MULTIPLE CHOICES (200)

1. He’s so____that he always expects other people to do the work.
2. If you want to swim in Hawaii in winter, you ____ go to the beach! There are some
swimming pools.
3. Fiona is very angry_____her boss’s decision to sack several members of!
4. You are under no obligation to help as assistance is purely_____.
5. I’m afraid you may ______ the truth somewhat unacceptable.
6. Can you help me___ the window?
7. How many cakes does she _____?
8. She’s very_____. She can be relied on to do her job properly.
9. You_____whisper. Nobody can hear us.
10. You shouldn’t touch the _____ in an art gallery.
11. You don’t have to come ____me if you don’t want to.
12. In my opinion, it’s only common______to wear a seat belt in a car.
13. How do you_____about the pollution problem in this country?
14. Mary and Jack ____at the desk.
15. I’m sorry that I screamed. Something _____ me.
16. Your dinner is at 7pm so you shouldn’t ___ late.
17. His building is ___ to my house.
18. My family’s picture is hanging ___ the wall.
19. Our boss is speaking. We must ___ to him.
20. Nobody died in the accident last week, but 20 people were______.
21. My mother is a nurse. Jane’s father is a nurse, too. They are ___ nurses.
22. “Diana, what is the weather like today?” Jane asked. Diana replied “It’s ___
today”.
23. Let’s __ to school.
24. Scientists_____a carefully controlled experiment on the mystery virus.


25. Tomorrow is my boss’ birthday. I ___ him a gift.


47. Helen’s parents were very pleased when they read her school____.
48. Who_____was coming to see me this morning?
49. The castles are ___ to be over a thousand years old.
50. Do you believe ______ghosts?
51. ___ the food so that it won’t be over-cooked
52. The only means of_____to the station is through a dark subway.
53. May I borrow your pen, Jane? I seem to have______mine at home.
54. It is up to the police to ___ these robberies.
55. Some people like to have the windows open all the time; ___ don’t.
56. The roots of the old tree spread out ____ thirty meters in all directions and
damaged nearby buildings.
57. Last year, the music bad FTPG made a_____of several million crowns.
58. If you like skiing, there’s a ski ____under an hour’s driving from Madrid.
59. If you are “over the moon” about something, how do you feel?
60. The content of the book was ___ it was completely incomprehensible.
61. ____of what he said was very sensible.
62. Everyone is hoping and praying that_____peace will eventually come to the area.
63. Does this jacket ____ my trousers?
64. Continued high-blood pressure is dangerous ____ it can increase the risk of heart
disease and stroke.
65. They like to keep their old houses rather than building the new ones ____ it is very
hard and expensive to maintain them.
66. Before you begin the exam paper, always read the______carefully.
67. Unless you take a map with you, you ____ your way.
68. Even though I didn’t want my son to leave home, since he was twenty-one there
was nothing I could do to_____it.
69. Which of the following describes a country’s armed force that operates at sea.

3

89. I'm going to meet my friends, _____ Hoan Kiem lake tonight.
90. Paris is the _____ crowded city in the world.
91. I can’t eat this piece of meat; it’s too______.

4


92. I am looking for a _____ job.
93. It all happened so quickly, one minute I was making chips and the next the whole
kitchen was _____fire.
94. I'm busy. Please visit me _____ time.
95. From my point of view, in this situation, you ‘d better say less and do _____.
96. He just turned away when I asked him. ______he meant.
97. He is a man of _____ words.
98. We have imported ____ computers this year than last year.
99. You should always make sure your luggage has _____ on it when you travel.
100. Last Christmas, the boss gave all his _____ a bonus.
101. Are you sure we are going in the right _____?
102. My new car is more _____ than the one I had before.
103. I ____ doubt whether he will actually carry out his threats.
104. She was very_____and told me quite simply that she didn’t like me.
105. We can win only if we remain united, and so we must support them the moment
they ____ on strike.
106. We
____at about seven o’clock this morning and we eventually arrived at
half past four.
107. We have to complete the film this month. No matter how cold it ____, all the
summer scences will have to be shot tomorrow.
108. Everybody ____ here except for Jill two hours ago.
109. During an exam, you _____ copy from the other students.

