Read the text and answer thư 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.

What happened to the writer last year?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
If any of the inmates at Yancheng prison are considering an escape attempt, they’d better do it soon. The Chinese prison is currently wrapping up months of construction on a new “smart” surveillance system designed to monitor prisoners at every moment, including while they are in their cells. According an official, this will make prison breaks virtually impossible — but it might also wreak havoc on prisoners’ psyches. According to the South China Morning Post, the facility is almost finished installing a network of cameras and sensors capable of constantly tracking inmates. These cameras and sensors will feed into an AI system that uses facial identification and movement analysis technologies to monitor each individual inmate at the Chinese prison, producing a daily report about each one and flagging any unusual behavior. “For instance,” project representative Meng Qingbiao told SCMP, “if an inmate has been spotted pacing up and down in a room for some time, the machine may regard the phenomenon as suspicious and suggest close-up checks with a human guard.” This isn’t the first example we’ve seen of prison officials attempting to make facilities “smart”. In February, Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department announced the implementation of several technologies designed to help prisoners stay safe during their imprisonment. However, Zhang Xuemin, a physiology professor at Beijing Normal University, told SCMP the new system will “definitely affect” the prisoners’ mental state. And while he didn’t elaborate on what that effect might be, past research has shown that constant surveillance can increase a person’s stress and anxiety levels, while decreasing their trust in others — meaning the trade off for an escape-proof “smart” prison might be the mental health of its inmates.
1. Which of the following can be the title of the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Amid the hum and heat of Berlin’s Reuter thermal power station stands a shining contraption that looks out of place in the decades-old machine hall. Its silver pipes and vats contain a substance that the company Vattenfall, the plant’s operator, says could become a key ingredient for a fossil fuel-free future. The energy company, together with a Swedish start-up, is testing the use of salt to store heat, which accounts for more than half the power consumed in Germany. If it works well, the system could help solve a problem posed by renewable energy sources like wind and solar: unreliability, meaning they sometimes generate too much, and sometimes too little power. “Germany currently has enough installed renewable energy capacity to produce twice as much as it needs, it’s just not constant,” says Hendrik Roeglin, who oversees the salt storage project for Vattenfall. At the Reuter power plant in Berlin, which supplies 600,000 households in the capital with heat, the solution involves the use of calcium oxide, also known as quicklime. Vattenfall and Swedish start-up SaltX have been taking advantage of a simple chemical reaction that occurs when quicklime becomes wet: the salt-like grains soak up the water, becoming calcium hydroxide and releasing large amounts of heat in the process. By removing the water again, the substance turns back into calcium oxide. The process essentially mirrors how batteries work, except that instead of electricity, the system stores heat. Roeglin says the process can absorb ten times more energy than water, which is currently used for power- to-heat facilities. And unlike tanks of hot water, which slowly cool down over time, the system can retain the chemically-trapped energy for far longer. Need heat? Just add water. The pilot project in Berlin can currently store enough energy to heat about 100 large houses. But SaltX says the facility could easily be scaled up and provide heat to any of the homes or offices already connected to the capital’s district heating system. Such networks — consisting of pipes pumping hot water or steam from power plants to consumers — exist in many European countries, Canada, the United States, Japan and China. SaltX also notes that the calcium oxide currently mined in Finland could be safely recycled, giving it an edge over some battery technologies that use rare or toxic materials. “If your ambition is to be fossil-free within a generation, you have to consider various alternatives to reach that,” a representative of SaltX, Simon Ahlin, said during a visit to the facility. “This is an effective solution that’s available in a short time frame.”
8. Which of the following is best serves as a title for the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Many of the most damaging and life-threatening 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.
3: The word "subtle" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .

Identify the one underlined word or phrase - A, B, C or D - that must be changed for the sentence to be correct.

It is educational for children   to observe  adults to perform their daily tasks.

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.
7: In approximately what year was the first maser built?

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

     PARENTS’ DREAMS

     Parents often have dreams for their children’s future. They hope their children will have a better life than they had. They dream that their children will do things that they couldn’t do.

Parents who come to the U.S from foreign countries hope their children will have better education here. They think their children will have more career choices and more successful lives. They make many sacrifices so that their children will have more opportunities. They think their children will remain close to them because of this. Some children understand and appreciate these sacrifices and remain close to their parents. However, other children feel ashamed that their parents are so different from other Americans.

