A. READING COMPREHENSION:
No. 1
I was born in Newcastle, a city in the North East of England. Newcastle is on the bank of
the River Tyne. It is quite big, with a population of about 200,000 people. There is a
cathedral and a university. There are five bridges over the River Tyne, which link
Newcastle to the next town, Gateshead, where there is one of the biggest shopping centres
in the world. A few years ago, the main industries were shipbuilding and coal mining, but
now the chemical and soap industries are important.
I moved to London ten years ago but I often return to Newcastle. I miss the people, who
are very friendly, and I miss the beautiful countryside near the city, where there are so
many hills and streams.
1. Newcastle is ............................ .
A. a city near the North East of England
B. a small town in England
C. a city in the North East of England
2. The population of Newcastle is .................... .
A. about 200,000 people
B. much less than 200,000 people
C. much more than 200,000 people
3. Gateshead has one of ................................ in the world.
A. the biggest shopping centres
B. the most important shipbuilding industries
C. the most beautiful countrysides
4. According to the passage, the writer ...................... .
A. is still living in Newcastle
B. has never returned to Newcastle
C. doesn't live in Newcastle any more
5. Which of the following is NOT true about Newcastle?
A. Its people are friendly.
B. Its main industry now is shipbuilding.
C. It has a cathedral and a university.

For many people the language of the Internet is English. “World, Wide, Web: Three
English Words” was the name of an article by Michael Specter in the New York Times a
few years ago. The article went on to say: “If you want to take full advantage of the
Internet, there is only one real way to do it: learn English.”
In general, it is not difficult to learn to use Internet services. But although Internet services
are rather easy to use, you will have considerable difficulties if you are not familiar with
English. In fact, a good knowledge of English is one of the most important aspects that
help you use the Internet.
Learning to use a new Internet service may take a few hours, a few days or some weeks,
but it takes years to learn a language so that you can use it fluently and confidently. Of
course, when you know some English, you can learn more just by using it on the Internet.


But at least your English should be good enough to understand commonly used words and
to know what to do on the Internet.
1. It ______________ to learn to use Internet services.
A. is easy
B. is difficult
C. takes a few minutes
2. According to the article by Michael Specter, you should _________ to take full
advantage of the Internet.
A. learn to type fast
B. learn to use the Internet services
C. learn English
3. Learning to use a language fluently and confidently may take ________.
A. a few years
B. a few hours
C. a few weeks
4. If you do not know English very well, you will______ when using the Internet.
A. be laughed at

4. His people call him ______.
A. the "Leader of our country"
B. the "Hero of our country"
C. the "Father of our country"
5. The Americans celebrate his birthday on ______.
A. Presidents' Day
B. May Day
C. Labor Day

A combination of water, salt, air pollution, sun, sand, and wind is destroying the huge
statue just outside Cairo. This five-thousand-year-old statue, which has the body of a lion
and the face of a human being, is too badly damaged to be completely saved. First, there is
not a good drainage system around the statue and too much water has been running into
the stone statue for several years. As a result, tiny pieces of salt have been left on the stone
and have damaged it. Second, air pollution from the increasing amount of traffic in Cairo
is also destroying the ancient statue. The air is so full of poisonous gases that it is
damaging the statue even faster. Third, the statue is being destroyed by extremes of
temperature. The air is very cold at night, but during the day the stone of the statue
becomes very hot under the strong sunlight. Other natural forces such as severe
sandstorms attack the statue as well. Finally, the tourists who visit the statue every day
also cause a lot of damage to it.
1. Which of the following is NOT true about the statue? A. Part of it looks like a person.
B. It is in the centre of Cairo.
C. It is very big.
2. According to the passage, the statue was built ______.


A. 5,000 years ago
B. 500 years ago
C. in the 10th century

C. They are sad.
3. Which birds sing the most beautiful songs?


No. 6
A. Male birds
B. Young birds which attract male birds
C. Female birds which attract male birds
4. According to the passage, a bird sings ______.
A. to stop sadness
B. to tell strangers to keep away
C. to warn about the approach of people
5. Most birds usually ______ if they cannot sing well.
A. give information in another way
B. warn other birds to go away
C. find a wife

