Read the passage and choose the best answer for each question.
New Test Shows If You Are a Shopaholic
A new shopaholic test could tell if you should leave your credit card at home when heading out to the mall.
The test makes it clear that there's shopping and then there's over-the-top purchasing that can wreak havoc on a person's life. People who become preoccupied with buying stuff and repeatedly spend money on items, regardless of need, are commonly referred to as shopaholics. Scientists call it compulsive buying.
The new test was administered along with a survey that revealed that nearly 9 percent of a sample of 550 university staff members, mostly women, would be considered compulsive buyers. Past studies had put the incidence of compulsive buying somewhere between 2 percent and 8 percent 15 years ago, and more recently, at nearly 6 percent, the researchers say. Other research has found that men are just as addicted to shopping as women.
"We are living in a consumption-oriented society and have been spending ourselves into serious difficulty," researcher Kent Monroe, a marketing professor at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, told LiveScience. "Compulsive buying is an addiction that can be harmful to the individual, families, relationships. It is not just something that only afflicts low-income people."
Monroe and his colleagues found that compulsive buying was linked to materialism, reduced self-esteem, depression, anxiety and stress. Compulsive shoppers had positive feelings associated with buying, and they also tended to hide purchases, return items, have more family arguments about purchases and have more maxed-out credit cards.
Previous tests for identifying problem buyers are lacking because they depend in large part on the consequences of shopping, such as financial difficulties and family strain over money matters, the researchers note. But for compulsive shoppers with higher income, money matters could be non-existent.
A dwindling bank account is just one of the upshots of shopping 'til you drop. Others include family conflicts, stress, depression and loss of self-esteem. The shopaholic test is just part of the answer.
"There needs to be more research not only identifying people who have a tendency to buy compulsively, but also on developing education and self-help programs for people who are buying things they do not need or use," Monroe said. "It can lead to a waste of resources and to deterioration in families and relationships."
What is the main idea of the article?
Which of the following best explains the meaning of the word "compulsive"?
Which of the following statements does NOT describe a compulsive buyer?
Which of the following is reportedly the deep cause of compulsive buying behavior?
What is the key point of paragraph 4?
Which of the following best describes the meaning of the phrase "shopping 'til you drop"?
Which of the following describes a serious flaw of a test designed to identify problem buyers by focusing only on financial difficulties and family strain over money matters?
Future research can help compulsive buyers by providing information on _____
Read the passage and choose the best answer for each blank.
SAMOA
When reporting on foreign culture, the media often focus on what seems alien, and the Polynesian island of Samoa is certainly a target of this kind of reporting. Whenever a journalist comes looking for a story, they inevitably focus on the fa'afafine (Samoan men who dress as women) and most other aspects of Samoan culture. Almost without exception, they the valued place that a fa'afafine has in the community.
Fa'afafine as in the manner of a woman. In traditional Samoan society, when a family had a large number of male children, one would be selected to help his mother. The choice would be based on which son showed the most ability and interest in domestic , and he would then be dressed and raised as female. The choice was in no way based on the sexual the family believed the son might have. It was a choice based on who was best for a certain kind of labour. The fa'afafine's abilities in the home and in producing crafts, combined with physical strength, were a useful to Samoan communities. When the son grew up, he would marry and have children, as is expected of all Samoan men, but continue to a female identity. Modern-day Samoa has strong Christian beliefs, as well as a firm sense of cultural , and many Samoans the Western description of fa'afafine as homosexual.
Read the text and fill the gaps with the correct sentence (A-F). Write the letter of the missing sentence in the corresponding numbered box provided. There are two extra sentences you will not need.
List of sentences
A. We need these skills to be fully present in conversation.
B. In every domain of life, it will increase performance and decrease stress.
C. This is easier to do without your phone in hand.
D. We turn time alone into a problem that needs to be solved with technology.
E. This is a good thing, because it causes us to reaffirm what they are.
F. If anything, it's our new form of being together.
A virtuous circle links conversation to the capacity for self-reflection. When we are secure in ourselves, we are able to really hear what other people have to say. At the same time, conversation with other people, both in intimate settings and in larger social groups, leads us to become better at inner dialogue.
