Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or Don your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.

Since the invention of the Internet, the world has become a different place. People are sending messages arently up to 60 billion a day, and it usually takes only seconds to deliver them. (26) are we now forgetting how to communicate face-to-face?

Without a doubt there are (27) challenges, but there are also examples of when the Internet has haneed someone's life for the better. Look at Tara Taylor's case a mother (28) lives in the USA. When she uploaded a photo of her daughter to Facebook, a facefriend (29) a problem with one of the child's eyes, so Tara took her to the doctor. It turned out that the girl had a rare disease, but her sight was saved! The story of communication is, in many (30) the story of the human race: we have always shared knowledge and built relationships, whatever means of communication we use.

(Adapted from High Note)

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 44 to 48.

Sylvia Earle is an underwater explorer and marine biologist, who was born in the USA in 1935. She became interested in the world's oceans from an early age. As a child, she liked to stand on the beach for hours and look at the sea, wondering that it must be like under the surface. When she was 16, she finally got a chance to make her first dive. It was this dive that inspired her to become an underwater explorer. Since then, she has spent more than 6,500 hours under water, and has led more than seventy expeditions worldwide. She has also made the deepest dive ever, reaching a record-breaking depth of 381 meters.

In 1970, she became famous around the world when she became the captain of the first all-female team to live under water. The team spent two weeks in an underwater "house". The research they carried out showed the damage that pollution was causing to marine life, and specially to coral reefs. Since then she has written several books and magazine articles in which she suggests ways of reducing the damage that is being done to the world's oceans. One way, she believes, is to rely on fish farms for seafood, and reduce the amount of fishing that is done the out at sea.

(Adapted from Complete IELTS by Rawdon Wyatt)

By then, the elite performers had all totaled 10000 hours of practice over the (43) ________of their lives, the merely good students 8000 hours and the future music teachers just over 4000 hours.