Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

When I saw her name on the screen, it took me right back to the moment she had moved away with her family ten years before. We had been such close friends at primary school. To begin with, she and I had not hit it off, perhaps because we were both timid. We had quickly got over that, though, and as time went on, we had become really good friends, until you almost never saw one of us without the other.

And now after so much time apart, there was her name. She had sent me a friend request. I knew she had been living abroad, and her profile picture showed her on the beach. I had been expecting her to look different after ten years. The girl in the photo was the same old Lauren, though.

Nowadays, it is easy to find old friends thanks to social networking sites. There are lots of stories about long lost friends getting back in touch after years apart. It was odd because I had been thinking about our friendship too and now here she was!

She told me about the place where she had been living for the past ten years, and I told her about things that had happened to me. Before long, the years melted away and we were the same two girls who had spent so much time together. Of course, true friends are loyal and listen to you when you are down. And they are the people you have fun with. But deep down, I realised that the truest friends are those you are most yourself with. And that is something that never changes. That is what Lauren and I learned that day, the day we realised our friendship was so precious and had never really ended in the first place.

(Adapted from Optimise)

The word “they” in paragraph 4 refers 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.

Imagine you are buying an apple in a supermarket. Which do you choose, one with a small bro or one without? Be honest - you'd go for the apple (1) _________looks perfect. Supermarkets do this too on a much larger scale when buying fruit and vegetables from farmers. And what (2) ______of the on with marks on them? They are thrown away. So are the ones that are a funny shape or size.

(3) _______ reason for waste is that people buy more food than they can eat and supermarkets de everything they can to encourage this, for example with offers like 'Buy one, get one free'. Developed countries waste about 650 million tons of food each year and so do developing countries. (4) _____the waste happens for very different reasons. As the world's population grows, this problem will only (5) _________ so we need to take action urgently.

(Adapted from Navigate)

(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.

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 "descending" in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to .................

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. 

9........................

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.

Imagine you are buying an apple in a supermarket. Which do you choose, one with a small bro or one without? Be honest - you'd go for the apple (1) _________looks perfect. Supermarkets do this too on a much larger scale when buying fruit and vegetables from farmers. And what (2) ______of the on with marks on them? They are thrown away. So are the ones that are a funny shape or size.

(3) _______ reason for waste is that people buy more food than they can eat and supermarkets de everything they can to encourage this, for example with offers like 'Buy one, get one free'. Developed countries waste about 650 million tons of food each year and so do developing countries. (4) _____the waste happens for very different reasons. As the world's population grows, this problem will only (5) _________ so we need to take action urgently.

(Adapted from Navigate)

(5) ________

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 is a form of computer communication between employees’ homes and offices. For employees whose jobs involve sitting at a terminal or word processor entering data or typing reports, the location of the computer is of no consequence. If the machine can communicate over telephone lines, when the work is completed, employees can dial the office computer and transmit the material to their employers. A recent survey in USA Today estimates that there are approximately 8,7 million telecommuters. But although the numbers are rising annually, the trend does not appear to be as significant as predicted when Business Week published “The Portable

   Executive” as its cover story a few years ago. Why hasn’t telecommuting become more popular ?

   Clearly, change simply takes time. But in addition, there has been active resistance on the part of many managers. These executives claim that supervising the telecommuters in a large work force scattered across the country would be too difficult, or, at least, systems for managing them are not yet developed, thereby complicating the manager’s responsibilities.

   It is also true that employees who are given the option of telecommuting are reluctant to accept the opportunity. Most people feel that they need regular interaction with a group, and many are concerned that they will not have the same consideration for advancement if they are not more visible in the office setting. Some people feel that even when a space in their homes is set aside as a work area, they never really get away from the office.

The phrase “of no consequence” means ___________.

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.

Since the invention of the Internet, the world has become a different place. People are sending messages, apparently up to 60 billion a day, and it usually takes only seconds to deliver them. (1) _________are we now forgetting how to communicate face-to-face?

