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 36 to 42.

 THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Information technology is influencing the way many of us live and work today. We use the Internet to look and apply for jobs, shop, conduct research, make airline reservations, and explore areas of interest. We use e-mail and the Internet to communicate instantaneously with friends and business associates around the world. Computers are commonplace in homes and the workplace.

Although the number of Internet users is growing exponentially each year, most of the world’s population does not have access to computers or the Internet. Only 6 percent of the population in developing countries are connected to telephones. Although more than 94 percent of U.S. households have a telephone, only 42 percent have personal computers at home and 26 percent have Internet access. The lack of what most of us would consider a basic communications necessity –the telephone –does not occur just in developing nations. On some Native American reservations only 60 percent of the residents have a telephone. The move to wireless connections may eliminate the need for telephone lines, but it does not remove the barrier to equipment costs.

Who has Internet access? Fifty percent of the children in urban households with an income over $75,000 have Internet access, compared with 2 percent of the children in low-income, rural households. Nearly half of college-educated people have Internet access, compared to 6 percent of those with only some high school education. Forty percent of households with two parents have access; 15 percent of female, single-parent households do. Thirty percent of white households, 11 percent of black households, and 13 percent of Hispanic households have access. Teens and children are the two fastest-growing segments of Internet users. The digital divide between the populations who have access to the Internet and information technology tools is based on income, race, education, household type, and geographic location. Only 16 percent of the rural poor, rural and central city minorities, young householders, and single parent female households are connected..

Another problem that exacerbates these disparities is that African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans hold few of the jobs in information technology. Women hold about 20 percent of these jobs and are receiving fewer than 30 percent of the computer science degrees. The result is that women and members of the most oppressed ethnic groups are not eligible for the jobs with the highest salaries at graduation. Baccalaureate candidates with degrees in computer science were offered the highest salaries of all new college graduates in 1998 at $44,949.

Do similar disparities exist in schools? More than 90 percent of all schools in the country are wired with at least one Internet connection. The number of classrooms with Internet connections differs by the income level of students. Using the percentage of students who are eligible for free lunches at a school to determine income level, we see that nearly twice as many of the schools with more affluent students have wired classrooms as those with high concentrations of low-income students.

Access to computers and the Internet will be important in reducing disparities between groups. It will require greater equality across diverse groups whose members develop knowledge and skills in computer and information technologies. If computers and the Internet are to be used to promote equality, they will have to become accessible to populations that cannot currently afford the equipment which needs to be updated every three years or so. However, access alone is not enough. Students will have to be interacting with the technology in authentic settings. As technology becomes a tool for learning in almost all courses taken by students, it will be seen as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. If it is used in culturally relevant ways, all students can benefit from its power.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the statement “Although the number ............. or the Internet.” in the paragraph 2?

A. The number of computers that can make the Internet available to most of the people in the world is not increasing fast enough

B. The Internet is available to most of the people in the world, even though they don't have their own computer terminals

C. Most of the people in the world use the Internet now because the number of computers has been increasing every year

D. The number of people who use computers and the Internet is increasing every year, but most people in the world still do not have connections

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.

