Three Branches of Government

1. The people who set up the U.S, government wanted to make sure that no single person or
group would have complete control over the country.

2. To prevent this from happening, they divided governmental functions into three branches,
each with specific duties and powers.

3. These three branches are the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial
branch.

4. Made up of representatives from every state in the U.S., the legislative branch is also known
as Congress.

5. It is the job of the legislative branch to make up laws for the country. Members of this branch
are divided into two sections, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

6. Whenever one of these groups suggests a potential law (a bill, an approval process begins:
first, the bill must be accepted by both the House and the Senate, and then it must be
approved by the president.

7. Both groups are elected by people in their home states. The number of Representatives for a
state depends on the population, but the number of senators for each state is always two.

8. In charge of enforcing the laws of the nation, the executive branch is headed by the
president. He or she suggests laws for Congress to consider approving and has the authority
to deny laws that Congress drafts.

9. In addition to the president, the vice president and the heads of fifteen major departments,
called Cabinet members, help direct the executive branch.

10. The vice president is elected along with the president, and Cabinet members are selected by
the president. The third branch of government, the judicial branch, watches over the
country's court system.
11. It is responsible for interpreting laws and explaining the intentions of the Constitution, the
government's guiding principles.

12. The judicial branch is composed of federal courts and the Supreme Court. The federal courts
review cases related to the Constitution and federal laws.

13. The Supreme Court is the highest of the federal courts, and as such, it often deals with
appeals, cases that have already been heard in lower courts.

14. Once the Supreme Court makes a ruling, its decision cannot be overturned. The president
selects the judges of the Supreme Court, but the Senate must approve his or her selections.
Actual Test 2 – The Earliest Newspapers

1. For ages, newspapers have been used to spread world news to the masses. Historians have
traced the origins of the newspaper back more than 2,000 years to ancient Rome.

2. In 59 BC, the Romans introduced the Acta Diurna, or daily events, which was the earliest
recorded newspaper.

3. Julius Caesar, the ruler of Rome at that time, felt that the public should be informed about
local affairs and news from the s rest of the empire.

4. He ordered the Acta Diurna, which were carved in stone or metal tablets, to be posted in
markets, bathhouses, and other public places.

5. The Chinese also created a type of newssheet, called tipao, during the Han dynasty (206 BC-
220 AD). Handwritten on silk, they were circulated only among government officials.

6. At some point during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), they used carved wooden blocks to
print tipao and began producing the first printed newspapers in history.

7. However, they were not published frequently or widely.

8. Johannes Gutenberg's creation of the printing press around 1450 advanced the technology
of newspapers in the Western world.

9. With the aid of his machine, printing multiple copies of a text became far more efficient and
less labor-intensive than ever before.

10. European officials soon took advantage of the printing press, using the device to publish
news books.

11. In these brief pamphlets were announcements about important events such as royal
weddings and military battles.
12. Unlike modern newspapers, however, news books did not have a regular publication
schedule.

13. They were usually only distributed when authorities wanted the public to know about
certain issues or events.

14. The first city to publish newspapers according to a consistent schedule was Venice, Italy,
where, during the sixteenth century, the Notizie Scritte reported monthly on events from
other parts of Italy and Europe.

15. As early newspapers began to appear in other cities, they adopted the same format and style
as the Notizie Scritte.

16. A series of short news items was given, with the location and date of origin listed above each
entry.

17. Starting in the seventeenth century, newspapers quickly spread throughout Europe, gaining
popularity.

18. Major publications established at that time included Germany's Relation, France's La
Gazette, and England's London Gazette.

19. These periodicals focused on international rather than domestic issues, reporting on news
from around Europe and occasionally America and Asia as well.
Unit 8 – An Extraordinary Female Journalist

1. In 1880, an offensive article appeared in the Pittsburgh Dispatch, a local newspaper. It

suggested women were incapable of anything more than housework.

2. Angered by the article, a young Elizabeth Cochrane sent a letter to the editor of the Dispatch
with an argument of her own.

