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.
The annual mortality burden in the UK from exposure to outdoor air pollution is equivalent to around 40,000 deaths. To this can be (1) _______ further impacts from exposure to indoor air pollutants such as radon and second-hand smoke.
The health problems resulting from exposure to air pollution also have a (2) ________ cost to society and business, our health services, and people who suffer from illness and premature death. In the UK, these costs add up to more than £20 billion every year.
Vulnerable people are prisoners of air pollution, having to stay indoors and limit their (3) ________when pollution levels are high. This is not only unjust; it carries a cost to these individuals and the community from missed work and school, from more health problems (4) _________ lack of exercise, and from social isolation.
Taking action will reduce pain, suffering and demands on the National Health Service (NHS), while (5) ____ people back to work, learning, and an active life. The value of these benefits far exceeds the cost of reducing emissions.
(4)............................
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiKiến thức về liên từ
A. result in (phr.v): gây ra, mang lại
B. regardless of (conj): bất chấp, bất kể
C. just as: chỉ khi
D. due to + N/Ving: bởi vì, do
Tạm dịch: This is not only unjust; it carries a cost to these individuals and the community from missed work and school, from more health problems (4)___________ lack of exercise, and from social isolation.
(Điều này không chỉ bất công; nó còn mang lại một chi phí cho những cá nhân này và cộng đồng từ việc bỏ lỡ công việc và trường học, từ nhiều vấn đề sức khỏe hơn do thiếu tập thể dục và từ sự cô lập xã hội.)
Câu hỏi liên quan
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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:
Telecommuting-substituting the computer for the trip to the job-has been hailed as a solution to all kinds of problems related to office work. For workers, it promises freedom from the office, less time wasted in traffic, and help with child-care conflicts. For management, telecommuting helps keep high performers on board, minimizes tardiness and absenteeism by eliminating commutes, allows periods of solitude for high-concentration tasks, and provides scheduling flexibility. In some areas, such as Southern California and Seattle, Washington, local governments are encouraging companies to start telecommuting programs in order to reduce rush-hour congestion and improve air quality, but these benefits do not come easily. Making a telecommuting program work requires careful planning and an understanding of the differences between telecommuting realities and popular images.
Many workers are seduced by rosy illusions of life as a telecommuter. A computer programmer from New York City moves to the tranquil Adirondack Mountains and stays in contact with her office via computer. A manager comes into his Office three days a week and works at home the other two. An accountant stays home to care for child; she hooks up her telephone modem connections and does office work between calls to the doctor.
These are powerful images, but they are a limited reflection of reality. Telecommuting workers soon learn that it is almost impossible to concentrate on work and care for a young child at the same time. Before a certain age, young children cannot recognize, much less respect, the necessary boundaries between work and family. Additional child support is necessary if the parent is to get any work done.
Management, too, must separate the myth from the reality. Although the media has paid a great deal of attention to telecommuting, in most cases it is the employee’s situation, not the availability of technology, that precipitates a telecommuting arrangement.
That is partly why, despite the widespread press coverage, the number of companies with work-at-home programs or policy guidelines remains small.The word “hailed” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to
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Environmentalists often fear that tourists will trample all over sensitive natural resource areas, but tourism may bring the needed and only economic incentives to help drive conservation, said Bynum Boley. Ecotourism and natural resource conservation already have a mutually beneficial relationship that is ideal for creating a sustainable partnership.
"Ecotourism destinations benefit in the form of enhanced tourism competitiveness from the protection of quality natural resources," he said. "Meanwhile, the conservation of these natural resources is increasingly valued since these pristine natural resources are the foundation of the ecotourism industry and the driver of all economic benefits associated with ecotourism."
Tourism is a $7.6 trillion global industry, provides 277 million jobs and is a primary income source for 20 of the world's 48 least-developed countries. It also subsidizes environmental protection and helps protect, conserve and value cultural resources that might otherwise be undervalued by the host community, Boley said. In the newpaper, Boley and co-author Gary Green said that despite past tension between the tourism industry and environmentalists, the two should team up as allies to fight off increasing conversion of land away from its natural state, Ecotourists not only provide a boost to the economy in such places, they can also motivate landowners into keeping the environment in its natural state instead of converting it into something unsustainable. They could also influence the public perception of conservation, Boley explained, which does not often favor environmental protection.
