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:
Sir Anthony Van Dyck, one of the world’s greatest masters of portraiture, was born in Antwerp and was the seventh of twelve children. His affluent father apprenticed him to a painter when he was just a little over ten. Having become a member of the Antwerp Guild of painters before he was nineteen, he worked in the studio of Peter Paul Rubens for several years. In Italy, Van Dyck studied the great Venetian masters and painted flattering portraits of gorgeous ladies and haughty nobles in gilded velvet robes with lace and pearls. While he was sought after by the aristocracy for his acclaimed loose brushwork, his engravings and etchings also evinced his outstanding talent. Upon his return to Antwerp in 1628, he was influenced by Rubens’s interpretation of the artistic form and produced numerous religious paintings while holding an appointment as the court painter. During his tenure, he proved that his use of color, his sensitive elegance, and his remarkable insight were unexcelled.
His fame preceded him to England, where he was invited by King Charles I. After years of faithful service, he was knighted in recognition of his achievements in painting countless portraits of the king, the queen, the royal children, and the titled nobility of England.
However, Van Dyck’s greatest piece is one of his religious works, a true masterpiece displayed in the Antwerp gallery. This group scene exhibits his artful polish in painting the folds of fabric, the delicacy of human skin, landscape, and other externals, and puts him above other accomplished contemporary masters. Although Charles paid Van Dyck a salary and granted him a pension, the painter’s extravagant life-style and penchant for luxuries led him into debt, and he died without means.

How did Charles I honor Van Dyck?

Before the 1500’s, the Western plains of North America were dominated by farmers. One group, the Mandans, lived in the upper Missouri River country, primarily in present-day North Dakota. They had large villages of houses built close together. The tight arrangement enabled the Mandans to protect themselves more easily from the attacks of others who might seek to obtain some of the food these highly capable farmers stored from one year to the next.
The women had primary responsibility for the fields. They had to exercise considerable skill to produce the desired results, for their northern location meant fleeting growing seasons. Winter often lingered; autumn could be ushered in by severe frost. During the spring and summer, drought, heat, hail, grasshoppers, and other frustrations might await the wary grower.
Under such conditions, Mandan women had to grow maize capable of weathering adversity. They began as early as it appeared feasible to do so in the spring, clearing the land, using fire to clear stubble from the fields and then planting. From this point until the first green corn could be harvested, the crop required labor and vigilance. Harvesting proceeded in two stages. In August the Mandans picked a smaller amount of the crop before it had matured fully. This green corn was boiled, dried, and shelled, with some of the maize slated for immediate consumption and the rest stored in animal-skin bags. Later in the fall, the people picked the rest of the corn. They saved the best of the harvest for seeds or for trade, with the remainder eaten right away or stored for later use in underground reserves. With appropriate banking of the extra food, the Mandans protected themselves against the disaster of crop failure and accompanying hunger.
The women planted another staple, squash, about the first of June, and harvested it near the time of the green corn harvest. After they picked it, they sliced it, dried it, and strung the slices before they stored them. Once again, they saved the seed from the best of the year`s crop. The Mandans also grew sunflowers and tobacco; the latter was the particular task of the older men.

Throughout the passage, the author implies that the Mandans  ............

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:
It is often the case with folktales that they develop from actual happenings but in their development lose much of their factual base; the story of Pocahontas quite possibly fits into this category of folktale. This princess of the Powhatan tribe was firmly established in the lore of early America and has been made even more famous by the Disney film based on the folktale that arose from her life. She was a real-life person, but the actual story of her life most probably different considerably from the folktale and the movie based on the folktale. Powhatan, the chief of a confederacy of tribes in Virginia, had several daughters, none of whom was actually named Pocahontas. The nickname means “playful one,” and several of Powhatan’s daughters were called Pocahontas. The daughter of Powhatan who became the subject of the folktale was named Matoaka. What has been verified about Matoaka, or Pocahontas as she has come to be known, is that she did marry an Englishman and that she did spend time in England before she died there at a young age. In the spring of 1613, a young Pocahontas was captured by the English and taken into Jamestown. There she was treated with courtesy as the daughter of chief Powhatan. While Pocahontas was at Jamestown, English gentlemen John Rolfe fell in love with her and asked her to marry. Both the governor of the Jamestown colony and Pocahontas’s father Powhatan approved the marriage as a means of securing peace between Powhatan’s tribe and the English at Jamestown. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her new husband to England, where she was royally received. Shortly before her planned return to Virginia in 1617, she contracted an illness and died rather suddenly.
A major part of the folktale of Pocahontas that is unverified concerns her love for English Captain John Smith is the period of time before her capture by the British and her rescue of him from almost certain death. Captain John Smith was indeed at the colony of Jamestown and was acquainted with Powhatan and his daughters, he even described meeting them in 1612 journal. However, the story of his rescue by the young maiden did not appear in his writing until 1624, well after Pocahontas had aroused widespread interest in England by her marriage to an English gentlemen and her visit to England. It is the discrepancy in dates that has caused some historians to doubt the veracity of the tale. However, other historians do argue quite persuasively that this incident did truly take place.

