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 from 31 to 35.

 

 The relationship between Britain and the US has always been a close one. Like all close relationships it has had difficult times. The US was first a British colony, but between 1775 and 1783 the US fought a war to become independent. The US fought the British again in the War of 1812.

 In general, however, the two countries have felt closer to each other than to any other country, and their foreign policies have shown this. During World War I and World War II, Britain and the US supported each other. When the US looks for foreign support, Britain is usually the first country to come forward and it is sometimes called “the 51st state of the union”.

 But the special relationship that developed after 1945 is not explained only by shared political interests. An important reason for the friendship is that the people of the two countries are very similar. They share the same language and enjoy each other's literature, films and television. Many Americans have British ancestors, or relatives still living in Britain. The US government and political system is based on Britain's, and there are many Anglo-American businesses operating on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain some people are worried about the extent of US influence, and there is some jealousy of its current power. The special relationship was strong in the early 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in Britain and Ronald Reagan was President of the US.

(Adapted from Background to British and American Cultures)

What is the passage mainly about?

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 from 43 to 50.

There are two basic types of glaciers, those that flow outward in all directions with little regard for any underlying terrain and those that are confined by terrain to a particular path.

The first category of glaciers includes those massive blankets that cover whole continents, appropriately called ice sheets. There must be over 50,000 square kilometers of land covered with ice for the glacier to qualify as an ice sheet, when portions of an ice sheet spread out over the ocean, they form ice shelves.

About 20,000 years ago the Cordilleran Ice sheet covered nearly all the mountains in southern Alaska, western Canada, and the western United States. It was about 3 kilometers deep at its thickest point in northern Alberta. Now there are only two sheets left on Earth, those covering Greenland and Antarctica.

Any domelike body of ice that also flows out in all directions but covers less than 50,000 square kilometers is called an ice cap. Although ice caps are rare nowadays, there are a number in northeastern Canada, on Baffin Island, and on the Queen Elizabeth Islands.

The second category of glaciers includes those of a variety of shapes and sizes generally called mountain or alpine glaciers. Mountain glaciers are typically identified by the landform that controls their flow. One form of mountain glacier that resembles an ice cap in that it flows outward in several directions is called an ice field. The difference between an ice field and an ice cap is subtle. Essentially, the flow of an ice field is somewhat controlled by surrounding terrain and thus does not have the domelike shape of a cap. There are several ice fields in the Wrangell. St. Elias, and Chugach mountains of Alaska and northern British Columbia.

Less spectacular than large ice fields are the most common types of mountain glaciers: the cirque and valley glaciers. Cirque glaciers are found in depressions in the surface of the land and have a characteristic circular shape. The ice of valley glaciers, bound by terrain, flows down valleys, curves around their corners, and falls over cliffs.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

My brother usually asked me for help when he has difficulty with his homework.

                                  A                            B         C                                       D

The road to our village . . . . . . . .  next year.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the un­derlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Around 150 B.C. the Greek astronomer Hipparchus developed a system to classify stars according to brightness.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Unless the two signatures are identical, the bank won’t honour the check.

________ his employees will have worked for two hours.

He went to Ha noi yesterday , ___?

Nancy and James are talking about their school days.

– Nancy: "I think school days are the best time of our lives." – James:    . We had sweet memories together then."

We couldn't solve the problem until our teacher arrived.

I’m becoming increasingly forgetable. Last week I locked myself out of the house twice.

      A                                         B                                             C                 D

A few kind words at the right time                                          all the difference.