Without a doubt there are (2) _________ challenges, but there are also examples of when the Internet has changed someone's life for the better. Look at Tara Taylor's case, a mother (3) ___________ lives in the USA: when she uploaded a photo of her daughter to Facebook, a facefriend (4) ______a problem with one of the child's eyes, so Tara took her to the doctor. It turned out that the girl had a rare disease, but her sight was saved! The story of communication is, in many (5) _______, the story of the human race: we have always shared knowledge and built relationships, whatever means of communication we use.

(Adapted from High Note)

(2) ________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrases that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Parents and teachers are always smaking (31)________ between the time when they were children and the present generation . They say everything was better than it is today, especially ineducation. (32)________ , they say they used to work much harder in school, and that nowadays, we aren't  very interested. I disagree, because we spend hours every day doing homework after our lessons or (33)________ for exammination. I wonder (34)________ our parents really had to study somuch after school every day. In my opinion, it is no exaggeration to say we have forgotten how to play. I think one reason whykids (35)________ in class is because they need to get rid ofstress.
(33).....................

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.

(28)________

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

"Many parents believe that they should begin to teach their children to read when they are (1)….. more than toddlers. This is fine if the child shows a real interest but (2)…… a child could be counter-productive if he isn’t ready. Wise parents will have a (3)….. attitude and take the lead from their child. What they should provide is a selection of (4)….. toys, books and other activities. Nowadays there is a plenty of good (5)….. available for young children, and of course, seeing plenty of books in use about the house will also (6)…..  them to read.
 Of course, books are no longer the only (7)….. of stories and information. There is also a huge range of videos, which can (8)…. And extend the pleasure a child finds in a book and are (9)… valuable in helping to increase vocabulary and concentration. Television gets a bad (10)…. as far as children are concerned, mainly because too many children spend too much time watching programmes not intended for their age group."

9. And extend the pleasure a child finds in a book and are (9)… valuable in helping to increase vocabulary and concentration.

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.

As Australia's largest and oldest city, Sydney carries many traces of its history. Time seems to stand still in the city's old streets and in its many magnificent, ancient buildings, such as the Sydney Town Hall, the Queen Victoria Building, and St. Mary's Cathedral. To explore the city's present and past, head for The Rocks the oldest neighbourhood in Australia and Sydney, where sandstone houses built in the 18th century still stand. You can stroll through the pretty streets, visit a traditional pub for some craft beer, and try delicious local dishes.

Sydney is blessed with natural gifts that few cities can rival. This city is full of greenery. Parks and nature reserves mingle with urban areas. Thanks to this, you need not travel far to see rare species in numerous city zoos; or enjoy fresh air and a range of plants from all corners of the world, all gathered in boundless parks. For those visitors keen to explore the sea, Sydney is heaven with over 70 spectacular bays and beaches. These include beautiful Bondi Beach, which is said to be the loveliest on the planet, where visitors can sunbathe, and play various water sports.

Sydney is said to be a miniature world of attractions, captivating visitors. It is a must-go destination on every tourist's bucket list, should they visit the beautiful land of Australia.

(Adapted from Heritage)

Which of the following is TRUE about Sydney according to the passage?

Read the following the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrasethat best fits each of the numbered blanks from 31 to 35.
From the next year, every student in their final rear at our school will study for a compulsory Diploma of Practical Achievement. This will be in addition to the normal examinations. Up to now, the course has been optional, but from now on every student must (31)        it.
The aim is to (32)   students with "life skills", which the Diploma divides into eight categories. These cover a range of things relevant to life beyond school, from sending an e-mail to giving presentation  to  an  audience.  Under  the  heading     "survival",  (33)      ,  students   can learn  car mainternance, first aid and cooking. We have discovered that many students cannot do simple things such as mend a puncture or boil an egg. At the other extreme, the Diploma includes such things as how to design a webpage and how to cope if someone has a heart attack. It has been called a " Diploma in Common Sense".
On the course, students will not be taught in the traditional (34)  
  , but rather will be guided and encouraged to do things for themselves. This is above all a practical "hand-on" course. To a greater or lesser extent, good schools have always tried to (35)        these skills. Unfortunately, students have not always shown much interest because such skills are not directly related to passing exams for higher education. We hope this will change now that we have a proper course that will lead to a recognised diploma.
(31)..................