         Early peoples had no need of engineering works to supply their water. Hunters and nomads camped near natural sources of fresh water, and populations were so sparse that pollution of the water supply was not a serious problem. After community life developed and agricultural villages became urban centres, the problem of supplying water became important for inhabitants of a city, as well as for irrigation of the farms surrounding the city. Irrigation works were known in prehistoric times, and before 2000 BC the rulers of Babylonia and Egypt constructed systems of dams and canals to impound the flood waters of the Euphrates and Nile rivers, controlling floods and providing irrigation water throughout the dry season. Such irrigation canals also supplied water for domestic purposes. The first people to consider the sanitation of their water supply were the ancient Romans, who constructed a vast system of aqueducts to bring the clean waters of the Apennine Mountains into the city and built basins and filters along these mains to ensure the clarity of the water. The construction of such extensive water-supply systems declined when the Roman Empire disintegrated, and for several centuries local springs and wells formed the main source of domestic and industrial water.
          The invention of the force pump in England in the middle of the 16th century greatly extended the possibilities of development of water-supply systems. In London, the first pumping waterworks was completed in 1562; it pumped river water to a reservoir about 37 m above the level of the River Thames and from the reservoir the water was distributed by gravity, through lead pipes, to buildings in the vicinity.
Increased per-capita demand has coincided with water shortages in many countries. Southeast England, for example, receives only 14 per cent of Britain's rainfall, has 30 per cent of its population, and has experienced declining winter rainfall since the 1980s.
          In recent years a great deal of interest has been shown in the conversion of seawater to fresh water to provide drinking water for very dry areas, such as the Middle East. Several different processes, including distillation, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, and direct-freeze evaporation, have been developed for this purpose. Some of these processes have been used in large facilities in the United States. Although these processes are successful, the cost of treating seawater is much higher than that for treating fresh water

Clean water supply was first taken into consideration by ______.

A. the Egyptians  

B. the US people  

C. the English people     

D. the ancient Romans

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.

China - Missing Women

1. In China the growing difference between the genders is giving signals of alarm to Government authorities. According to the latest census figures, 119 boys are born for every 100 girls. This striking difference is expected to shoot up by the year 2020 with almost 40 million unsettled bachelors. This distribution of the social ecology would create havoc in the future. The social leaders are trying to pressurize the masses into producing more females. The Government has embarked on policies extending innumerable incentives to the families bearing girls. Monetary support, free education, guaranteed employment is being gifted to parents who gift the country with a girl child. The Government is trying to persuade people to suppress their personal preferences and regulate their community behavior according to the new blueprint to stimulate the girl ratio. [A■] Sometimes the Government tries to woo them and sometimes it uses stem policies to force them into it

2. Consequent to the population explosion, the Government introduced, in the 80’s, one child policy in China. Any additional pregnancy had to be terminated. This was aimed to put a check on the teeming millions. The policy had no relation to extermination of girl child in the womb. But the policymakers had no idea about its long term impact. People, with a patriarchic mindset, came up with their preference for a single male child. The idea of a happy family became ‘parents with a single male child’.

3. The Chinese culture has always promoted sons over daughters because the society has been dominated by males. In villages, where hard work is needed to sustain the agriculture, a boy is always preferable due to his superior physical strength compared to that of a girl. [B■] In such circumstances, looking forward to a male baby seems justified. If people have to limit their families, it is obvious they would prefer a boy over a girl child. This problem has been accentuated by the use of ultrasound scanning which helps determine the sex of the fetus. This technology has played a crucial role in creating gender imbalance.

4. Sociologists consider this imbalance as the aftermath of Government’s poorly thought and short-sighted policy. The Government's intentions notwithstanding, China came to develop a markedly lopsided sex ratio. Nobel Laureate Hayek feels that when Government tries to dominate the social system by making people forcibly inculcate a certain habit, such a condition is bound to happen. People try to find ways which not only fulfill their preferences but also satisfy the law makers. The Government damaged the dynamics of a healthy society and was now bearing the brunt of its past deeds.

5. Hayek argues that by no means should a centralized bureaucracy be allowed to design preferences for hundreds of thousands of people, without even consulting them. In such a system, with the passage of time, unforeseen consequences spring up. Government can bind people to its chosen course for a time but the impositions cannot limit their options for long. [C■] The quarter century that has passed since commencement of the effort to redesign the Chinese family is leaving behind its own trail.

6. The Government needs to be careful now. It has to invent new remedies to address this problem. It needs to redesign the social fabric so that programs like ‘Care for Girls’ get support of the masses, who seem to have little faith in the system. They view the new program for the girl child in the same resigned manner as the program that was forced on them in the past. Some women social workers are of the view that the fall of sex ratio has been an advantage for the women of China, as their social value has increased. [D■] The Government policy has in a way helped uplift the status of females. The real fear now is that China will soon be faced with hordes of bachelors at war with their brethren over finding their brides. The “surplus sons” of China need to stop interfering with the social system.

