Read the passage and do the exercises below:

Decide if the following statements are true or false about the passage. Write T for True and F for False in the space provided.

It's important that you develop effective strategies for managing your time to balance the conflicting demands of time for study, leisure, earning money and work. Time management skills are valuable in job hunting, but also in many other aspects of life from revising for examinations to working in a vacation job.

Sometimes it may seem that there isn't enough time to do everything that you need to. This can lead to a build-up of stress. When revising for examinations, or during your final year when you have to combine the pressures of intensive study with finding time to apply for jobs, good management of your time can be particularly important. Once we have identified ways in which we can improve the management of our time, we.can begin to adjust our routines and patterns of behavior to reduce any time-related stress in our lives.  

Some of these skills include setting clear goals, breaking your goals down into several steps, and reviewing your progress towards your goals.

Question 19. (TH)  Time-management skills help us to balance between study and work.

Marriage nowadays is a choice people make on their own, but this has not always been the case in society. Thousands of years ago, the average lifespan was shorter than it is today. A man usually lived until he was about 40 years old, while women died even sooner because of childbirth. There were many wars and illnesses, and people had to protect themselves by having more children while they were still young. The parents lived through their children.
Marriage was not so much a romantic love story but a business transaction, or deal. Most marriages were arranged between parents while their children were still very young. It was the custom that the fathers made the decision on whom their children were going to marry. The mothers had little say in it since they rarely made any decisions outside the household. The fathers would meet to arrange the wedding date and the money given for the bride on her wedding date. The more money and land a girl had, the more chances she had to marry well. Therefore, it was important that her father choose the bridegroom very well. Usually, it was someone who came from a good family or who was rich too. It was very unlikely that people married outside their social class. A few well-off and rich merchants got to marry poorer noblewomen and became King’s business advisors. In a way, poor peasants had an easier choice as it was less important whom they married.
The practice of arranged marriage is still common in some countries in the Middle East, such as India or Pakistan. Here, social classes are still strongly divided and very well-kept. Often, however, arranged marriages are a sign that people do not want to let go of the past, which gives them comfort and security in an ever-changing world.

The word "it" in paragraph 1 refers to ........                                     .  

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Native Americans probably arrived from Asia in successive waves over several millennia, crossing a plain hundreds of miles wide that now lies inundated by 160 feet of water released by melting glaciers. For several periods of time, the first beginning around 60,000 BC and the last ending around 7,000 BC, this land bridge was open. The first people travelled in the dusty trails of the animals they hunted. They brought with them not only their families, weapons, and tools but also a broad metaphysical understanding, sprung from dreams and visions and articulated in myth and song, which complemented their scientific and historical knowledge of the lives of animals and people. All this they shaped in a variety of languages, bringing into being oral literatures of power and beauty. Contemporary readers, forgetting the origins of western epic, lyric, and dramatic forms, are easily disposed to think of “literature” only as something written. But on reflection it becomes clear that the more critically useful as well as the more frequently employed sense of the term concerns the artfulness of the verbal creation, not its mode of presentation. Ultimately, literature is aesthetically valued, regardless of language, culture, or mode of presentation, because some significant verbal achievement results from the struggle in words between tradition and talent. Verbal art has the ability to shape out a compelling inner vision in some skillfully crafted public verbal form. Of course, the differences between the written and oral modes of expression are not without consequences for an understanding of Native American literature. The essential difference is that a speech event is an evolving communication, an “emergent form”, the shape, functions, and aesthetic values of which become more clearly realized over the course of the performance. In performing verbal art, the performer assumes responsibility for the manners as well as the content of the performance, while the audience assumes the responsibility for evaluating the performer’s competence in both areas. It is this intense mutual engagement that elicits the display of skill and shapes the emerging performance. Where written literature provides us with a tradition of texts, oral literature offers a tradition of performances.
1. Which of the following is NOT true of the Native American literature discussed in the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
When jazz began to lose its reputation as "low-down" music and to gain well-deserved acclaim among intellectuals, musicians began to feature many instruments previously considered inappropriate for jazz. Whereas before the 1950s, jazz musicians played only eight basic instruments in strict tempo, in this decade they started to improvise on the flite, electric organ, piccolo, accordion, cello, and even bagpipes, with the rhythm section composed for strings or piano. Big bands no longer dominated jazz, and most changes emerged from small combos, such as the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet. The Gerry Mulligan Quartet proved that a small, modern band could sound complete without a piano; the rhythm section consisted only of a set of drums and a string bass. Jazz continued to move in new directions during the 1960s. Saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman led a quartet playing "free" jazz that was atonal. Pianist Cecil Taylor also conducted similar experiments with music, and John Coltrane included melodies from India in his compositions. In the 1970s musicians blended jazz and rock music into fusion jazz which combined the melodies and the improvisations of jazz with the rhythmic qualities of rock'n' roll, with three or five beats to the bar and in other meters. The form of jazz music was greatly affected by electric instruments and electronic implements to intensify, distort, or amplify their sounds. However, the younger musicians of the time felt compelled to include a steady, swinging rhythm which they saw as a permanent and essential element in great jazz.
10. The author of the passage mentions all of the following EXCEPT: 

