Bài tập trắc nghiệm 60 phút Đoạn văn đọc hiểu - Tiếng Anh 12 - Đề số 11

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Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learn all the other things they learn to do without being taught - to talk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle - compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not. If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end all this nonsense of grades, exams, and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know. Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible to them, with our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential, something they will need to get on in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.  

Question: The word “he” in the first paragraph refers to ________ .  

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 Most people can remember a phone number for up to thirty seconds. When this short amount of time elapses, however, the numbers are erased from the memory. How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makes its way to the short term memory (STM) does so via the sensory storage area. The brain has a filter which only allows stimuli that is of immediate interest to pass on to the STM, also known as the working memory.

 There is much debate about the capacity and duration of the short term memory. The most accepted theory comes from George A. Miller, a cognitive psychologist who suggested that humans can remember approximately seven chunks of information. A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information, such as a word or name rather than just a letter or number. Modern theorists suggest that one can increase the capacity of the short term memory by chunking, or classifying similar information together. By organizing information, one can optimize the STM, and improve the chances of a memory being passed on to long term storage.

 When making a conscious effort to memorize something, such as information for an exam, many people engage in "rote rehearsal". By repeating something over and over again, one is able to keep a memory alive. Unfortunately, this type of memory maintenance only succeeds if there are no interruptions. As soon as a person stops rehearsing the information, it has the tendency to disappear. When a pen and paper are not handy, people often attempt to remember a phone number by repeating it aloud. If the doorbell rings or the dog barks to come in before a person has the opportunity to make a phone call, he will likely forget the number instantly. Therefore, rote rehearsal is not an efficient way to pass information from the short term to long term memory. A better way is to practice "elaborate rehearsal". This involves assigning semantic meaning to a piece of information so that it can be filed along with other pre-existing long term memories.

 Encoding information semantically also makes it more retrievable. Retrieving information can be done by recognition or recall. Humans can easily recall memories that are stored in the long term memory and used often; however, if a memory seems to be forgotten, it may eventually be retrieved by prompting. The more cues a person is given (such as pictures), the more likely a memory can be retrieved. This is why multiple choice tests are often used for subjects that require a lot of memorization.

Question 29: According to the passage, how do memories get transferred to the STM?         

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Although management principles have been implemented since ancient times, most management scholars trace the beginning of modern management thought back to the early 1900s, beginning with the pioneering work of Frederick Taylor (1856-1915). Taylor was the first person to study work scientifically. He is most famous for introducing techniques of time and motion study, differential piece rate systems, and for systemtically specializing the work of operating employees and managers. Along with other pioneers such as Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Taylor set the stage, labeling his philosophy and methods “scientific management”. At that time, his philosophy, which was concerned with productivity, but which was often misinterpreted as promoting worker interests at the expense of management, was in marked contrast to the prevailing industrial norms of worker exploitation. The time and motion study concepts were popularized by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. The Gilbreths had 12 children. By analyzing his children’s dishwashing and bed making chores, this pioneer efficiency expert, Frank Gilbreth, hit on principles whereby workers could eliminate waste motion. He was memorialized by two of his children in their 1949 book called “Cheaper by the Dozen”. The Gilbreth methods included using stop watches to time worker movements and special tools (cameras and special clocks) to monitor and study worker performance, and also involved identification of “therbligs” (Gilbreth spelled backwards) - basic motions used in production jobs. Many of these motions and accompanying times have been used to determine how long it should take a skilled worker to perform a given job. In this way an industrial engineer can get a handle on the approximate time it should take to produce a product or provide a service. However, use of work analysis in this way is unlikely to lead to useful results unless all five work dimensions are considered, physical, psychological, social, cultural, and power.

Question: The word “prevailing” is closest in meaning to ________.         

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On March 15, Dunes View Middle School held a contest for school bands. Student bands tried out for the opportunity to perform at the school picnic, which will be held at the end of June. The winner of the contest was the band called Four Square. “We’re very proud that we won the contest and are excited to perform at the picnic,” says Peter Zandt, who plays the guitar in the band. “And since we hope to perform someday at other local places, like restaurants and parks, this will be a great first step.”

The contest was the creation of music teacher Mr. Lopez and drama teacher Ms. Cho. The two thought of the idea while discussing recent years’ school picnics. “The picnic is one of the biggest events of the year, but it has become a bit formulaic", said Ms. Cho. “The activities are the same every year. We thought that a performance by a student band would make the school picnic more interesting and fun.” Mr. Lopez, Ms. Cho, and three other teachers judged the contest, which took place in the gym. Eight student bands signed up to audition. The bands varied in their musical forms: There were several rock bands, a folk band, and even a jazz band. “I’m disappointed that my band didn’t win, but I think the judges made the right choice", says student Marisol Varga, a member of the folk trio called The Bell Girls. “Four Square is really good.”

To see if the bands could present a wide range of musical skills, the teachers asked them each to prepare two songs: One song with original words, and another in which students played instrumental music only. The judges finally chose the band Four Square as the winner of the contest. Four Square is a rock band with an unusual twist: It includes a violin player! The members of Four Square write their own songs and practice three times a week after school. Students and teachers agreed that the band competition was a big success. All are looking forward to the school picnic in June.  

Question: Why did the teachers ask each band to play two songs?         

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An air pollutant is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or materials adversely. Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled – a far cry from the extensive list of harmful substances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions. Many of more important air pollutants such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides, are found in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentrations of these pollutants were altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycle. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil on a global basis, nature's output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities. However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as a city. In this localized regions, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycle. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need not be large for a substance to be a pollutant; in fact the numerical value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over the concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm), which is about 400 times its natural level. Carbon monoxide, however, as a natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm.

