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 from 36 to 42.
Writing is arguably the most important invention in human history. The opportunity for human knowledge to build on other knowledge is severely limited without the medium of writing. Not only does writing allow a permanence to human thought but also a complexity and scope to human expression that seem barely possible without it.
The earliest known artifacts that could be considered writing by the loosest  definition are the famous and extraordinarily beautiful 20,000-year-old "cave  paintings" in southern France and northern Spain. The pictures, mostly of animals but with some human figures, possibly tell some sort of story or may merely be pictures with expressive, magical, or religious purpose. Other assorted pictures have been found antedating the rise of the great civilizations of the Near East, but the earliest artifacts that are clearly writing date from about only 5,500 years ago inMesopotamia.
The earliest system of writing is usually attributed to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia during the end of the fourth millennium b.c. There, officials of such Sumerian city-states as Uruk had developed a system of recording numerals, pictographs, and ideographs on specially prepared clay surfaces.
Although the clay blanks used by the Uruk scribes are universally referred to as tablets, a word with the connotation of flatness, they are actually convex. Individual characters were inscribed in the clay by means of a stylus made of wood, bone, or ivory, with one end blunt and the other pointed. The characters were basically of two kinds. Numerical signs were impressed into the clay; all other signs, pictographs, and ideographs alike, were incised with the pointed end of the stylus. The repertory of characters used by the Uruk scribes was large; it is estimated at no fewer than 1,500 separate signs.
The word "incised" in is closest in meaning to.........................
A.painted                    
B.cut                           
C.erased                     
D.embroidered

________ (52)
A. weather
B.temperatures
C.climates
D.levels

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
Companies now realize that consumers want products that will not only work ________ but also save energy.
A.effectiveness 
B.effective
C.ineffectively
D.effectively

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Ever since it was first possible to make a real robot, people have been hoping for the invention of a machine that would do all the necessary jobs around the house. If boring and repetitive factory work could be (37) ________ by robots, why not boring and repetitive household chores too?  For a long time the only people who really gave the problem their attention were amateur inventors And they came up against a major difficulty. That is, housework is actually very complex It has never been one job it has always been many. A factor robot (38) ________ one task endlessly until it is reprogrammed to do something else. It doesn’t run the whole factory. A housework robot on the other hand, has to do several different (39) ________ of cleaning and carrying jobs and also has to cope (40) ________ all the different shapes and positions of rooms, furniture, ornaments, cats and dogs. (41) ________, there have been some developments recently. Sensors are available to help the robot locate objects and avoid obstacles. We have the technology to produce the hardware. All that is missing the software- the programs that will operate the machine. 
(40)
A.from 
B.with
C.by
D.for

She went to London ……. the aim ….… finding a job.
A.from - to
B.with - of
C.over- for
D.about- for

Which of the following is NOT given in the passage as one of the general goals of communitarian philosophers?
A.To establish ideal communities
B.To spread their ideas throughout the United States
C.To create opportunities through education
D.To remake society

Exercise 8. 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 from 36 to 40.
TATTOOING: AN ANCIENT TRADITION
Tattooing is an old art. In ancient Greece, people who had tattoos were regarded as members of the upper classes. On the other hand, tattooing was (36) __________ in Europe by the early Christians, who thought that it was a sinful thing to do. It was not until the late 18th century, when Captain Cook saw South Sea Islander decorating their bodies with tattoos that attitudes began to change. Sailors came back from these islands with pictures of Christ on their backs and from then on, tattooing (37)__________ in popularity. A survey by the French army in 1881 showed that among the 387 men (38) __________there were 1,333 designs.
Nowadays, not everybody finds tattoos acceptable. Some people thing that getting one is silly because tattoos are more or less permanent. There is also some (39) __________ about catching a blood disease from unsterilized needles. Even for those who do want a tattoo, the process of getting one is not painless, but the final result, in their eyes, is (40) __________ the pain.
(40)
A.worth                      
B.owed                       
C.due                         
D.deserved

It is better to try to work ...........rather than against nature.
A.for      
B.with
C.by
D.along

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
Millions of people tune into the weather forecast each evening on television. Most of them imagine that the presenter does little more than arrive at the studio a few minutes before the broadcast, read the weather, and then go home. In fact, this image is far from the truth. The two-minute bulletin which we all rely on when we need to know tomorrow's weather is the result of a hard day's work by the presenter, who is actually a highly-qualified meteorologist. Every morning after arriving at the TV studios, the first task of the day is to collect the latest data from the National Meteorological Office. This office provides up-to-the-minute information about weather conditions throughout the day, both in Britain and around the world. The information is very detailed and includes predictions, satellite and radar pictures, as well as more technical data. After gathering all the relevant material from this office, the forecaster has to translate the scientific terminology and maps into images and words which viewers can easily understand. The final broadcast is then carefully planned. It is prepared in the same way as other programmes. The presenter decides what to say and in what order to say it. Next a "story board" is drawn up which lays out the script word for word. What makes a weather fore­cast more complicated than other programmes are the maps and electronic images which are required. The computer has to be programmed so that the pictures appear in the cor­rect order during the bulletin.
The time allocated for each broadcast can also alter. This is because the weather re­port is screened after the news, which can vary in length. The weather forecaster doesn't always know how much time is available, which means that he/she has to be thoroughly prepared so that the material can be adapted to the time available. Another related complication is that the weather forecast has to be a live broadcast; it cannot be pre-recorded. Live shows are very nerve-racking for the presenter because almost anything can go wrong. Perhaps the most worrying aspect for every weather fore­caster is getting the following day's predictions wrong. Unfortunately for them, this is not an unusual occurrence; the weather is not always possible to predict accurately. The weather is a national obsession in Britain, perhaps because it is so changeable. It’s the national talking point, and most people watch at least one day bulletin. It can be mortifying for a weather man or woman who has predicted rain for the morning to wake up to brilliant sunshine.
This day, a weather forecaster’s job is even more complicated because they are relied upon to predict other environmental conditions. For example, in the summer the weather forecast has to include reports on ultraviolet radiation intensity to help people avoid sunburn. The job of a weather forecaster is certainly far more complicated than just pointing at a map and describing weather conditions. It's a job for professionals who can cope with stressful and demanding conditions.
Weather forecasters have to know the material well because
A.the broadcast is pre-recorded.
B.the forecast may be incorporated into the news broadcast.
C.the content of the report may have to change.
D.the length of the report may have to change.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
When he went to Egypt, he knew _________ no Arabic, but within 6 months he had become extremely fluent.
A.virtually                         
B.entirely                          
C.barely                            
D.scarcely