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.
In an experiment in Canada, ten-year-old children were put in classes of four sizes: 16, 23, 30 and 37 children in (1)...... class. Their teachers said that the smaller classes would result in more individual attention and better marks. However, when the children were (2)....... , those in the smaller classes didn’t get higher marks than the others, except in mathematics. Moreover, children in the larger classes said they liked school (3)........ as much. Perhaps the most surprising result was the difference between what teachers expected and the actual results obtained. More than 90% of the teachers expected the smaller classes to (4)......... well. After teaching these smaller classes, over 80% of the teachers thought the pupils had done better. However, according to the researchers, nothing of the (5)........ happened. Class size seemed to make a difference only to the teachers’ own attitudes - and not to the results they obtained.
(3)..............................
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Lời giải:
Báo saiGiải thích: “As much = the same”
Dùng “just” miêu tả ý là học sinh ở các lớp lớn hơn cũng chỉ thích đến trường giống như ở những lớp nhỏ hơn mà thôi.
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:
Bitcoins are a form of virtual currency. In other words, they are a type of money that does not exist in the actual world. However, they can be used to purchase actual products and services from real companies.
The bitcoin system was created in 2009 by an enigmatic person named Satoshi Nakamoto. In fact, no one is sure if Satoshi Nakamoto is an actual person or a group of people. Bitcoins are designed to serve as an alternative to national currencies, such as dollars and euros, They can be used to pay for things instead of cash or credit cards. When bitcoins are transferred from a buyer to a seller, the transaction is recorded in a public database.
Governments are concerned that bitcoins can easily be stolen by hackers. It has dawned on them that they might be used for illegal purposes. For example, stolen goods could be purchased without the government's knowledge. Although more and more companies are beginning to accept bitcoins, the percentage of purchases made using bitcoins is minuscule compared to other online payment methods, such as credit cards. Instead, many bitcoin owners simply keep them as an investment since more valuable in the future.
This may or may not be a wise approach. Currently, the value of bitcoins is fluctuating wildly, especially when compared to highly stable national currencies, Bitcoin Investors are gambling on the hope that as this high-tech money becomes more widely accepted, its value will soar.The word “they” in paragraph 1 refers to
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or II to indicate the answer to each of the question.
Having a hobby that you enjoy—whether that’s crocheting a sweater for your beastie’s new baby, hitting the slopes to enjoy some fresh powder, or practicing pirouettes in ballet class—has all sorts of well-documented benefits, from lower levels of stress to an increased sense of belonging and purpose. Clearly, hobbies can make a serious impact on your quality of life. But they can also improve your work performance. According to licensed professional counselor Rebecca Weiler, when you’re engaged and fulfilled in your life outside of work like you are when you’re pursuing meaningful hobbies, that happiness spills over. It can make you more focused and enthusiastic when you’re on the job.
And depending on the hobby, the skills you gain as a result of your leisurely pursuits can also make you better at your job and make you a more appealing candidate for potential employers. “For example, someone who performs in an improvisational group as a hobby could be attractive to an employer because they can think quickly on their feet and may also be more comfortable presenting in front of a group of people,” Weiler says.
So, having a hobby that you love can do good things for your life and your job. But what if you don’t actually have a hobby you enjoy? You’re not alone. According to Weiler, trying to find meaningful hobbies is one of the primary reasons her clients—especially young people—seek counseling. Clearly, there are plenty of people out there who don’t have, or don’t know how to find, a hobby. But that doesn’t mean they can’t find one. It doesn’t matter if you’re 25 or 85 years old—it’s not too late to hop on board the hobby train!The word “they” in paragraph 2 refers to _______.
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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.
They call Jamaica the "Island in the sun" and that is my memory of it. Of sunshine, warmth and abundant fruit that was growing everywhere, and of love. There were two sisters ahead of me in the family, and though of course I didn't know it, there was an exciting talk of emigration, possibly to Canada but more usually to England, the land of opportunity. I guess that plans were already being made when I was born, for a year or so later my Dad left for London. Two years after that my mum went as well and my sisters and I were left in the care of my grandmother.
