11. Obesity exacts a higher toll on health and healthcare costs than either smoking or drinking because obesity-related problems are near epidemic level. Smoking and drinking are also responsible for some serious health problems, but active smoking leads to a more modest 20-percent increase in healthcare costs and 30-percent rise in medication costs. Obesity, on the other hand, is linked to a range of chronic conditions, which _______________. Some significant causes of the growing obesity problem are more hours in front of the TV, less physical activity, and a car-obsessed culture. (a) require less serious medical care (b) are associated with heavy smoking (c) have to do with the consumption of vegetables and fats (d) have a large impact on healthcare costs 12. Hunger, hostile Indians, and disease took many lives in the early years of settlement before the settlers learned to cope with their new environment. At one point ______________. Much trouble arose from the organization and aims of the enterprise. Anxious for quick profit from gold or a northwest passage, the settlers were slow to settle down to the mundane agricultural labor necessary for the colony to sustain itself. The reluctance arose partly from the fact that all the original settlers were employees of the company and their labor was controlled under military discipline by an autocratic governor. (a) the colony was almost abandoned (b) the company made an effort recruit immigrants (c) the disaster so discredited the company that the King revoked its charter (d) the Virginia environment produced enslavement 13. Combining elements to from a compound is very different from just mixing them together. While in compounds, atoms of different elements bond in a chemical reaction, mixtures are mere combinations of different elements or compounds. Sea water, for instance, is a mixture of water with other compounds, such as salt. A compound, such as iron sulphide, is very different from its elements, but a mixture keeps the properties of the substance it contains. Unlike compounds, no chemical reaction takes place when the elements or compounds mix together. This means that ______________. (a) the elements can be arranged to make different compounds (b) they can be used to build chemical structures (c) it is usually possible to separate mixtures into their different parts (d) there are compounds and mixtures everywhere in big cities 14. Good historians deal with currents and crosscurrents as they build pictures of the past. Good lawyers are zealous advocates in service of a cause (with the desirable result always set se ante), and to that end, they seize upon data favorable to their argument, exaggerate its importance, and extrapolate the conclusions they seek from the distorted picture they have created. Given this reality, it is not surprising that good lawyers often make ________________-or that when lawyers use history to make arguments, they often use it one-sidedly. (a) bad historians (b) zealous lawyers (c) favorable arguers (d) unconvincing exaggerators 15. According to a study of 150 patients who had experienced a heart attack, those who took a four month course of antibiotic clarithromycin were 40% less likely to have another cardiovascular event during the next two years than patients who received an inactive (placebo) pill. Antibiotics seem to be a beneficial option for patients with coronary heart disease. However, one potential problem with using antibiotics to treat heart attack patients is that such widespread use of the drugs could increase the rate at which bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. ____________, if antibiotics were to be used to treat heart attacks in large number of people, it would be better to limit the use to one certain group of antibiotics. This is because widespread use of several different kinds of antibiotics could lead to more antibiotic resistance. (a) In contrast (b) Hence (c) For instance (d) In addition 16. Far from being in a "crisis" condition, Japan remains one of the world's wealthiest countries, with its standard of living among the world's highest. ___________ sales of luxury goods such as Burberry, Gucci and Channel continue to be strong. Japan's high comfort level is a legacy of the 1970s and 1980s, when its economy was the wonder of the world, recording the highest annual growth among all developed countries. The explanation of Japan's economic miracle was the subject of many policy and academic debates. (a) Nevertheless (b) Instead (c) After (d) For example 17. With the popularization of the concept of calorie counting, physical features once regarded as natural―such as shape and body weight―were designated as objects of conscious control. The notion of weight control through the restriction of calories implied that being overweight resulted solely from lack of control; to be a fat woman constituted a failure of personal morality. Q. What is the main idea of this passage? (a) Physical features have a lot to do with the mind. (b) Dieting is a matter of reducing calories. (c) Women do not have to reduce their body weight. (d) Appetite control is an issue of personal morality. 18. Advertisers use many methods to get us to buy their products. One of their most successful methods is to make us feel dissatisfied with ourselves and our imperfect lives. Advertisements show us who we aren't and what we don't have. Our teeth aren't white enough. Our hair isn't shiny enough. Our clothes aren't clean enough. Advertisements make us afraid that people won't like us if we don't use the advertised products. " Why don't I have any dates?" a good-looking girl sadly asks in a commercial. "Here," replies her roommate, " Try Miracle Toothpaste!" Of course she tries it, and immediately the whole football team falls in love with her. "That's a stupid commercial," we might say. But we still buy Miracle Toothpaste out of fear of being unpopular and having no friends. Q. Which of the following best summarizes the passage? (a) how we look to others is really important. (b) Advertisements achieve their goal by making us feel unhappy. (c) Advertisements help us to be happy by purchasing their goods. (d) We should keep our teeth healthy by using "Miracle Toothpaste." 