44. According to this article, what are the people who were most likely killed by the eruption?

(A) middle-class.

(B) landowners.

(C) poor people.

(D) royalties.

39. Why, in this author's view, does Aristotle seem more deserving of cancellation? (A) He is extreme. (B) He is influential. (C) He discriminates against people. (D) all of the above. In a message to Chinese aerospace engineers and researchers for "Youth Day" earlier this month, President Xi Jinping shared his ambitions for the industry. Young workers should advance the cause of Chinese self-reliance, he said, following in the footsteps of their predecessors who developed a home-grown nuclear weapon, missile and satellite, with little help from outsiders, in a campaign in the era of Mao Zedong called "Two bombs, one satellite". (a) On the face of things, this is an odd message to trumpet in the country that has benefited more than any other from the most recent wave of globalization. (b) Now it is the biggest partner of more than 60. Between 1985 and 2015 Chinese exports of goods to America rose by a factor of 125. Partly as a result of the associated manufacturing boom, growth in China's GDP per person averaged more than 8% a year from 2001 to 2020. (c) But the Chinese government has never been completely comfortable with globalization, whatever the benefits. The process of "reform and opening up" started by Deng Xiaoping in the 1970s, under which China liberalized production and trade, has always been piecemeal and partial. (d) The Communist Party does not intend to relinquish a commanding role in the

40. According to this author, why is Président Xi's comment on self-reliance sound weird? (A) China has failed to grow exponentially. (B) China has never failed to achieve the objective of self-sufficiencies. (C) China benefits greatly from multinational production and trade. (D) None of the above.

42. What does the word "trumpet" mean in the second paragraph? (A) disparage. (B) emphasize. (C) caution against. (D) appreciate.

43. According to this article, how does China feel about foreign capital? (A) aloof. (B) indebted. (C) mesmerized. (D) conflicted. When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, hundreds of people who had failed to flee the nearby city of Pompeii were killed by toxic gases and volcanic debris. Now, an analysis of ancient coins found with skeletons in Pompeii hints at the economic status of those who remained. Kimberly Bowes at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia analysed more than 25,000 coins found either inside cash boxes or with the remains of Pompeiians who died during the eruption. Most boxes were found in commercial spaces and 41% contained only small amounts of cash, indicating that shopkeepers might have carried away most of their savings. Of about 200 victims carrying coins, roughly half carried small sums in low-value currency. The findings suggest that the richest fled Pompeii before the eruption, leaving behind people who were either enslaved or lower-income. Another explanation for the small sums could be that, rather than amassing money or valuables, most Pompeiians preferred to invest in property and to spend their earnings on calorie-rich food and other consumer goods, the author says.

45. What is the alternative explanation about the findings? (A) People like to put their money in real estate and sustenance. (B) commercial activities are less common than previously thought. (C) Pompeiians do not have the culture of carrying a large sum of money. (D) All of the above. Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network. An asset can be tangible (a house, car, cash, land) or intangible (intellectual property, patents, copyrights, branding). Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, reducing risk and cutting costs for all involved. A simple analogy for understanding blockchain technology is a Google Doc. When we create a document and share it with a group of people, the document is distributed instead of copied or transferred. This creates a decentralized distribution chain that gives everyone access to the document at the same time. No one is locked out awaiting changes from another party, while all modifications to the doc are being recorded in real-time, making changes completely transparent. Why is blockchain important? Business runs on information. The faster it's received and the more accurate it is, the better. Blockchain is ideal for delivering that information because it provides immediate, shared and completely transparent information stored on an immutable ledger that can be accessed only by permissioned network members. A blockchain network can track orders, payments, accounts, production and much more. And because members share a single view of the truth, you can see all details of a transaction end to end, giving you greater confidence, as well as new efficiencies and opportunities.

46. How does the Google Doc example help the reader understand "decentralized distribution"? (A) All users are equal. (B) All users have to wait in line to access the information. (C) Users can lock each other out from the information. (D) All users with access can view and edit the shared information.

47. Which of the following is a benefit of blockchain transactions, according to these passages? (A) immutability. (B) speed. (C) transparency. (D) all of the above. When life emerged, it did so quickly. Fossils suggest microbes were present 3.7 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the 4.5-billion-year-old planet had cooled enough to support biochemistry, and many researchers think the hereditary material for these first organisms was RNA. Although not as complex as DNA, RNA would still be difficult to forge into the long strands needed to convey genetic information, raising the question of how it could have spontaneously formed. Now, researchers may have an answer. In lab experiments, they show how rocks called basaltic glasses help individual RNA letters, known as nucleoside triphosphates, link into strands up to 200 letters long. The glasses would have been abundant in the fire and brimstone of early Earth; they are created when lava is quenched in air or water or when the melted rock created in asteroid strikes cools off rapidly. The result has divided top origin-of-life researchers. "This seems to be a wonderful story that finally explains how the nucleoside triphosphates react with each other to give RNA strands," says Thomas Carell, a chemist at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich. But Jack Szostak, an RNA expert at Harvard University, says he won't believe the result until the research team better characterizes the RNA strands.

48. How long has passed between the birth of the Earth and the start of life? (A) 80 trillion years. (B) 8 trillion years. (C) 80 million years. (D) 800 million years.

49. Why is it important to explain the origin of RNA in the search for the origin of life? (A) Its complexity demands a theory. (B) RNA is found in ancient glass shards. (C) RNA is the energy source for primordial life forms. (D) RNA is more structurally complicated than DNA.

50. How do the top scientists in the search for the origin of life feel about the discovery described in the article? (A) Everyone thinks this is true. (B) Everyone thinks this is false. (C) Some scientists are doubtful. (D) Some scientists are scared.