Question: It can be inferred from the first paragraph that______         

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During the 19th century, women in the U.S organized and participated in a large number of reform movements, including movements to reorganize the prison system, improve education, ban the sale of alcohol, and most importantly to free slaves. Some women saw similarities in the social status of women and slaves. Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucy Stone were feminists and abolitionists who supported the rights of both women and blacks. A number of male abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips also supported the rights of women to speak and participate equally with men in anti-slavery activities. Probably more than any other movement, abolitionism offered women a previously denied entry into politics. They became involved primarily in order to better their living conditions and the conditions of others. When the Civil war ended in 1865, the 14th, and 15th, Amendments to the Constitution adopted in 1868 and 1870 granted citizenship and suffrage to blacks but not to women. Discouraged but resolved, feminists influenced more and more women to demand the right to vote. In 1869, the Wyoming Territory had yielded to demands by feminists, but eastern states resisted more stubbornly than ever before. A woman's suffrage bill had been presented to every Congress since 1878 but it continually failed to pass until 1920, when the 19th Amendment granted women the right to vote.

Question 36: What does the 19th Amendment guarantee?         

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 A Japanese construction company plans to create a huge independent city-state, akin to the legendary Atlantis, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The city, dubbed “Marinnation”, would have about one million inhabitants, two airports, and possibly even a space port. Marinnation, if built, would be a separate country but could serve as a home for international organisations such as the United Nations and the World Bank.

 Aside from the many political and social problems that would have to be solved, the engineering task envisaged is monumental. The initial stage requires the building of a circular dam eighteen miles in diameter attached to the sea bed in a relatively shallow place in international waters. Then, several hundred powerful pumps, operating for more than a year, would suck out the sea water from within the dam. When empty and dry, the area would have a city constructed on it. The actual land would be about 300 feet below the sea level. According to designers, the hardest task from an engineering point of view would be to ensure that the dam is leak proof and earthquake proof.

 If all goes well, it is hoped that Marinnation could be ready for habitation at the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Whether anyone would want to live in such an isolated and artificial community, however, will remain an open question until that time. 

Question: Which of the following is NOT true according to the text?        

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The issue of equality for women in British society first attracted national attention in the early 20th century, when the suffragettes won for women the right to vote. In the 1960s feminism became the subject of intense debate when the women’s liberation movement encouraged women to reject their traditional supporting role and to demand equal status and equal rights with men in areas such as employment and pay. Since then, the gender gap between the sexes has been reduced. The Equal Pay Act of 1970, for instance, made it illegal for women to be paid less than men for doing the same work, and in 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act aimed to prevent either sex having an unfair advantage when applying for jobs. In the same year the Equal Opportunities Commission was set up to help people claim their rights to equal treatment and to publish research and statistics to show where improvements in opportunities for women need to be made. Women now have much better employment opportunities, though they still tend to get less well-paid jobs than men, and very few are appointed to top jobs in industry. In the US the movement that is often called the “first wave of feminism” began in the mid 1800s. Susan B. Anthony worked for the right to vote, Margaret Sanger wanted to provide women with the means of contraception so that they could decide whether or not to have children, and Elizabeth Blackwell, who had to fight for the chance to become a doctor, wanted women to have greater opportunities to study. Many feminists were interested in other social issues. The second wave of feminism began in the 1960s. Women like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem became associated with the fight to get equal rights and opportunities for women under the law. An important issue was the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was intended to change the Constitution. Although the ERA was not passed, there was progress in other areas. It became illegal for employers, schools, clubs, etc. to discriminate against women. But women still find it hard to advance beyond a certain point in their careers, the so-called glass ceiling that prevents them from having high-level jobs. Many women also face the problem of the second shift, i.e. the household chores. In the 1980s, feminism became less popular in the US and there was less interest in solving the remaining problems, such as the fact that most women still earn much less than men. Although there is still discrimination, the principle that it should not exist is widely accepted.

Question: Which of the following is true according to the passage?         

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 Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits. In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in dense vegetation or enter a cavity - horned larks dig holes in the ground and ptarmigan burrow into snow banks - but the effect of sheltering is magnified by several birds huddling together in the roosts, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers, bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air, so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to reduce their heat losses by a quarter, and three together saved a third of their heat.

 The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as “information centers”. During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roosts and hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can learn from others where to find insect swarms.

 Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch small birds perching at the margins of the roost.

Question 38: Ptarmigan keep warm in the winter by _______.         

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All mammals feed their young. Beluga whale mothers, for example, nurse their calves for some twenty months, until they are about to give birth again and their young are able to find their own food. The behavior of feeding of the young is built into the reproductive system. It is a nonelective part of parental care and the defining feature of a mammal, the most important thing that mammals-- whether marsupials, platypuses, spiny anteaters, or placental mammals -- have in common.

For animals other than mammals, then, feeding is not intrinsic to parental care. Animals add it to their reproductive strategies to give them an edge in their lifelong quest for descendants. The most vulnerable moment in any animal's life is when it first finds itself completely on its own, when it must forage and fend for itself. Feeding postpones that moment until a young animal has grown to such a size that it is better able to cope. Young that are fed by their parents become nutritionally independent at a much greater fraction of their full adult size. And in the meantime those young are shielded against the vagaries of fluctuating of difficult-to-find supplies. Once a species does take the step of feeding its young, the young become totally dependent on the extra effort. If both parents are removed, the young generally do not survive.

Question: The word "tend" in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to _______.         

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All mammals feed their young. Beluga whale mothers, for example, nurse their calves for some twenty months, until they are about to give birth again and their young are able to find their own food. The behavior of feeding of the young is built into the reproductive system. It is a nonelective part of parental care and the defining feature of a mammal, the most important thing that mammals - whether marsupials, platypuses, spiny anteaters, or placental mammals - have in common.

For animals other than mammals, then, feeding is not intrinsic to parental care. Animals add it to their reproductive strategies to give them an edge in their lifelong quest for descendants. The most vulnerable moment in any animal's life is when it first finds itself completely on its own, when it must forage and fend for itself. Feeding postpones that moment until a young animal has grown to such a size that it is better able to cope. Young that are fed by their parents become nutritionally independent at a much greater fraction of their full adult size. And in the meantime those young are shielded against the vagaries of fluctuating of difficult-to-find supplies. Once a species does take the step of feeding its young, the young become totally dependent on the extra effort. If both parents are removed, the young generally do not survive.

