I get a lot of letters at this time of year from many people who have a cold which won’t go away. There are many different stories about how to prevent or cure a cold. That’s why it is often difficult to know what to do. We know that colds are rarely "dangerous", except for weak people such as the elderly or young babies. These people are always uncomfortable and usually most unpleasant. Of course, you can buy a lot of medicines. They will help to make your cold less unpleasant. However, you must remember that nothing can actually cure a cold or make it go away faster. Any strong medicine used to make you feel better could be dangerous if you are already taking drugs for some other illness. Thus, check with your chemist or doctor to see whether they are all right for you. And remember they might make you sleepy. Please don’t try to drive if they do! Lastly, whatever you may be told about magic foods or drinks, the best answer is to keep yourself strong and healthy. You’ll have less chance of catching a cold. And if you do, it shouldn’t be so bad.

28.         The writer of the passage wants _______.

A. to write in an amusing way

B. to give general advice

C. to complain about his/her health

D. to persuade people to have more foods and drinks

29.         Colds are _______.

     A. very dangerous                   B. not dangerous at all

     C. unpleasant                 D. usually fatal

30.         What is the key to avoid catching a cold?

     A. having magic foods and drinks    B. sleeping a lot

     C. taking a lot of medicines               D. keeping yourself strong and healthy

31.         The underlined word "most" as used in the passage is closest in meaning to _______.

     A. very                 B. in the highest degree

     C. greatest            D. absolutely

32.         The writer of the passage is probably _______.

     A. a nurse             B. a health care specialist

     C. a novelist                   D. a reporter

Part 2: Read the passage and answer the questions below. In Britain, the climate is not very good. There are very few hot days and it rains a lot. Because of this, people spend a lot of time at home. Generally, British homes have a lot of furniture in them, carpets on the floors and heavy curtains. Many houses in Britain are old. Many of them are over one hundred years old. Often, they do not have enough insulation and the heat goes out through the windows, the doors and up the chimney. Because of the climate, people in Britain have to spend a lot of money on heating. Many houses have a special system called "central heating". This heats all the rooms and, at the same time, heats the hot water. Houses without central heating often have gas, electric or coal fires. The rooms in most British houses are quite small. New houses are much better. They have two layers of glass in the windows to stop the heat going out.

21. Why do British people spend a lot of time at home?

22. Are there a lot of furniture in British homes?

23. How old are many houses in Britain?

24. What do houses without central heating often have?

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.

Milpa Alta is a region of twelve villages and towns to the south of Mexico City. In Milpa Alta, traditions are still very important and one of the most famous traditional events is a community meal. It takes place every Christmas and is called La Rejunta. More than a meal, it’s a feast, where about sixty thousand tamales and fifteen thousand litres of hot chocolate are made and consumed. Tamales are made from corn. They are typical of the region:  the name Milpa Alta means “High cornfield”. The feast is offered to the people who go on the long walk to El Señor de Chalma about 80 kilometers away. It’s an important event on the religious calendar for local people and as many as 20,000 people take part. 

The planning and organisation of La Rejunta takes the whole year. Every year, different people are given the job of majordomo, which means they’re responsible for organising the meal. There’s a waiting list for the opportunity to do this and currently the next available year is 2046. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez, who put their names on the list 14 years ago. 

One year before the meal, men go to the forest and collect wood that they store near the home of the majordomo. It has to be dry when it’s used to make the cooking fires. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat and vegetables that are needed as ingredients. In the week before the feast, hundreds of volunteers arrive to help with the preparation and the cooking. No instant or ready-made foods are allowed. Amazingly, everyone seems to know what they have to do. On the day of the feast, the majordomos and others have stayed up all night cooking. Fermin is in charge of the numbers – making sure there are enough tamales for everyone. 

For the people of Milpa Alta, eating together is one of their most important traditions. One woman, Josefina García Jiménez, explains that sitting together at the table is like a glue that keeps people together. It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when they are adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to think about the ingredients, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them. ‟ The time that everybody stays at the table after the meal has finished is just as important as the food. They talk, tell stories and laugh together. At Christmas, La Rejunta is a giant version of a family meal

What is the article about?

A. daily life in Mexico         

B. farming in Milpa Alta   

C. Mexican cuisine 

D. traditions in Mexico

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.

