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.
Australians place a high value on independence and personal choice. This means that a teacher or course tutor will not tell students what to do, but will give them a number of options and suggest they work out which one is the best in their circumstances. It also means that they are expected to take action if something goes wrong and seek out resources and support for themselves. Australians are also prepared to accept a range of opinions rather than believing there is one truth. This means that in an educational setting, students will be expected to form their own opinions and defend the reasons for that point of view and the evidence for it. Australians are uncomfortable with differences in status and hence idealise the idea of treating everyone equally. An illustration of this is that most adult Australians call each other by their first names. This concern with equality means that Australians are uncomfortable taking anything too seriously and are even ready to joke about themselves. Australians believe that life should have a balance between work and leisure time. As a consequence, some students may be critical of others who they perceive as doing nothing but study. Australian notions of privacy mean that areas such as financial matters, appearance and relationships are only discussed with close friends. While people may volunteer such information, they may resent someone actually asking them unless the friendship is firmly established. Even then, it is considered very impolite to ask someone what they earn.
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.
There have been many famous detectives in literature. But one of the first-and certainly the most famous is Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was created by the British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late nineteenth century. Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance in the work A Study in Scarlet, which was published in 1887. Holmes instantly became a popular literary figure with the general populace, who demanded that Doyle write more stories involving him. Doyle compiled and eventually wound up writing fifty-six short stories and four novels that featured Holmes. While he took a break of several years from creating stories about Holmes, Doyle continued to write Holmes stories until 1927. Among the most famous of all the works featuring Holmes are The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Blue Carbuncle, and A Scandal in Bohemia One of the reasons that Sherlock Holmes was so popular concerns the method he employs to solve his cases: logic. Together with his partner, Dr. Watson, Holmes uses his powers of observation to detect clues that can help him solve the cases he accepts. Holmes has an incredibly sharp mind that enables him to determine who the guilty party is or what the problem is. Holmes also is a master of disguise, which he proves many times, and he is skilled at boxing as well as sword fighting. While Holmes often solves cases that are unrelated to one another, he has a nemesis with whom he comes into both direct and indirect conflict in several stories. That person is Professor Moriarty, the leader of a crime ring in London. In one of the stories, The Final Problem, Holmes and Moriarty fight one another and fall to their deaths by plunging down a steep cliff near a waterfall. When he wrote that story, Doyle had tired of Holmes and wanted to kill off the character. He then refrained from writing about Holmes for many years but public demand for more detective stories induced him to bring Holmes back from the dead and to continue writing. (Adapted from Reading Intermediate)
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 34 to 38. The outbreak of COVID-19 is an unprecedented public health crisis, touching nearly all countries and (34) ________ across the world. The health impacts of COVID-19 are devastating and, rightly, in the forefront of our minds, cross our media, and impacting people's lives and livelihoods across the world. One of the most tangible outcomes of COVID-19 is the ever-increasing socio-economic gap between learners. Over 365 million children are missing out on important school feeding programmes (35) ________ keep them healthy and motivated to learn. Moreover, families may be pushed to (36) ________ to negative coping mechanisms to meet their needs, including child labour or reducing the number and quality of meals at a time when staying healthy and keeping a strong immune system is particularly important. Home learning may itself be a source of stress for families and learners, with pressure to take on new responsibilities. (37) ________ children are suffering from anxiety, living without access to the internet or other means required to benefit from distance learning. Some older children are stressed about missing months of education (38) ________ they have to care for younger children in the home while parents and caregivers are working. (Adapted from https://en.unesco.org/news)
