Bài tập trắc nghiệm 60 phút Đoạn văn đọc hiểu - Tiếng Anh 12 - Đề số 25

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Most languages have several levels of vocabulary that may be used by the same speakers. In English, at least three have been identified and described.

Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries. Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal speech or writing, but not considered acceptable for more formal situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language. Slang, however, refers to words and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as appropriate formal usage by the majority.

Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Both colloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing. Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiar objects and events.

It has been pointed out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majority population. Finally, it is worth noting that the terms ''standard", "colloquial”, and "slang” exist only as abstract levels for scholars who study language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types of expressions.

Question: The word "obscurity" could best be replaced by _______.  

Question 41: The word distinguishing as it is used in this selection means ________.         

As viewed from space, Earth’s distinguishing characteristics are its blue waters and white clouds. Enveloped by an ocean of air consisting of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, the planet is the only one in our solar system known to harbor life. Circling the Sun at an average distance of 149 million kilometers ( 93 million miles), Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest planet in the solar system. Our planet’s rapid spin and molten nickel-iron core give rise to an extensive magnetic field which, coupled the atmosphere, shields us from nearly all of the harmful radiation coming from the Sun and other stars. Earth’s atmosphere protects us from meteors as well, most of which burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere before they can strike the surface. The planet active geological processes have left no evidence of the ancient pelting it almost certainly received soon after it formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The Earth has a single natural satellite–the moon. 

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The penny press, which emerged in the United States during the 1830's, was a powerful agent of mass communication. These newspapers were little dailies, generally four pages in length, written for the mass taste. They differed from the staid, formal presentation of the conservative press, with its emphasis on political and literary topics. The new papers were brief and cheap, emphasizing sensational reports of police courts and juicy scandals as well as human interest stories. Twentieth-century journalism was already foreshadowed in the penny press of the 1830's. The New York Sun, founded in 1833, was the first successful penny paper, and it was followed two years later by the New York Herald, published by James Gordon Bennett. Not long after, Horace Greeley issued the New York Tribune, which was destined to become the most influential paper in America. Greeley gave space to the issues that deeply touched the American people before the Civil War-abolitionism, temperance, free homesteads, Utopian cooperative settlements, and the problems of labor. The weekly edition of the Tribune, with 100,000 subscribers, had a remarkable influence in rural areas, especially in Western communities. Americans were reputed to be the most avid readers of periodicals in the world. An English observer enviously calculated that, in 1829, the number of newspapers circulated in Great Britain was enough to reach only one out of every thirty-six inhabitants weekly; Pennsylvania in that same year had a newspaper circulation which reached one out of every four inhabitants weekly. Statistics seemed to justify the common belief that Americans were devoted to periodicals. Newspapers in the United States increased from 1,200 in 1833 to 3,000 by the early 1860's, on the eve of the Civil War. This far exceeded the number and circulation of newspapers in England and France.

Question 41: The word “avid” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _______.         

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Broad-tailed hummingbirds often nest in quaking, slender deciduous trees with smooth, gray-green bark found in the Colorado Rockies of the Western United States. After flying some 2,000 kilometres north from where they have wintered in Mexico, the hummingbirds need six weeks to build a nest, incubate their eggs, and raise the chicks. A second nest is feasible only if the first fails early in the season. Quality, not quantity, is what counts in hummingbird reproduction. A nest on the lowest intact branch of an aspen will give a hummingbird a good view, a clear flight patch, and protection for her young. Male hummingbirds claim feeding territories in open meadows where, from late May through June, they mate with females coming to feed but take no part in nesting. Thus when the hen is away to feed, the nest is unguarded. While the smooth bark of the aspen trunk generally offers a poor grip for the claws of a hungry squirrel or weasel, aerial attacks, from a hawk, owl, or gray jay, are more likely. The choice of where to build a nest is based not only on the branch itself but also on what hangs over it. A crooked deformity in the nest branch, a second, unusually close branch overhead, or proximity to part of a trunk bowed by a past ice storm are features that provide shelter and make for an attractive nest site. Scarcely larger than a halved golf ball, the nest is painstaking constructed of spider webs and plant down, decorated and camouflaged outside with paper-like bits of aspen bark held together with more strands of spider silk. By early June it will hold two pea-sized eggs, which each weigh one-seventh of the mother's weight, and in sixteen to nineteen days, two chicks.

Question: What aspect of broad-tailed hummingbird behaviour does the passage mainly discuss?         

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The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City. For a long time, it has been a newspaper of record in the United State and one of the world’s great newspapers. Its strength is in its editorial excellence; it has never been the largest newspaper in terms of circulation. The Times was established in 1851 as a penny paper whose editors wanted to report the news in a restrained and objective fashion. It enjoyed early success as its editors set a pattern for the future by appealing to a cultured, intellectual readership instead of a mass audience. However, in the late nineteenth century, it came into competition with more popular, colorful, if not lurid, newspapers in New York City. Their publishers ran sensational stories, not because they were true, but because they sold newspapers. Despite price increases, the time was losing £1,000 a week when Adolph Simon Ochs bought it in 1896. Ochs built the Times into an internationally respected daily. He hired Carr Van Anda as editor. Van Anda placed greater stress than ever on full reporting of the news of the day, and his reporters maintained and emphasized existing good coverage of international news. The management of the paper decided to eliminate fiction from the paper, added a Sunday magazine section, and reduced the paper’s price back to a penny. In April 1912, the paper took many risks to report every aspect of the sinking of the Titanic. This greatly enhanced its prestige, and in its coverage of two world wars, the Times continued to enhance its reputation for excellence in world news. In 1971, the Times was given a copy of the so-called “Pentagon Papers” a secret government study of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. When it published the report, it became involved in several lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the publication was protected by the freedom-of-the-press clause in the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution. Later in the 1970s, the paper, under Adolph Ochs’s grandson, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, introduced sweeping changes in the organization of the newspaper and its staff and brought out a national edition transmitted by satellite to regional printing plants.

