Passage II
Your brain’s performance levels and your overall mental abilities are largely governed by your state of mind, which is determined by your brainwaves. According to a scientific study, they create peak performance mental states for learning, thinking, studying and virtually every mental task. (P1)
Listening to iMusic, an advanced acoustic technology, automatically dials your brainwaves into a peak performance state for any situation or environment. Most people are shocked when they are told that increasing their IQ and cognitive abilities is possible. It was once thought that intelligence and mental capabilities were set in stone, unchanging since birth. But much of what we know about the mind has changed since then, particularly in the last 10 years. (P2)
Research has found that there are many factors playing even larger roles in IQ, focus, memory and overall intelligence. With the brain technology, someone can experience huge leaps in IQ score, sometimes up to 30 or more points! (P3)
46) What is the main idea of this passage?
1. Science has uncovered brainwaves.
⇒2. Intelligence and mental abilities can be improved.
3. There are many factors affecting brain performance levels.
4. There are many factors controlling IQ.
47) What does the word “they” (P1) refer to?
1. performance levels
2. mental abilities
⇒3. brainwaves
4. mental states
48) What controls one’s state of mind?
1. One’s brain
2. One’s performance levels
3. One’s mental abilities
⇒4. One’s brainwaves
49) What is true according to the passage?
1. Mental capabilities are unchanged since birth.
⇒2. iMusic can raise mental abilities to their best performance.
3. What we know about brainwaves has not been changed.
4. There are only few factors that determine brain performance.
50) What does “set in stone” (P2) mean?
⇒1. fixed
2. unstable
3. known
4. accepted
Passage III
Quietly and without much fanfare there is a paradigm shift taking place in the global economy. Africa, a continent that until now has only been associated with poverty and political unrest, is emerging as a land rich in opportunity. For those visionaries who see its vast potential, this long-awaited trend is exciting. It means this huge emerging market will follow in the footsteps of other powers to gain its rightful place of influence in the world. Over the past decade, China has been the big economic story. That, however, may soon change. Says Bruce Wrobel, the CEO of Sithe Global, a project development firm that builds power plants, dams, refineries and other infrastructure internationally: “Within 10 years people will be talking about Africa the way they talk about China today.” (P1)
What’s he getting at? Africa’s population, at one billion, is currently smaller than China’s, but over the next decade experts expect it to explode. For one thing, malaria will likely be eradicated within the next five years. The continent is also making progress on the AIDS front. Once the impact of these diseases is mitigated, Africa has the potential, given its natural resources and huge landmass, to support many times its current population. (P2)
The global business community, however, is not waiting that long. Many forward-looking multinational corporations already know that the economies of many African countries are on the verge of taking off. According to the African Development Bank, the GDP of the continent, which has been growing 5% to 6% annually, hit $1.3 trillion last year. Much of that growth has come from burgeoning telecommunications and banking systems, plus increased trade with China for both natural resources and manufactured goods. Today Africa’s economy is larger than India’s, and not far behind those of Brazil and Russia. (P3)
Africa has barely tapped into its potential as a major source of oil, timber, and ores. Consider that this enormous continent – into which could fit the U.S., Europe, and China – contains roughly 75% of all the Earth’s strategic minerals. The Republic of Guinea, one of the poorest countries in the world, has, according to U.S.G.S. data, 30% of the world’s bauxite, the raw material from which aluminum is extracted. Recent tests suggest the nation may actually have closer to 60% of global reserves, much of it easy – and relatively cheap – to recover. (P4)
Today, however, Guinea accounts for only 1% of the world’s alumina production. Over the next 20 years, major aluminum makers including Alcoa, Global Alumina, Russian Aluminum, and Australia’s BHP Billiton will together invest an estimated $20 billion for bauxite refineries in Guinea. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are also developing iron ore mines there. (P5)
51) What does the passage mainly discuss?
1. A paradigm shift in Africa
2. Africa’s potential natural resources
⇒3. Possibility for economic growth in Africa
4. Economic and medical situation in Africa
52) What does the word “eradicated” (P2) mean?
⇒1. wiped out
2. taken in
3. observed
4. developed
53) Which word is closest in meaning to the word “mitigated” (P2)?
1. increased
⇒2. reduced
3. recovered
4. maintained
54) According to Paragraph 3, whose economy is the smallest?
⇒1. India’s
2. Africa’s
3. Brazil’s
4. Russia’s
55) The phrase “on the verge of taking off” (P3) means “about to _______.”
⇒1. grow
2. drop
3. change
4. stop
56) What does “the nation” (P4) refer to?
1. U.S.
2. China
3. Russia
⇒4. Guinea
57) Which of the following is NOT a factor for the change in the economies of many African countries?
1. Telecommunications
2. International trade
3. Banking systems
⇒4. Natural resource conservation
58) According to recent tests, how much bauxite may the Republic of Guinea have?
1. 20% of global reserves
2. 30% of global reserves
⇒3. 60% of global reserves
4. 75% of global reserves
59) What raw material will probably increase Guinea’s economic growth?
⇒1. Bauxite
2. Timber
3. Gold
4. Oil
60) Which company is NOT an aluminum maker?
1. BHP Billiton
⇒2. Sithe Global
3. Rio Tinto
4. Alcoa
Passage IV
The inexplicable blandness of airline food has been pondered at 30,000 feet by generations of travellers. Now an explanation has been offered in the form of research showing that people lose their sense of taste when listening to the sort of “white noise” heard inside an aircraft's cabin. (P1)
White noise consists of random collections of sounds at different frequencies – such as the muffled noise of aircraft engines – and scientists have demonstrated that it is capable of diminishing the taste of salt and sugar. The findings could explain a phenomenon well known to airline companies: passengers tend to lose their sense of taste when they are in the air. For this reason, airline meals are often "improved" with extra salt, sugar and other flavourings. (P2)
The study also lends further support to the idea that sound plays an important role in the perception of taste. Heston Blumenthal, the celebrity chef, has exploited the trait in a specially designed seafood dish which is served while diners hooked up to iPods listen to the sound of surf crashing on a beach. (P3)
Ellen Poliakoff of Manchester University said the study investigated how background noise influenced a person's perception of food. The scientists found that certain sounds not only affected people's sense of saltiness or sweetness, they also influenced how crunchy some types of food sounded to the diners – which in turn affected their perceptions of freshness and palatability. “We’ve compared how people rated food that they ate while they sat in headphones listening to various kinds of sounds and we've speculated as to why this might explain why airline food has a reputation for not being very tasty,” Dr Poliakoff said. (P4)
The white noise of an aircraft cabin could act as a distraction to a person's sense of taste, which would account for why airline food needs to compensate by being saltier or sweeter than usual. Alternatively, the effect could be due to the contrast between the pleasure of eating and the stress of listening to white noise, Dr Poliakoff said. (P5)
The study involved asking a panel of volunteers to rate the taste of different kinds of food while listening to quiet or loud background noise, or no noise at all. Sweetness and saltiness were rated significantly lower in the presence of the louder background music, while crunchiness was reported to be higher when listening to loud sounds. A further part of the