Question: According to the passage, how do some insects make sure their young have food?         

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Under certain circumstances, the human body must cope with gases at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. For example, gas pressures increase rapidly during a drive made with scuba gear because the breathing equipment allows divers to stay underwater longer and dive deeper. The pressure exerted on the human body increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters of depth on seater, so thay at 39 meters in seawater a diver is exposed to pressure of about 4 atmosphere. The pressure of the gases being breathed must equal the external pressure applied to the body, otherwise breathing is very difficult. Therefore all of the gases in the air breathed by a scuba diver at 40 meter are present at five times their usual pressure. Nitrogen, which composes 80 percent of the air we breathe, usually causes a balmy feeling of well-being at this pressure. At a depth of 5 atmosphere, nitrogen causes symptoms resembling alcohol intoxication, known as nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis apparently results from a direct effect on the brain of the large amounts of nitrogen dissolved in the blood. Deep dives are less dangerous if helium is substituted for nitrogen, because under these pressures helium does not exert a similar narcotic effect. As a scuba diver descends, the pressure of nitrogen on the lungs increases. Nitrogen then diffuses from the lungs to the blood, and from the blood to body tissues. The reverse occurs when the diver surfaces, the nitrogen pressure in the lungs falls and the nitrogen diffuses from the tissues into the blood, and from the blood into the lungs. If the return to the surface is too rapid, nitrogen in the tissues and blood cannot diffuse out rapidly enough and nitrogen bubbles are formed. They can cause severe pains, particularly around the joints. Another complication may result if the breath is held during ascent. During ascent from a depth of 10 meters, the volume of air in the lungs will double because the air pressure at the surface is only half of what it was at 10 meters. This change in volume may cause the lungs to distend ang even rupture. This the rise of the exhaled air bubbles, and must exhale during ascent.

Question: The word “exert” in bold on paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ________.         

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 My family consists of four people. There's my father whose name is Jan, my mother whose name is Marie, my brother, Peter and of course, me. I have quite a large extended family as well but, only the four of us live together in our apartment in a block of flats. My father is fifty-two years old. He works as an accountant in an insurance company. He is tall and slim, has got short brown and gray hair and blue eyes. My father likes gardening very much as well as listening to music and reading books about political science. His special hobbies are bird watching and travelling.

 Now I’ll describe my mother and my brother. My mother is forty-seven and she works as a nurse in a hospital. She is small, and slim, has short brown hair and green eyes. She likes bird watching and travelling too, so whenever my parents are able to they go someplace interesting for nature watching. Since we have a cottage with a garden they both spend a lot of time there. My brother is sixteen. He is slim and has short brown hair and blue eyes. He also attends high school. He is interested in computers and sports like football and hockey. He also spends a lot of time with his friends.

 I have only one grandmother left still living. She is in pretty good health even at the age of seventy-eight so she still lives in her own flat. I enjoy spending time with her when I can. Both my grandfathers died from cancer because they were smokers, which was really a great tragedy because I didn't get chance to know them. My other grandmother died just a few years ago. I also have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. The cousin I’m closest to is my uncle’s daughter Pauline. We have a lot in common because we are both eighteen and so we are good friends.

 My parents have assigned me certain duties around the house. I don't mind helping out because everyone in a family should contribute in some way. I help with the washing up, the vacuuming and the shopping. Of course I also have to help keep my room tidy as well. My brother is responsible for the dusting and mopping. He also has to clean his own room. Even though my brother and I sometimes fight about who has to do what job, we are still very close. I am also very close to my parents and I can rely on them to help me. My parents work together to keep our home well maintained and it seem they always have a project or another that they are working on. They respect each other's opinions and even if they disagree they can always come to a compromise. I hope in the future that 1 have a family like ours.

Question 41: The word "assigned" in the fourth paragraph mostly means_______

Question 47: Which of the following is the closet meaning of the word "resemble"?

Insect's lives are very short and they have many enemies, but they must survive long enough to breed and perpetuate their kind. The less insect-like they look, the better their chance of survival. To look "inedible" by imitating plants is a way frequently used by insects to survive. Mammals rarely imitate plants, but many fish and invertebrates do. The stick caterpillar is well named. It is hardly distinguishable from a brown or green twig. This caterpillar is quite common and can be found almost anywhere in North America. It is also called "measuring worm" or "inchworm". It walks by arching its body, then stretching out and grasping the branch with its front feet then looping its body again to bring the hind feet forward. When danger threatens, the stick caterpillar stretches its body away from the branch at an angle and remains rigid and still, like a twig, until the danger has passed.  Walking sticks, or stick insects, do not have to assume a rigid, twig-like pose to find protection; they look like inedible twigs in any position. There are many kinds of walking sticks, ranging in size from the few inches of the North American variety to some tropical species that may be over a foot long. When at rest their front legs are stretched out, heightening their camouflage. Some of the tropical species are adorned with spines or ridges, imitating the thorny bushes or trees in which they live.            

Leaves also seem to be a favorite object for insects to imitate. Many butterflies can suddenly disappear from view by folding their wings and sitting quietly among the plants that they resemble. 

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If_____, the Xmas tree would look more impressive.         

 Question 6: In the first paragraph, Bradstreet, Warren, and Adams are mentioned to show that _______       

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about the contributions of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly formed United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power, women were not considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some significant poetry in the seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the best contemporary history of the American Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned important letters showing she exercised great political influence over her husband, John, the second President of the United States. But little or no notice was taken of these contributions. During these centuries, women remained invisible in history books. Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility continued, despite the efforts of female authors writing about women. These writers, like most of their male counterparts, were amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in nature, and they were uncritical in their selection and use of sources. During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of history by keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National, regional, and local women's organizations compiled accounts of their doings. Personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources from the core of the two greatest collections of women's history in the United States, one at the Elizabeth and Arthur Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and the other the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources have provided valuable materials for later Generations of historians. Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during the nineteenth century, most of the writing about women conformed to the "great women" theory of History, just as much of mainstream American history concentrated on "great men". To demonstrate that women were making significant contributions to American life, female authors singled out women leaders and wrote biographies, or else important women produced their autobiographies. Most of these leaders were involved in public life as reformers, activists working for women's right to vote, or authors, and were not representative at all of the great of ordinary woman. The lives of ordinary people continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being published.    