“The public has become increasing less prone to respond to environmental messages,” he said. “Economic messages are needed in order to attract the public's interest.” Too often, Boley and Green said, unique natural resource areas are converted into urban, suburban and agricultural developments without considering their ecotourism potential. In addition to the lost ecotourism revenue, there are a host of negative environmental consequences such as biodiversity loss, water and food shortages and the land being unable to mitigate the effects of climate change. These areas are not valued for their unique attributes or the valuable natural resources they provide, Green said, “so we lose them.” Tourists have historically been seen as having a negative impact on the environment. Critics complain that they violate fragile and threatened natural environments while contributing to greenhouse gases from the increased number of flights to these exotic and often remote locales. While these criticisms are justified, Boley and Green said responsible programs promote education of ecological conservation and environmental sustainability, fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of these exotic areas.What is the best title for the passage?
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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.
The tradition of gift giving is a worldwide (1)_________ that is said to have been around since the beginning of human beings. Over time, different cultures have developed their own gift giving customs and traditions.
In France, the gift of wine for the hostess of a dinner party is not an appropriate gift as the hostess would prefer to choose the vintage for the night. In Sweden, a bottle of wine or flowers are an appropriate gift for the hostess. In Viet Nam, a gift of whisky is appropriate for the host, and some fruit or small gifts for the hostess, children or elders of the home. Besides, gifts should never be wrapped in black paper because this color is unlucky and associated with funerals in this country. Gifts (2)____________symbolize cutting such as scissors, knives and other sharp objects should be avoided because they mean the cutting of the relationship. Also, in some countries you should not open the gift in front of the giver and in (3)__________ it would be an insult if you did not open the gift.
Beyond the gift itself, give careful consideration to the manner in which it is presented. Different cultures have different customs regarding how a gift should be offered - using only your right hand or using both hands, (4)_____. Others have strong traditions related to the appropriate way to accept a gift. In Singapore, for instance, it is the standard to graciously refuse a gift several times before finally accepting it. The recipient would never unwrap a gift in front of the giver for fear of appearing greedy.
Understanding these traditions and customs, as well as taking time to choose an appropriate gift, will help you to avoid any awkwardness or (5)__________ as you seek to build a better cross-cultural relationship.(2)..................
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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:
Today, there are 600 million cars in the world. They may seem like a lot. However, there are over 7 million people on our planet. Most of the world’s population uses public transportation to get around. The number of people using public transportation continues to rise. Subway systems worldwide carry 155 million passengers each day. That’s more than 30 times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes. Every day in Tokyo passengers take more than 40 million rides on public transportation.
Yet many people see public transportation as ‘a depressing experience’, says author Taras Gresco. They say it is slow, crowded, or too expensive. In fact, Gresco says, it is actually ‘faster, more comfortable and cheaper’ than driving a car.Like millions of people, Taras Gresco is a ‘straphanger’ - a person who rides public transportation. In his book straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile, Gresco describe the benefits of public transportation. Firstly, it is better for the environment. When people use public transportation, they use less fuel. Twenty people on one bus use much less fuel than 20 people in 20 cars. Fewer cars mean less pollution and cleaner air.
Using public transportation can be good for your health in other ways. It can even help you lose weight. In one study, a group of people took public transportation every day for six months. Each day they walked to a bus stop or train station. In six months, each person lost an average of six pounds - almost three kilograms. Taking public transportation has another benefit, says Gresco. It helps people become part of their community. When you are alone in your car, you don’t talk to anyone. One Tokyo straphanger told Gresco, “To use public transport is to know how to cooperate with other people,’ It teaches you ‘how to behave in a public space’. So, public transportation is more than a way to get to work or school. It can help lead to cleaner cities. It may also lead to a healthier and more cooperative world population.According to the passage, the number of people travelling by planes each day is about
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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:
Environmentalists often fear that tourists will trample all over sensitive natural resource areas, but tourism may bring the needed and only economic incentives to help drive conservation, said Bynum Boley. Ecotourism and natural resource conservation already have a mutually beneficial relationship that is ideal for creating a sustainable partnership.