Question: According to John Dewey, the interplay between a person’s previous knowledge and the present situation is_____.  

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There are a number of natural disasters that can strike across the globe. Two that are frequently linked to one another are earthquakes and tsunamis. Both of them can cause a great amount of devastation when they hit. However, tsunamis are the direct result of earthquakes and cannot happen without them. The Earth has three main parts. They are the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is the outer layer of the Earth. It is not a single piece of land. Instead, it is comprised of a number of plates. There are a few enormous plates and many smaller ones. These plates essentially rest upon the mantle, which is fluid. As a result, the plates are in constant – yet slow – motion. The plates may move away from or toward other plates. In some cases, they collide violently with the plates adjoining them. The movement of the plates causes tension in the rock. Over a long time, this tension may build up. When it is released, an earthquake happens.

Tens of thousands of earthquakes happen every year. The vast majority are so small that only scientific instruments can perceive them. Others are powerful enough that people can feel them, yet they cause little harm or damage. More powerful earthquakes, however, can cause buildings, bridges, and other structures to collapse. They may additionally injure and skill thousands of people and might even cause the land to change it appearance.

Since most of the Earth’s surface is water, numerous earthquakes happen beneath the planet’s oceans. Underwater earthquakes cause the seafloor to move. This results in the displacement of water in the ocean. When this occurs, a tsunami may form. This is a wave that forms on the surface and moves in all directions from the place where the earthquake happened. A tsunami moves extremely quickly and can travel thousands of kilometres. As it approaches land, the water near the coast gets sucked out to sea. This causes the tsunamis to increase in height. Minutes later, the tsunami arrives. A large tsunami – one more than ten meters in height – can travel far inland. As it does that, it can flood the land, destroy human settlements, and kill large numbers of people.

 Question 48: Which of the following is true regarding the crust?  

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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 39: The word “documented” in paragraph 4 could be best replace by which of following word?         

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Question: What is the main subject of the passage?         

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 A number of factors related to the voice reveal the personality of the speaker. The first is the broad area of communication, which includes imparting information by use of language, communicating with a group or an individual and specialized communication through performance. A person conveys thoughts and ideas through choice of words, by a tone of voice that is pleasant or unpleasant, gentle or harsh, by the rhythm that is inherent within the language itself, and by speech rhythms that are flowing and regular or uneven and hesitant, and finally, by the pitch and melody of the utterance. When speaking before a group, a person's tone may indicate uncertainty or fright, confidence or calm. At interpersonal levels, the tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen, or may belie them. Here the participant’s tone can consciously or unconsciously reflect intuitive sympathy or antipathy, lack of concern or interest, fatigue, anxiety, enthusiasm or excitement, all of which are usually discernible by the acute listener. Public performance is a manner of communication that is highly specialized with its own techniques for obtaining effects by voice and/ or gesture. The motivation derived from the text, and in the case of singing, the music, in combination with the performer's skills, personality, and ability to create empathy will determine the success of artistic, political, or pedagogic communication. Second, the voice gives psychological clues to a person's self-image, perception of others, and emotional health. Self-image can be indicated by a tone of voice that is confident, pretentious, shy, aggressive, outgoing, or exuberant, to name only a few personality traits. Also the sound may give a clue to the facade or mask of that person, for example, a shy person hiding behind an overconfident front. How a speaker perceives the listener's receptiveness, interest, or sympathy in any given conversation can drastically alter the tone of presentation, by encouraging or discouraging the speaker. Emotional health is evidenced in the voice by free and melodic sounds of the happy, by constricted and harsh sound of the angry, and by dull and lethargic qualities of the depressed.  

Question: According to the passage, an exuberant tone of voice may be an indication of a person's______ 

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Until recently, most American entrepreneurs were men. Discrimination against women in business, the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1990s. As Carolyn Doppelt Gray, an official of the Small Business Administration, has noted, "The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s turned out to be the decade of the woman entrepreneur". What are some of the factors behind this trend? For one thing, as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporateworld, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excluded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had noted, "In the 1970s women believed if they got an MBA and worked hard they could become chairman of the board. Now they've found out that isn't going to happen, so they go out on their own". In the past, most women entrepreneurs worked in "women's" fields: cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing. Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $22-million-a-year computer software business. It was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering. When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs on their newspaper carriers and her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash. After she succeeded with the newspaper software system, she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs. When these were marketed and sold, ASK began to grow. It now has 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock. Of course, many women who start their own businesses fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money; the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small. But the situation is changing; there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.  

Question 42: The word “excluded“ in the pasage is closest meaning to________.         

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American humor and American popular heroes were born together. The first popular heroes of the new nation were comic heroes, and the first popular humor of the new nation was the antics of its hero-clowns.

The heroic and the comic were combined in novel American proportions in popular literature. The heroic themes are obvious enough and not much different from those in the legends of other times and places: Achilles, Beowulf, Siegfried, Roland, and King Arthur. The American Davy Crockett legends repeat the familiar pattern of the old world heroic story: the pre-eminence of a mighty hero whose fame in myth has a tenuous basis in fact; the remarkable birth and precocious strength of the hero; single combats in which he distinguished himself against antagonists, both man and beast; vows and boasts; pride of the hero in his weapons, his dog, and his woman.

