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 ocean bottom - a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of the Earth - is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep-ocean floor was completely inaccessible, hidden beneath waters averaging over 3,600 meters deep. Totally without light and subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earth's surface, the deep-ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void of outer space.
 Although researchers have taken samples of deep-ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundation's Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP).Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDP's drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the ocean's surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rock from the ocean floor.
 The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15-year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around the world. The Glomar Challenger's core samples have allowed geologists to reconstruct what the planet looked like hundred of millions of years ago and to calculate what it will probably look like millions of years in the future. Today, largely on the strength of evidence gathered during the Glomar Challenger's voyages, nearly all earth scientists agree on the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift that explain many of the geological processes that shape the Earth.
 The cores of sediment drilled by the Glomar Challenger have also yielded information critical to understanding the world's past climates. Deep-ocean sediments provide a climatic record stretching back hundreds of millions of years, because they are largely isolated from the mechanical erosion and the intense chemical and biological activity that rapidly destroy much land-based evidence of past climates. This record has already provided insights into the patterns and causes of past climatic change - information that may be used to predict future climates.
The word "they" in paragraph 4 refers to
A.climates      
B.sediments  
C.cores        
D.years

Choose the best answer A, B, C or D for each sentence: 
We're going to try to keep _______ as we grow older.
A.act
B.active
C.action
D.activity

 "What time will the office close this evening?" Robert asked.
A.Robert asked that what time the office would close that evening.
B.Robert asked what time the office would close that evening.
C.Robert asked what time would the office close that evening.
D.Robert asked what time the office closed that evening.

Due to the bad weather condition, the plane won’t leave until 5:p.m
A.Take off
B.Land
C.Ascend
D.Rise

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks
The United States and China have (16)_______ a deal that allows the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE to stay in business in exchange for paying an additional $1 billion in fines and agreeing to let US regulators monitor its operations. The fine comes (17)_______ Donald Trump stepped in to save the company after US regulators barred it from doing business in the US, an effective death blow for the company.
In addition to the fine, a compliance team chosen by the US will be embedded at ZTE and the Chinese company must change its board and executive team. “ZTE is essentially on (18)_______,” said Amanda DeBusk, chair of the international trade and government regulation practice at Dechert LLP and a former commerce official. “It’s unprecedented to have US agents as monitors … It’s (19)_______ a good precedent for this situation. ZTE is a repeat offender.”
The news did little to appease critics. Senator Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Senate select committee on intelligence, said: “It is the unanimous conclusion of our nation’s intelligence community that ZTE poses a significant threat to our national security. These concerns aren’t new; back in 2012, the House permanent select committee on intelligence released a  report (20)_______ the serious counterintelligence concerns associated with ZTE equipment.
(18) 
A.test                          
B.trial                         
C.experiment              
D.probation

The phrase “to do the leaving” is closest in meaning to                  .
A.set off      
B.go down            
C.pass away      
D.depart

From the four words or phrases choose the one that best completes the sentences.
Although most cats hate to swim, ______ if necessary.
A.can they do so
B.they can do so     
C.they do so can 
D.so they can do

Years ago, women were not allowed ________.
A. to work in the kitchen      
B.to go to school
C.to do housework 
D. to stay at home with their parents

The harder you try, _________ .
A.the most you achieve
B.you achieve the more
C.the more you achieve 
D.the better achieve you have

Sumerians were the first to invent cuneiform, ______.
A.was system of writing                                   
B.for a system of witting
C.a system of writing                                          
D.which a system of writing