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. Have you ever entered a tropical rainforest? It’s a special, dark place completely different from anywhere else. A rainforest is a place where the trees grow very tall. Millions of kinds of animals, insects, and plants live in the rainforest. It is hot and humid in a rainforest. It rains a lot in the rainforest, but sometimes you don't know it's raining. The trees grow so closely together that rain doesn't always reach the ground Rainforests make up only a small part of the Earth's surface, about six percent. They are found in tropical parts of the world The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon in South America. The Amazon covers 1.2 billion acres, or almost five million square kilometers. The second largest rainforest is in Western Africa. There are also rainforests in Central America, Southeast Asia, Northeastern Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Rainforests provide us with many things. In fact, the Amazon Rainforest is called the "lungs of our planet" because it produces twenty percent of the world's oxygen. One fifth of the world's fresh water is also found in the Amazon Rainforest. Furthermore, one half of the world's species of animals, plants, and insects live in the Earth's rainforests. Eighty percent of the food we eat first grew in the rainforest. For example, pineapples, bananas, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, chocolate, coffee, and sugar all came from rainforests. Twenty-five percent of the drugs we take when we are sick are made of plants that grow only in rainforests. Some of these drugs are even used to fight and cure cancer. With all the good things we get from rainforests, it's surprising to find that we are destroying our rainforests. In fact, 1.5 acres, or 6,000 square meters, of rainforest disappear every second. The forests are being cut down to make fields for cows, to harvest the plants, and to clear land for farms. Along with losing countless valuable species, the destruction of rainforests creates many problems worldwide. Destruction of rainforests results in more pollution, less rain, and less oxygen for the world
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 election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1928 marked the political ascendancy of the “common man” in American politics. Whereas all previous presidents had been Easterners from well- todo families, Jackson was a self-made man of modest wealth from the West. Born in 1767, Jackson fought in the American Revolution, in which many of his relatives died. Afterwards, he studied law and moved to the Western District of North California. When that territory became the state of Tennessee, Jackson was elected the state’s first congressman. His name became a household word during the war of 1812, when, as a U.S Army major general, he led troops against the Creek Indians in the Mississippi Territory and later defeated the British at New Orleans. After his presidential inauguration, Jackson rode on horseback to the White House to attend a private party. Crowds of well-wishers suddenly appeared at the reception and nearly destroyed the White House as they tried to glimpse the new president. The common man had made a dramatic entrance onto the national political scene. Jackson’s two terms moved American society toward truer democracy. Many states abandoned property requirements for voting. Elected officials began to act more truly as representatives of the people than as their leaders. As president of the common man, Jackson waged a war against the Bank of the United States, vetoing the bill that re-chartered the institution, declaring it a dangerous monopoly that profited the wealthy few. Although he had built his reputation as an Indian fighter during the War of 1812, Jackson was not an Indian hater. He adopted what was at the time considered an enlightened solution to the Indian problem-removal. Many tribes submitted peacefully to being moved to the West. Others were marched by force to the Indian Territory, under brutal conditions, along what the Cherokees called the Trail of Tears. One of Andrew Jackson’s most enduring legacies was the Democratic Party, which under him became a highly organized political party. In opposition to the Democrats were the Whigs, a party that attracted supporters of the Bank of the United States and opposed the tyranny of the man called “King Andrew”. A less specific but more basic legacy is the populist philosophy of politics that still bears the name “Jacksonian Democracy.”
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
The importance of parents is something (34) ________ children should comprehend involuntarily. It is not something that can be put forward as a moral or ethical question. Studies show that apart from earlier times, contemporary parents have a higher chance of failure to maintain a good relationship with their children (35) ________ the nuclear family setups that we have (36) ________ days. They are equally (37) _________ for providing sound education and sound knowledge of their religion as well as the moral training of their children. In the same way, children have to appreciate their parent’s promising efforts to ensure a good life for them. Whatever the situation or whatever is the problem that a child faces in life, parents should try and motivate and inspire them by their own examples to make a tough into good. Parents try to make the balance in their child’s emotional persistence that helps to (38)________ tough situations faster.