Emigrating to better yourself was a dream for most Jamaicans, a dream many were determined to fulfill. Families were close and grandmothers were an important part of the family. So, when the mass emigrations began, it seemed perfectly right and natural for them to take over the running of families left behind.
Grandmothers are often strict, but usually also spoil you. She ran the family like a military operation: each of us, no matter how young, had our tasks. Every morning, before we went to school, we all had to take a bucket appropriate to our size and run a relay from the communal tap to the barrels until they are full. My sisters had to sweep the yard before they went to school. My grandmother would give orders to the eldest and these were passed down- as I got older I found this particularly annoying! But I can tell you, no one avoided their duties.
My Dad came over from England to see how we were getting on . He talked to us about the new country, about snow, about the huge city, and we all wanted to know more, to see what it was like. I didn't know it at that time., but he had come to prepare us for the move to England. Six months later my grandmother told me that I was going to join my parents and that she, too, was emigrating.
London was strange and disappointing. There was no gold on the pavements, as the stories in Jaimaica had indicated. The roads were busy, the buildings were grey and dull, with many tall, high-rise blocks. It was totally unlike Jamaica, the houses all small and packed close together. In my grandmother's house I had a big bedroom, here I had to share.
Then came the biggest shock: snow. While flakes came out of the sky and Dad smiled, pointed and said: "That's snow!" I rushed outside, looked up and opened my mouth to let the flakes drop in. The snow settled on my tongue and it was so cold that I cried. My toes lost all feeling. As my shoes and socks got wet and frozen, there came an excruciating pain and I cried with the intensity of it. I didn't know what was happening to me.
What does "this" in the third paragraph refer to
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Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:
"“Where is the university?” is a question many visitors to Cambridge ask, but no one can give them a clear answer, for there is no wall to be found around the university. The university is the City. You can find the classroom buildings, libraries, museums and offices of the university all over the city. And most of its members are the students and teachers or professors of the thirty-one colleges.
Cambridge was an already developing town long before the first students and teachers arrived 800 years ago. It grew up by the river Granta, as the Cam was once calied. A bridge was built over the river as early as 875.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries more and more land was used for college buildings. The town grew much faster in the nineteenth century after the opening of the railway in 1845. Cambridge became a City in 1951 and now it has the population of over 100,000. Many young students want to study at Cambridge. Thousands of people from all over the world come to visit the university town. It has become a famous place all around the world."2. Around what time did the university begin to appear?
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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:
Until recently, hunting for treasure from shipwrecks was mostly fantasy; with recent technological advances, however, the search for sunken treasure has become more popular as a legitimate endeavor. This has caused a debate between those wanting to salvage the wrecks and those wanting to preserve them.
Treasure hunters are spurred on by the thought of finding caches of gold coins or other valuable objects on a sunken ship. One team of salvagers, for instance, searched the wreck of the RMS Republic, which sank outside the Boston harbor in 1900. The search party, using side-scan sonar, a device that projects sound waves across the ocean bottom and produces a profile of the sea floor, located the wreck in just two and a half days. Before the use of this new technology, such searches could take months or years. The team of divers searched the wreck for two months, finding silver tea services, crystal dinnerware, and thousands of bottles of wine, but they did not find the five and a half tons of American Gold Eagle coins they were searching for.
Preservationists focus on the historic value of a ship. They say that even if a shipwreck's treasure does not have a high monetary value, it can be an invaluable source of historic artifacts that are preserved in nearly mint condition. But once a salvage team has scoured a site, much of the archaeological value is lost. Maritime archaeologists who are preservationists worry that the success of salvagers will attract more treasure-hunting expeditions and thus threaten remaining undiscovered wrecks. Preservationists are lobbying their state lawmakers to legally restrict underwater searches and unregulated salvages. To counter their efforts, treasure hunters argue that without the lure of gold and million-dollar treasures, the wrecks and their historical artifacts would never be recovered at all.The author uses the phrase "mint condition" in line 14 to describe .
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Read the passage and mark A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the blanks.
