IX. 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 sentence.
Although Bill took a taxi, he still arrived late for the concert.
A.Although Bill took a taxi, he can’t come to the concert in time. 
B.Bill arrived late for the concert in spite of the taxi.
C.Bill arrived late for the concert because he takes a taxi. 
D.Despite taking a taxi, Bill still arrived late for the concert.

Choose the best answer to complete the following sentences.
She                    when she heard she had won first prize in the talent contest.
A.creamed     
B.was nuts   
C.was a peach
D.went bananas

It can be inferred from the passage that            .
A.42’s students have to handle the task assigned without any assistance
B.all 42’s graduates are employed by world leading technology companies
C.42 is a good choice for people of all ages and nationalities
D.42 adopts project-based and problem-solving learning methods

Jack was overconfident. Therefore, he ruined our plan completely.
A.That was Jack’s overconfidence ruined our plan completely
B.Jack was overconfident, which ruined our plan completely
C.It was because Jack’s overconfidence that ruined our plan completely
D.It was Jack’s overconfidence ruined our plan completely

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is closest in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.
His new yacht is certainly an ostentatious display of his wealth.
A.showy     
B.expensive 
C.large 
D.ossified

Parts of the country are suffering water ______ after the unusually dry summer.
A.thirst
B. supply
C.shortage
D.hunger

How does the author describe the impact of moon landings on computer research?
A.It was doubtful. 
B.It was obvious.
C.It was limited.
D.It was not clear.

As I get older, I want to travel less.
A.The older I get, the less I want to travel.
B. The more old I get, the less travel I want
C. The more older I get, the more less I want to travel
D.The less old I get, the more I want to travel

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