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.
Have you ever entered a tropical rainforest? It’s a special, dark place completely different from anywhere else. A rainforest is a place where the trees grow very tall. Millions of kinds of animals, insects, and plants live in the rainforest. It is hot and humid in a rainforest. It rains a lot in the rainforest, but sometimes you don't know it's raining. The trees grow so closely together that rain doesn't always reach the ground. Rainforests make up only a small part of the Earth's surface, about six percent. They are found in tropical parts of the world. The largest rainforest in the world is the Amazon in South America. The Amazon covers 1.2 billion acres, or almost five million square kilometers. The second largest rainforest is in Western Africa. There are also rainforests in Central America, Southeast Asia, Northeastern Australia, and the Pacific Islands Rainforests provide us with many things. In fact, the Amazon Rainforest is called the "lungs of our planet" because it produces twenty percent of the world's oxygen. One fifth of the world's fresh water is also found in the Amazon Rainforest. Furthermore, one half of the world's species of animals, plants, and insects live in the Earth's rainforests. Eighty percent of the food we eat first grew in the rainforest. For example, pineapples, bananas, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, chocolate, coffee, and sugar all came from rainforests. Twenty-five percent of the drugs we take when we are sick are made of plants that grow only in rainforests. Some of these drugs are even used to fight and cure cancer. With all the good things we get from rainforests, it's surprising to find that we are destroying our rainforests. In fact, 1.5 acres, or 6,000 square meters, of rainforest disappear every second. The forests are being cut down to make fields for cows, to harvest the plants, and to clear land for farms. Along with losing countless valuable species, the destruction of rainforests creates many problems worldwide. Destruction of rainforests results in more pollution, less rain, and less oxygen for the world.
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.
Not so long ago almost any student who successfully completed a university degree or diploma course could find a good career quite easily. Companies toured the academic institutions, competing with each other to recruit graduates. However, those days are gone, even in Hong Kong, and nowadays graduates often face strong competition in the search for jobs. 2. Most careers organizations highlight three stages for graduates to follow in the process of securing a suitable career: recognizing abilities, matching these to available vacancies and presenting them well to prospective employers. 3. Job seekers have to make a careful assessment of their own abilities. One area of assessment should be of their academic qualifications, which would include special skills within their subject area. Graduates should also consider their own personal values and attitudes, or the relative importance to themselves of such matters as money, security, leadership and caring for others. An honest assessment of personal interests and abilities such as creative or scientific skills, or skills acquired from work experience, should also be given careful thought. 4. The second stage is to study the opportunities available for employment and to think about how the general employment situation is likely to develop in the future. To do this, graduates can study job vacancies and information in newspapers or they can visit a careers office, write to possible employers for information or contact friends or relatives who may already be involved in a particular profession. After studying all the various options, they should be in a position to make informed comparisons between various careers. 5. Good personal presentation is essential in the search for a good career. Job application forms and letters should, of course, be filled in carefully and correctly, without grammar or spelling errors. Where additional information is asked for, job seekers should describe their abilities and work experience in more depth, with examples if possible. They should try to balance their own abilities with the employer's needs, explain why they are interested in a career with the particular company and try to show that they already know something about the company and its activities. 6. When graduates are asked to attend for interview, they should prepare properly by finding out all they can about the prospective employer. Dressing suitably and arriving for the interview on time are also obviously important. Interviewees should try to give positive and helpful answers and should not be afraid to ask questions about anything they are unsure about. This is much better than pretending to understand a question and giving an unsuitable answer. 7. There will always be good career opportunities for people with ability, skills and determination; the secret to securing a good job is to be one of them.
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 of the numbered blanks from 1 to 5.
Higher education also provides a competitive edge in the career market. We all know that in the economic times we are living in today, finding jobs is not guaranteed. The number of people unemployed is still relatively high, and the number of new career (1) ______ isn’t nearly enough to put people in jobs they are seeking. As a job seeker, you’re competing with a high number of experienced workers (2) _______ have been out of the workforce for a while and are also seeking work. (3) _______, when you have a higher education, it generally equips you for better job security. Generally speaking, employers tend to value those who have completed college than those who have only completed high school and are more likely to replace that person who hasn’t (4) ______ a higher education. Furthermore, some companies even go so far as to pay your tuition because they consider an educated (5) ______ to be valuable to their organization. A college education is an investment that doesn’t just provide you with substantial rewards. It benefits the hiring company as well.