ROSES
According to fossil fuel records, roses are over 35 million years old and they were cultivated in China about 5,000 years ago. A Chinese emperor in the 6th century B.C. apparently had over 600 books on roses in his library, and oil was extracted from those grown in his gardens. (1)........ , only the highest members of society were allowed to use it. If anyone else was found with even a small amount, they were (2)............ to death. Roses were also popular with the Romans, who used their petals as medicine, a source of perfume and as confetti at weddings.
Cultivated rose were only introduced to Western Europe in the 18th century. Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, started a botanical garden near Paris, (3)........... she collected all the known varieties of rose and encouraged the breeding of new ones. This led to the flowers becoming increasingly popular, and in Britain at that time roses became so (4)........ that they were often used as currency in local markets.
All roses in Europe used to be pink or white until the first red ones arrived from China 200 years ago. These now (5)........ love and are the world’s most common cut flower.
(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:
In the United States, it is important to be on time, or punctual, for an appointment, a class, a meeting, ect... This may not be true in some other countries, however. An American professor discovered this difference while teaching a class in a Brazilian university. The two-hour class was scheduled to begin at 10 A.m., and end at 12 A.m. On the first day, when the professor arrived on time, no one was in the classroom. Many students came after 11 A.m. Although all of the students greeted the professor as they arrived, few apologised for their lateness. Were these students being rude? He decided to study the students’ behavior.
In American university, students are expected to arrive at the appointed hour. On the other hand, in Brazil, neither the teacher nor the students always arrive at the appointed hour. Classes not only begin at the scheduled time in the United States, but they also end at the scheduled time. In the Brazilian class, only a few students left the class at noon, many remained past 12:30 to discuss the class and ask more questions. While arriving late may not be important in Brazil, neither is staying late.
The explanation for these differences is complicated. People from Brazilian and North American cultures have different feelings about lateness. In Brazil, the students believe that a person who usually arrives late is probably more successful than a person who is always on time. In fact, Brazilians expect a person with status or prestige to arrive late, while in the United States, lateness is usually considered to be disrespectful and unacceptable. Consequently, if a Brazilian is late for an appointment with a North America, the American may misinterpret the reason for the lateness and become angry.
As a result for his study, the professor learned that the Brazilian students were not being disrespectful to him. Instead, they were simply behaving the appropriate way for a Brazilian student in Brazil. Eventually, the professor was able to adapt his own behavior to feel comfortable in the new culture.What is the main idea of this passage?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
A scientist said robots will be more intelligent than humans by 2029. The scientist's name is Ray Kurzweil. He works for Google as Director of Engineering. He is one of the world’s leading experts on (1) ______ intelligence (A.I). Mr Kurzweil believes computers will be able to learn from experiences, just like humans. He also thinks they will be able to tell jokes and stories, and even flirt. Kurzweil‘s 2029 prediction is a lot sooner than many people thought. The scientist said that in 1999, many A.I. experts said it would be hundreds of years (2) ____ a computer was more intelligent than a human. He said that it would not be long before computer (3) ______ is one billion times more powerful than the human brain.