3. In it, she stated that women deserved the opportunity to have the same jobs as men with
the same pay.

4. The editor was impressed by Cochrane's writing skills and offered her a position as a
journalist. She accepted the offer and started to use the pen name Nellie Bly.

5. Early in her career, Bly's main concern was the working conditions of local industries.

6. She began to collect information by becoming a real employee at her targeted institution,
hiding her identity as a journalist.

7. This way, she could secretly write about firsthand experiences.

8. For example, to investigate a Pittsburgh factory, Bly took a job as a factory worker. There, she
discovered employees were working in unsafe environments for long hours and low wages.

9. She wrote about the difficulties of factory workers' lives and used her writing to speak out
against industries that treated their workers unfairly.

10. In 1887, she moved to New York City and received an assignment from the New York World
that again sent her to a local institution - this time, an insane asylum.

11. Pretending to be mad, Bly was admitted to an insane asylum on Blackwell's Island in New
York.

12. During a ten-day stay, she was horrified by the staff's mistreatment of patients.

13. They received spoiled food, were bathed in ice-cold water, and were beaten by the staff.
14. Bly's brave investigation raised public awareness of problems in the asylum and eventually
caused legal changes, earning her a reputation as a talented journalist.

15. In 1894, Bly married a millionaire named Robert Seaman and retired.

16. However, she returned to journalism later in life, covering World War I in Europe, even
though war reporting was an unusual occupation for a woman at that time.

17. With a rare and energetic approach, Bly established a remarkable career that made her an
important female role model in the field of journalism.
Unit 8 – The Pleistocene Extinctions

1. Around 15,000 years ago, Earth was experiencing an Ice Age that covered much of the globe
with glaciers: It was a period that we now refer to as the Pleistocene epoch.

2. During this era, something that scientists still have trouble fully understanding happened
almost all of the large mammals in North America were suddenly Killed off by some
unknown cause, yet small mammal species were generally unaffected.

3. Scientists offer two theories that could potentially account for these mass extinctions.

4. Emphasizing that North America was undergoing a period of rapid climate change, one
theory suggests that environmental causes pushed North American mammals toward
extinction.

5. Near the end of the Pleistocene era, temperatures were warming. This caused glaciers
covering portions of what would have been Canada and the Midwestern United States to
melt.

6. Also, differences between summer and winter temperatures began to increase, and the
amount of rainfall changed.

7. These climate shifts brought about the destruction of habitats and fundamental changes in
the ecosystem.

8. As a result, large mammals, which were particularly ill-prepared for such changes, ran out of
space.

9. The second theory about the Pleistocene extinctions places the blame on humans.

10. This is because the decline of North America's large mammals happened at the same time
human hunter-gatherers arrived from Asia.

11. Supporters of this theory argue that overhunting by humans may have led to the Pleistocene
extinctions.

12. They destroyed animal populations so efficiently and rapidly that they could not recover.
13. However, some suggest that hunters were only indirectly responsible.

14. They argue that the extinctions happened because humans hunted keystone species -
animals with an especially important role in their ecosystems.

15. The death of these key species may have caused a wave of extinctions.

16. For now, the climate change theory and the overkill theory are nothing more than
hypotheses, both currently impossible to prove.

17. The truth is, we may never know what caused the mass extinctions of the Pleistocene epoch.
Unit 9

1. Grasslands are one of Earth's major habitats, as they cover approximately a quarter of the
planet's land.

2. Grasslands are dominated by grasses rather than large trees, and are becoming larger as
climates get hotter and drier worldwide.

3. There are two main types of grasslands: tropical grasslands and temperate grasslands.

4. Tropical grasslands, or savannas, are generally found near the equator and have warm or hot
temperatures year-round.

5. With an annual rainfall between about 50 and 120 centimeters, they receive enough
precipitation to support some scattered trees, but long seasonal droughts prevent the
growth of forests.

6. More than 200 species of plants are found in tropical grasslands.

7. Temperate grasslands, or steppes, are found at greater distances from the equator in cooler
climates that have hot summers and cold winters.

