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.

Money

The ancestor of the monetary system is of course the barter system. A farmer could trade his produce for the fish obtained by a fisherman or the cloth produced by a weaver. Even today the barter system tends to come back into style in places suffering from social breakdown, or as an informal sideline activity in more harmonious lands. However, trying to reach agreement over the relative value of different things tends to be time-consuming and vexing, and so societies tended to converge towards a common medium of exchange. Pacific islanders used shells; Aztecs used cacao beans, the main ingredient of chocolate. Livestock was common among herding cultures; slaves were sometimes used, too, but they were much harder to control than cattle and so not as popular; and many cultures used salt, including the Romans for a time- hence, the modern term "salary". Incidentally, after World War II cigarettes were used as a medium of exchange in many countries then in very poor condition, and it is said that in Italy “penny candy” was commonly used as “small change” even into the 1970s.

The medium that gradually gained widespread acceptance was precious metals such as gold and silver. Coins are said to have been invented by the Lydians, a people of Asia Minor, sometime after 640 BC. They used stamped ingots of "electrum", a naturally occurring amalgam of silver and gold. The scheme was refined by King Croesus, ruler of Lydia from 560 to 546 BCE, who introduced coins of true gold. He is still identified with wealth in the expression "rich as Croesus". The introduction of coinage was a great boon for traders, simplifying transactions and allowing them to be conducted more smoothly over long distances.

[1] Coinage also helped support far-flung empires; the Roman Empire was built on silver and gold coins, as well as military victories. As the empire expanded, the expenditures of the state led to the debasement of the coins, beginning with an act of the Emperor Nero in 64 A.D. By the end of his reign, the silver content of Roman coins had shrunk by 10%. [2] Other emperors followed his example, and over 200 years from the start of the process, the content shrank to 5%. The coins’ buying power fell accordingly.

[3] Coins are still with us, though they are now little more than tokens made of non-precious metals. [4] Few countries still use silver or gold coins as anything other than collector's items.

Which is the best place for the following sentence? “The United States gave up minting silver dollars in 1935, and in 1965 eliminated silver in American coins completely.”

A. [4]

B. [3]

C. [1]

D. [2]

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.

Some of his favourite subjects at school are Maths, English and Geographical

A. Some

B. subjects

C. are

D. Geographical

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 33 to 38.

Sylvia Earle, a marine botanist and one of the foremost deep-sea explorers, has spent over 6,000 hours, more than seven months, underwater. From her earliest years, Earle had an affinity for marine life, and she took her first plunge into the open sea as a teenager. In the years since then she has taken part in a number of landmark underwater projects, from exploratory expeditions around the world to her celebrated “Jim dive” in 1978, which was the deepest solo dive ever made without cable connecting the diver to a support vessel at the surface of the sea.

Clothed in a Jim suit, a futuristic suit of plastic and metal armor, which was secured to a manned submarine, Sylvia Earle plunged vertically into the Pacific Ocean, at times at the speed of 100 feet per minute. On reaching the ocean floor, she was released from the submarine and from that point her only connection to the sub was an 18-foot tether. For the next 2½ hours, Earle roamed the seabed taking notes, collecting 15 specimens, and planting a U.S. flag. Consumed by a desire to descend deeper still, in 1981 she became involved in the design and manufacture of 20 deep-sea submersibles, one of which took her to a depth of 3,000 feet. This did not end Sylvia Earle’s accomplishments. 

The author’s opinion of Sylvia Earle is _______. 

A. critical 

B. supportive 

C. ambivalent 

D. disrespectful 

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.

          Southern Thailand was hit Thursday by the most severe haze from forest fires in Indonesia, forcing all schools in a province to close and disrupting flights in a popular tourist area, officially said.
The haze that has shrouded parts of Malaysia and Singapore for nearly two months reached hazardous levels in the southern Thai city of Songkhla, with the pollution index hitting a record-high reading of 365. A reading of 101-200 is unhealthy, 201-300 is very unhealthy and above 300 is hazardous.
“This is a crisis,” said Halem Jemarican, head of the Southern Environment Office. He said the pollution index in southern Thailand has never exceeded 300 before.
          Halem said his office has worked with other authorities to have all schools in Songkhla province send students home and all outdoor sports stadiums to close temporarily. Warnings have been issued to vulnerable people such as children, the elderly and people with illnesses not to go out of their homes.
“The wind speed is very low this year in the south, causing haze to stay in our skies longer,” Halem said by telephone.
          An airport official in Hat Yai, a popular tourist area, said three flights bound for Bangkok were delayed Thursday morning because of the haze. A flight from Bangkok to Hat Yai was diverted to Surat Thani on Wednesday evening. The official declined to be identified because of working rules.
        Local media reported that cloud seeding has been discussed as a way to dispel the haze in southern Thailand, which is hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra island.
         Southern Thailand boasts tropical beaches popular among tourists in Surat Thani and Phuket, two of the seven provinces suffering from the haze.