Smoking causes lung cancer, which is the number one cancer among men. Ninety percent
of the people who get lung cancer die. Smoking is also the leading cause of mouth cancer,
tongue cancer, and throat cancer.
Many smokers have heart disease and pneumonia. Smoking causes about one million early
deaths in the world every year.
Smokers not only harm themselves but also harm others. Smokers breathe smoke out into
the air. They breathe it out on their children and on their wives or husbands. Children
whose parents smoke have more breathing and lung problems than other children. Women
who are married to smokers are more likely to have lung cancer than those married to
nonsmokers. We are all aware that smoking is bad. So why do people smoke?
1. The number one cancer among men is ______.
A. lung cancer
B. throat cancer

Instead, scientists are now trying to build solar power plants. These power plants would
use thousands of huge mirrors to focus the light of the sun on a small place, where it
would create a lot of heat. The heat would then be used to create electricity. This creates
more electricity than solar cells, but not enough. The biggest solar power plant in the
world creates 15 mega watts of electricity. In contrast, most nuclear power plants create
about 1,000 mega watts of electricity.
1. According to the passage, which of the following is a traditional source of electricity?
A. oil
B. the nuclear power
C. water
2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. Solar cells only produce a small amount of electricity.
B. The sun is a limited source of energy.
C. People are using more and more electricity.
3. As mentioned in the passage, making larger solar cells is ______.
A. quite cheap


No. 8
B. not expensive
C. very expensive
4. The underlined word “create” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.
A. work
B. protect
C. produce
5. The biggest solar power plant in the world creates ______ mega watts of electricity.
A. 150
B. 100
C. 15


B. give correct answers
C. ask open-ended questions
4. What was the major difference between the control group and the experimental one in
the study?
A. The training that parents received.
B. The books that were read.
C. The age of the children.
5. What conclusion can be drawn from this passage?


A. Children who read actively always act six months earlier than those who don't.
B. Children's language skills increase when they are required to respond actively.
C. Two or three-year-old children can be taught to read actively.
No. 10 Valentine's Day
February 14 is a day for people who have fallen in love. On this day, these men and women
give gifts and cards to each other to celebrate Valentine's Day.
At first, February 14 was the old Roman festival, Lupercalia. Then, one story says, on
February 14, 270 A.D., a man named Valentine was killed by the Romans' because of his
beliefs. Before Valentine was killed, he fell in love with the daughter of his jailer' and
would pass notes to her. His final note read, "From your Valentine." Later, February 14
became known as Valentine's Day.
Since then, people in love around the world have given gifts and cards to each other on
Valentine's Day. Gloves, chocolates, and even underwear have all been popular as gifts.
Valentine cards did not become popular until the 1750s.The first Valentine cards were
made by hand. People wrote their own words on the cards, usually a kind or funny
message. By around 1850 there were lots of machines for making cards. All of a sudden,
sending Valentine cards became very popular.
Now, every year around February 14, cards and chocolates fill stores around the world, for
all the people who have fallen in love.
1. A good title for this Reading Passage is ... A. The History of Valentine's Day


No. 13
A Long Weekend
Many people have to work on the weekend. Some people do not Mind. Other people think
it is terrible. One man thinks that working on the weekend can be dangerous. He is
Graham Coates. Mr. Coates worked in an office in Brighton, England.
One Saturday, he went to the office to do some work. When he got in the elevator' to go
home, it stopped between floors. Mr. Coates could not get out of the elevator. He was
trapped! He did not have a cell phone, so he started to shout. However, no one heard him.
Then Mr. Coates remembered that Monday was a holiday. No one was going to come to
work until Tuesday!
There was nothing for Mr. Coates to do. He had to wait until one of his coworkers came to
work and found him. With nothing to eat or drink, Mr. Coates ended up sleeping for most
of the time.
Early on Tuesday morning, the vice president of the company came into work and found
the elevator was not working. When someone finally opened the elevator, Mr. Coates
came out cold, weak, and tired. He had been in the elevator for sixty-two hours!
1. What is the best title for this story?
A. Elevator Safety
B. A Busy Weekend
C. Trapped in an Elevator
2. Why could Mr. Coates not get out of the elevator? A. It was broken.
B. It was the weekend.
C. It was in an office.
3. What is NOT a reason why Mr. Coates spent so long in the elevator?
A. It was a three-day weekend.
B. He had no food or drink.
C. The elevator was stuck between two floors.
4. How long was he in the elevator?
A. twenty-four hours

A. It is not hard to care for most lizards.
B. Lizards are better than dogs or cats.
C. Lizard bites can be dangerous.
3. Which lizard would be good for a child to watch and play with during the day?
A. a bearded dragon
B. a chameleon
C. a gecko
4. Which lizard lives the longest?
A. a chameleon
B. a gecko
C. an iguana


No. 15
5. What would the writer of the passage probably say is true? A. Iguanas are not good
pets for children.
B. It is more difficult to care for a gecko than for a chameleon.
C. Most lizards are dangerous, so do not keep them as pets.

