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.What was Regeni's thesis about?
- The black market in Egypt.
- Non-government trade agreements.
- Groups that protect the interests of workers.
- Protesters that object to foreign trade.
2) 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 does ROLL OUT mean?
- Invent.
- Build.
- Launch.
- Design.
3) "Inhabited since at least 1800 BC, Varanasi is well known for being among the oldest living cities on Earth, and one of the holiest for the world's estimated 1.2 billion Hindus. Every day, as the sound of ringing temple bells echo overhead, tens of thousands of devotees descend the city's 88 stone ghat steps and dip themselves into the Ganges river to wash away their sins. However, my reasons for travelling to Varanasi were quite different. I didn't come to confront death or cleanse my soul; I came to experience the city's unique vegetarian food." Why did the speaker travel to Varanasi?
- Because Varanasi is well known for being one of the oldest living cities on Earth.
- Because he/she wanted to experience Varanasi's unique vegetarian cuisine.
- Because Varanasi is an ancient city.
- Because Varanasi has a great religious background.
4) "The EU offers young people opportunities such as the Erasmus+ programme, which gives students financial and organisational support if they want to study for a period of time at a university in a different EU country. Young people can also train for a job or do voluntary work abroad". What is the name of the EU programme that enables students to study at a different University within the EU?
- Erasmus+.
- The A Team.
- Celta.
- Commonwealth.
5) 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:
- Emotional, behavioural and mental health symptoms are caused by the refusal to face past trauma.
- Remembering traumatic events triggers mental health symptoms.
- 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.
6) "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 food.
- Through respiratory transmission.
- By visual contact.
- Through inhalation of flu particles.
7) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaScientists in Australia have classified a new species of dinosaur, discovered in 2007, as the largest ever found on the continent. The Australotitan cooperensis, or "the southern titan", is among the 15 largest dinosaurs found worldwide. Experts said the titanosaur would have been up to 6.5m (21ft) tall and 30m long, or "as long as a basketball court". Its skeleton was first discovered on a farm in south-west Queensland.Palaeontologists had worked over the past decade to identify the dinosaur - distinguishing it from other known species by comparing scans of its bones to those of other sauropods. Sauropods were plant-eating dinosaurs known for their size. They had small heads, very long necks, long tails and thick, pillar-like legs. The team of researchers had nicknamed the dinosaur Cooper while working on it, after the nearby Cooper Creek where it was found. The team found the Australotitan was closely related to three other sauropod species - the Wintonotitan, Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaurus. "It looks like Australia's largest dinosaurs were all part of one big happy family," said Dr Scott Hocknull, one of the lead researchers. "It's amazing to think from the first bones discovered by our son, the first digs with the Queensland Museum, through to the development of a not-for-profit museum that runs annual dinosaur digs, all have helped us to get to this point, it's a real privilege," Stuart Mackenzie said. The Queensland state government welcomed the classification on Tuesday- calling it a boon for local dinosaur discovery.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.How long did it take researchers to identify the new species?
- 10 months.
- 12 years.
- 12 months.
- 10 years.
8) "Ikea France was accused of using private detectives and police officers to collect staff's private data. This included illegally accessing their criminal records in order to vet applicants for jobs. The Ingka group - which owns most of Ikea's stores around the world - has apologized and condemned the practices. In a statement, reported by Reuters news agency, the company said it had "implemented a major action plan to prevent this from happening again"". According to the text, how was Ikea collecting staff's private data?
- By implementing a major prevention plan.
- By filming the staff.
- By apologizing.
- Among others, by accessing staff's criminal records.
9) 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.What is one of the disadvantages of EMDR?
- It isn't covered by health insurance.
- Professionals must pay over $400 to receive training.
- It isn't effective.
- It's a mainstream form of therapy.
10) 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.Before being tortured and killed, Regeni was:
- Sedated.
- Robbed.
- Arrested.
- Abducted.
11) "You are expected to attend daily classes regularly and participate actively in class. You will be allowed a maximum of four (4) unauthorized absences. Any more than that will affect your chances for passing the class. If you are absent for medical reasons and provide a doctor's note, it will not count toward your four absences." If you provide a doctor's certificate, your absence will be:
- Unauthorized.
- Unaccepted.
- Counted toward your four (4) absences.
- Excused.
12) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaScientists in Australia have classified a new species of dinosaur, discovered in 2007, as the largest ever found on the continent. The Australotitan cooperensis, or "the southern titan", is among the 15 largest dinosaurs found worldwide. Experts said the titanosaur would have been up to 6.5m (21ft) tall and 30m long, or "as long as a basketball court". Its skeleton was first discovered on a farm in south-west Queensland.Palaeontologists had worked over the past decade to identify the dinosaur - distinguishing it from other known species by comparing scans of its bones to those of other sauropods. Sauropods were plant-eating dinosaurs known for their size. They had small heads, very long necks, long tails and thick, pillar-like legs. The team of researchers had nicknamed the dinosaur Cooper while working on it, after the nearby Cooper Creek where it was found. The team found the Australotitan was closely related to three other sauropod species - the Wintonotitan, Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaurus. "It looks like Australia's largest dinosaurs were all part of one big happy family," said Dr Scott Hocknull, one of the lead researchers. "It's amazing to think from the first bones discovered by our son, the first digs with the Queensland Museum, through to the development of a not-for-profit museum that runs annual dinosaur digs, all have helped us to get to this point, it's a real privilege," Stuart Mackenzie said. The Queensland state government welcomed the classification on Tuesday- calling it a boon for local dinosaur discovery.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.The Queensland government sees this find as:
- Something that will benefit dinosaur research in the area.
- A waste of money.
- A way to make profits.
- A negative thing for the local community.
13) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaScientists in Australia have classified a new species of dinosaur, discovered in 2007, as the largest ever found on the continent. The Australotitan cooperensis, or "the southern titan", is among the 15 largest dinosaurs found worldwide. Experts said the titanosaur would have been up to 6.5m (21ft) tall and 30m long, or "as long as a basketball court". Its skeleton was first discovered on a farm in south-west Queensland.Palaeontologists had worked over the past decade to identify the dinosaur - distinguishing it from other known species by comparing scans of its bones to those of other sauropods. Sauropods were plant-eating dinosaurs known for their size. They had small heads, very long necks, long tails and thick, pillar-like legs. The team of researchers had nicknamed the dinosaur Cooper while working on it, after the nearby Cooper Creek where it was found. The team found the Australotitan was closely related to three other sauropod species - the Wintonotitan, Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaurus. "It looks like Australia's largest dinosaurs were all part of one big happy family," said Dr Scott Hocknull, one of the lead researchers. "It's amazing to think from the first bones discovered by our son, the first digs with the Queensland Museum, through to the development of a not-for-profit museum that runs annual dinosaur digs, all have helped us to get to this point, it's a real privilege," Stuart Mackenzie said. The Queensland state government welcomed the classification on Tuesday- calling it a boon for local dinosaur discovery.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.Which is NOT a feature of a sauropod?
- They were at least 20m long.
- They were herbivores.
- They had legs like columns.
- They had a large head.
14) 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 did the leaders fail to agree on?
- When the use of coal should be abolished.
- That the group needs to be more aggressive with autocratic countries.
- That China must respect people's basic right to freedom.
- That the use of coal is one of the leading causes of global warming.
15) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domandaScientists in Australia have classified a new species of dinosaur, discovered in 2007, as the largest ever found on the continent. The Australotitan cooperensis, or "the southern titan", is among the 15 largest dinosaurs found worldwide. Experts said the titanosaur would have been up to 6.5m (21ft) tall and 30m long, or "as long as a basketball court". Its skeleton was first discovered on a farm in south-west Queensland.Palaeontologists had worked over the past decade to identify the dinosaur - distinguishing it from other known species by comparing scans of its bones to those of other sauropods. Sauropods were plant-eating dinosaurs known for their size. They had small heads, very long necks, long tails and thick, pillar-like legs. The team of researchers had nicknamed the dinosaur Cooper while working on it, after the nearby Cooper Creek where it was found. The team found the Australotitan was closely related to three other sauropod species - the Wintonotitan, Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaurus. "It looks like Australia's largest dinosaurs were all part of one big happy family," said Dr Scott Hocknull, one of the lead researchers. "It's amazing to think from the first bones discovered by our son, the first digs with the Queensland Museum, through to the development of a not-for-profit museum that runs annual dinosaur digs, all have helped us to get to this point, it's a real privilege," Stuart Mackenzie said. The Queensland state government welcomed the classification on Tuesday- calling it a boon for local dinosaur discovery.Read the extract taken from BBC News and then choose the correct option.Which of the following is a synonym of DIG, in this context?
- Discovery.
- Excavation.
- Research.
- Classification.
16) "Coronaviruses are viruses that circulate among animals; some coronaviruses can infect humans. Many human coronaviruses come from bats which are considered natural hosts of these viruses. The virus is then thought to be passed on through an intermediate host to humans. The first SARS-CoV originated in bats and was transmitted to humans via civet cats, while MERS-CoV emerged in humans through the intermediate host of camels. The precise way in which SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted from animals to humans is currently unknown". According to the text, where do the first SARS-CoV come from?