Parents who come home from U.S from foreign countries hope that their children_____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
According to anthropologists, people in preindustrial societies spent 3 to 4 hours per day or about 20 hours per week doing the work necessaryfor life. Modern comparisons of the amount of work performed per week, however, begin with the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) when 10- to 12-hour workdays with six workdays per week were the norm. Even with extensive time devoted to work, however, both incomes and standards of living were low. As incomes rose near the end of the Industrial Revolution, it became increasingly common to treat Saturday afternoons as a half-day holiday. The half-day holiday had become standard practice in Britain by the 1870's, but did not become common in the United States until the 1920's. In the United States, the first third of the twentieth century saw the workweek move from 60 hours per week to just under 50 hours by the start of the 1930s. In 1914 Henry Ford reduced daily work hours at his automobile plants from 9 to 8. In 1926 he announced that henceforth his factories would close for the entire day on Saturday. At the time, Ford received criticism from other firms such as United States Steel and Westinghouse, but the idea was popular with workers. The Depression years of the 1930s brought with them the notion of job sharing to spread available work around; the workweek dropped to a modem low for the United States of 35 hours. In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act mandated a weekly maximum of 40 hours to begin in 1940, and since that time the 8-hour day, 5-day workweek has been the standard in the United States. Adjustments in various places, however, show that this standard is not immutable. In 1987, for example, German metal workers struck for and received a 37.5-hour workweek; and in 1990 many workers in Britain won a 37-hour week. Since 1989, the Japanese government has moved from a 6- to a 5-day workweek and has set a national target of 1,800 work hours per year for the average worker. The average amount of work per year in Japan in 1989 was 2,088 hours per worker, compared to 1,957 for the United States and 1,646 for France.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?

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 has Mandi written this?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Many of the most damaging and life-threatening 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.
9: With which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. It is currently made up of 193 member countries. Its main goal is to bring different nations together to promote peace and justice in the world. The UN also works to make the world a safe and secure place. It is important to remember that the UN is not a “world government”. This means that the UN does not make laws for different countries to follow. However, the UN does hold regular votes on global policies and issues. The main branch of the UN is called the “General Assembly”. All members of the United Nations are represented and have their votes. If there is a problem in a certain area of the world or a particular country, the UN will vote on how to best solve the problem. At least two-thirds of all member countries must agree on how to resolve the problem in order for the UN to take action. If less than two-thirds of the voting countries agree, no immediate action is taken. Another branch is the Security Council. Its main purpose is to maintain international peace and keep the world secure. This branch has only fifteen members, five of which are permanent, including China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The other ten members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms. IF the council feels that international peace is being threatened, the fifteen members will try to outline a way to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner. The third important branch is the Economic and Social Council. This branch works to help monitor the world economy and resolve social issues around the world such as violations of human rights, the fight against international crime and destruction of the environment. There are 54 government representatives serving on this council. They are elected by the General Assembly to serve for three-year terms. Council members are elected to represent certain areas of the world. 
3. The pronounce “They” in the last paragraph refers to: 

"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."

2: Nowadays, ____ of men help take care of children.

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

   Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn’t exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

   One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room. Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention as he dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.

   On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin’s grand entrance for a long time!

What is the main point the writer is trying to make in the last paragraph?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Fifty-five delegates representing all thirteen states except Rhode Island attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia from May to September 1787. The delegates had been instructed by the Continental Congress to revise the old Articles of Confederation, but most believed that a stronger central government was needed. There were differences, however, about what structure the government should take and how much influence large states should have. Virginia was by far the most populous state, with twice as many as people as New York, four times as many as New Jersey, and ten times as many as Delaware. The leader of the Virginia delegation, James Madison, had already drawn up a plan for government, which became known as the Large State Plan. Its essence was that congressional representation would be based on population. It provided for two or more national executives. The smaller states feared that under this plan, a few large states would lord over the rest. New Jersey countered with the Small State Plan. It provided for equal representation for all states in a national legislature and for a single national executive. Angry debate, heightened by a stifling heat wave, led to deadlock. A cooling of tempers seemed to come with lower temperatures. The delegates hammered out an agreement known as the Great Compromise - actually a bundle of shrewd compromises. They decided that Congress would consist of two houses. The larger states were granted representation based on population in the lower house, the House of Representatives. The smaller states were given equal representation in the upper house, the Senate, in which each state would have two senators regardless of population. It was also agreed that there would be a single executive, the president. This critical compromise broke the logjam, and from then on, success seemed within reach.
2. According to the passage, how many states were represented at the Constitutional Convention?