But we have put this virtuous circle in peril. Timothy D. Wilson, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, led a team that explored our capacity for solitude. People were asked to sit in a chair and think, without a device or a book. They were told that they would have from 6 to 15 minutes alone and that the only rules were that they had to stay seated and not fall asleep. In one experiment, many student subjects opted to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit alone with their thoughts.
People sometimes say to me that they can see how one might be disturbed when people turn to their phones when they are together. But surely there is no harm when people turn to their phones when they are by themselves?
But this way of dividing things up misses the essential connection between solitude and conversation. In solitude we learn to concentrate and imagine, to listen to ourselves.
Every technology asks us to confront human values. If we are now ready to make face-to-face conversation a priority, it is easier to see what the next steps should be. We are not looking for simple solutions. We are looking for beginnings. Some of them may seem familiar by now, but they are no less challenging for that. Each addresses only a small piece of what silences us. Taken together, they can make a difference.
One start toward reclaiming conversation is to reclaim solitude. Some of the most crucial conversations you will ever have will be with yourself. Slow down sufficiently to make this possible. And make a practice of doing one thing at a time. Think of unitasking as the next big thing.
Five paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from paragraphs A-F the one that fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph that you do not need to use.
List of paragraphs
A. Recent research from South Africa that has not yet been peer-reviewed suggests that Omicron may be more immune-evading than Delta, with increased risks of reinfection. This is beginning to be confirmed with laboratory experiments that have shown low to virtually no protection against infection with two vaccine doses. Protection was somewhat restored in people that had an mRNA vaccine booster, though breakthrough infections of boosted individuals have been reported. Imperial College London has modeled the vaccine efficacy of two doses of AstraZeneca as between 0 to 20 percent, rising to 55 to 80 percent after a third dose.
B. There is a reduced risk of hospitalization for Omicron compared to the Delta variant. But WHO warns that it should not be dismissed as "mild". An increase in the number of COVID-19-related deaths because of the Omicron variant has been seen in many countries, especially where vaccination levels are low among vulnerable populations.
C. The four biggest questions surrounding Omicron are: is it more transmissible, is it more immune evading, does it cause different diseases and do we need to do anything different to stop it. We do not have definitive answers to most of these questions, as we are still learning about the variant; however, several studies have recently been published as non-peer-reviewed pre-prints that may help to provide some answers.
D. An early report from South Africa has suggested the variant may produce more mild symptoms, a conclusion that has been met with much debate. Recent non-peer-reviewed research from South Africa looked at over 160,000 COVID-19 cases and found that Omicron infections were less likely to result in hospitalisation or severe disease in adults, compared to Delta. However, the authors note that this may be because many of the Omicron cases are reinfections, with immunity from previous infections conferring some protection.
E. Even if the severity of Omicron is lower than that of Delta, we know the variant can still cause severe and fatal illness. With the current rapid rise in cases, even a small rate of severe infections could result in a large number of hospitalisations that threaten overburdening the NHS.
F. Part of the reason for this immune evasion and possible increase in transmissibility is the large number of mutations Omicron has. Some mutations in the virus's spike protein are known to affect virus transmissibility and immune evasion. However, many are wondering if some of these mutations in Omicron have changed the severity of COVID-19 disease.
OMICRON VARIANT: HOW WORRIED SHOULD WE BE ABOUT IT?
Since we first heard about Omicron, the variant has been found in many countries around the world where it is driving the most dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases we have yet seen. In the UK, there were over 30,000 new cases a day in the one-week period from 14 December. On 22 December, cases were nearly double the previous peak seen in January 2021, and Omicron was the dominant variant. Similar trends have also been seen in many other countries after the arrival of Omicron.
The rapid spread of Omicron and the associated spike in COVID-19 cases in many countries suggests that the variant may be more transmissible. This concept is supported by pre-prints that show that Omicron is more infectious and has a shorter incubation period than the Delta variant. However, the rapid rise in Omicron cases may also be due to its ability to evade the protection of vaccine- or infection-induced immunity.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have stated that two doses of their vaccines are significantly less effective against Omicron. Although a third dose was expected to increase protection, even two doses will likely still provide some protection against severe disease. There is also good evidence emerging that Omicron can evade immunity from a previous infection, even if that previous infection was with Delta or Beta, though it is not known if an Omicron infection would protect against a subsequent Delta infection. Modelling from Imperial College London estimates that Omicron is associated with a 5.41-fold increased risk of reinfection, compared to Delta.