"In American, although most men still do less housework than their wives, that gap has been halved since the 1960s. Today, 41 per cent of couples say they share childcare equally, compared with 25 percent in 1985. Men's greater involvement at home is good for their relationships with their spouses, and also good for their children. Hands-on fathers make better parents than men who let their wives do all the nurturing and childcare. They raise sons who are more expressive and daughters who are more likely to do well in school - especially in math and science.

In 1900, life expectancy in the United States was 47 years, and only four per cent of the population was 65 or older. Today, life expectancy is 76 years, and by 2025, it is estimated about 20 per cent of the U.S. population will be 65 or older. For the first time, a generation of adults must plan for the needs of both their parents and their children. Most Americans are responding with remarkable grace. One in four households gives the equivalent of a full day a week or more in unpaid care to an aging relative, and more than half say they expect to do so in the next 10 years. Older people are less likely to be impoverished or incapacitated by illness than in the past, and have more opportunity to develop a relationship with their grandchildren.

Even some of the choices that worry people the most are turning out to bemanageable. Divorce rates are likely to remain high, and in many cases marital breakdown causes serious problems for both adults and kids. Yet when parents minimize conflict, family bonds can be maintained. And many families are doing this. More non-custodial parents are staying in touch with their children. Child-support receipts are rising. A lower proportion of children from divorced families are exhibiting problems than in earlier decades. And stepfamilies are learning to maximize children's access to supportive adults rather than cutting them off from one side of the family."

1: Which of the following can be the most suitable heading for paragraph 1?

Read the passage and choose the correct answer:

The proverb 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.' means that we shall know who our real friends are when we are in need. Those who desert us when we are in difficulty are just unfaithful friends.

A true friend would remain with us whether we are rich or poor. Some people be friend the rich, simply for the sake of getting benefits from them.

It is useless to have insincere friends because these friends remain with us as long as we are rich or powerful. It is better to have one or two good friends rather than having hundreds of insincere ones.

A true friend will stand by us in our trials and tribulations. He will be a great source of consolation and comfort in our troubles. So we must be careful in choosing our friends. It is difficult to choose a sincere friend overnight; it takes years for us to find a sincere friend.

 It's not worth having a lot of friends.

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer to each of the questions.

Welcome to Get Involved! our weekly programme about inspirational young people. Today, I’ll tell you the amazing story of an outstanding young person with a disability. Nguyen Anh was born with “glass-born disease”, a genetic disorder causing fragile bones, and had fractured bones over 30 times. She is unable to run around like her friends, and has to use a wheelchair. Despite her disability, she always has a smile on her face. She believes that she is luckier than other people with disabilities because she has many supportive friends and teachers.

Nguyen Anh has been interested in singing since an early age. Eager to join Charitable campaigns, she has been using her talent to perform at Voice of Viet Nam since she was eight. She has taken part in broadcasting radio messages to rural villagers. She has been honoured by UNICEF as an outstanding child with disabilities. Now, as a Friend of UNICEF Viet Nam, she continues to inspire others, and use her talent and determination to help children with disabilities.