"Ecotourism destinations benefit in the form of enhanced tourism competitiveness from the protection of quality natural resources," he said. "Meanwhile, the conservation of these natural resources is increasingly valued since these pristine natural resources are the foundation of the ecotourism industry and the driver of all economic benefits associated with ecotourism."
Tourism is a $7.6 trillion global industry, provides 277 million jobs and is a primary income source for 20 of the world's 48 least-developed countries. It also subsidizes environmental protection and helps protect, conserve and value cultural resources that might otherwise be undervalued by the host community, Boley said. In the newpaper, Boley and co-author Gary Green said that despite past tension between the tourism industry and environmentalists, the two should team up as allies to fight off increasing conversion of land away from its natural state, Ecotourists not only provide a boost to the economy in such places, they can also motivate landowners into keeping the environment in its natural state instead of converting it into something unsustainable. They could also influence the public perception of conservation, Boley explained, which does not often favor environmental protection.
“The public has become increasing less prone to respond to environmental messages,” he said. “Economic messages are needed in order to attract the public's interest.” Too often, Boley and Green said, unique natural resource areas are converted into urban, suburban and agricultural developments without considering their ecotourism potential. In addition to the lost ecotourism revenue, there are a host of negative environmental consequences such as biodiversity loss, water and food shortages and the land being unable to mitigate the effects of climate change. These areas are not valued for their unique attributes or the valuable natural resources they provide, Green said, “so we lose them.” Tourists have historically been seen as having a negative impact on the environment. Critics complain that they violate fragile and threatened natural environments while contributing to greenhouse gases from the increased number of flights to these exotic and often remote locales. While these criticisms are justified, Boley and Green said responsible programs promote education of ecological conservation and environmental sustainability, fostering a greater understanding and appreciation of these exotic areas.Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE about Tourism?
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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:
Homeopathy, the alternative therapy created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann, and now widely used all over the world, is based on the belief that the body can be stimulated to heal itself. A central principle of the “treatment” is that “like cures like”, meaning a subtance that causes certain symptoms can also help to remove those symptoms. Medicines used in homeopathy are created by heavily diluting in water the subtance in question and subsequently shaking the liquid vigorously. They can then be made into tablets and pills. Practitioners believe that the more a subtance is diluted in this way, the greater its power to treat symptoms.
However, in a new study, a working committee of medical experts at Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has claimed that homeopathic medicines are only as effective as placebos at treating illness. Their research, involving the analysis of numerous reports from homeopathy interest groups and the public, concluded that there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy works.
Moreover, researchers uncovered no fewer than 68 ailments that homeopathic remedies had failed to treat, including asthma, sleep disturbances, cold and flu, and arthritis.
As a result of the findings, the NHMRC is urging health workers to inform their patients to be wary of anecdotal evidence that appears to support the effectiveness of homeopathic medicine. “It isn’t possible to tell whether a health treatment is effective or not simply by considering the experience of one individual or the beliefs of a health practitioner,” says the report. Experts believe that most illnesses said to have been cured by homeopathy would be cured by the body on its own without taking the medicine. Apparently, many illnesses are short-lived by their very nature which often leads to people believing that it is the homeopathy that cures them.
A more serious matter is highlighted by Professor John Dwyer of the University of New South Wales. As an immunologist, he is concerned about homeopathic vaccinations on offer for diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, none of which he considers effective. According to Professor John Dwyer, the concept that homeopathic vaccinations are just as good as traditional vaccinations in delusion, and those who believe it are failing to protect themselves and their children.Which could be the best title for the passage?
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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.
Volunteering has been acknowledged as part of the wider health policy, with the NHS five-year plan identifying a need to encourage community volunteering. It also has an important role to play in tackling social exclusion, through projects such as lunch clubs for older people, assisted gardening schemes, or young play leaders.
