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.

He was one of the most outstanding performers at the live show last night

A. easy-looking

B. important 

C. well- known

D. impressive

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.

Farming has come a long way since the days of horse-drawn plows, and now it’s heading swiftly into the twenty-first century. Research at Indiana’s Purdue University uses the Navistar Global Positioning System (GPS) to help increase crop yields and reduce chemical use. GPS uses satellite signals to determine location within inches. Under Purdue’s scheme, a farmer out in the field would use a GPS receiver mounted on his vehicle to pinpoint his position. A computer linked to the receiver and programmed with the field’s soil conditions – which can vary widely from one area to another – would tell the farmer precisely where the plant and how much pesticide and fertilizer to use at that specific site. “Currently the number one cost to the famer is chemicals” say Gary Kurtz, a Professor of Agriculture Engineering at Purdue. Site-specific farming can increase yields while reducing chemical use.

But the cost of this new technology may be too high for the small farmer. The cost of taking and testing soil samples every few feet in a farmer’s field is a limiting factor. Soil tests can run $7 to  $8 each. Mark Morgan, assistant Professor of Agriculture Engineering at Purdue and his graduate assistants are working on a sensor to be attached to the front of a farm implement, enabling the farmer to perform his own soil tests on the go.

The expression “run to” is closest in meaning to _______.

A. pay back 

B. amount to

C. Discount

D. cost more

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.

How is the news different from entertainment? Most people would answer that news is real but entertainment is fiction. However, if we think more carefully about the news, it becomes clear that the news is not always real. The news does not show us all the events of the day, but stories from a small number of chosen events. The creation of news stories is subject to specific constraints, much like the creation of works of fiction. There are many constraints, but three of the most important ones are. commercialism, story formulas, and sources. Newspapers, radio, and TV stations are businesses, all of which are rivals for audiences and advertising revenue. The amount of time that the average TV station spends on news broadcasts has grown steadily over the last fifty years - largely because news is relatively cheap to produce, yet sells plenty of advertising. Some news broadcasts are themselves becoming advertisements. For example, during one week in 1996 when the American CBS network was airing a movie about the sinking of the Titanic, CBS news ran nine stories about that event (which had happened 84 years before). The ABC network is owned by Disney Studios, and frequently runs news stories about Mickey Mouse. Furthermore, the profit motive drives news organizations to pay more attention to stories likely to generate a large audience, and to shy away from stories that may be important but dull. This pressure to be entertaining has produced shorter, simpler stories. more focus on celebrities than people of substance, more focus on gossip than on news, and more focus on dramatic events than on nuanced issues.

As busy people under relentless pressure to produce, journalists cannot spend days agonizing over the best way to present stories. Instead, they depend upon certain story formulas, which they can reuse again and again. One example is known as the inverted pyramid. In this formula, the journalist puts the most important information at the beginning of the story, than adds the next most important, and so on. The inverted pyramid originates from the age of the telegraph, the idea being that if the line went dead halfway through the story, the journalist would know that the most crucial information had at least been relayed. Modern journalists still value the formula for a similar reason. Their editors will cut stories if they are too long. Another formula involves reducing a complicated story into a simple conflict. The best example is "horse race" election coverage. Thorough explication of the issues and the candidates' views is forbiddingly complex. Journalists therefore concentrate more on who is winning in the opinion polls, and whether the underdog can catch up in the numbers than on politicians' campaign goals.

Sources are another constraint on what journalists cover and how they cover it. The dominant sources for news are public information officers in businesses and government offices. The majority of such officers try to establish themselves as experts who are qualified to feed information to journalists. How do journalists know who is an expert? In general, they don't. They use sources not on the basis of actual expertise, but on the appearance of expertise and the willingness to share it. All the major news organizations use some of the same sources (many of them anonymous), so the same types of stories always receive attention. Over time, the journalists may even become close friends with their sources, and they stop searching for alternative points of view. The result tends to be narrow, homogenized coverage of the same kind.

Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentences "Thorough explication of the issues.... than on politicians' campaign goals. " in the passage?

A. Journalists focus on poll numbers instead of campaign issues because it is easier

B. Journalists are more interested in issues and candidates' views, but viewers are more interested in who is winning

C. During an election campaign, journalists mainly concentrate on "horse race" coverage

D. Candidates' views and how they are explained by journalists can have a big effect on poll numbers

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 55 to 64.

