The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the ancient Bronze age Đông Sơn culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors. In spite of geographically Southeast Asian, Vietnamese culture was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in terms of politics, government, social and moral ethics, and art due to 1000 years of Chinese rule. Thus, Vietnam is considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere together with China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Following independence from China in the 10th century, Vietnam began a southward expansion that saw the annexation of territories formerly belonging to the Champa Civilization (now Central Vietnam) and parts of the Khmer Empire (now Southern Vietnam). Gradually, there are minor regional variances in Vietnam's culture due to exposure to these different groups.

During the French colonial period, Vietnamese culture absorbed various influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of the Latin alphabet. Prior to this, Vietnamese had used both Chinese characters and a script called Chữ Nôm which was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters to represent native Vietnamese words.

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs. For many decades, foreign cultural influences from the Western World were shunned, and emphasis was placed on sharing the culture of communist nations such as those in the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, and others.

Some elements generally considered to be characteristic of Vietnamese culture include ancestor veneration, respect for community and family values, handicrafts and manual labour, and devotion to study. Important symbols present in Vietnamese culture include dragons, turtles, lotuses, and bamboo.

Which statement is true about the socialist era?

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The modem comic strip started out as ammunition in a newspaper was between giants of the American press in the late nineteenth century. The first full-color comic strip appeared in January 1894 in the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. The first regular weekly full- color comic supplement, similar to today's Sunday funnies, appeared two years later, in William Randolph Hearst's rival New York paper, the Morning Journal.
Both were immensely popular, and publishers realized that supplementing the news with comic relief boosted the sale of papers. The Morning Journal started another feature in 1896, the "Yellow Kid," the first continuous comic character in the United States, whose creator, Richard Outcault, had been lured away from the World by the ambitious Hearst. The "Yellow Kid" was in many ways a pioneer. Its comic dialogue was the strictly urban farce that came to characterize later strips, and it introduced the speech balloon inside the strip, usually placed above the characters' heads.
The first strip to incorporate all the elements of later comics was Rudolph Dirks's "Katzenjammer Kids", based on Wilhelm Busch's Max and Moritz, a European satire of the nineteenth century. The "Kids" strip, first published in 1897, served as the prototype for future American strips. It contained not only speech balloons, but a continuous cast of characters, and was divided into small regular panels that did away with the larger panoramic scenes of the earliest comics.
Newspaper syndication played a major role in spreading the popularity of comic strips throughout the country. Though weekly colored comics came first, daily black-and-white strips were not far behind. They first appeared in the Chicago American in 1904. It was followed by many imitators, and by 1915 black-and-white comic strips had become a staple of daily newspaper; around the country.

Why does the author mention Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst?

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Nowadays people are more aware that wildlife all over the world is in danger. Many species of animals will become (1)...   if we do not make an effort to protect them. There are many reasons for this. In some cases, animals are (2)...... for their fur or for other valuable parts of their bodies. Some birds, such as parrots, are caught alive and sold as pets. For many animals and birds the problem is that their habitat - the place where they live - is (3)......    . More land is used for farms, for houses or industry, and there are fewer open spaces than there once were. Farmers use powerful chemicals to help them grow better crops, but these chemicals pollute the environment and (4)....... wildlife. The most successful animals on earth - human beings - will soon be the only ones (5)......... , unless we can solve this problem.
(1).....................

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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.

In general, what did the Brazilian students think about people who are late?

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

"Like any other universities, the Open University can give you a degree. However, you don’t have to (1)…. working to study. It can also open up a whole variety (2)….. interest. If you have (3)….. studied before, you will enjoy the special, new pleasure of (4)….. your knowledge. You will make friends of (5)….. kinds. You may also (6)…. that your qualification provides new career opportunities.
 You don’t actually (7)…. to the Open University for lectures, but study at home, using television, radio and Computer software. You can (8)….. one class a month if you wish at an Open University centre. Of course, there are exams to take, as in (9)…..  university. If you (10)….like to know more, all you have to do is to complete the form below. It could be the start of a wonderful new period in your life."