Volunteering can help to provide people with ways out of poverty, by giving them new skills, confidence and aid social integration. This is of particular value to those who are most excluded from the labour market, such as recent migrants or people with disabilities. But while the benefits of volunteering are clear, there is worrying evidence that the people who could benefit most from giving their time are precisely those least likely to be involved.
There are many reasons for people not to volunteer. For older people, the barriers can include poor health, poverty, lack of skills, poor transport links, or having caring responsibilities, such as looking after grandchildren. Younger people can be deterred by feeling they don’t have the time to volunteer, or not knowing anyone else who volunteers. Many of them also think volunteering is just for older people with time on their hands. Volunteering has an image problem – particularly with men and younger people.
More should be done to promote the value of volunteering to the particular needs of different groups. There is evidence on why people choose to volunteer, and we need to make better use of that information. For instance, a recent survey showed that 95% of young people, aged 13-24, hoped to develop new skills through volunteering, compared to just 32% of volunteers aged over 55. Almost three quarters of young people were keen to gain qualifications through volunteering compared to just 13% of those over 55. Over three quarters of disabled volunteers were keen to develop new skills and nearly two thirds hoped to improve their health and wellbeing through volunteering.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
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There are a number of natural disasters that can strike across the globe. Two that are frequently linked to one another are earthquakes and tsunamis. Both of them can cause a great amount of devastation when they hit. However, tsunamis are the direct result of earthquakes and cannot happen without them.
The Earth has three main parts. They are the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is the outer layer of the Earth. It is not a single piece of land. Instead, it is comprised of a number of plates.
There are a few enormous plates and many smaller ones. These plates essentially rest upon the mantle, which is fluid. As a result, the plates are in constant – yet slow – motion. The plates may move away from or toward other plates. In some cases, they collide violently with the plates adjoining them. The movement of the plates causes tension in the rock. Over a long time, this tension may build up. When it is released, an earthquake happens.Tens of thousands of earthquakes happen every year. The vast majority are so small that only scientific instruments can perceive them. Others are powerful enough that people can feel them, yet they cause little harm or damage. More powerful earthquakes, however, can cause buildings, bridges, and other structures to collapse. They may additionally injure and skill thousands of people and might even cause the land to change it appearance.
Since most of the Earth’s surface is water, numerous earthquakes happen beneath the planet’s oceans. Underwater earthquakes cause the seafloor to move. This results in the displacement of water in the ocean. When this occurs, a tsunami may form. This is a wave that forms on the surface and moves in all directions from the place where the earthquake happened. A tsunami moves extremely quickly and can travel thousnads of kilometres. As it approaches land, the water near the coast gets sucked out to sea. This causes the tsunamis to increase in height.
Minutes later, the tsunami arrives. A large tsunami – one more than ten meters in height – can travel far inland. As it does that, it can flood the land, destroy human settlements, and kill large numbers of peopleWhich of the following statements does paragraph 1 support?
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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
Some people return to college as mature students and take full- or part-time training courses in a skill will help them to get a job. The development of open learning, (1)................. it possible to study when it is convenient for the students, has increased the opportunities available (2)................. many people. Thistype of study was formerly restricted to book-based learning and (3) ................. course but now includes courses on TV, CD-ROM or the Internet, and self-access courses at language or computer centers.
Americans believe that education is important at all stage of life and should not stop (4) ................. people get their first job. About 40% of adults take part in some kind of formal education. About half of them are trying to get qualifications and skills to help them with their jobs, the (5)................. are taking recreational subjects for personal satisfaction. Schools and community colleges arrange evening classes, and a catalog of courses is published by local boards of education.Americans believe that education is important at all stage of life and should not stop (4) ................. people get their first job
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Urban populations interact with their environment. Urban people change their environment through their consumption of Food, energy, water, and land. And in turn, the polluted urban environment affects the health and quality of life of the urban population. People who live in urban areas have very different consumption patterns than residents in rural areas. For example, urban populations consume much more food, energy, and durable goods than rural populations. In China during the 1970s, the urban populations consumed twice as much pork as the rural populations who were raising the pigs. With economic development, the difference in consumption declined as the rural populations ate better diets. But even a decade later, urban populations had 60 percent more pork in their diets than rural populations. The increasing consumption of meat is a sign of growing affluence in Beijing; in India where many urban residents are vegetarians, greater prosperity is seen in higher consumption of milk.
