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. ⇱
Global sea level has been rising over the past century, and the rate has increased in recent decades. In 2014, global sea level was 2.6 inches above the 1993 average, the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993 - present). Sea level continues to rise at a rate of about one eighth of an inch per year.
Higher sea levels mean that deadly and destructive storm surges push farther inland than they once did, which also means more frequent nuisance flooding. Disruptive and expensive, nuisance flooding is estimated to be from 300 percent to 900 percent more frequent within U.S. coastal communities than it was just 50 years ago.
The two major causes of global sea level rise are thermal expansion caused by warming of the ocean since water expands as it warms and increased melting of land based ice, such as glaciers and ice sheets. The oceans are absorbing more than 90 percent of the increased atmospheric heat associated with emissions from human activity.
With continued ocean and atmospheric warming, sea levels will likely rise for many centuries at rates higher than those of the current century. In the United States, almost 40 percent of the population lives in relatively high population density coastal areas, where sea level plays a part in flooding, shoreline erosion, and hazards from storms. Globally, eight of the world’s 10 largest cities are near a coast, according to the U.N. Atlas of the Oceans.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions. ⇱
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 best cloud computing services offer the opportunity for businesses to undergo digital transformation in order to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Cloud services have revolutionized computing, not least through IaaS, PaaS, and especially SaaS, which have allowed businesses to develop virtualized IT infrastructure and deliver software through the cloud, independent of a user's operating system.
Even better still, businesses can also mix and match cloud services from different providers through cloud brokers in order to ensure these services work to maximum efficiency and cost effectiveness, but also to reduce the chances of vendor lock-in while also improving redundancy. This may require additional cloud management software, but for larger businesses the economic benefits can be significant.
Because cloud services are run through software platforms and virtualized networks, it means that it's easy to access and analyse data for the purposes of analytics as well as for business intelligence purposes. It also makes it easier to simplify all aspects of monitoring through cloud orchestration and the easy processing of log files through cloud logging services. The result is IT infrastructure that allows for better maintenance and patching, while providing for insights that would have previously been much more difficult to access.
Cloud computing services also offer the advantage of being scalable, which means not only can you access additional resources exactly as you need them, but you are also charged only for the services you use so there's no need to buy in extra hardware for additional redundancy.
This especially applies to when storing data, as online cloud storage can be treated as effectively limitless. Even though you might be using cloud databases for your structured data, you can also archive everything else into massive data lakes for additional processing using AI and machine learning for greater insights. Altogether, cloud services offer unparalleled potential for improving business performance and increasing profits, and here we'll look at the best cloud computing service provider.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is combines each pair of sentences in the following questions. ⇱
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions. ⇱
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best completes each of the following exchanges. ⇱
- Hoa: “I think children, especially pupils, should be taught how to swim at once.”
- Nga: “______. Because swimming is really necessary to avoid being drowned in summer vocations.”
- Mark: “Would you like another cup of milk tea, Daisy?”
- Daisy: “______.”
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions. ⇱
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. ⇱
BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER YOGA
Laughing is good for the body and the mind. When we laugh, we breathe more oxygen into our body, (37) ______ helps to keep us healthy. Endorphins, or happy chemicals, are released in the body, and you feel happier and more relaxed. Laughter also brings people together to (38) ______ some fun.
Companies who have (39) ______ laughter yoga workshops find that they have advantages for both employers and employees. People who are happy at work are more hard-working and make more money for the company. (40) ______, people who can laugh together communicate more successfully. In general, people do better at work when they feel happy and relaxed.
A Danish company who used Laughter Yoga for (41) ______ years reported an increase in sales of 40 percent over the previous year. Following Laughter Yoga session, a Hawaiian timeshare company reported the highest sales of the year-double their target figures.