According to the passage, how did exams in the 1950s differ from those in the twenty-first century?

Which of the following statements is TRUE about the food the students ate at school?

The word “authoritarian” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning 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 29 to 35.

Do you think education is better now than it was in your grandparents’ time? Many older people in the UK believe the opposite. “Schools were better in our day,” they complain. “There isn’t enough discipline these days. Kids don’t work as hard as we did, either. The syllabus isn’t as challenging, so clever students aren’t being stretched enough. They need to study things in greater depth. Exams are much, much easier now as well.”

Were schools better years ago? Some British teenagers travelled back in time to a 1950s boarding school. They got a big surprise! The first shock came when the teenagers met their new teachers. Dressed in traditional black gowns, they look so frosty and uncaring! They were really authoritarian, too, so anyone caught breaking the rules – talking in classes, mucking about in the playground or playing truant – was in big trouble! Punishments included writing ‘lines, or staying after class to do detention. The naughtiest kids were expelled.

Things were just as bad after class. At meal times the students had to endure a diet of plain, no-nonsense, healthy food. Homework was obligatory and it took ages! Copying essays off the Internet wasn’t an option, as personal computers didn’t exist in the 1950s!

At the end of ‘term’ everyone sat 1950s-style exams. The old exams were much longer than their twenty- first century equivalents and involved learning huge amounts of facts by heart. History papers were all dates and battles. Math’s papers were trickier, too; calculators weren’t around in the 1950s, so the students had to memorize multiplication tables and master long division. Our candidates found this really difficult.

The exam results surprised a lot of people. Students predicted to do well in their real-life, twenty-first century exams often got low grades in the 1950s exams. Does this prove modern exams are too easy? Do twenty-first century kids rely too much on modem technology, like calculators and computers? The TV series' That'll teach ‘me! focused on a 1960s vocational school. UK school-kids study a range of academic subjects these days. But in the 1960s, children judged to be less ‘able’ went to vocational schools. These helped them learn job skills. Boys studied subjects like metalwork, woodwork or gardening. In some classes, they even learned how to milk goats! The girls’ timetables included secretarial skills. They also learned to cook, clean and sew – probably not much fun for most girls.

What criticism is sometimes made about modern education in the first paragraph?

Some experts say, causing sea levels (28)____several meters over the next 50 to 150 years.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 24 to 28.

The impacts of global warming are being felt everywhere. Extreme heat waves have (24)____ tens of thousands of deaths around the world in recent years. (25)____ in an alarming sign of events to come, Antarctica (26)____ been losing about 134 billions metric tons of ice per year since 2002. This rate could speed up (27)____ we keep burning fossil fuels at our current pace, some experts say, causing sea levels (28)____several meters over the next 50 to 150 years.

          (Text adapted from https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-waring-101)

Having watched TV programes about the farmer’s careless use of chemical fertilizers on they crops, many citizen dwellers decided to grow their own vegetables.

I have never been understanding why such a lot of people want to study abroad.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.

The painting was so beautiful that I stood there admired it for a long time.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Most of the students in our country are interested in pursuing higher education to get bachelor’s degrees.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Well, Mrs Baker, you’ll be pleased to hear that George has made a dramatic improvement in geography.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Because farmers had been informed about the bad effects of chemical fertilizers, they started using them sparingly on their farms.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Local people have cut down the forest to make way for farming

In Australia, exchange programs and youth benefits____many opportunities for young people to broaden their minds through travel in a gap year.

When children learn to be proud of the work they do, they will stick with their____.

About one third of high school____who proceed directly to higher education enter community colleges.

Those factories have been accused of ____toxic waste into the river.

Every day we see more and more pollution____from the ocean onto our beaches.

Children need to talk about their feelings, and learn how to____express those feelings to others.

____the photograph of the modern architecture of the mansion, I had no desire to go there.

By cutting down trees, we share the responsibility of climate change, the ____of our forest, and the poisoning of our air and water.

They____sacrifices so that their only child can have a good education.

The plants that ____in the sunny window are far healthier than the indoor plants.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.