Urban populations not only consume more food, but they also consume more durable goods, In the early 1990s, Chinese households in urban areas were two times more likely to have a TV, eight times more likely to have a washing machine, and 25 times more likely to have a refrigerator than rural households. This increased consumption is a function of urban labor markets, wages, and household structure.
Urban consumption of energy helps create heat islands that can change local weather patterns and weather downwind from the heat islands. The heat island phenomenon is created because cities radiate heat back into the atmosphere at rate 15 percent to 30 percent less than rural areas. The combination of the increased energy consumption and difference in albedo (radiation) means that cities are warmer than rural areas (0.6 to 1.3 C), And these heat islands become traps for atmospheric pollutants. Cloudiness and fog occur with greater frequency. Precipitation is 5 percent to 10 percent higher in cities; thunderstorms and hailstorms are much more frequent, but snow days in cities are less common.
Urbanization also affects the broader regional environments. Regions downwind from large industrial complexes also see increases in the amount of precipitation, air pollution, and the number of days with thunderstorms. Urban areas affect not only the weather patterns, but also the runoff patterns for water. Urban areas generally generate more rain, but they reduce the infiltration of water and lower the water tables. This means that runoff occurs more rapidly with greater peak flows. Flood volumes increase, as do floods and water pollution downstream.
Many of the effects of urban areas on the environment are not necessarily linear. Bigger urban areas do not always create more environmental problems. And small urban areas can cause large problems. Much of what determines the extent of the environmental impacts is how the urban populations behave - their consumption and living patterns - not just how large they are.According to paragraph 3, the following are mentioned as examples of durable goods, EXCEPT .
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The ocean bottom - a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of Earth - is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep-ocean floor was completely inaccessible, hidden beneath waters averaging over 3,600 meters deep. Totally without light and subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earth’s surface, the deep-ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void of outer space.
Although researchers have taken samples of deep-ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundation’s Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDP’s drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the ocean’s surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rock from the ocean floor.
The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15-year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around the world.. The Glomar Challenger’s core samples have allowed geologists to reconstruct what the planet looked like hundreds of millions of years ago and to calculate what it will probably look like millions of years in the future. Today, largely on the strength of evidence gathered during the Glomar Challenger’s voyages, nearly all earth scientists agree on the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift that explain many of the geological processes that shape the Earth.
The cores of sediment drilled by the Glomar Challenger have also yielded information critical to understanding the world’s past climates. Deep-ocean sediments provide a climatic record stretching back hundreds of millions of years, because they are largely isolated from the mechanical erosion and the intense chemical and biological activity that rapidly destroy much land-based evidence of past climates. This record has already provided insights into the patterns and causes of past climatic change - information that may be used to predict future climates.How long did the Glomar Challenger conduct its research?
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Educating children at home as an alternative to formal education is an option chosen by families in many parts of the world. The homeschooling movement is popular in the United States, where close to one million Children are educated at home. In Canada, 1 percent of school-age children are homeschooled, and the idea also enjoys growing popularity in Australia, where 20,000 families homeschool their children. The movement is not limited to these countries. Homeschooling families can be found all over the world, from Japan to Taiwan to Argentina to South Africa.
Homeschooling is not a novel idea. In fact, the idea of sending children to spend most of their day away from home at a formal school is a relatively new custom. In the United States, for example, it was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that state governments began making school attendance compulsory. Before that, the concept of a formal education was not so widespread. Children learned the skills they would need for adult life at home from tutors or their parents, through formal instruction or by working side by side with the adults of the family.
