1) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaThe Facebook messages written by the Cambridge student Giulio Regeni in the weeks leading up to his murder give the lie to any notion he was a spy or political agitator. Even before he left England, Regeni was concerned about the risks he might face doing his thesis on trade unions in Egypt, a sensitive subject in the country. But the 28-year-old thought the worst that could happen would be for him to be deported before he could finish his research. Instead, he was snatched off the street and tortured and his semi-naked body dumped by the roadside in a brutal killing for which four Egyptian security officials are due to stand trial in Italy in October.Enforced disappearances are a daily occurrence under Egypt's hardline president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Regeni is unusual because he was a foreigner, an Italian PhD student at Girton College who moved to Cairo in September 2015 to work on a development studies thesis about independent trade unions. Things took a worrying turn when, at a meeting of union activists, Regeni spotted a veiled young woman taking his picture on her phone, which made him fear he was under surveillance. Nine days after that his body was found, dumped on the side of the Cairo-Alexandria highway. He had been tortured; beaten, burned and stabbed before his neck was broken after he was struck from behind with a heavy, blunt object. What followed was an apparent cover-up by the authorities. President Sisi, in an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, vowed to track down the culprits. Instead it was then claimed there had been a robbery by a gang, all now dead. But Italian investigators discovered phone records that showed the leader of the gang - all killed in a police shootout - was not even in Cairo at the time Regeni disappeared. They concluded the student's identity documents had been planted at one of their addresses. Since his death, Regeni has become a martyr - or shahid - for the disappeared in Sisi's Egypt. "That's why there's graffiti of him in Cairo," says Regeni's anonymous Facebook friend. "He is a representative figure of that."Read the extract taken from The Guardian and then choose the correct option.In a newspaper interview, President Sisi:
- Promised to find the people responsible.
- Refused to investigate the murder.
- Asked La Repubblica to find Regeni's murderers.
- Claimed that a gang was responsible.
2) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaWhen you take a shy, sometimes awkward and mostly unknown young person who isn't even 21 years old, turn them into a global sports superstar almost overnight, make them the highest-earning female athlete on the planet and have them represent a country that has never claimed a tennis player of such magnitude, there is no playbook. For some, it might come naturally. For others, you can imagine it being deeply uncomfortable and invasive, full of anxieties and pressures that can place undue strain on mental well-being. In Naomi Osaka's announcement Monday that she is pulling out of the French Open - after several days of escalating narratives about her initial announcement that she wouldn't fulfill the tournament's media obligations and a stern response from the Grand Slam tournaments - she revealed that she has suffered bouts of depression since winning the 2018 U.S. Open. Further, she said she will take some time away from tennis, and it's unclear when she intends to return. There was, on all sides, almost certainly a more productive and diplomatic way to handle this. But whatever that path might have been no longer matters. This has now become the biggest story in tennis, something that in many ways transcends sports, and the consequences are going to reverberate for a long time. The main thing now is that Osaka gets in position to return as soon as she feels well enough to do so. The issues this episode raised are going to linger, but at least we have a better understanding of the difficulties she's been dealing with. Had everyone involved taken a deep breath and talked to one another, this probably could have been resolved in a much more orderly fashion. Hopefully, after her break from the sport, Osaka can be part of a productive dialogue on mental health and feel comfortable participating in all aspects of being a high- level tennis player again - including talking to the press.Read the extract taken from USA Today and then choose the correct option.Why is becoming a sports superstar overnight difficult?
- Sports stars are often young and awkward.
- Nobody knows who they are.
- There is no set strategy to cope with this.
- Sports stars earn too much money.
3) "Despite the growing threat of vector-borne diseases to individuals, families and societies, the ethical issues raised by vector-borne diseases have received only limited attention. Recognizing this gap, WHO (World Health Organization) has issued new guidance to support national VBD (Vector-borne diseases) control programmes in their efforts to identify and respond to the core ethical issues at stake." What does the word "gap" refer to?
- To general diseases.
- To the new WHO's guidance.
- To the limited attention on the ethical issues raised by vector-borne diseases.
- The WHO.
4) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaJeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin auctioned off a seat on its upcoming first crewed spaceflight on Saturday for $28 million. The winning bidder, whose name wasn't released, will fly to the edge of space with the Amazon founder and his brother Mark on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket scheduled to launch on July 20. The company said it will reveal the name of the auction winner in the coming weeks. Bidding opened at $4.8 million but surpassed $20 million within the first few minutes of the auction. The auction's proceeds will be donated to Blue Origin's education-focused nonprofit Club for the Future, which supports kids interested in future STEM careers. New Shepard, a rocket that carries a capsule to an altitude of over 340,000 feet, has flown more than a dozen successful test flights without passengers, including one in April at the company's facility in the Texas desert. It's designed to carry up to six people and flies autonomously - without needing a pilot. The capsule has massive windows to give passengers a view of the earth below during about three minutes in zero gravity, before returning to Earth. Bezos and fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Sir Richard Branson are in a race to get to space, but each in different ways. Bezos' Blue Origin and Branson's Virgin Galactic are competing to take passengers on short flights to the edge of space, a sector known as suborbital tourism, while Musk's SpaceX is launching private passengers on further, multi-day flights, in what is known as orbital tourism. Blue Origin's auction may have netted $28 million, but a seat on a suborbital spacecraft is typically much less expensive. Virgin Galactic has historically sold reservations between $200,000 and $250,000 per ticket, and more recently charged the Italian Air Force about $500,000 per ticket for a training spaceflight. Musk's orbital missions are more costly than the suborbital flights, with NASA paying SpaceX about $55 million per seat for spaceflights to the ISS.Read the extract taken from CNBC and then choose the correct option.How are Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic different from SpaceX?
- Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have a longer history.
- SpaceX is less expensive.
- Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic space flights will go further.
- SpaceX is launching orbital tourism while Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic operate in a sector known as suborbital tourism.
5) "Canada is a rugged country with a lot of uninhabitable land, from the glaciers in the northern Arctic regions to the Rocky Mountains which dominate the west. Central Canada is covered by vast plains, known as prairies, and huge lakes. Approximately 90% of Canadians live along the border with the United States". According to the text, where does around 90% of Canadians live?
- In the remotest parts of the Country.
- Along the border with the US.
- In the Labrador area.
- In the mid west.
6) "The Global Financial Centres Index published in 2018 ranks New York as the most competitive financial centre in the world. Wall Street is home to the world's largest stock exchange, NYSE, as well as the second largest, NASDAQ. Some of the world's largest banks also have their headquarters there". As per the text, what is Wall Street home to?
- The world's biggest pineapple.
- The world's richest company.
- The world's largest stock exchange.
- The world's largest enterprise.
7) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaThe aviation industry is in crisis, there's a global push to cut carbon emissions, and many of us haven't stepped on a plane or hugged far-flung loved ones in more than a year. But now a fresh bunch of start-ups are working on supersonic and hypersonic projects. Last October frontrunner Boom Supersonic was the first to roll out an actual demonstrator aircraft, the XB1. "That barrier of time is what keeps us apart. We believe it's deeply important to break the time barrier, more so than the sound barrier", said Blake Scholl, Boom Supersonic founder and CEO. Designed to seat between 65 and 88 people, Overture will focus on over 500 primarily transoceanic routes that will benefit from the aircraft's Mach-2.2 speeds -- more than twice as fast as today's subsonic commercial jets. A journey from New York to London would take just three hours and 15 minutes while Los Angeles to Sydney would be cut down to eight and a half hours. Breaking the time barrier could be life-changing, says Scholl. "It changes where we can vacation, changes where we can do business, changes who you can fall in love with or you can be close to." Accessibility is key. His aim is that airlines will be able to set fares at a price point similar to business class -- unlike Concorde, which by the '90s was charging around $12,000 for a round trip, or $20,000 in today's money."As things get back into growth mode," says Scholl, "There's an opportunity to build a new-generation fleet that's got supersonic baked into it. That actually makes it easier to adopt." Then there's the plane's lean 199 feet (60 meters) of super- svelte lines, with no space inside for those undesirable middle seats -- an advantage post-pandemic. "Supersonic's got some inherent advantages," says Scholl. "It's about the same form factor as a 757, so it fits in narrow-body gates, which actually causes airlines to really love it." Wide-body gates are at a premium in today's super-congested airports, so big fat airplanes can be hard to find space for -- but not so for a humble Boeing 757 or a Boom Overture.The major obstacle is that "beyond just accomplishing the speed, it generates a ferocious amount of heat. Any conventional engine that you put together would melt." What will be needed is further advances in material science -- and it's dependent on further invention or discovery. Interest in Boom's project has been high, the company says it currently has $6 billion in pre-orders of Overture aircraft.Read the extract taken from CNN and then choose the correct option.What is the company's biggest obstacle?
- Lack of interest.
- Achieving the speed.
- The need for new technology.
- It costs $6 billion.
8) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaIn an interview last month with Oprah for their jointly produced docuseries about mental health, The Me You Can't See, Prince Harry made a deeply personal disclosure. Harry said he sought a special therapy program, EMDR, to process the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. He described how living with the trauma of her death makes him feel "helpless", "hunted", and as if "there is no escape".EMDR was developed in 1989 by Francine Shapiro, a California psychotherapist, as a treatment for trauma. It operates on the theory that "emotional, behavioral, and mental health symptoms originate from maladaptively stored life events. As those stored events are triggered, the client experiences disturbances and dysfunction in his or her current life." EMDR aims to help patients with painful memories of trauma to better manage anxiety-provoking stimuli. A typical EMDR session lasts for 60 to 90 minutes, during which the client is asked to visualize a traumatic event. Practitioners use repeated physical stimuli - such as sounds, taps or a pulsing lightbar - to facilitate "information processing" until the client is able to report that the memory is less disturbing. The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) has more than 10,000 members trained to provide this therapy.EMDR is not without controversy. The Harvard psychologist Richard McNally has argued that "what is effective in EMDR is not new, and what is new is not effective". EMDR training ranges from $445 to $890. And it costs patients up to $200 per session if they don't have insurance or if their insurance does not cover it. That said, the therapy continues to grow in popularity in the US and across the globe and has been increasingly embraced by mainstream psychologists. EMDR may also provide an alternative for those who find talk therapy a challenge. Frontiers in Psychology, the largest peer-reviewed journal in its field, considers EMDR "an evidence-based psychotherapy which has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a first-choice treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)", and cites "growing interest" in the treatment. Past controversies plaguing the therapy are now considered outdated and said to "stem from misinformation".Read the extract taken from The Guardian and then choose the correct option.According to Frontiers in Psychology:
- EMDR therapy is outdated and misinformed.
- There is not enough evidence to prove the effectiveness of EMDR.
- EMDR is a great treatment option for PTSD.
- EMDR is too expensive for most people.
9) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaBeekeeping is one of the oldest industries in existence, but it faces numerous threats. A number of tech firms hope to help the honey bee have a brighter future. Noah Wilson-Rich, chief scientific officer of US firm Best Bees Company, says it is distressing how many American honey bee colonies, or hives as they are otherwise known, die off every year. Hit by a deadly parasitic mite, pesticides and climate change, a survey showed that between April 2019 and 2020 43.7% of US hives were lost. His Boston firm installs hives on commercial and residential properties - everywhere from roof tops to back gardens. Its staff then use an advanced software system to monitor and record the health of all the bee colonies. The data is shared with researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to help them better understand the plight of the insects. One firm also at the forefront of the honey bee industry is Irish business ApisProtect, which makes wireless in-hive sensors that collect and transmit data to a website-based "dashboard". "What we do is extract those raw data points and then use machine learning to convert that into useful information," says Chief Executive Fiona Edwards Murphy. "In a commercial operation only about 20% of hives at any given time need intervention. The problem is that beekeepers don't know which 20%. They literally go out and pick around a hive to see if it's the one they should be looking at. What we do is enable them to get a picture of what's happening in all their hives, spread across a large area, before they even leave their office in the morning. For commercial beekeepers, we see a 50% reduction in labour costs. That obviously has a huge impact on the business of beekeeping." An even more futuristic bee tech project is the pan European Hiveopolis scheme, which is studying the possibility of putting tiny "waggle dancing" robots inside hives to influence bee behaviour. The idea is that the robots will try to imitate how bees communicate using movement. And from that the hope is that the robots will be able to direct the worker bees to the best sources of nectar.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.What is the purpose of the Hiveopolis scheme's robots?
- To distract the bees with their 'waggle dance'.
- To replace worker bees.
- To help honey bees find nectar.
- To learn to communicate with the bees.
10) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaWhen you take a shy, sometimes awkward and mostly unknown young person who isn't even 21 years old, turn them into a global sports superstar almost overnight, make them the highest-earning female athlete on the planet and have them represent a country that has never claimed a tennis player of such magnitude, there is no playbook. For some, it might come naturally. For others, you can imagine it being deeply uncomfortable and invasive, full of anxieties and pressures that can place undue strain on mental well-being. In Naomi Osaka's announcement Monday that she is pulling out of the French Open - after several days of escalating narratives about her initial announcement that she wouldn't fulfill the tournament's media obligations and a stern response from the Grand Slam tournaments - she revealed that she has suffered bouts of depression since winning the 2018 U.S. Open. Further, she said she will take some time away from tennis, and it's unclear when she intends to return. There was, on all sides, almost certainly a more productive and diplomatic way to handle this. But whatever that path might have been no longer matters. This has now become the biggest story in tennis, something that in many ways transcends sports, and the consequences are going to reverberate for a long time. The main thing now is that Osaka gets in position to return as soon as she feels well enough to do so. The issues this episode raised are going to linger, but at least we have a better understanding of the difficulties she's been dealing with. Had everyone involved taken a deep breath and talked to one another, this probably could have been resolved in a much more orderly fashion. Hopefully, after her break from the sport, Osaka can be part of a productive dialogue on mental health and feel comfortable participating in all aspects of being a high- level tennis player again - including talking to the press.Read the extract taken from USA Today and then choose the correct option.What does 'UNDUE' mean?
- Public.
- Dangerous.
- Excessive.
- Personal.
11) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaWhen you take a shy, sometimes awkward and mostly unknown young person who isn't even 21 years old, turn them into a global sports superstar almost overnight, make them the highest-earning female athlete on the planet and have them represent a country that has never claimed a tennis player of such magnitude, there is no playbook. For some, it might come naturally. For others, you can imagine it being deeply uncomfortable and invasive, full of anxieties and pressures that can place undue strain on mental well-being. In Naomi Osaka's announcement Monday that she is pulling out of the French Open - after several days of escalating narratives about her initial announcement that she wouldn't fulfill the tournament's media obligations and a stern response from the Grand Slam tournaments - she revealed that she has suffered bouts of depression since winning the 2018 U.S. Open. Further, she said she will take some time away from tennis, and it's unclear when she intends to return. There was, on all sides, almost certainly a more productive and diplomatic way to handle this. But whatever that path might have been no longer matters. This has now become the biggest story in tennis, something that in many ways transcends sports, and the consequences are going to reverberate for a long time. The main thing now is that Osaka gets in position to return as soon as she feels well enough to do so. The issues this episode raised are going to linger, but at least we have a better understanding of the difficulties she's been dealing with. Had everyone involved taken a deep breath and talked to one another, this probably could have been resolved in a much more orderly fashion. Hopefully, after her break from the sport, Osaka can be part of a productive dialogue on mental health and feel comfortable participating in all aspects of being a high- level tennis player again - including talking to the press.Read the extract taken from USA Today and then choose the correct option.The writer:
- Thinks that this issue could have been settled with less controversy.
- Expects that Osaka will be forced to speak to the press.
- Believes that Osaka must talk about her mental health issues.
- Believes that breathing exercises could have resolved this issue.
12) "The people in South Africa are multi-ethnic. Black Africans make up over 80.9% of the population. White people account for about 7.8% of the population. They are divided into two groups: Afrikaners, descended from Dutch immigrants, and English-speaking groups, descended from British and Irish immigrants. The rest of the population is made up of people of mixed race". What immigrants did the Afrikaners originally descend from?
- British.
- Spanish.
- Dutch.
- Italian.
13) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaPlastic from take-out and convenience food is littering rivers and oceans - but straws are not the worst offenders, according to a new study. Scientists analysed global inventories cataloguing more than 12 million pieces of litter found in and around rivers, oceans, shorelines and the seafloor. They found eight out of 10 items listed were made of plastic. And 44% of this plastic litter related to take-out food and drinks. Single-use bottles, food containers and wrappers, and plastic bags made up the biggest share. Measures to cut plastic pollution have focused on the likes of straws, cotton buds and drink stirrers, which are relatively easy to replace. The researchers say these actions are welcome, but they recommend also tackling plastic from take-out food and drink. Writing in the journal Nature Sustainability, they suggest three possible strategies for tackling the problem: replace plastic in take-out food and drink with more-easily degradable materials; bring in regulatory bans on plastic that can be avoided, such as bags; consider deposit-refund schemes to encourage shoppers to return take-out products. The study also highlighted the problem of litter from fishing gear, such as plastic nets and ropes, which was the biggest problem in the open ocean. Dumped and discarded nets and lines can be deadly for marine wildlife. A second study by the University of Cadiz looked at litter released into the ocean from rivers in Europe alone. Plastic made up about 80% of this, dominated by bits of plastic as well as single-use plastics such as bottles, food packaging and bags. Lead researcher Dr Daniel Gonzalez said action was needed to encourage consumers to reduce their plastic consumption. "We need to act from a citizen's point of view and also from the policy side," he said.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.Which is the biggest problem in the open ocean?
- Take-out containers.
- Plastic bags.
- Equipment used to catch seafood.
- Straws.
14) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaJeff Bezos' space venture Blue Origin auctioned off a seat on its upcoming first crewed spaceflight on Saturday for $28 million. The winning bidder, whose name wasn't released, will fly to the edge of space with the Amazon founder and his brother Mark on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket scheduled to launch on July 20. The company said it will reveal the name of the auction winner in the coming weeks. Bidding opened at $4.8 million but surpassed $20 million within the first few minutes of the auction. The auction's proceeds will be donated to Blue Origin's education-focused nonprofit Club for the Future, which supports kids interested in future STEM careers. New Shepard, a rocket that carries a capsule to an altitude of over 340,000 feet, has flown more than a dozen successful test flights without passengers, including one in April at the company's facility in the Texas desert. It's designed to carry up to six people and flies autonomously - without needing a pilot. The capsule has massive windows to give passengers a view of the earth below during about three minutes in zero gravity, before returning to Earth. Bezos and fellow billionaires Elon Musk and Sir Richard Branson are in a race to get to space, but each in different ways. Bezos' Blue Origin and Branson's Virgin Galactic are competing to take passengers on short flights to the edge of space, a sector known as suborbital tourism, while Musk's SpaceX is launching private passengers on further, multi-day flights, in what is known as orbital tourism. Blue Origin's auction may have netted $28 million, but a seat on a suborbital spacecraft is typically much less expensive. Virgin Galactic has historically sold reservations between $200,000 and $250,000 per ticket, and more recently charged the Italian Air Force about $500,000 per ticket for a training spaceflight. Musk's orbital missions are more costly than the suborbital flights, with NASA paying SpaceX about $55 million per seat for spaceflights to the ISS.Read the extract taken from CNBC and then choose the correct option.What does 'auction off' mean?
- To select a winner based on their merits.
- To offer something as a prize.
- To create a type of lottery system.
- To sell something to the person who pays the most.
15) "It is estimated that 2.6 million schoolchildren live below the poverty line in England alone, and Ofcom estimates that about 9% of children in the UK - between 1.1 million and 1.8 million - do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home. More than 880,000 children live in a household with only a mobile internet connection". How many schoolchildren do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet?
- 2.6 million.
- 880.000.
- 3 million.
- Between 1.1 million and 1.8 million.
16) "This course aims to reach functional proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading in English. We will cover nearly all of the reading and listening activities in our textbooks, in addition to pertinent online material." According to the text, which are the main objectives of the course?
- Develop skills in listening, speaking, and reading in English.
- Develop mastery of grammar.
- Develop the mastery of grammar and writing.
- Online materials and textbooks.
17) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaUp to 10,000 people could be allowed to watch Olympic events in Tokyo this summer, after Japanese health experts approved plans to raise the number of spectators at sports venues. The proposed measure would come into force after a Covid-19 state of emergency in Tokyo and other parts of the country ends on 20 June and would last until the end of August, said Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister overseeing Japan's coronavirus response. "It is important that we maintain thorough anti-infection measures to prevent a rebound in cases, especially as we foresee a spread of the Delta variant," Nishimura told a government advisory panel, which endorsed the spectator cap.Spectators are currently capped at 5,000 people or 50% of a venue's capacity, whichever is smaller. Tokyo, Osaka and eight other regions are under a state of emergency that is due to end on 20 June. Bars and restaurants have been banned from selling alcohol and must close at 8pm, while people have been urged to avoid non-essential outings and companies encouraged to allow employees to work from home.The Tokyo 2020 organising committee will not make a final decision on whether to allow domestic spectators to attend Olympic events until later this month. Nishimura said health experts had agreed with a government plan that would permit the increase in spectators provided that no special coronavirus infection controls were in place. Reports suggest Japan is likely to retain some rules on restaurant opening hours and other businesses that attract large numbers of people. With overseas sports fans already banned this summer, Japan's government is keen to have a limited number of domestic spectators at Olympic venues to create a semblance of atmosphere. On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee warned competitors who breached Covid rules would face a range of punishments, including temporary or permanent expulsion from the Games.Read the extract taken from The Guardian and then choose the correct option.Health experts approved a government plan allowing more spectators:
- In the absence of covid-19 prevention measures.