129. He is ____by many people for the money he has helped raise for charity.
130. Drive fast ________ we will miss the train.
131. I will go home ________ he has not come.
132. I____hope there won’t be a repetition of these unfortunate events.
133. You always take things ___ granted.
134. I have known her _____ last year.
135. He returned to his home town ___ he spent the rest of his life.
136. If we behave badly in class, our teacher____stay late and do extra work.
137. After working in the hot sun, I wanted to drink ___.

6


138. Pregnant women shouldn’t ____ as it can damage the baby.
139. He doesn't have many dogs, but he has ___.
140. When does the meeting start? ___ an hour.
141. He wants to become ___ a doctor or a dentist.
142. I don't know ___.
143. Can you read this letter ___ in English?
144. Which of the following is used to start a very formal letter?
145. He’s very _____about his work, so try not to say anything that he might take as a
criticism.
146. Before going to Madrid for your holidays, you should try and _____ something of
the language. You will enjoy things a lot more.
147. Listen to that music! Our neighbors _____ play music that loud at this hour.
148. After thirty-five years in the French department, Professor Lane finally_____ last
month.
149. My brother wants ___ go swimming with him.
150. The local council is really strict about protecting that piece of lawn! You _____
walk around it!

173. This is just ___ I have always wanted.
174. Your father drove to work, ___ he?
175. Your colleagues went to a concert last night, ___ they?
176. They don't like football and she ___.
177. I am looking forward ___ you.
178. My car was so old that I could only sell it for_____.
179. I wish I ___ play golf as well as my father.
180. I've had this diamond necklace for a very long _____.
181. You have worked really well since the morning coffee break. Well ____!
182. ___ of them was good enough to use.
183. Those two have been married since 1985. They are the ____couple I know?
184. ___ you please tell me the place of the meeting in this afternoon?

8


185. The performance will start_______at six.
186. Mr. Gomez has ____ the Prime Minister since Mrs. Gonzalez-Panis resigned in the
spring.
187. When America was discovered, it was not an empty land, ___ the taking.
188. Yesterday, at the meeting the committee ___ six questions.
189. How well did you do at your first school according ___ your teachers?
190. Would you make any allowance ___ a rude person who had just lost a parent?
191. _____ the dentist took out that tooth of mine, it's been really painful. I should go
back to her?
192. I've been coming to this swimming pool

_______ over ten years.

193. The price of gas _____ fallen much recently, has it?

controversy (4)_____whether the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a predator or a scavenger;
some believe that its highly developed sense of smell indicates that it was a scavenger,
(5)_____others say that its keen eyesight shows that it was a hunter. The (6)_____group
will appreciate the recent study, as a hunter is more (7)_____to require such speed. The
University of Manchester study used a powerful supercomputer to calculate the running
speeds of five meat-eating dinosaurs and used data taken (8)_____ from dinosaur fossils,
(9)_____than referring to previous work on (10)_____animals.

C3. In 1993, Greg Mortenson took a (1)_____to Pakistan to climb K2, the second tallest
mountain in the world. On his way down the mountain, he got lost. Food and water
were (2)_____, but Mr. Mortenson found a small village. The people there saw that he
was (3)______and helped him. While in the village, Mr. Mortenson watched the children
write in the dirt for their school lessons. The village did not have money to build a school
or (4)______a teacher. Before he left, Mr. Mortenson (5)______to return to the village and
help them build a school. Mr. Mortenson returned to the US and wrote to many
(6)______people. That idea did not work very well, but (7)______enough people heard
about Mr. Mortenson's plan and helped him. That was the beginning of the Central Asia
Institute, an organization that has (8)______in building or helping to build more than 130
schools in small villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan. With the help of (9)______David
Relin, Mr. Mortenson wrote the famous book Three Cups of Tea. Some people have
criticized him, however, Mr. Mortenson was given an (10)_____in 2009 by the
government of Pakistan for his work in that country.