10. If you (10)….like to know more, all you have to do is to complete the form below.

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In today's competitive world, what responsible parent would not want to give their children the best possible start in life? For this reason, many parents want their children, often as young as ten months old, to become familiar with computers. They seem to think that if their children grow up with computers, they will be better equipped to face the challenges of the future.
No one has proved that computers make children more creative or more intelligent. The truth may even be the opposite. Educational psychologists claim that too much exposure to computers, especially for the very young, may negatively affect normal brain development. Children gain valuable experience of the world from their interaction with physical objects. Ten–month–old babies may benefit more from bumping their heads or putting various objects in their mouths than they will from staring at eye–catching cartoons. A four–year–old child can improve hand–eye coordination and understand cause and effect better by experimenting with a crayon than by moving a cursor around a computer screen. So, as educational psychologists suggest, instead of government funding going to more and more computer classes, it might be better to devote resources to music and art programs.
It is ludicrous to think that children will fall behind if they are not exposed to computers from an early age. Time is too precious to spend with a "mouse". Now is the time when they should be out there learning to ride a bike. There will be time later on for them to start banging away at keyboards.

The word “ludicrous” paragraph 3 mostly means     .

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Education is another area of social life in which information technology is changing the way we communicate. Today's college students may not simply sit in a lecture or a library to  learn about their field. Through their computers and the wonders of virtual reality they can participate
in lifelike simulated experiences. Consider the following scenario of the future of education made possible through developments in information technology.
For children over the age of 10, daily attendance at schools is not compulsory. Some of the older children attend school only once or twice weekly to get tutorial support or instruction from a teacher. For the most part, pupils are encouraged to work online from home. Students must complete a minimum number of study hours per year; however, they may make up these hours by studying at home at times that suit their family schedule. They can log on early or late in the day and even join live classes in other countries. In order to ensure that each student is learning adequately, computer software will automatically monitor the number of hours a week each student studies online as well as that students' learning materials and assessment activities. Reports will be available for parents and teachers. The software can then identify the best learning activities and condition for each individual student and generate similar activities. It can also identify areas of weak achievement and produce special programs adjusted to the students' needs.

How many times are children who are older than 10 required to go to school weekly?

Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:

"Ann Whitney, a student at Colorado University, first had a problem taking tests when she began college. “I was always well prepared for my tests. Sometimes I studied for weeks before a test. Yet I would go into taking the test, only to find I couldn’t answer the questions correctly. I would blank out because of nervousness and fear. I couldn’t think of the answer. My low grades on the tests did not show what I know to the teacher.” Another student in microbiology had similar experience.
 These two young students were experiencing something called anxiety. Because a student worries and is uneasy about a test, his or her mind does not work as well as it usually does. The student cannot write or think clearly because of the extreme tension and nervousness. Although poor grades are often a result of poor study habits, sometimes test anxiety causes the low grades. Recently, test anxiety has been recognized as a real problem, not just an excuse or a false explanation of lazy students.
 Special university counseling courses try to help students. In these courses, counselors try to help students by teaching them how to manage test anxiety.
 An expert at the University of California explains, “With almost all students, relaxation and less stress are left after our program. Most of them experience better control during their tests. Almost all have some improvement.""

4. A University of California counselor said…..

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the answer to each of the question. 
Covering more than 70 percent of our planet, oceans are among the earth’s most valuable natural resources. They govern the weather, clean the air, help feed the world, and provide a living for millions. They also are home to most of the life on earth, from microscopic algae to the blue whale, the largest animal on the planet. Yet we’re bombarding them with pollution. By their very nature—with all streams flowing to rivers, all rivers leading to the sea—the oceans are the end point for so much of the pollution we produce on land, however far from the coasts we may be. And from dangerous carbon emissions to choking plastic to leaking oil to constant noise, the types of ocean pollution humans generate are vast. As a result, collectively, our impact on the seas is degrading their health at an alarming rate. Here are some ocean pollution facts that everyone on our blue planet ought to know.
When we burn fossil fuels, we don’t pollute just the air but the oceans, too. Indeed, today’s seas absorb as much as a quarter of all man-made carbon emissions, which changes the pH of surface waters and leads to acidification. This problem is rapidly worsening—oceans are now acidifying faster than they have in some 300 million years. It’s estimated that by the end of this century, if we keep pace with our current emissions practices, the surface waters of the ocean could be nearly 150 percent more acidic than they are now.
The majority of the garbage that enters the ocean each year is plastic—and here to stay. That’s because unlike other trash, the single-use grocery bags, water bottles, drinking straws, and yogurt containers, among eight million metric tons of the plastic items we toss (instead of recycle), won’t biodegrade. Instead, they can persist in the environment for a millennium, polluting our beaches, entangling marine life, and getting ingested by fish and seabirds.
Where does all this debris originate? While some is dumped directly into the seas, an estimated 80 percent of marine litter makes its way there gradually from land-based sources―including those far inland―via storm drains, sewers, and other routes. Oil from boats, airplanes, cars, trucks, and even lawn mowers is also swimming in ocean waters. Chemical discharges from factories, raw sewage overflow from water treatment systems, and storm water and agricultural runoff add other forms of marine-poisoning pollutants to the toxic brew.
The ocean is far from a “silent world.” Sound waves travel farther and faster in the sea’s dark depths than they do in the air, and many marine mammals like whales and dolphins, in addition to fish and other sea creatures, rely on communication by sound to find food, mate, and navigate. But an increasing barrage of human-generated ocean noise pollution is altering the underwater acoustic landscape, harming—and even killing—marine species worldwide.