What is true about the name Pocahontas, according to the passage?

No educational medium better as means of spatial communication than the atlas. Atlases deal with such invaluable information as population distribution and density. One of the best, Pennycooke's World Atlas, has been widely accepted as a standard owing to the quality of its maps and photographs, which not only show various settlements but also portray them in a variety of scales. In fact, the very first map in the atlas is a cleverly designed population cartogram that projects the size of each country if geographical size were proportional to population. Following the proportional layout, a sequence of smaller maps shows the world’s population density, each country’s birth and death rates, population increase or decrease, industrialization, urbanization, gross national product in terms of per capita income, the quality of medical care, literacy, and language. To give readers a perspective on how their own country fits in with the global view, additional projections depict the world's patterns in nutrition, calorie and protein consumption, health care, number of physicians per unit of population, and life expectancy by region. Population density maps on a subcontinental scale, as well as political maps. Convey the diverse demographic phenomena of the world in a broad array of scales.

The word “convey” in the passage is closest 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 .
A recent (1)....... of a language learning magazine has consulted a number of experts in the field of second language acquisition. Their advice may prove invaluable for those considering a language course. One suggestion is that you access whether you are likely to be successful (2)........ learning a language. Did you enjoy studying language at school, for example? Do you have enough time to learn a language ? The major cost will be your own time and effort. Therefore, you must make sure that course on  offer  leads  to  a  recognized  qualification.  Also,  be  realistic  in your (3).......... If you don’t set achievable aims, you are more likely to give up. Don’t be deceived into thinking that the most expensive courses are the best. Shop around to get the best possible value for money. You should also bear in your mind that the quicker you learn a language, the more quickly you forget it. Sandra Miller, a French teacher, tried to teach herself German by enrolling on a crash course. Already fluent in four languages and with a sound knowledge of teaching methodology her chances of (4)........ progress were high. Three years on she remembers very little. She feels her biggest mistake was not to follow up her first experience.  "I  think  the  teacher’s  role  is  important.  It's  so  nice  to  have  somebody  give  you  a/an (5) ........... ”.
(2)................................

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.

      Contrary to popular belief, one does not have to be a trained programmer to work online. Of course, there are plenty of jobs available for people with high-tech computer skills, but the growth of new media has opened up a wide range of Internet career opportunities requiring only a minimal level of technical expertise. Probably one of the most well-known online job opportunities is the job of Webmaster. However, it is hard to define one basic job description for this position. The qualifications and responsibilities depend on what tasks a particular organization needs a Webmaster to perform.

      To specify the job description of a Webmaster, one needs to identify the hardware and software the website the Webmaster will manage is running on. Different types of hardware and software require different skill sets to manage them. Another key factor is whether the website will be running internally or externally (renting shared space on the company servers). Finally, the responsibilities of a webmaster also depend on whether he or she will be working independently, or whether the firm will provide people to help. All of these factors need to be considered before one can create an accurate webmaster job description.

      Webmaster is one type of Internet career requiring in-depth knowledge of the latest computer applications. However, there are also online jobs available for which traditional skills remain in high demand. Content jobs require excellent writing skills and a good sense of the web as a “new media”.

      The term “new media” is difficult to define because it compasses a constantly growing set of new technologies and skills. Specifically, it includes websites, email, internet technology, CD-ROM, DVD, streaming audio and video, interactive multimedia presentations, e-books, digital music, computer illustration, video games, virtual reality, and computer artistry.