Recent non-peer-reviewed research suggests that the variant may change where in the body it grows best, with Omicron showing less replication in the lungs than Delta but much higher replication in the bronchi. It is possible that if Omicron does not replicate as much in the lungs, then it might cause less severe disease.
Similar trends are now being observed in the UK, with both Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh finding a reduction in the risks of hospitalization with Omicron compared to Delta. In children, data from South Africa shows an increase in pediatric hospitalizations with Omicron. In Scotland there also appears to be a slight increase in the rate of hospitalizations in children with Omicron. None of this data has yet been peer-reviewed and our full understanding of the clinical course of the disease and its severity will likely change as new and more full information becomes available over the coming weeks.
In addition, it is expected that Omicron infections will still result in approximately 12 percent of cases going on to develop the long-term debilitating symptoms of long COVID, for both adults and children. At the current level of over 200,000 COVID-19 cases per day in the UK (as of 4 January 2022), that would be 24,000 new cases of long COVID every day.
_____ 80 per cent of the population in this village grow their own food on small plots of land.
With a monthly salary of 200 dollars, Allen was well-off _____ with most of his friends in the neighborhood.
All children, _____ their race or ethnicity, deserve the same quality of care and affection in their first years of life.
She already knew the result of the fight, but _____ she wanted to hear him admit his defeat.
_____ referred to by these theorists as "the perfect social order" turned out to be just an illusion.
I want to talk about child hunger in my own country, the United States, where one in six households with children are _____.
The human species have come _____ the planet on which more than 7.9 billion humans live.
Mr. Grinde is 45 years old and _____ 5,000 dollars every month for the last 5 years for his retirement.
Some of the most horrifying war crimes were denied _____.
As an Asian woman with brown skin, she finds herself working in a field where women are still _____.
_____ money you are saving, you are completely justified in enjoying a lovely reward every so often.
Social media and networking tools (like LinkedIn) have _____ to increase the number of connections we can develop and maintain.
This is an experience from which she emerges _____ more than ever of her destiny as a visionary writer and leader.
If they ask him "Why are you called Copper?", he just laughs and never explains, which makes his friends want to know the reason _____.
War can destroy families and leave survivors permanently _____.
After the military attack in 2003, the country went through a long period of political instability, which is likely to last for years _____.
If I have money to spare, I can be extravagant, but when, as is usually the case, I am hard up, then I am _____.
He was considered a true _____ to a tradition capable of transforming challenges into opportunities for growth.
Today, in an area of roughly 3 square miles, Little Saigon is _____ more than 4,000 Vietnamese American businesses and 200 restaurants.
The concern for human dignity is given vivid _____ in the Christian teachings about how to perform charity work.
These ruthless killers are not beasts, and therefore are not completely _____ of emotions or morals.
Dana White, a communications director at a technology nonprofit in California, saw her social _____ shrink to a precious few during the pandemic.
Thanks to the pandemic, she has come to _____ the intimate friendships that blossomed the past year, including with a neighbor who sang with her on her stoop every night at 7 p.m.
After his mother's death, he found _____ in the Buddhist rituals of mourning.
Money is a small but often effective weapon to keep life's hardships and tragedies _____.
The process of writing a memoir forced me to revisit painful memories, to _____ old wounds I had covered up for years.
After the terrorist attack in New York, a _____ of "you're either with us or you're against us." became dominant.
Ms. Joyce has spent much of her career as a psychiatrist _____ patients with life-threatening medical conditions to accept psychiatric care.
While her book describes the issue facing the country clearly and in great detail, it is regrettably _____ on solutions and specific ideas for achieving change.
The old doctor said he had lost _____ of the number of patients he had saved in his life.
Some critics have argued that he is too _____ for the past and has too much reverence for it.
After winning "American Idol” in 2000, this farmwoman continued to _____ to success in the next two decades.
Contrary to current trends, sometimes you do need to _____ your feelings, especially when planning your actions.