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For more than six million American children, coming home after school means coming back to an empty house. Some deal with the situation by watching TV. Some may hide. But all of them have something in common. They spend part of each day alone. They are called “latchkey children”. They are children who look after themselves while their parents work. And their bad condition has become a subject of concern. Lynette Long was one principal of an elementary school. She said, “We had a school rule against wearing jewelry. A lot of kids had chains around their necks with keys attached. I was constantly telling them to put the keys inside shirts. There were so many keys, it never came to my mind what they meant. Slowly, she learned that they were house keys. She and her husband began talking to the children who had keys. They learned of the effect working couples and single parents were having on their children. Fear was the biggest problem faced by children at home alone. One in three latchkey children the Longs talked to reported being frightened. Many had nightmares and were worried about their own safety. The most common way latchkey children deal with their fears is by hiding. They made hide in a shower stall, under a bed or in a closet. The second is TV. They often turn the volume up. It’s hard to get statistics on latchkey children, the Longs have learned. Most parents are slow to admit that they leave their children alone.

Question 22: The phrase “an empty house” in the passage mostly means ___________         

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One of the most interesting authors of the twentieth century, J. R. R. Tolkien, achieved fame through his highly inventive trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. Born in 1892, Tolkien received his education from Oxford and then served in World War I. After the war, he became a professor of Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature at Oxford University. Although published in 1965, the three books that comprise The Lord of the Rings were written in intervals from 1936 to 1949. This was mainly due to Tolkien’s responsibilities as a professor and the outbreak of World War II. By the late 1960s, this fascinating trilogy had become a sociological phenomenon as young people intently studied the mythology and legends created by Tolkien. The trilogy is remarkable not only for its highly developed account of historical fiction but also its success as a modern heroic epic. The main plot chronicles the struggle between good and evil kingdom as they try to acquire a magic ring that has the power to rule the world. The novels, which are set in a time called Middle Earth, describe a detailed fantasy world. Established before humans populated the Earth, Middle Earth was inhabited by good and evil creatures such as hobbits, dwarves, elves, monsters, wizards, and some humans. The characters and the setting of Middle Earth were modeled after mythological stories from Greece and Northern Europe. Although readers have scrutinized the texts for inner meaning and have tried to connect the trilogy with Tolkien’s real life experiences in England during World War II, he denieds the connection. He claims that the story began in his years as an undergraduate student grew out of his desire to create mythology and legends about elves and their language. Tolkien was a masterful fantasy novelist who used his extensive knowledge of folklore to create a body or work that is still read and enjoyed throughout the world today.

Question: What can we assume is NOT true about Middle Earth?          

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 Choosing a career may be one of the hardest jobs you ever have, and it must be done with care. View a career as an opportunity to do something you love, not simply as a way to earn a living. Investing the time and effort to thoroughly explore your options can mean the difference between finding a stimulating and rewarding career and move from job to unsatisfying job in an attempt to find the right one. Work influences virtually every aspect of your life, from your choice of friends to where you live. Here are just a few of the factors to consider.

 Deciding what matters most to you is essential to making the right decision. You may want to begin by assessing your likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. Think about the classes, hobbies, and surroundings that you find most appealing. Ask yourself questions, such as "Would you like to travel? Do you want to work with children? Are you more suited to solitary or cooperative work?" There are no right or wrong answers; only you know what is important to you. Determine which job features you require, which ones you would prefer, and which ones you cannot accept. Then rank them in order of importance to you.

 The setting of the job is one factor to take into account. You may not want to sit at a desk all day. If not, there are diversity occupation - building inspector, supervisor, real estate agent - that involve a great deal of time away from the office. Geographical location may be a concern, and employment in some fields is concentrated in certain regions. Advertising job can generally be found only in large cities. On the other hand, many industries such as hospitality, law education, and retail sales are found in all regions of the country.

 If a high salary is important to you, do not judge a career by its starting wages. Many jobs, such as insurance sales, offers relatively low starting salaries; however, pay substantially increases along with your experience, additional training, promotions and commission.

 Don’t rule out any occupation without learning more about it. Some industries evoke positive or negative associations. The traveling life of a flight attendant appears glamorous, while that of a plumber does not. Remember that many jobs are not what they appear to be at first, and may have merits or demerits that are less obvious. Flight attendants must work long, grueling hours without sleeps, whereas plumbers can be as highly paid as some doctors. Another point to consider is that as you get mature, you will likely to develop new interests and skills that may point the way to new opportunities. The choice you make today need not be your final one.

Question 32: It can be inferred from the paragraph 3 that _______.         

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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 when testing whether the diet is effective.

Question: The word "hyperactive" is closest in meaning to______________.  

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Since water is the basis of life, composing the greater part of the tissues of all living things, the crucial problem of desert animals is to survive in a world where sources of flowing water are rare. And since man’s inexorable necessity is to absorb large quantities of water at frequent intervals, he can scarcely comprehend that many creatures of the desert pass their entire lives without a single drop. Uncompromising as it is, the desert has not eliminated life but only those forms unable to withstand its desiccating effects. No moist-skinned, water-loving animals can exist there. Few large animals are found. The giants of the North American desert are the deer, the coyote, and the bobcat. Since desert country is open, it holds more swift-footed running and leaping creatures than the tangled forest. Its population is largely nocturnal, silent, filled with reticence, and ruled by stealth. Yet they are not emaciated. Having adapted to their austere environment, they are as healthy as animals anywhere else in the word. The secret of their adjustment lies in the combination of behavior and physiology. None could survive if, like mad dogs and Englishmen, they went out in the midday sun; many would die in a matter of minutes. So most of them pass the burning hours asleep in cool, humid burrows underneath the ground, emerging to hunt only by night. The surface of the sun-baked desert averages around 150 degrees, but 18 inches down the temperature is only 60 degrees.

