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.

Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He played for the New York Yankees in their years of glory. From the time Mantle began to play professionally in 1951 to his last year in 1968, baseball was the most popular game in the United States. For many people, Mantle symbolized the hope, prosperity, and confidence of America at that time.

Mantle was a fast and powerful player, a “switch-hitter” who could bat both right-handed and left-handed. He won game after game, one World Series championship after another, for his team. He was a wonderful athlete, but this alone cannot explain Americas fascination with him. Perhaps it was because he was a handsome, red-haired country boy, the son of a poor miner from Oklahoma. His career, from the lead mines of the West to the heights of success and fame, was a fairy-tale version of the American dream. Or perhaps it was because America always loves a “natural”: a person who wins without seeming to try, whose talent appears to come from an inner grace. That was Mickey Mantle.

But like many celebrities, Mickey Mantle had a private life that was full of problems. He played without complaint despite constant pain from injuries. He lived to fulfill his father’s dreams and drank to forget his father’s early death.

It was a terrible addiction that finally destroyed his body. It gave him cirrhosis of the liver and accelerated the advance of liver cancer. Even when Mickey Mantle had turned away from his old life and warned young people not to follow his example, the destructive process could not be stopped. Despite a liver transplant operation that had all those who loved and admired him hoping for a recovery, Mickey Mantle died of cancer at the age of 63.

What is the main idea of the passage?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.

The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity.

The receptionist said I must fill in that form before I attended the interview.

Bill seems unhappy about his job because he doesn’t get____________ his boss.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks from 33 to 37.

Tattooing is an old art. Tattooing is an old art. In ancient Greece, people who had tattoos were (33) ____________as members of the upper classes. On the other hand, tattooing was banned in Europe by the early Christians, (34)______ thought that it was a sinful thing to do. It was not (35) ____________the late 18th century, when Captain Cook saw South Sea Islander decorating their bodies with tattoos that attitudes began to change. Sailors came back from these islands with pictures of Christ on their backs and from then on, tattooing gained (36) ____________popularity. A survey by the French army in 1881 showed that among the 387 men questioned there were 1,333 designs.

Nowadays, not everybody finds tattoos acceptable. Some people thing that getting one is silly because tattoos are more or less permanent. There is also some (37) ____________about catching a blood disease from unsterilized needles. Even for those who do want a tattoo, the process of getting one is not painless, but the final result, in their eyes, is worth the pain.

After the robbery of the bank, the police____________of the robbers and arrested the whole band.

The interviews with parents showed that the vast majority were____________of teachers.

It____________that neither the passengers nor the driver was injured in the crash.

After a good nights sleep he woke up feeling as fresh as____________and eager to start work again.

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

Laura practiced playing the instrument a lot. She could hardly improve her performance