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.

The concept of traffic-free shopping areas goes back a long time. During the Middle Ages, traffic-tree shopping areas were built in Middle Eastern countries to allow people to shop in comfort and, more importantly, safety. As far back as 2000 years ago, road traffic was banned from central Rome during the day to allow for the free movement of pedestrians.

The modern, traffic-free shopping street was born in Europe in the 1960s, when both city population and car ownership increased rapidly. Dirty exhaust from cars and the risks involved in crossing the road were beginning to make shopping an unpleasant and dangerous experience. Many believed the time was right experimenting with car-free streets, and shopping areas seemed the best place to start.

At first, there was resistance from shopkeepers. They argued that people would avoid streets if they unable to get to them in their cars. When the first streets in Europe were closed to traffic, there were noisy demonstrations, as many shopkeepers predicted they would lose customers.

With the arrival of the traffic-free shopping street, many shops, especially those selling things clothes, food and smaller luxury items, prospered. Unfortunately, shops selling furniture and larger electrical appliances actually saw their sales drop. Many of these were forced to move elsewhere, away from centre.

(Adapted from Complete IELTS)

Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks
WORKING PARENTS
Reliable studies have shown that children of parents who both go out to work have no more problems than children with one parent staying at home. My personal (36)________ is that both parents should go out  to work if they wish.
Some parents invest so much in a career that they cannot bear to give it up. Others have to work because of
(37)________ necessity. There are several options when it comes to choosing childcare from child minders to the kind neighbour across the street.
No (38)________ how good the childcare maybe, some children protest if their parents aren't around.       Babies become dependent on parents and close family members, (39)________ parents should make sure they allow plenty of time to help their child settle in with their new career.
Remember: if parents want to (40)________ the best for their children, it‟s not the quantity of time they spend with them, it‟s the quality that matters.
(36).........................

Read the text and choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the questions. 
Poles Apart
Many are surprised to learn that Antarctica is nearly twice the size of the United States. The name Antarctica was coined to mean "opposite to the Arctic." It is just that in many ways. Antarctica is a high, ice-covered landmass. In the Arctic the landmasses are grouped around the ice-covered Arctic Ocean.
Largely because of this difference, the climate of the two areas is very different. Antarctica is the coldest area in the world. On the average it is about 30 degrees colder than the Arctic. At the South Pole, nearly 10.000 feet high, monthly mean temperatures run well below zero. Only in coastal regions do temperatures sometimes rise about freezing in the summer (December to March). In contrast, near the North Pole monthly mean temperatures often rise above freezing. 
At both poles, daily temperatures may drop far below the monthly mean. At the American South Pole Station, winter temperatures sometimes fall below -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Elsewhere, on higher parts of the south polar plateau, even lower temperatures are recorded.
A temperature of -127 degrees Fahrenheit was measured in August 1960. It is the world's record low temperature.
Partly because of this climatic difference, the land animals and plants of the two regions are very different. On the continent of Antarctica, there are very few plants. In the Arctic there are many plants. In some of the few ice-free areas of Antarctica, mosses, lichens, and algae are found. Penguins populate Antarctic coastlines but do not exist in the Arctic. The land animals of the Arctic are foxes, bears, reindeer, and lemmings. These animals are unknown in the Antarctic. Old rock layers show that this "oppositeness" between north and south extends far back into the early chapters of earth history.
Ice is the great feature of Antarctica. More than 4.5 million square miles of ice sheet cover the area. Great rivers of ice, called glaciers, push down the mountains. Antarctica is the storehouse of about 85 percent of the total world supply of ice. 
The icecap is very thick, averaging nearly 8,000 feet. At one spot, scientists have found the distance from the surface to the rock underneath the ice to be more than 13,000 feet.
If this great volume of ice were to melt, the volume of the world oceans would increase, and sea level would rise. Extreme atmospheric changes would have to take place for this to happen.

The world's record low temperature was recorded in _________.