      Additionally, many of today’s Internet careers are becoming paid-by-the-job professions. With many companies having to downsize in tough economic items, the outsourcing and contracting of freelance workers online has become common business practice. The Internet provides an infinite pool of buyers from around the world with whom freelancers can contract their services. An added benefit to such online jobs is that freelancers are able to work on projects with companies outside their own country.

      How much can a person make in these kinds of careers? As with many questions related to today’s evolving technology, there is no simple answer. There are many companies willing to pay people with Internet skills salaries well over $70,000 a year. Generally, webmasters start at about $30,000 per year, but salaries can vary greatly. Freelance writers working online have been known to make between $40,000 to $70,000 a year.

Which of the followings is not mentioned as part of the “new media”?

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.
          Keeping the World in Our Pockets
Faster processors and advances in memory technology have made today’s smartphones much more powerful than a lot of computers from just a decade ago. With wireless technology, people can surf the Internet, play online games, send e-mail, and do (1)............ all the things they once could only do on a computer. (2)......... , they have the power to do things constantly at their fingertips.
Many people (3)....... that while smartphones are powerful tools, they are making people reliant on them. Why would a person need to learn to read a map when he can get directions to anywhere by simply asking his phone a question? Who needs to learn maths when you have immense calculating power in your pocket at all times? What (4).........is there to memorise facts about history, art, or geography when that information is readily available from a portable Internet interface?
There are just some of the questions being asked and answered as smartphone usage continues to spread. Like any technology, smartphones have their advantages, but they do have disadvantages as well that we must (5).......... an eye on.
(1)............................

Of all the aspirations which make up the American Dream, perhaps the most prominent is to own one’s own home. Americans are very proud of their homes and spend a great deal of time maintaining their houses and keeping the property in good condition. A man's home is often called his castle, and the hours spent keeping his fortress safe and secure become one of his greatest pleasures.
If a home is in an especially fashionable neighborhood, the owners may consult an interior decorator to give the home a certain coordinated appearance. If there is a large back yard, great care may be spent in having it properly landscaped with exotic trees, shrubs and plants.
It is almost a certainty that you should be the first visitor to an American home, you will be taken on a grand tour of the premises. The owner will take great pride in showing to you the place he calls home. Every closet, every cabinet and closed door will be opened so that you can actually see the extent and value of his home. You will even be taken into the father's den and the mother's sewing room. These are special rooms for the respective man and woman of the house to insure their privacy. They may be off-limits to the rest of the family but, for the visitor they are open to scrutiny and inspection.
It is, of course, considered polite on the tour to comment favorably on each room picking out its most salient, important feature, such as the special view from the window, the vaulted ceiling in the foyer or the exotic choice of wallpaper in the bathroom.
The finished basement is a special cause for pride for the family with its exercise room, video games, carpenter shop and launderette. In most homes it is here that the family entertains itself in the evening while the rest of the house becomes more of a showcase. On your tour you may be reminded of the hours the owners had spent "fixing up the house" so it would be "nice for the kids to bring over their friends". You may even sense a feeling of competition in knowing that they have not only "kept up with the Joneses" but also have far surpassed them.
The tour will terminate after an hour or so somewhere on the back lawn next to the two-car air- conditioned garage where you may be treated to a snack and light refreshment.
Showing off one's home is more than an exercise in vanity. It is a tribute to one's accomplishment. It is a way of saying that a man has been a good provider for his family and that he has realized one of his dreams.

What is the purpose of a finished basement?

Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:

"When Franklin Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932. not only the United States but also the rest of the world was in the throes of an economic depression. Following the termination of World War I, Britain and the United States at first experienced a boom in industry. Called the Roaring Twenties, the 1920s ushered in a number of things - prosperity, greater equality for women in the work world, rising consumption, and easy credit. The Outlook for American business was rosy.
 October 1929 was a month that had catastrophic economic reverberation worldwide. The American stock market witnessed the “Great Crash,” as it is called, and the temporary boom in the American economy came to a standstill. Stock prices sank, and panic spread. The ensuing unemployment figure soared to 12 million by 1932.
 Roosevelt was elected because he promised a “New Deal” to lift the United States out of the doldrums of the depression. Following the principles advocated to Keynes, a British economist, Roosevelt mustered the spending capacities of the federal government to provide welfare, work, and agricultural aid to the millions of down-and-out Americans. Roosevelt succeeded in dragging the nation out of the Depression before the outbreak of World War II."

1. A good title for this passage would be ………..

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.

