WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY

A good memory is often seen as something that comes naturally, and a bad memory as
something that cannot be changed, but actually (1)______ is a lot that you can do to improve
your memory. We all remember the things we are interested in and forget the ones that bore us.
This no doubt explains the reason (2)______ schoolboys remember football results effortlessly
but struggle with dates from their history lessons! Take an active interest in what you want to
remember, and focus on it (3)______. One way to ‘make’ yourself more interested is to ask
questions — the more the better! Physical exercise is also important for your memory, because it
increases your heart (4)______ and sends more oxygen to your brain, and that makes your
memory work better. Exercise also reduces stress, which is very bad for the memory. The old
saying that “eating fish makes you brainy” may be true after all. Scientists have discovered that
the fats (5)______ in fish like tuna, sardines and salmon — as well as in olive oil — help to
improve the memory. Vitamin-rich fruits such as oranges, strawberries and red grapes are all
good brain food‘, too.
Question 1: A. there B. it C. that D. this
Question 2: A. why B. what C. how D. which
Question 3: A. hardly B. slightly C. consciously D. easily
Question 4: A. degree B. level C. rate D. grade
Question 5: A. made B. existed C. founded D. found
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to
each of the question.
Nuclear family, also called elementary family, in sociology and anthropology, is a group of
people who are united by ties of partnership and parenthood and consisting of a pair of adults
and their socially recognized children. Typically, but not always, the adults in a nuclear family
are married. Although such couples are most often a man and a woman, the definition of the
nuclear family has expanded with the advent of same-sex marriage. Children in a nuclear family
may be the couple’s biological or adopted offspring. Thus defined, the nuclear family was once
widely held to be the most basic and universal form of social organization. Anthropological
research, however, has illuminated so much variability of this form that it is safer to assume that
what is universal is a “nuclear family complex” in which the roles of husband, wife, mother,
father, son, daughter, brother, and sister are embodied by people whose biological relationships
do not necessarily conform to the Western definitions of these terms. In matrilineal societies, for
example, a child may be the responsibility not of his biological genitor but of his mother’s
brother, who fulfills the roles typical of Western fatherhood. Closely related in form to the
predominant nuclear-family unit are the conjugal family and the consanguineal family. As its
name implies, the conjugal family is knit together primarily by the marriage tie and consists of
mother, father, their children, and some close relatives. The consanguineal family, on the other
hand, typically groups itself around a unlineal descent group known as a lineage, a form that
reckons kinship through either the father’s or the mother’s line but not both. Whether a culture is
patrilineal or matrilineal, a consanguineal family comprises lineage relatives and consists of
parents, their children, and their children’s children. Rules regarding lineage exogamy are
common in these groups; within a given community, marriages thus create cross-cutting social
and political ties between lineages. The stability of the conjugal family depends on the quality of
the marriage of the husband and wife, a relationship that is more emphasized in the kinds of
industrialized, highly mobile societies that frequently demand that people reside away from their
kin groups. The consanguineal family derives its stability from its corporate nature and its
permanence, as its relationships emphasize the perpetuation of the line. (Source:
https://www.britannica.com/)
Question 1: What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. The definition of nuclear family B. The types of nuclear family
C. The component of nuclear family D. The relationship of nuclear family
Question 2: According to the passage, the following are members forming a nuclear family,
EXCEPT _________.
A. a man and a woman B. a man and a man
C. a woman and a woman D. children and children
Question 3: The word “illuminated” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to
__________.
A. changed B. clarified C. improved D. confused
Question 4: In which societies, a father may not be the one taking responsibility for his child?
A. patrilineal B. celibacy
C. matrilineal D. consanguinity
Question 5: According to paragraph 3, which of the following is TRUE?
A. There are some similarities between conjugal and consanguineous family.
B. The conjugal family depends on marriage to knit its members and close relatives.
C. The consanguineous family relies on both father’s and mother’s line to form its group.
D. The consanguineous family only consists parents and their children.
Question 6: The word “lineage” in paragraph 3 could be best replaced by ___________.
A. ancestry B. generation C. insertion D. incorporation
Question 7: What does the word “its” in the last paragraph refer to?
A. the permanence’s
B. the nature’s
C. the stability’s
D. the consanguineous family’s
Question 8: What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A. The married couples must maintain the quality of their marriage to meet the demand of
modern society.