Davy Crockett conquered man and beast with a swaggering nonchalance. He overcame animals by force of body and will. He killed four wolves at the age of six. He hugged a bear to death; he killed a rattlesnake with his teeth. He mastered the forces of nature. Crockett's most famous natural exploit was saving the earth on the coldest day in history. First, he climbed a mountain to determine the trouble. Then he rescued all creation by squeezing bear-grease on the earth's frozen axis and over the sun's icy face. He whistled, "Push along, keep moving!" The earth gave a grunt and began moving.

Neither the fearlessness nor the bold huntsman's prowess was peculiarly American. Far more distinctive was the comic quality, all heroes are heroic; few are also clowns. What made the American popular hero heroic also made him comic. "May be", said Crockett, "you'll laugh at me and not at my book". The ambiguity of American life and the vagueness which laid the continent open to adventure, which made the land a rich storehouse of the unexpected, which kept vocabulary ungoverned and the language fluid----this same ambiguity suffused both the Crockett legends were never quite certain whether to laugh or to applaud, or whether what they saw and heard was wonderful, awful or ridiculous.

Question 44: Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a heroic theme?         

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 Perhaps it was his own lack of adequate schooling that inspired Horace Mann to work so hard for the important reforms in education that he accomplished. While he was still a boy, his father and older brother died, and he became responsible for supporting his family. Like most of the children in his town, he attended school only two or three months a year. Later, with the help of several teachers, he was able to study law and became a member of the Massachusetts bar, but he never forgot those early struggles.

 While serving in Massachusetts legislature, he signed a historic education bill that set up a state board of education. Without regret, he gave up his successful legal practice and political career to become the first secretary of the board. There he exercised an enormous influence during the critical period of reconstruction that brought into existence the American graded elementary school as substitute for the older distinct school system. Under his leadership, the curriculum was restructured, the school year was increased to a minimum of six months, and mandatory schooling was extended to age sixteen. Other important reforms included the establishment of state normal schools for teacher training, institutes for in-service teacher education, and lyceums for adult education. He was also instrument in improving salaries for teachers and creating school libraries.

 Mann’s ideas about school reform were developed and distributed in twelve annual reports to the state of Massachusetts that he wrote during his tenure as secretary of education. Considered quite radical at the time, the Massachusetts reforms later served as a model for the nation. Mann was recognized as the father of public education.

 Question 38: The word “struggles” in paragraph 1 could best be replaced by _______.         

Question 48: The word “ forces” in line 9 could best be replaced by ___________

The White House, the official home of the United States president, was not built in time for George Washington to live in it. It was begun in 1792 and was ready for its first inhabitants. President and Mrs. John Adams, who moved in on November 1, 1800. When the Adamses moved in, the White House was not yet complete, and the Adamses suffered many inconveniences; for example, the main staircase was incomplete, which hindered movement from floor to floor, and the future laundry yard was merely a pool of mud, so wet laundry was hung in the unfinished East Room to dry. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, improved the comfort of the White House in many respects and added new architectural features such as the terraces on the east and west ends. When the British forces burned the White House on August 24, 1814, President Madison was forced to leave. All the remained after the fire was the exterior walls, the interior was completely destroyed. It was not until December of 1817 that the following president, James Monroe, was able to move into a rebuilt residence. Since then, the White House has continued to be modified but has been continuously occupied by each succeeding U.S president. 

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Most of us know a little about how babies learn to talk. From the time infants are born, they hear language because their parents talk to them all the time. Between the ages of seven and ten months, most infants begin to make sounds. They repeat the same sounds over and over again. This is called babbling. When babies babble, they are practicing their language. What happens, though, to children who cannot hear? How do deaf children learn to communicate? Recently, doctors have learned that deaf babies babble with their hands. Laura Ann Petitto, a psychologist, observed three hearing infants with English-speaking parents and two deaf infants with deaf parents using American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate. Dr. Petitto studied the babies three times: at 10, 12, and 14 months. During this time, children really begin to develop their language skills. After watching and videotaping the children for several hundred hours, the psychologist and her assistants made many important observations. For example, they saw that the hearing children made varied motions with their hands. However, there appeared to be no pattern to these motions. The deaf babies also made different movements with their hands, but these movements were more consistent and deliberate. The deaf babies seemed to make the same hand movements over and over again. During the four-month period, the deaf babies' hand motions started to resemble some basic hand-shapes used in ASL. The children also seemed to prefer certain hand-shapes. Hearing infants start first with simple syllable babbling, then put more syllables together to sound like real sentences and questions. Apparently, deaf babies follow this same pattern, too. First, they repeat simple hand-shapes, Next, they form some simple hand signs and use these movements together to resemble ASL sentences. Linguists believe that our ability for language is innate. In other words, humans are born with the capacity for language: It does not matter if we are physically able to speak or not. Language can be expressed in different ways-for instance, by speech or by sign. Dr. Petitto believes this theory and wants to prove it. She plans to study hearing children who have one deaf parent and one hearing parent. She wants to see what happens when babies have the opportunity to learn both sign language and speech. Does the human brain prefer speech? Some of these studies of hearing babies who have one deaf parent and one hearing parent show that the babies babble equally with their hands and their voices. They also produce their first words, both spoken and signed, at about the same time. More studies in the future may prove that the sign system of the deaf is the physical equivalent of speech.