         Although they are an inexpensive supplier of vitamins, minerals, and high-quality protein, eggs also contain a high level of blood cholesterol, one of the major causes of heart diseases. One egg yolk, in fact, contains a little more than two-thirds of the suggested daily cholesterol limit. This knowledge has caused egg sales to plummet in recent years, which in turn has brought about the development of several alternatives to eating regular eggs. One alternative is to eat substitute eggs. These egg substitutes are not really eggs, but they look somewhat like eggs when they are cooked. They have the advantage of having low cholesterol rates, and they can be scrambled or used in baking. One disadvantage, however, is that they are not good for frying, poaching, or boiling. A second alternative to regular eggs is a new type of egg, sometimes called 'designer' eggs. These eggs are produced by hens that are fed low-fat diets consisting of ingredients such as canola oil, flax, and rice bran. In spite of their diets, however, these hens produce eggs that contain the same amount of cholesterol as regular eggs. Yet, the producers of these eggs claim that eating their eggs will not raise the blood cholesterol in humans.

         Egg producers claim that their product has been portrayed unfairly. They cite scientific studies to back up their claim. And, in fact, studies on the relationship between eggs and human cholesterol levels have brought mixed results. It may be that it is not the type of egg that is the main determinant of cholesterol but the person who is eating the eggs. Some people may be more sensitive to cholesterol derived from food than other people. In fact, there is evidence that certain dietary fats stimulate the body's production of blood cholesterol. Consequently, while it still makes sense to limit one's intake of eggs, even designer eggs, it seems that doing this without regulating dietary fat will probably not help reduce the blood cholesterol level.

The word 'portrayed' could be best replaced by which of the following?

A. described

B. destroyed 

C. tested

D. studied

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.

There is no point in your phoning Jane - she's away.

A. Jane is very difficult to phone - she's always away

B. Don't spend your valuable time phoning Jane -- she's out

C. You waste your time if you insist on phoning Jane - she's away

D. It would be a waste of time phoning Jane - she's away

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.

Farming has come a long way since the days of horse-drawn plows, and now it’s heading swiftly into the twenty-first century. Research at Indiana’s Purdue University uses the Navistar Global Positioning System (GPS) to help increase crop yields and reduce chemical use. GPS uses satellite signals to determine location within inches. Under Purdue’s scheme, a farmer out in the field would use a GPS receiver mounted on his vehicle to pinpoint his position. A computer linked to the receiver and programmed with the field’s soil conditions – which can vary widely from one area to another – would tell the farmer precisely where the plant and how much pesticide and fertilizer to use at that specific site. “Currently the number one cost to the famer is chemicals” say Gary Kurtz, a Professor of Agriculture Engineering at Purdue. Site-specific farming can increase yields while reducing chemical use.

But the cost of this new technology may be too high for the small farmer. The cost of taking and testing soil samples every few feet in a farmer’s field is a limiting factor. Soil tests can run $7 to  $8 each. Mark Morgan, assistant Professor of Agriculture Engineering at Purdue and his graduate assistants are working on a sensor to be attached to the front of a farm implement, enabling the farmer to perform his own soil tests on the go.

Which of the following could be of NO value to increase crop yields?

A. The use of a GPS receiver

B. Testing soil samples

C. Fixing a sensor to alarm machinery       

D. The excessive use of chemicals

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.

If we believe that clothing has to do with covering the body, and costume with the choice of a particular form of garment for a particular use, then we can say that clothing depends primarily on such physical conditions as climate, health, and textile manufacture, whereas costume reflects social factors such as religious beliefs, aesthetics, personal status, and the wish to be distinguished from or to emulate our fellows.

The ancient Greeks and the Chinese believed that we first covered our bodies for some physical reasons such as protecting ourselves from the elements. Ethnologists and psychologists have invoked psychological reasons: modesty in the case of the ancients, and taboo, magical influence and the desire to please for the moderns.

In early history, costume must have fulfilled a function beyond that of simple utility, perhaps through some magical significance, investing primitive man with the attributes of other creatures. Ornaments identified the wearer with animals, gods, heroes or other men. This identification remains symbolic in more sophisticated societies. We should bear in mind that the theater has its distant origins in sacred performances, and in all periods children at play have worn disguises, so as to adapt gradually to adult life.

Costume helped inspire fear or impose authority. For a chieftain, costume embodied attributes expressing his power, while a warrior’s costume enhanced his physical superiority and suggested he was superhuman. In more recent times, professional or administrative costume has been devised to distinguish the wearer and to express personal or delegated authority; this purpose is seen clearly in the judge’s robes and the police officer’s uniform. Costume denotes power, and since power is usually equated with wealth, costume came to be an expression of social caste and material prosperity. Military uniform denotes rank and is intended to intimidate, to protect the body and to express membership in a group. At the bottom of the scale, there are such compulsory costumes as the convict’s uniform. Finally, costume can possess a religious significance that combines various elements: an actual or symbolic identification with a god, the desire to express this in earthly life, and the desire to enhance the wearer’s position of respect.

The passage mainly discusses costume in terms of its _____.

A. religious significance

B. social function

C. beauty and attractiveness

D. physical protection