Self-control and emotional regulation requires a lot of practice and will power, but is proven to lead to more success later in life. Scientific studies have demonstrated that children who (i) ______ able to resist temptation and control their impulses grow into socially more competent, confident and assertive adults, while their counterparts are (ii) ______ to become more stubborn, (iii) ______ and stressed.

Refusing to give in to the pleasure of the moment in order to pursue a higher long-term goal is a sign of maturity and certain indicator of success. The final ingredient in ssthe overall make-up of one’s emotional intelligence is (iv) ______, or the ability to understand and react to other people’s feelings. An individual with strong interpersonal skills is more likely to have a large social network that he can rely on (v) ______ something should go wrong. It has been ascertained that people with many friends and acquaintances have in easier al finding a new job than those who lead a solitary life.

(i)______

Are the years you (i) ________ at school the best years of your life? Personally, I found most lessons rather uninteresting. We had to sit at our desks in silence and (ii) ________ attention. The teachers used to  write on the blackboard and ask US difficult questions. We also had to do lots of homework, and (iii) ________ it in on time. We had to wear a school uniform, and wc had to obey lots of rules. I left school as soon as I could and started work. I read books al the public library, and later I decided to (iv) ________ college. I really enjoyed studying because I was older and knew that I wanted some (v) ________  When I was at school, I was just the wrong age!

(iv)_____

Many European countries had heard about the wealth and (i) _______ of the Aztecs. The Spanish King sent his ships across the Atlantic to bring home the famous Aztec gold. Thus many Spanish sailors and soldiers went (ii) _______  the New World and found America. These adventurers were called ‘conquistadors’ because they were ruthless and cruel. They only cared about money, not people, and destroyed (iii) _______ civilizations to get (iv) _______ they wanted. One of these conquistadors was Hernando Cortes. He arrived in Cuba in 1511, but (v) _______ got in trouble with the Cuban governor, Diego Velasquez, who eventually sent him far away to find the Aztec gold

(iv)_____

They are all ________ ready for the party.

The Amazon rainforest is in very big danger of disappearing. 9,169 square miles of forest (i) _______ down in 2003 in Brazil (ii) _______. An area of the size of a football field is burned down basically every minute, which means that the rain forest may be gone by the year 2030. The dangers related to this type of activity are very obvious. Trees (iii) _______ poisonous carbon dioxide from the air and give off oxygen. There is more oxygen and (iv) _______ carbon dioxide around a rainforest. When trees are cut down, however, the amount of carbon dioxide increases and the air gets wanner. This leads to global wanning, which is extremely harmful to the environment. (v) _______ is estimated that the burning of Brazilian rainforests alone produces 200 million metric tones of carbon dioxide a year.

(iv)_____

Japan is no longer an Empire. When it lost all of its colonics, it also (i) _______ Korea and Dokdo Island. Dokdo Island has always been Korean territory and part of its country. Japan only wants to rebuild its Empire by sending its ships there. On the other hand, Japan says that it only wants to check (ii) _______ for more fish. There are many South Korean fishing boats in the area and Japanese fishermen have no place to do their own fishing. However, Japan has similar problems with two (iii) _______ neighbors, China and Russia, over two other islands, Senkaku/ Diaoyu and North Territories/Kurils. Liancourt Rocks may (iv) _______ an unimportant matter, but it is not. If Japan gives up its right to it, it has a good chance of losing its right to the other islands as well. Japan has demanded the USA to act as a judge in this argument, but South Korea refuses to (v) _______ another country decide over its own land.

(ii)____

Following his release, Mandela declared that violence and war are not the answer to the end of apartheid in South Africa, but rather peaceful opposition to this change of heart proved to be (i) _______ as he won the first free democratic elections in South Africa and (ii) _______  the country’s first black president in 1994. During his presidency (May 1994 – June 1999), Nelson Mandela succeeded in bringing peace to South Africa by promoting racial tolerance and understanding and by coming to an understanding with the white population. (iii) _______ an international level, Mandela also managed to peacefully solve the long-running conflict between the USA and the UK on one hand, and the African country of Libya on the (iv) _______. Even though he was criticized for not being able to stop the spread of HIV in South Africa and for not achieving social reforms, Nelson Mandela was highly respected for his policy of peace and (v) _______ and received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993.

