Trang is talking to Nam after class.

- Trang: “Would you like to join our reading club?”

- Nam: “ _______ ”

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 39 to 43.

The Plastiki looks similar to many other boats in Sydney harbour. It's eighteen metres long, six metres wide and it weighs about twelve thousand kilogrammes. It carries a crew of six people and has an average speed of five knots. However, once you get near to the Plastiki you realise there's a big difference. It's made of twelve thousand five hundred re-used plastic bottles.

David de Rothschild is an environmentalist who has crossed Antarctica and explored the Ecuadorian Amazon. One day he was reading some information about all the plastic in the seas and oceans. He couldn't believe what he was reading. For example, humans throw away four out of every five plastic bottles they use, and plastic rubbish causes about eighty per cent of the pollution in the sea. In addition, scientists think that around one million seabirds die every year from plastic pollution. De Rothschild decided he wanted to help fight pollution in the sea. To help more people understand the problem, he started building a boat made of plastic bottles.

As well as building the boat with recycled plastic, it was important for him to make the boat environmentally friendly and user-friendly. The boat uses renewable energy such as wind power and solar energy. The crew can make meals with vegetables from the small garden at the back of the boat. They can take a break from work and get some exercise by using the special exercise bicycle. The energy from the bike provides power for the boat's computers. And if anyone needs to take a shower, the boat's shower uses saltwater from the sea.

(Adapted from Life by John Hughes, Helen Stephenson and Paul Dummett)

Which of the following is TRUE about the Plastiki, according to the passage?

The word they in paragraph 2 refers to _______ .

According to paragraph 2, De Rothschild was shocked when he _______ .

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

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 from 34 to 38.

EDIBLE ROOFTOPS

With the cost of producing and distributing food becoming increasingly expensive, consumers are having to pay far higher prices for their food. In (34) _______ cities around the world this has led to a new movement to produce food which is grown locally. The idea is to cut the distances food has to travel and to have (35) _______ sources of fresh vegetables available for people living in big cities.

The main difficulty with growing vegetables in a city is that land is very expensive, so using space (36) _______ is currently being wasted, such as rooftops, is seen as one solution. There are hundreds of unused places that could play an important role in creating a more sustainable environment. (37) _______ , clearly it would be impossible for rooftop gardens to provide all the vegetables needed for a whole city, especially as rooftops are not the easiest places to grow vegetables. There needs to be a good (38) _______ of rainwater and plants need some protection from the wind.

(Adapted from Complete First for Schools by Barbara Thomas and Amanda Thomas)

This is my first visit to Beijing.

According to paragraph 1, CCTV cameras are installed in Britain to _______ .

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 50.

CCTV cameras were initially developed as a means of security for banks. In Britain they first appeared in 1953 and by the 1960s, there were already a few cameras in major streets in London. Today, there are more than four million CCTV cameras across the country. That's one camera for every fourteen people. The cameras are there to film dangerous or illegal behaviour. With new software, they can automatically recognize the faces of known offenders, and a new kind of CCTV in the Netherlands can detect angry voices and automatically warn the police of trouble. Some CCTV cameras can even interact with the people they are watching. But these cameras don't just watch criminals; they watch all of us, almost all of the time.

The amount of surveillance in towns and cities across Britain is increasing because it is thought to deter crime. Some goods in shops now have RFID tags (radio frequency identification tags) attached to them. When you pick up one of these items, the RFID tag sends a radio message to a CCTV camera and the camera starts filming you. Shops say that this technology helps to catch shoplifters - but only by treating everybody as a potential criminal.

Cameras and tags are not the only ways of monitoring our actions. Every time you make or receive a call on your mobile phone, the phone company knows the number of the phone you are calling and how long the call lasts. It is even possible to work out your exact location. The police often use this information when they're investigating serious crimes.

Even when you are at home, you are not necessarily safe from surveillance. High-speed internet connections have made computers more vulnerable than ever before. When you use your computer to visit websites, you are probably sending and receiving 'cookies' without realizing it. Cookies transfer information from your computer to the website and, in theory, could record which websites you visit. Modern technology is making it easier and easier to stay in contact, but it is also making it nearly impossible for us to hide.

(Adapted from Aim High by Tim Falla and Paul A Davies)

As an avid environmentalist, she tries to keep an observational eye on developments of some pressing environmental issues around her.

The idea is to cut the distances food has to travel and to have (35) _______ sources of fresh vegetables available for people living in big cities.