A YEAR WITH OVERSEAS VOLUNTEERS

I was with Overseas Volunteers (OV) for a year after leaving university, and I was sent to an isolated village in Chad, about 500 km from the capital N'Djamena. Coming from' a rich country, I got quite a shock as conditions were much harder than I had expected. But after a few days I soon got used to living there. The people were always very friendly and helpful, and soon I began to appreciate how beautiful the countryside was.

One of my jobs was to supply the village with water. The well was a long walk away. And the women used to spend a long time every day carrying heavy pots backwards and forwards. So I contacted organization and arranged to have some pipes delivered. We built a simple pipeline and a pump, and it worked first time. It wasn't perfect - there were a few leaks, but it made a great difference to the villagers, who had never had running water before. And not only did we have running water, but in the evenings it was hot, because the pipe had been lying in the sun all day. All in all, I think .my time with OV was a good experience. Although it was not well-paid, it was well worth doing, and I would recommend it to anyone who was considering working for a charity.

1: The author ­­_______.

It was ­­_______ a difficult question that we couldn’t answer it.

I saw the cat ­­_______ through the window.

Mr. Brown ­­_______ in the company for 5 years before he moved there.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

 Mai is my neighbor. She turned sixteen recently and her parents (46) _______ a birthday party for her. I was one of those invited. The party began at about three (47) ­­_______ the afternoon. There were about twenty of us gathering in Mai’s house. She didn’t like having the party at a restaurant (48) ­­_______ it is noisy and expensive.

We gave presents to Mai and she (49) ­­_______ opened them. It must really be exciting to receive all those presents. After that Mai’s mother served us soft drinks and biscuits. We then listened to music and played cards. The winners were given prizes. At about four thirty Mai’s mother brought out the birthday cake. It was beautifully decorated with pink and white icing. (50) ­­_______ colorful candles sat in the middle of the cake. We all clapped our hands eagerly and sang “Happy Birthday” as she blew out the candles and cut the cake. We helped ourselves to slices of the delicious cake and sang all the songs that we knew.

Finally at about six in the evening the party came to an end. We were all tired but happy. The parents of other children came to collect them by motorbikes. I helped Mai and her mother clean up the mess we had made. After that I walked home, which was only three doors away.

We should take care of war invalids and families of martyrs.

He admitted breaking his mother’s vase.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.

John no longer wants to live in the city. He decides to move to the countryside.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

 The pop singer sings very ­­_______.

Inside it, I saw a wad of dollar notes exactly like the ones my father ­­_______ me.