The storm _____ in advance, the local people still suffered tremendous damage.
Until this evening, Hannah is still ______ away at her unfinished report.
This mystery thriller is a _____, keeping readers guessing until the final chapter.
The library contained rows of shelves and a reading nook. _____.
A: Why aren't you happy living there? Is it too noisy for you?
B: It's not ______ noise, but the fact that I work far away.
Unlike the past, husbands in _____ families today are willing to shoulder responsibility for household chores with their wives.
This football club got through to the final of the championship three years in _____.
Joshua was all set to take the job in Hanoi, but at the last minute he _____ and decided to stay in Britain.
We must adopt a firm policy on punctuality. We can't have people _____ late all the time.
It was so hot that most people stayed indoors; the streets were _____ empty.
A: Would you like to help me organize a surprise birthday party for your father?
B: _____!
The family curse seemed to make every male descendant turn _____ bald by age 25.
A million pounds in the ______ rate for an ordinary player in today's inflationary market.
In 2022, several Western countries _____ diplomatic relations with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
Sporting goods stores have managed to ______ on emerging fitness and consumer trends.
We should try walking all the way ______ sometime.
Murillo steered with one hand and twisted the cork of a bottle of tequila with ______.
In a nationally representative sample survey of the skilled South African population, as many as 69 percent of the respondents had given some thought to ______.
We stand at a(n) _____ moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future.
All around the school grounds, pumpkin plants are growing for the school competition, clearly labelled so that pupils can keep an eye on _____ is doing best.
Some people think that jobs that pay _____ pay less than salaried jobs, but that is not always the case.
A: Are you sure we should eat this with our hands?
B: Why not? All of these people are eating it that way. _____
His classmates are always _____ him for his oversized nose.
Read the text and choose the best answer to fill in the blanks.
Few inventions have had more scorn and praise them at the same time than television. And few have done so much to unite the world into one vast audience for news, sport, information and entertainment. Television must be alongside printing as one of the most significant inventions of all time in the of communications. In just a few decades it has reached every home in the developed world and an ever-increasing proportion of homes in developing countries. It took over half a century from the first suggestion that television might be possible before the first pictures were produced in laboratories in Britain and America.
In 1926 John Logie Baird's genius for publicity brought television to the of a British audience. It has since such heights of success and taken on such a pivotal function that it is difficult to imagine a world of this groundbreaking invention.
Read the text and choose the best answer to fill in the blanks.
Can Tho is the largest city in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Located along the Hau River, it serves as the Mekong's political and commercial center a gateway to the Delta's waterways. Can Tho experiences two seasons, with the wet season from May to November and the dry season from December to April. The best time to explore is in April, May, or June when the weather is pleasant, and the rainy season not fully set in.
Το yourself in Can Tho's unique beauty and culture, a stroll through the city is recommended. Ninh Kieu Park sits at the confluence of the River Hau and the Can Tho River. The edge of the park is lined with well-kept plants and features an impressive 7.2-meter sculpture of the national icon, Ho Chi Minh. Along the river south of the park is Hai Ba Trung Street. This area, , boasts numerous cafes, restaurants, and hotels and trendy lighting off the river. The Can Tho Bridge even casts some beautiful light shows the water with the colors rippling and merging with the gentle waves. For a historical experience, Binh Thuy Ancient House, built in 1870 and through six generations, showcases intricate architecture and period furnishings.
Can Tho's cultural richness is further highlighted by its floating markets. The largest in the Mekong Delta is the renowned Cal Rang Floating Market. Daily tours at this market offer a glimpse of the vibrant trade and local produce. Unlike the busy wholesale market at Cai Rang, Phong Dien Market is made up of mainly smaller boats. a little farther away, the market provides a more intimate, local-style market experience.
Regarding cuisine, Can Tho's fertile lands and river surroundings contribute to a culinary landscape. De Tham, known as "food street", offers a variety of Vietnamese dishes, among which Banh Cong, Banh Xeo, and Chuoi Nep Nuong stand out as local specialties. Hot Pot Alley, located in Xuan Khanh Quarter, is a must-visit for those seeking a customizable and satisfying hot pot experience.
