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. ⇱
David: It seems like you're new to this place. Do you need any help?
Henry: ______. Do you know any convenient stores near here?
Pat: "I strongly believe that unless governments act swiftly, our planet will be in danger."
Linda " ______ . We now feel the greater impacts of global warming."
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions. ⇱
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions. ⇱
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. ⇱
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of the primary stress in each of the following questions. ⇱
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) 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 word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks . ⇱
On October 29, 2022, a Halloween disaster (29 )_______the lives of more than 150 people in Seoul. This kind of event where a large group of people tries to move into a space at once, is called a crowd crush or crowd surge. It can include a “crowd collapse,” (30)_______ is when several people fall down and can’t get back up.
Crowd surges increase the pressure in an area, making it hard to breathe. Often, people get injured when they either fall or lose consciousness in the midst of the crowd surge. (31)_______potential issue with crowd surges is that it can be difficult for people around those who are injured to recognize that there is a problem, (32)_______ this can lead to delays in getting help to whoever needs it.
If you find yourself in a dangerous crowd before you can pull away, there are some things to keep in mind. The most important thing you can do is keep your balance. You should also stay collected and refrain from screaming to (33)_______ the oxygen in your space, as well as try to keep your arms at chest level to protect your rib cage. Above all, you should try to help others around you.
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 costs and benefits of global warming will vary greatly from area to area. For moderate climate change, the balance can be difficult to assess. But the larger the change in climate, the more negative the consequences will become. Global warming will probably make life harder, not easier, for most people. This is mainly because we have already built enormous infrastructure based on the climate we now have.
People in some temperate zones may benefit from milder winters, more abundant rainfall, and expanding crop production zones. But people in other areas will suffer from increased heat waves, coastal erosion, rising sea le more erratic rainfall, and droughts.
The crops, natural vegetation, and domesticated and wild animals (including seafood) that sustain people in a given area may be unable to adapt to local or regional changes in climate. The ranges of diseases and insect pests that are limited by temperature may expand, if other environmental conditions are also favourable.
In its summary report on the impacts of climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated, "Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.”
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. ⇱
Think back to the last time you failed or made an important mistake. Do you still feel embarrassed and blame yourself for having been so stupid? Research has shown that this response can often have negative consequences. Besides increasing our unhappiness and stress levels, it can increase procrastination, and makes us even less able to achieve our goals in the future.
Instead of chastising ourselves, we should try to practice self-compassion or, in other words, forgive our own mistakes if possible and take good care of ourselves throughout times of disappointment or embarrassment. “Most of us have a good friend in our lives, who is kind of unconditionally supportive,” says Kristin Neff, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas. “Self-compassion is learning to be that same warm, supportive friend to yourself.” In her studies, Neff examined how it related to people’s overall mental health and wellbeing and found that this trait can be linked to increased life satisfaction and decreased risks of depression and anxiety.
Self-compassion has now become a blossoming field of research, attracting interest from more and more researchers. Some of the most intriguing results concern people’s physical health, with a recent study showing that people with high self-compassion are less likely to report different ailments like back pain, headache, and nausea. A research from 2012 also found that people with high self-compassion show greater motivation to correct their errors. For instance, they tended to work harder after failing an important test. So it seems that self-compassion can also create a sense of safety that allows us to confront our weaknesses and make positive changes in our lives. This is solid evidence against the idea that self-compassion would lead to lazy behaviour and low willpower.
And if you would like to gain some of these benefits, there is now abundant evidence – from Neff’s research group and many others – that self-compassion can be trained. Popular interventions include “loving-kindness meditation”, which guides you to focus on feelings of forgiveness and warmth to yourself and others. In one recent experiment, Tobias Krieger and colleagues at the University of Bern in Switzerland designed an online course to teach this exercise alongside lessons about the causes of self-criticism and its consequences. After seven sessions, they found significant increases in the participants’ self-compassion scores, along with reduced stress, anxiety and depressive feelings.
More than ever, we need to stop seeing self-compassion and self-care as a sign of weakness, says Neff. “The research is really overwhelming at this point, showing that when life gets tough, you want to be self-compassionate. It’s going to make you stronger.”