(iv)_____

The professor (i) _______ the ancient symbol in the course of researeh for a visual history of the 20th century, to be published by the Trecca in Encyclopedia. The first (ii) _______ instance of its use, he says, occurred in a letter written by a Florentine merchant on May 4th, 1536. He says the sign made its (iii) ________  along trade routes to northern Europe, where it came to represent “at the price of” – its contemporary accountancy (iv) _______  . Professor Stabile believes that Italian banks may possess even earlier documents (v) _______ the symbol lying forgotten in their arehives. The oldest example could be of great value. The race is on between the mercantile world and the banking world to sec who has the oldest documentation of @.

(iii)_____

Vincent Van Gogh is a very famous painter from the 19th century. Van Gogh’s paintings are sold at very high prices because many collectors want his paintings. But unfortunately, when he was (i) _______ he did not have a happy life. Van Gogh was from a poor family in Holland and lived (ii) _______ his life at home. He lived a rather sad and (iii) _______ life. He drew things that he could sec cither around the quiet town of his parents’ home or outside his window. This was why he painted things like the sky, his room and even himself. Van Gogh once cut off his own car after drawing a picture of himself. He cut it off to show the person that said the ear in Van Gogh’s painting was not correct. It was very (iv) _______ him to do such a thing. Van Gogh was also (v) _______ a crazy man. He really did become crazy, and was sent to a mental hospital. Sadly, he killed himself when he was just 37.

(ii)____

People from all cultures and civilizations are also (i) _______ with numbers, dates and festival days. In North America, the number 13 is considered (ii) _______ unlucky that often high-rise buildings do not have a 13th floor and the apartment that should be number 13 is given another number. There is no clear reason behind this superstition, (iii) _______ there is evidence for a pathological fear of the number 13, called triskaidekaphobia. Conversely, in Japan, Korea and China, the number 4 is the one bringing bad luck since the character for this number, ‘shi’ sounds like the word ‘death’. Yet all cultures seem to agree (iv)  _______the importance of New Year’s Day. Virtually all countries have rituals surrounding this first day of the year to (v)________ good luck for the future.

(ii)_______

A recent investigation by scientists at the US Geological Survey shows that strange animal behaviour might help (i) _______ future earthquakes. Investigators found such (ii) _______ about ten kilometres from where a fairly recent earthquake took place. Some birds made strange sounds and flew about wildly; dogs barked and ran around (iii) _______. Scientists believe that animals can sense these environmental changes as early as several days before (iv) _______ disaster. In 1976, after observing animal behaviour, the Chinese scientists were able to predict a (v) _______  earthquake. Although hundreds of thousands of people were killed, the government was able to evacuate millions of other people and thus keep the death toll al a lower level.

(ii)______

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions: 

Solar energy is not only plentiful but also infinite. 

Vincent Van Gogh is a very famous painter from the 19th century. Van Gogh’s paintings are sold at very high prices because many collectors want his paintings. But unfortunately, when he was (i) _______ he did not have a happy life. Van Gogh was from a poor family in Holland and lived (ii) _______ his life at home. He lived a rather sad and (iii) _______ life. He drew things that he could sec cither around the quiet town of his parents’ home or outside his window. This was why he painted things like the sky, his room and even himself. Van Gogh once cut off his own car after drawing a picture of himself. He cut it off to show the person that said the ear in Van Gogh’s painting was not correct. It was very (iv) _______ him to do such a thing. Van Gogh was also (v) _______ a crazy man. He really did become crazy, and was sent to a mental hospital. Sadly, he killed himself when he was just 37.

(iii)____

In retrospect, it is believed that the land (i) _______ by Hcrjolfsson was indeed part of North America, and the first European to actually touch its grounds was (ii) _______ other than the Red’s son, Leif Ericsson. (iii) _______ to follow in his father’s footsteps and become as respected as his parents, Leif Ericsson left Greenland (iv) _______  1,000 AD and sailed southwest towards the promised land.

