Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions.

Laura practiced playing the instrument a lot. She could hardly improve her performance

They had a discussion about training not only the new employees but also giving them some challenges.

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.

Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He played for the New York Yankees in their years of glory. From the time Mantle began to play professionally in 1951 to his last year in 1968, baseball was the most popular game in the United States. For many people, Mantle symbolized the hope, prosperity, and confidence of America at that time.

Mantle was a fast and powerful player, a “switch-hitter” who could bat both right-handed and left-handed. He won game after game, one World Series championship after another, for his team. He was a wonderful athlete, but this alone cannot explain Americas fascination with him. Perhaps it was because he was a handsome, red-haired country boy, the son of a poor miner from Oklahoma. His career, from the lead mines of the West to the heights of success and fame, was a fairy-tale version of the American dream. Or perhaps it was because America always loves a “natural”: a person who wins without seeming to try, whose talent appears to come from an inner grace. That was Mickey Mantle.

But like many celebrities, Mickey Mantle had a private life that was full of problems. He played without complaint despite constant pain from injuries. He lived to fulfill his father’s dreams and drank to forget his father’s early death.

It was a terrible addiction that finally destroyed his body. It gave him cirrhosis of the liver and accelerated the advance of liver cancer. Even when Mickey Mantle had turned away from his old life and warned young people not to follow his example, the destructive process could not be stopped. Despite a liver transplant operation that had all those who loved and admired him hoping for a recovery, Mickey Mantle died of cancer at the age of 63.

What is the main idea of the passage?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress in each of the following questions.

She made a big____________about not having a window seat on the plane.

The receptionist said I must fill in that form before I attended the interview.

It____________that neither the passengers nor the driver was injured in the crash.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.

The situation was so embarrassing that she did not know what to do.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress in each of the following questions.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions.

Mary exclaimed that the singer’s voice was so sweet.