Milpa Alta is a region of twelve villages and towns to the south of Mexico City. In Milpa Alta, traditions are still very important and one of the most famous traditional events is a community meal. It takes place every Christmas and is called La Rejunta. More than a meal, it’s a feast, where about sixty thousand tamales and fifteen thousand litres of hot chocolate are made and consumed. Tamales are made from corn. They are typical of the region:  the name Milpa Alta means “High cornfield”. The feast is offered to the people who go on the long walk to El Señor de Chalma about 80 kilometers away. It’s an important event on the religious calendar for local people and as many as 20,000 people take part. 

The planning and organisation of La Rejunta takes the whole year. Every year, different people are given the job of majordomo, which means they’re responsible for organising the meal. There’s a waiting list for the opportunity to do this and currently the next available year is 2046. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez, who put their names on the list 14 years ago. 

One year before the meal, men go to the forest and collect wood that they store near the home of the majordomo. It has to be dry when it’s used to make the cooking fires. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat and vegetables that are needed as ingredients. In the week before the feast, hundreds of volunteers arrive to help with the preparation and the cooking. No instant or ready-made foods are allowed. Amazingly, everyone seems to know what they have to do. On the day of the feast, the majordomos and others have stayed up all night cooking. Fermin is in charge of the numbers – making sure there are enough tamales for everyone. 

For the people of Milpa Alta, eating together is one of their most important traditions. One woman, Josefina García Jiménez, explains that sitting together at the table is like a glue that keeps people together. It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when they are adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to think about the ingredients, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them. ‟ The time that everybody stays at the table after the meal has finished is just as important as the food. They talk, tell stories and laugh together. At Christmas, La Rejunta is a giant version of a family meal

What do the majordomos do?

A. cook the food for La Rejunta          

B. grow food for La Rejunta 

C. organise La Rejunta           

D. collect wood for La Rejunta  

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.

Milpa Alta is a region of twelve villages and towns to the south of Mexico City. In Milpa Alta, traditions are still very important and one of the most famous traditional events is a community meal. It takes place every Christmas and is called La Rejunta. More than a meal, it’s a feast, where about sixty thousand tamales and fifteen thousand litres of hot chocolate are made and consumed. Tamales are made from corn. They are typical of the region:  the name Milpa Alta means “High cornfield”. The feast is offered to the people who go on the long walk to El Señor de Chalma about 80 kilometers away. It’s an important event on the religious calendar for local people and as many as 20,000 people take part. 

The planning and organisation of La Rejunta takes the whole year. Every year, different people are given the job of majordomo, which means they’re responsible for organising the meal. There’s a waiting list for the opportunity to do this and currently the next available year is 2046. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez, who put their names on the list 14 years ago. 

One year before the meal, men go to the forest and collect wood that they store near the home of the majordomo. It has to be dry when it’s used to make the cooking fires. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat and vegetables that are needed as ingredients. In the week before the feast, hundreds of volunteers arrive to help with the preparation and the cooking. No instant or ready-made foods are allowed. Amazingly, everyone seems to know what they have to do. On the day of the feast, the majordomos and others have stayed up all night cooking. Fermin is in charge of the numbers – making sure there are enough tamales for everyone. 

For the people of Milpa Alta, eating together is one of their most important traditions. One woman, Josefina García Jiménez, explains that sitting together at the table is like a glue that keeps people together. It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when they are adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to think about the ingredients, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them. ‟ The time that everybody stays at the table after the meal has finished is just as important as the food. They talk, tell stories and laugh together. At Christmas, La Rejunta is a giant version of a family meal

Fermin _________.

A. cooks the tamales

B. counts the amount of food

C. tells the volunteers what to do

D. makes plan for the next La Rejunta

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.

Milpa Alta is a region of twelve villages and towns to the south of Mexico City. In Milpa Alta, traditions are still very important and one of the most famous traditional events is a community meal. It takes place every Christmas and is called La Rejunta. More than a meal, it’s a feast, where about sixty thousand tamales and fifteen thousand litres of hot chocolate are made and consumed. Tamales are made from corn. They are typical of the region:  the name Milpa Alta means “High cornfield”. The feast is offered to the people who go on the long walk to El Señor de Chalma about 80 kilometers away. It’s an important event on the religious calendar for local people and as many as 20,000 people take part. 

The planning and organisation of La Rejunta takes the whole year. Every year, different people are given the job of majordomo, which means they’re responsible for organising the meal. There’s a waiting list for the opportunity to do this and currently the next available year is 2046. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez, who put their names on the list 14 years ago. 