   Before the mid-nineteenth century, people in the United States ate most foods only in season. Drying, smoking and salting could preserve meat for a short time, but the availability of fresh meat, like that of fresh milk, was very limited; there was no way to prevent spoilage. But in 1810, a French inventor named Nicolas Appert developed the cooking-and-sealing process of canning. And in the 1850’s an American named Gail Borden developed a means of condensing and preserving milk. Canned goods and condensed milk became more common during the 1860’s, but supplies remained low because cans had to be made by hand. By 1880, however, inventors had fashioned stamping and soldering machines that massproduced cans from tinplate. Suddenly all kinds of food could be preserved and bought at all times of the year.

   Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary their daily diets. Growing urban population created demand that encouraged fruit and vegetable farmers to raise more produce. Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer periods. Thus, by the 1890’s, northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes, previously available for a month at most, for up to six months of the year. In addition, increased use of iceboxes enabled families to store perishables. As easy means of producing ice commercially had been invented in the 1870’s, and by 1900 the nation had more than two thousand commercial ice plants, most of which made home deliveries. The icebox became afixture in most homes and remained so until the mechanized refrigerator replaced it in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

   Almost everyone now had a more diversified diet. Some people continued to eat mainly foods that were heavily in starches or carbohydrates, and not everyone could afford meat. Nevertheless, many families could take advantage of previously unavailable fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to achieve more varied fare.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

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:
Cyclones in India, hurricanes in the Caribbean - severe weather events make news headlines almost weekly. Yet even in Britain, which has comparatively few climate extremes, the country is still governed by weather. If it’s pouring with rain the British might stay indoors or go to the cinema; if it’s fine they’ll have a picnic.
Most people nervously study the weather forecast the evening before if they’ve got an important appointment the following day. Even if they have nothing planned, the weather often affects their mood.
For individuals, the worst that can usually happen if the weather catches them on the hop is that they get wet. For business, the effects are far more serious. Airlines and shipping companies need to avoid severe weather and storm-force conditions. Power companies need to make sure they can supply the demand for electricity in cold weather; farmers plan their harvests around the forecast and food manufacturers increase their production of salads and other summer foods when fine weather is promised.
So who or what do meteorologists - weather forecasters as they are more commonly known - rely on when it comes to producing a forecast? Ninety percent of the information comes from weather satellites, the first of which was launched into space nearly forty years ago and was a minor revolution in the science of forecasting. Up until then, forecasters had relied on human observers to provide details of developing weather systems. As a result, many parts of the world where there were few humans around, especially the oceans, were information-free weather areas. Today, however, satellites can watch weather patterns developing everywhere.
In the UK meteorologists have also relied on releasing four weather balloons a day from eight fixed sites. These balloons measure wind, temperature and humidity as they rise upwards to a height of about 26,000 metres.
Some commercial aircraft can also be fitted with a range of forecasting instruments although this  system has certain disadvantages. For example, it can provide a great deal of information about the weather on popular routes, such as London to New York, but little about the weather on more out-of-the way routes.
Instruments aboard ships can also supply basic weather information as well as important data on wave height. Generally, the range of these instruments is fairly limited but they can indicate which direction rain is coming from, how low the cloud is and give an idea of when the weather system will reach land.
One forecaster who has made a name for himself is a man called Piers Corbyn, who bases his forecasts on watching the Sun. Most forecasters will offer forecasts for only 10 days ahead, but Corbyn’s forecasts are for 11 months. Although most meteorologists believe that there is no scientific basis for his work, Corbyn’s forecasts are used by insurance companies who want to plan months in advance.

What does ‘it’ in paragraph 6 refer to?

Read the passage below and choose one correct answer for each question.

Between 1945 and 1973, the economies of the industrialized nations of Western Europe, Japan, and the U. S. grew fast enough to vastly improve living standards for their residents. A similarly favorable growth was registered by some, but far from all, of the developing or industrializing nations, in particular such thriving Southeast Asian economies as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea. After the devastation of World War II, a substantial rebuilding boom, combined with lavish flows of aid from the US, generated rapid growth in Western Europe and Japan. American multinational corporations invested heavily in the rest of the world. Perhaps the most important of all, energy was plentiful and cheap.

