The word 'consistent' in paragraph 3 could be replaced by

Read the passage carefully. Choose an option (A, B, C or D) that best answers each question.

Basic to any understanding of Canada in the 20 years after the Second World War is the country's impressive population growth. For every three Canadians in 1945, there were over five in 1966. In September 1966 Canada's population passed the 20 million mark. Most of these surging growth came from natural increase. The depression of the 1930s and the war had held back marriages, and the catching-up process began after 1945.   

After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It continued falling until 1966 it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly this decline reflected the low level of births during the depression and the war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. Young people were staying at school longer; more women were working; young married couples were buying automobiles or houses before starting families; rising living standards were cutting down the size of families.

It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend toward smaller families that had occurred all through the Western world since the time of the Industrial Revolution. Although the growth in Canada's population had slowed down by 1966 (the increase in the first half of the 1960s was only nine percent), another large population wave was coming over the horizon. It would be composed of the children of the children who were born during the period of the high birth rate prior to 1957.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

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The (A) researchers of Harvard University reported that the (B) tigers are one of the (C) most dangerous species in the (D) jungle.

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

Climate change is caused by the (1) _______ high levels of dangerous chemicals in the atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide. It is estimated that average global temperatures will rise (2) _______ between two and six degrees by the end of this century. We all know the effects could be catastrophic, but are we (3) _______ of the possible solutions? Crazy as it sounds, a group of academics from British universities is making a plan to build a 12 -mile pipe, held up by a huge balloon, that would pump (4) _______ quantities of toxic chemicals, such as sulphur dioxide, into the atmosphere. Surprisingly, there is good science behind the idea. The chemicals would form a (5) _______ layer around the earth that would reflect sunlight and so cool the earth, much like the effects of a volcanic eruption.

Read the passage. Then answer the questions below.

No student of a foreign language needs to be told that grammar is complex. By changing word sequences and by adding a range of auxiliary verbs and suffixes, we are able to communicate tiny variations in meaning. We can turn a statement into a question, state whether an action has taken place or is soon to take place, and perform many other word tricks to convey subtle differences in meaning. Nor is this complexity inherent to the English language. All languages, even those of so-called 'primitive' tribes have clever grammatical components. The Cherokee pronoun system, for example, can distinguish between 'you and I', 'several other people and I' and 'you, another person and I'. In English, all these meanings are summed up in the one, crude pronoun 'we'. Grammar is universal and plays a part in every language, no matter how widespread it is. So the question which has baffled many linguists is - who created grammar?

At first, it would appear that this question is impossible to answer. To find out how grammar is created, someone needs to be present at the time of a language's creation, documenting its emergence. Many historical linguists are able to trace modern complex languages back to earlier languages, but in order to answer the question of how complex languages are actually formed, the researcher needs to observe how languages are started from scratch. Amazingly, however, this is possible.

Some of the most recent languages evolved due to the Atlantic slave trade. At that time, slaves from a number of different ethnicities were forced to work together under colonizer's rule. Since they had no opportunity to learn each other's languages, they developed a make-shift language called a pidgin. Pidgins are strings of words copied from the language of the landowner. They have little in the way of grammar, and in many cases it is difficult for a listener to deduce when an event happened, and who did what to whom. [A] Speakers need to use circumlocution in order to make their meaning understood. [B] Interestingly, however, all it takes for a pidgin to become a complex language is for a group of children to be exposed to it at the time when they learn their mother tongue. [C] Slave children did not simply copy the strings of words uttered by their elders, they adapted their words to create a new, expressive language. [D] Complex grammar systems which emerge from pidgins are termed creoles, and they are invented by children.

Further evidence of this can be seen in studying sign languages for the deaf. Sign languages are not simply a series of gestures; they utilise the same grammatical machinery that is found in spoken languages. Moreover, there are many different languages used worldwide. The creation of one such language was documented quite recently in Nicaragua. Previously, all deaf people were isolated from each other, but in 1979 a new government introduced schools for the deaf. Although children were taught speech and lip reading in the classroom, in the playgrounds they began to invent their own sign system, using the gestures that they used at home. It was basically a pidgin. Each child used the signs differently, and there was no consistent grammar. However, children who joined the school later, when this inventive sign system was already around, developed a quite different sign language. Although it was based on the signs of the older children, the younger children's language was more fluid and compact, and it utilised a large range of grammatical devices to clarify meaning. What is more, all the children used the signs in the same way. A new creole was born.

Some linguists believe that many of the world's most established languages were creoles at first. The English past tense –ed ending may have evolved from the verb 'do'. 'It ended' may once have been 'It end-did'. Therefore it would appear that even the most widespread languages were partly created by children. Children appear to have innate grammatical machinery in their brains, which springs to life when they are first trying to make sense of the world around them. Their minds can serve to create logical, complex structures, even when there is no grammar present for them to copy.

 In paragraph 1, why does the writer include information about the Cherokee language?

Read the passage and mark A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Groot Zundert, in The Netherlands on March 30th 1853, to parents Theodorus Van Gogh, a preacher, and Ana Cornelia Carbentus. In 1869 at the age of 16, Van Gogh began a career, not as a painter, but as an art dealer with the firm Goupil & Cie. He spent 7 years at Goupil & Cie where daily contacts with works of art kindled his appreciation of paintings and drawings. Gradually Vincent lost interest in his work and decided to try his hand teaching at a Catholic School for boys. His growing interest religion and his desire to help the poor eventually drove him to become a clergyman. In 1878, he became a lay preacher in one of the most impoverished regions in Western Europe: the coal- mining district of the Borinage in Belgium. Vincent sympathized with the poverty-stricken miners and gave away most of his food and clothing to ease their burdened lives. His extreme commitment to the miners drew disfavor from the church, which dismissed him of his post. Vincent, however, decided to remain with the miners and began to paint them and their families, chronicling their harsh conditions.

Soon after, thanks to his brother’s financial help, Vincent decided to go to Brussels in 1880 to begin studies in art. During the next 10 years, Vincent painted around 872 painting. In 1882, Vincent began living with Clasina Maria Hoornik, also known as Sien, and her children, in The Hague. Their volatile personalities and the strain of living in complete poverty created stormy relationship. Vincent was devoted to Sien and her children, but art always came first. As his drawing and painting skills advanced, his relationship with Sien deteriorated and they parted ways in September 1883

In 1886, ẽVincent moved in with his brother-Theo in Paris where he met Paul Gauguin and various other artists, who had a tremendous impact on his ongoing evolution as an artist. Never truly happy in large cities, Vincent decided to move to Aries Province in the south of France, where he rented a studio and invited Paul Gauguin to live with him. In December 1888, Vincent experienced a psychotic episode in which he cut off a piece of his left ear. After his episode, he was in and out of asylums for the next year. It was thought that Van Gogh was actually epileptic and that is why people thought he had fits of insanity throughout his life. He painted one of his best-known painting, Starry Night, during one of his stays in the asylum. In mid-1890, Vincent left the asylum and spent the last few months of his life in Auvers, France. On July 27th 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. Two days later he died with his younger brother-Theo by his side. He left behind a wonderful array of paintings that make him one of the most influential painters of our time.

1. The word “chronicling” in paragraph 1 is closest meaning to “                  “.