem to have much in common with "Peruvian Bark", which had been used medicinally since the 1640s to bring down fevers and to treat malaria, stone decided to test the effectiveness of the willow bark. He obtained some, pulverized it into tiny pieces, and conducted experiments on its properties. His tests demonstrated that this pulverized willow bark was effective both in reducing high temperatures and in relieving aches and pains. In 1763, stone presented his tiding to the British Royal Society. Several decades later, further studies on the medicinal value of the willow bark were being conducted by two Italian scientists. These chemists, Brugnatelli and Fontana, determined that the active chemical that was responsible for the medicinal characteristics in the willow bark was the chemical salicin, which is the active ingredient of today's aspirin. The name "aspirin" is the trade name of the drug based on the chemical salicin, properly known as acetylsalicylic acid.The trade name "aspirin" was invented for the drug in the 1890s by the Bayer Drug Company in Germany. The fist bottles of aspirin actually went on sale to the publicjust prior to the turn of the century, in 1899.
1. According to the passage, aspirin originated: 

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Lady Liberty
New York City is undoubtedly one of the most famous cities in the world. There are several landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Broadway, and Times Square which have come to symbolize the Big Apple. Although these landmarks are all impressive, nothing captures the true spirit of the city like a gigantic, greenish sculpture that stands proudly in New York Harbour: the famed Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was created as a special gift to the US by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. It was designed to represent the friendship between the French and American people, two close allies that fought against the British during the American Revolutionary War. Initially, Bartholdi anticipated that he would be able to finish the statue by 1876. The project was conceived as a joint venture. The French would fund and create the statue and send it to the US, while Americans would provide a location and build a pedestal to display it on. The initial completion date would eventually be delayed, however, due to financial issues with both nations. Bartholdi had some technical issues to deal with as well. He had never designed an enormous copper structure of this size and he required some expert assistance. Therefore, Bartholdi recruited Alexandre Gustave Eiffel the designer of the Eiffel Tower to help him. After nine years of hard work, the 151-foot, 22-ton statue was eventually completed and presented to the American Ambassador in France. It then had to he taken apart and separated into crates before being delivered to the US. It took another two years before Americans were able to raise enough public funds to build the pedestal that she would stand on. But the task was finally completed and the Statue of Liberty was assembled and dedicated on October 28, 1886. Over the years, the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty continued to glow more and more important until it became a key symbol of the entire nation. During the late 19th and early 20th century, it was the first landmark that waves of immigrants saw as they sailed into Ellis island. The sight of this symbol of freedom gave them hope and inspiration that their life would be better in their new country. Even today, people from all around the world see it as a powerful symbol of the American democracy.
1. What reasons does the passage give for why the Statue of Liberty is special?

Jane is talking to Mike, who has just helped her with her luggage.

- Jane: “_________.” - Mike: “It’s my pleasure.”

(94)______

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Inside the Mind of a Sushi Legend
During our lives, it is likely we will have not one, but several careers. People change jobs due to boredom, to earn more money, or because they want to experience more from life. Although this certainly brings variety to life, it also prevents workers from achieving mastery in their craft. This is what makes Sukiyabashi Jiro so incredible. For the past 75 years, he was dedicated his life to one goal: perfecting his technique so that he can make the world’s best sushi. In the documentary Jiro: Dreams of Sushi, viewers get a peek inside the life of this genius. For Jiro, who owns a three-star Michelin restaurant, sushi is not simply taking raw fish, vinegar, and rice, and arranging them together. He insists that every detail must be perfect. Watching him at work is similar to seeing an artist in action. Yet, the true key to his success is not creative imagination: it’s his dedication and repetition. Jiro has kept the same daily schedule for decades. As he goes about his tasks, he always searches for small ways to improve his craft. Jiro won’t accept anything less than the best. He has committed to using only the freshest ingredients, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get them. This means heading down to the local fish market daily to purchase fish which has just been caught that day. Jiro only deals with the top fish dealer, who is also a master of his trade. This seller reserves only the best of the best for Jiro, which Jiro inspects closely before making his choices. Back at the shop, the sushi rice is also prepared with delicate care. If he senses something is not up to standards, he will have his employees trash it and start all over again. At the age of 85, Jiro is aware that he won’t be able to continue making sushi forever. Therefore, he has been training his two middle-aged sons for many years to learn his techniques and philosophies. His eldest son, Yamamoto, works side-by-side with Jiro to this day. His younger son, Takashi, has opened his own sushi restaurant elsewhere in Tokyo. In the film, both sons discuss how difficult it is to live up to their famous father’s expectations and match his rigorous work ethic. To learn more about Jiro and his methods, be sure to catch this fascinating film.
7. Which of the following statements does the author support most?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions.
“Why don't we go for a walk?" Mary said.