The word “altering” in the last paragraph could be best replaced by _______.

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Most people start smoking when they are in their teens and are addicted by the time they reach adulthood. Some have tried to quit but have returned to cigarettes because smoking is such a strong addiction. It is a habit that is very difficult to break. There are many different reasons why people smoke.
Three of the main reasons that young people smoke are to look mature, to be like their friends, and to experiment. Since teens see older people all around them smoking, especially their parents and relatives, they smoke to act older. If their friends or peers smoke, they may feel pressured into doing the same to be accepted. The last reason is the excitement of experimenting with something that is forbidden. In Massachusetts it is against the law for anyone under 18 years old to smoke. Usually parents do not allow their under age teens to smoke. Therefore, smoking becomes very attractive. It is exciting to get cigarettes and sneak away to smoke without being caught.
Adults smoke for other reasons. They may have a lot of stress and pressures because of economic and personal problems. They may be unemployed or working but not making enough money to take care of themselves and their families. They may be homeless, or they may be dealing with alcohol or cocaine/heroin addictions. Some may be in bad marriages or relationships in which there is physical and/or verbal abuse. All these people may smoke to feel relaxed or to give them energy while going through a hard time.
Whether young or old, some people smoke to control their weight. Smokers, on the average, weigh seven pounds less than non-smokers. Smoking reduces a person's appetite. It lessens his/her sense of taste and smell. This could be why ex-smokers gain weight after quitting cigarettes. Food tastes and smells so much better.
Finally, there are people who say they love to smoke. Smoking gives them pleasure. It just makes them feel good.

he main purpose of paragraph 4 is     .

Fiberscopes are one of the most important Outcomes of the science of fiber optics. Fibers made of glass and transparent acrylic plastic are capable of conveying light energy, and when thousands of these fibers are combined in what is called a fiberscope, they can transmit images. The most common fiberscopes contain about 750,000 fibers, each 0.001 centimeter, or 10 microns, in diameter. For certain uses, the diameter of the fiber may be as small as 5 microns.
Fiberscopes have a wide range of applications. In the medical field, physicians use fiberscopes to examine internal organs and as an aid in delicate surgeries. Miniature probes have also been developed to view muscle fiber, skin tissue, and blood cells. Fiberscopes have also found varied uses in industry, particularly to inspect or control operations in inaccessible areas. Bundles of fiberscopes fused together in a solid plate, called a faceplate, are being used in the manufacture of television picture tubes and other cathode-ray tube devices. 
The most far-reaching applications of fiber-optic technology are in communications. Optical fibers carry voice messages for telephone service. The sound of the voice is electronically broken down into thousands of pulses per second, which causes a transmitting laser to send coordinated pulses of light through the optical fibers. At the receiving end, the light pulses are converted to electrical signals and the voice message is reconstructed. Light-wave communication systems can handle an immensely greater number of telephone calls and television programs than the current system, and they will form the basis of the "electronic superhighway" expected to crisscross the nation in the near future of the information age.