Mr Kurzweil joked that many years ago, people thought he was a little crazy for predicting computers would be as intelligent as humans. His thinking has stayed the same but everyone else has changed the way they think. He said: “My views are not radical any more. I've actually stayed (4) ______. It's the rest of the world that's changing its View.” He highlighted examples of high-tech things we use, see or read about every day. These things make us believe that computers have intelligence. He said people think differently now: "Because the public has seen things like Siri (the iPhone’s voice-recognition technology) (5) ______ you talk to a computer, they've seen the Google self-driving cars."(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:
According to some accounts, the first optical telescope was accidentally invented in the 1600s by children who put two glass lenses together while playing with them in a Dutch optical shop. The owner of the shop, Hans Lippershey, looked through the lenses and was amazed by the way they made the nearby church look so much larger. Soon after that, he invented a device that he called a “looker”, a long thin tube where light passed in a straight line from the front lens to the viewing lens at the other end of the tube. In 1608 he tried to sell his invention unsuccessfully. In the same year, someone described the “looker” to the Italian scientists Galileo, who made his own version of the device. In 1610 Galileo used his version to make observations of the Moon, the planet Jupiter, and the Milky Way. In April of 1611, Galileo showed his device to guests at a banquet in his honor. One of guests suggested a name for the device: telescope
When Isaac Newton began using Galileo’s telescope more than a century later, he noticed a problem. The type of telescope that Galileo designed is called a refractor because the front lens bends, or refracts, the light. However, the curved front lens also caused the light to the separated into colors. This meant that when Newton looked through the refracting telescope, the images of bright objects appeared with a ring of colors around them. This sometimes interfered with viewing. He solved this problem by designing a new type of telescope that used a curved mirror. This mirror concentrated the light and reflected a beam of light to the eyepiece at the other end of the telescope. Because Newton used a mirror, his telescope was called a reflector
Very much larger optical telescopes can now be found in many parts of the world, built on hills and mountains far from city lights. The world’s largest refracting telescope is located at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. Another telescope stands on Mount Palomar in California. This huge reflecting telescope was for many years the largest reflecting telescope in the world until an even larger reflecting telescope was built in the Caucasus Mountains. A fourth famous reflector telescope, the Keck Telescope situated on a mountain in Hawaii, does not use a single large mirror to collect the light. Instead, the Keck uses the combined light that falls on thirty- six mirrors
Radio telescopes, like optical telescopes allow astronomers to collect data from outer space, but they are different in important ways. First of all, they look very different because instead of light waves, they collect radio waves. Thus, in the place of lenses or mirror, radio telescopes employ bowl-shaped disks that resemble huge TV satellite dished. Also, apart from their distinctive appearance, radio telescope and optical telescopes use different methods to record the information they collect. Optical telescopes use cameras to take photographs of visible objects, while radio telescopes use radio receivers to record radio waves from distant object in space.When was Galileo’s invention called “telescope”?
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Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:
"In the us, colleges of pharmacy offer five-year undergraduate programs (1)….. to the degree of Bachelor of Science in the pharmaceutical Sciences. AU (2)…. students directly from high schools (3)….. may grant advanced standing to college students or graduates. Licenses are granted by the States after the following requirements have been (4)…. : graduation from one of 72 colleges with programs (5)….. by the American council on Pharmaceutical Education; about 1,500 hours of internship (6)…… a registered pharmacist; (7)….. completion of a State examination. Pharmacists may practise their (8)….. in a pharmacy located in a hospital, nursing home, or special area of a drugstore. They may also be (9)…… by a pharmaceutical company in scientific research for the (10)…… and production of new pharmaceutical Products."
6. about 1,500 hours of internship (6)…… a registered pharmacist;
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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:
No sooner had the first intrepid male aviators safely returned to Earth than it seemed that women, too, had been smitten by an urge to fly. From mere spectators, they became willing passengers and finally pilots in their own right, plotting their skills and daring line against the hazards of the air and the skepticism of their male counterparts. In doing so they enlarged the traditional bounds of a women's world, won for their sex a new sense of competence and achievement, and contributed handsomely to the progress of aviation.
But recognition of their abilities did not come easily. "Men do not believe us capable." The famed aviator Amelia Earhart once remarked to a friend. "Because we are women, seldom are we trusted to do an efficient job." Indeed old attitudes died hard: when Charles Lindbergh visited the Soviet Union in 1938 with his wife, Anne–herself a pilot and gifted proponent of aviation – he was astonished to discover both men and women flying in the Soviet Air Force.
Such conventional wisdom made it difficult for women to raise money for the up – to – date equipment they needed to compete on an equal basis with men. Yet they did compete, and often they triumphed finally despite the odds.
Ruth Law, whose 590 – mile flight from Chicago to Hornell, New York, set a new nonstop distance record in 1916, exemplified the resourcefulness and grit demanded of any woman who wanted to fly. And when she addressed the Aero Club of America after completing her historic journey, her plainspoken wordstestified to a universal human motivation that was unaffected by gender: "My flight was done with no expectation of reward," she declared, "just purely for the love of accomplishment."The word ‘addressed’ can be best replaced by .