What was the vision behind the government's policy discussed in paragraph 2?

A. The vision about China with women at top positions in the government

B. The vision for China to control its burgeoning population in near future

C. The vision about a female dominated society

D. The vision that Chinese young men and women would find life partners among themselves

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.

         Early peoples had no need of engineering works to supply their water. Hunters and nomads camped near natural sources of fresh water, and populations were so sparse that pollution of the water supply was not a serious problem. After community life developed and agricultural villages became urban centres, the problem of supplying water became important for inhabitants of a city, as well as for irrigation of the farms surrounding the city. Irrigation works were known in prehistoric times, and before 2000 BC the rulers of Babylonia and Egypt constructed systems of dams and canals to impound the flood waters of the Euphrates and Nile rivers, controlling floods and providing irrigation water throughout the dry season. Such irrigation canals also supplied water for domestic purposes. The first people to consider the sanitation of their water supply were the ancient Romans, who constructed a vast system of aqueducts to bring the clean waters of the Apennine Mountains into the city and built basins and filters along these mains to ensure the clarity of the water. The construction of such extensive water-supply systems declined when the Roman Empire disintegrated, and for several centuries local springs and wells formed the main source of domestic and industrial water.
          The invention of the force pump in England in the middle of the 16th century greatly extended the possibilities of development of water-supply systems. In London, the first pumping waterworks was completed in 1562; it pumped river water to a reservoir about 37 m above the level of the River Thames and from the reservoir the water was distributed by gravity, through lead pipes, to buildings in the vicinity.
Increased per-capita demand has coincided with water shortages in many countries. Southeast England, for example, receives only 14 per cent of Britain's rainfall, has 30 per cent of its population, and has experienced declining winter rainfall since the 1980s.
          In recent years a great deal of interest has been shown in the conversion of seawater to fresh water to provide drinking water for very dry areas, such as the Middle East. Several different processes, including distillation, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, and direct-freeze evaporation, have been developed for this purpose. Some of these processes have been used in large facilities in the United States. Although these processes are successful, the cost of treating seawater is much higher than that for treating fresh water

The word “mains” in paragraph 1 could best be replaced by “______”.

A. rivers     

B. pipes       

C. areas       

D. lands

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.

American movies create myths about college life in the United States. These stories are entertaining, but they are not true. You have to look beyond Hollywood movies to understand what college is really like.

Thanks to the movies, many people believe that college students party and socialize more than they study. Movies almost never show students working hard in class or in the library. Instead, movies show them eating, talking, hanging out, or dancing to loud music at wild parties. While it is true that American students have the freedom to participate in activities, they also have academic responsibilities. In order to succeed, they have to attend classes and study hard.

Another movie myth is that athletics is the only important extracurricular activity. In fact, there is a wide variety of nonacademic activities on campus such as special clubs, service organizations, art, and theater programs. This variety allows students to choose what interests them. Even more important, after graduation, students’ résumés look better to employers if they list a few extracurricular activities.

Most students in the movies can easily afford higher education. If only this were true! While it is true that some American college students are wealthy, most are from families with moderate incomes. Up to 80% of them get some type of financial aid. Students from middle and lower-income families often work part-time throughout their college years. There is one thing that many college students have in common, but it is not something you will see in the movies. They have parents who think higher education is a priority, a necessary and important part of their children's lives.

Movies about college life usually have characters that are extreme in some way. super athletic, super intelligent, super wealthy, super glamorous, etc. Movies use these stereotypes, along with other myths of romance and adventure because audiences like going to movies that include these elements. Of course, real college students are not like movie characters at all.

So the next time you want a taste of the college experience, do not go to the movies. Look at some college websites or brochures instead. Take a walk around your local college campus. Visit a few classes. True, you may not be able to see the same people or exciting action you will see in the movies, but you can be sure that there are plenty of academic adventures going on all around you !

The word “moderate” in the fourth paragraph is closest in meaning to “_______”.