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.

The word “ball” in the first sentence means ________________.

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.

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an advance in short-range weather forecasting?

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 from 26 to 30.
The position of sport in today‟s society has changed out of all regconition. People no longer seem to think of sport as “just a game” – to be watched or played for the (21)_________ of enjoyment. Instead, it has become big business worldwide. It has become accepted practice for loading companies to provide sponsorship. TV companies pay large sums of money to screen important matches or competitions. The result has been huge financial rewards for athletes, some of (22)_________ are now very wealthy, particularly top footballers, golfers and tennis players. (23)_________ , it is not unusual for some athletes to receive large fees on top of their salary, for advertising products or making personal appearances.
A trend towards shorter working hours means that people generally tend to have more free time, both to watch and to take part in sporting activity; sport has become a significant part of the recreation industry that we now rely (24)_________ to fill our leisure hours. Professional sport is a vital part of that industry, providing pleasure for millions of (25)_________ people all over the world.
(23).................

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. 

6........................

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.

   One day in 1924, five men who were camping in the Cascade Mountains of Washington saw a group of huge apelike creatures coming out of the woods. They hurried back to their cabin and locked themselves inside. While they were in, the creatures attacked them by throwing rocks against the walls of the cabin.

   After several hours, these strange hairy giants went back into the woods. After this incident the men returned to the town and told the people of their adventure. However, only a few people accepted their story. These were the people who remembered hearing tales about footprints of an animal that walked like a human being.

   The five men, however, were not the first people to have seen these creatures called Bigfoot. Long before their experience, local Native Americans were certain that a race of apelike animals had been living in the neighboring mountain for centuries. They called these creatures Sasquatch.

   In 1958, workmen, who were building a road through the jungles of Northern California often found huge footprints in the earth around their camp.

   Then in 1967, Roger Patterson, a man who was interested in finding Bigfoot went into the Northern California jungles with a friend. While riding, they were suddenly thrown off from their horses. Patterson saw a tall apelike animal standing not far away. He managed to shoot seven rolls of film of the hairy creature before the animal disappeared in the hushes. when Patterson's film was shown to the public, not many people believed his story.

   In another incident, Richard Brown, a music teacher and also an experienced hunter spotted a similar creature. He saw the animal clearly through the telescopic lens of his rifle. He said the creature looked more like a human than an animal.

   Later many other people also found deep footprints in the same area. In spite of regular reports of sightings and footprints, most experts still do not believe that Bigfoot really exists.

What did the five campers do when they saw a group of apelike creatures?

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.

Machines already perform a lot of tasks that were usually done by humans, such as building cars, doing complex calculations, and even marking exam papers. But now it seems that ever more intelligent machines are straying into areas where we never envisaged they would go. We have always taken pride in having a unique kind of intelligence that machines could never match, one which allows us to think of new ideas and produce creative and artistic works. But it seems that even here, computers are lining up to compete with us.

Machines can easily be trained to do the physical work of producing art. About ten years ago, a painting robot known as e-David was created at a university in Germany. And recently in New York, the painting ‘Portrait of Edmond de Belamy' has been auctioned for nearly half a million dollars. What made it a bit unusual was that the idea, and the image itself, was produced entirely by a computer. A group of young French artists gave instructions to the computer, aiming simply to show that computers can be creative.

