Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheer to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 35 to 39.

As customers choose brands based on how they make them feel, rather than their actual products or services, there is an intrinsic advantage to those organizations who use designed experiences as a weapon to cut through the most competitive of markets. Those that don't, operate in what we call the “experience gap”, the space between them and their customer's expectation of them. Make no mistake, in our high paced and digitally connected economies, the experience gap is driving markets, fast.

For example, take Instagram and Twitter. These brands filled the demand for a whole new human experience that did not exist before the evolution of digital technologies enabled that. They were pioneers, and there were no established players to unseat. But we are also seeing a similar dynamic in existing industries. New entrants are coming in and taking the space, also using whole new experiences, purely because the incumbents left the door open.

Closer to home, this can be seen with Australian neobanks who are giving customers a better experience than the incumbents. Robert Bell is the CEO at neobank 86400. He says banking has already become quite complicated and he wanted to make a change. His neobank is working to solve customers’ problems more holistically. Bell said, “It's significantly harder work and takes more time to become a bank, but having done that we can have a much better relationship with our customers and we can offer them a lot more products and services.”

Think about that for a moment. Do you notice how better experiences, leads to better relationships, which is then the stepping stone for more offerings? Many brands still jump straight to modified offerings, without gaining that customer connection and the necessary foundation of trust first.

(Source: https://which-50.com/)

Question 39 (TH): What does the phrase “stepping stone” in paragraph 4 mean?

Question 8 (TH): She will take management training course ______.

Question 15 (VDC): Alex dreams of going on tour – he's just waiting for his big ______ to get his foot in the door of the music industry.

Question 10 (TH): Good students aren't ______ intelligent students.

Question 2 (TH): On our trip to Spain, we crossed ______ Atlantic Ocean.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each of sentences in the following questions from 33 to 34.

Question 34 (VDC): He has great intelligence. He can solve all the problems very quickly.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions from 28 to 30

Question 29 (TH): Cindy said that “I haven't seen John since last month.”

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions from 28 to 30.

Question 28 (TH): Helen's boss earns more money than she does.

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 16 to 20.

Dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating are popular Halloween activities, but few probably (16) ______ these lighthearted fall traditions with their origins in Samhain, a three-day ancient Celtic pagan festival.

For the Celts, who lived during the Iron Age in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the U.K. and (17) ______ parts of Northern Europe, Samhain (meaning literally, in modern Irish, “summer's end”) marked the end of summer and kicked off the Celtic new year. Ushering in a new year signaled a time of both death and rebirth, something that was doubly symbolic because it (18) ______ with the end of a bountiful harvest season and the beginning of a cold and dark winter season that would present plenty of challenges.

Eventually, Halloween became more popular in secular culture than All Saints' Day. The pagan-turned- Christian practices of dressing up in costumes, playing pranks and handing out offerings have evolved into popular traditions even for those (19) ______ may not believe in otherworldly spirits or saints. (20) ______, whether Halloween celebrants know it or not, they’re following the legacy of the ancient Celts who, with the festival of Samhain, celebrated the inevitability of death and rebirth.

Question 16 (VD):

Question 14 (TH): There is no longer the ______ use of animals to test products. Only some are used.

Question 11 (VD): He ______ some excuse about his daughter being sick.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from that of the rest in each of the following questions from 40 to 41.

Question 41 (NB):

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions from 1 to 15.

Question 1 (NB): Lady Gaga is an American singer, songwriter and actress, ______?

Question 4 (TH): The government suggests ______ robots to access remote areas that are dangerous to the lives of militants.

Question 9 (TH): You can't expect ______ a foreign language in a few months.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to show the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions from 25 to 27.

Question 25 (TH): Facebook allow you to send messages and post status updates to keep in touch with friends and family.