Britpop bands included Suede, Pulp, Blur and Oasis but it was the (24) ____ two that really dominated the market

He stressed that idea of the event is to grab the public's attention with their favorite acts, rather than to give them a diverse arts festival.

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.

BRITPOP

       In the early to mid-1990s Britpop artists, influenced by British guitar sounds of the 1960s and 70s, wrote about topics that were considered purely British and relevant to their generation. The music style with its (23) ____ songs was considered as a reaction against the grunge music that was arriving from the States and, in fact, it did not have a huge commercial success in the USA.

       Britpop bands included Suede, Pulp, Blur and Oasis but it was the (24) ____ two that really dominated the market. In 1994 Blur released their album Parklife (25) ____ had a strong retro feel from the 70s and Oasis released Definitely Maybe, again with a retro feel reminiscent of John Lennon.

       The two bands were often seen (26) ____ rivals and this was exaggerated by the media who emphasized their differences in origins and class: Oasis from the north of England, Blur from the south. This culminated in both bands releasing singles on the same day in 1985, with Blur's single Country House reaching number one in the charts and Oasis's Roll With It number two. Oasis, however, went on to have greater commercial success, particularly with the album (What's the story) Morning Glory? (1985) which sold 412 million (27) ____ in the UK.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions.

Tome denied breaking the teacher's laptop.

Lan: "Will you be able to finish the report in three days?"

Minh: “_________________________”

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions

 The Department of Foreign Languages are not located in the new building opposite the old one.

His ambition and doggy determination ensured that he rose to the top of his profession.

Danny put the cat among the pigeons by suggesting that the company might have to make some redundancies.

Don’t ___in my presentation with your comments like that. It is so annoying and rude.

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

The best hope of avoiding a down-market tabloid TV future lies in the pressure currently being put on the networks to clean up their act.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the option that best completes following exchanges.

Hoa: “_______________________”

Jeny: 'It's plausible and it can bring about big changes.’

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

People believe that habitual learners are more likely to put themselves _______ new and challenging social situations throughout life.

Beethoven's first teacher was his father. He often pulled Beethoven out of bed to practice until morning.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Understanding the need for change is essential for the ability to successfully cope with these challenges.

The United States, China and India are now competing for political influence in ASEAN, and France, a leading European country, does not want to be ___________.

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

       If you go back far enough, everything lived in the sea. At various points in evolutionary history, enterprising individuals within many different animal groups moved out onto the land, sometimes even to the most parched deserts, taking their own private seawater with them in blood and cellular fluids. In addition to the reptiles, birds, mammals and insects which we see all around us, other groups that have succeeded out of water include scorpions, snails, crustaceans such as woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders and various worms. And we mustn’t forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land, none of the other migrations could have happened.

      Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including breathing and reproduction. Nevertheless, a good number of thoroughgoing land animals later turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial re-tooling, and returned to the water again. Seals have only gone part way back. They show us what the intermediates might have been like, on the way to extreme cases such as whales and dugongs. Whales (including the small whales we call dolphins) and dugongs, with their close cousins, the manatees, ceased to be land creatures altogether and reverted to the full marine habits of their remote ancestors. They don’t even come ashore to breed. They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation. Turtles went back to the sea a very long time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air. However, they are, in one respect, less fully given back to the water than whales or dugongs, for turtles still lay their eggs on beaches.

      There is evidence that all modern turtles are descended from a terrestrial ancestor which lived before most of the dinosaurs. There are two key fossils called Proganochelys quenstedti and Palaeochersis talampayensis dating from early dinosaur times, which appear to be close to the ancestry of all modern turtles and tortoise. You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil animals lived in land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it’s obvious. Ichthyosaurs were reptilian contemporaries of the dinosaurs, with fins and streamlined bodies. The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water. With turtles it is a little less obvious. One way to tell is by measuring the bones of their forelimbs.

(Adapted from Cambridge English IELTS 9)

Which of the following best serves as the main idea for the passage?