It can be inferred from the passage that fiberscopes ________

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Where one stage of child development has been left out, or not sufficiently experienced, the child may have to go back and capture the experience of it. A good home makes this possible
- for example, by providing the opportunity for the child to play with a clockwork car or toy railway train up to any age if he still needs to do so. This principle, in fact, underlies all psychological treatment of children in difficulties with their development, and is the basic of work in child clinics.
The beginnings of discipline are in the nursery. Even the youngest baby is taught by gradual stages to wait for food, to sleep and wake at regular intervals and so on. If the child feels the world around him is a warm and friendly one, he slowly accepts its rhythm and accustoms himself to conforming to its demands. Learning to wait for things, particularly for food, is a very important element in upbringing, and is achieved successfully only if too great demands are not made before the child can understand them. Every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition of each new skill: the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of anxiety in the child. This might happen at any stage. A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural zest for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Learning together is a fruitful source of relationship between children and parents. By playing together, parents learn more about their children and children learn more from their parents. Toys and games which both parents and children can share are an important means of achieving this co-operation. Building-block toys, jigsaw puzzles and crosswords are good examples.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness or indulgence towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters; others are severe over times of coming home at night, punctuality for meals or personal cleanliness. In general, the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness and well-being.
With regard to the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that“Example is better than precept”. If they are hypocritical and do not practice what they preach, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been, to some extent, deceived. A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' ethics and their morals can be a dangerous disillusion.

Hypocrisy on the part of the Parents may     .

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The Atmosphere of Venus
Venus, also called the Morning Star and Evening Star, is the second-closest planet to the sun and the brightest object in the night sky. The planet orbits the sun every two hundred and twenty four Earth-days and is sometimes referred to as Earth’s sister planet because the two share both a similar size and bulk. What is not similar, however, is Venus’s atmosphere in comparison to Earth’s atmosphere.
The atmosphere on Venus is much heavier and has a higher density than that of Earth. Venus’s atmosphere also expands significantly higher than Earth’s atmosphere although a thick cloud cover makes the surface of Venus nearly impossible to see unless observed through radar mapping.
While the pressure and temperature of Venus’s upper atmosphere are comparable to those of Earth, the heat and pressure of the lower atmosphere are not unlike a furnace. Venus’s atmosphere is very thick due to a composition consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, and a small amount of nitrogen. If man could survive the extreme heat of Venus’s surface (400 degrees Celsius), then he would have to contend with a surface pressure that is more than 90 times that of Earth. Venus’s extremely high temperature is thanks to the greenhouse effect caused by such a large amount of carbon dioxide. The greenhouse effect is a process by which the sun’s infrared radiation is more readily absorbed by the atmosphere. Just like in a real greenhouse used to grow plants years round, the proliferation of carbon dioxide traps radiation and warms Venus’s atmosphere. Due to this phenomenon, Venus boasts a higher atmospheric temperature than Mercury, even though Venus is twice the distance from the sun.
However, scientists postulate that Venus’s atmosphere was not always so hot. Studies show that large bodies of water were once on Venus’s surface but that eventually evaporation of all the water caused the runaway greenhouse effect which regulates the planet today.Thus Venus has become a critical study for today’s scientists, as human being are only beginning to struggle with the early stages of the greenhouse effect. Our problems do not stem from evaporated water supplies but from a propagation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases due to industrial and automobile emissions.
Another interesting characteristic to note regarding Venus’s atmosphere is that its daytime temperatures and nighttime temperatures are not that far removed from each other. This is due to the thermal inertia, the ability of a substance to store heat despite changing temperatures and the transfer of heat by Venus’s strong winds. Although winds on the surface of Venus move slowly in comparison with Earth’s winds, Venus’s air is so dense that a slow-moving there can move large obstructions and even skip stones along the planet’s surface.
In 1966, humankind made its first attempt at sending a recording instrument into Venus’s atmosphere. The Venera 3 probe did collide with Venus surface; however, the abrupt impact caused its communication system to fail, and it was unable to send and feedback. In 1967, Venera 4 successfully enter Venus’s atmosphere and was able to take many readings, one of which recorded that Venus’s atmosphere was between ninety and ninety-five percent carbon dioxide. Subsequent Venera probes were sent into Venus’s atmosphere, but most of them succumbed to the crushing air pressure.

