READING
Choose the correct word to fill in each blank to make a meaningful passage.
The amount of energy consumed _ and wasted _ in commercial buildings in New Zealand is increasing all the time. The growth in numbers of items of electronic office equipment threatens to reach its maximum in New Zealand's main business centres in the next ten years. Office staff leave equipment (27)_____ on unnecessarily for a number of reasons. These include fear of (28)_____ the machine, lack of knowledge of the actual cost of running the machine, and just plain laziness.
(29)_____ to control the energy usage of office equipment is wasteful, and can lead to costs far higher than most managers (30)_____. The Energy Efficiency & (31)_____ Authority (EECA) is introducing a twofold programme aimed at saving the $50m which is wasted every year in New Zealand's offices. Office machines in New Zealand consume 370 GWh of energy per year, or about 1% of the country's (32)_____ electricity consumption.
Further, the EECA now (33)_____ that the number of office machines will double before the end of the decade. By this time, office machinery energy consumption is expected to be about 800 gW per year. A recent EECA survey of offices in the capital city's central business (34)_____ revealed that 40% of office equipment was left (35)_____ overnight and through the weekend, as well as in working hours. It also found that about half the energy consumed during office hours is wasted, because machines remain on when not in (36)_____. In particular, most PCs, printers and photocopiers are fully utilised for only about 40% of a working day.
27. A. driven B. switched C. remained D. stayed
28. A. hurting B. offending C. damaging D. spoiling
29. A. Neglect B. Prevention C. Loss D. Failure
30. A. decide B. realise C. explain D. produce
31. A. Conservation B. Contract C. Convert D. Conference
32. A. same B. whole C. total D. all
33. A. estimates B. proposes C. foretells D. guesses
34. A. environment B. district C. region D. section
35. A. circulating B. going C. playing D. running
36. A. place B. work C. use D. time
Read the passage and then choose the best answer.
Memory is a vital characteristic of the human species. Organisms evolve to adapt to their environments in many different ways. There are, however, two broad classes of adaptation. The first of these involves preprogramming the organism to cope with its environment so that it is born with all the necessary instincts and equipment to operate efficiently and effectively with virtually no learning. This is clearly a very successful means of adaptation and has enabled an enormous range of organisms, from plants, bacteria, and insects to "simple" vertebrates, to continue to flourish for millions of years. Such organisms have their mode of adaptation "wired in" and, as such, have, minimal need for learning or memory. The second involves the production of an organism which is adaptable. Here, there is much less preprogramming, and the organism is left to modify its behavior in response to its environment. This allows for considerably greater complexity and variability of behavior. It also demands a larger brain and is heavily dependent on the capacity to learn and remember. The human race is the obvious example of this form of evolution – our ability to learn and remember has allowed us to develop tools and language, technologies which in turn vastly increased our ability to store, and communicate yet more information through writing, and subsequently films, videos, and computers, all of which can be regarded as an extension of the memory. However, without the individual's memory, the vast storage of information in the libraries all over the world would be incomprehensible. Accordingly, the ability to learn and remember, allowing as it does for the development of language, is perhaps our most crucial characteristic.
37. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Evolution B. Memory C. Adaptation D. Behavior
38. The author mentions all of the following in connection with the first class of adaptation EXCEPT _______.
A. ability to deal with the environment B. state of being programmed in advance
C. process of being wired into equipment D. possession of the requisite instincts
39. According to the passage, many organisms have existed for millions of years because they _______.
A. have inbuilt resources B. continually adapt to the environment
C. have no memory D. are unable to learn
40. The author suggests that a human being's memory is _______.
A. partly responsible for the growth of the language B. a tool used for understanding
C. supported by technological advances D. dependent upon the storage of writing
41. It can be inferred from the passage that man's most important characteristic is _______.
A. the ability to speak B. the capacity to remember
C. the skill of storing information D. an aptitude for writing
42. The word "crucial" in line 16 is closest in meaning to _______.
A. basic B. pivotal C. serious D. effective