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 30 to 34.

Marriage nowadays is a choice people make on their own, but this has not always been the case in society. Thousands of years ago, the average lifespan was shorter than it is today. A man usually lived until he was about 40 years old, while women died even sooner because of childbirth. There were many wars and illnesses, and people had to protect themselves by having more children while they were still young. The parents lived through their children.

          Marriage was not so much a romantic love story but a business transaction, or deal. Most marriages were arranged between parents while their children were still very young. It was the custom that the fathers made the decision on whom their children were going to marry. The mothers had little say in it since they rarely made any decisions outside the household. The fathers would meet to arrange the wedding date and the money given for the bride on her wedding date. The more money and land a girl had, the more chances she had to marry well. Therefore, it was important that her father choose the bridegroom very well. Usually, it was someone who came from a good family or who was rich too. It was very unlikely that people married outside their social class. A few well-off and rich merchants got to marry poorer noblewomen and became King’s business advisors. In a way, poor peasants had an easier choice as it was less important whom they married.

The practice of arranged marriage is still common in some countries in the Middle East, such as India or Pakistan. Here, social classes are still strongly divided and very well-kept. Often, however, arranged marriages are a sign that people do not want to let go of the past, which gives them comfort and security in an ever- changing world.    

(Adapted from Longman Essence Reading, Vol. 2)

What does the passage mainly discuss?

 

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.  

As a newspaper reporter, she always wanted to get information at first hand.

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I can’t go out this morning. I’m up to ____ in reports.

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Thanks to the invention of labor-saving ________, domestic chores are no longer a burden.

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Could you please stop ________ so much noise?

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Chocolate is prepared by a complexity (A) process of cleaning, blending (B) and roasting cocoa beans, which (C) must be ground and mixed with (D) sugar.

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Grover Cleveland was the only (A) American president served (B) two nonconsecutive (C) terms (D).

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Any student who neglects his or her homework is unlikely to do well at school.

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The village was ________ visible through the dense fog.

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He is doing very badly but he tries to ___________ appearance.

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If you ________ in my position, what would you do?

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Although both of them (A) are trying (B) to get (C) the scholarship, she has the highest (D) grades.

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She neglected her study during the term,_____she couldn’t pass the exam.

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____ one of the most beautiful forms of performance art, ballet is a combination of dance and mime performed to music.

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________ me to phone them before I go out.

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She played ______ piano confidently, but her timing was not good.