According to paragraph 3, the greenhouse effect on Venus is owed to

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

The University of Oxford, informally called "Oxford University", or simply "Oxford", (1) ______ in the city of Oxford, in England, is (2) ______ oldest university in the English-speaking world.  It is also considered as one of the world's leading (3) ______ institutions. The university traces, its roots back to at least the end of the 11th century, (4) ______ the exact date of foundation remains unclear. Academically, Oxford is consistently ranked in the world's top ten universities. The University is also open (5) ______ overseas students, primarily from American universities, who may (6) _____ in study abroad programs during the summer months for more than a century, it has served as the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, (7) ______ brings highly accomplished students from a number of countries to study at Oxford as (8) ______ The University of Oxford is also a place where many talented leaders from all over the world used to study. Twenty-five British Prime Ministers attended Oxford, including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. At (9) ______ 25 other international leaders have been educated at Oxford, and this number includes King Harald V of Norway and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Bill Clinton is the first American President to attend Oxford.  Forty-seven Nobel (10) __ winners have studied or taught at Oxford.

(8) ______

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   We get great pleasure from reading. The more advanced a man is, the greater delight he will find in reading. The ordinary man may think that subjects like philosophy or science are very difficult and that if philosophers and scientists read these subjects, it is not for pleasure. But this is not true. The mathematician finds the same pleasure in his mathematics as the school boy in an adventure story. For both, it is a play of the imagination, a mental recreation and exercise.

   The pleasure derived from this activity is common to all kinds of reading. But different types of books give us different types of pleasure. First in order of popularity is novel-reading. Novels contain pictures of imaginary people in imaginary situations, and give us an opportunity of escaping into a new world very much like our world and yet different from it. Here we seem to live a new life, and the experience of this new life gives us a thrill of pleasure.

   Next in order of popularity are travel books, biographies and memoirs. These tell us tales of places we have not seen and of great men in whom we are interested. Some of these books are as wonderful as novels, and they have an added value that they are true. Such books give us knowledge, and we also find immense pleasure in knowing details of lands we have not seen and of great men we have only heard of.

   Reading is one of the greatest enjoyments of life. To book-lovers, nothing is more fascinating than a favorite book. And, the ordinary educated man who is interested and absorbed in his daily occupation wants to occasionally escape from his drudgery into the wonderland of books for recreation and refreshment.

According to paragraph 4, which of the following is the most fascinating to booklovers?

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:
How is the news different from entertainment? Most people would answer that news is real but entertainment is fiction. However, if we think more carefully about the news, it becomes clear that the news is not always real. The news does not show us all the events of the day, but stories  from a small number of chosen events. The creation of news stories is subject to specific constraints, much like the creation of works of fiction. There are many constraints, but three of the most important ones are: commercialism, story formulas, and sources.
Newspapers, radio, and TV stations are businesses, all of which are rivals for audiences and advertising revenue. The amount of time that the average TV station spends on news broadcasts has grown steadily over the last fifty years - largely because news is relatively cheap to produce, yet sells plenty of advertising. Some news broadcasts are themselves becoming advertisements. For example, during one week in 1996 when the American CBS network was airing a movie about the sinking of the Titanic, CBS news ran nine stories about that event (which had happened 84 years before). The ABC network is owned by Disney Studios, and frequently runs news stories about Mickey Mouse. Furthermore, the profit motive drives news organizations to pay more attention to stories likely to generate a large audience, and to shy away from stories that may be important but dull. This pressure to be entertaining has produced shorter, simpler stories: more focus on celebrities than people of substance, more focus on gossip than on news, and more focus on dramatic events than on nuanced issues.
As busy people under relentless pressure to produce, journalists cannot spend days agonizing over the best way to present stories. Instead, they depend upon certain story formulas, which they can reuse again and again. One example is known as the inverted pyramid. In this formula, the journalist puts the most important information at the beginning of the story, than adds the next most important, and so on. The inverted pyramid originates from the age of the telegraph, the idea being that if the line went dead halfway through the story, the journalist would know that the most crucial information had at least been relayed. Modern journalists still value the formula for a similar reason. Their editors will cut stories if they are too long. Another formula involves reducing a complicated story into a simple conflict. The best example is "horse race" election coverage. Thorough explication of the issues and the candidates' views is forbiddingly complex. Journalists therefore concentrate more on who is winning in the opinion polls, and whether the underdog can catch up in the numbers than on politicians' campaign goals.
Sources are another constraint on what journalists cover and how they cover it. The dominant sources for news are public information officers in businesses and government offices. The majority of such officers try to establish themselves as experts who are qualified to feed information to journalists. How do journalists know who is an expert? In general, they don't. They use sources not on the basis of actual expertise, but on the appearance of expertise and the willingness to share it. All the major news organizations use some of the same sources (many of them anonymous), so the same types of stories always receive attention. Over time, the journalists may even become close friends with their sources, and they stop searching for alternative points of view. The result tends to be narrow, homogenized coverage of the same kind.