C4. Beijing is the capital city of the People’s Federal Republic of China. “Beijing” comes
from the Chinese words “northern” and “capital” and follows a(n) (1) _____East Asian
tradition of naming capital cities literally. Other similarly named cities (2)_____Nanjing in
Southern China which means “southern capital”, and Tokyo in Japan, which means
“eastern capital”. Beijing is the political and cultural (3) _____of China and is worldfamous for its many historical attractions. Four million people visit Beijing each year to
see (4)_____such as the magnificent Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and The Great

_____about world peace and anti-nuclear and anti-war issues, traveling (3)_____many
2


different countries to share his ideas. In the 1960s, after returning to the United States
from a busy and tiring trip to Europe, Mr. Cousins got sick. He discovered he had a rare
disease known as <i>ankylosing spondylitis</i> that caused the joints between his bones
to (4)_____ stiff. In less than a week after he got (5)_____, he could not stand. Every move
that he (6)_____was painful. He was not able to sleep at night. The doctors told Mr.
Cousins that they did not (7)_____how to cure his problem and he might never get over
the illness. Mr. Cousins, however, refused to give (8)_____hope. Mr. Cousins thought that
the illness could be caused (9)_____unhappy thoughts. He did not want to
(10)_____medicine to cure himself. Instead, he felt that happy thoughts or laughter
might cure his illness.

C7. Human memory, formerly believed to be rather inefficient, (1)_____really much more
sophisticated than that of a computer. Researchers approaching the problem from a
variety of (2)_____of view have all concluded that there is a great deal more stored in
our minds than has been generally supposed. Dr. Wilder Penfield, a Canadian
neurosurgeon, proved that by stimulating (3)_____brains electrically, he could elicit the
total recall of complex events in his subjects’ lives. Even dreams and other minor events
supposedly forgotten (4)_____many years suddenly emerged in detail. The memory
trace is the term for (5)_____forms the internal representation of the specific information
about the event stored in the memory. Assumed to have been made by structural
changes in (6)____brain, the memory trace is not subject to direct observation but is
rather a theoretical construct that is used to speculate about how information
presented at a particular time can cause performance at a later time. Most theories
include the (7)____of the memory trace as a variable in the degree of learning,
retention, and retrieval possible for a memory. One theory is that the fantastic capacity
for storage in the brain is the result (8)____an almost unlimited combination of

park was there.

C10. Philology (1)_____the traditional study of language, especially of written languages
in their cultural settings. Because philology (2)_____with the relationship of languages, it is
usually comparative; because these relationships evolve (3)_____time, it is typically
historical. Languages (4)_____ to change in the direction of greater diversity; one
language tends to be superseded by several: a (5)_____“dead” language preserves
evidence of the earlier forms from which “living” languages developed. The
descendants of Latin have diverged to the point that, though Italian is related
(6)_____English, they are now foreign to each other as is their common “parent” to both.
Also cultures change the meaning and use of many words. In English, piano is a
keyboard (7)_____; in Italian piano not only names the instrument, it also means “soft” as
opposed to “loud”. The original name for the instrument was pianoforte (soft-loud),
because it was more (8) _____of varying sound volume than instruments like the
harpsichord that came before it. The special meaning of the Italian phrase results from
its (9)_____context and the distinctive feature of the instrument it names. But in English
and other languages, we abbreviate it to piano. The English word still (10)_____the same
instrument but the abbreviation discards “and loud" from the original Italian phrase and
hence becomes a name and not a description.

4


C11. Edward Patrick Eagan was (1)_____April 26, 1897, in Denver, Colorado, and his
father died in a railroad accident when Eagan was only a year old. He and his four
brothers (2)_____raised by his mother, who earned a small income from teaching foreign
languages. Inspired (3)_____Frank Merriwell, the hero of a series of popular novels for
boys, Eagan pursued an education for himself as well as an interest (4)_____boxing. He
(5)_____the University of Denver for a year before serving in the U.S. Army as an artillery
lieutenant during World War I. After the war, he entered Yale University and, while

(3)_____paycheck. But probably a (4)_____important influence has been the “women’s
5


liberation movement”. Women are being told in (5)_____magazines and TV programs
that “You can be successful on your own. Don’t be satisfied with (6)_____being a wife
and mother. Use your intelligence and talents to do something bigger. And you should
be paid (7)____much as a man.” (8)_____doubt this movement has accomplished much
good. But it has also contributed to a selfish “me first” attitude that is breaking up many
families. Sometimes women (9)_____are happy staying at home feel that working
women look (10)____them. There are no easy answers to these problems. But certainly
women’s influence will continue to grow in business, education and politics.