Fill in each blank with ONE best word.
LEARNING DISABILITIES ARE UP
Are learning disabilities really the rise or are we just more aware of them? Recent statistics indicate that up to 10% of school-age children, that's two or three individuals in every classroom, are thought to have kind of learning disorder, the causes of are both complex and multiple. More worrying still are recent findings by the Science journal which suggest that up to 45% of children, more than one disorder is likely. An ADHD child (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) may also from dyslexia (a reading and writing disability) or dyscalculia (a maths learning disability).
Many of the learning disabilities included in the research and findings are numbered amongst the autistic spectrum disorders, which would push figures to appear higher in the past when diagnosis was less easily . Demographic analysis also indicates that many of the children under six who are diagnosed are from within the higher income bracket, suggesting that parents are likely to be more aware of potential problems and better to address them.
Unfortunately, despite this worrying rise, the current school system is not equipped to deal the greatly differing teaching methods required to address the variety of learning difficulties that the disorders entail. The devastating result of this is leaving many children totally in the basic skills required to survive in the secondary school system. The prevalence of learning disabilities in the lower economic bracket is undisputed, yet sadly these children are more likely to have undiagnosed disabilities which will never be addressed.
Write one word in each gap.
BICYCLE SAFETY
Having to obey rules and regulations when riding a bike is one of first experiences children have of the idea of obeying the law. , a large number of children are left to learn the rules by trial and error of being guided by experienced adults. Every year, hundreds of children visit the doctor or the hospital casualty department after on their bikes. This could be easily prevented by them the basics of bicycle safety. Ideally, children should be allowed to ride only safe places, such as parks and cycle tracks. When this is not possible, and they are permitted to go on the road, it is important to teach them some basic safety principles.
First, they ought to learn and obey the rules of the road, include traffic signs, signals and road markings. Second, they should always wear a helmet. Studies have shown that wearing bicycle helmets can reduce head injuries by to 85 percent. In many places, helmets are by law, particularly for children. , children should be made to understand the importance of riding in areas that are brightly lit and of wearing clothes that make them clearly visible on the road.
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
Papillon: a "must" read
Everyone likes a good "jail-break" story. One of my favorites is the narrative contained in the best-selling (BIOGRAPHY) Papillon by a Frenchman named Henri Charriére about his (CREDIT) escape from the notorious penal colony known as Devil's Island. In this (REMARK) book, Charriére weaves his tale of seemingly endless determination and (RESILIENT) in the face of great conflict and confrontation.
The book spans more than a decade, with the opening chapters focusing on Charriére's early career in 1930s France as a (RESOURCE) safecracker. The book takes a turn when Charriére is arrested for the murder of another criminal - an (OFFEND) which carries with it a sentence of life (PRISON).
Charriére is found guilty and, as (PUNISH) is sent to French Guiana to serve his sentence. Along the way he meets another convict called Louis Dega who makes an (LAW) living as an embezzler and forger. Dega hires Charriére as a bodyguard, but as the tale unfolds, their relationship as employer and employee (MATERIAL) into one of deepest friendship and loyalty. Papillon is a bit of a tome at over 500 pages, but the time you invest in reading it will, I assure you, be well worth it.
(Adapted from Reactivate)
Read the text and answer the following questions.
For a whopping 57 miles, a runaway train loaded with iron ore hurtled down tracks in Western Australia with nobody on board. The train was eventually deliberately derailed, creating a dramatic crash scene with huge lengths of crumpled, twisted metal on the bright orange desert sand next to the train track. The train, operated by Melbourne-based minerals, oil and gas company BHP, had made a stop on its way to northwest Australia's Port Hedland. "The driver alighted from the locomotive to inspect an issue with an ore car," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau stated.
That's when things went south, according to the safety bureau: "While the driver was outside of the locomotive, the train commenced to runaway." It was eventually deliberately derailed, which was operated by a control center. The ATSB has launched an investigation into Monday's incident. The train had four locomotives and 268 wagons, the ATSB said. It averaged about 68 mph and traveled for some 50 minutes before it was derailed, according to Australia's ABC.