Poor nations need aid from the rich nations in the form of capital and of technological and organizational expertise. They also need easy access to the markets of the industrialized nations for their manufactures and raw materials. However, the political capacity of rich nations to respond to these needs depends greatly on their own success in coping with inflation and unemployment. In democratic communities, it is exceedingly difficult to generate public support for assistance to foreign countries when average wage earners are themselves under serious financial pressure. It is not easier politically to permit cheap foreign merchandise and materials to freely enter American and European markets when they are viewed as the cause of unemployment among domestic workers.

In many democratic communities, average wage earners are never under serious financial, pressure.

Whales are the largest animals in the world, and the gentlest creatures we know. Although the whale is very huge, it is not hindered at all by its size when it is in the water. Whales have tails that end like flippers. With just a gentle flick, it can propel itself forward. The skin of a whale is so smooth that it does not create any friction that can slow the whale down. A whale’s breathing hole is located on the top of its head, so it can breathe without having to completely push its head out of the water. Whales are protected from the cold seawater by body fat that is called blubber.
Whales live in the ocean but, in terms of behaviours, they are more similar to humans than fish. They live in family groups and they even travel in groups when they have to migrate from cooler to warmer waters. The young stay with their parents for as long as fifteen years. Whales are known not to desert the ill or injured members; instead, they cradle them.
When whales are in danger, there are people who go to great lengths to help them. One such case occurred in 1988, when three young whales were trapped in the sea. It was close to winter and the sea had begun to freeze over. Whales are mammals that require oxygen from the air, so the frozen ice was a great danger to them. All they had then was a tiny hole in the ice for them to breathe through. Volunteers from all over soon turned up to help these creatures. They cut holes in the ice to provide more breathing holes for the whales. These holes would also serve as guides for the whales so that they could swim to warmer waters.

According to the passage, why was the frozen ice on the sea surface a danger to whales?

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:
Working on the computer is very tough on your body, which is not used to this modem type of work. Sitting has long been known to cause back pain and negatively influence circulation, which can promote cardiovascular disease. Extensive use of the keyboard and mouse can lead to stiffening of the muscles in your hands, arms, and neck. Staring at a bright screen for too long can cause dry eyes and headaches. So, computer work can be as unhealthy a job as you can imagine.
First and foremost, sitting for long stretches of time is a very serious health risk! Sitting affects your blood circulation, your back experiences a steady stress, you are more likely to drink and eat stuff that isn’t good for you, and you bum very little calories, making it more likely that you overeat. As a result, sitting contributes to a host of conditions, most notably gaining weight, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and consequently a shortened life span.
Second, bad posture causes pain. You can develop bad posture from anything you do habitually, whether it’s sitting, standing, or walking. The typical consequences associated with bad posture while working on the computer are pain in the back, shoulder, and neck, often resulting in tension headaches.
Third, staring at the screen causes eve strain. Staring at a bright screen for hours can lead to eye fatigue or eye strain, headaches, blurred vision, burning, itching or tearing eyes, and temporary vision disorders. Fortunately, eye strain rarely results in a permanent condition and symptoms can be prevented or cured rather easily.
Last, but not least, emotional pressure and isolation cause anxiety and depression. Computers are very efficient tools in that they help us with getting more work done in less time. At the same time, you spend less face-to-face time with your colleagues, family, or friends. This can lead to isolation, anxiety, and depression, i.e. both physical and mental health issues. The symptoms are manifold and can include tense muscles, back pain, headaches, poor sleep (insomnia), increased or flat breathing, quickened pulse, and generally signs of stress, depression, or anxiety.

According to the passage, all the mentioned issues are     .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

Vietnam is considered a third world country, its people live (26) _____ poverty by the millions. After the (27) _____, Vietnam's economy remained dominated by small-scale production, low labor productivity, (28) _____, material and technological shortfalls, and insufficient food and (29) _____ goods. The Doi Moi reforms that were instated in 1986 have shed new light and added new features to the Vietnamese economy. (30) ____ Vietnamese Communist Party plays a leading role in establishing the foundations and principles of communism, mapping strategies for economic development, setting growth targets, and (31) _____ reforms. Doi Moi combined government planning with free-market incentives and (32) _____ the establishment of private businesses and foreign investment, including foreign-owned enterprises. By the late 1990s, the success of the business and agricultural reforms ushered in under Doi Moi was evident. (33) _____ than 30,000 private businesses had been created, and the economy was growing at an annual (34) _____ of more than 7 percent. Farming systems research and the international development projects are a source of new hope for the people of Vietnam. If these recent projects are successful and Doi Moi continues on its current path the Vietnamese people may (35) _____ a new standard of living. More reforms like Doi Moi need to take place in order to create a more stable Vietnamese future.