C14. Leisure is generally seen as an (1)______ which takes place outside (2)_____ hours.
The peak leisure time for most people is between 6.00 pm and 12.00 am, although in
recent years there has been an increase in people working (3) ____hours and shifts,
together with more "flexitime". Leisure is often thought of purely as a (4)____ activity, i.e.
playing sport. Although many people use their (5)
time in this way, there are plenty
of other leisure opportunities that are more (6) ____in nature, such as of one's lifewatching television or sunbathing on a beach. It is important to realise that leisure can
embrace a whole range of experiences and activities, although personal choice may
be limited due to factors such as age or provision of local (7)_____. The leisure emphasis
will normally change at different (8)_____ cycle. Different types of leisure (9)______tend
to be popular with varying age groups. It's probably true, however, that some members
of the older (10)______are more capable of pursuing active pastimes than they are
sometimes given credit for.

C15. Our journey to Greece began at six in the morning, when my family and I set off
from the house in our old car. We'd only gone a mile when we got a (1) ____tyre, and
after we'd fixed that we had to hurry to the airport. We (2)____to reach the check-in just


C17. Many of us are trying to think of new (1)____to help the environment. Groups which
are involved in protecting the environment think they may have found a long-term
(2)_____. Most of the current ways of getting people involved in helping the environment
mean that people have to (3)_____a large organisation and they can sometimes feel
the problem is too large or (4)_____to manage. A new (5) _____is that groups are set up
locally to deal with small issues that affect just the community they (6) _____in. It is hoped
this will make people more (7) _____
of the importance of helping. Also, this plan
means that each community works together by contributing (8)_____the environment
and this makes for a strong community. If every community does this then organisers are
(9) _____the effect will be national. The government may even offer some (10) _____help
for projects set up by these local groups. The idea came from someone who thought
that reducing the size of what we do would actually be more productive. Also, it should
mean that helping becomes a pleasure rather than a chore.

C18. E-readers are superior (1)_____printed books because they save space. The
average e-reader can store thousands of digital books, (2)_____a veritable library at
your fingertips. Moreover, being the size and weight of a thin hardback, the e-reader
(3)_____is relatively petite. It is easy to hold and can fit in a pocketbook or briefcase
easily. The average novel is about 300 pages (4)_____. Therefore, if a novel is printed
1000 times, it will use 300,000 pieces of paper. That's a lot of paper! If there are about
80,000 pieces of paper in a tree, this means it (5)_____almost 4 trees to make these 1000
7


books. We know that the average bestseller sells about 20,000 copies per week. That
means that it takes over 300 trees each month to sustain this rate. And for the super
(6)_____, these figures increase dramatically. For example, the Harry Potter book series
has sold over 450 million copies. That's about 2 million trees! Upon viewing these (7)_____,

people for help. Sam brings her closer to other kids. And he even helps her (10)_____to
her community.
8


READING COMPREHENSION (20)

C1. All spiders spin webs. That's because webs help spiders. Webs help spiders do three
things. Webs help spiders hold eggs. Webs help spiders hide. And webs help spiders
catch food. Webs help spiders hold eggs. Many spiders like to lay their eggs in their
webs. The webs help keep the eggs together. Webs help spiders keep their eggs safe.
Webs help spiders hide. Most spiders are dark. They are brown, grey, or black. But spider
webs are light. They are white and cloudy. When spiders hide in their webs, they are
harder to see. Webs help spiders catch food. Spider webs are sticky. When a bug flies
into the web, it gets stuck. It moves around. It tries to get out. But it can't. It is trapped!
Spiders can tell that the bug is trapped. That's because spiders feel the web move. And
the spider is hungry. The spider goes to get the bug. As you can see, webs help spiders
hold eggs. Webs help spiders hide. And webs help spiders catch food. Without webs,
spiders would not be able to live like they do. Spiders need their webs to survive.

C2. Most human beings are awake during the day and sleep all night. Owls live the
opposite way. Owls are nocturnal. This means that they sleep all day and stay awake at
night. Because owls are nocturnal, this means they must eat at night. But finding food in
the dark is difficult. To help them, they have special eyes and ears. Owls have very large
eyes. These eyes absorb more light than normal. Since there is little light during the night,
it is helpful to be able to absorb more of it. This helps owls find food in the dark. Owls also
have very good hearing. Even when owls are in the trees, they can hear small animals
moving in the grass below. This helps owls catch their prey even when it is very dark. Like
owls, mice are also nocturnal animals. Mice have an excellent sense of smell. This helps
them find food in the dark. Being nocturnal helps mice to hide from the many different

