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. Earthquakes are destructive events in nature. The damage depends on the size or magnitude of the quake. There have never been so many people living in cities in quake zones, and so the worse the damage can be from a big quake, bringing fires, tsunamis, and the loss of life, property, and maybe an entire city. We understand how earthquakes happen but not exactly where or when they will occur. Until recently, quakes seemed to occur at random. In Japan, government research is now showing that quakes can be predicted. At the Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Koshun Yamaoka says earthquakes do follow a pattern—pressure builds in a zone and must be released. But a colleague, Naoyuki Kato, adds that laboratory experiments indicate that a fault slips a little before it breaks. If this is true, predictions can be made based on the detection of slips. Research in the U.S. may support Kato’s theory. In Parkfield, California earthquakes occur about every 22 years on the San Andreas fault. In the 1980s, scientists drilled into the fault and set up equipment to record activity to look for warning signs. When an earthquake hit again, it was years off schedule. At first the event seemed random but scientists drilled deeper. By 2005 they reached the bottom of the fault, two miles down, and found something. Data from two quakes reported in 2008 show there were two “slips’—places where the plates widened—before the fault line broke and the quakes occurred. We are learning more about these destructive events every day. In the future we may be able to track earthquakes and design an early-warning system. So if the next great earthquake does happen in Tokai, about 100 miles southwest of Tokyo, as some scientists think, the citizens of Tokai may have advance warning. (Adapted from Reading Explorer 3, Nancy Douglas et al., 2010)
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 World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher.” WHO officials had said earlier they were hesitant to call the outbreak a pandemic in case it led governments and individuals to give up the fight. On Wednesday, they stressed that fundamental public health interventions can still limit the spread of the virus and drive down cases even where it was transmitting widely, as the work of authorities and communities in China, Singapore, and South Korea has shown. The virus, which probably originated in bats but passed to people via an as yet unrecognized intermediary animal species, is believed to have started infecting people in Wuhan, China, in late November or early December. Since then the virus has raced around the globe. South Korea, which has reported nearly 8,000 cases, also appears poised to bring its outbreak under control with aggressive measures and widespread testing. But other countries have struggled to follow the leads of China and South Korea — a reality that has frustrated WHO officials who have exhorted the world to do everything possible to end transmission of the virus. Tedros used the fact that 90% of the cumulative cases have been reported in just four countries as evidence that the rest of the world still had time to prevent an explosion of cases with action. WHO officials also stressed that countries should be implementing a strategic combination two types of measures. One involves trying to detect and stop known chains of transmission by isolating cases and following and potentially quarantining their contacts. The other involves community-level steps like social distancing and comes into play when the virus is spreading more broadly and transmission chains can’t be tracked. Mike Ryan, the head of the WHO’s emergency program, said that the public health interventions might not have straightforward effect, but to slow the spread of the virus. People with severe cases can require long periods of critical care and strain the resources of hospitals. He said he was worried about “the case load, the demand on the health workers, the dangers that come with fatigue, and potentially shortages of personal protective equipment.”
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
While many behaviors and practices associated with going green are designed to save money, there are certain ways in which green living can actually be moderately to very expensive. (19) ________ of the technology associated with green living provides benefits to the environment but often at a much higher cost than their traditional counterparts. For instance, the use of solar panels can potentially save you money on your energy bills, but they can (20) ______________ thousands of dollars to install. Energy-efficient appliances are designed to use less electricity and water but they often come with a high price tag. Going green can also potentially have a negative effect on the environment. (21) ___________, the development of alternative fuels is an innovation in the green movement in an effort to reduce reliance on nonrenewable (22) ________ resources. While these fuels are intended to reduce the toxic emissions caused by the burning of traditional gasoline, they may have unintentionally caused the opposite effect. One of these alternative fuels, E85, actually gives off more ozone into the atmosphere than traditional fuel. While ozone is a natural part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, if it becomes concentrated in the lower atmosphere, it can potentially increase air pollution in areas where smog is a concern, (23) ________ can in turn impact the health of those living in these areas.