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 from 8 to 12. 

     Different cultures follow their own special customs when a child's baby teeth fall out. In Korea, for example, they have the custom of throwing lost teeth up on the roof of a house. According to tradition, a magpie will come and take the tooth. Later, the magpie will return with a new tooth for the child. In other Asian countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, children follow a similar tradition of throwing their lost teeth onto the roofs of houses. Birds aren't the only animals thought to take lost teeth. In Mexico and Spain, tradition says a mouse takes a lost tooth and leaves some money. However, in Mongolia, dogs are responsible for taking teeth away. 

     Dogs are highly respected in Mongolian culture and are considered guardian angels of the people. Tradition says that the new tooth will grow good and strong if the baby tooth is fed to a guardian angel. Accordingly, parents in Mongolia will put their child's lost tooth in a piece of meat and feed it to a dog. The idea of giving lost teeth to an angel or fairy is also a tradition in the West. Many children in Western countries count on the Tooth Fairy to leave money or presents in exchange for a tooth. The exact origins of the Tooth Fairy are a mystery, although the story probably began in England or Ireland centuries ago. According to tradition, a child puts a lost tooth under his or her pillow before going to bed. In the wee hours, while the child is sleeping, the Tooth Fairy takes the tooth and leaves something else under the pillow. In France, the Tooth Fairy leaves a small gift. In the United States, however, the Tooth Fairy usually leaves money. These days, the rate is 1 USD to 5 USD per tooth, adding up to a lot of money from the Tooth Fairy! 

What is the passage mainly about?

Don't egg him on! He gets himself into enough trouble without your encouragement.

In his students’ days, he was as poor as a church ______.

(Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions. 

Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the most suitable response to complete each of the following exchanges. 

The author mentions kinglets in paragraph 1 as an example of birds that ________.

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.

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 from 1 to 7. 

     Birds that feed in flocks commonly retire together into roosts. The reasons for roosting communally are not always obvious, but there are some likely benefits. In winter especially, it is important for birds to keep warm at night and conserve precious food reserves. One way to do this is to find a sheltered roost. Solitary roosters shelter in dense vegetation or enter a cavity – horned larks dig holes in the ground and ptarmigan burrow into snow banks - but the effect of sheltering is magnified by several birds huddling together in the roosts, as wrens, swifts, brown creepers, bluebirds, and anis do. Body contact reduces the surface area exposed to the cold air, so the birds keep each other warm. Two kinglets huddling together were found to reduce their heat losses by a quarter, and three together saved a third of their heat. 

     The second possible benefit of communal roosts is that they act as “information centers”. During the day, parties of birds will have spread out to forage over a very large area. When they return in the evening some will have fed well, but others may have found little to eat. Some investigators have observed that when the birds set out again next morning, those birds that did not feed well on the previous day appear to follow those that did. The behavior of common and lesser kestrels may illustrate different feeding behaviors of similar birds with different roosting habits. The common kestrel hunts vertebrate animals in a small, familiar hunting ground, whereas the very similar lesser kestrel feeds on insects over a large area. The common kestrel roosts and hunts alone, but the lesser kestrel roosts and hunts in flocks, possibly so one bird can learn from others where to find insect swarms. 

     Finally, there is safety in numbers at communal roosts since there will always be a few birds awake at any given moment to give the alarm. But this increased protection is partially counteracted by the fact that mass roosts attract predators and are especially vulnerable if they are on the ground. Even those in trees can be attacked by birds of prey. The birds on the edge are at greatest risk since predators find it easier to catch small birds perching at the margins of the roost. 

For some subjects, face-to-face interaction can result ______ better learning outcomes.

A large number of popular expressions in our language has interesting backgrounds.

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