- Rats.
- Bats.
- Humans.
- Civet cats.
17) 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.Following the widespread distribution of the Chinese and Russian covid-19 vaccines, the White House:
- Is focused on their manufacturing methods.
- Is trying to block efforts to have the Sputnik and Sinovac vaccines approved by the WHO.
- Is worried that they are using the vaccine for political advantage.
- Is watching their vaccine roll out to gain insights into their geopolitical status.
18) "Parts of England are thought to have seen a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than 80% over 15 years, official estimates show. Between 2005 and 2019 Northumberland saw the biggest percentage drop in emissions per person, at 83%. But experts say the change is not a complete picture, as industries shift overseas rather than decarbonizing. The UK has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and is currently hosting COP26." What are enterprises doing to avoid decarbonization?
- They are moving abroad.
- They have drastically reduced their gas emissions.
- They are trying to reduce their gas emissions.
- Greenhouse gas emissions are being reduced.
19) 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:
- But advises that extra measures are necessary.
- If no covid-19 controls are conducted on site.
- In the absence of covid-19 prevention measures.
- And expect that no additional measures will be required.
20) "Progressive House Democrats had insisted for a dozen months that any vote on the infrastructure bill be tied to the broader social spending package, for fear that some moderate Democrats would delay or even withhold support for the larger package if the infrastructure bill passed first." How much time did the Progressive House Democrats insist that any vote on the infrastructure bill be tied to the broader social spending package?
- One year.
- Three months.
- It is not known.
- Three years.
21) "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 spread the disease.
- Symptoms of EVD are quite mild, and can extend to 31 days.
- Symptoms of EVD are quite mild, and can extend to 21 days.
- During the incubation period of EVD people can not spread the disease.
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.What is the purpose of this article?
- To report changes in the number of sports spectators permitted.
- To promote the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
- To explain the current covid-19 protocols in Japan.
- To discourage people from attending sports events.
23) 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?
- Promote the Best Bees Company.
- Help the reader decide which company has the best technology.
- Describe the plight of honeybees.
- Describe various technologies being used to help honeybees.
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:
- Lack of interest from women.
- Political decisions.
- This information is not given.
- Economic crisis.
25) 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 Regeni has become a martyr.
- That the gang could not have murdered Regeni.
- Regeni's documents were stolen from the gang leader's house.
- That there were no police in Cairo when Regeni was murdered.
26) 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?
- Achieving the speed.
- The need for new technology.
- Lack of interest.
- It costs $6 billion.
27) 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 statement is NOT true about Jeffrey Zients?
- He is the covid-19 coordinator at the White House.
- He was selected by Biden to lead the global vaccine distribution.
- It only took him one day to choose Pfizer as the supplier.
- He was part of a team that had meetings with vaccine manufacturers almost every day.
28) "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.
- Between 1.1 million and 1.8 million.
- 3 million.
- 880.000.
29) 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.Which of the following is NOT true about New Shepherd?
- It has very large windows.
- It is self-flying.
- It has conducted more than 10 test flights without passengers.
- It was designed by Jeff Bezos and his brother.
30) "Global food prices have hit the highest level in over a decade after rising by more than 30% in the last year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says. The agency's figures highlighted the soaring cost of cereals and vegetable oils around the world. Vegetable oil prices hit a record high after rising by almost 10% in October. Disruptions to supplies, high commodity prices, factory closures and political tensions are helping to push up prices. The FAO said its measure of cereal prices was up by more than 22% compared to a year earlier." Which are the factors that are contributing to the rise of prices?
- Wars and conflicts.
- Disruptions to supplies, high commodity prices, factory closures and political tensions.
- The soaring cost of cereals and vegetable oils around the world.
- Global warming and industries decarbonization.
31) "The European Commission (EC) is the executive branch of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, enforcing EU laws and directing the union's administrative operations. Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City, pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. The Commissioners are proposed by the Council of the European Union, on the basis of suggestions made by the national governments, and then appointed by the European Council after the approval of the European Parliament. It is common, although not a formal requirement, that the commissioners have previously held senior political positions, such as being a member of the European Parliament or a government minister." By whom are the Commissioners proposed?
- By the ECB.
- By the EC.
- By the European Parliament.
- By the Council of the European Union.
32) "Renewable energies are the present and future of the world's electricity production. The term "renewable" expresses the essence of this type of energy, which is available in spontaneously generated, inexhaustible quantities that are continually renewed in nature without any human intervention. Sun, wind and water, the heat of the earth: producing renewable energy means using those widespread and abundant elements of nature to generate electricity. Compared to electricity produced from conventional sources, renewable energy drastically reduces levels of carbon dioxide emissions". According to the text, how can we reduce the levels of carbon dioxide emissions?