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

AUDIOBOOKS - BOOKS ON CASSETTE

In the modern world, there is a wealth of leisure activities to choose from. Entertainment industries (26)________ for your leisure time. You can watch TV, listen to music, go to an art gallery or concert or, of course, read a book. Sometimes it seems that reading is (27)________because, even if you're a fast reader, it can take a (28)________amount of time to finish a novel, for example. But in the (29)________world, time is something that can be in short supply. Book publishers haven't been (30)________to realise this and are now selling a product which needn't (31)________as much of your time but still tells you an excellent story. The new product is the audiobook -cassette recordings of shortened novels, often read by well-known personalities or the authors themselves. Audiobooks are (32)________new but people are becoming more aware of them and sales are increasing all the time. One of the attractions of audiobooks is that they're (33)________listening to the radio. You can listen to what you want when you want, and you won't ever (34)________anything. Much of their appeal lies in their flexibility. They (35)________you to do other things while you're listening, such as driving or doing the housework. For some people, audiobooks can be a much more enjoyable way of gaining knowledge than reading.

(35)________

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

Books which give instructions on how to do things are very popular in the United States today. Thousands of these How-to books are useful: in fact, there are about four thousand books with titles that begin with the words 'How-to". One book may tell you how to earn more money, another may tell you how to save or spend it and another may explain how to give your money away. Many How-to books give advice on careers. They tell you how to choose a career and how to succeed in it. If you fail, however, you can buy the book “How to Turn Failure into Success”. If you would like to become very rich, you can buy the book “How to Make a Millionaire”. If you never make any money at all. you may need abook called “How to Live on Nothing”. One of the most popular types of books is one that helps you with personal problems. If you want to have a better love of life, you can read “How to Succeed in Love Every Minute of Your Life”. If you are tired of books on happiness,  you may prefer books which give step-by-step instructions on how to redecorate or enlarge a house. Why have How-to books become so popular? Probably because life has become so complex. Today people have far more time to use, more choices to make, and more problems to solve. How-to books help people deal with modern life.

Which of the following opinions about sách how book not mentioned in the passage

There are books with fairy tails in many countries. Often the same stories are known and repeated in many languages. Some of the things that happens in these stories are remarkable, although not as remarkable as things that are truly happening in medicine and science today.
Most fairy tails begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “They lived happily ever after”, so we will begin in the same way.
Once upon a time there was a girl calls Cinderella who did all the work in the kitchen while her lazy sister did nothing.
One night, her sister went to a ball at the palace. Cinderella was left home, very sad. After a time her fairy godmother appeared and told Cinderella that she could go to the ball- but to return home by midnight.
So she went to the ball in a beautiful dress in a wonderful coach. She danced with the prince but at midnight she ran back home, leaving one of her shoes on the floor. The prince wanted to see her again and went to every house in the capital until he found that the shoe was the right size for Cinderella. She and the price were married and lived happily ever after.

Cinderella was very sad because ________________.

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
Postsecondary institutions and private schools are corporations under U.S. law.  They are approved to operate as non-profit, for-profit, or public corporations (1)  _______ education and training. Increasingly, state authorities are requiring  approved educational providers to apply (2) _______ and receive accreditation  as a condition of final and continued approval. 
As corporate entities, U.S. institutions are internally self-governing and are (3)  _______ to make property, facilities, equipment, and utilities transactions; make  their own personnel decisions; decide whom to admit to study and to graduate;  (4) _______ their own funds from outside sources; enter into contracts and  compete for grants; and do most of the other things that corporations do.  Institutions compete (5) _______ one another for students, research funding,  faculty, and other benefits. Public institutions may compete within the same  state or territory for budget appropriations. It is the corporate nature of  institutions and the competition within the system that (6) _______ Americans  to refer to the concept of the educational or academic marketplace - an important distinctive element of the way U.S. education is organized. 
Some institutions are governed (7) _______ under multi-campus arrangements.  These include most local public schools (governed by school districts) and many  state community college and university systems. Whether single- or multi campus, institutional corporations (8) _______ by boards of citizens, both  alumni and non- alumni, who are ultimately responsible for all operations. They  appoint senior (9) _______, such as principals, headmasters, presidents, and  deans; and approve the actions taken (10) ______ their name. 

10............................