She became a success when she auditioned for the television show VietNam’s Got Talent. She immediately received national and international recognition.

Her smile and kind voice will definitely continue to encourage people with disabilities to fulfill their potential. Her inspiring words are what we would like you to think about. "You can do a lot of things if people believe in you and actually treat you equally.”  

The girl has worked with Voice of Viet Nam in ____ to people in countryside.

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.

   A rather surprising geographical feature of Antarctica is that a huge freshwater, one of the world’s largest and deepest, lies hidden there under four kilometers of ice. Now known as Lake Vostok, this huge body of water is located under the ice block that comprises Antarctica. The lake is able to exist in its unfrozen state beneath this block of ice because its waters are warned by geothermal heat from the earth’s core. This thick glacier above Lake Vostok actually insulates it from frigid temperatures (the lowest ever recorded on Earth) on the surface.

   The lake was first discovered in the 1970s while a research team was conducting an aerial survey of the area. Radio waves from the survey equipment penetrated the ice and revealed a body of water of indeterminate size. It was not until much more recently that data collected by satellite made scientists aware of the tremendous size of the lake; satellite-borne radar detected an extremely flat region where the ice remains level because it is floating on the water of the lake.

   The discovery of such a huge fresh water lake trapped under Antarctica is of interest to the scientific community because of the potential that the lake contains ancient microbes that have survived for thousands upon thousands of years, unaffected by factors such as nuclear fallout and elevated ultraviolet light that have conducting research on the lake in such a harsh climate and in the problems associated with obtaining uncontaminated sampled from the lake without actually exposing the lake to contamination. Scientists are looking for possible ways to accomplish this.

The word “lies” in the first paragraph could be best be replaced by ______.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Music can bring US to tears or to our feet, drive US into battle or lull US to sleep. Music is indeed remarkable in its power over all humankind, and perhaps for that every reason, no human culture on earth has ever lived without it. From discoveries made in France and Slovenia even Neanderthal man, as long as 53,000 years ago, had developed surprisingly sophisticated, sweet-sounding flutes carved from animal bones. It is perhaps then, no accident that music should strike such a chord with the limbic system - an ancient part of our brain, evolutionarily speaking, and one that we share with much of the animal kingdom. Some researchers even propose that music came into this world long before the human race ever did. For  example, the fact that whale and human music have so much in common even though our evolutionary paths have not interested for nearly 60 million years suggests that music may predate humans. They assert that rather than being the inventors of music, we are latecomers to the musical scene. Humpback whale composers employ many of the same tricks that human songwriters do. In addition to using similar rhythms, humpbacks keep musical phrases to a few seconds, creating themes out of several phrases before singing the next one. Whale songs in general are no longer than symphony movements, perhaps because they have a similar attention span. Even though they can sing over a range of seven octaves, the whales typically sing in key, spreading adjacent notes no farther apart than a scale. They mix percussive and pure tones in pretty much the same ratios as human composers - and follow their ABA form, in which a theme is presented, elaborated on and then revisited in a slightly modified form. Perhaps most amazingly, humpback whale songs include repeating refrains that rhyme. It has been suggested that whales might use rhymes for exactly the same reasons that we do: as devices to help them remember. Whale songs can also be rather catchy. When a few humpbacks from the Indian Ocean strayed into the Pacific, some of the whales they met there quickly changed their tunes - singing the new whales'songs within three short years. Some scientists are even tempted to speculate that a universal music awaits discovery.
4: According to the passage, which of the following is true of humpback whales?

Choose the correct answer to complete the  following passage.

"In a healthy relationship, both partners respect, trust and embrace (1) ____ differences. Both partners are able to communicate (2) ____ their needs and listen to their partner, and work to resolve conflict in a rational and (3) ____ way. But maintaining a healthy relationship (4) ____ for skills many young people are never taught. A lack of these skills, and (5) ____ up in a society that sometimes celebrates violence or in a community that experiences a high (6) ____ of violence, can lead to unhealthy and even violent relationships among youth.