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 19 to 23:

Holidays are rich in old traditions and are (19) _______in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. Christmas is a great English (20) _______ holiday, and in Scotland it is not kept at all, except by clerks in banks; all the shops, mills and factories are working. But six days later, (21)_______ New Year’s Eve, the Scots begin to enjoy themselves. People invite their friends to their house (22)_______ “sit the old year out and the new year in”. When the clock begins to strike, the head of the family (23)_______to the front door, opens it wide, and holds it until the last stroke. Then he shuts the door. He has let the old year out and the New Year in.

Question 20:....................

Certain birds are, more often than not, considered bad luck, or even a sign of impending death. For example, all over the world, both crows and ravens have some connection to war, and death. In early times, crows and ravens were thought to accompany the gods of war, or be signs of the gods’ approaching arrival. This idea later changed. Crows in particular were thought to be harbingers of ill fortune or, in some cases, guides to the afterlife. Woe be it to the person who saw a single crow or raven flying overhead, for this was most certainly a portent of death in the near future.
 Interestingly, though potentially bad luck for people individually, the raven is considered to be good luck for the crown of England. So much so, in fact, that a “raven master” is, even today, an actual government position in London. He takes care of the ravens there and also clips their wings, ensuring that these birds can never fly far from the seat of the British government. This way, the kingdom will never fall to ill fortune.
 Another bird that is thought to play a part in forecasting the fortunes of people is the swallow. Depending on how and when it is seen, the swallow can be a harbinger of either good or ill fortune. Perhaps inspired by the swallow’s red-brown breast, Christian people initially related the swallow to the death of Jesus Christ. Thus, people who saw a swallow fly through their house considered it a portent of death. Later, however, farmers began to consider swallows signs of good fortune. Any barn that has swallows living in it is sure to be blessed in the following year. Farmers also have to beware of killing a swallow; that would be certain to end any good luck they might have had.
 Though many people think these superstitions are old wives’ tales, there is actually some evidence to support them. For example, crows and ravens, being scavengers, appear at the aftermath of battles. Thus, large numbers of crows and ravens could be good indications of war in an area. As well, swallows feed on insects that can cause infections in cattle. Thus, a farmer who has many swallows in his barn may actually have healthier animals on his farm. Therefore, the next time you feel inclined to laugh at an old wives’ tale, maybe you had better find out if there is any truth to it first!.

