Passage One

American Sports represent fabric of American culture. Sports act as a unifying factor between people of all ages. Of all the sports that America has to offer, baseball is considered the pastime of this country. Americans did not always regard baseball and other sports in such benign manner. Rather, sports during the early colonial times were seen as pagan and devilish things to do. Many elite and wealthy gentry who embodied the Victorian ideals regarded any type of games or sports as ill vices. It was the common people who directly related sports to their religion. On days of religious celebration, early Americans joined together to play games. These folk games were unstructured and unruly; however, the unity that these games brought, created a need for professional sporting games. Folk games provided the foundation of sports. They created a sense of companionship and unison among individuals. These unorganized folk games created the threshold for organized sports and led to the transformation of the players'roles and the role of the audience. Amateurs became professional athletes, and the game an organized business. The game of baseball evolved 

A.Sports serve as a link between people of different times

B.Sports bring American people, young or old, together

C.Sports are no more than pastimes in American culture

D.Sports help Americans to behave in good manners

A.when amateurs became professional athletes

B.on days of religious celebration

C.during the early colonial days

D.during the Civil War

A.economic interests

B.sense of companionship

C.player performance

D.rivalries between teams

A.was frequently played long before the Civil War

B.was invented by General Abner Doublday

C.originated in Cooperstown, New York

D.has become a monopolized business

A.persuading

B.informing

C.criticizing

D.entertaining

Passage Two

There are many different kinds of evidence that women and men are judged differently even if they talk the same way. This tendency makes mischief in discussions of women, men and power If a linguistic strategy is used by woman, it is seen as powerless; if it is used by a man, it is seen as powerful. Often, the labeling of "women's language"as "powerless 

A.men’s attitude toward women’s behavior

B.men’s understanding of a linguistic strategy

C.women’s weakness in using language skills

D.women’s tendency to avoid men’s linguistic strategies

A.the importance of being subservient

B.the gap between experts and nonexperts

C.the necessity of being sensitive in marriage

D.the different understandings of “politeness” between men and women

A.openly

B.outright

C.indirectly

D.awkwardly

A.to win trust from others

B.to share their feelings with others

C.to secure an advantageous position

D.to maintain a friendly relationship with others

A.are struggling to be one-up

B.have lower status than men

C.play a dominant role at home

D.tend to make mischief in discussions

Passage Three
Cord cutting is growing in popularity, with more and more people deciding to ditch cable or satellite television in favor of other options. According to Experian Marketing Services, cord-cutters grew by 44 percent in the past four years. Instead of using cable or satellite television, 7.6 million households are using high-speed Internet for videos. SNL Kagan predicts that 12 million households will cut the cord by 2015.

A.the growing popularity of cord cutting

B.the poor services of satellite television

C.the development of cable television

D.the high speed of Internet

A.24%

B.44%

C.48%

D.67%

A.In the morning

B.In the evening

C.In the afternoon

D.At midnight

A.the easy access to cable TV

B.the low prices of mobile devices

C.the development of wireless technology

D.the decreasing number of smartphone users

A.some people still watch live football games on cable or satellite TV

B.the Internet is not necessary for watching streaming videos

C.few big companies require subscription fee for TV shows

D.Netflix offers only movie streaming to its users

Passage Four

Snazzy technology is a twist in a narrative already several chapters long. Mass-market retailing has changed the publishing industry: these days books are as likely to be found beside steaks and saucepans as they are to be bought in specialist stores. The story turns on whether broader changes in bookselling will stifle literature. Dan Brown will survive. Would Dante?

have relied on books that sell steadily over a number of years. Yet mass retailers stock a few hundred new blockbusters.

A.the commodities in the supermarkets are often stolen

B.the commodities placed high on the shelf tend to drop

C.the expensive commodities should be arranged in piles

D.the more commodities are on display, the better they sell

A.recycle books

B.shrink margins

C.attract customers

D.keep the prices steady

A.it refuses to recycle books

B.it doesn’t pay for the unsold books

C.it orders too small a quantity of books

D.it doesn’t return the books to the publishers

A.feel sorry for publishers’ losses

B.worry about the quality of books

C.stop relying on books in their free time

D.shiver at the decline of traditional bookshops

A.bookselling and publishing

B.bookshops and supermarkets

C.books and their prices

D.reading and marketing

Passage Five

The theft by a Russian syndicate of 1.2 billion username and password combinations from 420,000 websites around the world means that the personal details of almost half of all users of the internet must now be considered severely 

A.to adopt new passwords as soon as possible

B.to refuse bank statements and credit-card accounts

C.to consult a dictionary for long words as passwords

D.to use shorter passwords which are easy to remember

A.they are easy to fathom

B.they arouse the interest of hackers

C.they are hard to remember

D.they are chosen by most people

A.its complexity

B.its length

C.its randomness

D.its meaning

A.the carelessness of online-shoppers

B.how they are stored on the website’s server

C.how often the users change their passwords

D.the irresponsibility of the website security staff

A.They will consist of numbers only

B.They will contribute to innovation in processors

C.They will give way to better security measures

D.They will be beyond the power of cracking software