Dating violence (7) ____ psychological or emotional violence, such as controlling behaviours or jealousy; physical violence, such as hitting or punching. More than 20 per cent of all adolescents report having experienced (8) ____ psychological or physical violence from an intimate partner - and underreporting remains a concern.

Adolescents, (9) ____ older adolescents, often have romantic relationships, which are long-term, serious, and intimate. Society has a responsibility to provide young people with the resources, skills, and space (10) ____ to safeguard their physical and emotional well being in these relationships. Youth-serving professionals, educators, and parents can help young people in need access services to (11) ____ dating abuse victimisation. Research also has shown that programmes intended to prevent dating violence can be (12) ____."

3. and work to resolve conflict in a rational and (3) ____ way.

Read the text and answer the questions.

Friendship is a big statement. Lots of people are lovers but are not friends. Lots of people are relatives and are not friends. Lots of people who work together are not friends. You can appreciate or admire someone, but that does not mean that you make him or her a friend.

When I had my near-death illness last year and the following long recuperation, I had a lot of time to think about what makes someone a friend. If they are scared of you when you need help, sorry, that is not friendship. If their attitude is “for better or worse,” if they stick to you through troubles and difficulties, it is the time when you can tell it is true friendship. I do have some friends, but not as many as I thought. And there was a time, in the late 80s when my friend, Ken, really needed me but I did not come through for him. I remember hanging out in my happy suburban house in Menlo Park, and not coming to help him through the loss of his wife. Luckily, I got to apologize for that but Ken said he did not mind.

I do not have a tidy answer about Ken and me and friendship. Sometimes we were friends, and other times, clearly, not. But I guess there is something remarkable in two people overcoming the barriers to friendship to find some real communication at some point.

The writer did not come to help Ken ___________

Read the passage and choose the best answer.

Scientists believe they now have scientific evidence to prove that ecosystems work better when there is greater variety of species within them. This biodiversity is being lost destroying natural mechanisms that could repair the damage caused by man.

Findings show that losing plants and animals is not only reducing our quality of life but actually endangering our very existence. We cut down rich rainforests and replace them with one species of plantations, such as pine and eucalyptus. We plough up meadows rich in different grasses and herbs and replace them with one grass, for instance rye or wheat.

When a natural ecosystem is simplified the basic processes in the ecosystem are altered and even damaged. Without their biodiversity, they are not able to serve as the natural cleaners of our planet. No longer are they able to absorb the carbon dioxide that is being produced in excess. The result is global warming, caused by the increase in the 'greenhouse effect', and ultimately, or even 'sooner, there will be' a change in the world's climate.

Which of the following is not a species used to replace a rich ecosystem?

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.

   Technology has utterly transformed our ability to communicate with each other. Linking to each other both literally and figuratively, many of us connect through cell phones, email, instant messaging, blogs, and networking web sites, yet we may be less connected to each other than we think.

   According to a study, Americans are becoming increasingly socially isolated. The study reveals, for example, that one quarter of Americans say that they have no one to discuss important personal issues with, and that the number of close friends that American have has dropped from three to two. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe reports that this spreading isolation is experienced more sharply among those with less education, people of color, and older Americans. Unsurprisingly, those who are young, white, and well educated tend to have stronger social networks.

   From my own experience I have to say that I’ve never felt more connected, thanks to a web of friends, family, and colleagues. One of my closest friends is someone I met through an online discussion group who lives hundreds of miles away from me. We have met face-to-face only twice, yet our regular electronic correspondence and cell phone calls sustain our close friendship. And, speaking of blogging, my blog has introduced me to people I would never have met otherwise and has led to enduring and important friendships.

   On the other hand, I recently saw a scene unfold that proved to me how deeply disconnected we as Americans have become. I had just wrapped up a presentation on mediation at a family therapy center. As I was leaving, I noticed a mother and her teenage son who had just completed their session with their family therapist. After making their next appointment, they both took out their cell phones, placed calls, and began loud conversations with whoever was on the other end. I walked out behind them to the parking lot to my car. They both jumped into their SUV, and, as I saw them drive off, they were still talking on their cell phones. But, alas, not to each other.