Question 31: It is stated in paragraph 3 that both the deaf and the hearing children made movements with their hands, but _______.         

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Smallpox was the first widespread disease to be eliminated by human intervention. Known as a highly contagious viral disease, it broke out in Europe, causing the deaths of millions of people until the vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner around 1800. In many nations, it was a terror, a fatal disease until very recently. Its victims suffer high fever, vomiting and painful, itchy, pustules that left scars. In villages and cities all over the world, people were worried about suffering smallpox.In May, 1966, the World Health Organization (WHO), an agency of the United Nations was authorized to initiate a global campaign to eradicate smallpox. The goal was to eliminate the disease in one decade. At the time, the disease posed a serious threat to people in more than thirty nations. Because similar projects for malaria and yellow fever had failed, few believed that smallpox could actually be eradicated but eleven years after the initial organization of the campaign, no cases were reported in the field.The strategy was not only to provide mass vaccinations but also to isolate patients with active smallpox in order to contain the spread of the disease and to break the chain of human transmission. Rewards for reporting smallpox assisted in motivating the public to aid health workers. One by one, each small-pox victim was sought out, removed from contact with others and treated. At the same time, the entire village where the victim had lived was vaccinated.By April of 1978 WHO officials announced that they had isolated the last known case of the disease but health workers continued to search for new cases for additional years to be completely sure. In May, 1980, a formal statement was made to the global community. Today smallpox is no longer a threat to humanity. Routine vaccinations have been stopped worldwide.  

 Question 45: The global community considered the smallpox ___________.         

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Who talk more – men or women? Most people believe that women talk more. However, linguist Deborah Tannen, who has studied the communication style of men and women , says that this is a stereotype . According to Tannen, women are more verbal – talk more – in private situations , where they use conversation as the “glue” to hold relationships together. But, she says, men talk more in public situations, where they use conversation to exchange information and gain status. Tannen points out that we can see these differences even in children. Little girls often play with one “best friend”, their play includes a lot of conversation. Little boys often play games in groups; their play usually involves more doing than talking. In school, girls are often better at verbal skills, boys are often better at mathematics.         

A recent study at Emory University helps to shed light on the roots of this difference. Researchers studied conversation between children age 3-6 and their parents. They found evidence that parents talk very differently to their son than they do to their daughters. The startling conclusion was that parents use more language with their girls. Specifically, when parents talk with their daughters , they use more descriptive language and more details. There is also far more talk about emotions, especially sadness, with daughters than with sons.  

  Question: Which word could best replace "startling" ?         

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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 37: What cannot be inferred from the passage?         

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Most languages have several levels of vocabulary that may be used by the same speakers. In English, at least three have been identified and described.

Standard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, and accepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situation regardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and expressions are well defined and listed in standard dictionaries. Colloquialisms, on the other hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost all speakers of a language and used in informal speech or writing, but not considered acceptable for more formal situations. Almost all idiomatic expressions are colloquial language. Slang, however, refers to words and expressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted as appropriate formal usage by the majority.

Colloquial expressions and even slang may be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Both colloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing. Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also passes into standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularity followed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts certain slang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories. Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiar objects and events.

It has been pointed out by a number of linguists that three cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body of slang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects and situations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large number of subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majority population. Finally, it is worth noting that the terms ''standard", "colloquial”, and "slang” exist only as abstract levels for scholars who study language. Only a tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they are using colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English will, during appropriate situations, select and use all three types of expressions.

Question: Where in the passage does the author explain where colloquial language and slang are most commonly used?         

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 It is hard to think of a world without gas or electricity. Both are commonly used for lighting and heating today. We now can instantly flick a lighter or strike a match to make a flame. But it was not long ago that there were no such things as matches or lighters. To make fire, it was necessary to strike a piece of iron on flint for sparks to ignite some tinder. If the tinder was damp, or the flint old, you had to borrow some fire from a neighbor. 

 We do not know exactly when or how people first used fire. Perhaps, many ages ago, they found that sticks would burn if they were dropped into some hole where melted lava from a volcano lay boiling. They brought the lighted sticks back to make their fire in a cave. Or, they may have seen trees catch fire through being struck by lightning, and used the trees to start their own fires.

 Gradually people learned they could start a fire without traveling far to find flames. They rubbed two pieces of wood together. This method was used for thousands of years. When people became used to making fires with which to cook food and stay warm at night, they found that certain resins or gums from trees burnt longer and brighter. They melted resins and dipped branches in the liquid to make torches that lit their homes at night. Iron stands in which torches used to be fixed can still be seen in old buildings of Europe.

 There was no lighting in city streets until gas lamps, and then electric lamps were installed. Boys ran about London at night carrying torches of burning material. They were called torch boys, or link boys, and earned a living by guiding visitors to friends’ houses at night.

 For centuries homes were lit by candles until oil was found. Even then, oil lamps were no more effective than a cluster of candles. We read about the splendors and marvels of ancient palaces and castles, but we forget that they must have been gloomy and murky places at night.

