Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Half of the world's population is affected by Asian monsoons , but monsoons are difficult to predict. American researchers have put together a 700-year record of the rainy seasons, which is expected to provide guidance for experts making weather predictions. Every year, damp air masses,known as monsoon,produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south. According to Edward Cook , a weather expert at Columbia University in New York., the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings, or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places. Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s. Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. "If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability." With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons. "There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive... Question: What can be inferred from the passage? - Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research. - The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas has a monsoon record for about 1,300 years. - The trees affected by monsoon grow fast if the monsoon is weak. - The rainfall might be low although the monsoon is strong in monsoon-affected areas.
Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research.

Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: I woke up late and had breakfast in a hurry. I had never been late and didn't want my boss to be unsatisfied. However, it seemed that day wasn't a lucky one for me from the very second I left my flat. The moment I wanted to rush downstairs one of my stiletto heels broke. I had to return to change my red shoes. I also had to change my purse and other little things that I had tried to match with the shoes. I was sure I would be late for work. On my way to work I had to wait for over half an hour because of an accident. I had no choice but to wait. I phoned my boss and he told me that it was no problem, but he needed me for the meeting with the Japanese clients that morning. Finally, I arrived at the office one hour later. I had to keep calm and be fresh for the meeting to make the clients sure that our plan was the best for their future commercial project. However, I left the plan I had made the night before at home and was going to present it to the clients. I was about to get angry when I realized that I had a draft of it in my office. At last, the presentation came to an end and it turned out to be a success. But I have to say that I had a terrible day, full of incidents . Question: Which of the following is NOT the reason of the writer being late for her work? - She got up late in the morning. - She changed her purse and other little things. - One of her shoe heels broke. - She had a traffic accident on the way to work.
She had a traffic accident on the way to work.

*Question*
Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Linda Evans was my best friend -like the sister I never had ,We did everything to-- gether :piano lessons ,movies, swimming , horseback riding. When I was 13, my family moved away , Linda and I kept in touch through letters ,and we saw each other on special times - like my wedding and Linda's. Soon we were busy with childern and moving to new homes, and we wrote less often , One day a card that I sent came back , stamped "Address Unknown", I had no idea about how to find Linda. Over the years, I missed Linda very much, I wanted to share happiness of my children and then grandchildren , And I needed to share my sadness when my brother and then moth-er died, There was an empty place in my heart that only a friend like Linda could fill. One day, I was reading a newspaper when I noticed a photo of a young woman who looked very much like Linda and whose last name was Wagman --Linda's married name."There must be thousands of Wagmans."I thought, but I still wrote to her. She called as soon as she got my letter, "Mrs , Tobin!"she said excitedly, "Linda Ev-ans Wagman is my mother." Minutes later I heard a voice that I recognized at once, even after 40 years ,We laughed and cried and caught up on each other's lives, Now the empty place in my heart is filled, And there's one thing that Linda and I know for sure; We won't lose each other again! Question: They didn't often write to each other because they _ . - got married - had little time to do so - didn't like writing letters - could see each other on special times
**Answer**
had little time to do so