The girl _____ away the dead leaves to reveal the tiny shoot of a new plant.
Give the correct form of the words in the brackets.
FLAVOURISTS
Do you ever wonder how some of your favourite (FAVOUR) foods get their flavour? The answer lies with flavourists - experts who work with natural and (SYNTHESISE) chemicals and ingredients to develop and improve how things taste.
In the past, people relied on natural herbs and spices to improve the flavour of their food. Cinnamon and thyme were used by early Egyptian (CIVILISE). Other spice (MIX) were developed in the Middle Ages to stop meat from going bad.
Everything changed in 1858, when French scientist Theodore-Nicolas Gobley discovered the chemical that gives vanilla its flavour. This paved the way for the first artificial vanilla extract. The need for new taste (SENSE) is driven by mass production of food. To get rid of microbes, many foods are heat-treated. This makes them safer to eat but it also destroys some of their natural taste. Flavourists aim to restore the lost flavours to make the food (RESIST) tasty.
Almost every food you find in your supermarket will have been flavoured in some way. Today, flavour (CREATE) is a multi-billion-pound (GLOBE) industry. To become a flavourist, you need to learn about herbs, spices and the different types of (ESSENCE) oils, as well as how they taste when they are combined.
Finding unique flavours is as much an art as it is a science. Flavourists spend a lot of time blending different chemicals together to see which taste right. It can take up to 70 tries before the perfect (COMBINE) is found, with the right taste and (NUTRITION) value at just the right price.
Fill in each blank with one best word.
I have and have had many names. Little Dog was what Grandma Lan called me. What made a woman who named herself and her daughter after flowers call her grandson a dog? A woman who watches for her own, that's who. As you know, in the village where Grandma Lan up, a child, often the smallest or weakest of the flock, I was, is named after the most despicable things: demon, ghost child, pig snout, monkey-born, buffalo head, bastard - little dog being the more tender . Because evil spirits, roaming the land healthy, beautiful children, would hear the name of something hideous and ghastly called in for supper and pass over the house, the child. To love something, then, is to name it after so worthless it might be untouched - and alive. A name, as air, can also be a shield. A Little Dog shield.
Fill in each blank with one best word.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Researchers in France have managed to play the world's oldest-known conch shell horn - a musical from more than 17,000 years ago. The shell, which is 31 centimetres long and 18 centimetres wide, once belonged to a type of large sea snail. It was discovered in a cave in southern France in 1931.
Researchers initially thought the shell was used a cup by prehistoric people Magdelanians. However, Gilles Tosello and his colleagues at the University of Toulouse recently took look at it, using small cameras and a CT scanner machine uses X-rays to reveal details inside objects. They found that a hole at end had been cut to form a mouthpiece. At the end was a space for the player to insert their hand and modify the sound - not to playing a French horn. A professional musician used the horn to make sounds that were close to the notes C, C sharp and D.
The researchers are now using a 3D model of the shell to continue their search its secrets.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
Can we really justify the idea that human lives matter more than nonhuman lives? (WEIGHT)
=> Is it possible for us to really justify the idea that human lives nonhuman lives?
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
The sheer magnitude of the project was bewildering. (SCALE)
=> I was of the project.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
Misfortune can turn even wealthy people into beggars on the street overnight. (REDUCED)
=> Even wealthy people on the street overnight by misfortune.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
We often refused to accept new ideas as we grew old. (IMMUNE)
=> We often as we grew old.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
We keep meeting accidentally, don't we? (RUNNING)
=> We are other, aren't we?
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
Apart from their age, they are two absolutely different people. (COMMON)
=> The two of apart from their age.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
She may seem quiet and reserved but her music is bursting with strong emotions. (HOWEVER)
=> , her music is bursting with emotions.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
Plastic is such an integral product for convenience in our daily lives that we simply take it for granted. (PAUSE)
=> We seldom since it is such an integral product for convenience in our daily lives.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
The artist often tells his students that freedom, not money, is the meaning of success. (SO MUCH)
=> The artist often tells his students that success is not freedom.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.
Even though we tried to follow Peter and Bob as closely as we could, we soon got separated. (LONG)
=> We tried to follow Peter and Bob as closely as we could but it us to get separated.