The Sahara contains complex linear dunes that are _____ by almost 6 kilometers.

(331)________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Glenbrook South (GBS) High School is in a suburb of Chicago, lllinois, in the United States. It is an award-winning school with a highly competent teaching staff. It has over 400 Asian Pacific American students-over 17 percent of the students in the school. Of these, the majority are Korean American. This is very unusual in a state where Korean Americans are less than 1 percent of the population. The interactions of the Korean American students at GBS were the subject of an article in Asian Week magazine. Different Korean American students react differently to being in a high school where most students are white. Professor Pyong Gap Min, an expert on Korean life in America, believes that Korean Americans in this situation can sometimes feel inhibited or ashamed of their Korean identity. Asian Week interviewed a number of GBS students, and each had a different attitude. Eighteen-year-old Alice said that she used to spend time only with Korean American friends. Although she felt secure with those friends, she found herself motivated to form closer relationships with non-Koreans, too. She said that she felt she was missing out on new experiences and challenges. Seventeen-year-old John moved in the opposite direction. In junior high school, most of John's friends were white. After coming to GBS, his sense of his Korean American identity was restored, and he decided to have mainly Korean American friends. He feels that he and his Korean American friends understand each other better. For example, they understand about severe parental pressures to succeed at school; John felt his white friends couldn't really understand. Sixteen-year-old Paul has some Korean American friends, but he says he spends most of his time with his white friends. He is often the only Asian American in the group, but he doesn't mind. What Paul likes about the white culture is that he can be more radical - he can be as loud and funny as he wants to be. He says he doesn't see as much of that among the Asian students. Without belittling the importance of what these students had to say, it's important to remember that their opinions at this phase of their lives are bound to change as they grow into adulthood. But these honest opinions can help US better understand issues of cultural relations, and their honesty might help Americans from different cultural groups to get along better in the future. 
4. Which statement best summerises Alice's attitude?

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Danger!
If you are walking through the woods and you see a bear, you know that you are in danger. The same is true if you see a snake or a beehive. However, these aren’t the only dangerous things in nature. When you are having a good time outside, you also need to be careful of plants. In some ways, plants are more dangerous than animals. This is because dangerous plants often look normal. Sometimes they even look pretty. If you try to touch one of these nice-looking plants, you could be in a lot of trouble. Take the angel’s trumpet flower, for example. This beautiful white flower is full of poison. A person who touches it can get headaches, confusion, and a very fast heartbeat. Very often, the poison can kill you. All parts of the angel’s trumpets are poisonous, but the most dangerous parts are the seeds and leaves. Here is another dangerous and somewhat creepy plant: doll’s eyes. This plant got its name because its berries look just like doll’s eyes. The berries from these plants can stop a person’s heart. In fact, most berries that you see in nature are poisonous. You should never eat wild berries that you find when you are outside. Some plants can sting you. Stinging needles don’t look dangerous, but they have many tiny hairs on them. If you touch a stinging needle, those hairs will put a weak poison onto your skin. The poison won’t kill you, but it will make your skin itch for a while and it might drive you crazy. One of the more common dangerous plants is poison ivy. This plant produces a clear liquid that will cause all kinds of problems to anyone who touches it. Most people who touch poison ivy get a red and very painful rash on their skin. The rash often itches very badly, and sometimes it creates large blisters. If you see a green plant that has three leaves growing from every branch, stay away from it. It could be poison ivy.
2. What does the passage say about wild berries?

Linda is wearing a new dress

Jane: “You’ve got a beautiful dress”  à Linda: “       “

(138)______

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:
Recent technological advances in manned and unmanned vehicles, along with breakthroughs in satellite technology and computer equipment, have overcome some of the limitations of divers and diving equipment for scientists doing research on the great oceans of the world. Without a vehicle, divers often became sluggish, and their mental concentration was severely limited. Because undersea pressure affects their speech organs, communication among divers has always been difficult or impossible. But today, most oceanographers avoid the use of vulnerable human divers, preferring to reduce the risk to human life and make direct observations by means of instruments that are lowered into the ocean, from samples take from the water, or from photographs made by orbiting satellites. Direct observations of the ocean floor can be made not only by divers but also by deep-diving submarines in the water and even by the technology of sophisticated aerial photography from vantage points above the surface of more than seven miles and cruise at depths of fifteen thousand feet. In addition, radio-equipped buoys can be operated by remote control in order to transmit information back to land-based laboratories via satellite. Particularly important for ocean study are data about water temperature, currents, and weather. Satellite photographs can show the distribution of sea ice, oil slicks, and cloud formations over the ocean. Maps created from satellite pictures can represent the temperature and the color of the ocean's surface, enabling researchers to study the ocean currents from laboratories on dry land. Furthermore, computers help oceanographers to collect, organize, and analyze data from submarines and satellites. By creating a model of the ocean's movement and characteristics, scientists can predict the patterns and possible effects of the ocean on the environment.
Recently, many oceanographers have been relying more on satellites and computers than on research ships or even submarine vehicles because they can supply a greater range of information more quickly and more effectively. Some of humankind's most serious problems, especially those concerning energy and food, may be solved with the help of observations made possible by this new technology.