Question: According to the passage, creatures in the desert____________.         

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 A Japanese construction company plans to create a huge independent city-state, akin to the legendary Atlantis, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The city, dubbed “Marinnation”, would have about one million inhabitants, two airports, and possibly even a space port. Marinnation, if built, would be a separate country but could serve as a home for international organisations such as the United Nations and the World Bank.

 Aside from the many political and social problems that would have to be solved, the engineering task envisaged is monumental. The initial stage requires the building of a circular dam eighteen miles in diameter attached to the sea bed in a relatively shallow place in international waters. Then, several hundred powerful pumps, operating for more than a year, would suck out the sea water from within the dam. When empty and dry, the area would have a city constructed on it. The actual land would be about 300 feet below the sea level. According to designers, the hardest task from an engineering point of view would be to ensure that the dam is leak proof and earthquake proof.

 If all goes well, it is hoped that Marinnation could be ready for habitation at the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Whether anyone would want to live in such an isolated and artificial community, however, will remain an open question until that time. 

Question: According to the text, people could come to live in the future city in the year __________.            

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The biologist's role in society as well as his moral and ethical responsibility in the discovery and development of new ideas has led to a reassessment of his social and scientific value systems. A scientist can no longer ignore the consequences of his discoveries; he is as concerned with the possible misuses of his findings as he is with the basic research in which he is involved. This emerging social and political role of the biologist and all other scientists requires a weighing of values that cannot be done with the accuracy or the objectivity of a laboratory balance. As a member of society, it is necessary for a biologist now to redefine his social obligations and his functions, particularly in the realm of making judgments about such ethical problems as man's control of his environment or his manipulation of genes to direct further evolutionary development.

Probably the greatest biological problem of the future, as it is of the present, will be to find ways to curb environmental pollution without interfering with man's constant effort to improve the quality of his life. Many scientists believe that underlying the spectre of pollution is the problem of surplus human population. A rise in population necessitates an increase in the operations of modern industry, the waste products of which increase the pollution of air, water, and soil. The question of how many people the resources of the Earth can support is one of critical importance.

The pronoun “it” in paragraph 2 refers to _______.         

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Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time. If corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way, children learn all the other things they learn to do without being taught - to talk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle - compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not. If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end all this nonsense of grades, exams, and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know. Let them get on with this job in the way that seems most sensible to them, with our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential, something they will need to get on in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.  

Question: What does the author think teachers do which they should not do?         

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Ranked as the number one beverage consumed worldwide, tea takes the lead over coffee in both popularity and production with more than 5 million metric tons of tea produced annually. Although much of this tea is consumed in Asian, European and African countries, the United States drinks its fair share. According to estimates by the Tea Council of the United States, tea is enjoyed by no less than half of the U.S. population on any given day. Black tea or green tea - iced, spiced, or instant - tea drinking has spurred a billion-dollar business with major tea producers in Africa and South America and throughout Asia.

Tea is made from the leaves of an evergreen plant, Camellia sinensis, which grows tall and lush in tropical regions. On tea plantation, the plant is kept trimmed to approximately four feet high and as new buds called flush appear, they are plucked off by hand. Even in today’s world of modern agricultural machinery, hand harvesting continues to be the preferred method. Ideally, only the top two leaves and a bud should be picked. This new growth produces the highest quality tea.

After being harvested, tea leaves are laid out on long drying racks, called withering racks, for 18 to 20 hours. During this process, the tea softens and becomes limp. Next, depending on the type of tea being produced, the leaves may be crushed or chopped to release flavor, and then fermented under controlled conditions of heat and humidity. For green tea, the whole leaves are often steamed to retain their green color, and the fermentation process is skipped. Producing black teas requires fermentation during which the tea leaves begin to darken. After fermentation, black tea is dried in vats to produce its rich brown or black color.

No one knows when or how tea became popular, but legend has it that tea as a beverage, was discovered in 2737 B.C. by Emperor Shen Nung of China when leaves from a Camellia dropped into his drinking water as it was boiling over a fire. As the story goes, Emperor Shen Nung drank the resulting liquid and proclaimed the drink to be most nourishing and refreshing. Though this account cannot be documented, it is thought that tea drinking probably originated in China and spread to other parts of Asia, then to Europe, and ultimately to America colonies around 1650.

With about half the caffeine content as coffee, tea is often chosen by those who want to reduce, but not necessarily eliminate their caffeine intake. Some people find that tea is less acidic than coffee and therefore easier on the stomach. Others have become interested in tea drinking since the National Cancer Institute published its findings on the antioxidant properties of tea. But whether tea is enjoyed for its perceived health benefits, its flavor, or as a social drink, teacups continue to be filled daily with the world’s most popular beverage.

Question 42: According to the passage, which may be the reason why someone would choose to drink tea instead of coffee?         

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Ambient divers are, unlike divers who go underwater in submersible vehicles of pressure resistant suits, exposed to the pressure and temperature of the surrounding ambient water. Of all types of diving, the oldest and simplest is free diving. Free divers may use no equipment at all, but most use a face mask, foot fins, and a snorkel. Under the surface, free divers must hold their breath. Most free divers can only descend 30 to 40 feet, but some skilled divers can go as deep as 100 feet.

Scuba diving provides greater range than free diving. The word scuba stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Scuba divers wear metal tanks with compressed air or other breathing gases. When using open-circuit equipment, a scuba diver simply breathes air form the tank through a hose and releases the exhaled air into the water. A closed-circuit breathing device, also called a rebreather, filters out carbon dioxide and other harmful gases and automatically adds oxygen. This enables the diver to breathe the same air over and over. In surface-supplied diving, divers wear helmets and waterproof canvas suits. Today, sophiticated plastic helmets have replaced the heavy copper helmets used in the past. These divers get their air from a hose connected to compressors on a boat. Surface-supplied divers can go deeper than any other type of ambient diver.  