than ten thousand kinds of spiders, ants, and other insects. More species of amphibians,
birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles live in rainforests than anywhere else on earth.
Unfortunately, half of the world’s rainforests have already been destroyed, and at the
current rate, another 25 percent will be lost by the year 2030. Scientists estimate that as
many as fifty million acres are destroyed annually. In other words, every sixty seconds,
one hundred acres of rainforest is being cleared. By the time you finish reading this
passage, two hundred acres will have been destroyed! When this happens, constant
rains erode the former forest floor, the thin layer of soil no longer supports plant life, and
the ecology of the region is altered forever. Thousands of species of plants and animals
are condemned to extinction and since we aren’t able to predict the ramifications of
this loss to a delicate global ecology, we don’t know what we may be doing to the
future of the human species as well.

C5. Should women find their happiness inside or outside the home? In the United States
people used to believe the saying, “A woman’s place is in the home.” But now both
women and society are changing. More than fifty percent of American women
continue their work even after they are married. What has brought about these
changes? What is happening to the American family today? Up until the 1950’s a
typical American woman got married in her early 20’s. In those days she quit her job
and became a mother. “A woman’s place is in the home” was a popular saying. Most
women felt that taking care of their home and family was their full-time job. But times
have changed. Women are getting married later these days and more have chosen to
stay single. Others get married but decide not to have any children. Today more than
fifty percent of all married women work full-time. Many others run businesses in their
homes. What has caused these major changes? One reason is economic necessity. It
may be that the husband has lost his job and the wife must support the family. Or even if
2


the husband is working, some families say they can’t survive on only one paycheck. But

couldn’t even think of getting on a plane. I had let my fear of flying stop me from seeing
the people I love most in the world. I can visit my son and his family as often as I like
now!”

C7. With the onset of the winter season, man’s natural enemies, the common cold and
the flu, arrive with full force. It seems that the fluctuations in temperature and weather
are guarantees that coughs and sneezes will spread infecting germs among family and
3


friends. More than 100 different types of bacteria can cause a cold, and doctors
sometimes use antibiotics to treat bacterial colds. However, there are an equal number
of viruses that can cause influenza, and modern science offers no drug capable of
curing viral infections. In most cases, the best advice is the usual prescription: get plenty
of rest, drink lot fluids, and be prepared to suffer for three to ten days. Some home cures
help to relieve the symptoms of colds and flus. Mother’s chicken soup, rich in fats and
oils, helps to revitalize a tired body and to soothe a sore throat. Garlic, containing the
active ingredient allicin, has long been used to fight off the effects of bacteria and
viruses. Hot toddies consisting of small amounts of liquor mixed with honey, sugar, and
lemon juice can relieve soreness and draw out cold germs. Finally, recent evidence
suggests that large doses of vitamin C not only boost the immune system before a cold
arrives, but also relieve cold symptoms after they have set in.

C8. Today’s cars are smaller, safer, cleaner, and more economical than their
predecessors, but the car of the future will be far more pollution-free than those on the
road today. Several new types of automobile engines have already been developed
that run on alternative sources of power, such as electricity, compressed natural gas,
methanol, steam, hydrogen, and propane. Electricity, however, is the only zero-emission
option presently available. Although electric vehicles will not be truly practical until a
powerful, compact battery or other dependable source of current is available,

an approaching hurricane is, meteorologists use something called the Saffir-Simpson
Hurricane Scale. This means that a hurricane coming towards the land is given a
number from 1 to 5 depending on how fast its winds are. The calmest hurricane is given
the number 1 on the scale. As technology has developed and we can now forecast the
weather, it has meant that the advance warnings given have greatly reduced the
number of deaths caused by hurricanes. However, the damage to property, which
cannot be avoided, still costs billions of dollars to repair.

C10. To be successful, a business traveler must be able to maintain contact with the
office, no matter what the time or place. Negotiations often involve decisions based on
the latest figures. New telecommunications products and services now on the market
make staying in touch easier than ever before. The most widespread device is the
cellular telephone, the price of which has dropped from several thousand dollars to a
few hundred, including installation. There are over two million mobile cellular phones in
use today, including both car phones and cordless transportable units. Car phones
have proven indispensable for road emergencies as well as routine business
transactions. Phone service is also available on airplanes and on the rails. Recently
introduced pocket-size organizers help business travelers with heavy schedules keep
track of clients. These are tiny computers that can store all kinds of information. They
can serve as phone and address directories, calendars, electronic memo pads, and
calculators, among other uses. Another invaluable telecommunications tool is smaller,
lighter fax machines that plug into any standard electrical outlet and phone line. The
devices allow instantaneous transmission of hard copy to any location having a
compatible fax machine. It is expected that faxing will soon become the primary means
of sending and receiving short documents requiring prompt action.

