Read the following passage then choose the best answer to each question below.
The Development of the Courier Service
In ancient times, runners, pigeons and riders on horseback were used to deliver messages. Before there were mechanized courier services, foot messengers physically ran miles to their destinations. To this day, there are marathons directly related to actual historical messenger routes. In cities today, there are often bicycle couriers or motorcycle couriers, but for products requiring delivery over greater distance networks, this may often include trucks, railways and aircraft. §1.
The same-day courier market expanded with the help of taxi companies but soon expanded into dedicated motorcycle dispatch riders with the taxi companies setting up separate arms to their companies to cover the courier work. During the late 1970s small provincial and regional companies were popping up throughout the country. Today, there are many large companies offering next-day courier services, including worldwide couriers such as APC Overnight, FedEx, DHL, UPS and TNT. There are many "specialist" couriers usually for the transportation of items such as freight/palettes, sensitive documents and liquids. §2.
There are thousands upon thousands of independent couriers and localized companies, offering next-day and same-day services. Since the turn of the millennium, there has been a noticeable increase in owner-drivers, self-employed couriers, operating mainly from home with a sole vehicle. Advantages of this rather than working for an established same-day courier firm are that they are able to offer far better rates to their customers. Self-employed couriers come from varied employment backgrounds from non-skilled through to highly qualified tradespeople. Motorbike couriers still exist, but mainly in and around cities, where there is often congestion, as they are much cheaper to run in heavy traffic. §3.
Large couriers often require an account to be held (and this can include daily scheduled collections). Senders are therefore primarily in the commercial/industrial sector (and not the general public); some couriers such as DHL do, however, allow public sending (at higher cost than regular senders).
The courier industry has long held an important place in United States commerce and been involved in important moments in the nation’s history, such as westward migration and the gold rush. Wells Fargo was founded in 1852 and rapidly became the preeminent package delivery company. The company specialized in shipping gold, packages and newspapers throughout the West, making a Wells Fargo office in every camp and settlement a necessity for commerce and connections to home. Shortly afterward, the Pony Express was established to move packages more quickly than the traditional method, which was the stagecoach routes. It also illustrated the demand for timely deliveries across the nation, a concept that continued to evolve with the railroads, automobiles and interstate highways and which has emerged into today’s courier industry. §4.
The courier industry in the United States is a $59 billion industry, with 86% of the business shared by only four companies, including DHL, FedEx and UPS. The remaining 14% shared among almost 11,900 other small businesses ranging in size from 1 employee to over 600. These businesses comprise of mostly same-day deliveries and are strong offline businesses and strong online businesses like Naparex and USA Couriers.
What is the meaning of the word "freight" in paragraph 2?
The author feels that _____
Read the text and choose the best answer to fill in the blanks.
The UK Government has said it to allow self-driving cars on public roads for the first time later this year. Drivers of cars with an automated lane-keeping system (ALKS) will be allowed to take their hands the steering wheel in certain situations.
ALKS uses cameras and sensors to monitor the speed of nearby vehicles and a safe distance. Under new plans, drivers will be able to use the system on motorways when is moving at less than 37 miles per hour. However, the driver must still be ready to take control when requested or the car will automatically slow down.
The Department for Transport says that self-driving cars could make the roads safer and reduce accidents caused by human . According to Mike Hawes of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, up to 47,000 accidents could be over the next decade thanks to self-driving systems. , Thatcham Research, which conducts car-safety tests, has people that ALKS still requires a lot of human involvement.
A. One was made by setting up posts with a net between them and the other consisted of just one goal post in the middle of the field.
B. They often look much different in different places.
C. This game appears to have resembled rugby.
D. It is widely believed that Marn Grook had an influence on the development of Australian football.
E. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through each other team’s line and then at a goal.
F. Although this is true only in certain societies.
G. For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by an English explorer named John Davis went ashore to play a form of football with Inuit (Eskimo) people in Greenland.
H. It describes a practice known as cuju (literally "kick ball"), which originally involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung between two 30-foot (9.1 m) poles.
Early Football
Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest activity resembling football can be found in a Chinese military manual was written during the Warring States Period in about the 476BC-221 BC.
During the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), cuju games were standardized and rules were established. Variations of this game later spread to Japan and Korea, known as kemari and chuk-guk respectively. By the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907), the feather-stuffed ball was replaced by an air-filled ball and cuju games had become professionalized, with many players making a living playing cuju. Also, two different types of goal posts emerged.
The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. The Roman writer Cicero describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barber's shop. The Roman game harpastum is believed to have been adapted from a team game known as pheninda that is mentioned by Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388-311BC) and later referred to by Clement of Alexandria.
There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, and/or prehistoric ball games, played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world. There are later accounts of an Inuit game played on ice, called aqsaqtuk. In 1610, William Strachey of the Jamestown settlement, Virginia recorded a game played by Native Americans, called pahsaheman. In Victoria, Australia, indigenous people played a game called Marn Grook ("ball game"). An 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, quotes a man called Richard Thomas as saying, in about 1841, that he had witnessed Aboriginal people playing the game: "Mr. Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order to catch it.
