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

Understanding India's Caste System

It has been said that life is what we make of it. In other words, if we work hard and focus on our goals, we can have great careers and enjoy high status is society. However, these opportunities don‟t exist for everyone. In some places, the family you are born into will decide almost everything about your life. India‟s caste system is an example of this.

The caste system is a major part of the Hindu religion that has existed for thousands of years. It is a way of organizing and grouping people based on the occupation of the family. Castes will determine whom people can socialize with and their place in society. Originally, a person‟s caste was supposed to be determined by their personality, but over time it has been linked to their job and family.

There are four classes, also known as varnas, in India‟s caste system. The highest one is Brahmin. People in this class have jobs in education and religion. These are seen as extremely important functions for the society as they deal with the knowledge. The second highest level is the Kshatriya, or ruling class. People from this group can be soldiers, landowners, or have jobs in politics. The class beneath this is the Vaishya. These people often work in the commercial sector as merchants. The fourth class level is the Shudra. Shudras typically work as unskilled labourers doing factory or farm work, or they may also be employed as artists.

There is another group, the Harijan, that is at the bottom and considered to be outside of the caste system. For many years, they were known as Untouchables, people from this caste held the most undesirable jobs in society, such as cleaning up garbage. Furthermore, they weren‟t allowed to pray at public temples or drink water from the same wells as other classes. If someone from another caste came into contact with an Untouchable, they were considered dirty and would be expected to bathe vigorously to clean themselves.

Although the caste system still exists in India, the government is taking steps to improve the living conditions and decrease unemployment rates for the Shudras and Harijan. This includes providing better health care, offering literacy programmes, and making sure that people from higher social classes do not exploit them. It seems unlikely that the caste system will disappear any time soon, but the overall conditions for those at the bottom do seem to be improving.

Question:Which of the following is not true about India‟s caste system?

A. The caste system has been used in India for a long time.

B. The Kshatriya is the second highest class.

C. Hard work helps people move up in the caste system.

D. It is possible that a Shudra would work on a farm.

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 36 to 42.

Successful students often do the followings while studying. First, they have an overview before reading. Next, they look for important information and pay greater attention to it (which often needs jumping forward or backward to process information). They also relate important points to one another. Also, they activate and use their prior knowledge. When they realize that their understanding is not good, they do not wait to change strategies. Last, they can monitor understanding and take action to correct or “fix up” mistakes in comprehension.

Conversely, students with low academic achievement often demonstrate ineffective study skills. They tend to assume a passive role, in learning and rely on others (e.g., teachers, parents) to monitor their studying, for example, low-achieving students often do not monitor their understanding of content; they may not be aware of the purpose of studying; and they show little evidence of looking back, or employing “fix-up” strategies to fix understanding problems. Students who struggle with learning new information seem to be unaware that they must extent effort beyond simply reading the content to understand and remember it. Children with learning disabilities do not plan and judge the quality of their studying. Their studying may be disorganized. Students with learning problems face challenges with personal organization as well. They often have difficulty keeping track of materials and assignments, following directions, and completing work on time. Unlike good studiers who employ a variety of study skills in a flexible yet purposeful manner, low-achieving students use a restricted range of study skills. They cannot explain why good study strategies are important for learning; and they tend to use the same, often ineffective study approach for all learning tasks, ignoring task content, structure or difficulty.

Question:The word “prior” in the first paragraph is closest meaning to ______?

A. important

B. earlier

C. forward

D. good