"No one has been injured. We are working with the appropriate authorities to investigate the situation," BHP said in a statement to Reuters. Western Australia's premier, Mark McGowan, told ABC that it was apparent "extraordinary measures" had been necessary. "Obviously it would have been very tense for everyone involved — BHP and the workforce, and the people of Port Hedland — that a train was traveling down the track without a driver and obviously out of control," McGowan said. Industry specialists were confused about why the train would have run away down the tracks. "Usually, once the driver leaves the train, the brakes are engaged. There are procedures for that," Rail Safety Consulting Australia owner Phillip Barker told ABC. "There would have been a procedure in place to make sure the train didn't move off." BHP estimates that about 1.5 kilometers of track has been damaged and expects "the recovery process to take about one week."
Analysts think iron ore prices could see a short-term bump as a result of this derailment, according to the news service. BHP is planning to draw from its stockpiles at Port Hedland as it repairs its rail service, The West Australian reported. And as the company grapples with how, exactly, one of its trains came to be traveling driverless, it's worth noting that another iron ore company has been working to develop (purposely) driverless trains in Australia. The Rio Tinto company says it completed its first delivery of iron ore using an autonomous train in July.
(Adapted from https://www.npr.org/2018/11/06/664729853/runaway-train-blazes-through-western-australia-for-more-than-50-miles)
What, most likely, was the control center's role in the incident?
What is it meant by saying "it was apparent 'extraordinary measures' had been necessary" from paragraph 3?
Why does Mark McGowan mention "the people of Port Hedland" in paragraph 3?
What question is Phillip Barker most likely interested in answering?
What is the main subject of Paragraph 3?
Why does the author mention developments by the Rio Tinto company?
Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?
Read the following passage and complete the tasks.
Elephant Communication
O’Connell-Rodwell, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, has travelled to Namibia’s first-ever wildlife reserve to explore the mystical and complicated realm of elephant communication. She, along with her colleagues, is part of a scientific revolution that started almost 20 years ago. This revolution has made a stunning revelation: elephants are capable of communicating with each other over long distances with low-frequency sounds, also known as infrasounds, which are too deep for humans to hear.
As might be expected, African elephants able to detect seismic sound may have something to do with their ears. The hammer bone in an elephant’s inner ear is proportionally huge for a mammal, but it is rather normal for animals that use vibrational signals. Thus, it may be a sign that suggests elephants can use seismic sounds to communicate.
Other aspects of elephant anatomy also support that ability. First, their massive bodies, which enable them to give out low-frequency sounds almost as powerful as the sound a jet makes during takeoff, serve as ideal frames for receiving ground vibrations and transmitting them to the inner ear. Second, the elephant’s toe bones are set on a fatty pad, which might be of help when focusing vibrations from the ground into the bone. Finally, the elephant has an enormous brain that sits in the cranial cavity behind the eyes in line with the auditory canal. The front of the skull is riddled with sinus cavities, which might function as resonating chambers for ground vibrations.
It remains unclear how the elephants detect such vibrations, but O’Connell-Rodwell raises a point that the pachyderms are ‘listening’ with their trunks and feet instead of their ears. The elephant trunk may just be the most versatile appendage in nature. Its utilization encompasses drinking, bathing, smelling, feeding and scratching. Both trunk and feet contain two types of nerve endings that are sensitive to pressure – one detects infrasonic vibration, and another responds to vibrations higher in frequencies. As O’Connell-Rodwell sees, this research has a boundless and unpredictable future. ‘Our work is really interfaced with geophysics, neurophysiology and ecology,’ she says. ‘We’re raising questions that have never even been considered before.’
It has been well known to scientists that seismic communication is widely observed among small animals, such as spiders, scorpions, insects and quite a lot of vertebrate species like white-lipped frogs, blind mole rats, kangaroo rats and golden moles. Nevertheless, O’Connell-Rodwell first argued that a giant land animal is also sending and receiving seismic signals. ‘I used to lay a male planthopper on a stem and replay the calling sound of a female, and then the male one would exhibit the same kind of behaviour that happens in elephants - he would freeze, then press down on his legs, move forward a little, then stay still again. I find it so fascinating, and it got me thinking that perhaps auditory communication is not the only thing that is going on.’