 Question: When using closed-circuit devices, divers_______.          

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 Esperanto is what is called a planned, or artificial language. It was created more than a century ago by Polish eye doctor Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof. Zamenhof believed that a common language would help to alleviate some of the misunderstandings among cultures.

 In Zamenhof’s first attempt at a universal language, he tried to create a language that was as uncomplicated as possible. This first language included words such as ab, ac, eb, be and ce. This did not result in a workable language in that these monosyllabic, though short, were not easy to understand or to retain.

 Next, Zamenhof tried a different way of constructing a simplified language. He made the words in his language sound like words that people already knew, but he simplified the grammar tremendously. One example of how he simplified the language can be seen in the suffixes: all nouns in this language end in -o, as in the noun amiko, which means “friend”, and all adjectives end in -a, as in the adjective bela, which means “pretty". Another example of the simplified language can be seen in the prefix mal-, which makes a word opposite in meaning, the word malamiko therefore means “enemy”, and the word malbela therefore means “ugly” in Zamenhof’s language.

 In 1887, Zamenhof wrote a description of this language and published it. He used a pen name, Dr. Esperanto, when signing the book. He selected the name Esperanto because this word means “a person who hopes” in his language. Esperanto clubs began popping up throughout Europe, and by 1950, Esperanto had spread from Europe to America and Asia.

 In 1905, the First World Congress of Esperanto took place in France, with approximately 700 attendees from 20 different countries. Congresses were held annually for nine years, and 4,000 attendees were registered for the Tenth World Esperanto Congress scheduled for 1914, when World War I erupted and forced its cancellation.

 Esperanto has had its ups and downs in the period since World War I. Today, years after it was introduced, it is estimated that perhaps a quarter of a million people are fluent in it. This may seem like a large number, but it is really quite small when compared with the billion English speakers and billion Mandarin Chinese speakers in today’s world. Current advocates would like to see its use grow considerably and are taking steps to try to make this happen.

Question: The passage would most likely be assigned reading in a course on ________.         

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In the primary school, a child is in a comparatively simple setting and most of the time forms and relationships with one familiar teacher. On entering secondary school, a new world opens up and frequently it is a much more difficult world. The pupil soon learns to be less free in the way he speaks to teachers and even to his fellow pupils. He begins to lose radually the free and easy ways of the primary school, for he senses the need for a more cautious approach in the secondary school where there are older pupils. Secondary staff and pupils suffer from the pressures of academic work and seem to have less time to stop and talk. Teachers with specialist roles may see hundreds of children in a week, and a pupil may be able to form relationships with very few of the staff. He has to decide which adults are approachable; good schools will make clear to every young person from the first year what guidance and personal help is available - but whether the reality of life in the institution actually encourages requests for help is another matter. Adults often forget what a confusing picture school can offer to a child. He sees a great deal of movement, a great number of people - often rather frightening-looking people - and realizes that an increasing number of choices and decisions have to be made. As he progresses through the school the confusion may become less but the choices and decisions required will increase. The school will rightly expect the pupil to take the first steps to obtain the help he needs, for this is the pattern of adult of life for which he has to be prepared but all the time the opportunities for personal and group advice must be presented in a way which makes them easy to understand and within easy reach of pupils. 

Question: According to the passage, one of the problems for pupils entering secondary school is that ...........         

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It takes a long time to raise a family of owlets, so the great horned owl begins early in the year. In January and February, or as late as March in the North, the male calls to the female with a resonant hoot. The female is larger than the male. She sometimes reaches a body length of twenty-two to twenty-four inches, with a wingspread up to fifty inches. To impress her, the male does a strange courtship dance. He bobs. He bows. He ruffles his feathers and hops around with an important air. He flutters from limb to limb and makes flying sorties into the air. Sometimes he returns with an offering of food. They share the repast, after which she joins the dance, hopping and bobbing about as though keeping time to the beat of an inner drum.

Owls are poor home builders. They prefer to nest in a large hollow in a tree or even to occupy the deserted nest of a hawk or crow. These structures are large and rough, built of sticks and bark and lined with leaves and feathers. Sometimes owls nest on a rocky ledge, or even on the bare ground. even to occupy the deserted nest of a hawk or crow. These structures are large and rough, built of sticks and bark and lined with leaves and feathers. Sometimes owls nest on a rocky ledge, or even on the bare ground. The mother lays two or three round, dull white eggs. Then she stoically settles herself on the nest and spreads her feather skirts about her to protect her precious charges from snow and cold.

It is five weeks before the first downy white owlet pecks its way out of the shell. As the young birds feather out, they look like wise old men with their wide eyes and quizzical expressions. They clamor for food and keep the parents busy supplying mice, squirrels, rabbits, crayfish, and beetles. Later in the season baby crows are taken. Migrating songsters, waterfowl, and game birds all fall prey to the hungry family. It is nearly ten weeks before fledglings leave the nest to search for their own food. The parent birds weary of family life by November and drive the young owls away to establish hunting ranges of their own.

