Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to show the underlined part that needs correction.
1. Watching a baby between six and nine months old, and you will observe the basic concepts of geometry
A B C
being learned.
D
2. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the American educational system was desperate in need of reform.
A B C D
3. In fact we are far more likely to injure in the home than outside, which has probably always been the case.
A B C D
4. Parents feel that if their child becomes an artist, it will be difficult for him or her finance.
A B C D
5. As he walked, he surveyed his surroundings as eagerly as if he would enter London or Madrid, instead of the little
A B C
metropolis of a New England colony.
D
6. The Bush Administration has been extremely cautious in its relation with Iran, which has consistently refused that
A B C
it controls the hostages’ fate.
D
7. She won the heat and was qualified for the final of the 400 meters final.
A B C D
8. The light in the room had grown so dimly that she could no longer see well enough to read.
A B C D
9. There have been several accusations of sleaze against government MPs recently and the Prime Minister is said to
A B C
be very furious.
D
10. Custom officers at the ports are looking out for a gang who are smuggling great quantities of alcohol into the
A B C D
country.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part is pronounced
differently from that of the rest in each of the following questions.
Read the following article about young people and advertising and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet
to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 16 to 25.
The perception of today’s youngsters as media-savvy cynics could hardly be further from the truth. Instead, this
generation of keen consumers may turn witty advertising into an endangered species. Julia Day reports
Today’s youngsters don’t “get” clever ads, are not in the least suspicious of commercials, don’t know the
difference between newspapers’ political stances, or TV channels, and they don’t mind admitting it. In short, they are
not half as media, marketing and advertising literate as we might have thought, according to new research
commissioned by five media groups – Guardian Newspapers, Channel 4, Carlton Screen Advertising, media buying
agency OMD, and Emap Advertising.
As a result media companies and advertisers are going back to basics to arouse the interest of 15- to 24-year-olds
with instant impact messages, plain product pictures, bigger posters, annoying jingles, celebrity endorsements and
repetitive ads. Today’s youth are a far cry from today’s thirtysomethings who grew up as commercially-naive kids
weaned on the cold war, no national commercial radio, three national TV stations, grant-funded higher education,
sponsorship-free Glastonbury festivals and regular strikes and student protests.
Now a lifetime of MTV, the internet, dawn-till-dusk advertising and PlayStation gaming has created a generation
so used to being bombarded with fast-turnover information, they filter it instantly without paying much attention to its
meaning. This is a generation of “thoroughbred consumers” says Stuart Armon, managing director of 2cv: research,
the company that conducted the so-called Roar research into the media habits of the nation’s youth. “Previous
generations were suspicious of advertising, they might have liked ads, but they wouldn’t necessarily buy the product.
But this generation has been consuming since they were born. They don’t see any reason to be suspicious,” says
Armon.
One young panellist in the focus group research embodied this attitude: “If the advert is good, you think their
product will be good because the more they can spend on advertising, the more money they are obviously getting for
their product.” Armon says the trend has become more pronounced over the seven years that the continuous tracking
study has been running, but has reached a peak in the latest round of interviews with 600 youngsters.
“Advertising is accepted and expected. Young people don’t see anything wrong in being sold to and think that if a
product is in a TV ad, it must be good. It’s a myth that they are interested in clever ads – they are not willing to
decipher complicated messages, they want simple ones.” Many panellists dramatically illustrated this point by
revealing they thought Budweiser’s “Real American Heroes” ad, ironically celebrating “Mr foot-long hot dog
inventor”, was an ad for hot dogs rather than beer, even though the ad might not be aimed at them.
However, many loved Heineken’s ironic ad featuring Paul Daniels singing Close to You, purely because it made
them laugh. “They are looking for an instant message. If it’s not there, they don’t take any notice. And they literally,
and naively, believe celebrities in ads really use the products they are advertising,” says Armon. A girl panellist from
Birmingham commented: “In some of the Nike ads they’ve got all these well-known footballers. You think, ‘Oh my
God, they’ve got everybody famous there.’ You think it must be good if they want it.”