In the modern developed world, where the vast majority of children attend school, families choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons. For people who live in remote areas, such as the Australian outback or the Alaskan Wilderness, homeschooling may be their only option. Children who have exceptional talents in the arts or other areas may be homeschooled so that they have more time to devote to their special interests. Much of the homeschooling movement is made up of families who, for various reasons, are dissatisfied with the schools available to them. They may have a differing educational philosophy, they may be concerned about the safety of the school environment, or they may feel that the local schools cannot adequately address their children's educational needs. Although most families continue to choose a traditional classroom education for their children, homeschooling as an alternative educational option is becoming more popular.As mentioned in the last paragraph, children in rural areas .
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The changing profile of a city in the United States is apparent in the shifting definitions used by the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1870 the census officially distinguished the nation's “urban” from its “rural” population for the first time. “Urban population” was defined as persons living in towns of 8,000 inhabitants or more. But after 1900 it meant persons living in incorporated places having 2,500 or more inhabitants. Then, in 1950 the Census Bureau radically changed its definition of “urban” to take account of the new vagueness of city boundaries. In addition to persons living in incorporated units of 2,500 or more, the census now included those who lived in unincorporated units of that size, and also all persons living in the densely settled urban fringe, including both incorporated and unincorporated areas located around cities of 50,000 inhabitants or more. Each such unit, conceived as an integrated economic and social unit with a large population nucleus, was named a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA).
Each SMSA would contain at least (a) one central city with 50,000 inhabitants or more or
two cities having shared boundaries and constituting, for general economic and social purposes, a single community with a combined population of at least 50,000, the smaller of which must have a population of at least 15,000. Such an area included the county in which the central city is located, and adjacent counties that are found to be metropolitan in character and economically and socially integrated with the county of the central city. By 1970, about two-thirds of the population of the United States was living in these urbanized areas, and of that figure more than half were living outside the central cities.
While the Census Bureau and the United States government used the term SMSA (by 1969 there were 233 of them), social scientists were also using new terms to describe the elusive, vaguely defined areas reaching out from what used to be simple “towns” and “cities”. A host of terms came into use: “metropolitan regions,” “polynucleated population groups”, “conurbations,” “metropolitan clusters,” “megalopolises,” and so on.Which of the following is NOT true of an SMSA?
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The first thing to do when you have a trip abroad is to check that your passport is valid. Holders of out–of–date passports are not allowed to travel overseas. Then you can prepare for your trip. If you don't know the language, you can have all kinds of problems communicating with local people. Buying a pocket dictionary can make a difference. You'll be able to order food, buy things in shops and ask for directions. It's worth getting one. Also there's nothing worse than arriving at your destination to find there are no hotels available. The obvious way to avoid this is to book in advance. This can save you money too. Another frustrating thing that can happen is to go somewhere and not know about important sightseeing places. Get a guide book before you leave and make the most of your trip. It's a must.
Then, when you are ready to pack your clothes, make sure they are the right kind. It's no good packing sweaters and coats for a hot country or T–shirts and shorts for a cold one. Check the local climate before you leave.
Also, be careful how much you pack in your bags. It's easy to take too many clothes and then not have enough space for souvenirs. But make sure you pack essentials. What about money? Well, it's a good idea to take some local currency with you but not too much. There are conveniently located cash machines (ATMs) in most big cities, and it's usually cheaper to use them than change your cash in banks. Then you'll have more money to spend. When you are at your destination, other travellers often have great information they are happy to share. Find out what they have to say. It could enhance your travelling experience.What is the passage mainly about?
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Optimists have plenty to be happy about. In other words, if you can convince yourself that things will get better, the odds of it happening will improve - because you keep on playing the game. In this light, optimism “is a habitual way of explaining your setbacks to yourself”, reports Martin Seligman, the psychology professor and author of Learned Optimism. The research shows that when times get tough, optimists do better than pessimists - they succeed better at work, respond better to stress, suffer fewer depressive episodes, and achieve more personal goals.
Studies also show that belief can help with the financial pinch. Chad Wallens, a social forecaster at the Henley Centre who surveyed middle-class Britons’ beliefs about income, has found that “the people who feel wealthiest, and those who feel poorest, actually have almost the same amount of money at their disposal. Their attitudes and behaviour patterns, however, are different from one another.”