Choose the best answer:
I/ make/ friends/ foreigner/ in/ chat room.

ASEAN has ______ population of 575.5 million.

(497)______

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:
An air pollutnt is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or materials adversely. Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled – a far cry from the extensive list of harmful subtances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions.
Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and notrigen oxides, are found in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentration of these pollutants was altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis, nature’s output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities.
However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as as city. In such a region, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need not be large for a subtance to be a pollutant; in fact, the numerial value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over ther concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm), which is about 400 times its natural level. Carbon monoxide, however, has a natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

Choose the best answer:
Do you know which country __________ the 2022 World cup?

Choose the best answer:
The streets are getting more and …………… these days.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Left-handers are the odd ones out. Sure, lefties (1) ______up about 10 percent of the population - but, frankly, it seems like society has forgotten about them. Just consider all of the right- handed gadgets, awkwardly designed desks, and cooking tools that fit comfortably only in your right hand. What (2) ______someone to become a lefthand? Scientists aren’t exactly sure, but research points to a complex (3) ______between genes and environment While no exact set of “leftie genes” have been discovered, people who dominantly use their left hands do have more left-handed family members. And researchers have found different brain wirings in righties vs. lefties. But no matter (4) ______it is that drives someone to use their antipodal paw, science has also uncovered a particular set of personality traits that left-handed people tend to have. So for all of you lefties, leftie-loving righties, and ambidextrous folks out there - it’s time to brush up on your left-handed knowledge and help (5) ______an end to leftie discrimination once and for all.

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 :
When people are looking for a great way to (1)_________ themselves of boredom, videos found on the Internet are often the perfect solution. Such websites as YouTube, Dailymotion, and Vimeo have become so popular that they are known to get millions of visits each day. YouTube is known for allowing people to create their own videos and share them with the world. It is (2)________ YouTube that enormous amounts of interest in certain videos can be created. So many people watch them that the interest (3)________ from person to person is almost exponential. Another site that is similar to YouTube is called Vimeo. Although it (4)_________ as a direct competitor to YouTube, Vimeo has more of a concentration on longer videos. However, the (5)_________ is the same in which the service allows users to share their videos with a very wide audience on the Internet.

Choose the best answer:
Men/ should/ share/ housework/ tasks/ wives.

Choose the best answer:
visitors/ every year/ This/ has/ more than/ city/ 2000.

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.

      Centuries ago, man discovered that removing moisture from food helped to preserve it, and that the easiest way to do this was to expose the food to sun and wind. In this way the North American Indians produced pemmican (dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes), the Scandinavians made stockfish and the Arabs dried dates and apricots.

      All foods contain water - cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93% water, potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75% and fish anything from 80% to 60% depending on how fatty it is. If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria which cause food to go bad is checked.

      Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also in California, South Africa and Australia. The methods used vary, but in general the fruit is spread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun. In order to prevent darkening, pears, peaches and apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur before drying. Plums for making prunes, and certain varieties of grapes for making raisins and currants, are dipped in an alkaline solution in order to crack the skins of the fruit slightly and remove their wax coating, so increasing the rate of drying.

      Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically; the conventional method of such dehydration is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about 110oC at entry to about 45oC at exit. This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced meat, and fish.

      Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot air passes. In the first case, the dried material is scraped off the roller as a thin film which is then broken up into small, though still relatively coarse flakes. In the second process it falls to the bottom of the chamber as a fine powder. Where recognizable pieces of meat and vegetables are required, as in soup, the ingredients are dried separately and then mixed.

      Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans or frozen, and they do not need to be stored in special conditions. For these reasons they are invaluable to climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storage space. They are also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook them.

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

___ I visit him, we talk about politics a lot.

(509)_____

Choose the best answer:
Do you find the internet ______, Nam?