You are going to read an article about New York's mayoral race. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-H for each part (1-7) of the article. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
A. He was quick to condemn the shooting, saying "everything is contingent upon whether our streets and our subways are safe". The Democratic primary is on June 22nd, and it is likely to be decisive. There are two Republican candidates Tunning, but Democrats outnumber Republicans in the city seven to one.
B. Crime is still much lower than it was at its height three decades ago, but New Yorkers list it among their top three priorities for the next mayor, along with stopping the spread of COVID-19 and kick-starting the economy. Eric Adams, Brooklyn’s borough president and a former policeman, is second in most polls and has made combating crime a focus.
C. For the first time in a mayoral primary, city voters will be able to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. When the Board of Elections begins tabulating the results, if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes, all votes for the lowest-performing candidate will be eliminated, and those voters’ second-choice picks will be counted instead. The cycle continues until one winner remains.
D. But for decades until the mid-1990s, New Yorkers and visitors alike avoided this "Crossroads of the World" because of its reputation for crime and drugs. On May 8th, when a gunfight erupted in Times Square and a toddler and two visitors were wounded, New Yorkers feared, not the first time, that their city was sliding back into its old ways.
E. Several progressive candidates, including Dianne Morales, a former non-profit executive, are calling for new programmes and higher taxes on the wealthy. But the city cannot raise taxes without the state government's approval, and New York City already faces the highest income-tax rate in the country.
F. Last year it shrank by perhaps 300,000 people (an estimate from CBS, a broadcaster, based on postal changes of address). Perhaps more worrying, the Partnership for New York City, an industry group, surveyed the city’s big employers and found that only 10% of Manhattan’s office workers had returned to their desks by March. Employers expect only 46% of their people back at their desks by September, and they expect 56% will work remotely at least part of the time after that.
G. New Yorkers have more reason than usual to master fine distinctions among all the candidates because this is the first big-city election to be decided by ranked-choice voting. Voters will be able to express their preference, in order, for up to five candidates. But whom to rank where?
H. Crime is again confronting many American cities, but the next mayor will also face problems that are peculiar to New York. One is how to raise taxes enough to finance more spending without prompting more Wall Street firms to leave town. Several, including Blackstone, a private equity giant, have already opened offices in Florida, where taxes are far lower.
UNCERTAINTY AND THE CITY
Next month's primary is the first in a generation to be run while the city seems to be shrinking
Times Square is the only neighborhood in New York City where regulations require a minimum amount of display lighting. Before the pandemic, tourists flocked there to gawk at the dazzling lights or to take selfies with someone dressed as Elmo or Spiderman, or maybe with the guitar-strumming Naked Cowboy (who in fact wears Y-fronts).
On promises to make New York's lights shine brighter than ever, about a dozen Democrats are running for mayor, known as the second-toughest job in America. They are elbowing one another for attention from the city's diminished media. New Yorkers are still struggling to keep track of their names, much less the fine points of policy that (sort of) distinguish them. The candidate leading in the polls is the one with the most name recognition, Andrew Yang, who competed for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, and who is positioning himself as the field's tech-savvy moderate.
Typically mayoral candidates find themselves arguing about how to manage New York’s growth, This is the first election for a generation in which they are confronting the hazards of shrinkage. Reliable numbers are hard to come by, but even before the epidemic, the population was declining very slightly.
With so many commuters vanishing, thousands of small businesses have closed their doors, taking one out of every eight jobs with them. On once-busy commercial streets, storefronts are empty and dark. Though Broadway is set to reopen in September, the hospitality industry has taken a beating during the pandemic: more than seven in ten of those working in the sector lost work last year. Across the city, employment is not expected to recover its pre-pandemic levels before 2024.
He compared gun violence to a virus. "If we do not inoculate against it now, it will spread and spread and it will mean the death of countless New Yorkers and the city we have built." Fearmongering, perhaps, but also a sign of how fearful many constituents are. When Mr. Adams recently strolled down Brooklyn's Metropolitan Avenue, which he once patrolled, many passers-by shared their concerns about violence with him. "I'm afraid to walk to work," said one Fed-Ex worker.
Another New York specific problem is the subway, beset before the pandemic by delays caused by an ageing signal system and now seeing a decline of two-thirds in daily riders, which was 5.6m before COVID-19 struck. New York's governor actually has more control over the subway, which only makes the next mayor's task harder: the city will not rebound if the subway doesn't. Not only the virus but fear of crime is keeping New Yorkers from going down into the tunnels. The current mayor, Bill de Blasio, has felt it necessary to create a travel-buddy scheme for City employees.
Each candidate has a plan for the city’s recovery. Ray McGuire, a former Citigroup executive, says through measures like salary subsidies to small businesses he will bring back 500,000 jobs. He ticks a lot of boxes. He had a modest upbringing by a single mother, but at Citi, he advised on transactions even bigger than the city’s $99bn budget.