Optimists have something else to be cheerful about - in general, they are more robust. For example, a study of 660 volunteers by the Yale University psychologist Dr. Becca Levy found that thinking positively adds an average of seven years to your life. Other American research claims to have identified a physical mechanism behind this. A Harvard Medical School study of 670 men found that the optimists have significantly better lung function. The lead author, Dr. Rosalind Wright, believes that attitude somehow strengthens the immune system. “Preliminary studies on heart patients suggest that, by changing a per¬son’s outlook, you can improve their mortality risk,” she says.
Few studies have tried to ascertain the proportion of optimists in the world. But a 1995 nationwide survey conducted by the American magazine Adweek found that about half the population counted themselves as optimists, with women slightly more apt than men (53 per cent versus 48 per cent) to see the sunny side.What does the passage mainly discuss?
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Since the world became industrialized, the number of animal species that have either become extinct or near extinction has increased. Bengal tigers, for instance, which once roamed the jungles in vast numbers, now number only about 2,300. By the year 2025, it is estimated that they will become extinct.
What is alarming about the case of the Bengal tiger is that this extinction will have been caused almost entirely by poachers who, according to some sources, are not always interested in material gain but in personal gratification. This is an example of the callousness that is contributing to the problem of extinction. Animals such as the Bengal tiger, as well as other endangered species, are valuable parts of the world/s ecosystem. International laws protecting animals must be enacted to ensure their survival-and the survival of our planet.
Countries around the world have begun to deal with the problem in various ways. Some countries, in an effort to circumvent the problem, have allocated large amounts of land to animal reserves. They then charge admission prices to help defray the costs of maintaining the parks, and they often must also depend on world organizations for support. This money enables them to invest in equipment and patrols o protect the animals. Another response to the increase in animal extinction is an international boycott of products made from endangered species. This has had some effect, but by itself will not prevent animals from being hunted and killed.aWhich of the following could best replace the word ‘allocated’ in paragraph 3?
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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:
Charles Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1902 but was raised on a farm in Minnesota, where his father was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1907. From then on, he spent his boyhood alternately in Washington, D.C. Detroit, and Little Falls, Minnesota. Because Lindbergh exhibited exceptional mechanical talent, in 1921 he was admitted to the University of Wisconsing to study engineering. However, the young man was seeking more challenging endeavors, and two years later he became a stunt pilot who performed feats at county fairs and public assemblies. This unusual and dangerous undertaking paid off handsomely in the sense that it allowed him to gain a diverse and well–rounded experience in aeronautics. He particularly delighted in what he called “wing–walking” and parachute jumping.
After a year of training as a military cadet, Lindbergh completed his program at the Brooks and Kelly airfields at the top of his class and earned the rank of captain.
Robertson Aircraft Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, offered him employment as a mail pilot to run the routes between St. Louis and Chicago, and Lindbergh retained his position with the company until 1927. During this period, he set out to win the Raymond B. Orteig prize of $25,000 to be awarded to the first pilot to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. This ambition would irreversibly change his life and accord him a prominent place in the history of aviation.
Embarking on the greatest adventure of his time, Lindbergh left Roosevelt Field at 7:52 A.M. on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Field at 5:24 P.M. the next day. Fearing that he would be unknown when he arrived, Lindbergh carried letters of introduction to dignitaries in Paris, but when his plane came to a stop, he was overwhelmed by tremendous welcoming crowds. He was decorated in France, Great Britain, and Belgium, and President Coolidge sent a specially designated cruiser, the Memphis, to bring him back, His accomplishments in aeronautics brought him more medals and awards than had ever been received by any other person in private life.According to the passage, how old was Lindbergh when he carried out his challenging flight?
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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.
Most adults struggle to recall events from their first few years of life and now scientists have identified exactly when these childhood memories are lost forever. A new study into childhood amnesia has found that it tends to take (1).......around the age of seven. The rapid decline of memories persisting while children are five and six is owing to the change in the way memories are formed.