The following actions are taken by the authorities in response to the haze EXCEPT ______.

A. closing sports stadiums       

B. sending students home

C. issuing warnings                 

D. disrupting flights

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheer to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 10 to 14.

In the past, technology and progress was very slow. People “invented” farming 12,000 years ago but it took 8,000 years for the idea to go around the world. Then, about 3,500 years ago, people called “potters” used round wheels to turn and make plates. But it took hundreds of years before some clever person thought, if we join two wheels together and make them bigger, we can use them to move things

In the last few centuries, things have begun to move faster. Take a 20th-century invention like the aeroplane, for example. The first acroplane flight on 17 December 1903 only lasted 12 seconds, and the plane only went 37 metres. It can't have been very exciting to watch, but that flight changed the world. Sixteen years later, the first plane flew across the Atlantic, and only fifty years after that, men walked on the moon. Technology is now changing our world faster and faster. So what will the future bring?

One of the first changes will be the materials we use. Scientists have just invented an amazing new material called graphene, and soon we will use it to do lots of things. With graphene batteries in your mobile, it will take a few seconds to charge your phone or download a thousand gigabytes of information! Today, we make most products in factories, but in the future, scientists will invent living materials. Then we won't make things like cars and furniture in factories - we will grow them!

Thirty years ago, people couldn't have imagined social media like Twitter and Facebook. Now we can't llve without them. But this is only the start. Right now, scientists are putting microchips in some disabled people's brains, to help them see, hear and communicate better. In the future, we may all use these technologies. We won't need smartphones to use social media or search the internet because the internet will be in our heads!

More people will go into space in the future, too. Space tourism has already begun, and a hundred years from now, there may be many hotels in space. One day, we may get most of our energy from space too. In 1941, the writer Isaac Asimov wrote about a solar power station in space. People laughed at his idea then, but we should have listened to him. Today, many people are trying to develop a space solar power station. After all, the sun always shines above the clouds! 

What does the writer say about the future of communication? 

A. We can't know what the most popular social media will be. 

B. Microchips will become faster

C. We won't use the internet as much. 

D. We won't need devices like smartphones

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

Who talks more – men or women? Most people believe that women talk more. However, linguist Deborah Tannen, who has the 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 relationship 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 difference even in children. Little girls often play with one ‘best friend’ and 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, while 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 aged 3-6 and their parents. They found evidence that parents talk very differently to their sons 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 with daughters than with sons.

Which of the following phrases best explains the meaning of the word “verbal”?

A. Deriving from verbs

B. Connected with use of spoken language 

C. Using very loud noise

D. Being very talkative

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.

Money

The ancestor of the monetary system is of course the barter system. A farmer could trade his produce for the fish obtained by a fisherman or the cloth produced by a weaver. Even today the barter system tends to come back into style in places suffering from social breakdown, or as an informal sideline activity in more harmonious lands. However, trying to reach agreement over the relative value of different things tends to be time-consuming and vexing, and so societies tended to converge towards a common medium of exchange. Pacific islanders used shells; Aztecs used cacao beans, the main ingredient of chocolate. Livestock was common among herding cultures; slaves were sometimes used, too, but they were much harder to control than cattle and so not as popular; and many cultures used salt, including the Romans for a time- hence, the modern term "salary". Incidentally, after World War II cigarettes were used as a medium of exchange in many countries then in very poor condition, and it is said that in Italy “penny candy” was commonly used as “small change” even into the 1970s.

The medium that gradually gained widespread acceptance was precious metals such as gold and silver. Coins are said to have been invented by the Lydians, a people of Asia Minor, sometime after 640 BC. They used stamped ingots of "electrum", a naturally occurring amalgam of silver and gold. The scheme was refined by King Croesus, ruler of Lydia from 560 to 546 BCE, who introduced coins of true gold. He is still identified with wealth in the expression "rich as Croesus". The introduction of coinage was a great boon for traders, simplifying transactions and allowing them to be conducted more smoothly over long distances.