One year before the meal, men go to the forest and collect wood that they store near the home of the majordomo. It has to be dry when it’s used to make the cooking fires. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat and vegetables that are needed as ingredients. In the week before the feast, hundreds of volunteers arrive to help with the preparation and the cooking. No instant or ready-made foods are allowed. Amazingly, everyone seems to know what they have to do. On the day of the feast, the majordomos and others have stayed up all night cooking. Fermin is in charge of the numbers – making sure there are enough tamales for everyone. 

For the people of Milpa Alta, eating together is one of their most important traditions. One woman, Josefina García Jiménez, explains that sitting together at the table is like a glue that keeps people together. It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when they are adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to think about the ingredients, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them. ‟ The time that everybody stays at the table after the meal has finished is just as important as the food. They talk, tell stories and laugh together. At Christmas, La Rejunta is a giant version of a family meal

What’s unusual about La Rejunta?

A. A huge amount of food is made

B. The event lasts for many days

C. The ingredients are very unusual

D. The preparation only takes a few days

1. Read the text. Choose the right words and write them on the lines

Airports

You can fly to places all over (1) ................. world from airports. Planes and helicopters leave and arrive (2) .................. day. You often take a plane from an airport when you go to (3) .................. country on holiday or for work. Some people go to airports because they (4) ............... watching planes there. You can get to airports (5) ................ bus, taxi or car. Sometimes you go there to meet friends (6) .................. are arriving from other places. In most airports there are shops, cafés and toilet. People (7) ................. buy things before they get on the plane. These things are usually cheaper in airports (8) .................... in other shops. You have to wait in a place called the 'departure lounge' befor you fly. A lot of people (9) ................... in airports. People have to clean them all the time because (10) .................... are very big and a lot of people use them. You can see pilots there, too. There are (11) ..................... policemen and policewomen, and mechanics who work on the planes before they fly.

1. a / an / the

2. some / every / any

3. many / another / other

4. enjoys / enjoy / enjoyed

5. by / for / with

6. what / which / who

7. can / are / have

8. that / than / then

9. works / working / work

10. they / it / you

11. twice / also / together

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.

 If you want to go to a university, you usually apply during your last year at school, when you are 17-18. You can apply to study at any university in Britain and most people choose a university that is not in their own town. So, university students usually live away from home. Students get a grant from the government to study. At the beginning of your last year at school, you receive an application form. On this form you choose up to five universities that you would like to go to. The form is sent to those universities with information from your school about you and your academic record. If the universities are interested in your application, they will ask you to attend an interview. If they are still interested after the interview, they will offer you a place. Any offer, however, is only conditional at this stage. Applications and interviews take place several months before students do their A-level examinations. These are the exams that you do at the end of your time at school. So, when a university makes an offer, it will tell you the minimum grades that you will have to get when you do your A-level exams. If you don’t obtain those grades then, you will not be able to get the place. It will be offered to someone else and you must apply again to another university. You don’t have to accept your place immediately. Some students don’t want to go straight from school to university. So, after they have taken their A-level, they take a year out to work or travel.

Question: The maximum number of universities that a student can apply for is_______.

A. two

B. three

C. four

D. five

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 61 to 65.

Getting fit and slim

You started the year in fine form, made a promise to yourself to get fit and slim, joined a gym and started a diet. But what happened to those gym visits and the lettuce diet? At least half of US who try to get fit and thinner give up after less than a month. Many people blame their failure on lack of time. Lack of willpower was highly important too.

Much of this is down to the way we set unrealistic fitness goals — a flat stomach in eight weeks and a celebrity diet plan - instead of trying the boringly practical long-term fix of exercising a bit more and eating a bit less. Most fitness clubs get an influx of new members from January to March, but theft use of the gym tends to decline after that. So how do you beat the temptation to give up? First, don’t expect to fail as soon as you start - be positive, even if you’ve failed before. Many people are fooled into believing that they need to follow an expensive eating plan. This is simply not true. The answer is to soul-search for the thing that really interests and motivates you. It’s fine to have small motivations, but you should write them down and put them together to make a list of things to keep you going.

You also need to change the way you think about things. Women feel particularly guilty about doing the three- hour-a-week exercise routine, thinking it ‘selfish time’ that takes them away from responsibilities to family and friends. It is better to regard this as vital ‘self-care’ time. People also think three hours is a lot of time out of their week, but we spend around 98 hours a week awake - and the other 95 we are just sitting around.

 Which headline would best suit the text?

A. Exercise - it’s not worth the effort.

B. Don’t overtire yourself.

C. Going to the gym is a waste of time.

D. You can get fit if you really want to.