22 My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
(A) In my view, you are a likable person if you like my ideas.
(B) I am an agreeable person since others often agree with me.
(C) I do not believe that an agreeable person will often agree with me.
(D) It is agreed that people often like an agreeable person’s ideas.

18 (A) thwarted (B) shovelled (C) chunked (D) threaded

19 No longer are Japanese products simply muted expressions of international modernism; instead, Japan’s new exports draw inspiration from the country’s abundant artistic heritage. (A) Japanese goods are not just a result of Japan’s cultural inheritance any more but a result of its integration into modern technology and science. (B) The innovative traits of Japanese products reflect a great extent of modernization and tradition and attract international attention and admiration. (C) Japan’s new exporting merchandise is a result of the creativity inspired by its rich tradition rather than purely a result of worldwide modernization. (D) Today’s Japanese export products are internationally known for their quality as well as their artistic design, but they fail to attract sufficient attention.

20 The world does not look today the way most anticipated it would be after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. (A) Today’s world is the same as is expected after the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989. (B) Today’s world looks differently from what it was before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. (C) The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 has not led to a world as was expected by most people. (D) The world today looks exactly the same as it was before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

21 For richer consumers, it seems that the act of cutting down on their daily expenses has less to do with actually saving money and more to do with emotional health. (A) Richer consumers seem to fulfill their needs for emotional health through securing their financial status by spending less on their daily lives. (B) For richer consumers, their spending less money on their daily lives seems to be more related to their emotional health than to their financial needs. (C) Richer consumers seem to start reducing their daily expenses so that they can feel more emotionally secure rather than feel financially secure. (D) For richer consumers, the act of reducing their daily expenses seems to result in their stronger needs for emotional support than financial support.

23 Reading tabloids seems to be an escape to distract readers from fundamental issues like persistent political, economic, and social problems. (A) Some readers seem to choose to read tabloids so that they can get a break from all sorts of serious fundamental issues. (B) When people are getting sick and tired of all sorts of serious fundamental issues, they turn to reading tabloids for pleasure. (C) Reading tabloids is not just about celebrity obsession; it is a symbolic protest against all sorts of unpleasant fundamental issues. (D) Tabloid readers seem to be able to channel their anger about all sorts of unpleasant fundamental issues through reading tabloids.

24 Firing someone is not an end but only a beginning since every job dismissal has an audience: those who remain, and talk. (A) Firing someone at work leads the remaining staff to talk about the next job application. (B) When we fire someone at work, we have to be careful since the remaining staff might ask to remain. (C) Firing someone at work had better be done in the absence of the remaining staff so that no one knows how we fire the person. (D) After we fire someone at work, it is not over yet since the remaining staff will start commenting on the way we fire the person.

25 Designers and engineers who rely on computers to do much of their work are rebelling against their disconnection from the physical world. (A) Many designers and engineers are trying some other ways to do their work instead of relying so much on computers. (B) Designers and engineers who rely so much on computers at work will soon be able to reconnect their lives with the real world. (C) Using computers at work, designers and engineers are not happy about their living in a virtual world. (D) Designers and engineers who do much of their work with computers are getting used to their rebellious life in the real world.

26 In the developed world, no trend in the nutrition revolution has been more marked than the equalization of diet between regions and classes. (A) In the developed world, the nutrition revolution aims to find out the ways people of different regions and classes eat. (B) In the developed world, the nutrition revolution aims to overcome the difficulty in sharing the same kinds of food. (C) In the developed world, the most distinctive feature in the nutrition revolution is the same diet shared by people of different regions and classes. (D) In the developed world, the most distinctive change in the wake of the nutrition revolution is people’s awareness of simple diet.

27 Companies under financial pressure will find it hard to resist disposing of workers in countries with high wages in order to hire replacements in faraway lands with low ones. (A) Companies under financial pressure will have a hard time figuring out how to replace workers with high wages with those with low ones. (B) Companies under financial pressure will want to lay off workers in countries with high wages and hire workers in faraway countries with low ones. (C) Companies under financial pressure have to find a better way to hire workers with low wages to replace those with high ones. (D) Companies under financial pressure will try hard not to lay off workers in countries with high wages and replace them with those with low ones.

28 If I am caught slacking off, I will be fired for sure. (A) I will lose my job if I am caught being unproductive. (B) I will be scolded if I am not working hard. (C) I will lose my job if I am not dressed up. (D) I have to pay attention and work hard, or I will get demoted.