A. not high 

B. unlimited

C. not steady

D. sensible

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.

TRAVELING TO WORK

If you were going to choose a job that involves travel, what would be your first choice? There are many jobs available today that give people opportunities to travel. Although may traveling careers sound fantastic, they also have disadvantages.

Being an au pair is an excellent way to not only go to different countries, but to live in different places around the world and really get a feel for the culture. Au pairs lives with the families they are placed with and take of children. Many parents include au pairs in family events and vacations, so they experience many aspects of the new culture while on the job. However, many of the activities are centered around the children, so they may not get to experience many things that interest adults.

For people who want a bit more freedom working abroad, being an English teacher maybe a good choice. There are English teaching jobs in almost countries in the world. People teaching English in other countries often have a chance to travel on the weekends around the country. One drawback is that many teachers often wind up hanging out with other English teachers, and they don’t have time to learn the country’s language. The nickname “roadie” implies that this job involves life on the road. Roadies are people who work and travel with bands and provide technical support. Roadies can be lighting and stage crew who set up the stage and break it down before and after events. They can also be technicians helping band members with their instruments. International tours take a band’s crew to cities around the world, often requiring air travel. However, the crew doesn’t get much time off, so they may travel to several countries without seeing much besides concert venues and hotels.

Similarly, flight attendants often travel to cities around the world, but they don’t see much besides the inside of airplanes and hotels. However, when they do have time off, they can often fly at no cost, and family member can sometimes fly free as well. Its is widely thought that a flight attendant job is glamorous, but flight attendants must deal with travel hassles, as well as security issues. All jobs gave advantages and disadvantages whether or not you travel for work, so if you have the travel bug, keep these jobs in mind for the future.

The word “venue” in paragraph 4 is closet meaning to ?

A. performances

B. places

C. tours

D. artists

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.

          Family life in the United States is changing. Thirty or forty years ago, the wife was called a "housewife". She cleaned, cooked, and cared for the children. The husband earned the money for the family. He was usually out working all day. He came home tired in the evening, so he did not do much housework. And he did not see the children very much, except on weekends.
          These days, however, more and more wemen work outside the home. They cannot stay with the children all day. They, too, come home tired in the evening. They do not want to spend the evening cooking dinner and cleaning up. They do not have time to clean the house and do the laundry. So who is going to do the housework now? Who is going to take care of the children?
          Many families solve the problem of housework by sharing it. In these families, the husband and wife agree to do different jobs around the house, or they take turns doing each job. For example, the husband always cooks dinner and the wife always does the laundry. Or the wife cooks dinner on some nights and the husband cooks dinner on other nights.
          Then there is a question of the children. In the past, many families got help with child care from grandparents. Now families usually do not live near their relatives. The grandparents often are too far away to help in a regular way.
          More often, parents have to pay for child care help. The help may be a babysister or a day-care center. The problem with this kind of help is the high cost. It is possible only for couples with jobs that pay well. Parents may get another kind of help from the companies they work for. Many companies now let people with children work part-time. That way, parents can spend more time with their children. Some husbands may even stop working for a while to stay with the children. For these men there is a new word: They are called "househusband". In the United States more ans more men are becoming househusband every year.
          These changes in the home mean changes in the family. Fathers can learn to understand their children better, and the children can get to know their fathers better. Husbands and wives may also find changes in their marriage. They, too, may have a better understanding of each other

Nowadays there are ____________.

A. more and more women staying with the children all day

B. more work outside the home before.

C. more housewives than before.

D. more women going out to work than before.

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

Since water is the basis of life, composing the greater part of the tissues of all living things, the crucial problem of desert animals is to survive in a world where sources of flowing water are rare. And since man’s inexorable necessity is to absorb large quantities of water at frequent intervals, he can scarcely comprehend that many creatures of the desert pass their entire lives without a single drop.