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
MY FIRST JOB

When I was 19, I (58) …….. out of my university course and ended up getting a job in a local travel agent’s. I’d seen the (59) …….. for the job in local paper. It said they wanted someone with a nice (60) …….. and a friendly (61) …….. .I thought the job might be an (62) …….. to send people to interesting places and to see some of the world myself. (63) …….. , it turned out to be a bit of a joke. I arrived at work on the first day with a positive (64) …….., ready to work and learn about new places. I spent that morning and every morning for the first three months filling (65)…….. forms and making coffee for the rest of the staff. (66) …….. I was hoping to be dealing with travel-hungry people with a good idea of where they wanted to go, the (67) …….. customer took ages to make their mind (68) …….. . It was amazing the number  of  customers  who  would  spend  ages  finding  the  perfect  destination  only  to have a change (69) …….. heart at the last moment. If we did organize the trip of a lifetime for someone, we rarely got thanks (70) …….. all our efforts. I now work in publishing (71) …….. a living, so these days I’m a customer in travel agencies. One thing I always keep (72) …….. mind is the need to say thank you.

64................

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. 
      Sixty percent of working Americans today say they’ve left a job, or considered leaving a job, because they didn’t like their direct supervisor, according to a survey from human resource consulting firm Randstad US. Though leaving a job may seem like the best solution for retiring a bad boss, that doesn’t mean that it’s always the best plan for your career. In fact, if you’re in a situation where you love your job and the opportunities it presents, then leaving your role because of a difficult boss may not be the best idea. Pollak and Monster.com career expert Vicki Salemi broke down three ways you can deal with a bad boss without quitting a job you love. 
      Pollak says that in many cases, a difficult relationship with your boss is often due to differing personalities and habits. One way to mend this relationship, she says, is to closely study your boss’s behavior so that you can meet their expectations. “Become the world’s leading expert on your boss or your manager,” says Pollak, who is also the author of the book “The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workforce.” “How does this person like to communicate? If she hates long emails, stop sending long emails. If she doesn’t like it when you drop by her office but reacts better when you schedule an appointment, then learn to always schedule appointments instead of dropping in. If she is not a morning person, don’t ask for things in the morning. If this person is really detail-oriented, then triple check your documents before handing them in.” Salemi agrees. She says that if you have a boss who’s critical or a micromanager, often the best way to deal with them is to be proactive in meeting their needs. “It’s kind of like you’re managing them without making it seem like you’re managing them,” she says.
      When dealing with a difficult boss, Pollak says one of the best ways to figure out how to successfully work under their leadership is to talk to other people who you know have been in a similar situation. “Other people can be a resource, whether it’s a mentor, someone at a different company, a coach or people who have worked for this person in the past,” she says. “Treat it as a positive and say, ‘I really want to be successful working with X. What recommendations do you have?’” However, she emphasizes, you should never talk about the situation in a negative way, or say you don’t like working for your boss. Instead, discuss about the situation in a way that shows your willingness to adapt to make the relationship work.
      If talking to other colleagues isn’t helpful, then Pollak says one of your last options should be to talk directly to your boss. Consider your approach carefully. Instead of saying, “We’re not getting along. What should we do?”, say something to the effect of, “I’d really like to make sure that I’m serving your needs. I’d like to make sure that I’m communicating in a way that’s effective for you and I want to make sure that I’m being as productive as possible. Is there anything I can do differently?” This way, she says, you’re approaching the situation by asking how you can help, instead of emphasizing a problem.

What should you have to pay attention to if you want to ask for others’ advice about your boss?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

It is often said that books are always good friends … (1)… reading is an active mental process. … (2)… TV, books make you use your brain. By reading, you think more and become smarter. Reading improves concentration and focus. Reading books takes brain power. It requires you to focus … (3)… what you are reading for long periods. Unlike magazines, Internet posts or e-Mails that might contain small …(4)… of information. Books tell the whole story". Since you must concentrate in order to read, you will get better at concentration. Many studies show if you do not use your memory; you lose it. Reading helps you …(5)… your memory muscles. Reading requires remembering details, facts and figures and in literature, plot lines, themes and characters.

(3)............................

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
An important point to remember if you like spending time out in the open air is that the human head doesn't work very well outdoors if it becomes too hot, cold or wet. That‟s why a hat is a  good investment, whenever you are planning to go out and about. Surprisingly, a single waterproof hat with a brim will do the (16)       adequately in most conditions.
In cold climates, the problem is that the head is (17)           heat all the time. As much as fifty to sixty per cent of your body‟s heat is lost through the head and neck, (18)      on which scientist  you believe. Clearly this heat loss needs to be prevented, but it‟s important to remember that hats don‟t actually keep you warm, they simply stop heat escaping.
Just as important is the need to protect your neck from the effects of bright sunlight, and the brim of your hat will do this. If you prefer a baseball cap, (19)       buying one that has a drop down tail at the back to stop your neck getting sunburnt.
And in wet weather  (20)         ,  hats are often more practical than  pooling up the hood of your waterproof coat because when you turn your head, the hat goes with you, whereas the hood usually does not.
(18)..........................

