When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Topic 2: How to keep your skin, your eyes healthy 

Choose the correct answer: The festival begins on April 13 and everyone is awakened at dawn to the sound of firecrackers used to drive away evil spirits. This is the day when everything is scrupulously cleaned from the self, clothes, Buddha images, to houses, shops and streets in preparation for the New Year.

The word "scrupulously" in the passage is closest in meaning to ____.

A. carefully                

B. honestly                 

C. frankly                   

D. completely

Choose the best answer: Singapore was one of the five original member countries that founded ASEAN in 1967. Since its independence in 1965, Singapore has become one of the world’s most prosperous countries, with per capita GDP equalling that of the leading nations of Western Europe. Singapore is highly ranked for its economic competitiveness, and it was the world’s most competitive country from 1997 to 1999 as ranked by the World Economic Forum.

What does the word “it” in the first paragraph refer to?

A. ASEAN

B. GDP                                     

C. Singapore                                     

D. the World Economic Forum

Choose the correct answer: When Malaysia takes the ASEAN chair next year, it will face a huge challenge. Too few of us know enough about this grouping we call the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. We do not know what it means to be a part of ASEAN and why it is important to us. At the same time, pressure is mounting to reinvent ASEAN to make it more people-centric and less government-centric. The Heat speaks to Global Movement of Moderates CEO Saifuddin Abdullah on why ASEAN should mean more to us than just acronyms.

The word “acronyms” in paragraph 1 probably means ____.

A. abbreviations         

B. antonyms                           

C. enlargements                     

D. synonyms

Choose the correct answer: She insisted ________ talking to her lawyer.

A. in                           

B. for                          

C. on                         

D. of

Choose the correct answer

You should avoid ________ to the downtown area during the rush hour.

A. traveling                

B. to travel                 

C. traveled                 

D. to traveling 

Choose the correct answer: Who is responsible _______ the garbage – the husband or the wife ?

A. to take out             

B. for take out            

C. for taking out         

D. with taking out

Choose the correct answer: ________ a foreign language well is a long process.

A. Learn                     

B. Learning                

C. To learning            

D. Having learned

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.

Soon after becoming a member, Viet Nam signed the Treaty on the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and being one of the founding members of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

A. becoming

B. signed

C. being

D. founding

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

The major shortcoming of ASEAN as an organisation is the inability to go through many declarations, agreements, and instruments that they have proliferated over the years.

A. advantage              

B. benefit                   

C. drawback               

D. achievement

Choose the word or phrase A, B, C, or D that best completes the sentence: "The price of petrol has gone ............. by over 50 percent in less than a year."

a. out                     

b. up               

c. over             

d. off

Choose the best answer: At present, more and more people are taking part in the struggle ............ illiteracy.

a. for               

b. with             

c. against        

d. to

Choose A, B, C or D to complete the sentence: Most of the students felt that ______ respect in classroom was essential for effective learning to take place.

a. mutual               

b. considerable

c. deep            

d. grudging

Choose the word or phrase A, B, C, or D that best completes the sentence or substitutes for the underlined word or phrase: Modem farming methods can have an adverse ............ on the environment.

a. effect                 

b. effective      

c. effectiveness    

d. effectively

Identify the one underlined word or phrase A, B, C or D that must be changed for the sentence to be correct: Special education is intended help (A) both (B) handicapped and gifted children to reach (C) their learning (D) potentials.

a. help

b. both

c. to reach

d. learning

Choose the best answer: Nobody yet knew what ............ to cause the dam to burst.

A. happens               

B. to happen      

C. had happened     

D. did it happen

Choose the best answer to the following questions:____ in 1636, Harvard is one of the most famous universities in the United States.

A. Founding

B. Founded  

C. Being founded   

D. It was founded

Choose the word or phrase A, B, C, or D that best completes the sentence or substitutes for the underlined word or phrase: Illiterate people lack the basic reading and writing skills ............  in everyday life.

A. to require         

B. requiring     

C. that require     

D. required

Choose the answer among A, B, C, D to complete each of the sentences below: The students were asked to ______ reading and writing skills to the villagers.

A. deliver              

B. express       

C. provide            

D. support

Choose the word or phrase that best completes the sentence or substitutes for the underlined word or phrases: From his window in space, Gagarin had a view of the Earth that no human beings had done before.

a. discription          

b. vision                      

c. recognition               

d. attention

Choose the word that best fits the blank space in the following passage: Some writers of science-fiction think of people from Mars _____ little green creatures.

a. puzzled  

b. asked                      

c. wondered                

d. confused

Choose the word that best fits the blank space in the following passage: Because these seasons exist, it may be possible for  _____ and other higher life forms to be found on Mars.

a. like              

b. to be                       

c. as being                   

d. as