(34) _____

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:
Halloween falls on October 31 each year in North America and other part of the world. What do you know about Halloween? Do you celebrate it in your country? Here is a little history about it?
Like other holidays, Halloween has evolved and changed throughout history. Over 2,000 years ago people called the Celts lived in what is now Ireland, the UK, and parts of Northern France. November 1 was their New Year's Day. They believed that the night before the New Year (October 31) was a time when the living and the dead came together.
More than a thousand years ago the Christian church named November 1 All Saints Day (also called All Hallows). This was a special holy day to honor the saints and other people who died for their religion. The night before All Hallows was called Hallows Eve. Later the name was changed to Halloween.
Like the Celts, the Europeans of that time also believed that the spirits of the dead would visit the earth on Halloween. They worried that evil spirits would cause problems or hurt them. So on that night people wore costumes that looked like ghosts or other evil creatures. They thought if they dressed like that, the spirits would think they were also dead and not harm them.
The tradition of Halloween was carried to America by the immigrating Europeans. Some of the traditions changed a little, though. For example, on Halloween in Europe some people would carry lanterns made from turnips. In America, pumpkins were more common. So people began putting candles inside them and using them as lanterns. That is why you see Jack 'o lanterns today.
These days Halloween is not usually considered a religious holiday. It primarily a fun for children. Children dress up in costumes like people did a thousand years ago. But instead of worrying about evil spirits, they go from house to house. They knock on door and say "trick or treat". The owner of each house give candy or something special to each trick and treat.

The word "trick or treat" in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ..................

Choose the best answer: 
We are all slowly (1) __________  the earth. The seas and rivers are too dirty to swim in.
There is so much smoke in the air that it is unhealthy to live in many of the world’s cities. In one well-
known city, for example, poisonous gases (2) __________ cars pollute the air so much that traffic
policemen have to wear oxygen masks. We have cut down (3) __________ trees that there are now
vast areas of wasteland all over the world. As a result, farmers in parts of Africa cannot grow enough
(4) __________. In certain countries in Asia, there is too little rice. Moreover, we do not take care of
the countryside.
Wild animals are quickly disappearing. For instance, tigers are rare in India now because we
have killed too many of them. However, it isn’t enough simply to talk about the problem. We must act
now before it is too late to do (5) __________ about it. Join us now. Save the Earth!
2.

Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

We won't have robot doctors for a long time, (1) ____ the human doctors we have now are beginning to learn on specialized artificial intelligence to help save time.

Google Deep Mind has just announced a partnership with University College London Hospital(UCLH) which will explore (2) ____ artificial intelligence to treat patients with head and neck cancers. The goal is to develop tools to automatically identify cancerous cells for radiology machines.

Currently, radiologists employ a manual process, called image (3) ____, to make CT and MRI scans and use them to create a map of the patient's anatomy with clear guidelines of where to direct the (4) ____.

Avoiding healthy areas of the head and neck requires that map to be extraordinarily detailed; typically it takes four hours to create. Google believes it can do the same job or better in one hour.

Deep Mind, Google's research arm, works primarily in deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence that learns to identify patterns from looking at large amount of data. In this case, DeepMind researchers will (5) ____ access to anonymized radiology scans from up to 700 former UCLH patients, and then feed them into (6) ____ that would process the scans to learn the visual difference between healthy and cancerous tissue.

The partnership will (7) ____ researchers to train their algorithms with highly-specialized, high- quality data, which theoretically will enable the algorithm to (8) ____ at a higher rate of success than if they had been using publicly available scans.

For those concerned about machines making health (9) ____ decisions, UCLH made it clear in a statement to the newspaper Guardian that clinicians will be in complete control of diagnoses and treatment.

DeepMind isn't the first care. Samsung Medison, the South Korean (10) ____ company's medical device arm, recently released an ultrasound machine that uses deep learning to quickly recommend whether breast tissue is cancerous or benign. The machine's algorithm was trained on 9,000 breast tissue scans, and is pending FDA approval in the US.

(10) ____

Read the passage and choose the best answers:

Never say anything negative about past experiences, employers, or courses or professors. Always think of something positive about an experience and talk about that. You should also be __(1)__. If you are genuinely interested __(2)__ the job, let the interviewer know that.