Lions
Lions have been called the kings of the animal world. These animals can be found wild in
Africa and India. Lions in Africa can go without water for up to one month, so they have
no trouble during dry times.
Without question, lions are also one of the most popular animals to see in zoos. Almost
every zoo around the world has a few lions.
It is very easy for people to tell male and female lions apart. Lions are the only kind of cat
that shows this big difference between males and females. A male lion has a ‘mane,' a
large collar of hair around the lion's face. Females do not have manes.
Male lions are also larger than females. A male lion usually weighs about 200 kilograms.
Both male and female lions have very strong mouths. They can break the backs of other

the Grand Canyon. She didn’t return until a week later. When asked what had
happened, she answered that the Grand Canyon was so amazing that she had needed
three days just to get used to it.
The Grand Canyon was formed by the mighty Colorado River cutting into a plateau in
Arizona. The canyon is 277 miles long and about 1 mile deep. Because it is so deep,
the top and the bottom have very different weather and vegetation. Going from the top
to the bottom is somewhat like going from Canada to Mexico.
Known as one of the seven tourist travel wonders, which include the Great Wall of
China, the Taj Mahal, and Machu Picchu, it is visited by millions of people each year.
1. What does the word ‘it’ in line 3 refer to?
A. The university
B. The trip
C. The Grand Canyon
2. What is the depth of the Grand Canyon?
A. 277 miles
B. 278 miles
C. 1 mile
3. What does the word ‘wonder’ in line 8 mean? A. A feeling of surprise and
admiration.
B. Something that causes you to feel surprise or admiration.
C. A place in a desert that has trees and water.
4. Not only the Grand Canyon but also ______ is one of the seven tourist travel
wonders.
A. the Taj Mahal
B. Machu Picchu
C. all are correct


No. 17
5. Which of the following could be the best title of the passage?

5. Factory owners _______.
A. have no awareness of pollution
B. treat wastes from their factories safely


No. 18
C. do not want to spend money on treating the wastes safely

Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in 1847. His family moved to Port Huron,
Michigan, when he was seven years old. Surprisingly, he attended school for only two
months. His mother, a former teacher, taught him a few things, but Thomas was mostly
self-educated. His natural curiosity led him to start experimenting at a young age.
Thomas Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Although the
electric light was the most useful, it was not his only invention. He also invented the
record player, the motion picture camera, and over 1,200 other things. About every two
weeks he created something new. He worked 16 out of every 24 hours. Sometimes he
worked so intensely that his wife had to remind him to sleep and eat.
Thomas Edison died in 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey. He left numerous
inventions that improved the quality of life all over the world.
1. Thomas Edison was ______.
A. a teacher
B. an explorer
C. an inventor
2. In 1854 Edison’s family ______.
A. moved to Port Huron, Michigan
B. bought a new house in Milan, Ohio
C. decided to settle in Milan, Ohio
3. The word “self-educated” in the passage mostly means ______. A. “having been
well taught”
B. “having had good schooling”

______.
A. to show their friendship
B. because they want to have more tourists to their farms
C. in order to improve their earnings
4. Fields on British farms were ______.
A. separated from each other by hedges
B. full of wild flowers and birds
C. all are correct
5. Which of the following sentences is not true?
A. Industries are developed in Britain
B. Breeding farms are usually in the north of England
C. Farming methods in Britain have remained unchanged up to now
No. 19