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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:
Do you think you're smarter than your parents and grandparents? According to James Flynn, a professor at a New Zealand university, you are! Over the course of the last century, people who have taken IQ tests have gotten increasingly better scores-on average, three points better for every decade that has passed. This improvement is known as "the Flynn effect," and scientists want to know what is behind it.
IQ tests and other similar tests are designed to measure general intelligence rather than knowledge. Flynn knew that intelligence is partly inherited from our parents and partly the result of our environment and experiences, but the improvement in test scores was happening too quickly to be explained by heredity. So what was happening in the 20th century that was helping people achieve higher scores on intelligence tests?
Scientists have proposed several explanations for the Flynn effect. Some suggest that the improved test scores simply reflect an increased exposure to tests in general. Because we take so many tests, we learn test-taking techniques that help us perform better on any test. Others have pointed to better nutrition since it results in babies being born larger, healthier, and with more brain development than in the past. Another possible explanation is a change in educational styles, with teachers encouraging children to learn by discovering things for themselves rather than just memorizing information. This could prepare people to do the kind of problem solving that intelligence tests require.
Flynn limited the possible explanations when he looked carefully at the test data and discovered that the improvement in scores was only on certain parts of the IQ test. Test takers didn't do better on the arithmetic or vocabulary sections of the test; they did better on sections that required a special kind of reasoning and problem solving. For example, one part of the test shows a set of abstract shapes, and test-takers must look for patterns and connections between them and decide which shape should be added to the set.
According to Flynn, this visual intelligence improves as the amount of technology in our lives increases. Every time you play a computer game or figure out how to program a new cell phone, you are exercising exactly the kind of thinking and problem solving that helps you do well on one kind of intelligence test. So are you really smarter than your parents? In one very specific way, you may be.aWhich statement would Professor Flynn agree with?
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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:
Henry is the undisputed star of Dronfield School near Sheffield. Whatever the achievements of other members of the comprehensive school, it is Henry, with his soulful eyes and glossy hair, who has hogged the limelight, appearing on television in Britain and abroad. Yet despite all the public adulation, Henry stirs up no envy or resentment among the 2000 students – in fact, they all adore him. The dog, who first arrived six months ago, is a super dog, who has improved students’ behaviour and encouraged more students to focus on their academic achievement.
Andrew Wainwright, a student at Dronfield School, says there is something magical and calming about being able to interact with Henry during his time at the school’s catch-up classes, and that if he falls behind, that opportunity will be denied. Even doubting staff have finally been won round. Perhaps that is because Henry, who lies on the floor during staff meetings, has also had a calming effect on them.
It was Andrew’s teacher, Wendy Brown and the school counsellor, Julie Smart, who first proposed buying a school dog. “Julie and I were talking one day about how looking after dogs can positively affect children’s conduct,” says Brown. “We did some research and discovered that the presence of pets has been shown to be therapeutic. A number of studies have shown that animals improve recovery after surgery or illness and have a calming influence on people in a lot of settings. Some of my kids can be a handful and some of the children Julie counsels have terrible problems.”
Could the school dog become a craze? Other schools such as the Mulberry Bush, a primary school for children with behavioural problems, have stepped forward to point out they already have one. Rosie Johnston, a Mulberry staff member has been bringing her golden retriever, Muskoka, into school for three years. Apart from being a calming influence, Muskoka even plays his part in literacy lessons. Children at the school can be too shy to read to adults so they read to Muskoka. “Their anxiety about mispronouncing something or getting the words in the wrong order is reduced when they read to him,” says Johnston.
Psychologist Dr Deborah Wells from Queen's University Belfast specialises in animal-human interaction. She believes that the underlying key to the Henry effect is that dogs offer unconditional love and that cheers up adults and children and helps with self-esteem. But traditionalist Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools says, “I don’t see why a teacher cannot create a positive learning environment through the subject they teach and their personality. Dogs strike me as a bit of a publicity stunt. It’s the kind of sentimental story journalists love.” Despite this sentiment, Henry remains as popular as ever.The phrase “a handful” in paragraph 3 is probably descriptive of a child who is .