What does the passage lead you to believe?

Read the passage carefully, then decide whether the following statement are true (T) or false (F)

The proverb 'A friend in need is a friend indeed.' means that we shall know who our real friends are when we are in need. Those who desert us when we are in difficulty are just unfaithful friends.

A true friend would remain with us whether we are rich or poor. Some people be friend the rich, simply for the sake of getting benefits from them.

It is useless to have insincere friends because these friends remain with us as long as we are rich or powerful. It is better to have one or two good friends rather than having hundreds of insincere ones.

A true friend will stand by us in our trials and tribulations. He will be a great source of consolation and comfort in our troubles. So we must be careful in choosing our friends. It is difficult to choose a sincere friend overnight; it takes years for us to find a sincere friend.

A true friend is always loyal to us and support us through our difficulties.

Read the text and choose the best option to fill in each blank numbered.

Global warming is the rise in the average temperature of the earth (19) _____the increase of greenhouse gases. Climate scientists now believe that (20) ______ are mainly responsible for this. The burning of fossil fuels and the cutting down of large areas of forests have contributed to the (21) _______ of a large amount of harmful gases into the atmosphere in recent years. The thick layer of these gases traps more heat from the sun, which leads to the increase in the earth’s temperature.
Global warming (22) _______climate change and catastrophic weather patterns such as heat waves, floods, droughts, and storms, which can affect human lives. Hundreds of millions of people may suffer (23) _____  famine, water shortages, and extreme weather conditions if we do not reduce the rate of global warming.

Question 23.....................

Read the following passage and mark the letter A,B,C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from. 
Nowadays, teenagers have (18)______ more money and expensive possessions than their parents ever did. Articles like radios and bicycles, which cost a fortune (19) _____ decades ago, are now mass-produced and cheap. And items that nobody even dreamed of possessing twenty years ago, such as mobile phones and computers, are now in common places. Teenagers are definitely better off financially. However life is not easy for them. There is much more to worry about than there was in the past. Jobs are not as secure (20)_____ they used to be and teenagers can no (21) _____ be confident that the world will always be peaceful and free of pollution. 
Teenagers drive their parents crazy (22)_____ many ways. Some of them spray their hair with amazing color, while others wear clothes that shock their parents. They all want (23)_____ own stereos, mobile phones and televisions. But these young people are not really behaving differently from how their parents behaved when they were young. Many today’s parents and grandparents will laugh when they (24)_____ crazy fashions they wore. Those adults, (25) _____ are parents now fought with their own parents about clothes and lifestyle. In fact, teenagers have fought with their parents (26)_____ time began and no doubt they will always.
(22).....................................
 

Read the passage carefully, then choose the correct answers.

Having a best friend to confide in can bring a positive effect on our emotional health. An evening out with the closest friend may be the best guarantee of a good time. In fact, our best friend can prevent us from developing serious psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.

Best friendship evolves with time - we cannot go out and pick our best friend. We become friends with people who share common interests – at school or through hobbies, for example.

Best friends have usually known each other for years and stuck together through good and bad times. If you haven't got one, perhaps you are being too distant from people, or focusing too much on your work.

Which of the following sentences is not mentioned?

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

My name’s Mandi. Three months ago, I went to disco where I met a boy called Tom. I guessed he was older than me, but I liked him and thought it didn’t matter. We danced a couple of times, then we chatted. He said he was 18, then asked how old I was. I told him I was 16. I thought that if I told him my real age, he wouldn’t want to know me, as I’m only 13.

After the dicso we arranged to meet the following weekend. The next Saturday we went for a burger and had a real laugh. Afterwards he walked me to my street and kissed me goodnight. Things went really well. We see each other a couple of times a week, but I’ve had to lie to my parents about where I’m going and who with. I’ve always got on with them, but I know if they found out how Tom was they’d stop me seeing him.