How is a radio-quipped buoy operated?

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Some Amazing Apps for Your Smartphone
It is hard to imagine life in modern society without smartphones. These handy little devices keep us entertained and enable us to manage important tasks on the go. Although smartphones feature powerful hardware, they wouldn’t be so useful without thousands of handy applications. Here are a few free and helpful apps that you can download to help you throughout the day. If you have a habit of forgetting things and want to organize your life, give Evernote a try. It promises to help users remember everything. With a few clicks, you can send all of your photos, documents, and audio notes to Evernote. Then, your digital information can be stored in folders or tagged with useful keywords. When you need to access this data, you can perform a simple search and it will appear in seconds. Evernote is available on smartphones, tablets, and computers, so you can access your data from everywhere. Imagine this scenario. You are watching a TV show and you hear a cool song in the background. You want to buy it but there is one problem. You don’t know the name of the song. SoundHound is an app that will make this problem a thing of the past. It enables users to quickly identify songs by launching the app and holding their phone in the air. The app takes the song playing and compares it to thousands of other songs until it finds a match. Within seconds, it can tell you the name, artist, and album of the song you just heard. Another spectacular app is Lookout. Hopefully, you won’t have to use it often, but when you do need it. Lookout can be a lifesaver. Its main function is to help you find your phone if it goes missing. Lookout does this by using your smartphone’s data connection to locate your lost device. To see where your phone is on a map, simply log into Lookout from any web browser. In the worst-case situation, if someone steals your phone and you fear it has gone for good, you can wipe out all of its data with a few clicks. This will ensure no one will see any private information on your phone. These helpful apps are just the tip of the iceberg. If you do some searching online, you are certain to find many other apps that will make your life more convenient.
2. Who would most enjoy SoundHound?

His emotional problems  __________from the attitudes he encountered as a child, I think.

(110)______

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Any change in one part of an ecosystem can cause changes in other parts. Droughts, storms and fires can change ecosystems. Some changes (1) _______ ecosystems. If there is too (2) _______ rainfall, plants will not have enough water to live. If a kind of plant dies off, the animals that feed on it may also die or move away. Some changes are good for ecosystems. Some pine forests need fires for he pine trees to reproduce. The seeds are sealed inside pinecones. Heat from a forest fire melts the seal and lets the seeds (3) _______. Polluting the air, soil, and water can harm ecosystems. Building (4) _______ on rivers for electric power and irrigation can harm ecosystems around the rivers. Bulldozing wetlands and cutting down forests destroy ecosystems. Ecologists are working with companies and governments to find better ways of (5) _______ fish, cutting down trees, and building dams. They are looking for ways to get food, lumber, and other products for people without causing harm to ecosystems

Read the passage below carefully, and then choose the best answer:
Traveling in the Future
These days, if you want to travel from New York to Beijing, the flight takes about 16 hours. You also have to wait at the airport, and sometimes you have to transfer onto a different airplane. If you add all of that extra time, the trip takes at least 20 hours. But in the future, the trip from New York to Beijing might only take two hours. Right now, a private company is developing something called ET3. ET3 stands for “evacuated tube transport technology”. Here is how it works. A tube goes all the way from New York to Beijing. The tube is only a few meters wide. Capsules move through the tube. Six people can sit in one capsule. The capsules use electricity instead of gasoline. For international travel, the capsules can travel at about 6,500 kilometers per hour. That is much faster than airplane – most modern airplanes usually only fly at about 800 kilometers per hour. So how is this possible? How can these capsules travel so fast? The answer is that there is no air inside the tube. When airplanes fly, they have to move through the air. The air slows the airplanes down. Because there is no air in the ET3 tubes, the capsules are able to move at a very high speed. Besides, the capsules are quite light. They only weigh 183 kilograms. There are other advantages to ET3. Because it uses electricity, it is quite clean. In addition, it is much quieter than airplanes and cars. Finally, ET3 tubes and capsules don’t require very much building material. Of course, ET3 doesn’t exist yet. The technology is still being developed. Developers still have to solve a lot of problems. The biggest problem is that right now, ET3 would be far too expensive. In order to make ET3 cheaper, we will need much better technology. It is exciting to think of how ET3 will change travel in the future. Maybe someday, you will be able to have lunch in New York and dinner in Beijing.
6. According to the passage, which statement is true?

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase

There are many reasons (1) _____ taking regular time with our family is important:

It (2) _____ a place to listen, teach, learn, and (3) _____ ourselves freely and safely. It provides (4) _____ to discuss family joys, issues, and problems. Family members can practice skills in a non-threatening (5) _____. Families are a (6) _____ part of our society and the fabric of our communities - we spend (7) _____ time together to get our feelings (8) _____ belonging, our values, support and understanding. It helps (9) _____ family members together and feel safe in today's world where (10) _____ can lead to family disintegration.

(4) ________

Choose the best answer:
I/ can/ send/ you/ references/ the Director of the Happy Mind Charity Centre.