C11. During the nineteenth century, women in the United States organized and
participated in a large number of reform movements, including movements to
reorganize the prison system, improve education, ban the sale of alcohol, grant rights to
people who were denied them, and, most importantly, free slaves. Some women saw

than ten thousand dollars, in today’s dollars, for each settler. Settlers had to find out how
to repay this debt. Almost all the settlers became farmers and raised food and made
material for their clothes. They also produced raw materials which they could send back
to England. In the South, in such colonies as Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina,
tobacco was found most profitable. In South Carolina and Georgia, rice was the most
popular crop. Slaves worked in the tobacco and rice fields on large plantations. There
were also some independent farms which raised them. On farms from New York to
Pennsylvania, settlers produced large quantities of grain, beer, beef and pork, and they
exported them to England and the West Indies. They also exported large quantities of
furs, which they received in trade from Indians. Settlers in New England had a hard time
at the beginning. Raising crops in the stony soil was difficult, so they had to find other
means to make a profit. They depended on lumber and other natural resources. They
had to use the sea to make a living. They did ship-building, fishing and trading.
6


C13. Thomas Alva Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light. Without
him, the world might still be a dark place. However, the electric light was not his only
invention. He also invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and over
1,200 other things. About every two weeks he created something new. Thomas A. Edison
was bom in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 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 selfeducated. His natural curiosity led him to start experimenting at a young age with
electrical and mechanical things at home. When he was 12 years old, he got his first job.
He became a newsboy on a train that ran between Port Huron and Detroit. He set up a
laboratory in a baggage car of the train so that he could continue his experiments in his
spare time. Unfortunately, his first work experience did not end well. Thomas was fired
when he accidentally set fire to the floor of the baggage car. Thomas then worked for
five years as a telegraph operator, but he continued to spend much of his time on the
job conducting experiments. He got his first patent in 1868 for a vote recorder run by

perfect pizza can be complicated, but there are lots of ways for you to make a more
basic version at home. When you make pizza, you must begin with the crust. The crust
can be hard to make. If you want to make the crust yourself, you will have to make
dough using flour, water, and yeast. You will have to knead the dough with your hands.
If you do not have enough time to do this, you can use a prepared crust that you buy
from the store. After you have chosen your crust, you must then add the sauce. Making
your own sauce from scratch can take a long time. You have to buy tomatoes, peel
them, and then cook them with spices. If this sounds like too much work, you can also
purchase jarred sauce from the store. Many jarred sauces taste almost as good as the
kind you make at home. Now that you have your crust and your sauce, you need to
add the cheese. Cheese comes from milk, which comes from cows. Do you have a cow
in your backyard? Do you know how to milk the cow? Do you know how to turn that
milk into cheese? If not, you might want to buy cheese from the grocery store instead of
making it yourself. When you have the crust, sauce, and cheese ready, you can add
other toppings. Some people like to put meat on their pizza, while other people like to
add vegetables. Some people even like to add pineapple! The best part of making a
pizza at home is that you can customize it by adding your own favorite ingredients.

C16. When you imagine the desert, you probably think of a very hot place covered with
sand. Although this is a good description for many deserts, Earth’s largest desert is
actually a very cold place covered with ice: Antarctica. In order for an area to be
considered a desert, it must receive very little rainfall. More specifically, it must receive
an average of less than ten inches of precipitation—which can be rain, sleet, hail, or
snow—on the ground every year. Antarctica, the coldest place on earth, has an
average temperature that usually falls below the freezing point. And because cold air
holds less moisture than warm air, the air in Antarctica does not hold much moisture at
all. This is evident in the low precipitation statistics recorded for Antarctica. For example,
the central part of Antarctica receives an average of less than 2 inches of snow every
year. The coastline of Antarctica receives a little bit more—between seven and eight
inches a year. Because Antarctica gets so little precipitation every year, it is considered