In “Cerealizing America”, Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford remark that the cereal  industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar per year. Americans buy 2.7 billion  packages of breakfast cereal each year. If (1) _______ end to end, the empty  cereal boxes from one year's consumption would (2) _______ to the moon and back. One point three (1.3) million advertisements for cereal are broadcast on  American television every year at a(n) (3) _______ of $762 million for airtime.  Only automobile manufacturers spend more money on television advertising  than the makers of breakfast cereal. (4) _______ of the boxed cereals found in  supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar and some contain more than 50%  sugar. Cereal manufacturers are very clever in their marketing, making many  cereals appear much healthier than they really are by “fortifying” them with vitamins and minerals. Oh, (5) ______ – you now have vitamin-fortified sugar! Before you eat any cereal, read the ingredient list and see how (6) _______  sugar appears on the ingredient list. Then check the “Nutrition facts” panel. 
There are actually only a small handful of national commercially-branded cereals  that are made (7) _______ whole grains and are sugar-free. If you shop at a health  food store instead of your local supermarket, you (8) _______ to find a healthy,  whole grain, sugar-free (or very low sugar) cereal. But (9) _______! Some of the  health food store boxed cereals are sweetened with fruit juice or fructose.  Although this may be an improvement (10) _______ refined white sugar, this can  really skyrocket the calories. 

3.........................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks
WORKING PARENTS
Reliable studies have shown that children of parents who both go out to work have no more problems than children with one parent staying at home. My personal (36)________ is that both parents should go out  to work if they wish.
Some parents invest so much in a career that they cannot bear to give it up. Others have to work because of
(37)________ necessity. There are several options when it comes to choosing childcare from child minders to the kind neighbour across the street.
No (38)________ how good the childcare maybe, some children protest if their parents aren't around.       Babies become dependent on parents and close family members, (39)________ parents should make sure they allow plenty of time to help their child settle in with their new career.
Remember: if parents want to (40)________ the best for their children, it‟s not the quantity of time they spend with them, it‟s the quality that matters.
(40).........................

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
MY FIRST JOB

When I was 19, I (58) …….. out of my university course and ended up getting a job in a local travel agent’s. I’d seen the (59) …….. for the job in local paper. It said they wanted someone with a nice (60) …….. and a friendly (61) …….. .I thought the job might be an (62) …….. to send people to interesting places and to see some of the world myself. (63) …….. , it turned out to be a bit of a joke. I arrived at work on the first day with a positive (64) …….., ready to work and learn about new places. I spent that morning and every morning for the first three months filling (65)…….. forms and making coffee for the rest of the staff. (66) …….. I was hoping to be dealing with travel-hungry people with a good idea of where they wanted to go, the (67) …….. customer took ages to make their mind (68) …….. . It was amazing the number  of  customers  who  would  spend  ages  finding  the  perfect  destination  only  to have a change (69) …….. heart at the last moment. If we did organize the trip of a lifetime for someone, we rarely got thanks (70) …….. all our efforts. I now work in publishing (71) …….. a living, so these days I’m a customer in travel agencies. One thing I always keep (72) …….. mind is the need to say thank you.

61...................

SHOPPING MALLS
Victor Gruen, an American architect, revolutionized shopping in the 1950s by creating the type of shopping centre that we now call a shopping mall.
Gruen's (31) _______ was to provide a pleasant, quiet and spacious shopping environment with large car parks, which usually meant building in the suburbs. He also wanted people to be able to shop in all kinds of weather. He (32) _______ on using building designs that he knew people would feel comfortable with, but placed them in landscaped ‘streets’ that were entirely enclosed and often covered with a curved glass roof. This was done to (33) _______ some of the older shopping arcades of city centres, but while these housed only small speciality shops, Gruen's shopping malls were on a much grander scale.
Access to the whole shopping mall was gained by using the main doors, which (34) _______ the shopping ‘streets’ from the parking areas outside. As there was no need to keep out bad weather, shops no longer needed windows and doors, and people could wander (35) _______ from shop to shop. In many cities, shopping malls now contain much more than just shops; cinemas, restaurants and other forms of entertainment are also growing in popularity.
(33)..............................................................
 