Question: The word “gloomy” in the passage is closest in meaning to______                

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

The American type of football was developed in the 19th century from soccer and rugby football. Played by professionals, amateurs, college and high school students, or young children, football in American is one of the most popular sports besides basketball and baseball. It attracts millions of fans each fall and people are very supportive of their favourite teams. The football playing field of today is rectangular in shape and measures 100 yards long and 53.5 yards wide. White lines are painted on the playing field to mark off the distances to the end zone. The games is divided into four quarters, each fifteen minutes long. The first two quarters are known as the first half. There is a rest period between two halves which usually last about fifteen minutes. Each team has eleven players. Each team has offensive players who play when the team has possession of the ball and defensive players who play when the other team has the possession of the ball. Because of the body contact players have during the game, helmets are worn to protect their head and face area, whereas pads are worn to protect the shoulders, arms, and legs. Also, there are officials carrying whistles and flags to make certain that  the rules of the game are followed during the game. The football is made of leather and is brown in colour. It is shaped much like an oval and has white rings near each end of the football. These rings help the players see the ball when it is thrown or someone is running with it. The eight stitches on the top of the football help the  players to grip the ball when throwing or passing. The most famous game of the year is Super Bowl that is played in January or February. It is televised around the world and is watched by millions of people each year.

Question: Why are there white rings on each end of the football?         

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 from 43 to 50:

There are a number of natural disasters that can strike across the globe. Two that are frequently linked to one another are earthquakes and tsunamis. Both of them can cause a great amount of devastation when they hit. However, tsunamis are the direct result of earthquakes and cannot happen without them. The Earth has three main parts. They are the crust, the mantle, and the core. The crust is the outer layer of the Earth. It is not a single piece of land. Instead, it is comprised of a number of plates. There are a few enormous plates and many smaller ones. These plates essentially rest upon the mantle, which is fluid. As a result, the plates are in constant – yet slow – motion. The plates may move away from or toward other plates. In some cases, they collide violently with the plates adjoining them. The movement of the plates causes tension in the rock. Over a long time, this tension may build up. When it is released, an earthquake happens.

Tens of thousands of earthquakes happen every year. The vast majority are so small that only scientific instruments can perceive them. Others are powerful enough that people can feel them, yet they cause little harm or damage. More powerful earthquakes, however, can cause buildings, bridges, and other structures to collapse. They may additionally injure and skill thousands of people and might even cause the land to change it appearance.

Since most of the Earth’s surface is water, numerous earthquakes happen beneath the planet’s oceans. Underwater earthquakes cause the seafloor to move. This results in the displacement of water in the ocean. When this occurs, a tsunami may form. This is a wave that forms on the surface and moves in all directions from the place where the earthquake happened. A tsunami moves extremely quickly and can travel thousands of kilometres. As it approaches land, the water near the coast gets sucked out to sea. This causes the tsunamis to increase in height. Minutes later, the tsunami arrives. A large tsunami – one more than ten meters in height – can travel far inland. As it does that, it can flood the land, destroy human settlements, and kill large numbers of people.

Question 45: What is the passage mainly about?         

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:

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: All of the following are true except ________.         

Question 50: What can be the best title of the reading passage? 

Clara Barton became known as “The Angel of the Battlefield” during the American Civil War. Born in Oxford, Massachusetts in 1821, Clara Barton’s interest in helping soldiers on the battlefield began when she was told army stories from her father. Another event that influenced her decision to help soldiers was an accident her brother had. His injuries were cared for by Barton for 2 years. At the time, she was only 11 years old. Barton began teaching school at the age of 15. She taught for 18 years before she moved to Washington, D.C. in 1854. The civil war broke out 6 years later. Immediately, Barton started war service by helping the soldiers with their needs. At the battle of Bull Run, Clara Barton received permission from the government to take care of the sick and hurt. Barton did this with great empathy and kindness. She acknowledged each soldier as a person. Her endurance and courage on the battlefield were admired by many. When the war ended in 1865, she used 4 years of her life to assist the government in searching for soldiers who were missing during the war. The search for missing soldiers and years of hard work made her feeble physically. In 1869, her doctors recommended a trip to Europe for a rest. While she was on vacation, she became involved with the International Red Cross, an organization set up by the Geneva Convention in 1864. Clara Barton realized that the Red Cross would be a big help to the United States. After she returned to the United States, she worked very hard to create an American Red Cross. She talked to government leaders and let American people know about the Red Cross. In 1881, the National Society of the Red Cross was finally established with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Clara Barton managed its activities for 23 years. Barton never let her age stop her from helping people. At the age of 79, she helped flood victims in Galveston, Texas. Barton finally resigned from the Red Cross in 1904. She was 92 years old and had truly earned her titled “The Angel of the Battlefield”.    

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 from 41 to 50:

Until recently, most American entrepreneurs were men. Discrimination against women in business, the demands of caring for families, and lack of business training had kept the number of women entrepreneurs small. Now, however, businesses owned by women account for more than $40 billion in annual revenues, and this figure is likely to continue rising throughout the 1990s. As Carolyn Doppelt Gray, an official of the Small Business Administration, has noted, "The 1970s was the decade of women entering management, and the 1980s turned out to be the decade of the woman entrepreneur". What are some of the factors behind this trend? For one thing, as more women earn advanced degrees in business and enter the corporateworld, they are finding obstacles. Women are still excluded from most executive suites. Charlotte Taylor, a management consultant, had noted, "In the 1970s women believed if they got an MBA and worked hard they could become chairman of the board. Now they've found out that isn't going to happen, so they go out on their own". In the past, most women entrepreneurs worked in "women's" fields: cosmetics and clothing, for example. But this is changing. Consider ASK Computer Systems, a $22-million-a-year computer software business. It was founded in 1973 by Sandra Kurtzig, who was then a housewife with degrees in math and engineering. When Kurtzig founded the business, her first product was software that let weekly newspapers keep tabs on their newspaper carriers and her office was a bedroom at home, with a shoebox under the bed to hold the company's cash. After she succeeded with the newspaper software system, she hired several bright computer-science graduates to develop additional programs. When these were marketed and sold, ASK began to grow. It now has 200 employees, and Sandra Kurtzig owns $66.9 million of stock. Of course, many women who start their own businesses fail, just as men often do. They still face hurdles in the business world, especially problems in raising money; the banking and finance world is still dominated by men, and old attitudes die hard. Most businesses owned by women are still quite small. But the situation is changing; there are likely to be many more Sandra Kurtzigs in the years ahead.  

