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 Vietnamese consider it rude to interrupt a person while he is talking.

A. bad mannered 

B. polite      

C. uneducated       

D. ignorant

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

Diet and Exercise

Many people seem to believe that there is a magic diet formula that will guarantee weight loss. This is a fallacy. Most fad diet, if followed conscientiously, will result in weight loss due to the reduction in calories. However, they are nearly always too monotonous and sometimes too unhealthy to be followed in the long term. Worse, fad dieters who don't become physically active and learn to eat sensibly will eventually regain the weight they lost, and often even more.

          Some of the most popular fad diets in recent years have been low-carbohydrate programs, which work by making the body produce ketones. Ketones are normal and efficient source of energy for the human body. When the intake of carbohydrates is severely restricted, body fats are broken down into fatty acids that can be used as fuel. The fatty acids may be incompletely metabolized, yielding ketones. When your body is producing ketones, and using them as fuel, this is called ketosis. Most diets based on ketosis do not limit the consumption of protein, fat, or total calories. As a result, their fat content tends to be very high. Promoters claim that ketosis will lead to increased metabolism of unwanted fat, even if the calories are not reduced. This is not entirely true; calorie reduction is likely to occur because of the diet's lack of appealing foods. This is not conductive to forming sensible eating habits.

          The most widely used low-carbohydrate diet is the one advocated by the late Robert Atkins M.D, of New York City. Under the Atkins program, the dieter is permitted to eat unlimited amounts of non-carbohydrate foods "when hungry". The American Medical Association and many individual experts have warned that the unlimited intake of saturated fat under Atkins food plan can increase the dieter's risk of heart disease. In 2000, researchers at the University of Kentucky did a computer analysis of a week's worth of sample menus and reported several alarming findings: the diet contained 59% fat; it provided fewer servings of grains, vegetables, and fruits than recommended by most nutritionists, and while it can produce short-term weight loss, long-term use is likely to increase the risk of both cardiovascular disease and cancer. The weight loss usually doesn't last, either. As ketosis begins, weight will be shed quickly, giving the misleading impression that significant fat reduction is taking place. In fact, most of the weight loss is water rather than fat; the lost water is regained quickly when a normal diet is resumed. Appetite, which is often reduced during ketosis, also returns.

          Atkins advocated his diet for more than 30 years and claimed that more than 60,000 patients treated at his centre had used his diet as their primary protocol for losing weight. Yet he never published any study in which people who used this program were monitored over a period of several years. Besides the dubiousness of its effects in the long term, the Atkins diet shares another shortcoming of all fad diets: inflexibility. People are different, with different health problems and genetic characteristics, and no single diet is right for everyone.

          An additional downside to the recent craze for low-carbohydrate diets is that it has encouraged food companies to market low-carbohydrate foods for people who want to "watch their carbs". Most of these foods are much higher in fat than the foods they are designed to replace. "Low-carb” advertising is encouraging both dieters and non-dieters to eat high-fat foods, which is exactly the opposite of medical and nutrition authorities have been arguing for decades. Following a low-carbohydrate diet under medical supervision may make sense for some people, but a population-wide increase in fat consumption would be a public health disaster

The word conscientiously in paragraph 1 could best be replaced by ______

A. consciously

B. scientifically

C. correctly

D. severely

Read the passage and choose the best answer for each question below.

          By far the most important United States export product in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was cotton, favored by the European textile industry over flax or wool because it was easy to process and soft to tile touch. Mechanization of spinning and weaving allowed significant centralization and expansion in the textile industry during

this period, and at the same time the demand for cotton increased dramatically. American producers were able to meet this demand largely because of tile invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793. Cotton could be grown throughout the South, but separating the fiber – or lint – from the seed was a laborious process. Sea island cotton was relatively easy to process by hand, because its fibers were long and seeds were concentrated at the base of the flower, but it demanded a long growing season, available only along the nation's eastern seacoast. Short-staple cotton required a much shorter growing season, but the shortness of the fibers and their mixture with seeds meant that a worker could

hand-process only about one pound per day. Whitney's gin was a hand-powered machine with revolving drums and metal teeth to pull cotton fibers away from seeds. Using the gin, a worker could produce up to 50 pounds of lint a day.   The later development of larger gins, powered by horses, water, or steam, multiplied productivity further.

          The interaction of improved processing and high demand led to the rapid spread of the cultivation of cotton and to a surge in production. It became the main American export, dwarfing all others. In 1802, cotton composed 14 percent of total American exports by value. Cotton had a 36 percent share by 1810 and over a 50 percent share

in 1830. In 1860, 61 percent of the value of American exports was represented by cotton. In contrast, wheat and wheat flour composed only 6 percent of the value of American exports in that year. Clearly, cotton was king in the trade of the young republic. The growing market for cotton and other American agricultural products led to an unprecedented expansion of agricultural settlement, mostly in the eastern half of the United States---west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River.