One of the best ways to show you are keen on a job is to demonstrate that you have researched the organization prior to the interview. You can also __(3)__ interest by asking questions about the job, the organization, and its service and products. The best way to impress an employer is to ask questions that build your interview discussion. This shows you are interested and __(4)__ close attention to the interviewer. It is a good idea to prepare a few questions in advance, but an insightful comment based on your conversation can make an even stronger statement. At the __(5)__ of the interview, it is appropriate for you to ask when you may expect to hear from the employer.

__(2)__

Of all the aspirations which make up the American Dream, perhaps the most prominent is to own one’s own home. Americans are very proud of their homes and spend a great deal of time maintaining their houses and keeping the property in good condition. A man's home is often called his castle, and the hours spent keeping his fortress safe and secure become one of his greatest pleasures.
If a home is in an especially fashionable neighborhood, the owners may consult an interior decorator to give the home a certain coordinated appearance. If there is a large back yard, great care may be spent in having it properly landscaped with exotic trees, shrubs and plants.
It is almost a certainty that you should be the first visitor to an American home, you will be taken on a grand tour of the premises. The owner will take great pride in showing to you the place he calls home. Every closet, every cabinet and closed door will be opened so that you can actually see the extent and value of his home. You will even be taken into the father's den and the mother's sewing room. These are special rooms for the respective man and woman of the house to insure their privacy. They may be off-limits to the rest of the family but, for the visitor they are open to scrutiny and inspection.
It is, of course, considered polite on the tour to comment favorably on each room picking out its most salient, important feature, such as the special view from the window, the vaulted ceiling in the foyer or the exotic choice of wallpaper in the bathroom.
The finished basement is a special cause for pride for the family with its exercise room, video games, carpenter shop and launderette. In most homes it is here that the family entertains itself in the evening while the rest of the house becomes more of a showcase. On your tour you may be reminded of the hours the owners had spent "fixing up the house" so it would be "nice for the kids to bring over their friends". You may even sense a feeling of competition in knowing that they have not only "kept up with the Joneses" but also have far surpassed them.
The tour will terminate after an hour or so somewhere on the back lawn next to the two-car air- conditioned garage where you may be treated to a snack and light refreshment.
Showing off one's home is more than an exercise in vanity. It is a tribute to one's accomplishment. It is a way of saying that a man has been a good provider for his family and that he has realized one of his dreams.

If it is your first visit to an American home, what will the owner probably do?

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:
Theresa May, the second female Britain’s prime minister following Margaret Thatcher, revealed in 2013 that she had been given a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, a condition that requires daily insulin injections. Asked later how she felt about the diagnosis, she said her approach to it was the same as toward everything in her life: “Just get on and deal with it.” That kind of steeliness brought her to center stage in the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and the feuding that erupted in the Conservative Party over who would succeed David Cameron.
Ms” May, 59 years old, is the country’s longest-serving home secretary in half a century, with a reputation for seriousness, hard work and above all, determination. She is one of a growing number of women in traditionally male-dominated British politics rising to the upper position of leadership.
Bom in 1956, Ms. May grew up mainly in Oxford shire, an only child who was first drawn to the Conservative Party at age 12. As a conscientious student, she never rebelled against her religious upbringing and remains a regular churchgoer. Tellingly, her sports hero was Geoffrey Boycott, a solid, stubborn cricketer who specialized in playing the long game.
Like many other Britain’s prime minister including Tony Blair, Sir Robert Peel and Margaret Thatcher, she won a place at Oxford. But while almost every other political leader got there by way of Eton College and joined Oxford’s hedonistic Bullingdon Club, she attended a state secondary school and had a more sedate university career. After unsuccessful attempts to be elected to the House of Commons in 1992 and 1994, she finally became an MP in 1997 general election.
May is known for a love of fashion and in particular distinctive shoes. She even wore leopard-print shoes to her final Cabinet meeting as Home Secretary in early 2016. However, she has been quite critical of the media focusing on her fashion instead of her achievement as a politician. May also describes cooking and walking as primary hobbies, and if someone is raising questions about why walking can be classified as a hobby, she elaborates in a column for Balance magazine, in which she wrote of her battle with diabetes.

The word “hedonistic” is closest in meaning to ..................