The “levees” in the last paragraph most likely means _____.
(A) administrations
(B) collaborations
(C) embankments
(D) policies

According to the passage, American babies sucked on their pacifiers more times _____. (A) upon hearing Swedish vowels than English vowels. (B) when the sounds were a mixture of Swedish and English vowels. (C) when the pacifiers were connected to a sound-generating computer. (D) when the sounds they heard were from the headphones than when the sounds were said by their parents.

According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true? (A) Newborn babies can tell native from foreign vowel sounds. (B) Newborns react differently to native and foreign vowel sounds. (C) Fetuses can hear outside sounds by about 10 weeks before birth. (D) Prenatal learning of sounds does not include the volume and rhythm of a person’s voice.

26.According to the article, “as these cities boom, so does their vulnerability” in the first paragraph implies that _____. (A) as the cities become larger, they are more capable of adapting to climate change (B) it gets more difficult for city people to work cooperatively when it grows larger (C) as the cities grow larger, the climate change will become more fearfully (D) more people and more assets could be exposed to damaging coastal floods

According to the article, which of the following cities has not taken real steps to shore up against the effects of global warming? (A) Amsterdam (B) Rotterdam (C) London (D) New York

Severe floods struck the Thai capital of Bangkok in 2011, leading to disrupted global supply chains because _____. (A) the floods hindered 25% of worldwide supplies of disk drives (B) developing nations lacked the resources to adapt to climate change (C) it cost the city a fortune to install seawalls to close off the city from surging tides (D) a large number of people were faced with the severe coastal flood

According to the article, which of the following is the largest movable seawall in the world today? (A) The Thames Barrier. (B) The Delta Works. (C) Watersnoodramp. (D) The MOSE project.

Prices on the stock exchange have been ____ wildly all week. (A) vibrating (B) wavering (C) intensifying (D) fluctuating

A nearly _____ diamond is more valuable than one with imperfections. (A) flawed (B) imperfect (C) perfectly (D) flawless

Obtaining a patent for an invention can be ______ process. (A) a retracted (B) a hardened (C) a lengthened (D)an extended

Mr. Suzuki has _____ finished preparing the financial statement and the final report has been emailed to his upper manager. (A) more or less (B)little or no (C)on and off (D)sooner or later