8. On average, they receive much less rainfall than tropical grasslands, only about 25 to 50
centimeters a year Accordingly, they contain only grasses, no trees.

9. There are about 50 plant species living in temperate grasslands.

Unit 9

1. When heat passes through an object or from one object to another object in direct contact,
this transfer is referred to as conduction.

2. Heat has a natural tendency to flow from a warmer area to a cooler one.

3. Therefore, when an object is heated, molecules in the warmer area of the object pass some
of their energy to nearby molecules, raising their temperature as a result.

4. Eventually, all of the molecules within an object will be the same temperature.

5. The same process occurs if another object is in contact with the heated object.

6. Imagine a metal pot on a gas range with a spoon in it.

7. First, the bottom of the pot becomes hot.

8. Heat passes through the pot, eventually heating the pot handle and the spoon.

9. A second method of heat transfer is convection, which takes place in a gas or fluid, like air or
water.

10. In a fluid, as warm molecules rise and cool molecules sink, a circular pattern is created.

11. The distribution of heat by means of the circular movement of molecules is what we call
convection.

12. To understand convection better, one can return to the example of a pot on a gas range.

13. This time, the pot is filled with water.

14. The water at the bottom of the pot becomes hot and rises, while the cool water at the top
sinks.

15. In this way, heat is transferred through all of the water.

Unit 9 – Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

1. New advancements in technology are changing how people see things.

2. Two types of visual technologies that are often confused are virtual reality (VR) and
augmented reality (AR).

3. Both VR and AR provide visual information, but their functions and potential uses are
different.

4. VR removes users' perceptions of the real world and provides them with a completely
simulated environment.

5. AR, on the other hand, enhances the real world by adding computer-generated information
and images to what users see in their environments.

6. Furthermore, while VR requires expensive equipment, AR can be used on much more

common devices, like smartphones.

7. Users can point their smartphones' cameras at their surroundings, and the AR program can
display an alternative view of the environment.

8. VR is widely being used by entertainment companies to make 3D games and movies.

9. Moreover, the ability of VR to create simulated realities has other practical uses.

10. Social scientists and psychologists can use VR to simulate specific social interactions and
study how people behave.

11. It can be used for helping patients suffering from anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.

12. VR can allow patients to confront fears or process painful memories in a safe, controlled
virtual environment.

13. Virtual training environments can also be simulated to allow people to develop complex
skills, such as those used in surgery or bridge inspection, without the dangers of real-life
mistakes.
14. AR is being applied in various fields, including entertainment, education, and business.
Archaeologists have been using AR to help reconstruct excavation sites.

15. Computer-generated models of ancient buildings, landscapes, and people can help
archaeologists recreate what the ancient world looked like in a specific area.

16. These 3D models can then be shared with researchers all over the world, who can investigate
the excavation site without leaving their homes.
Unit 9 – Food Allergies and Food Intolerance

1. Food allergies and food intolerance are conditions that cause people to become ill after
eating certain types of food.

2. Food allergies are caused by an immune system response to specific food proteins.

3. Some of the most common food allergies involve nuts, fish, and wheat.

4. Food intolerance is a response of the digestive system to particular chemicals in food, most
often to lactose (the sugar in milk).

5. Babies and young children are especially susceptible to food allergies because their immune
systems are still developing.

6. On the other hand, food intolerance is much more common than food allergies and affects a
variety of groups in the general population.

7. Children are at an increased risk of food intolerance because of their small body size, which
means they consume higher amounts of food chemicals relative to adults.

8. Food intolerance also occurs more commonly in the elderly because their bodies respond
more slowly.

9. The symptoms of a food allergy often become evident immediately after eating a certain
food, though they may be delayed for several hours.