Question 50: The author’s attitude about the future of women in business is_________.         

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:

                                                                  COLORS AND EMOTIONS

Colors are one of the most exciting experiences in life. I love them, and they are just as important to me as emotions are. Have you ever wondered how the two are so intimately related? Color directly affects your emotions. Color both reflects the current state of your emotions, and is something that you can use to improve or change your emotions. The color that you choose to wear either reflects your current state of being, or reflects the color or emotion that you need. The colors that you wear affect you much more than they affect the people around you. Of course they also affect anyone who comes in contact with you, but you are the one saturated with the color all day! I even choose items around me based on their color. In the morning, I choose my clothes based on the color or emotion I need for the day. So you can consciously use color to control the emotions that you are exposed to, which can help you to feel better. Color, sound and emotions are all vibrations. Emotions are literally energy in motion; they are meant to move and flow. This is the reason that real feelings are the fastest way to get your energy in motion. Also, flowing energy is exactly what creates healthy cells in your body. So, the fastest way to be healthy is to be open to your real feelings. Alternately, the fastest way to create disease is to inhibit your emotions.

Question: What is the main idea of the passage?         

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:

Studies about how students use their time might shed light on whether they face increased academic and financial pressures compared with earlier eras. Based on data about how students are spending time, academic or financial pressures don’t seem to be greater now than a generation ago. The data show that full-time students in all types of colleges study much less now than they did a generation ago–a full 10 hours a week less. Students are also receiving significantly higher grades. So it appears that academic pressures are, in fact, considerably lower than they used to be. The time–use data don’t suggest that students feel greater financial pressures, either. When the time savings and lower opportunity costs are factored in, college appears less expensive for most students than it was in the 1960s. and though there are now full-time students working to pay while in college, they study less even when paid work choices are held constantly. In other words, full-time students do not appear to be studying less in order to work more. They appear to be studying less and spending the extra time on leisure activities or fun. It seems hard to imagine that students feeling increased financial pressures would respond by taking more leisure. Based on how students are spending their time then, it doesn’t look as though academic or financial pressures are greater now than a generation ago. The time-use data don’t speak directly to social pressures, and it may well be that these have become more intense lately. In one recent set of data, students reported spending more than 23 hours per week either socializing with friends or playing on the computer for fun. Social activities, in person or on computer would seem to have become the major focus of campus life. It is hard to tell what kinds of pressures would be associated with this change.  

Question: Students nowadays seem to be studying less and ________.          

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 elements other than hydrogen and helium exist in such small quantities that it is accurate to say that the universe is somewhat more than 25 percent helium by weight and somewhat less than 75 percent hydrogen. Astronomers have measured the abundance of helium throughout our galaxy and in other galaxies as well. Helium has been found in old stars, in relatively young ones, in interstellar gas, and in the distant objects known as quasars. Helium nuclei have also been found to be constituents of cosmic rays that fall on the earth (cosmic rays are not really a form of radiation; they consist of rapidly moving particles of numerous different kinds). It doesn’t seem to make very much difference where the helium is found. Its relative abundance never seems to vary much. In some places, there may be slightly more of it; in others, slightly less, but the ratio of helium to hydrogen nuclei always remains about the same. Helium is created in stars. In fact, nuclear reactions that convert hydrogen to helium are responsible for most of the energy that stars produce. However, the amount of helium that could have been produced in this manner can be calculated, and it turns out to be no more than a few percent. The universe has not existed long enough for this figure to be significant greater. Consequently, if the universe is somewhat more than 25 percent helium now, then it must have been about 25 percent helium at a time near the beginning. However, when the universe was less than one minute old, no helium could have existed. Calculations indicate that before this time temperature were too high and particles of matter were moving around much too rapidly. It was only after the one-minute point that helium could exist. By this time, the universe had cooled so sufficiently that neutrons and protons could stick together. But the nuclear reactions that led to the formations of helium went on for only relatively short time. By the time the universe was a few minutes old, helium production had effectively ceased.

Question: Why does the author mention "cosmic rays"?         

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:

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?         

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:

Psychologists who work on motivation research a wide range of human traits and physiological characteristics that include the effects of hunger, reward, and punishment, as well as desires for power, tangible achievement, social acceptance, belongingness, self-esteem, and self-actualization. A plethora of hypotheses developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have the goal of identifying causes of an organism’s behavior that can be both conscious and unconscious. The hierarchical organization of human needs is a theoretical model, originally established by an American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in 1954. The needs located at the bottom of the pyramid are the essentials of physiological survival that encompass oxygen, water, nutrition, rest and avoidance of pain. Maslow’s theory, grounded in research, also stipulated that these are variable and, at least to some extent, may explain, for example, food gratification. The second tier is rooted in the human need for safety, stability and protection.

In the human life cycle, the needs for belonging are manifested in the desires to marry, have a family, belong in a community or among similarly minded people. In part, the need to belong can also show up in a search for particular types of occupations or careers. The next level of the hierarchy in effect deals with two substrata, where the first presumes the need for status, prestige, recognition, appreciation, and dominance, and the higher division includes a conglomeration of emotionally centered traits that pivot on competence, confidence, mastery, achievement, independence, and freedom.

