ĐỀ THI THỬ SỐ 12

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.

Question 1. A. examine B. determine C. airline D. vitamin

Question 2. A. chief B. moustache C. machine D. chef

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to, indicate the word whose stress pattern differs from that of the others.

Question 3. A. ostentatious B. controversial C. uncontrollable D. competitively

Question 4. A. delicacy B. predominate C. testimony D. eloquence

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.

Question 5. A lot of people stop smoking because they are afraid their health will be affected and early death.

Question 6. A novel is a story long enough to fill a complete book, in that the characters and events are usually imaginary.

Question 7. Globally and internationally, the 1990's stood out as the warmest decade in the

history of weather records.

Choose the best answer from A, B, C or D to indicate the right answer to each of the following sentences.

Question 8. I am sorry I have no time at present to ……detail of our plan.

A. bring in B. take into C. come in D. go into

Question 9. Nowadays, with the help of the computer, teachers have developed a ______ approach to teaching.

Question 10. ________ I might, I couldn’t open the door

Question 11. Anna is holding her shopping bag with one hand and turning the door handle with ______.

Question 12. She passed the National High School Graduation Exam with ______ colours.

Question 13. That cannot be a true story. He ______ it up.

Question 14. My mother had to work 12 hours a day in a factory just to______.

Question 15. The language centre offers courses of various levels, such as elementary, intermediate and ______.

Question 16. Geometry is a branch of mathematics ______ the properties of lines, curves, shapes, and surfaces.

Question 17. Our industrial output________ from $2 million in 2002 to $4 million this year.

Question 18. Education in many countries is compulsory ……. the age of 16.

Question 19. We must push the piano to the comer of the hall to …….our party tonight.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that is OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined part in each sentence.

Question 20. A good dictionary is indispensable for learning a foreign language.

Question 21. Within hours of the tragedy happening, an emergency rescue team had been assembled

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each sentence

Question 22. Stay away from someone who always feels superior to you!

Question 23. The neighbors' constant wrangles with each other shattered our tranquility.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the most suitable response to complete each of the following exchanges.

Question 24. Sarah: “Oh my God, I’ve missed my bus.”

Christ: “_____. Another will come here in ten minutes.”

Question 25. Jack : “What’s wrong with you?” Jill: “______.”

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.

Wind, water, air, ice and heat all work to cause erosion. As the wind blows over the land, it often (26) _______ small grains of sand. When these grains of sand strike against solid rocks, the rocks are slowly worn away. In this way, even very hard rocks are worn away by the wind.

When particles of rocks or soil became loosened in any way, running water carries them down the hillsides. Some rocks and soil particles are carried into streams and then into the sea.

Land that is covered with trees, grass and other plants wears away very slowly, and so loses very (27) _______ of its soil. The roots of plants help to (28) _______ the rocks and soil in place. Water that falls on grasslands runs away more slowly than water that falls on bare ground. Thus, forests and grasslands help to slow down erosion.

Even where the land is (29) _______ covered with plants, some erosion goes on. In the spring, the (30) _______ snow turns into a large quantity of water that then runs downhill in streams. As a stream carries away some of the soil, the stream bed gets deeper and deeper. After thousands of years of such erosion, wide valleys are often formed.

Wind, water, air, ice and heat all work to cause erosion. As the wind blows over the land, it often (26) _______ small grains of sand. When these grains of sand strike against solid rocks, the rocks are slowly worn away. In this way, even very hard rocks are worn away by the wind.

When particles of rocks or soil became loosened in any way, running water carries them down the hillsides. Some rocks and soil particles are carried into streams and then into the sea.

Land that is covered with trees, grass and other plants wears away very slowly, and so loses very (27) _______ of its soil. The roots of plants help to (28) _______ the rocks and soil in place. Water that falls on grasslands runs away more slowly than water that falls on bare ground. Thus, forests and grasslands help to slow down erosion.

Even where the land is (29) _______ covered with plants, some erosion goes on. In the spring, the (30) _______ snow turns into a large quantity of water that then runs downhill in streams. As a stream carries away some of the soil, the stream bed gets deeper and deeper. After thousands of years of such erosion, wide valleys are often formed.

Wind, water, air, ice and heat all work to cause erosion. As the wind blows over the land, it often (26) _______ small grains of sand. When these grains of sand strike against solid rocks, the rocks are slowly worn away. In this way, even very hard rocks are worn away by the wind.

When particles of rocks or soil became loosened in any way, running water carries them down the hillsides. Some rocks and soil particles are carried into streams and then into the sea.

Land that is covered with trees, grass and other plants wears away very slowly, and so loses very (27) _______ of its soil. The roots of plants help to (28) _______ the rocks and soil in place. Water that falls on grasslands runs away more slowly than water that falls on bare ground. Thus, forests and grasslands help to slow down erosion.

Even where the land is (29) _______ covered with plants, some erosion goes on. In the spring, the (30) _______ snow turns into a large quantity of water that then runs downhill in streams. As a stream carries away some of the soil, the stream bed gets deeper and deeper. After thousands of years of such erosion, wide valleys are often formed.