Evidence unearthed at the arehaeological site of L’Anse aux Meadows proves that the Vikings had landed at three points of the eastern American coast, which (v) _______ termed “Markland” or “forest land” in today’s Labrador, “Hcluland” or “slab-land” after Baffin Island’s rocky landscape, and finally “Vinland” or “vine-land”, located either in New England or

(v)___

When the war ended, Romania became a Communist country. For 50 years, people suffered (i) _______ the Communist rule. There was (ii) _______ food, no electricity or hot water in villages and small cities. Many important pieces of Romanian literature and art from the Golden Age were destroyed. People were (iii) _______ in jail; others ran illegally across the border to (iv) _______ countries. On December 16th, 1998, Romanians had had enough. There was a bloody revolution, the government was overthrown, and new elections (v) _______. Today, Romanians are trying to rebuild their future into a free country.

(ii)___

Many birds will, in the normal course of their migrations, flying more than three thousand miles to reach their winter homes.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions: 

We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours.

Precision and uniformity of movement are two characteristics of step-dancing which most people recognize. And (i) _______ traditional step-dancing does not pennit the use of hands, some of the more modem versions allow it. Before the early 1900s, though, step-dancers often performed their synchronized movement while dancing with their hands on their hips. That trend has somewhat faded and now most step-dancing is done with the participants’ arms held firmly down to their sides and their hands made into a fist. The straight, clean lines of the body add to the impression (ii) _______ it is the intricacy of the foot work which is the most important aspect of the presentation. Chorus line dancing, which is another variation or type of line dancing, was an extremely popular way that dancing and elegance were included in movie productions for several years. Today fewer scenes of chorus lines (iii) _______  inmovies, but many movies with “Western” or “country” themes include modem forms of line dancing. Many people simply refer to the modem type of dancing as “line dancing” but (iv) _______ whether it has a special name, modem line dancing is usually associated with a country and western theme. With modem line dancing, there may only be one line or there can be several. Sometimes, when there is more than one line, the lines lace in the same direction with one line being in back of the other, but sometimes the lines face each other. This type of dancing docs not always require interaction between dancers, and the dancers often move independently from each other. But the beauty of this dance form permits interaction, like weaving in and out of different lines, if the dancers desire. And sometimes the dancers even may make contact with each other if clapping becomes part of their (v) _______.

(i)____

Customer: “Excuse me?” -Shopkeeper: “Yes, _________?” 

Islands are geographical formations that are completely surrounded by water, yet many islands are (i) _______________ a rich assortment of plant life. It may seem surprising that so much plant life exists on many islands, yet there are surprisingly simple explanations as to (ii) _______the vegetation has been able to establish itself there. Some islands were formerly attached to larger bodies of land, (iii) _______others were created on their own. Islands that were created when Hooding or rising water levels cut them off from their neighbors often still have the plant life that they had before they were cut off. In cases where islands formed out of the ocean, they may have plant life from neighboring lands even though they were never actually attached to the neighboring lands. Winds (iv) _______many seeds to islands; some plants produce extremely light seeds that can float thousands of feet above the Earth and then drift down to islands where y can sprout and develop. Birds also carry seeds to islands; as birds move over open stretches of water, they can (v)       _______the transportation system to spread seeds from place to place.

(iii)____

Projecting actual changes and the effects of those changes over the (i) _______ several centuries cannot be accomplished with exactness. Not only will the overall effects be difficult to predict, the real problem comes in predicting the effects on regions and specific localities. For example, the scientists know that if global warming makes the ocean temperatures warmer then the result can be hurricanes of more intensity and frequency. But, “can be” and “will be” are not (ii) _______ synonymous. The causes of global wanning are known but the exact results and the degrees of the results aren’t. Uncertainty as to the gravity and extent of global warming will continue until some certainty is extracted (iii) _______ factual, current, and objective data. At this point in time, the “wait and see” philosophy has to come into play. Although uncertainty is a serious concern, there are things people can do. If there is a “no ozone” day in your community, try to (iv) _______ to the guidelines set forth by government officials. Don’t bum leaves and don’t drive unless it is necessary. Carpooling is good not only on “no ozone” days, but all the (v) _______. Don’t continue to send unnecessary items to the landfills. Recycle. And plant trees – for shade and cooling – as well as for decorative

(iii)_____