Vocabulary Test...

[passage-header]Read the text given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]You have spent the last 20 minutes talking to an automated call center. A passionless, computerized voice drones out assurances and urges you to press yet another key. Your temper soars. Finally, you give up, shouting rude remarks. Or your friend becomes immersed, with increasing agitation, in a computer game. As his temper worsens, his performance declines until he ends up trashing the console in a fit of adolescent rage. Computer angst - now a universal feature of modern life - is an increasing phenomenon today. Fortunately, the days of the unfeeling machine will soon be over. Thanks to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, psychology, electronics and other research fields, scientists are now creating computers and robots that can detect, and respond to, users' feelings. The discoveries are being channeled by Humanine, a 6 million programme that has just been launched by the European Union to give Europe a lead in emotional computing. As a result, computers will soon detect our growing irritation at their behavior and in turn generate more sympathetic, human-like messages or slow down the tempo of the games that they are running. Robots will be able to react in lifelike ways, though we may end up generating some unwelcome responses too. Computers that can detect and imitate human emotion may sound like science fiction, but they are already with us, said Dr. Dylan Evans, a key Humanine project collaborator.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]To most people, landfill sites are holes in the ground where waste____(1)____ is buried. To garbologists, however, they provide a valuable ____(2)____ of information about a population's activities in areas such as food consumption and waste disposal. Garbology is a branch of ethnography, a science which abandons traditional methods of ___(3)___ market research information, such as questionnaires and focus groups, in favour of  ____(4)____ observation of people and their habits. The world's ___(5)___ garbologist, Professor William Rathje, is also an archaeologist. Archaeologists study past cultures by examining the ___(6)___ of objects and buildings, but the basic principles of archaeology can also be applied to the discarded rubbish of present day civilizations in order to ___(7)___ a better understanding of how people behave now. As founder and director of the Garbage Project at the University of Arizona, Professor Rathje has ___(8)___ over 30 years of his life to the archaeological study of modern refuse. His work is of ____(9)____ interest to commerce; companies need to understand the lives of their consumers in order to create brands which will be of most ___(10)___ to them. Rathje's ____(11)____ can help them achieve this. In addition, his analysis of the composition of landfill sites reveals a greater need not only to recycle more rubbish but also to  ___(12)___ down on the amount of rubbish we produce in the first place.

[passage-header]Read the passage given below and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]Sailing is an Olympic sport today, but in Britain, in the past, seafaring was an important source of work and not just for sailors and fishermen. People all over Britain worked to make, equip and support the military, commercial, and fishing fleets. So, many people found work in construction and maintenance work related to the shipping industry. Ships needed to be supplied with sails, ropes, and other essentials; warships needed cannon and gunpowder; sailors and passengers needed food and these requirements kept people in employment throughout the year. This is not the case so much today, at least not so widely, but the coast of Britain is, to this day, dotted with hundreds of marinas - places where recreational boats are kept for people who enjoy sailing. Britain has many maritime museums but the most impressive is the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, which showcases the nation's rich nautical history. Further, British literature and art are full of evidence of the importance of seafaring in the country's history and culture; Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and the novels of C. S. Foster and Patrick O Brian effectively capture the people's relationship with sailing.

[passage-header]Read the tale of Bibi and answer the question that follows:[/passage-header]This is the story of Bibi the butterfly - not just any butterfly, but an adventure-loving butterfly full of the __1__ born of youth. Yes, she was the quintessential __2__ butterfly. Today in a fit of temper, she had left home and flown a long distance without thought of rest or sleep, over green gardens and frolicking farms in search of the sweetest nectar. Her __3__ wings were tired and __4__. She drank the juice from a rose here and a daffodil there. A strange drowsiness __5__ her. She curled up on the sturdy __6__ of a leaf and fell fast asleep. And as is the case when anyone sleeps, she had the strangest dream.