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the word that best fits each of the blanks from 6 to 10.
HOLIDAYS
We've just come back exhausted after a two-week holiday in France. We were really stupid. On the last day we drove non-stop from Marseille to Calais- we should have (6)           our journey in Lyon or Paris.   As if that wasn't enough, the sea was so rough in the English Channel that the (7)         took three hours instead of one and a half. Next year we've decided we're going on a cheap (8)           holiday to Italy. It sounds marvellous- the cost of the flight, the hotel and all our meals are (9)             in the price. While we're in Rome we'll be going on a guided tour of the Coliseum. The last time I was in Italy, I was on a business trip - I can't say I saw many of the famous tourist (10)                 on that occasion.
(7)..............................

BASKETBALL
1. Although he created the game of basketball at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, Dr. James A Naismith was a Canadian. Working as a physical education instructor at the International YMCA, now Springfield College, Dr. Naismith noticed a lack of interest in exercise among students during the wintertime. The new England winters were fierce, and the students balked at participating in outdoor activities. Naismith determined a fast-moving game that could be played indoors would fill a void after the baseball and football seasons had ended.
2. First, he attempted to adapt outdoor games such as soccer and rugby to indoor play, but he soon found them unsuitable for confined areas. Finally, he determined that he would have to invent a game.
3. In December of 1891, Dr. Naismith hung two old peach baskets at either end of the gymnasium at the school, and, using a soccer ball and nine players on each side, organized the first basketball game. The early rules allowed three points for each basket and made running with the ball violation. Every time a goal was made, someone had to climb a ladder to retrieve the ball.
4. Nevertheless, the game became popular. In less than a year, basketball was being played in both the United States and Canada. Five years later, a championship tournament was staged in New York City, which was won by the Brooklyn Central YMCA.
5. The teams had already been reduced to seven players, and five became standard in  1897 season. When basketball was introduced as a demonstration sport in the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Luis, it quickly spread throughout the world. In 1906, a metal hoop was used for the first time to replace the basket, but the name basketball has remained.

In which paragraph does the author discuss the first basketball championship tournament?

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.

I’m standing on a sidewalk in the early morning. The great avenues of Paris are silent, and the shops are closed. Suddenly, a couple appeared from a hole in the sidewalk. Mud covers their boots. They place the iron cover over the hole and run down the street, smiling. The couple had been exploring the tunnels beneath the city.

When Romans occupied Paris, they cut down stone from deep within the earth to build their city. Later, the French used more stone to construct the Notre Dame Cathedral. This left huge underground tunnels upon which part of the city now. Once used for growing mushrooms and as a hiding place, today they are mostly forgotten, except by "cataphiles" - those who love to go down into the tunnels below Paris, even though it is actually not permitted.

In the 70s and 80s, it is easier to enter the tunnels because there were many more open entrances through forgotten doorways and into catacombs - rooms filled with bones. The bones had been moved into the tunnels to solve the problem crowded cemeteries. By the end of the 1980s, most of the entrances were shut and police regularly walked the tunnels. However, there are still cataphiles, like the couple I saw that morning, and for those who dare, the underground is an exciting place to meet, party, perform for each other or create art.

My own experience began beneath the old Paris opera house, where sewer workers showed me a 55-meter-long underground pond, a pond that actually had fish in it! Later, at France's national bank, officials guided me below to an amazing room filled with 2,600 tons of gold.

As cataphiles are the best guides, I then asked one of the cataphiles to give me a tour. Descending into the underground through a secret entrance beneath a bridge, we walked for hours through catacombs, and galleries of huge, bright paintings. The cataphile told me "Many people come down here to party, some to paint. Some people to destroy or to create or to explore. We do what we want, We don't have rules..."

(Adapted from Reading Explorer 2, Paul Macintyre&David Bohlke, 2015)

The word "here" in paragraph 5 refers to ...................