Question: It can be inferred from the passage that the courtship of great horned owls         

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Dodder is an unusual and unwanted plant that attacks other plants. Except for its flowers, the plant looks like spaghetti noodles. Its almost leafless, thread–like stems hang down atop other plants that dodder needs to stay alive. Dodder does not produce its own food. Instead, it steals it from other plants. It feeds by sucking juices from the plant it is wrapped around, often making its host very weak or even killing it. Dodder can find other plants by their smell. When a dodder seedling starts growing, it follows the scent of plants it prefers, like tomato plants, potato plants, or other farm crops. Unlike most plants that usually grow in the direction of light or warmth, a dodder plant will grow in the direction of, for example, tomato odor––if a tomato happens to be growing nearby. However, a young dodder plant must find a host plant quickly. If it cannot catch a whiff of a potential host within a few days, it will dry up and disappear—even if there is plenty of water around. Once it finds a host, the young dodder plant will attach itself to it and start growing faster. At that point, the dodder plant will drop its root. Dodder is thus a difficult weed to manage and a real headache for farmers. When it does get out of hand, dodder can greatly reduce a farmer’s harvest or even destroy crops completely. Before sowing their produce, farmers in warm parts of the world often check to make sure no unwanted dodder seeds have intermingled with their crop seeds. This is a good way to stop dodder plants from sneaking their way into a crop field.  

Question: What will happen if a dodder plant starts growing where there are no other plants around?         

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Under certain circumstances, the human body must cope with gases at greater-than-normal atmospheric pressure. For example, gas pressures increase rapidly during a drive made with scuba gear because the breathing equipment allows divers to stay underwater longer and dive deeper. The pressure exerted on the human body increases by 1 atmosphere for every 10 meters of depth on seater, so thay at 39 meters in seawater a diver is exposed to pressure of about 4 atmosphere. The pressure of the gases being breathed must equal the external pressure applied to the body, otherwise breathing is very difficult. Therefore all of the gases in the air breathed by a scuba diver at 40 meter are present at five times their usual pressure. Nitrogen, which composes 80 percent of the air we breathe, usually causes a balmy feeling of well-being at this pressure. At a depth of 5 atmosphere, nitrogen causes symptoms resembling alcohol intoxication, known as nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis apparently results from a direct effect on the brain of the large amounts of nitrogen dissolved in the blood. Deep dives are less dangerous if helium is substituted for nitrogen, because under these pressures helium does not exert a similar narcotic effect. As a scuba diver descends, the pressure of nitrogen on the lungs increases. Nitrogen then diffuses from the lungs to the blood, and from the blood to body tissues. The reverse occurs when the diver surfaces, the nitrogen pressure in the lungs falls and the nitrogen diffuses from the tissues into the blood, and from the blood into the lungs. If the return to the surface is too rapid, nitrogen in the tissues and blood cannot diffuse out rapidly enough and nitrogen bubbles are formed. They can cause severe pains, particularly around the joints. Another complication may result if the breath is held during ascent. During ascent from a depth of 10 meters, the volume of air in the lungs will double because the air pressure at the surface is only half of what it was at 10 meters. This change in volume may cause the lungs to distend ang even rupture. This the rise of the exhaled air bubbles, and must exhale during ascent.

Question: What happens to nitrogen in body tissues if a diver ascends too quickly?         

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Most forms of property are concrete and tangible, such as houses, cars, furniture or anything else that is included in one’s possessions. Other forms of property can be intangible and copyright deals with intangible forms of property. Copyright is a legal protection extended to authors of creative works, for example, books, magazine articles, maps, films, plays, television shows, software, paintings, photographs, music, choreography in dance and all other forms of intellectual or artistic property. Although the purpose of artistic property is usually public use and enjoyment, copyright establishes the ownership of the creator. When a person buys a copyrighted magazine, it belongs to this individual as a tangible object. However, the authors of the magazine articles own the research and the writing that went into creating the articles. The right to make and sell or give away copies of books or articles belongs to the authors, publishers, or other individuals or organizations that hold the copyright. To copy an entire book or a part of it, permission must be received from the copyright owner, who will most likely expect to be paid. Copyright law distinguishes between different types of intellectual property. Music may be played by anyone after it is published. However, if it is performed for profit, the performers need to pay a fee, called a royalty. A similar principle applies to performances of songs and plays. On the other hand, names, ideas, and book titles are accepted. Ideas do not become copyrighted property until they are published in a book, a painting or a musical work. Almost all artistic work created before the 20th century is not copyrighted because it was created before the copyright law was passed. The two common ways of infringing upon the copyright are plagiarism and piracy. Plagiarizing the work of another person means passing it off as one’s own. The word plagiarism is derived from the Latin plagiarus, which means “abductor”. Piracy may be an act of one person, but, in many cases, it is a joint effort of several people who reproduce copyrighted material and sell it for profit without paying royalties to the creator. Technological innovations have made piracy easy and anyone can duplicate a motion picture on videotape, a computer program, or a book. Video cassette recorders can be used by practically anyone to copy movies and television programs, and copying software has become almost as easy as copying a book. Large companies zealously monitor their copyrights for slogans, advertisements, and brand names, protected by a trademark.

Question: What does the passage mainly discuss?         

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Many of the most damaging and life-threaling 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.  

Question: The word “they” refers to ________.           

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For more than six million American children, coming home after school means coming back to an empty house. Some deal with the situation by watching TV. Some may hide. But all of them have something in common. They spend part of each day alone. They are called “latchkey children”. They are children who look after themselves while their parents work. And their bad condition has become a subject of concern. Lynette Long was one principal of an elementary school. She said, “We had a school rule against wearing jewelry. A lot of kids had chains around their necks with keys attached. I was constantly telling them to put the keys inside shirts. There were so many keys, it never came to my mind what they meant. Slowly, she learned that they were house keys. She and her husband began talking to the children who had keys. They learned of the effect working couples and single parents were having on their children. Fear was the biggest problem faced by children at home alone. One in three latchkey children the Longs talked to reported being frightened. Many had nightmares and were worried about their own safety. The most common way latchkey children deal with their fears is by hiding. They made hide in a shower stall, under a bed or in a closet. The second is TV. They often turn the volume up. It’s hard to get statistics on latchkey children, the Longs have learned. Most parents are slow to admit that they leave their children alone.