A. B. inclined to disagree.
C. D.
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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:
Garbage cans are not magical portals. Trash does not disappear when you toss it in a can. Yet, the average American throws away an estimated 1,600 pounds of waste each year. If there are no magic garbage fairies, where does all that trash go? There are four methods to managing waste:
Recycling, landfilling, composting, and incinerating. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take a quick look at each.
Recycling is the process of turning waste into new materials. For example, used paper can be turned into paperboard, which can be used to make book covers. Recycling can reduce pollution, save materials, and lower energy use. Yet, some argue that recycling wastes energy. They believe that collecting, processing, and converti g waste uses more energy than it saves. Still, most people agree that recycling is better for the planet
than landfilling.
Landfilling is the oldest method of managing waste. In its simplest form, landfilling is when people bury garbage in a hole. Over time the practice of landfilling has advanced. Garbage is compacted before it is thrown into the hole. In this way more garbage can fit in each landfill. Large liners are placed in the bottom of landfills so that toxic garbage juice doesn't get into the ground water. Sadly, these liners don't always work. Landfills may pollute the local water supply. Not to mention that all of that garbage stinks. Nobody wants to live next to a landfill. This makes it hard to find new locations for landfills.
Compositing is when people pile up organic matter, such as food waste, and allow it to decompose. The product of this decomposition is compost. Compost can be added to the soil to make the soil richer and better for growing crops. While composting is easy to do onsite somewhere, like home or school, it's hard to do after the garbage gets all mixed up. This is because plastic and other inorganic materials must be removed from the compost pile or they will pollute the soil. There's a lot of plastic in garbage, which makes it hard to compost on a large scale.
One thing that is easier to do is burning garbage. There are two main ways to incinerate waste. The first is to create or harvest a fuel from the waste, such as methane gas, and burn the fuel. The second is to burn the waste directly. The heat from the incineration process can boil water, which can power steam generators. Unfortunately, burning garbage pollutes the air. Also, some critics worry that incinerators destroy valuable resources that could be recycled.
Usually, the community in which you live manages waste. Once you put your garbage in that can, what happens to fit is beyond your control. But you can make choices while it is still in your possession. You can choose to recycle, you can choose to compost, or you can choose to let someone else deal with it. The choice is yours.Which conclusion could be drawn from the passage?
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The relationship between students and teachers is (1)_________formal in the USA than in many other countries, especially at the college level. American college students do not stand up when their teacher enters the room. Students are generally encouraged to ask questions in class, to stop in the professor's of lice for extra help, and to phone if they are absent and need a(n) (2)_________. Most teachers allow students to enter class late or leave early, if necessary. Despite the lack of formality, students are still expected to be polite to their teacher and fellow classmates. When students want to ask questions, they usually (3)__________a hand and wait to be called on. When the teacher or a student is speaking to the class, it is rude to begin whispering (4)_________another classmate. When a test is being given, talking to' a classmate is not only rude but also risky. Most American teachers consider that students who are talking to each other (5) _________a test are cheating.
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each the numbered blanks.
Cultural beliefs differ as to whether directness or indirectness is considered positive. In the mainstream American culture, the ideal (25) ____ of communication includes being direct rather than indirect (“ideal" here means that the culture values this style, although not everyone speaks directly). There are several expressions in English (26) ____ emphasize the importance of being direct: “Get to the point! Don't beat around the bush! Let's get down to business!" These sayings all indicate the importance of dealing directly with issues rather than (27) ____ them. One way to determine whether a culture favors a direct or indirect style in communication is to find out how the people in that culture express disagreement or how they say, “No”. In Japan, there are at least fifteen ways of saying “No”, without actually saying the word. Similarly, in Japan, it would be (28) ____ rude to say directly “I disagree with you” or “You're wrong”.