The top tier is different from all others, and Maslow referred to it as growth motivation and self-actualization. At the highest level, individuals seek to realize and put to use their creativity, talent, leadership, curiosity and understanding. At this level people can reach their full potentials and accurately perceive and accept reality, seek privacy and depth in personal relationships, resist enculturation, and develop social interests, compassion, and humanity. In many cases, self-actualizers do not lead ordinary lives, choose growth over safety, and cultivate peak experiences that leave their mark and change one for the better.

Question 39: The word “these” in paragraph 1 refers to _______.         

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

The deepest diving submarine

The Japanese research submarine Shinkai 6500 can dive deeper than any other submarine. On August 11, 1989, it went down to a depth of 6,526 meters beneath the ocean's surface. The submarine is in 935 meters long, about the size of a bus and can take up to three people. It is used for ocean research all over the world.

The most useful television

The Viera is the name of the world's only digital entertainment device that can go underwater. It is made and sold in Japan. You can listen to your favorite music, or even watch a movie, all from the comfort of your bathtub. And the battery lasts over five hours if you're planning to spend a long time bathing. You can even use headphones with it-all you’ll need is to find a pair that is waterproof!

The smartest monitor

The Japanese company EizoNanao has invented a very special computer monitor, called the FlexScan monitor. The FlexScan monitor can stand up to 23 centimeters high, and it can turn almost 180 degrees left or right. It weighs only 4.3kg. What’s more, it can help save electricity. It senses when you have left your computer and turns itself off when you've been gone for more than 40 seconds. When you come back, it knows to turns itself back on!

The smallest motorcycle

A Swedish man named Tom Wiberg built the world’s smallest motorcycle that can be ridden by a person. He calls it the Small Toe. The front wheel is only 1.6 centimeters wide, and the back wheel is 2.2 centimeters wide. The rider sits barely seven centimeters above the ground. In 2003, Wiberg rode his machine for more than ten meters and set a new Guinness World Record for the smallest rideable motorcycle ever built.

Question: The word “waterproof” means ________.         

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

A number of factors related to the voice reveal the personality of the speaker.

The first is the broad area of communication, which includes imparting information by use of language, communicating with a group or an individual and specialized communication through performance. A person conveys thoughts and ideas through choice of words, by a tone of voice that is pleasant or unpleasant, gentle or harsh, by the rhythm that is inherent within the language itself, and by speech rhythms that are flowing and regular or uneven and hesitant, and finally, by the pitch and melody of the utterance. When speaking before a group, a person's tone may indicate uncertainty or fright, confidence or calm. At interpersonal levels, the tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen, or may belie them. Here the participant’s tone can consciously or unconsciously reflect intuitive sympathy or antipathy, lack of concern or interest, fatigue, anxiety, enthusiasm or excitement, all of which are usually discernible by the acute listener. Public performance is a manner of communication that is highly specialized with its own techniques for obtaining effects by voice and/or gesture. The motivation derived from the text, and in the case of singing, the music, in combination with the performer's skills, personality, and ability to create empathy will determine the success of artistic, political, or pedagogic communication.

Second, the voice gives psychological clues to a person's self-image, perception of others, and emotional health. Self-image can be indicated by a tone of voice that is confident, pretentious, shy, aggressive, outgoing, or exuberant, to name only a few personality traits. Also the sound may give a clue to the facade or mask of that person, for example, a shy person hiding behind an overconfident front. How a speaker perceives the listener's receptiveness, interest, or sympathy in any given conversation can drastically alter the tone of presentation, by encouraging or discouraging the speaker. Emotional health is evidenced in the voice by free and melodic sounds of the happy, by constricted and harsh sound of the angry, and by dull and lethargic qualities of the depressed.  

Question: What does the author mean by staring that, "At interpersonal levels, tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen"?         

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the most suitable response to complete each of the following exchanges: 

“Do you think all this money will change your life?” – “_________”         

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:

Noise is unwanted sound and is among the most pervasive pollutants today. Noise from road traffic, jet planes, jet skis, garbage trucks, construction equipment, manufacturing processes, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and boom boxes, to name a few, are among the unwanted sounds that are routinely broadcast into the air. The problem with noise is not only that it is unwanted, but also that it negatively affects human health and well-being. Problems related to noise include hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, sleep loss, distraction and lost productivity, and a general reduction in the quality of life and opportunities for tranquility. We experience noise in a number of ways. On some occasions, we can be both the cause and the victim of noise, such as when we are operating noisy appliances or equipment. There are also instances when we experience noise generated by others just as people experience second-hand smoke. While in both instances, noises are equally damaging, second-hand noise is more troubling because it has negative impacts on us but is put into the environment by others, without our consent. The air into which second-hand noise is emitted and on which it travels is a “commons”, a public good. It belongs to no one person or group, but to everyone. People, businesses, and organizations, therefore, do not have unlimited rights to broadcast noise as they please, as if the effects of noise were limited only to their private property. On the contrary, they have an obligation to use the commons in ways that are compatible with or do not detract from other uses. People, businesses, and organizations that disregard the obligation to not interfere with others' use and enjoyment of the commons by producing noise pollution are, in many ways, acting like a bully in a school yard. Although perhaps unknowingly, they nevertheless disregard the rights of others and claim for themselves rights that are not theirs. We have organized to raise awareness of noise pollution and help communities take back the commons from those acting like bullies. Our efforts include building a library of resources and tools concerning noise pollution, establishing links to other groups that have similar collections, establishing networks among local noise activists, assisting communities and activists who are working to reduce noise pollution, and monitoring and advocating for stronger noise controls.  

