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 following questions.
In the past, technology and progress was very slow. People "invented" farming 12,000 years ago but it took 8,000 years for the idea to go around the world. Then, about 3,500 years ago, people called "potters" used round wheels to turn and make plates. But it took hundreds of years before some clever person thought, if we join two wheels together and make them bigger, we can use them to move things. In the last few centuries, things have begun to move faster. Take a 20th-century invention like the aeroplane, for example. The first aeroplane flight on 17 December 1903 only lasted 12 seconds, and the plane only went 37 metres. It can't have been very exciting to watch, but that flight changed the world. Sixteen years later, the first plane flew across the Atlantic, and only fifty years after that, men walked on the moon. Technology is now changing our world faster and faster. So what will the future bring? One of the first changes will be the matter we use. Scientists have just invented an amazing new material called graphene, and soon we will use it to do lots of things. With graphene batteries in your mobile, it will take a few seconds to charge your phone or download a thousand gigabytes of information! Today, we make most products in factories, but in the future, scientists will invent living materials. Then we won't make things like cars and furniture in factories - we will grow them! Thirty years ago, people couldn't have imagined social media like Twitter and Facebook. Now we can't live without them. But this is only the start. Right now, scientists are putting microchips in some disabled people's brains, to help them see, hear and communicate better. In the future, we may all use these technologies. We won't need smartphones to use social media or search the internet because the internet will be in our heads! More people will go into space in the future, too. Space tourism has already begun, and a hundred years from now, there may be many hotels in space. One day, we may get most of our energy from space too. In 1941, the writer Isaac Asimov wrote about a solar power station in space. People laughed at his idea then, but we should have listened to him. Today, many people are trying to develop a space solar power station. After all, the sun always shines above the clouds!
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your ans wer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions. Throughout history, various people have demonstrated a high degree of confidence in the ability of certain animals to predict the weather. It may seem surprising today in view of the complex equipment now involved in weather forecasting to understand that in certain cases, the behavior of animals does indeed provide an indication of inclement weather. Sensitivity of certain animals to falling air pressure or to low-frequency sound waves that humans cannot hear, which are indicators of approaching storms, causes behaviors in animals that certain societies have come to recognize as predictors of storms. A number of animals are remarkably sensitive to variations in air pressure, and some of these animals show consistent, noticeable, and predictable behaviors as air pressure drops before a storm hits. When the air pressure drops before a storm, some animals move closer to the ground to equalize the pressure in their ears: some birds such as swallows tend to stay on the ground or roost in trees instead of soaring in the skies when a storm is imminent because of the decreasing air pressure. Other animals make more noise than usual as air pressure drops: an unusual amount of quacking by ducks and a high volume of croaking by frogs are both indicators that are believed to occur because of the high degree of sensitivity of ducks and frogs to the change in pressure. Finally, still other animals become more active before storms as a reaction to the falling air pressure: dolphins and porpoises seem to be taking part in a frenzied sort of play, and bees and ants become more active prior most likely because of their sensitivity to lower pressure. There is good reason to believe that the fact that these animal behaviors seem to occur regularly prior to storms may have a scientific basis and that the animals demonstrating these behaviors may actually be good short- range weather forecasters. However, their ability to predict long-range weather patterns is rather suspect. Certain proverbs, for example, are based on what is most likely the idea that squirrels are good indica weather patterns. One proverb indicates that, if a squirrel seems busier than usual in gathering nuts, then a long and cold winter is on its way; however, this behavior in squirrels is more likely due to a large supply of nuts available for gathering, which occurs because of earlier good weather, and is not an indicator of cold weather to come. Another proverb about squirrels indicates that if a squirrel grows a long and bushy tail in the fall, then a particularly harsh winter is on its way; in this case too, the squirrel develops a long and bushy tail because of earlier good weather and not as a warning of bad weather to come. (Adapted from TOEFL Reading Practice by Deborah Philips)
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.
Drone racing is an exciting new sport that has become popular faster than (29)______ other sport before it. Pilots steer small and lightweight, but high-powered drones along courses with obstacles. They fly through gates and around flags at speeds of over a hundred miles an hour. They control the drones using VR-like headgear. Every drone has a camera (30)________ to it so that spectators can also view flights either on a big screen or with special headgear. The races take place either outdoors - in big stadiums, or indoors in old warehouses and sports arenas. (31)________ are short because the battery time of drones is limited. (32)_______ drone racing started only a few years ago, there are already international competitions that take place all over the world. In professional leagues, drone pilots compete for thousands of dollars. In March, the World Drone Prix was staged in Dubai. A 16-year-old British teenager not only one the race but also received a prize money of 250 000 dollars. Television and other media have become aware of drone racing. ESPN, an American sports channel, will be broadcasting international drone races starting this August. Races are also recorded and uploaded to YouTube and other video platforms (33)________ they can be viewed over and over again.