10. However, people with food intolerance may not exhibit symptoms until two days after eating
the particular food.

11. The symptoms of food allergies and food intolerance differ to some extent, though both can
be quite severe.

12. Symptoms of a food allergy include skin irritation, breathing difficulties, loss of
consciousness, or even death.
13. The same symptoms may also occur in food intolerance reactions, with the additional
possibility of nervous system responses such as depression, anxiety, and mood changes.

14. For both food allergies and food intolerance, avoiding the food that causes problems is
essentially the only treatment.

15. However, in the case of lactose intolerance, a special pill may be taken to help the body
digest lactose.
Unit 9 – The Three Types of Sedimentary Rocks

1. There are many different kinds of rocks on Earth, but most of those at the surface belong to
the category of sedimentary rocks.

2. This category gets its name from the way the rocks are formed.

3. Sediments, which are small pieces of other rocks, living organisms, or minerals, accumulate
over time.

4. Eventually, if certain pressure conditions are present, the sediments are forced together so
tightly that they turn into solid rock.

5. All sedimentary rocks are created in this way, but they are further divided into three groups
depending on what materials they are made of.

6. The first and most common are the clastic sedimentary rocks.

7. Clasts are sediments that come from other rocks, broken apart by the weathering processes
constantly at work on Earth's surface.

8. These clasts are transported until they become trapped somewhere, usually at the bottom of
a stream, lake, or sea.

9. There, they settle into layers, and as more and more layers are added over time, the ones at
the bottom are pressed into rocks.

10. Clastic sedimentary rocks are further classified according to the sizes of clasts they contain.

11. For example, siltstone is made from fine silt particles and sandstone from grains of sand,
while pudding stone is a mixture of both small and large clasts.

12. A similar process is seen in the formation of organic sedimentary rocks.

13. Instead of clasts, though, these sediments are composed of pieces of matter that was once
living.
14. This is why they are called organic. One example of organic sedimentary rocks is limestone. It
is composed of things like shells, dinosaur bones, and plants.

15. Finally, there are chemical sedimentary rocks, which form in a slightly different way.

16. As water moves through rock, it chemically absorbs many of the minerals within the rock.

17. Later, when the water evaporates, those minerals remain and join together to create rocks.

18. Rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites that are created in caves by the constant
dripping of mineral-rich water are impressive examples of chemical sedimentary rocks.
Unit 9 – Three Basic Market Structures

1. Markets vary in structure, but there are three basic market structures - monopoly, oligopoly,
and perfect competition.

2. They are determined by four characteristics: the number of firms operating in the market,
product types, control over product price, and barriers to entry.

3. A monopoly is characterized by there being only one seller for a unique product.

4. There is no product to replace it, so there is no competition.

5. This means the seller can set prices as they wish because consumers have no alternative
choice.

6. A monopoly is controlled by a single seller because it is very difficult for other companies to
enter the market due to high start-up costs, copyrights and patents, or resource ownership.

7. One example of a monopoly is Bell Canada, which, until the 1980s, was the only provider of
long-distance phone services in Canada.

8. An oligopoly is the domination of the market by a few large firms, as in the automobile
industry.

9. Oligopolistic firms produce products that are very similar but sell them with different brand
names.

10. To increase their brand power, which is related to their market share, these firms must focus
on advertising and marketing.

11. However, they are restricted in how they set the product price, since they have to consider
the reactions of their rivals.

12. Like a monopolistic market, there are severe, although not impossible, barriers to entering
an oligopolistic market.

13. These include providing huge sums of money, the availability of raw materials such as oil and
coal, and access to the latest technology.
14. Perfect competition is considered to be the model market structure in capitalistic societies,
but is more of an ideal than a reality.

15. It is the opposite of a monopoly in that it is characterized by a market in which no firm is

dominant.

16. Buyers do not care who they purchase from, because the product sold by each firm is
identical.

17. If one firm increases its selling price for a particular product, the consumer can buy the same
product from another seller more cheaply, causing the firm to lose market share and profit.

18. Therefore, firms cannot influence the price of the product.

19. Instead, it is determined by supply and demand.

20. Unlike monopolistic and oligopolistic structures, new firms can easily enter the market.