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions:
If you want to prepare yourself for great achievement and have more to contribute to your education or your work, try reading more books. Pick up some of the interestingly informative books and search for well-researched material that can help you grow. 
We should encourage our children to read more books and spend less time watching TV. Some people have commented that this is inconsistent. "Why is the written word a superior way to get information than television?" That is an interesting point of view worth further exploration. Reading is a skill that is in much greater demand than the demand for watching TV. There are no jobs that require a person to be able to watch TV but reading is an integral part of many jobs. The written word is an incredibly flexible and efficient way of communication. You can write something down and, in no time, it can be sent to many different people. Not only that, we can digest vast amounts of information through reading in a very short time. A good reader can acquire more information in reading for two hours than someone watching TV can acquire in a full day. You are able to gain a lot of information quickly because you are a fast reader with good comprehension skills. It will save you massive amounts of time and you will be able to assimilate vast quantities of information.

According to the text, ____________.

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.

I’m standing on a sidewalk in the early morning. The great avenues of Paris are silent, and the shops are closed. Suddenly, a couple appeared from a hole in the sidewalk. Mud covers their boots. They place the iron cover over the hole and run down the street, smiling. The couple had been exploring the tunnels beneath the city.

When Romans occupied Paris, they cut down stone from deep within the earth to build their city. Later, the French used more stone to construct the Notre Dame Cathedral. This left huge underground tunnels upon which part of the city now. Once used for growing mushrooms and as a hiding place, today they are mostly forgotten, except by "cataphiles" - those who love to go down into the tunnels below Paris, even though it is actually not permitted.

In the 70s and 80s, it is easier to enter the tunnels because there were many more open entrances through forgotten doorways and into catacombs - rooms filled with bones. The bones had been moved into the tunnels to solve the problem crowded cemeteries. By the end of the 1980s, most of the entrances were shut and police regularly walked the tunnels. However, there are still cataphiles, like the couple I saw that morning, and for those who dare, the underground is an exciting place to meet, party, perform for each other or create art.

My own experience began beneath the old Paris opera house, where sewer workers showed me a 55-meter-long underground pond, a pond that actually had fish in it! Later, at France's national bank, officials guided me below to an amazing room filled with 2,600 tons of gold.

As cataphiles are the best guides, I then asked one of the cataphiles to give me a tour. Descending into the underground through a secret entrance beneath a bridge, we walked for hours through catacombs, and galleries of huge, bright paintings. The cataphile told me "Many people come down here to party, some to paint. Some people to destroy or to create or to explore. We do what we want, We don't have rules..."

(Adapted from Reading Explorer 2, Paul Macintyre&David Bohlke, 2015)

Why did it use to be easier to enter the tunnels?

Many of the most damaging and life-threaling types of weather-torrential rains, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes-begin quickly, strike suddenly, and dissipate rapidly, devastating small regions while leaving neighboring areas untouched. One such event, a tornado, struck the northeastern section of Edmonton, Alberta, in July 1987. Total damages from the tornado exceeded $250 million, the highest ever for any Canadian storm. Conventional computer models of the atmosphere have limited value in predicting short-live local storms like the Edmonton tornado, because the available weather data are generally not detailed enough to allow computers to discern the subtle atmospheric changes that precede these storms. In most nations, for example, weather balloon observations are taken just once every twelve hours at locations typically separated by hundreds of miles. With such limited data, conventional forecasting models do a much better job predicting general weather conditions over large regions than they do forecasting specific local events.
Until recently, the observation-intensive approach needed for accurate, very short range forecasts, or “Nowcasts”, was not feasible. The cost of equipping and operating many thousands of conventional weather stations was prohibitively high, and the difficulties involved in rapidly collecting and processing the raw weather data from such a network were insurmountable. Fortunately, scientific and technological advances have overcome most of these problems. Radar systems, automated weather instruments, and satellites are all capable of making detailed, nearly continuous observation over large regions at a relatively low cost. Communications satellites can transmit data around the world cheaply and instantaneously, and modern computers can quickly compile and analyzing this large volume of weather information. Meteorologists and computer scientists now work together to design computer programs and video equipment capable of transforming raw weather data into words, symbols, and vivid graphic displays that forecasters can interpret easily and quickly. As meteorologists have begun using these new technologies in weather forecasting offices, Nowcasting is becoming a reality.

Why does the author mention the tornado in Edmonton, Canada?