Many Americans believe that "honesty is the best policy" and their communication style reflects this. Honesty and directness in communication are strongly related. It is not a (29) ____, then, to find out that cultural groups misjudge each other based on different beliefs about directness and honesty in communication.(29).....................
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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:
If you could travel back in time five centuries, you'd encounter a thriving Aztec empire in Central Mexico, a freshly painted "Mona Lisa" in Renaissance Europe and cooler temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere. This was a world in the midst of the Little Ice Age (A.D. 1300 to 1850) and a period of vast European exploration now known as the Age of Discovery. But what if we could look 500 years into the future and glimpse the Earth of the 26th century? Would the world seem as different to us as the 21st century would have seemed to residents of the 16th century? For starters, what will the weather be like?
Depending on whom you ask, the 26th century will either be a little chilly or infernally hot.
Some solar output models suggest that by the 2500s, Earth's climate will have cooled back down to near Little Ice Age conditions. Other studies predict that ongoing climate change and fossil fuel use will render much of the planet too hot for human life by 2300.
Some experts date the beginning of human climate change back to the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, others to slash-and-burn agricultural practices in prehistoric times. Either way, tool- wielding humans alter their environment -- and our 26th century tools might be quite impressive indeed.
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku predicts that in a mere 100 years, humanity will make the leap from a type zero civilization to a type I civilization on the Kardashev Scale. In other words, we'll become a species that can harness the entire sum of a planet's energy. Wielding such power, 26th-century humans will be masters of clean energy technologies such as fusion and solar power. Furthermore, they'll be able to manipulate planetary energy in order to control global climate. Physicist Freeman Dyson, on the other hand, estimates the leap to a type I civilization would occur within roughly 200 years.
Technology has improved exponentially since the 1500s, and this pace will likely continue in the centuries to come. Physicist Stephen Hawking proposes that by the year 2600, this growth would see 10 new theoretical physics papers published every 10 seconds. If Moore's Law holds true and both computer speed and complexity double every 18 months, then some of these studies may be the work of highly intelligent machines.
What other technologies will shape the world of the 26th century? Futurist and author Adrian Berry believes the average human life span will reach 140 years and that the digital storage of human personalities will enable a kind of computerized immortality. Humans will farm the oceans, travel in starships and reside in both lunar and Martian colonies while robots explore the outer cosmos.The word "harness" in paragraph 4 could best be replaced by _.
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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 for each of the blanks.
The application (1)....... for volunteers for the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006 is now closed. Organizers have been flooded with interest and have now filled all available roles. Any further (2)......... will have their details stored on file and will only be contacted in the event of any vacancies unexpectedly arising.
Over 30,000 men and women, not only from Qatar, but also from the Gulf (3)....... and even further afield, have volunteered to help out at Doha 2006 after more than two years of meetings and interviews. First of all, a big “thank you” to everyone for your enthusiasm and commitment in volunteering to give up some of your precious free time to become part of the Games of your Life. The (4)...... has been quite overwhelming and has far exceeded expectations.
“It shows that the Qatar public has embraced the (5)........ of the Games”, says Khaled Helaly, manager of the Doha 2006 Volunteers Programme
(5)..............................
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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:
Film is an illusion because the moving pictures seen on the screen are not moving at all. A film is actually a series of tiny still pictures, or flames. They appear to be moving because the retina of the human eye retains the impression of an object for a split second after that object has actually disappeared. This principle is known as the persistence of vision. When we look at a single frame of film, the image persists in the brain's visual center for a fraction of a second. Then, the next frame comes along and the brain has to catch up with the new image. Thus, our eyes and brain trick US into thinking that we see a smoothly moving image rather than a series of still ones.
Another illusion of film is known collectively as special effects, the tricks and techniques that filmmakers use when makeup, costume, and stunts are still not enough to make a scene convincing. Special effects artists apply science to filmmaking, showing US things that no plain camera could ever photograph. Even since the introduction of computer graphics in recent decades, the films of today still rely on some special effects that have existed since the early years of cinema.
