Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks from 51 to 60.
O.T. Sander was born Oliver Thomas Sander. The O.T. came later and if you were to think that O.T. stands for Oliver Thomas, you (51) ______ wrong. Oliver Thomas was due to be born on September 21, but his mamma and papa knew babies rarely come (52) ______ on the day they are predicted to come. So, (53) ______ September 21, they weren't ready, but Oliver Thomas came as scheduled. Papa hurried up and (54) ______ the nursery ready, and when Oliver Thomas came home from the hospital right on time, his room was ready.
Mama and Papa Sander were (55) ______ parents. They knew new babies needed to be fed on a schedule. They asreed to take turns for the 2:00 am feeding. The first night, they were both so tired (56) ______ they would have slept right through it, but Oliver Thomas woke them up screaming at precisely 2:00 am that night and every night for the next few weeks. And so it went that Oliver Thomas grew to be a big, healthy boy. He ate breakfast (57) ______ 8:00, lunch at noon, and dinner at 6:00. He brushed his teeth (after he got some) at 7:30, took a bath at 7:40, listened to Mama or Papa read a story, then fell asleep at 8:15.The night before he started (58)______ . Mama told him it was important to be on time. Oliver Thomas walked into class at exactly 9:00 am and, at 11:29 he got ready to go home—every single day. If the teacher said he could use the paint table for 15 minutes, thait’ s what Oliver Thomas (59) ______. Throughout first grade. the other kids would keep looking on the back wall at the clock to see what time it was and how long until lunch or recess. Oliver Thomas never looked at the clock. He just knew. By the end of first grade, or maybe even (60) ______ , some people started calling him O.T. It stuck.
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.
In the 1960s, the World Health Organization (WHO) began a campaign to eradicate the mosquitoes that transmit the disease malaria. It was a noble goal, since malaria kills an estimated 3 million people each year in the world's tropical regions, predominantly Southern Africa. WHO led an effort to spray the mosquitoes' habitat with a chemical pesticide-a poison used to kill insects-called DDT. Early results were promising, and the mosquito was eliminated from the edge of its native range. The effort soon faltered, however, and the eradication plan was dropped. How could a tiny mosquito thwart the best efforts of a large group of well-funded scientists?
Situations like this one have occurred dozens of times in the last several decades. In a common scenario, whenever a new type of pesticide is used to control agricultural pests, the early results are encouraging. A relatively small amount of the poison dusted onto a crop may kill 99% of the insects. However, the relatively few survivors of thee first pesticide wave are insects with genes that somehow enable them to resist the chemical attack. The poison kills mosl members of the insect population, leaving only the resistant individuals to reproduce. And when they do, their offspring inherit the genes for pesticide resistance. In each generation, the proportion of pesticide-resistant individuals in the insect population increases, making subsequent sprayings less and less effective.
Since the widespread use of chemical pesticides began in the 1940s, scientists have documented pesticide resistance in more than 500 species of insects. The problems such insects pose-through their impact on agriculture and medicine-are just some of the many ways that evolution has a direct connection to our daily lives. Everywhere, all the time, populations of organisms are fine tuning adaptations to Iocal environments through the evolutionary process of natural selection. Given the dynamics of Earth and its life, it is not surprising that even the kinds of organisms on the planet-the species-have changed over time.
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 .
The attraction of gold is as old as history. Since ancient times, gold has been the object of dreams and obsessions. Western literature is full of characters who kill for gold or hoard it, from King Midas in the ancient Greek myths, to Fagin in Dickens' Oliver Twist. These characters go to evil extremes to get or keep their gold and they get the punishment they deserve. Most people would not be willing to go to such extremes, of course, but they would not question the assumption that gold has lasting value above and beyond any local currency. Society change over time, customs and currencies evolve, but gold remains. A wedding ring, for example, must he gold, and so should any serious gift of jewelry. In fact, giving and wearing gold is still a mark of prestige in our postindustrial society, though gold is no longer valued as it used to be just as it has been for thousands of years.
Why is gold so valuable? True, it is shiny, durable, and rare, but it is far less useful than many other minerals or metals. It is also not like stock in a company, where the value of the stock depends on the performance of the company. Gold, on the contrary, like any currency, is valuable precisely because people believe it is valuable. That is, if people were willing to accept seashells for their labor and could use them to pay for food, fuel, and other commodities, then seashells would become a valuable currency. Thus, the value of gold depends on the collective belief that gold will continue to be valuable. As long as demand for gold remains steady, the price will hold steady; if demand is high, it will continue to increase in value. But if peoplo should someday lose faith in gold, [...].
A. Another factor that has affected the price of gold has been the increasing difficulty in acquiring it. Today, most of the gold left in the ground is in microscopic pieces mixed with rock. B. For one ounce of gold-a wedding ring, for example-the mine processes about 30 tons of rock. This is already a costly operation. C. But there are also hidden social and environmental costs. The mining and processing of gold is ruinous to the environment and to the health of people living nearby. Most of these mines are in poor regions where the people have had little voice in whether there should be mines and how the mines should be run. D. The large multinational mining companies simply bought the land and opened the mines. However, as people and govemments begin to realize the extent of the damage caused by the mines, the situation might change. Indeed, if the mining companies ever have to pay the full environmental and social costs of mining gold, the price of gold is likely to climb yet higher.