Choose the best answer:
Her cat/ play with/ ball/ under/ table now.

Choose the best answer:
My teacher asked me if I knew _______ had got that job.

Choose the best answer:
The new invention may receive a lot of __________ from the public.

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

"The United States has been criticized* for its treatment of its elderly citizens. Although in many other countries the elderly usually live with their children’s family, many older Americans live alone, without the close companionship of their children. This situation is sometimes blamed on the “selfishness” of the younger generation but a closer look shows that many of the elderly prefer to maintain their independent lives.
 Research on the situation of the elderly in America has shown that while grandparents are delighted to be visited periodically by their children and grandchildren, they prefer to continue living in the surroundings that they are familiar with. This suggests that children should permit their parents to live alone if they wish to, and should encourage them to maintain close ties to the rest of the family.
 Another surprising result of the research on the elderly in the United States has been the very positive influence which pets have been found to have on the elderly people that they live with. It has been shown that elderly people who care for small pets, such as cats or dogs, live longer, are healthier, and have better attitudes towards their lives than similar elderly people without these companions."

3. Many of the elderly Americans want to …...

Choose the best answer:
apples/ how/ does/ mother/ and/ carrots/ your/ want?

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 human criterion for perfect vision is 20/20 for reading the standard lines on a Snellen eye chart without a hitch. The score is determined by how well you read lines of letters of different sizes from 20 feet away. But being able to read the bottom line on the eye chart does not approximate perfection as far as other species are concerned. Most birds would consider us very visually handicapped. The hawk, for instance, has such sharp eyes that it can spot a dime on the sidewalk while perched on top of the Empire State Building.
It can make fine visual distinctions because it is blessed with one million cones per square millimeter in its retina. And in water, humans are farsighted, while the kingfisher, swooping down to spear fish, can see well in both the air and water because it is endowed with two foveae - areas of the eye, consisting mostly of cones, that provide visual distinctions. One fovea permits the bird, while in the air, to scan the water below with one eye at a time. This is called monocular vision. Once it hits the water, the other fovea joins in, allowing the kingfisher to focus both eyes, like binoculars, on its prey at the same time.
A frog’s vision is distinguished by its ability to perceive things as a constant motion picture. Known as “bug detectors”, a highly developed set of cells in a frog’s eyes responds mainly to moving objects. So, it is said that a frog sitting in a field of dead bugs wouldn’t see them as food and would starve. The bee has a “compound” eye, which is used for navigation. It has 15,000 facets that divide what it sees into a pattern of dots, or mosaic. With this kind of vision, the bee sees the sun only as a single dot, a constant point of reference. Thus, the eye is a superb navigational instrument that constantly measures the angle of its line of flight in relation to the sun. A bee’s eye also gauges flight speed. And if that is not enough to leave our 20/20 “perfect vision” paling into insignificance, the bee is capable of seeing something we can’t - ultraviolet light.
Thus, what humans consider to be “perfect vision” is in fact rather limited when we look at other species. However, there is still much to be said for the human eye. Of all the mammals, only humans and some primates can enjoy the pleasures of color vision.

According to the passage, “bug detectors” are useful for     .

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Of all modern instruments, the violin is apparently one of the simplest. It consists in essence of a hollow, varnished wooden sound box, or resonator, and a long neck covered with a figerboard, along which four strings are stretched at high tension. The beauty of design, shape, and decoration is no accident: the proportions of the instrument are determined almost entirely by acoustical considerations. Its simplicity of appearance is deceptive. About 70 parts are involved in the construction of a violin. Its tone and its outstanding range of expressiveness make it an ideal solo instrument. No less important, however, is its role as an orchestral and chamber instrument. In combination with the larger and deeper- sounding members of the same family, the violins form the nucleus of the modern symphony orchestra. The violin has been in existence since about 1550. Its importance as an instrument in its own right dates from the early 1600s, when it fist became standard in Italian opera orchestras. Its stature as an orchestral instrument was raised further when in 1626 Louis XIII of France established at his court the orchestra known as Les vinq-quatre violons du Roy (The King's 24 Violins), which was to become widely famous later in the century. In its early history, the violin had a dull and rather quiet tone resulting from the fact that the strings were thick and were attached to the body of the instrument very loosely. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, exciting technical changes were inspired by such composer-violinists as Vivaldi and Tartini. Their instrumental compositions demanded a fuller, clearer, and more brilliant tone that was produced by using thinner strings and a far higher string tension. Small changes had to be made to the violin's internal structure and to the figerboard so that they could withstand the extra strain. Accordingly, a higher standard of performance was achieved, in terms of both facility and interpretation. Left-hand technique was considerably elaborated, and new tigering patterns on the figerboard were developed for very high notes.
7. The word "Accordingly" inparagraph 4 is closest in meaning to: 

Choose the best answer:
I don’t like watching boxing matches on TV because they are _____

Choose the best answer:
We think that Mother's Day should be celebrated_______

Synonym:
I didn’t think his the comments were very appropriate at the time.