Question 25: Lynette Long learned of latchkey children’s problems by _________         

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Quite different from storm surges are the giant sea waves called tsunamis, which derive their name from the Japanese expression for “high water in a harbor”. These waves are also referred to by the general public as tidal waves, although they have relatively little to do with tides. Scientists often referred to them as seismic sea waves, far more appropriate in that they do result from undersea seismic activity. Tsunamis are caused when the sea bottom suddenly moves, during an underwater earthquake or volcano for example, and the water above the moving earth is suddenly displaced. This sudden shift of water sets off a series of waves. These waves can travel great distances at speeds close to 700 kilometers per hour. In the open ocean, tsunamis have little noticeable amplitude, often no more than one or two meters. It is when they hit the shallow waters near the coast that they increase in height, possibly up to 40 meters. Tsunamis often occur in the Pacific because the Pacific is an area of heavy seismic activity. Two areas of the Pacific well accustomed to the threat of tsunamis are Japan and Hawaii. Because the seismic activity that causes tsunamis in Japan often occurs on the ocean bottom quite close to the islands, the tsunamis that hit Japan often come with little warning and can, therefore, prove disastrous. Most of the tsunamis that hit the Hawaiian Islands, however, originate thousands of miles away near the coast of Alaska, so these tsunamis have a much greater distance to travel and the inhabitants of Hawaii generally have time for warning of their imminent arrival. Tsunamis are certainly not limited to Japan and Hawaii. In 1755, Europe experienced a calamitous tsunami, when movement along the fault lines near the Azores caused a massive tsunami to sweep onto the Portuguese coast and flood the heavily populated area around Lisbon. The greatest tsunami on record occurred on the other side of the world in 1883 when the Krakatoa volcano underwent a massive explosion, sending waves more than 30 meters high onto nearby Indonesian islands; the tsunami from this volcano actually traveled around the world and was witnessed as far away as the English Channel.  

Question 8: The word “displaced” in line 6 is closest in meaning to _________ .         

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All mammals feed their young. Beluga whale mothers, for example, nurse their calves for some twenty months, until they are about to give birth again and their young are able to find their own food. The behavior of feeding of the young is built into the reproductive system. It is a nonelective part of parental care and the defining feature of a mammal, the most important thing that mammals - whether marsupials, platypuses, spiny anteaters, or placental mammals - have in common.

For animals other than mammals, then, feeding is not intrinsic to parental care. Animals add it to their reproductive strategies to give them an edge in their lifelong quest for descendants. The most vulnerable moment in any animal's life is when it first finds itself completely on its own, when it must forage and fend for itself. Feeding postpones that moment until a young animal has grown to such a size that it is better able to cope. Young that are fed by their parents become nutritionally independent at a much greater fraction of their full adult size. And in the meantime those young are shielded against the vagaries of fluctuating of difficult-to-find supplies. Once a species does take the step of feeding its young, the young become totally dependent on the extra effort. If both parents are removed, the young generally do not survive.

Question: According to the passage, how do some insects make sure their young have food?         

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 Choosing a career may be one of the hardest jobs you ever have, and it must be done with care. View a career as an opportunity to do something you love, not simply as a way to earn a living. Investing the time and effort to thoroughly explore your options can mean the difference between finding a stimulating and rewarding career and move from job to unsatisfying job in an attempt to find the right one. Work influences virtually every aspect of your life, from your choice of friends to where you live. Here are just a few of the factors to consider.

 Deciding what matters most to you is essential to making the right decision. You may want to begin by assessing your likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. Think about the classes, hobbies, and surroundings that you find most appealing. Ask yourself questions, such as "Would you like to travel? Do you want to work with children? Are you more suited to solitary or cooperative work?" There are no right or wrong answers; only you know what is important to you. Determine which job features you require, which ones you would prefer, and which ones you cannot accept. Then rank them in order of importance to you.

 The setting of the job is one factor to take into account. You may not want to sit at a desk all day. If not, there are diversity occupation - building inspector, supervisor, real estate agent - that involve a great deal of time away from the office. Geographical location may be a concern, and employment in some fields is concentrated in certain regions. Advertising job can generally be found only in large cities. On the other hand, many industries such as hospitality, law education, and retail sales are found in all regions of the country.

 If a high salary is important to you, do not judge a career by its starting wages. Many jobs, such as insurance sales, offers relatively low starting salaries; however, pay substantially increases along with your experience, additional training, promotions and commission.

 Don’t rule out any occupation without learning more about it. Some industries evoke positive or negative associations. The traveling life of a flight attendant appears glamorous, while that of a plumber does not. Remember that many jobs are not what they appear to be at first, and may have merits or demerits that are less obvious. Flight attendants must work long, grueling hours without sleeps, whereas plumbers can be as highly paid as some doctors. Another point to consider is that as you get mature, you will likely to develop new interests and skills that may point the way to new opportunities. The choice you make today need not be your final one.

Question 30: The word "assessing” in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by _______.         

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Many of the most damaging and life-threaling 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.  

Question: With which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree?         

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Are organically grown foods the best choices? The advantage claimed for such foods over conventionally grown and marketed food products are now being debated. Advocates of organic foods - a term whose meaning varies greatly - frequently proclaim that such products are safer and more nutritious than others. The growing interest of consumers in the safety and nutritional quality of the typical North American diet is a welcome development. However, much of this interest has been sparked by sweeping claims that the food supply is unsafe or inadequate in meeting nutritional evidence, the preponderance of written material advancing. As a result, claims that eating a diet consisting of entirely organically grown foods prevents or cures diseases provides other benefits to health have become widely publicized and form the basis for folklore. Almost daily, the public is besieged by claims for “no - aging” diets, new vitamins, and other wonder foods. There are numerous unsubstantiated reports that natural to unfertilized eggs, that untreated grains are better than fumigated grains, and the like. One thing that most organically grown food products seem to have in common is that they cost more than conventionally grown foods. But in many cases, consumers misled if they believe organic foods can maintain health and provide better nutritional quality than conventionally grown foods. So there is real cause for concern if consumers particularly those with limited incomes, distrust the regular food supply and buy only expensive organic foods instead.

Question 50: What is the author’s attitude toward the claims made by advocates of health foods?         

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He wanted to know _______.