The youngsters only read newspapers for the celebrity gossip and sport, rather than news, and couldn’t distinguish
between papers’ political stances. They also failed to distinguish between TV channels – they access TV through
programmes, not channels, for example watching Sky because The Simpsons is on, not because it’s Sky.
The results of the research deeply worry Sid McGrath, planner at the ad agency that made the infamous “You’ve
been Tango’ed” ads, HHCL and Partners. But they do not surprise him. “My worry is that the youth of today are not
being called upon to flex their intellectual muscles enough,” he says.
“There is instant gratification everywhere – in food it’s Pot Noodles or vending machines, even their pop icons are
one-dimensional figures delivered on a plate. Young people are living vicariously through other people’s lives and are
not asking for much at the moment. A lot of stimulation is ‘lean back’ – it doesn’t require as much involvement as it
used to.”
He says advertising is changing as a result: “Lots of the most popular ads at the moment are happy, clappy, fun.
Easy to digest. They’ve got no time or inclination to decode ads.” One reason behind the shift, McGrath believes, is
that young people want relief from the traumas of real life: “Advertising is becoming the opium of the masses rather
than the educator.”
16. Research shows that, compared with the previous generation, young people today are _____.
A. less perceptive B. more sensitive C. more worldly-wise D. better informed
17. In paragraph 3, the word ‘stances’ is closest in meaning to which of the following?
A. attitudes B. situations C. functions D. places
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for
each of the blanks from 26 to 35.
ROYAL RESIDENCES
Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse are the official residences of the Sovereign
and, as such, serve as both home and office for The Queen, whose personal standard flies (26) _____ Her Majesty is in
residence.
These buildings are used extensively for State ceremonies and official entertaining and are opened to the (27)
_____ as much as these commitments allow.
All are furnished with fine pictures and works of art from the Royal Collection, which has been assembled over
four centuries by successive sovereigns. Many of the State Apartments and rooms at the official residences have been
in continuous use since their conception and many of the works of art are (28) _____ in the rooms for which they were
originally (29) _____.
The official residences are in (30) _____ use and the style and manner in which they are (31) _____ to visitors
reflects their working status. Rooms are kept as close to their normal (32) _____ as possible. Inevitably, opening times
are subject to change at short notice depending on circumstances.
The Royal Collection, which is (33) _____ by The Queen as Sovereign in trust for her successors and the Nation,
is administered by the Royal Collection Trust to which a proportion of admission and other (34) _____ from visitors is
directed.
The remainder of this income funds the majority of the cost of restoring Windsor Castle which was badly (35)
_____ by fire in November 1992.
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for
each of the blanks from 36 to 45.
Popular perception is that working conditions are now so over-regulated the only people likely to be injured at
work are bosses, strangled by (36) _____ tape. But beware a hidden epidemic raging in British workplaces.
In this post-industrial age, when most jobs are in light industry, information technology and the service sector, we
expect working life to be relatively comfortable and at the very (37) _____ safe. We don’t expect to be maimed, (38)
_____ off for life or work ourselves into the ground.
(39) _____ again. In the UK there are still 1.6 million workplace injuries every year as well as 2.2 million cases of
ill health caused by work. Some of these injuries wouldn’t have been out of (40) _____ in Dickens’ England. Last year
350 people died as a result of building site accidents, a large increase from previous years. According to the Royal
Society for the Prevention of Accidents 6,000 people die of workplace burns, and 2,000 cases of accidents involving
chemicals are reported each year.
But some of the worst dangers are the hidden ones. 400,000 cases of asthma are caused by working conditions,
(41) _____ to high levels of dust or traffic pollution, and asbestos still kills over 4,000 people a year. The Trade Union
Congress calculates that around 1.4 million commercial and residential properties still contain asbestos. There are no
(42) _____ at present requiring owners to record its (43) _____, meaning that builders and firefighters have no way of
(44) _____ the problem. A not-for-profit organisation has taken the issue forward.
AsbestosRegister.com is a new database (45) _____ in conjunction with the TUC, with the aim of listing every
asbestos-carrying building in the country
Read the following extract from an autobiography and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate
the correct answer to each of the questions from 46 to 55.