Scientists have confirmed that an elephant’s capacity to communicate over long distances is essential for survival, especially in places like Etosha, where more than 2,400 savanna elephants range over a land bigger than New Jersey. It is already difficult for an elephant to find a mate in such a vast wild land, and the elephant's reproductive biology only complicates it. Breeding herds also adopt low-frequency sounds to send alerts regarding predators. Even though grown-up elephants have no enemies else than human beings, baby elephants are vulnerable and are susceptible to lions' and hyenas' attacks. At the sight of a predator, older ones in the herd will clump together to form protection before running away.
We now know that elephants can respond to warning calls in the air, but can they detect signals transmitted solely through the ground? To look into that matter, the research team designed an experiment in 2002, which used electronic devices that enabled them to give out signals through the ground at Mushara. ‘The outcomes of our 2002 study revealed that elephants could indeed sense warning signals through the ground,’ O’Connell-Rodwell observes.
Last year, an experiment was set up in the hope of solving that problem. It used three different recordings the 1994 warning call from Mushara, an anti-predator call recorded by scientist Joyce Poole in Kenya and a made-up warble tone. ‘The data I’ve observed to this point implies that the elephants were responding the way I always expected. However, the fascinating finding is that the anti-predator call from Kenya, which is unfamiliar to them, caused them to gather around, tense up and rumble aggressively as well but they didn’t always flee. I didn’t expect the results to be that clear-cut.’
Decide whether the statements reflect the claims of the writer. Choose
|
YES if the statement reflects the claims of the writer. NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer. NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this. |
1. An elephant's large hammer bone shows the possibility of its ability to detect seismic vibrations.
2. An elephant needs to communicate over long distances for its survival when older members of the herd want to flee from the group.
3. The 2002 research showed that elephants were unable to notice seismic signals.
4. The outcome of the experiment conducted last year is out of the original expectation.
Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
How the elephants sense these sound vibrations is still unknown, but O’Connell-Rodwell, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, proposes that elephants are ‘listening’ with their by two kinds of nerve endings that respond to vibrations with both frequency and slightly higher frequencies. O’Connell-Rodwell's work is at the combination of geophysics, neurophysiology and . It was known that seismic communication existed extensively within small animals, but O’Connell-Rodwell was the first person to indicate that a large land animal would send and receive too. Also, he noticed the freezing behaviour by putting a male planthopper on a stem and play back a female call, which might prove the existence of other communicative approaches besides . Scientists have determined that an elephant’s ability to communicate over long distances is essential, especially, when elephant herds are finding a , or are warning of predators. Finally, the results of our 2002 study showed us that elephants could detect warning calls through the ground.
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.
If nothing unfortunate happens, she will recover fully next week. (MAKE)
=> All being ...............
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Russ's opinions on the new management policies were very different from those of his fellow workers. (ODDS)
=> Russ ..........................
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
The handling of the matter has been heavily criticized by the press. (SCORN)
=> The press ...........
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
The government recommends a balance of reward and punishment when dealing with young offenders. (STICK)
=> The government favors a ...........
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
When it comes to his political views, his comments are sometimes inappropriate. (PALE)
=> As ..........
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use NO MORE THAN EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Most of the people in the computing department of Currys PC World were teenagers. (MAJORITY)
=> There were many people in the computing department of Currys PC World, teenagers.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use NO MORE THAN EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
It was wrong of the prosecution lawyer to make negative influence on the jury about her. (PREJUDICED)
=> The prosecution lawyer should her.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use NO MORE THAN EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
She was amazed because there were no problems throughout the holiday. (WENT)
=> To throughout the holiday.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use NO MORE THAN EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Although she was not experienced, she offered to replace Martin. (STAND)
=> In spite of her Martin.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use NO MORE THAN EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Because the company refuses to reduce prices, they are in trouble. (WATER)
=> The company over their refusal to reduce prices.