Wind, water, air, ice and heat all work to cause erosion. As the wind blows over the land, it often (26) _______ small grains of sand. When these grains of sand strike against solid rocks, the rocks are slowly worn away. In this way, even very hard rocks are worn away by the wind.

When particles of rocks or soil became loosened in any way, running water carries them down the hillsides. Some rocks and soil particles are carried into streams and then into the sea.

Land that is covered with trees, grass and other plants wears away very slowly, and so loses very (27) _______ of its soil. The roots of plants help to (28) _______ the rocks and soil in place. Water that falls on grasslands runs away more slowly than water that falls on bare ground. Thus, forests and grasslands help to slow down erosion.

Even where the land is (29) _______ covered with plants, some erosion goes on. In the spring, the (30) _______ snow turns into a large quantity of water that then runs downhill in streams. As a stream carries away some of the soil, the stream bed gets deeper and deeper. After thousands of years of such erosion, wide valleys are often formed.

Wind, water, air, ice and heat all work to cause erosion. As the wind blows over the land, it often (26) _______ small grains of sand. When these grains of sand strike against solid rocks, the rocks are slowly worn away. In this way, even very hard rocks are worn away by the wind.

When particles of rocks or soil became loosened in any way, running water carries them down the hillsides. Some rocks and soil particles are carried into streams and then into the sea.

Land that is covered with trees, grass and other plants wears away very slowly, and so loses very (27) _______ of its soil. The roots of plants help to (28) _______ the rocks and soil in place. Water that falls on grasslands runs away more slowly than water that falls on bare ground. Thus, forests and grasslands help to slow down erosion.

Even where the land is (29) _______ covered with plants, some erosion goes on. In the spring, the (30) _______ snow turns into a large quantity of water that then runs downhill in streams. As a stream carries away some of the soil, the stream bed gets deeper and deeper. After thousands of years of such erosion, wide valleys are often formed.

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 question.

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress.

Question 31. According to the passage, which of the following has contributed to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress?

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress.

Question 32. In the past, we had less news of distant people and lands because ______.

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress.

Question 33. The word “traumatic” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______.

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress.

Question 34. According to the passage, when there is not enough actual breaking news, broadcasts

_________.

Question 35. Which of the following is NOT true, according to the passage?

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress.

Question 36. The word “slip” in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ______.

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress.

Question 37. According to the passage, our continual exposure to bad news without perspective is obviously ________.

One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from tuning in to an extreme degree.

The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.

When television came along, it proliferated like a poplulation of rabbits. In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on several of them it runs 24 hours a day.

What’s more, after the traumatic events of Sptember 11, 2001, live newcasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.

Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to diasater (natural and man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the proplem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus claims of a wrinkle cream that overpromises smooth skin.

Are humans meant to be able to process so much trauma – not to mention so much overblown anticipation of potetial trauma – at once? The human brain, remember, is programmed to slip into alarm mode when danger looms. Danger looms for someone, somewhere at every moment. Exposing ourslves to such input without respite and without perspective cannot be anything other than a source of chronic stress

Question 38. What is probably the best title for this passage?

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.

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 39. The savannah appears to be empty because:

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 40. By "go about their business" the writer means:

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 41. What kind of book does the text seem to be from?

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 42. The phrase "be excused for" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 43. The phrase "a host of" in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 44. Why do animals come to the waterholes while it is still light?

THE SAVANNAH

The tourist looking at the African savannah on a summer afternoon might be excused for thinking that the wide yellow grass plain was completely deserted of life, almost a desert. With only a few small thorn trees sticking out through the veldt, there seems to be almost no place for a living creature to hide.

However, under those trees you might find small steenbok, sleeping in the shade, and waiting for the night to fall. There may even be a small group of lions somewhere, their bodies exactly the same shade as the tall grass around them. In the holes in the ground a host of tiny creatures, from rabbits and badgers to rats and' snakes are waiting for the heat to finish.

The tall grass also hides the fact that there may be a small stream running across the middle of the plain. One clue that there may be water here is the sight of a majestic Marshall eagle circling slowly over the grassland. When he drops, he may come up with a small fish, or maybe a grass snake that has been waiting at the edge of a pool in the hope of catching a frog.

The best time to see the animals then, is in the evening, just as the sun is setting. The best time of the year to come is in late September, or early August, just before the rains. Then the animals must come to the waterholes, as there is no other place for them to drink. And they like to come while it is still light; so they can see if any dangers are creeping up on them.

So it is at sunset, and after the night falls, that the creatures of the African veld rise and go about their business.

Question 45. The word "he" in paragraph 3 refers to

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions.

Question 46. We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. We know relatively little about sleep.

Question 47. Overeating is a cause of several deadly diseases. Physical inactivity is another cause of several deadly diseases.

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.

Question 48. "Why don't we wear sunglasses?" our grandpa would say when we went out on bright sunny days.

Question 49. I am sure he did not know that his brother graduated with flying colors.

Question 50. People say that Mr. Goldman gave nearly a million pounds to charity last year.