Why does the author mention Mickey Mouse in paragraph 2?

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage. 
Some doctors think that you should drink a glass of water each morning. You should drink this water first thing before doing anything else. The (25) ______ of the water should be similar to body temperature; (26) ______ too hot nor too cold. Why should you drink this water? Water helps your body in many ways. It helps clean out your kidneys. It prepares your stomach for (27) ______, Water can also help your intestines work better. After drinking water, the intestines can more easily take out nutrients from our food. Water also helps us go to the bathroom more easily,
Scientists suggest that people (28) ______ 1,600 milliliters of water each day. But don't drink all of that water in one sitting. If you do, your kidneys will have to work much harder to eliminate it. It's better to drink some in the morning and some in the afternoon. Some people think it's better to drink between meals and not during meals. They think water dilutes the juices produced in our stomachs, (29) ______ can interfere with normal digestion. Are you drinking enough water every day? Check the color of your urine. If it is light yellow, you are probably drinking enough. If your urine is very dark yellow, you probably need to drink more water. A little more water each day could make you much healthier!

(27)..........................

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

The University of Oxford, informally called "Oxford University", or simply "Oxford", (1) ______ in the city of Oxford, in England, is (2) ______ oldest university in the English-speaking world.  It is also considered as one of the world's leading (3) ______ institutions. The university traces, its roots back to at least the end of the 11th century, (4) ______ the exact date of foundation remains unclear. Academically, Oxford is consistently ranked in the world's top ten universities. The University is also open (5) ______ overseas students, primarily from American universities, who may (6) _____ in study abroad programs during the summer months for more than a century, it has served as the home of the Rhodes Scholarship, (7) ______ brings highly accomplished students from a number of countries to study at Oxford as (8) ______ The University of Oxford is also a place where many talented leaders from all over the world used to study. Twenty-five British Prime Ministers attended Oxford, including Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. At (9) ______ 25 other international leaders have been educated at Oxford, and this number includes King Harald V of Norway and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Bill Clinton is the first American President to attend Oxford.  Forty-seven Nobel (10) __ winners have studied or taught at Oxford.

(5) ______

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Scientists do not yet thoroughly understand just how the body of an individual becomes sensitive to  a substance that is harmless or even wholesome for the average person. Milk, wheat, and egg, for example, rank among the most healthful and widely used foods. Yet these foods can cause persons sensitive to them to suffer greatly. At first, the body of the individual is not harmed by coming into
contact with the substance. After a varying interval of time, usually longer than a few weeks, the body becomes sensitive to it, and an allergy has begun to develop. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if you have a food allergy, since it can show up so many different ways.
Your symptoms could be caused by many other problems. You may have rashes, hives, joint pains mimicking arthritis, headaches, irritability, or depression. The most common food allergies are to milk, eggs, seafood, wheat, nuts, seeds, chocolate, oranges, and tomatoes. Many of these allergies will not develop if these foods are not fed to an infant until her or his intestines mature at around seven months. Breast milk also tends to be protective. Migraines can be set off by foods containing tyramine, phenathylamine, monosodium glutamate, or sodium nitrate. Common foods which contain these are chocolate, aged cheeses, sour cream, red wine, pickled herring, chicken livers, avocados, ripe bananas, cured meats, many Oriental and prepared foods (read the labels!).
Some people have been successful in treating their migraines with supplements of B-vitamins, particularly B6 and niacin. Children who are hyperactive may benefit from eliminating food additives, especially colorings, and foods high in salicylates from their diets. A few of these are almonds, green peppers, peaches, tea, grapes. This is the diet made popular by Benjamin Feingold, who has written the book “Why your Child is Hyperactive”. Other researchers have had mixed results.

According to the passage, the difficulty in diagnosing allergies to foods is due 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 tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.
However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.
The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.
The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals
must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.
So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Why do animals come to the waterholes while it is still light?