There was nothing unusual about Wellington Street, or so I thought as I was growing up. The cobbled street, one
of four identical streets next to each other, was calm, apart from the occasional sound of raised voices from the pub on
the corner. Everybody said hello to each other, although rarely much more than that. It was the kind of street that in
the past had covered the whole of the north-west of England, affordable housing for the workers, the kind of street that
used to be the heart of a community. Now it was a relic, unchanged while the modern world went on around it.
The first time I got a sense that my childhood world was not going to remain the same forever was when a letter
arrived from the local council saying that a meeting was being held locally to discuss the development of the area. I
remember wondering why areas had to be developed and I asked my father. He said that people just liked changing
things for the sake of it but my mum interrupted him and explained that the houses needed modernizing. Even then I
could see this as another move in their ongoing argument about money and location. Mum, with her keen sense of
social position and always very aware of what the neighbours thought, wanted to move into a better house, which Dad
took to mean a more expensive house.
The mood when we got home was tense. Although she tried to hide it, I think Mum was secretly quite pleased.
Dad sat and frowned at the TV for a while, before Mum brought him a cup of tea. I was surprised when it was he who
broke the silence after a minute or two and said, ‘There are one or two nice places up around Ladybride.’ Mum said
nothing. She just sipped her tea and looked at me and smiled.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the rest in the position of the
main stress in each of the following questions.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
61. We still do not know how life appeared on Earth, but everything suggests that it _____ in the oceans.
A. should be born B. be born C. was born D. had been born
62. When a country is at war young men are often _____ into the army.
A. forced B. obliged C. drafted D. sent
63. Conservation of the environment must be taken seriously if future generations _____.
A. are going to survive B. are to survive C. will be surviving D. are surviving
Weather has a significant effect on all our lives, wherever we live. This is true, (1) _____ the nature of the
weather.
In some parts of the world, where it is hot and dry, people (2) _____ whether or not there will be enough rainfall
for the crops to (3) _____ and thrive. The population in such areas live with a constant (4) _____ of drought.
Other parts of the world (5) _____ from the opposite problems, especially at certain periods of the year.
Frequently it rains heavily and when it (6) _____ down for a long time there is a possibility of floods which can (7)
_____ great damage to property and even (8) _____ of life.
Snowy scenes always look very pretty and clean on (9) _____ cards. Those who lives in countries where heavy
snowfalls are (10) _____ will tell you that snow is not like this. When it (11) _____ to slush it becomes grey and most
unattractive.
Snow can (12) _____ driving conditions very difficult, especially when it forms deep snowdrifts, and it can also
be dangerous. Many people in areas where it (13) _____ a lot love to ski and the ski slopes also (14) _____ a lot of
visitors. However, from time to time the ski slopes are affected by avalanches and these can (15) _____ in tragedy.
B. Use the words given in capitals at the end of each sentence to form a word that fits in the space.
1. The first inhabitants of Iceland were a group of _____ families who settled on the island in AD 874. NORWAY
2. There was disagreement about whether the country needs to maintain a _____. DETER
3. Hundreds of _____ from the war zone have arrived in the city and we are trying to find homes for them.
EVACUATE
4. _____ patients are often given exercises to help prevent their muscles from becoming stiff. BED
5. It was this passion for fast cars that led to his _____ death at the age of 33. TIME
6. Every effort is made to _____ any errors before the book is printed. RIGHT
7. In a recent opinion poll, a majority of _____ were against nuclear weapons. RESPONSE
8. Her mouth is _____ lipsticked and her eyes are wide open with anticipation. SEDUCE
9. The script has a refreshing _____ and sparkle. SPONTANEOUS
10. It’s better to be an _____ and eat a variety of plant and animals in case there is a shortage of one particular kind of
food. OMNI
D. For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the original sentence,
but using the word given. This word must not be altered in any way.
1. The child might have been drowned when he swam in the river alone. RISKED
2. No one’s ever spoken to me like that before. USED
3. Few people came to the singer’s farewell concert. POOR
4. You’re supposed to take the medicine every night for five nights. RUNNING
5. The accusation that he had stolen the money was unfounded. WRONGLY
E. Write in 150 – 180 words giving your opinions on the following question.
Which are the most important subjects for young people to study at school and why?