Now I really don’t know what to do. I can’t go on lying to my parents every time I go out, and Ton keeps asking he can’t come around to my house. I’m really worried and I need some advice.

Why can’t Tom come to Mandi’s house? 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The word "laser" was coined as an acronym for Light Amplifiation by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Ordinary light, from the Sun or a light bulb, is emitted spontaneously, when atoms or molecules get rid of excess energy by themselves, without any outside intervention. Stimulated emission is different because it occurs when an atom or molecule holding onto excess energy has been stimulated to emit it as light. Albert Einstein was the first to suggest the existence of stimulated emission in a paper published in 1917. However, for many years physicists thought that atoms and molecules always were much more likely to emit light spontaneously and that stimulated emission thus always would be much weaker. It was not until after the Second World War that physicists began trying to make stimulated emission dominate. They sought ways by which, one atom or molecule could stimulate many others to emit light, amplifying it to much higher powers. The first to succeed was Charles H. Townes, then at Colombia University in New York. Instead of working with light, however, he worked with microwaves, which have a much longer wavelength, and built a device he called a "maser", for Microwave Amplifiation by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Although he thought of the key idea in 1951, the first maser was not completed until a couple of years later. Before long, many other physicists were building masers and trying to discover how to produce stimulated emission even shorter wavelength. The key concepts emerged about 1957. Townes and Arthur Schawlow, then at Bell Telephone Laboratories, wrote it long paper outlining the conditions needed to amplify stimulated emission of visible light waves. At about the same time, similar ideas crystallized in the mind of Gordon Gould, then a 37-year-old graduate student at Columbia, who wrote them down in a series of notebooks. Townes and Schawlow published their ideas in a scientific journal, Physical Review Letters, but Gould filed a patent application. Three decades later, people still argue about who deserves the credit for the concept of the laser.
2: The word "intervention" in line 4 can best be replaced by .

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.

   Orchids are unique in having the most highly developed of all blossoms, in which the usual male and female reproductive organs are fused in a single structure called the column. The column is designed so that a single pollination will fertilize hundreds of thousands, and in some cases millions, of seeds, so microscopic and light they are easily carried by the breeze. Surrounding the column are three sepals and three petals, sometimes easily recognizable as such, often distorted into gorgeous, weird, but always functional shapes. The most noticeable of the petals is called the labellum, or lip. It is often dramatically marked as an unmistakable landing strip to attract the specific insect the orchid has chosen as its pollinator.

   To lure their pollinators from afar, orchids use appropriately intriguing shapes, colors, and scents. At least 50 different aromatic compounds have been analyzed in the orchid family, each blended to attract one, or at most a few, species of insects or birds. Some orchids even change their scents to interest different insects at different times.

   Once the right insect has been attracted, some orchids present all sorts of one-way obstacle courses to make sure it does not leave until pollen has been accurately placed or removed. By such ingenious adaptations to specific pollinators, orchids have avoided the hazards of rampant crossbreeding in the wild, assuring the survival of species as discrete identities. At the same time they have made themselves irresistible to collectors.

The “labellum” (line 7) is most comparable to................

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 Asian Games owes its origins to small Asian multi-sport competitions. The Far Eastern Championship Games were created to show unity and cooperation among three nations: Japan, the Philippines and China. The first games were held in Manila, the Philippines in 1931. Other Asian nations participated after it was organized. After World War II, a number of Asian countries became independent. Many of the new independent Asian countries wanted to use a new type of competition where Asian dominance should not be shown by violence and should be strengthened by mutual understanding. In August 1948, during the 14th Olympic Game in London, India representative Guru Dutt Sondhi proposed to sports leaders of the Asian teams the idea of having discussions about holding the Asian Games. They agreed to form the Asian Athletic Federation. A preparatory was set up to draft the charter for the Asian amateur athletic federation. In February 1949, the Asian athletic federation was formed and used the name Asian Games Federation. It was formed and used the name Asian Games Federation. It was decided to hold the first Asian Games in 1951 in New Delhi the capital of India. They added that the Asian Games would be regularly held once every four years.

The Far Eastern Championship Games ____.