- Generating inexhaustible quantities of energy.
- Using renewable energies.
- Trying to stop deforestation.
- Using fossil fuels.
33) 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.Breaking the time barrier:
- Will dramatically change people's lives.
- Will help people fall in love.
- Will make travel more accessible to wheelchair users.
- Will be cheaper.
34) 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 breathing exercises could have resolved this issue.
- Believes that Osaka must talk about her mental health issues.
35) "The Canterbury Tales (1386-1400) by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342/1343-1400) is a story about a group of pilgrims who travel from London to Canterbury to visit the tomb of the martyr Thomas Becket. The pilgrims meet at the Tabard Inn and the owner of the inn suggests they hold a story-telling competition while they are on their way to Canterbury and back. The pilgrims agree and the inn-owner proposes to travel with them as competition judge". According to the text, where did the pilgrims from the Canterbury Tales used to meet?
- Hyde Park.
- London Bridge.
- Tabard Inn.
- London bridge.
36) 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.In the context of the article, what does FELLOW mean?
- Copying the ideas or inventions of someone else.
- A founder or CEO of a company.
- Having a lot of money or property.
- A member or group having common characteristics.
37) 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 bodily autonomyMany 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 difficulty accessing birth control is due to:
- Lack of attention by the governments.
- Only religious reasons.
- Many reasons, such as limited access to contraceptive methods.
- Political decisions.
38) 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.What does 'TO GIVE LIE TO SOMETHING' mean?
- To confirm information about something.
- To prove something is not true.
- To cover something up.
- To give evidence about something.
39) "The general belief is that success means having a lot of money and a high-status job, yet there are many counterexamples to this. Success does not mean being rich and having a well-paid job, but having mental health, enjoying work, and developing positive relationships." According to the text, what is the meaning of success?
- To be famous.
- To have mental health, enjoy work, and develop positive relationships.
- Having a lot of money and a high-status job.
- To be rich and earn a lot of money.
40) "Travel and tourism make up an important part of the US economy. In 2018, they accounted for about 6% of the GDP and directly supported 5.5% of the total workforce. 78 million people visited the country in 2018 and the most popular destination was New York, followed by Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas and Chicago". According to the text, what was the most US popular destination in 2018?
- New York.
- Washington.
- Las Vegas.
- San Diego.
41) 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.Which of the following is true about the Overture aircraft?
- It will charge at least $12,000 round trip.
- It will only fly routes in the USA.
- It will be able to travel at more than double the speed of current commercial aircraft.
- It will reduce a Los Angeles to Sydney flight by 8.5 hours.
42) 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.What percentage of the litter items analysed were plastic?
- B 44%.
- C 12%.
- D 8%.
- A 80%.
43) 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 advantage of Apisprotect in-hive sensors?
- The amount spent on labour costs is halved.
- The need for human beekeepers is eliminated.
- Total costs are decreased by 50%.
- Only 20% of the hives with the sensors need intervention.
44) 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.The declaration issued at the end of the G7 summit:
- Only included information about China and Russia.
- Compared stereotypical Chinese and Russian behaviour.
- Was a provocative statement about China and Russia.
- Gave a neutral report about China and Russia.
45) 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 does the word PLIGHT mean?
- Ability to fly.
- Health status.
- Invasion.
- Difficult situation.
46) "Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness affecting humans and other primates. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals (such as fruit bats, porcupines and non-human primates) and then spreads in the human population through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids." How was EVD known in the past?
- A very dangerous disease.
- Severe and fatal illness.
- Polio.
- Ebola haemorrhagic fever.
47) "John worked for a multinational company as a successful project manager in Brazil and was transferred to manage a team in Sweden. He was very excited about his new role but soon realized that managing her new team would be a challenge." According to the reading, which of these statements is true?
- John refused to be transferred to Sweden.
- John realized that his new role would be very challenging and exciting.
- John was transferred to Brazil.
- John got scared about his new role, and he decided to resign.
48) Leggere il brano e rispondere alla seguente domanda When you take a shy, some?mes 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 anxie?es 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 ?me. 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 highlevel tennis player again - including talking to the press. Read the extract taken from USA Today and then choose the correct op?on. The most important thing is that:
- She suffered from depression before the 2018 U.S. open.
- Winning the 2018 U.S. Open caused her to be depressed.
- She has experienced periods of depression since the 2018 U.S. Open.
- She has been suffering from chronic depression since the 2018 U.S. Open.
49) 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?
- Personal.
- Dangerous.
- Public.
- Excessive.
50) "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 largest enterprise.
- The world's largest stock exchange.
- The world's richest company.
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