Uncompromising as it is, the desert has not eliminated life but only those forms unable to withstand its desiccating effects. No moist- skinned, water-loving animals can exist there. Few large animals are found. The giants of the North American desert are the deer, the coyote, and the bobcat. Since desert country is open, it holds more swift-footed running and leaping creatures than the tangled forest. Its population is largely

nocturnal, silent, filled with reticence, and ruled by stealth. Yet they are not emaciated.

Having adapted to their austere environment, they are as healthy as animals anywhere else in the word. The secret of their adjustment lies in the combination of behavior and physiology. None could survive if, like mad dogs and Englishmen, they went out in the midday sun; many would die in a matter of minutes. So most of them pass the burning hours asleep in cool, humid burrows underneath the ground, emerging to hunt only by night. The surface of the sun-baked desert averages around 150 degrees, but 18 inches down the temperature is only 60 degrees.

The word “them” means

A. animals

B. minutes

C. people

D. water

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.

China - Missing Women

1. In China the growing difference between the genders is giving signals of alarm to Government authorities. According to the latest census figures, 119 boys are born for every 100 girls. This striking difference is expected to shoot up by the year 2020 with almost 40 million unsettled bachelors. This distribution of the social ecology would create havoc in the future. The social leaders are trying to pressurize the masses into producing more females. The Government has embarked on policies extending innumerable incentives to the families bearing girls. Monetary support, free education, guaranteed employment is being gifted to parents who gift the country with a girl child. The Government is trying to persuade people to suppress their personal preferences and regulate their community behavior according to the new blueprint to stimulate the girl ratio. [A■] Sometimes the Government tries to woo them and sometimes it uses stem policies to force them into it

2. Consequent to the population explosion, the Government introduced, in the 80’s, one child policy in China. Any additional pregnancy had to be terminated. This was aimed to put a check on the teeming millions. The policy had no relation to extermination of girl child in the womb. But the policymakers had no idea about its long term impact. People, with a patriarchic mindset, came up with their preference for a single male child. The idea of a happy family became ‘parents with a single male child’.

3. The Chinese culture has always promoted sons over daughters because the society has been dominated by males. In villages, where hard work is needed to sustain the agriculture, a boy is always preferable due to his superior physical strength compared to that of a girl. [B■] In such circumstances, looking forward to a male baby seems justified. If people have to limit their families, it is obvious they would prefer a boy over a girl child. This problem has been accentuated by the use of ultrasound scanning which helps determine the sex of the fetus. This technology has played a crucial role in creating gender imbalance.

4. Sociologists consider this imbalance as the aftermath of Government’s poorly thought and short-sighted policy. The Government's intentions notwithstanding, China came to develop a markedly lopsided sex ratio. Nobel Laureate Hayek feels that when Government tries to dominate the social system by making people forcibly inculcate a certain habit, such a condition is bound to happen. People try to find ways which not only fulfill their preferences but also satisfy the law makers. The Government damaged the dynamics of a healthy society and was now bearing the brunt of its past deeds.

5. Hayek argues that by no means should a centralized bureaucracy be allowed to design preferences for hundreds of thousands of people, without even consulting them. In such a system, with the passage of time, unforeseen consequences spring up. Government can bind people to its chosen course for a time but the impositions cannot limit their options for long. [C■] The quarter century that has passed since commencement of the effort to redesign the Chinese family is leaving behind its own trail.

6. The Government needs to be careful now. It has to invent new remedies to address this problem. It needs to redesign the social fabric so that programs like ‘Care for Girls’ get support of the masses, who seem to have little faith in the system. They view the new program for the girl child in the same resigned manner as the program that was forced on them in the past. Some women social workers are of the view that the fall of sex ratio has been an advantage for the women of China, as their social value has increased. [D■] The Government policy has in a way helped uplift the status of females. The real fear now is that China will soon be faced with hordes of bachelors at war with their brethren over finding their brides. The “surplus sons” of China need to stop interfering with the social system.

The word "inculcate" as used in paragraph 4 means

A. calculate the pros and cons

B. forting somebody to do one's bidding

C. get into the habit of

D. impressing upon the mind by persistent urging