Which is NOT true, according to the reading?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Tulips are Old World, rather than New World, plants, with the origins of the species lying in Central Asia. They became an integral part of the gardens of the Ottoman Empire from the sixteenth century onward, and, soon after, part of European life as well. Holland, in particular, became famous for its cultivation of the flowers. A tenuous line marked the advance of the tulip to the New World, where it was unknown in the wild. The first Dutch colonies in North America had been established in New Netherlands by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, and one individual who settled in New Amsterdam (today's Manhattan section of New York City) in 1642 described the flowers that bravely colonized the settlers' gardens. They were the same flowers seen in Dutch still-life paintings of the time: crown imperials, roses, carnations, and of course tulips. They flurished in Pennsylvania too, where in 1698 William Penn received a report of John Tateham's "Great and Stately Palace," its garden full of tulips. By 1760, Boston newspapers were advertising 50 different kinds of mixed tulip "roots." But the length of the journey between Europe and North America created many difficulties. Thomas Hancock, an English settler, wrote thanking his plant supplier for a gift of some tulip bulbs from England, but his letter the following year grumbled that they were all dead. Tulips arrived in Holland, Michigan, with a later wave of early nineteenth-century Dutch immigrants who quickly colonized the plains of Michigan. Together with many other Dutch settlements, such astheone at Pella, Iowa, they established a regular demand for European plants. The demand was bravely met by a new kind of tulip entrepreneur, the traveling salesperson. One Dutchman, Hendrick van de Schoot, spent six months in 1849 traveling through the United States taking orders for tulip bulbs. While tulip bulbs were traveling from Europe to the United States to satisfy the nostalgic longings of homesick English and Dutch settlers, North American plants were traveling in the opposite direction. In England, the enthusiasm for American plants was one reason why tulips dropped out of fashion in the gardens of the rich and famous 
6. The word "grumbled" at the end of paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Continents and ocean basins represent the largest identifiable bodies on Earth. On the solid portion of the planet, the second most prominent features are flat plains, elevated plateaus, and large mountain ranges. In geography, the term "continent" refers to the surface of continuous landmasses that together comprise about 29.2% of the planet's surface. On the other hand, another definition is prevalent in the general use of the term that deals with extensive mainlands, such as Europe or Asia,that actually represent one very large landmass. Although all continents are bounded by the water bodies or high mountain ranges, isolated mainlands, such as Greenland and India-Pakistan areas are called subcontinents. In some circles, the distinction between continents and large islands lies almost exclusively in the size of a particular landmass. The analysis of compression and tension in the earth's crust has determined that continental structures are composed of layers that underlie continental shelves. A great deal of disagreement among geologists surrounds the issue of exactly how many layers underlie each landmass because of their distincive mineral and chemical composition. It's also quite possible that the ocean floor rests on top of unknown continents that have not yet been explored. The continental crust is believed to have been forrmed by means of a chemical reaction when lighter materials separated from heavier ones,thus settling at various levels within the crust. Assisted by the measurements of the specifics within crust formations by means of monitoring earthquakes, geologists can speculate that a chemical split occured to form the atmosphere, sea water and the crust before it solidified many centuries ago. Although each continent has its special features, all consist of various combinations of components that include shields,moutain belts, intracratonic basins, margins, volcanic plateaus, and blockvaulted belts. The basic differences among continents lie in the proportion and the composition of these features relative to the continent size. Climatic zones have a crucial effect on the weathering and formation of the surface features, soil erosion, soil deposition, land formation, vegetation, and human activities. Moutian belts are elongated narrow zones that have a characteristic folded sedimentary organization of layers. They are typically produced during substabtial crustal movements, which generate faulting and moutain building. When continental margins collide, the rise of a marginal edge leads to the formation of large moutain ranges, as explained by the plate tectonic theory. This process also accounts for the occurrence of mountain belts in ocean basins and produces evidence for the ongoing continental plate
evolution.
11. The word "evidence" in the last line is closest in meaning 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.

3. According to the passage, what responsibility does the audience of a verbal art performance have?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Duncan Phyfe made some of the most beautiful furniture found in America. His family name was originally Fife, and he was born in Scotland in 1768. In 1784, the Fife family immigrated to Albany, New York where Duncan’s father opened a cabinetmaking shop. Duncan followed his father’s footsteps and was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker. After completing his training, Duncan moved to New York City. Duncan Fife was first mentioned in the 1792 NYC Directory as a furniture “joiner” in business at 2 Broad Street. Two years later, he moved, expanded his business, and changed his name to Phyfe. He was a quiet-living, God-fearing young man who felt his new name would probably appeal to potential customers who were definitely anti-British in this post-Revolutionary War period. Duncan Phyfe’s name distinguished him from his contemporaries. Although the new spelling helped him better compete with French emigrant craftsmen, his new name had more to do with hanging it on a sign over his door stoop. The artisans and merchants who came to America discovered a unique kind of freedom. They were no longer restricted by class and guild traditions of Europe. For the first time in history, a man learned that by working hard, he could build his business based on his own name and reputation and quality of work. Phyfe’s workshop apparently took off immediately. At the peak of his success, Phyfe employed 100 craftsmen. Some economic historians point to Phyfe as having employed division of labor and an assembly line. What his workshop produced shows Phyfe’s absolute dedication to quality in workmanship. Each piece of furniture was made of the best available materials. He was reported to have paid $1,000 for a single Santo Domingo mahogany log. Phyfe did not create new designs. Rather, he borrowed from a broad range of the period’s classical styles, Empire, Sheraton, Regency, and French Classical among them. Nevertheless, Phyfe’s high quality craftsmanship established him as America’s patriotic interpreter of European design in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although the number of pieces produced by Duncan Phyfe’s workshop is enormous, comparatively few marked or labeled pieces have been found extant. In antiques shops and auctions, collectors have paid $11,000 for a card table, $24,200 for a tea table, and $93,500 for a sewing table.
2. According to the passage, which of the following does the author imply?

"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."

5: The word "equivalent” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ____.