- And expect that no additional measures will be required.
- If no covid-19 controls are conducted on site.
- But advises that extra measures are necessary.
18) "In Northumberland the drop in estimated emissions, from 12.5 tonnes of CO2 per person to 2.1, was due to the closure of industrial sites such as Lynemouth's aluminium smelting plant in 2012. The area's forests and grassland also had a substantial impact by absorbing more CO2 from the atmosphere than releasing it, compared to other places. Meanwhile, emissions in High Peak, which forms part of the Peak District in Derbyshire, are still dominated by industry, with only a 16% fall over 15 years." Has the emissions in High Peak substantially reduced?
- No, because there are a lot of industries there.
- Yes, from 20% to 16%.
- It is not known.
- Yes, from 12.5 tonnes of CO2 per person to 2.1.
19) "Direct person-to-person respiratory transmission is the primary means of transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 can also be transmitted longer distances through the airborne route (through inhalation of particles that remain in the air over time and distance), but the extent to which this mode of transmission has contributed to the pandemic is unclear. Scattered reports of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks (eg, in a restaurant, on a bus) have highlighted the potential for longer- distance airborne transmission in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces." How is SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) transmitted?
- Through respiratory transmission.
- Through food.
- Through inhalation of flu particles.
- By visual contact.
20) "The incubation period of EVD (Ebola virus disease), that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is from 2 to 21 days. A person infected with Ebola cannot spread the disease until they develop symptoms. Symptoms of EVD can be sudden and include: fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat." Choose the true statement.
- During the incubation period of EVD people can not spread the disease.
- Symptoms of EVD are quite mild, and can extend to 21 days.
- Symptoms of EVD are quite mild, and can extend to 31 days.
- During the incubation period of EVD people can spread the disease.
21) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaBeekeeping is one of the oldest industries in existence, but it faces numerous threats. A number of tech firms hope to help the honey bee have a brighter future. Noah Wilson-Rich, chief scientific officer of US firm Best Bees Company, says it is distressing how many American honey bee colonies, or hives as they are otherwise known, die off every year. Hit by a deadly parasitic mite, pesticides and climate change, a survey showed that between April 2019 and 2020 43.7% of US hives were lost. His Boston firm installs hives on commercial and residential properties - everywhere from roof tops to back gardens. Its staff then use an advanced software system to monitor and record the health of all the bee colonies. The data is shared with researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to help them better understand the plight of the insects. One firm also at the forefront of the honey bee industry is Irish business ApisProtect, which makes wireless in-hive sensors that collect and transmit data to a website-based "dashboard". "What we do is extract those raw data points and then use machine learning to convert that into useful information," says Chief Executive Fiona Edwards Murphy. "In a commercial operation only about 20% of hives at any given time need intervention. The problem is that beekeepers don't know which 20%. They literally go out and pick around a hive to see if it's the one they should be looking at. What we do is enable them to get a picture of what's happening in all their hives, spread across a large area, before they even leave their office in the morning. For commercial beekeepers, we see a 50% reduction in labour costs. That obviously has a huge impact on the business of beekeeping." An even more futuristic bee tech project is the pan European Hiveopolis scheme, which is studying the possibility of putting tiny "waggle dancing" robots inside hives to influence bee behaviour. The idea is that the robots will try to imitate how bees communicate using movement. And from that the hope is that the robots will be able to direct the worker bees to the best sources of nectar.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.What is the purpose of the article?
- Describe the plight of honeybees.
- Help the reader decide which company has the best technology.
- Describe various technologies being used to help honeybees.
- Promote the Best Bees Company.
22) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaUp to 10,000 people could be allowed to watch Olympic events in Tokyo this summer, after Japanese health experts approved plans to raise the number of spectators at sports venues. The proposed measure would come into force after a Covid-19 state of emergency in Tokyo and other parts of the country ends on 20 June and would last until the end of August, said Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister overseeing Japan's coronavirus response. "It is important that we maintain thorough anti-infection measures to prevent a rebound in cases, especially as we foresee a spread of the Delta variant," Nishimura told a government advisory panel, which endorsed the spectator cap.Spectators are currently capped at 5,000 people or 50% of a venue's capacity, whichever is smaller. Tokyo, Osaka and eight other regions are under a state of emergency that is due to end on 20 June. Bars and restaurants have been banned from selling alcohol and must close at 8pm, while people have been urged to avoid non-essential outings and companies encouraged to allow employees to work from home.The Tokyo 2020 organising committee will not make a final decision on whether to allow domestic spectators to attend Olympic events until later this month. Nishimura said health experts had agreed with a government plan that would permit the increase in spectators provided that no special coronavirus infection controls were in place. Reports suggest Japan is likely to retain some rules on restaurant opening hours and other businesses that attract large numbers of people. With overseas sports fans already banned this summer, Japan's government is keen to have a limited number of domestic spectators at Olympic venues to create a semblance of atmosphere. On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee warned competitors who breached Covid rules would face a range of punishments, including temporary or permanent expulsion from the Games.Read the extract taken from The Guardian and then choose the correct option.The measures of the covid-19 state of emergency:
- Stop bars and restaurants selling alcohol after 8PM.
- Prohibit people from leaving their houses for non-essential reasons.
- Limit the number of people at sports venues.
- Require people to work from home.
23) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaThe Facebook messages written by the Cambridge student Giulio Regeni in the weeks leading up to his murder give the lie to any notion he was a spy or political agitator. Even before he left England, Regeni was concerned about the risks he might face doing his thesis on trade unions in Egypt, a sensitive subject in the country. But the 28-year-old thought the worst that could happen would be for him to be deported before he could finish his research. Instead, he was snatched off the street and tortured and his semi-naked body dumped by the roadside in a brutal killing for which four Egyptian security officials are due to stand trial in Italy in October.Enforced disappearances are a daily occurrence under Egypt's hardline president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Regeni is unusual because he was a foreigner, an Italian PhD student at Girton College who moved to Cairo in September 2015 to work on a development studies thesis about independent trade unions. Things took a worrying turn when, at a meeting of union activists, Regeni spotted a veiled young woman taking his picture on her phone, which made him fear he was under surveillance. Nine days after that his body was found, dumped on the side of the Cairo-Alexandria highway. He had been tortured; beaten, burned and stabbed before his neck was broken after he was struck from behind with a heavy, blunt object. What followed was an apparent cover-up by the authorities. President Sisi, in an interview with the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, vowed to track down the culprits. Instead it was then claimed there had been a robbery by a gang, all now dead. But Italian investigators discovered phone records that showed the leader of the gang - all killed in a police shootout - was not even in Cairo at the time Regeni disappeared. They concluded the student's identity documents had been planted at one of their addresses. Since his death, Regeni has become a martyr - or shahid - for the disappeared in Sisi's Egypt. "That's why there's graffiti of him in Cairo," says Regeni's anonymous Facebook friend. "He is a representative figure of that."Read the extract taken from The Guardian and then choose the correct option.Italian investigators found:
- That there were no police in Cairo when Regeni was murdered.
- That the gang could not have murdered Regeni.
- Regeni's documents were stolen from the gang leader's house.
- That Regeni has become a martyr.
24) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaOver the years, the world has moved closer to achieving gender equality. In many places in the world, women are better represented in politics, economic opportunities are greater, and health care is better. However, the World Economic Forum estimates it will take another century before true gender equality becomes a reality. What drives the gap between genders? Here are some causes of gender inequality: Uneven access to educationAround the world, women still have less access to education than men. 1/4 of young women between 15-24 will not finish primary school. That group makes up 58% of people not completing that basic education. Of all the illiterate people in the world, 2/3 are women. When girls are not educated on the same level as boys, it has a huge effect on their future and the kinds of opportunities they'll have.Lack of employment equalityOnly 6 countries in the world give women the same legal work rights as men. In fact, most economies give women only 3/4 the rights of men. Studies show that if employment became a more even playing field, it has a positive domino effect on other areas prone to gender inequality.Job segregationOne of the causes for gender inequality within employment is the division of jobs. In most societies, there's an inherent belief that men are simply better suited to handle certain jobs. In most cases these are the better paid jobs. This discrimination results in lower income for women. Women also take on the primary responsibility for unpaid labor, so even as they participate in the paid workforce, they have extra work that never gets recognized financially.Lack of legal protectionsAccording to research from the World Bank, over one billion women don't have legal protection against domestic sexual violence or domestic economic violence. Both have a significant impact on women's ability to thrive [1] and live in freedom. In many countries, there's also a lack of legal protections against harassment in the workplace, at school, and in public. These places become unsafe and without protection, women frequently have to make decisions that compromise and limit their goals. Lack of bodilyautonomyMany women around the world do not have authority over their own bodies or when they become parents. Accessing birth control is frequently very difficult. According to the World Health Organization, over 200 million women who don't want to get pregnant do not use contraception. There are various reasons for this, such as a lack of options, limited access, and cultural/religious opposition. On a global scale, about 40% of pregnancies are not planned and while 50% of them do end in abortion, 38% result in births. These mothers often become financially dependent on another person or the state, losing their freedom.Poor medical careIn addition to limited access to contraception, women overall receive lower-quality medical care than men. This is linked to other gender inequality reasons such as a lack of education and job opportunities, which results in more women in poverty. They are less likely [2] to be able to afford good healthcare. There's also been less research into diseases that affect women more than men, such as autoimmune disorders and chronic pain conditions. Many women also experience discrimination and dismissal from their doctors, broadening the gender gap in healthcare quality.RacismIt would be impossible to talk about gender inequality without talking about racism. It affects what jobs women of color are able to get and how much they're paid, as well as how they are viewed by legal and healthcare systems. Gender inequality and racism have been closely-linked for a long time. According to Sally Kitch, a professor and author, European settlers in Virginia decided what work could be taxed based on the race of the woman performing the work. African women's work was "labor," so it was taxable, while work performed by English women was "domestic" and not taxable. The pay gaps between white women and women of color continues that legacy [3] of discrimination and contributes to gender inequality.Read the passage. Then answer the question belowThe uneven access to education is due to:
- Political decisions.
- This information is not given.
- Economic crisis.
- Lack of interest from women.
25) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaIn an interview last month with Oprah for their jointly produced docuseries about mental health, The Me You Can't See, Prince Harry made a deeply personal disclosure. Harry said he sought a special therapy program, EMDR, to process the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. He described how living with the trauma of her death makes him feel "helpless", "hunted", and as if "there is no escape".EMDR was developed in 1989 by Francine Shapiro, a California psychotherapist, as a treatment for trauma. It operates on the theory that "emotional, behavioral, and mental health symptoms originate from maladaptively stored life events. As those stored events are triggered, the client experiences disturbances and dysfunction in his or her current life." EMDR aims to help patients with painful memories of trauma to better manage anxiety-provoking stimuli. A typical EMDR session lasts for 60 to 90 minutes, during which the client is asked to visualize a traumatic event. Practitioners use repeated physical stimuli - such as sounds, taps or a pulsing lightbar - to facilitate "information processing" until the client is able to report that the memory is less disturbing. The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) has more than 10,000 members trained to provide this therapy.EMDR is not without controversy. The Harvard psychologist Richard McNally has argued that "what is effective in EMDR is not new, and what is new is not effective". EMDR training ranges from $445 to $890. And it costs patients up to $200 per session if they don't have insurance or if their insurance does not cover it. That said, the therapy continues to grow in popularity in the US and across the globe and has been increasingly embraced by mainstream psychologists. EMDR may also provide an alternative for those who find talk therapy a challenge. Frontiers in Psychology, the largest peer-reviewed journal in its field, considers EMDR "an evidence-based psychotherapy which has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a first-choice treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)", and cites "growing interest" in the treatment. Past controversies plaguing the therapy are now considered outdated and said to "stem from misinformation".Read the extract taken from The Guardian and then choose the correct option.EMDR is based on a theory that:
- Remembering traumatic events triggers mental health symptoms.
- Emotional, behavioural and mental health symptoms are caused by the refusal to face past trauma.
- When traumatic events that are not suitably stored in the brain are triggered, they can cause disturbances in a person's life.
- All mental health symptoms are based on traumatic life events.
26) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaPresident Joe Biden announced that the United States plans to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses globally as part of his efforts to reassert US leadership on the world stage. "America knows first-hand the tragedy of this pandemic. We've had more people die in the United States than anywhere in the world, nearly 600,000 of our fellow Americans," Biden said in remarks after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He added, "We know the tragedy. We also know the path to recovery." The move will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence.White House officials brokered a deal with Pfizer to secure half-a-billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine over the course of just four weeks as they raced to secure a deal ahead of the G7 summit, a senior White House official told CNN. Over those four weeks, White House officials -- led by Jeffrey Zients, the White House's coronavirus coordinator whom Biden also tapped to lead the international vaccine distribution effort -- engaged in near-daily negotiations with several US-based vaccine manufacturers, ultimately selecting Pfizer because the company "could deliver the fastest." Hundreds of millions of doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, along with China's Sinovac and Sinopharm shots, have been making their way around the world. Only the Sinopharm vaccine has been accepted into the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative. The White House has said it has been monitoring and is concerned by efforts by Russia and China to use vaccines to make geopolitical gains.Biden had previously committed to sharing 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with other countries. Last week, the Biden administration announced a plan to share the first 25 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with the rest of the world and an overall framework of distributing at least 80 million doses by the end of June. About 75% of those donated vaccines will be shared with the global vaccination program called Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, and about 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said. Biden said last month the US would share an additional 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of June on top of the 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine the President had already committed to sharing by July 4. The additional 20 million doses will consist of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines as well as AstraZeneca, which has to be approved by federal regulators before being shipped overseas.Read the extract taken from CNN and then choose the correct option.What does "“TO BROKER" mean?
- To destroy.
- To negotiate.
- To pay for.
- To reject.
27) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaPresident Biden and fellow Western leaders issued a confrontational declaration about Russian and Chinese government behaviour on Sunday, castigating Beijing over its internal repression, vowing to investigate the pandemic's origins, and excoriating Moscow for using nerve agents and cyberweapons. Concluding the first in-person summit meeting since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the leaders tried to present a unified front against a range of threats. But they disagreed about crucial issues, from timelines for halting the burning of coal to committing tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to challenge Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, China's overseas investment and lending push.Still, as they left Cornwall, almost all the participants welcomed a new tone as they began to repair the breaches from four years of dealing with Mr. Biden's predecessor, Donald J. Trump. The difference in tone was indeed striking: the last time the Group of 7 met in person, in Biarritz, France in 2019, its final communiqué never mentioned China and the United States dissented from all the commitments to confront the climate crisis. Then Mr. Trump withdrew American support from the gathering's final statement. This year's final communiqué called on China to restore the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong when Britain returned it to Chinese control, and condemned Mr. Putin's "destabilizing behavior and malign activities," including interfering with elections and a "systematic crackdown" on dissidents and the media.Even as Mr. Biden successfully pushed his counterparts to embrace a more aggressive posture against autocracies, the group failed to reach agreement on key parts of the president's early foreign policy agenda. It did not settle on a timeline to eliminate the use of coal for generating electric power, and climate activists said that signaled a lack of resolve to confront one of the world's leading causes of global warming. And while the leaders called on China to respect "fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang," there was no agreement on banning Western participation in projects that benefited from forced labour. Instead, the effort to confront Beijing's human rights abuses ended with a vague declaration that the allies were setting up a working group to "identify areas for strengthened cooperation and collective efforts towards eradicating the use of all forms of forced labour in global supply chains."Read the extract taken from the New York Times and then choose the correct option.What is a 'SYSTEMATIC CRACKDOWN'?
- A series of measures to restrict unwanted behaviour.
- A system that tries to control election results.
- A policy that aims to reduce division between groups.
- A government department that stops the media from talking to protestors.
28) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaPresident Joe Biden announced that the United States plans to donate 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses globally as part of his efforts to reassert US leadership on the world stage. "America knows first-hand the tragedy of this pandemic. We've had more people die in the United States than anywhere in the world, nearly 600,000 of our fellow Americans," Biden said in remarks after meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He added, "We know the tragedy. We also know the path to recovery." The move will also serve to counter efforts by Russia and China to use their own state-funded vaccines to expand their global influence.White House officials brokered a deal with Pfizer to secure half-a-billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine over the course of just four weeks as they raced to secure a deal ahead of the G7 summit, a senior White House official told CNN. Over those four weeks, White House officials -- led by Jeffrey Zients, the White House's coronavirus coordinator whom Biden also tapped to lead the international vaccine distribution effort -- engaged in near-daily negotiations with several US-based vaccine manufacturers, ultimately selecting Pfizer because the company "could deliver the fastest." Hundreds of millions of doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, along with China's Sinovac and Sinopharm shots, have been making their way around the world. Only the Sinopharm vaccine has been accepted into the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative. The White House has said it has been monitoring and is concerned by efforts by Russia and China to use vaccines to make geopolitical gains.Biden had previously committed to sharing 80 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with other countries. Last week, the Biden administration announced a plan to share the first 25 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with the rest of the world and an overall framework of distributing at least 80 million doses by the end of June. About 75% of those donated vaccines will be shared with the global vaccination program called Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, and about 25% will be shared directly with countries in need, the White House said. Biden said last month the US would share an additional 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of June on top of the 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine the President had already committed to sharing by July 4. The additional 20 million doses will consist of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines as well as AstraZeneca, which has to be approved by federal regulators before being shipped overseas.Read the extract taken from CNN and then choose the correct option.Which of the following is NOT one of the motivations behind the donation ?
- To help the US economy recover from the pandemic.
- To help other countries avoid the same tragedy that was experienced in the US.
- To prevent Russia and China from using their vaccines to gain international control.
- To regain the United States' position as a world leader.
29) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaWhen you take a shy, sometimes awkward and mostly unknown young person who isn't even 21 years old, turn them into a global sports superstar almost overnight, make them the highest-earning female athlete on the planet and have them represent a country that has never claimed a tennis player of such magnitude, there is no playbook. For some, it might come naturally. For others, you can imagine it being deeply uncomfortable and invasive, full of anxieties and pressures that can place undue strain on mental well-being. In Naomi Osaka's announcement Monday that she is pulling out of the French Open - after several days of escalating narratives about her initial announcement that she wouldn't fulfill the tournament's media obligations and a stern response from the Grand Slam tournaments - she revealed that she has suffered bouts of depression since winning the 2018 U.S. Open. Further, she said she will take some time away from tennis, and it's unclear when she intends to return. There was, on all sides, almost certainly a more productive and diplomatic way to handle this. But whatever that path might have been no longer matters. This has now become the biggest story in tennis, something that in many ways transcends sports, and the consequences are going to reverberate for a long time. The main thing now is that Osaka gets in position to return as soon as she feels well enough to do so. The issues this episode raised are going to linger, but at least we have a better understanding of the difficulties she's been dealing with. Had everyone involved taken a deep breath and talked to one another, this probably could have been resolved in a much more orderly fashion. Hopefully, after her break from the sport, Osaka can be part of a productive dialogue on mental health and feel comfortable participating in all aspects of being a high- level tennis player again - including talking to the press.Read the extract taken from USA Today and then choose the correct option.The most important thing is that:
- We remember that mental health issues often linger.
- Osaka recovers in her own time.
- Now we know about the mental stress experienced by sports stars.
- This will lead to lasting change.
30) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaPresident Biden and fellow Western leaders issued a confrontational declaration about Russian and Chinese government behaviour on Sunday, castigating Beijing over its internal repression, vowing to investigate the pandemic's origins, and excoriating Moscow for using nerve agents and cyberweapons. Concluding the first in-person summit meeting since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the leaders tried to present a unified front against a range of threats. But they disagreed about crucial issues, from timelines for halting the burning of coal to committing tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to challenge Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, China's overseas investment and lending push.Still, as they left Cornwall, almost all the participants welcomed a new tone as they began to repair the breaches from four years of dealing with Mr. Biden's predecessor, Donald J. Trump. The difference in tone was indeed striking: the last time the Group of 7 met in person, in Biarritz, France in 2019, its final communiqué never mentioned China and the United States dissented from all the commitments to confront the climate crisis. Then Mr. Trump withdrew American support from the gathering's final statement. This year's final communiqué called on China to restore the freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong when Britain returned it to Chinese control, and condemned Mr. Putin's "destabilizing behavior and malign activities," including interfering with elections and a "systematic crackdown" on dissidents and the media.Even as Mr. Biden successfully pushed his counterparts to embrace a more aggressive posture against autocracies, the group failed to reach agreement on key parts of the president's early foreign policy agenda. It did not settle on a timeline to eliminate the use of coal for generating electric power, and climate activists said that signaled a lack of resolve to confront one of the world's leading causes of global warming. And while the leaders called on China to respect "fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to Xinjiang," there was no agreement on banning Western participation in projects that benefited from forced labour. Instead, the effort to confront Beijing's human rights abuses ended with a vague declaration that the allies were setting up a working group to "identify areas for strengthened cooperation and collective efforts towards eradicating the use of all forms of forced labour in global supply chains."Read the extract taken from the New York Times and then choose the correct option.What is the purpose of this article?
- To summarise the outcome of this year's summit.
- To criticise China and Russia.
- To demonstrate that politicians cannot agree.
- To describe why President Biden is better than President Trump.
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