The word "unprecedented" in line 18 is closest in meaning to

A. slow

B. profitable

C. not seen before

D. never explained

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.

We started working here three years ago.

A. We have worked here for three years.

B. We worked here for three years.

C. We will work here for three years.

D. We have no longer worked here for three years.

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.

I thought she was the right person for the position, yet it turned put that she was quite useless.

A. Because I was expecting her to be competent, I was shocked to see her perform rather badly

B. I was mistaken about her suitability for the position since she proved rather incompetent

C. Contrary to my initial impression, she was not totally unsuitable for the position

D. I was right in thinking that she was totally useless for the job

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.

For its establishment, ASEAN Tourism Association has played an important role in promoting and developing ASEAN Tourism services.

A. Tourism Association

B. played

C. in promoting and developing

D. For its

Read the passages and circle the best option A, B, C, or D to complete the following questions or statements

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political scientist, historian, philosopher and politician, is most famous for a four-volume book he wrote called “Democracy in America”. He came to America in 1831 to study the American form of democracy and what it might mean to the rest of the world. After a visit of only nine months, he wrote a remarkable book which is regarded as a classic. De Tocqueville had unusual powers of observation. He described not only the democratic system of government and how it operated, but also its effect on how Americans think, feel, and act. Many scholars believe he had a deeper understanding of traditional American beliefs and values than anyone else who has written about the United States. What is so remarkable is that many of these traits which he observed nearly 200 years ago, are still visible and meaningful today. His observations are also important because the timing of his visit, the 1830s, was before America was industrialized. This was the era of the small farmer, the small businessman, and the settling of the western frontier. It was the period of history when the traditional values of the new country were newly established. In just a generation, some 40 years since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, the new form of government had already produced a society of people with unique values. He was, however, a neutral observer and saw both the good and bad sides of these qualities.

The first part of “Democracy in America” was written in 1831-32 and published in 1835. A highly positive and optimistic account of American government and society, the book was very well received. He attempted to get a glimpse of the essence of American society, all the while promoting his own philosophy: the equaling of the classes and the inevitable depth of aristocratic privilege. The rest of the book he labored on for four years, and in 1840 the second part was published. This was substantially more pessimistic than the first, warning of the dangers despotism and governmental centralization, and applying his ideas and criticisms more directly to France. As a result, it was not received as well as the first part, except in England where it was acclaimed highly.

Which of the following is true, according to the passage? 

A. the visit lasted only five months. 

B. the visit coincided with American industrialization. 

C. the first part was published in 1835; the second part in 1840. 

D. the second part was more optimistic than the first. 

You can usually tell when your friends are happy or angry by the looks on their faces or by their actions. This is useful because reading their emotional expressions helps you to know how to respond to them. Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others. But does raising the eyebrows and rounding the mouth say the same thing in Minneapolis as it does in Madagascar? Much research on emotional expressions has centered on such questions.

According to Paul Ekman, the leading researcher in this area, people speak and understand substantially the same "facial language". Studies by Ekman's group have demonstrated that humans share a set of universal emotional expressions that testify to the common biological heritage of the human species. Smiles, for example, signal happiness and frowns indicate sadness on the faces of people in such far- flung places as Argentina, Japan, Spain, Hungary, Poland , Sumatra ,the United States, Vietnam, the jungles of New Guinea , and the Eskimo villages north of Artic Circle. Ekman and his colleagues claim that people everywhere can recognize at least seven basic emotions: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happiness, and surprise. There are, however, huge differences across cultures in both the context and intensity of emotional displays - the so called display rules. In many Asian cultures, for example, children are taught to control emotional responses - especially negative ones- while many American children are encouraged to express their feelings more openly. Regardless of culture, however, emotions usually show themselves, to some degree , in people's behavior. From their first days of life, babies produce facial expressions that communicate their feelings.

The ability to read facial expressions develops early, too. Very young children pay close attention to facial expressions, and by age five, they nearly equal adults in their skill at reading emotions on people's faces. This evidence all points to a biological underpinning for our abilities to express and interpret a basic set of human emotions. Moreover, as Charles Darwin pointed out over a century ago, some emotional expressions seem to appear across species boundaries. Cross - cultural psychologists tell us that certain emotional responses carry different meanings in different cultures. For example, what emotion do you suppose might be conveyed by sticking out your tongue? For Americans, this might indicate disgust, while in China it can signify surprise. Likewise, a grin on an American face may indicate joy, while on a Japanese face it may just as easily mean embarrassment. Clearly, culture influences emotional expressions.

According to the passage, we respond to others by _________.

A. looking at their faces

B. observing their looks

C. watching their actions

D. observing their emotional expressions