Mr. Yang has some intriguing ideas, and New York's mayors are supposed to do things that other cities copy. But he stands apart mainly because the city likes a star: Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg were all well-known before they became mayors. Mr. Yang has said he would hire Kathryn Garcia, an experienced problem-solver in city government, to help him run the place. Like a true New Yorker, Ms. Garcia, who is also a candidate, shot back that Mr. Yang could work for her.
"Do you think Greg was at the gym on Sunday?"
"He _____. It's closed on weekends."
The state of the economy is poor. _____, the unemployment rate is rising.
Now Bob _____ as a baggage handler at the airport until he can find something more suitable.
A therapist is trying to help the couple _____ with the strain of the situation.
"Is Leah OK?"
"Yes, we spent hours _____ about her problem and she seems to feel better now."
Her _____ success at the polls is the best indicator of her popularity.
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
THE 1,000-YEAR BENDER
Even if you are teetotal, you cannot deny that humans, as a species, like to drink. We consume wine, beer, cider, spirits... in fact, the (0) fermented product of almost anything we can turn into alcohol. Our (FOND) for this toxic substance, the cause of so much trouble, is something of a mystery. Maybe it is enough to say that we drink because it makes us feel good. But to understand our love of alcohol we need a bigger, more (EVOLVE) , explanation.
The story of alcohol is one of an intimate relationship between humans and yeasts, an affair that began millions of years ago and is still playing out today. We like to cast ourselves as the star of this drama, but in fact yeasts are the (SING) lead character. Ours is a symbiotic connection - a mutually beneficial (PARTNER) . It is also one in which the balance of power is constantly shifting. If anything, the yeasts seem to have had the (UP) hand, at least since our ancestors began brewing their own grog. We cultivate yeasts, ensuring they survive and thrive, and in return we get, at best, a good night out and a (HANG) the next morning. Once upon a time, however, yeast and alcohol may have offered us more (SIGNIFY) rewards.
Today the costs of our love of alcohol often (WEIGH) any benefits. But, being a story of evolution, it doesn’t end there. Already some humans have acquired (GENE) changes that encourage them to drink less. If this trend continues, it is possible that one day this long and (TEMPEST) relationship will reach a kind of tenuous truce.
Write one word in each gap.
Passage 1: COVID AND COMMUNITY
Graphic detail looked at the economic impact of COVID-19 suicide rates (April 24th). The reported decrease in suicide, perhaps surprising many people’s financial hardship, could be explained by the work of Emile Durkheim. In “Suicide”, the late-19th-century French sociologist studied people who their own life and how they interacted society. He described four types of suicide, one of which is egoistic suicide, when an individual does not feel a of belonging. It is well known that in of war suicide rates drop. This is generally ascribed a "we're all in it together" sentiment in a unified fight a common foe. It is plausible that the on COVID has united societies in this way and suicide rates have fallen as a .
Write one word in each gap.
Passage 2
When was the last time you had a good night's sleep? By that I mean: you said goodbye to the waking world an hour or two than usual, left your phone in another room, and didn't set an for the next morning. Sounds good, doesn't it? But in reality, it's something few of us ever indulge .
You might even feel like our sleeping hours are threat. Celebs and self-proclaimed lifestyle gurus often boast about how they sleep - productivity comes . And how many of us are guilty of bringing our smartphones into bed, where a few TikToks or tweets quickly turn into hours of lost sleep? And let's not get into how the pandemic has wreaked with our sleeping patterns.
Unfortunately, while we all struggle to get a decent rest, scientists are discovering just important sleep is. Of course, we all know the consequences of an all-nighter, but it seems that even just an hour of lost sleep can have a profound effect our overall health and wellbeing.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
Simon would found a new company whenever he ran into difficulties. (USED)
=> Whenever Simon ran into difficulties, up a new company.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
Larry sought to dissuade them from selling the ranch. (TALK)
=> Larry tried the ranch.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
"I'll take you anywhere, no matter where it is," Jim promised her. (WHEREVER)
=> Jim promised to wanted to go.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
He is sure to figure out what happened eventually. (MATTER)
=> It's only out what happened.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
I was forced to confess to cheating in the exam. (MADE)
=> They up to cheating in the exam.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
Mark didn't want to be discovered, so he carried out his plan in the middle of the night. (FOR)
=> Mark carried out his plan in the middle of the night out.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
Most people won't tolerate being lied to. (UP)
=> Very being lied to.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
He advised me so half-heartedly that I was left wondering what to do. (ADVICE)
=> He gave me such a loss as to what I should do.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
It's a pity they can't abolish military service. (DO AWAY)
=> If with military service.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first. Write between THREE AND EIGHT words in the space provided. Do not change the word given in blankets in any way.
"Your new hairstyle looks great, Sylvia!" I said. (COMPLIMENTED)
=> I new hairstyle.