19. Almost everyone agrees that children in mother-only homes suffer harmful consequences: these youngsters are more likely than those in two-parent families to be suspended from abuse, and take drugs. Some of there problems may arise from the economic circumstances of these one-parent families, but the best studies show that low income can explain, at most, about half of the differences between single-parent and two-parent families. The rest is explained by a mother living without a husband. Q. According to this passage, which of the following may be correct? (a) Children in mother-only homes are more likely to become juvenile delinquents. (b) Single mothers take better care of their children than single fathers. (c) Most of the problems in children of single-parent families are caused by poverty. (d) The problems of single-mother children are not related to their economic circumstances. 20. Let me suggest that beneath the popular support for marriage there has slowly developed, almost unnoticed, a subversion of it: whereas marriage was once thought to be about a social union, it is now about personal preferences. At one time law and opinion enforced the desirability of marriage with inquiring into what went on in that union; today law and opinion enforce the desirability of individual happiness without worrying too much about maintaining a formal relationship. Marriage was once a sacrament, then it become a contract, and now it is an arrangement. Once religion provided the sacrament, then the law enforced the contract, and now personal preferences define the arrangement. Q. According to this passage, how can define marriage at the present time? (a) As sacred obligation (b) An association of two individuals (c) A social contract (d) A cultural heritage 21. Why should a culture that is so powerfully shaped by upper-middle-class beliefs have so profound an effect on poor people? I suspect that the answer may be found in Myron Magnet's book, The Dream and the Nightmare. When the haves remake a culture, the people who pay the price are the have-nots. Heroin and cocaine use started among elites and then spread down the social scale. When the elites wanted to stop, they could hire doctors and therapists; when the poor wanted to stop, they could not hire anybody. People who practiced contraception endorsed loose sexuality in writing and movies; the poor practice loose sexually without contraception. Divorce is more common among the affluent than the poor. The latter, who can't afford divorce, deal with unhappy marriages by not getting married in the first place. Q. What is the best title for the passage? (a) The Decline of Marriage (b) The Legacy of Poverty (c) The Making of Culture (d) How the Rich can Influence the Poor 22. In terms of sheer economic impact, the single most important, dynamic, defining technological innovation in America hasn't been the silicon chip; it's the relentless promotional promise of "everyday low prices." Sure, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco and Dell may be terrific companies, but the true corporate leader driving productivity improvement over the past decade has been Wal-Mart. The reason is simple. Wal-Mart is by far the commercial world's most influential purchaser and implementer of software and systems. Microsoft and Cisco may set technical standards; Wal-Mart sets business process standards. When Wal-Mart, which is bigger than Sears, Kmart and J.C. Penney combined-wants global suppliers like Procter and Gamble or GE or Pfizer to comply with its inventory software and data networks, they do so or else "everyday low prices" don't come cheap. Q. According to this passage, what brought forth a revolution in economic productivity? (a) Corporate IT departments (b) The latest Windows upgrade (c) A faster microprocessor from Intel (d) Wal-Mart's ongoing infrastructure innovation 23. At Sotheby's contemporary art auction in London last June, prices were high and house records were broken. The highlight of the evening was Lot 17, a pink acrylic-and-silk-screen print called Little Electric Chair by Andy Warhol. Sotheby's main saleroom on New Bond Street was standing-room-only that evening. When the bidding for Little Electric Chair began, it was heavy and furious, but when the bids climbed above the $1.5 million mark, the room fell silent. The three remaining bidders―none present and all anonymous―relayed their bids via representatives on cell phones. The sale catalogue lists estimate for Little Electric Chair at $430,000 to $575,000. When Henry Wyndham, Chairman of Sotheby's Europe, brought down the gavel, the room broke into applause. Little Electric Chair had sold for $2.3 million. The pink Little Electric Chair―an iconic image from Warhol's 'Disaster" series, which also includes car crashes and race riots―is considered one of the higher-quality prints in the series, and the subject matter―capital punishment―is timely. Still, $2.3 million, four times the high estimate, was unheard of for a small (22-by-28-inch), early Warhol print. Q. Which of the following can be inferred from this passage? (a) No one thought Little Electric Chair would sell so well. (b) The subject matter of electric chairs was considered disreputable. (c) Warhol has become the hottest commodity on the contemporary art market. (d) The bidders for Little Electric Chair were all furious. 24. The reason beauty may be making a strong comeback here in the United State, says Herz, is "America is the most pluralist country in the world. No other place has so many kinds of different people living next to each other. Far f