B. Members in each family must preserve their family’s basement to protect their stability.
C. The permanence of the consanguineous family may emphasize its line in society.
D. The industrialized society probably causes many difficulties for the consanguineous family.

Individual differences in temperament or behavioral styles are important in family life in several
ways because they affect the nature of the interactions among family members. Some children
adapt quickly and easily to family daily routines and get along well with their siblings. Others,
especially highly active, intense and “prickly” children have a more difficult time adjusting to
everyday demands, and their interactions with parents and siblings may lead to friction and
stress. Consider how an active, impulsive child can bother an older sibling who is trying to
complete a school project, or how a distractible child who is low in persistence can frustrate
parents’ efforts to get him to complete his homework or to finish a household chore. It is
important to note that parents, like children, also differ in temperament. Some are quick reacting
and intense, while others are quiet and slow to respond; some are flexible and adaptable, and
others are not. The “mix” between parents’ and children’s temperaments has a strong effect on
family life, sometimes leading to positive interactions, sometimes to frustrations, and sometimes
even to conflicts. It is interesting to note that parents also differ in the expectations they have
about their children’s behavior, and how they view and tolerate differences in temperaments. For
example, certain constellations of temperament such as high activity, intensity, and persistence
may be tolerated and valued in boys, but not in girls. Conversely, shyness and sensitivity may be
viewed as acceptable in girls, but not in boys. This leads to the notion of “goodness of fit”, which
can be a useful framework for helping parents figure out how temperament affects relationships
in the family. “Goodness of fit” refers to the match or mismatch between a child and other family
members. For example, a high-activity, intense child may upset and irritate a quiet, slow-paced,
reflective parent. An active, quick-responding parent may be impatient with a slow-to-warm-up
child, whom the parent may see as lazy or indifferent. Sparks may fly when both parent and child
are intense and quick responding. Life in a family is not the same for all children, and
temperament is one of the ingredients in the “fit” between child and family. Don’t assume family
friction is a result of your child having LD or ADHD. It could be because of your child’s
temperament — and yours! (source: https://www.greatschools.org)
Question 1: Which best serves as the title for the passage?
A. How temperament influences family life. B. Look at yourselves before you look at others.
C. Handling difficult children is an art. D. One person one temperament.
Question 2: The word “prickly” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. hateful B. sulky C. cheerful D. childish
Question 3: According to paragraph 1, why does a clash of temperaments cause problem?
A. Because punitive or hostile parenting cannot control rebellious attitude.
B. It is difficult for the live wire to understand the quiet soul.
C. Because they are personality flaws and mental health disorders
D. Because of the lack of flexibility element in interactions.
Question 4: The word “Some” in paragraph refers to _____.
A. temperaments B. children C. parents D. styles
 Question 5: According to paragraph 4, which statement best describes the rule of “goodness of
fit”?
A. Temperaments that complement each other are what we seek.
B. It is ideal to have a similar temperament as your child.
C. Emotional reactions can be contagious.
D. Opposites can sometimes balance one another out.
Question 6: The word “persistence” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. stubbornness B. commitment C. carelessness D. perseverance
Question 7: Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
A. Parents set different criteria for each gender’s disposition.
B. Each person’s personalities depends on their birth stars.
C. Interactions of temperament only happen between children and parents.
D. There are cases of changing one’s temperament as growing up.
Question 8: Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. Family should go beyond blood and into harmony.
B. What matters is not the best but the fittest.
C. Problematic children lies at the roots of every conflicts within family.
D. Family bonding is where quality time should be spent.
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine
close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing
the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to
collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face
contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships. “Although the numbers of
friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is
approximately the same in the face to face real world,” said psychologist Will Reader, from
Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace
have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard
University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace,
which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s
News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m). Previous research has suggested that a person’s
conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but
larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly. This figure is so consistent
that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with
large numbers of people. But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do
allow people to stretch this figure. The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires
about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many
of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that
although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional
friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends. Ninety per cent of contacts
whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face. “People see
face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships,” added Dr.
Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites
allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is
easy. “What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these
social networks because we can post information to multiple people,” he said. But to develop a
real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr. Reader. "What we
need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be
there for us when we need them … It’s very easy to be deceptive on the internet." (Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/)
Question 1: Which of the following could best describe the main idea of the passage?
A. Social networking sites help modern people to expand their friend list.
B. Can we make real friends online?
C. Meeting their friends face-to-face is the best way to make close friends
D. Social networking sites play an important role in making true friends.
Question 2: The following are true about online friendship, EXCEPT _________.
A. The number of online friends you can make on Facebook is more than that on MySpace.
B. The number of close friends we have in the real world is nearly as many as that on social
networking sites.
C. With the help of social networking sites, people can have myriad acquaintances.
D. Although the number of online friends is rather massive, each person only has some close
friends.
Question 3: The word “constraints” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to
__________________. A. availability B. motivation C. inhibition D. stimulation
Question 4: What does the word “they” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A. close friends B. online friends C. social networking sites D. 200 people
Question 5: According to the passage, Dr. Reader and his team have found that
_______________.
A. People tend to make as many online friends as they can.
B. Nine out of ten people considered as close friends are those having face-to-face contacts.
C. People only want to keep the conventional number of online friends.
D. Many people agree to make close friends online because it is easy to keep touch with them.
Question 6: The word “deceptive” in the last sentence could best be replaced by ___________.
A. deceitful B. faithful C. indistinct D. definite
Question 7: What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A. Mutual trust is the major quality that a friendship should have.
B. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
C. Give-and-take is really necessary in friendship.
D. Money is absolutely important in friendship.
Question 8: Which of the following most accurately reflects the author’s opinion of making a
close online friend?
A. positive B. supportive C. neutral D. skeptical