Read the passage and complete the sentences.
One of the main sources for the spreading of news and events through out the world is the newspaper. The purpose of newspaper is to inform the public of political, social, economic and entertainment happenings, among other things. Generally, there are three types of newspapers. Daily newspapers publish at least one edition every weekday. Most dailies also have a weekend edition. Daily newspapers often have sections for news, sports, arts, and entertainment, business, and classified advertising. Weekly newspapers print once a week and cover news of interest to readers in a smaller area than that of a daily paper. They focus on local happenings rather than national or international events. Special-interest newspapers may publish daily, weekly, monthly, or even less frequently. They generally disseminate news of interest to a particular group of readers of feature news about a specific topic.
Thanks to the development of Internet, we can now get access to electronic newspapers. To some extent, e-newspapers are cheap, up-to-date, and convenient for most readers in the world.
1. The purpose of newspapers is to..................................................................................................
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2. There are three types of newspaper. They are .............................................................................
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3. Daily newspapers often have sections for ..................................................................................
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4. Weekly newspapers focus on ......................................................................................................
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5. Special-interest newspapers cover news of interest to ................................................................
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6. Electronic newspapers are ...........................................................................................................
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Read the passage and answer the questions.
THE POSTAGE STAMP
Before the invention of the postage stamp, it was difficult to send a letter to another country. The sender paid for the letter to travel in his or her own country. Then the person in the other country paid for that part of the trip. If a letter crossed several countries, the problem was worse.
Rowland Hill, a British teacher, had the idea of the postage stamp with gum on the back. The British post office made the first stamps in 1840. They were the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue. A person bought a stamp and put it on a letter, the post office delivered the letter. When people received letters, they didn’t have to pay anything. The letters was prepaid.
Postage stamps became popular in Great Britain immediately. Other countries started making their own postage stamps very quickly.
There were still problems with international mail. Some countries did not want accept letter with stamps from another countries. Finally, in 1874, a German organized the Universal Postal System. Each country in the UPS agreed to accept letter with prepaid postage from the other members. Today the offices of the U PS are in Switzerland. Almost every country in the world is a member of this organization. It takes care of any international mail problems.
Today post offices in every country sell beautiful stamps. Collecting stamps is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, and every stamp collector knows about the Penny Black and the Twopence Blue.
Questions
1. Why was it difficult to send a letter to another country before the invention of the postage stamp?
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2. Why were the postage stamps popular?
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3. How did other countries react with the postage stamps?
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4. What does the Universal Postal System do today?
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5. Why do stamp collectors know about the Penny Black?
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Choose the word (A, B, C, or D) that best fits each of the blank spaces.
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are in Class B, Year 8 at Stonehouse School. Every year our class goes (1) an adventure holiday. This year we would like (2) your center. We are planning (3) away for the first week in May, arriving on Friday 2 May. There will be 15 boys and 15 girls in our party, and two teachers. We are (4) in sailing, rock climbing, canoeing, and map-reading. Can you send us information about your center?
We look forward (5) from you.
Yours faithfully,
Class B
1. A. in B. at C. aver D. on
2. A. attend B. attending C. to attend D. to attending
3. A. go B. to go C. going D. to going
4. A. interested B. interesting C. bored D. boring
5. A. hear B. to hear C. hearing D. to hearing
Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage.
TELEPATHY: MIND TO MIND COMMUNICATION
The (1) “telepathy” has been derived from the words “tele” meaning “distance” and “pathy” meaning “feeling”. So telepathy actually means (2) feelings through a distance. Telepathy is the communication (3) two minds, (4) over a distance, without the (5) of the five known senses.
At some point of time or the other, we all have (6) telepathy. Maybe you were thinking of someone you haven’t talked to for months and you suddenly get a call from them. Or (7) two people are together, they might say the same thing at the same time. These are spontaneous mind-to-mind (8) that tend to occur frequently between closely related individuals.
1. A. word B. phrase C. letter D. signal
2. A. holding B. getting C. bringing D. carrying
3 A. through B. among C. between D. across
4. A. separate B. be separated C. separating D. separated
5. A. using B. use c. take D. taking
6. A. experienced B. brought C. made D. taken
7. A. where B. during C. when D. since
8. A. ways B. methods C. techniques D. communications
Complete each sentence so it means the same as the sentence above.
1. The traffic was bad. However, I arrived on time.
--> Though ........................................................................................
2. I don’t know many English words
--> I wish ..........................................................................................
3. “Do you have many friends?”
--> She asked me ..............................................................................
4. We don’t have a lot of money, so we don’t buy a lot of new books.
--> If we ...........................................................................................
5. Learning English is not easy.
--> It is ..............................................................................................