No. 20
Probably you have seen someone reading a book on an electronic reading device. Over the
past few years, these small computers have become more popular. For that reason, more
companies that make traditional paper books are now making electronic books (ebooks).
Most ebooks are the same as paper books, but people download a file into a reading device
rather than buying the paper book. This way they can carry many books.
Book companies are adding special features to some ebooks. These extra features might
include sound files, picture files, or video files. When the readers click on these files they
learn more about the book, the story or the writer.
The latest electronic readers are smaller and cheaper, but they are also much more
powerful. They can store much more information, so writers and book companies can do
more with their ebooks. They do not want to just add files to a completed book. They are
making the sound, picture, and video files part of the story. Readers need these files to
understand the whole story. Readers can even change the story. Readers already have a lot
of books to choose from. If they can change the way stories end, they will have even more

the building was finished, the tower started to lean. Builders tried to make the building
straight again as they added more floors, but they could not figure out how to make it stop
leaning. When the building was finished in 1350, it had eight floors and was 54.5 meters
tall.
After it was built, the tower continued to lean by another millimeter every year. By 1990,
it was leaning by about four meters to one side. It was also slowly sinking into the ground.
Many people became worried that it would soon fall apart. In 1998, repair works began on
the tower. Workers took nearly three years to move it back by 45 centimeters. It is still
leaning, but it is safe now.
1. Why did the people of Pisa want to build the tower? A.
They needed a new church.
B. They needed a bell tower.
C. They wanted to build the tallest tower in Italy.
2. When did the tower begin to lean? A. from the first day
it was built
B. after the third floor was built
C. after the last floor was built
3. When was the tower finished?
A. in 1173
B. in 1180
C. in 1350
4. Before being repaired, the tower leaned every year by
another ... A. 1 millimeter.
B. 54.5 millimeters.
C. 45 centimeters.
5. Which of the following is NOT true about the tower?
A. It was sinking into the ground.
B. It was repaired between 1990 and 1998.
C. People were worried it might fall apart.


4. How many times did Rico go into the room to find a new toy he did not know?
A. Seven
B. Ten
C. Thirty-seven
5. Why were researchers surprised by what they saw?
A. Rico always knew which toys were his and which were not. B. Rico seems to
remember things as well as a young child
C. Rico showed that he understands language.


No. 23
.
The Salt Palace Hotel
There are many unique hotels around the world. In Sweden, you can stay in a hotel made
out of ice, open between December and April every year. In Turkey, you can stay in a
cave hotel with a television, and a bathroom in each room. And in Bolivia, you can stay at
the Palacio de Sal (Palace of Salt).
Thousands of years ago, the area around the Palace of Salt was a large lake. But over time,
all the water disappeared. Today, the area has only two small lakes and two salt deserts.
The larger of the two deserts, the Uyuni salt desert, is 12,000 square kilometers. During
the day, the desert is bright white because of the salt. There are no roads across the Uyuni
desert, so local people must show guests the way to the hotel.
In the early 1990s, a man named Juan Quesada cut big blocks of salt from the desert. He
used the blocks to build the hotel. Everything in the hotel is made out of salt: the walls, the
roof, even the furniture, so the tables, the chairs, the beds, and the hotel's bar are all made
of salt. The sun heats the walls and roof during the day. At night the desert is very cold,
but the rooms stay warm. The hotel has sixteen rooms. A single room costs about $100 a
night, and a double room costs about $130. A sign on the hotel's wall tells guests, "Please,
do not lick the walls."
1. What is unique about Palacio de Sal?

after the Taj Mahal was completed, Shah Jahan killed the man who made it. He did this
because he did not want the man to build anything more beautiful than the Taj Mahal. That
was not all they found out. Stories also say the Shah cut off the hands of all of the artists
who took part in building the Taj Mahal.
As for Shah Jahan, when he died he was also buried in the Taj Mahal, next to his wife.
1. Why did Shah Jahan build the Taj Mahal? A. He needed a
new place to live.
B. He liked beautiful gardens.
C. He wanted to bury his wife there.
2. Who was Mumtaz Mahal? A. one of the Shah's wives
B. a person who studied history
C. the man who made the Taj Mahal
3. What can you NOT see when you visit the Taj Mahal?
A. the Jumna River
B. a round bell tower
C. a pretty garden
4. Why did Shah Jahan kill the man who made the Taj Mahal?
A. The Shah did not like the Taj Mahal.
B. The man made a mistake.
C. The Shah did not want him to make another building.
5. What did Shah Jahan do that makes people think he was a
cruel man? A. He buried his wife.
B. He built the Taj Mahal.
C. He cut off the hands of the artists.


No. 25
The Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings of all
time, in 1503. He was working on a special painting for a church at the time, but it was not

5. What sentence about Vincenzo Peruggia is NOT true? A. He worked in an art museum.
B. He stole the Mona Lisa.
C. He sold the painting.