Before the age of seven, children tend to have an (2)......form of recall with no sense of time and place in their memories. In older children, however, the early recollected events tend to be more adult like in their content and the way they are formed. Faster rate of forgetting in children and higher turnover of memories means early memories are less likely to survive. (3)........, memories of younger children tend to lack autobiographical narrative leading to a process known as ‘retrieval induced forgetting’ (4).....the action of remembering causes other information to be forgotten. Consequently, if childhood memories can survive into the ninth or tenth year of life, they may stay a chance of (5).... it into adulthood.
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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:
Today, there are 600 million cars in the world. They may seem like a lot. However, there are over 7 million people on our planet. Most of the world’s population uses public transportation to get around. The number of people using public transportation continues to rise. Subway systems worldwide carry 155 million passengers each day. That’s more than 30 times the number carried by all the world’s airplanes. Every day in Tokyo passengers take more than 40 million rides on public transportation.
Yet many people see public transportation as ‘a depressing experience’, says author Taras Gresco. They say it is slow, crowded, or too expensive. In fact, Gresco says, it is actually ‘faster, more comfortable and cheaper’ than driving a car.Like millions of people, Taras Gresco is a ‘straphanger’ - a person who rides public transportation. In his book straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile, Gresco describe the benefits of public transportation. Firstly, it is better for the environment. When people use public transportation, they use less fuel. Twenty people on one bus use much less fuel than 20 people in 20 cars. Fewer cars mean less pollution and cleaner air.
Using public transportation can be good for your health in other ways. It can even help you lose weight. In one study, a group of people took public transportation every day for six months. Each day they walked to a bus stop or train station. In six months, each person lost an average of six pounds - almost three kilograms. Taking public transportation has another benefit, says Gresco. It helps people become part of their community. When you are alone in your car, you don’t talk to anyone. One Tokyo straphanger told Gresco, “To use public transport is to know how to cooperate with other people,’ It teaches you ‘how to behave in a public space’. So, public transportation is more than a way to get to work or school. It can help lead to cleaner cities. It may also lead to a healthier and more cooperative world population.Which of the following can be the best title of the reading passage?
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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:
Tides are the periodic rise and fall of the Earth’s waters that are caused by the Moon’s and Sun’s forces of gravity acting on the Earth .It is important to distinguish natural tidal phenomena from huge tsunamis , with the latter being caused by earthquakes and undersea volcanic eruptions.
The Moon is a main factor controlling ordinary tides. At the location on the Earth closest to the Moon, it exerts a powerful gravitational pull on the water. The resulting rise in the water produces higher tides. The water on the side of the Earth farthest away from the Moon also gets pulled by this lunar gravity, but not as strongly. The Earth itself has its own gravitational force that is constantly pulling waters downward, which is why the oceans do not simply bulge out toward the Moon. Ordinary tides usually feature high and low waters alternating in relation to the Earth’s rotation. Most shores around the world have high waters and two low waters for each day, which last about 24 hours and 50 minutes. The difference in height between the high water and low water is called the range of tide, and it can be quite dramatic in narrower bays
.Canada’s bays of Fundy , for example , commonly experiences the world’s most extreme tidal ranges , with daily differences of the 16 meters.
Two other types of tides are influenced by the Sun, which is much farther away from the Earth and exerts less than half of the Moon’s gravitational force. When the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are directly in line, the solar and lunar gravitational forces add up to produce higher spring tides. The range of spring tides is intensified, with higher water marks and lower low water marks. However, when the Moon is in the first or third quarter, it is at a 90–degree angle with the Sun in relation to the Earth .The opposing solar and lunar forces partially cancel each other out, and the result is a lower tide. This is called a neap tide, which comes twice a month and has lower high water marks and higher low water marks. The range of neap tides is minimum.
Some tides do not occur over water at all. The solid body of the Earth has slight elasticity, so lunar and solar gravity cause it to stretch very subtly. These changes in the Earth’s shape, although imperceptible to humans, are known as Earth tides.
Another tidal phenomenon, atmospheric tides, is caused by the Sun’s heating of the Earth’s atmosphere. Like ordinary tides, they usually occur over 12–hour periods.The word exerts in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to