The purpose of this passage is to __________.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

They dig deep in search of mineral deposits to replenish those extended in the last year of growth.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word in each of the following questions.

 I suppose she was the apple of your eye at the time.

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.

 The haircut, combined with her new style of clothing, made her look years younger.

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.

 What is commonly called pepper in reality comes from two very different families of plants. Black and white pepper both come from the fruit of the Piper nigrum, a vine with fruits called peppercorns. The peppercorns turn from green to red as they ripen and finally blacken as they dry out. The dried-out peppercorns are ground to obtain black pepper. White pepper, which has a more subtle flavour than black pepper, comes from the same peppercorns as black pepper. To obtain white pepper, the outer hull of the peppercorn, the pericarp, is removed before the peppercorn is ground. Red and green pepper, on the other hand, come from a completely different family from black and white pepper. Red and green peppers are from the genus Capsicum. Plants of this type generally have tiny white flowers and fruit which can be any of a number of colours, shapes and sizes. These peppers range in flavour from very mild and sweet to the most incredibly burning taste imaginable. Bell peppers are the mildest, while habanros are the most burning.

 Christopher Columbus is responsible for the present-day confusion over what pepper is. The Piper nigrum variety of pepper was highly valued for centuries, and high demand for pepper by Europeans was a major cause of the fifteen-century push to locate ocean routes to the spice-growing regions of Asia. When Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492, he was particularly interested in finding black pepper because of the high price it would command in Europe. Columbus came across plants from the Capsicum family in use among people of the New World, and he incorrectly identified them as relatives of black pepper. Columbus introduced the spicy Capsicum chili peppers to Europeans on his return from the 1492 voyage, and traders later spread them to Asia and Africa. These Capsicum peppers have continued to be called peppers in spite of the fact that they are not related to the black and white pepper of the Piper nigrum family.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each other numbered blanks.

VEGETARIANISM

Until recently, vegetarianism was fairly uncommon in Britain, and it is still considered strange by some. But since the 1960s its popularity has increased greatly, to the (46) _______ that high street stores stock a huge variety of products for vegetarians. The reasons people give for not eating meat are numerous. Perhaps (47) _______ vegetarians do it for moral reasons, arguing that it is wrong to kill. The opposing point of view is that it is natural for us to kill for food, and that we have evolved to do so. Still, there are societies where eating meat is not allowed because it is (48) _______ their religion. There are other good reasons to give up meat, one of which is the inefficiency of livestock farming. A single field of soya bean plants can actually produce 200 times as much protein as the number of cattle which could be raised on the same area of land, so a vegetarian world might be a world without hunger. (49) _______ it is, in theory, cheaper to eat only vegetables, vegetarianism is most popular in richer countries such as Germany and Britain, where many people exclude meat for health reasons. In these countries, at least, it (50) _______ to be a matter of choice rather than necessity.

It's Sunday today. Peter is coming over to Susan's house.