One category of special effects is called optical or visual effects, tricks made with the camera. One of the pioneers of optical effects was the French filmmaker Georges Méliès, who invented a technique called stop-motion photography. With this technique, a scene is filmed, the camera is stopped, the scene is changed in some way, and then the camera rolls again. Stop motion photography can create the illusion of an actor disappearing on screen. In one short film, an actor's clothes keep returning to his body as he tries to get undressed. Méfiés also invented a technique known as split screen. By putting a card over the camera lens, he prevented half of the frame of film from being exposed. He filmed a scene on the uncovered half of the frame and then backed up the same strip of film in his camera. For the second shot, he covered the exposed half and took another series of pictures on the half that had been covered the first time. With the technique of split screen, it is possible to achieve illusions such as having the same actor play twins.
Mechanical effects are another category of special effects. Mechanical effects are objects or devices used during the filming to create an illusion, such as feathers or plastic chips to simulate snow, and wires to create the illusion that people are flying. Many sound effects are mechanical effects. Wood blocks create a horse's hoof beats, and a vibrating sheet of metal sounds like thunder. During the silent film era, the music machine called the Kinematophone was popular because it could produce the sounds of sirens, sleigh bells, gunfire, baby cries, and kisses-all at the press of a key.
Other mechanical effects are puppets, robots of all sizes, and tiny copies of buildings or cities. To reduce the cost of studio sets or location photography, special-effects technicians create painted or projected backgrounds, which replace the set or add to it. For example, in a long shot of a town, the set might be only a few feet high, and the remainder of the town is painted onto a sheet of glass positioned in front of the camera during filming. In a 1916 silent film called The Flying Torpedo, mechanical effects created the appearance of an enemy invasion of the California seacoast. Technicians threw small contact- rigged explosives into toy cities, scattering the tiny buildings into the air. An artist painted a row of battleships on a board that was only six feet long. Carpenters drilled small holes in the ships, which were filled with small charges of flash powder to simulate guns. An electrician wired the charges so they could be fired on cue from a small battery. For audiences of t -
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:
If you could travel back in time five centuries, you'd encounter a thriving Aztec empire in Central Mexico, a freshly painted "Mona Lisa" in Renaissance Europe and cooler temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere. This was a world in the midst of the Little Ice Age (A.D. 1300 to 1850) and a period of vast European exploration now known as the Age of Discovery. But what if we could look 500 years into the future and glimpse the Earth of the 26th century? Would the world seem as different to us as the 21st century would have seemed to residents of the 16th century? For starters, what will the weather be like?
Depending on whom you ask, the 26th century will either be a little chilly or infernally hot.
Some solar output models suggest that by the 2500s, Earth's climate will have cooled back down to near Little Ice Age conditions. Other studies predict that ongoing climate change and fossil fuel use will render much of the planet too hot for human life by 2300.
Some experts date the beginning of human climate change back to the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, others to slash-and-burn agricultural practices in prehistoric times. Either way, tool- wielding humans alter their environment -- and our 26th century tools might be quite impressive indeed.
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku predicts that in a mere 100 years, humanity will make the leap from a type zero civilization to a type I civilization on the Kardashev Scale. In other words, we'll become a species that can harness the entire sum of a planet's energy. Wielding such power, 26th-century humans will be masters of clean energy technologies such as fusion and solar power. Furthermore, they'll be able to manipulate planetary energy in order to control global climate. Physicist Freeman Dyson, on the other hand, estimates the leap to a type I civilization would occur within roughly 200 years.
Technology has improved exponentially since the 1500s, and this pace will likely continue in the centuries to come. Physicist Stephen Hawking proposes that by the year 2600, this growth would see 10 new theoretical physics papers published every 10 seconds. If Moore's Law holds true and both computer speed and complexity double every 18 months, then some of these studies may be the work of highly intelligent machines.
What other technologies will shape the world of the 26th century? Futurist and author Adrian Berry believes the average human life span will reach 140 years and that the digital storage of human personalities will enable a kind of computerized immortality. Humans will farm the oceans, travel in starships and reside in both lunar and Martian colonies while robots explore the outer cosmos.Which of the following could be the main idea of the passage?