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 38 to 42.

(1) Though Edmund Halley was most famous because of his achievements as an astronomer, he was a scientist of diverse interests and great skill. In addition to studying the skies, Halley was also deeply interested in exploring the unknown depths of the oceans. One of his lesser-known accomplishments that were quite remarkable was his design for a diving bell that facilitated exploration of the watery depths.

(2) The diving bell that Halley designed had a major advantage over the diving bells that were in use prior to his. Earlier diving bells could only make use of the air contained within the bell itself, so divers had to surface when the air inside the bell ran low. Halley’s bell was an improvement in that its design allowed for an additional supply of fresh air that enabled a crew of divers to remain underwater for several hours.

(3) The diving contraption that Halley designed was in the shape of a bell that measured three feet across the top and five feet across the bottom and could hold several divers comfortably; it was open at the bottom so that divers could swim in and out at will. The bell was built of wood, which was first heavily tarred to make it water repellent and was then covered with a half-ton sheet of lead to make the bell heavy enough to sink in water. The bell shape held air inside for the divers to breathe as the bell sank to the bottom.

(4) The air inside the bell was not the only source of air for the divers to breathe, and it was this improvement that made Halley’s bell superior to its predecessors. In addition to the air already in the bell, air was also supplied to the divers from a lead barrel that was lowered to the ocean floor close to the bell itself. Air flowed through a leather pipe from the lead barrel on the ocean floor to the bell. The diver could breathe the air from a position inside the bell, or he could move around outside the bell wearing a diving suit that consisted of a lead bell-shaped helmet with a glass viewing window and a leather body suit, with a leather pipe carrying fresh air from the diving bell to the helmet.

Halley’s bell was better than its predecessors because it _____.

Despite its wide range of styles and instrumentation, country music has certain common features _____ its own special character.

Thank you very much. I haven’t been to _____ party for ages.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 33 to 37.

AS OLD AS YOU FEEL

It might after all be true that you are only as old as you feel. A British clinic is carrying out new high-tech tests to calculate the “real” biological age of patients (33) ______ on the rate of physical deterioration. Information on every aspect of a patient’s health, fitness, lifestyle and family medical history is (34) ______ into a computer to work out whether they are older or younger than their calendar age suggests.

The availability and increasing accuracy of the tests has prompted one leading British gerontologist to call for biological age to be used to determine when workers should retire. He (35) ______ that if an employee’s biological or “real” age is shown, for example, to be 55 when he reaches his 65th birthday, he should be incited to work for another decade. Apparently most employers only take into (36) ______ a person’s calendar years, and the two may differ considerably. Some of those prepared to pay a substantial sum of money for the examinations will be able to smugly walk away with medical evidence showing that they really are as young as they feel, giving them the confidence to act and dress as if they were younger. Dr Lynette Yong, resident doctor at the clinic where the tests are offered claims that the purpose of these tests will be to motivate people to (37) _______ their health.

The concept of “real” age is set to become big business in the USA with books and websites helping people work out whether their body is older or younger than their years. Others firmly believe that looks will always be the best indicator of age.

Điền vào ô 35.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

The police tried in vain to break up the protest crowds in front of the government building; further measures needed to be employed.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.

There are many frequently (A) mentioned (B) reasons why one out of four arrests (C) involve (D) a juvenile

The steep ________ of the land makes cultivation difficult.

Read the following passage on transport, 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.

(1) As the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United States increased. The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants into American society.

(2) The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools, extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were sponsored by public schools, corporations, unions, churches, settlement houses, and other agencies.

(3) Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were once such population. Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for women was the home.

(4) Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women, American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies, homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however, overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.

According to the passage, early-twentieth century education reformers believed that _____.

This city has four million _____.

You’re putting the cart before the _______ of you work on Project B before Project A because the former is a sequel to the latter.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.

One another (A) surprising (B) method of forest conservation is (C) controlled cutting (D) of trees.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Tony would never forget the look of intense anguish on the face of his parents when they heard the news of his failure in the exam.

The fraction 3/5 is pronounced _____.

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.

– Emma: “What’s the matter, Kevin? _____.”

– Kevin: “There are so many courses on the website. I don’t know which ones to take.”

Read the following passage on transport, 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.

(1) As the twentieth century began, the importance of formal education in the United States increased. The frontier had mostly disappeared and by 1910 most Americans lived in towns and cities. Industrialization and the bureaucratization of economic life combined with a new emphasis upon credentials and expertise to make schooling increasingly important for economic and social mobility. Increasingly, too, schools were viewed as the most important means of integrating immigrants into American society.

(2) The arrival of a great wave of southern and eastern European immigrants at the turn of the century coincided with and contributed to an enormous expansion of formal schooling. By 1920 schooling to age fourteen or beyond was compulsory in most states, and the school year was greatly lengthened. Kindergartens, vacation schools, extracurricular activities, and vocational education and counseling extended the influence of public schools over the lives of students, many of whom in the larger industrial cities were the children of immigrants. Classes for adult immigrants were sponsored by public schools, corporations, unions, churches, settlement houses, and other agencies.

(3) Reformers early in the twentieth century suggested that education programs should suit the needs of specific populations. Immigrant women were once such population. Schools tried to educate young women so they could occupy productive places in the urban industrial economy, and one place many educators considered appropriate for women was the home.

(4) Although looking after the house and family was familiar to immigrant women, American education gave homemaking a new definition. In preindustrial economies, homemaking had meant the production as well as the consumption of goods, and it commonly included income-producing activities both inside and outside the home, in the highly industrialized early-twentieth-century United States, however, overproduction rather than scarcity was becoming a problem. Thus, the ideal American homemaker was viewed as a consumer rather than a producer. Schools trained women to be consumer homemakers cooking, shopping, decorating, and caring for children "efficiently" in their own homes, or if economic necessity demanded, as employees in the homes of others. Subsequent reforms have made these notions seem quite out-of-date.

Which paragraph mentions the importance of abilities and experience in formal schooling?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Although the staff did expand somewhat, for the first century of its existence, the entire teaching staff considered of the president and three or four tutors.