[1] Coinage also helped support far-flung empires; the Roman Empire was built on silver and gold coins, as well as military victories. As the empire expanded, the expenditures of the state led to the debasement of the coins, beginning with an act of the Emperor Nero in 64 A.D. By the end of his reign, the silver content of Roman coins had shrunk by 10%. [2] Other emperors followed his example, and over 200 years from the start of the process, the content shrank to 5%. The coins’ buying power fell accordingly.

[3] Coins are still with us, though they are now little more than tokens made of non-precious metals. [4] Few countries still use silver or gold coins as anything other than collector's items.

What can be inferred from paragraph 4?

A. Gold and silver coins have little value today

B. Gold and silver coins are rarely used as money today

C. Coins used today do not differ much from coins of the past

D. Most coins today have little buying power

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.

A large number of inventions require years of arduous research and development before they are perfected. For instance, Thomas Edison had to make more than 1,000 attempts to invent the incandescent light bulb before he finally succeeded. History is replete with numerous other examples of people trying, yet failing to make inventions before they eventually succeeded. Yet some inventions have come about not through hard work but simply by accident.

In most cases, when someone unintentionally invented something, the inventor was attempting to create something else. For example, in the 1930s, chemist Roy Plunkett was attempting to make a new substance that could be used to refrigerate items. He mixed some chemicals together. Then, he put them into a pressurized container and cooled the mixture. By the time his experiment was complete, he had a new invention. It was not a new substance that could be used for refrigeration though. Instead, he had invented Teflon, which is today most commonly used to make nonstick pots and pans. Similarly, decades earlier, John Pemberton was a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia. He was attempting to create a tonic that people could use whenever they had headaches. While he was not successful in that endeavor, he managed to invent Coca -Cola, the world - famous carbonated soft drink.

Scientists have also made crucial discoveries by accident when they were conducting experiments. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, an antibiotic, in this manner. He discovered some mold growing in a dish with some bacteria. He noticed that the bacteria seemed to be avoiding the mold. When he investigated further, he determined some of the many useful properties of penicillin, which has saved millions of lives over the past few decades. Likewise, in 1946, scientist Percy Spencer was conducting an experiment with microwaves. He had a candy bar in his pocket, and he noticed that it suddenly melted. He investigated and learned the reason why that had happened. Soon afterward, he built a device that could utilize microwaves to heat food. the microwave oven.

Which title best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A. History's Most Important Inventions

B. Accidental Inventions and Discoveries

C. You Don't Always Get What You Want

D. How to Become a Great Inventor

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheer to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 10 to 14.

In the past, technology and progress was very slow. People “invented” farming 12,000 years ago but it took 8,000 years for the idea to go around the world. Then, about 3,500 years ago, people called “potters” used round wheels to turn and make plates. But it took hundreds of years before some clever person thought, if we join two wheels together and make them bigger, we can use them to move things

In the last few centuries, things have begun to move faster. Take a 20th-century invention like the aeroplane, for example. The first acroplane flight on 17 December 1903 only lasted 12 seconds, and the plane only went 37 metres. It can't have been very exciting to watch, but that flight changed the world. Sixteen years later, the first plane flew across the Atlantic, and only fifty years after that, men walked on the moon. Technology is now changing our world faster and faster. So what will the future bring?

One of the first changes will be the materials we use. Scientists have just invented an amazing new material called graphene, and soon we will use it to do lots of things. With graphene batteries in your mobile, it will take a few seconds to charge your phone or download a thousand gigabytes of information! Today, we make most products in factories, but in the future, scientists will invent living materials. Then we won't make things like cars and furniture in factories - we will grow them!

Thirty years ago, people couldn't have imagined social media like Twitter and Facebook. Now we can't llve without them. But this is only the start. Right now, scientists are putting microchips in some disabled people's brains, to help them see, hear and communicate better. In the future, we may all use these technologies. We won't need smartphones to use social media or search the internet because the internet will be in our heads!

More people will go into space in the future, too. Space tourism has already begun, and a hundred years from now, there may be many hotels in space. One day, we may get most of our energy from space too. In 1941, the writer Isaac Asimov wrote about a solar power station in space. People laughed at his idea then, but we should have listened to him. Today, many people are trying to develop a space solar power station. After all, the sun always shines above the clouds!

Why does the writer use the example of the aeroplane? 

A. To explain why transport changed in the 20th century.

B. Because he thinks It's the most important invention in history

C. To explain how space travel started. 

D. To show how an invention developed quickly