Question: Which of the following is supposed to be way to reduce noise pollution?         

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:

 For many people who live in cities, parks are an important part of the landscape. They provide a place for people to relax and play sports, as well as a refuge from the often harsh environment of a city. What people often overlook is that parks also provide considerable environmental benefits.

 One benefit of parks is that plants absorb carbon dioxide - a key pollutant - and emit oxygen, which humans need to breathe. According to one study, an acre of trees can absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide that a typical car emits in 11,000 miles of driving. Parks also make cities cooler. Scientists have long noted what is called the Urban Heat Island Effect: building materials such as metal, concrete, and asphalt absorb much more of the sun’s heat and release it much more quickly than organic surfaces like trees and grass. Because city landscapes contain so much of these building materials, cities are usually warmer than surrounding rural areas. Parks and other green spaces help to mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect.

 Unfortunately, many cities cannot easily create more parks because most land is already being used for buildings, roads, parking lots, and other essential parts of the urban environment. However, cities could benefit from many of the positive effects of parks by encouraging citizens to create another type of green space: rooftop gardens. While most people would not think of starting a garden on their roof, human beings have been planting gardens on rooftops for thousands of years. Some rooftop gardens are very complex and require complicated engineering, but others are simple container gardens that anyone can create with the investment of a few hundred dollars and a few hours of work. 

 Rooftop gardens provide many of the same benefits as other urban park and garden spaces, but without taking up the much - needed land. Like parks, rooftop gardens help to replace carbon dioxide in the air with nourishing oxygen. They also help to lessen the Urban Heat Island Effect, which can save people money. In the summer, rooftop gardens prevent buildings from absorbing heat from the sun, which can significantly reduce cooling bills. In the winter, gardens help hold in the heat that materials like brick and concrete radiate so quickly, leading to savings on heating bills. Rooftop vegetable and herb gardens can also provide fresh food for city dwellers, saving them money and making their diets healthier. Rooftop gardens are not only something everyone can enjoy, they are also a smart environmental investment.

Question 36: Based on its use in paragraph 2, it can be inferred that mitigate belongs to which of the following word groups?     

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:

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 36: Based on the passage, what is implied about tea harvesting?         

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate to the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 1 to 5:

 The final stage before adulthood is adolescence. This is a period of transition for teenagers and there are many crucial milestones. Socially and emotionally, teens worry that they may not be developing at the same rate (1)_______ their peers. They become extremely self-conscious and may be sensitive about their appearance. Teens may rebel (2) ________ their parents but are also more able to accept the consequences of their actions. This is also a period of enormous physical changes and adolescent experience changes in their physical development at a rate unparalleled since infancy. These changes include significant gains in height and weight. Within a year, boys and girls can gain an (3)_________ of 4.1 inches and 3.5 inches repectively. This growth spurt typically 2 years earlier for girls than for boys and can tend to make both sexes go through a clumsy phase. (4)_________ their cognitive development, adolescents have greater reasoning skills and have developed the ability to think logically and hypothetically. They are also able to discuss more abstract concepts. They should also have (5)__________strategies to help them study.

Question 3:

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:

Whales are the largest animals in the world, and the gentlest creatures we know. Although the whale is very huge, it is not hindered at all by its size when it is in the water. Whales have tails that end like flippers. With just a gentle flick, it can propel itself forward. The skin of a whale is so smooth that it does not create any friction that can slow the whale down. A whale’s breathing hole is located on the top of its head, so it can breathe without having to completely push its head out of the water. Whales are protected from the cold seawater by body fat that is called blubber. Whales live in the ocean but, in terms of behaviours, they are more similar to humans than fish. They live in family groups and they even travel in groups when they have to migrate from cooler to warmer waters. The young stay with their parents for as long as fifteen years. Whales are known not to desert the ill or injured members; instead, they cradle them. When whales are in danger, there are people who go to great lengths to help them. One such case occurred in 1988, when three young whales were trapped in the sea. It was close to winter and the sea had begun to freeze over. Whales are mammals that require oxygen from the air, so the frozen ice was a great danger to them. All they had then was a tiny hole in the ice for them to breathe through. Volunteers from all over soon turned up to help these creatures. They cut holes in the ice to provide more breathing holes for the whales. These holes would also serve as guides for the whales so that they could swim to warmer waters.

Question 38: Where is the whale’s breathing hole located______          

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:

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 41: The word “eliminate” in paragraph 5 could be best replaced by which of the following word?         

The three phases of human memory are the sensory memory, the short-term memory, and the long-term memory. This devision of the memory into phases is based on the length of time of the memory.

Sensory memory is instantaneous memory. It is an image or memory that enters your mind only for a short period of time; it comes and goes in under a second. The memory will not last longer than that unless the information enters the short-term memory.

Information can be held in the short-term memory for about twenty seconds or as long as you are actively using it. If you repeat a fact to yourself, that fact will stay in your short-term memory as long as you keep repeating it. Once you stop repeating it, either it is forgotten or it moves into long term memory.

Long-term memory is the huge memory tank that can hold ideas and images for years and years. Information can be added to your long-term memory when you actively try to put it there through memorization or when an idea or image enters your mind on its own.

Question: The three phases of memory discussed in the pasage are differentiated according to…………….   

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

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.

Question 4: In the last paragraph, the author mentions all of the following as possible roles of nineteenth-century "great women" EXCEPT ________.