Some artists are now working with computers to produce a new kind of art. Computer-generated works of art are certainly interesting, and make us think about the limits of what machines can and cannot do. But not everyone would accept that they qualify as art. Some enthusiasts would argue they do, and the collectors willing to pay high prices for these works would suggest there is definitely a market for computer art. Others, however, would disagree.

Many 'real' artists would claim that art is an expression of human intelligence and human emotions. More importantly, it is about a desire to communicate with other people. These things, they argue, are part of being human and can never be produced by a machine.

(Adapted from Formula-Exam Trainer)

Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

Course numbers are an indication of which courses are to various categories of students at the University. Undergraduate courses with the numbers 100 or 200 are generally introductory courses appropriate for freshmen or sophomores, whereas courses with the numbers 300 or 400 often have prerequisites and are often to juniors and seniors only. Courses with the numbers 800 or above are open only to graduate students. Certain graduate courses, generally those devoted to introductory material, are numbered 400 for undergraduate students who qualify to take them and 600 for graduate students. Courses designed for students seeking a professional degree carry a 500 number for undergraduate students and a 700 number for graduate students. Courses numbered 99 or below are special interest courses that do not carry academic credit. If students elect to take a special interest course, it will not count toward the number of hours needed to complete graduation requirements.
Full - time undergraduate student is expected to take courses that total twelve to eighteen credit hours. A full-time graduate student is expected to take courses that total ten to sixteen credit hours. Student holding assistantships are expected to enroll for proportionately fewer hours. A part - time graduate may register for minimum of three credit hours. An overload, that is, more than the maximum number of hours, may be taken with the approval of an academic advisor. To register for an overload, students must submit the appropriate approval form when registering. Overloads above 24 hours will not be approved under any circumstances.

The word "categories" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to________.

Read the following the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrasethat best fits each of the numbered blanks from 31 to 35.
From the next year, every student in their final rear at our school will study for a compulsory Diploma of Practical Achievement. This will be in addition to the normal examinations. Up to now, the course has been optional, but from now on every student must (31)        it.
The aim is to (32)   students with "life skills", which the Diploma divides into eight categories. These cover a range of things relevant to life beyond school, from sending an e-mail to giving presentation  to  an  audience.  Under  the  heading     "survival",  (33)      ,  students   can learn  car mainternance, first aid and cooking. We have discovered that many students cannot do simple things such as mend a puncture or boil an egg. At the other extreme, the Diploma includes such things as how to design a webpage and how to cope if someone has a heart attack. It has been called a " Diploma in Common Sense".
On the course, students will not be taught in the traditional (34)  
  , but rather will be guided and encouraged to do things for themselves. This is above all a practical "hand-on" course. To a greater or lesser extent, good schools have always tried to (35)        these skills. Unfortunately, students have not always shown much interest because such skills are not directly related to passing exams for higher education. We hope this will change now that we have a proper course that will lead to a recognised diploma.
(33)..................

Read the text below and decide which answer (A,B,C, or D) best fits each space.
Statesmen define a family as ―a group of indivi duals having a commo n  dwelling andrelated by blood, adoption or marriage, (1) includes common law relationships.‖ Most people are born into one of these groups and (2) live their lives as a family in such a group.Although the definition of a  family may not change, (3).relationship of people to each other within the family  group changes as society changes. More and more wives are (4) paying jobs,  and, as a result, the roles of husband, wife and children are changing. Today,  men expect to(5) . for pay for about 40 years of their lives, and, in today‘s  marriages(6) . which both spouses have paying jobs, women can expect to  work for about 30 to 35 years of their lives. This mean that man must learn to do  their share of family tasks such as caring for the children and daily (7) chores.  Children, too, especially adolescents, have to (8) with the members od their  family in sharing household tasks. The widespread acceptance of contraception  has meant that having (9) is as matter of choice, not an automatic result of  marriage. Marriage itself has become a choice. As alternatives (10)  common-law relationships and single-parent families have become socially  acceptable, women will become more independent. 

8)..........................