Question 36: A. other B. the other C. another D. others

Question 13: Which paragraph attributes the friends' rivalry to external societal forces?

A. Paragraph 1 B. Paragraph 3 C. Paragraph 2 D. Paragraph 4

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 14 to 23.

WHY HAS CULTURE COME TO A STANDSTILL?

For over a century, a core belief of our culture was its promise to the future. Beginning with Édouard Manet, whose work was a striking expression of its own time, the demand for any serious artist was to create something new. To be modern was to reject imitation in favor of an utterance that could only exist now. This relentless pursuit of novelty became the engine of cultural history, a succession of avant-gardes each rendering the last obsolete.

Yet to look at culture in 2023 is to feel this engine has stalled. One gets the nagging feeling that we are living through a period of unmatched stillness, stuck on a painfully slow Ferris wheel of remakes, sequels, and imitations. The unique sounds and styles of past decades have blended into a shapeless present, where skinny jeans from the 2000s and high-waisted jeans from the 1990s can coexist without either looking particularly dated or current. [I] The feeling that our era’s culture seems likely to be forgotten is difficult to shake.

The principal reason for this confusion about time is our deep dive through the screen into endless information. The digital tools we use have created such deep confusion about time that the very idea of progress has lost its meaning. In this dark wood of algorithmic feeds, past and present are made to seem equally close, removed from their original context and flattened into a single, continuous feed. [II]

Perhaps one work predicted this situation: Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black.” Arriving on the verge of the iPhone era, it was the first major cultural product that was neither new nor old-fashioned, but instead existed in a timeless state. [III] Drawing from the entire catalogue of 20th-century music, it wasn't nostalgic, instead showing a new awareness shaped by the digital world, where all of history could be sampled at once.

Working within the old modernist framework, it feels as if the possibilities for innovation have been exhausted. We now seek newness not in form, but in “content.” The long-overdue inclusion of diverse voices into the culture industry has, unfortunately, been confused with artistic innovation itself. A work is praised as a “breakthrough” for the identity it represents, even if its storytelling and style remain deeply traditional. [IV] There is no built-in reason, however, that a decline in newness must mean a decline in value. To escape our situation, we must first abandon the outdated influence of modernism and its obsession with progress. The task is to find and value the art that speaks for our confused present, even—and especially—if its style is tied to the past.

Question 14: According to paragraph 1, the modernist principle of rejecting imitation in favor of originality might fuel ______.

A. the demand for a serious artist to create a striking expression of the time
B. a consecutive process of creative innovation and displacement
C. a succession of avant-gardes fulfilling culture's promise to the future
D. the engine of cultural history, beginning with the work of Édouard Manet

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct arrangement of the sentences to make a meaningful exchange or text in each of the following questions.

Question 24:
a. Kiera: That’s so cool! Your passion shows in your photos.
b. Laura: I’ve always been fascinated by capturing moments through a lens.
c. Kiera: Why did you decide to join the photography club?

A. c-a-b B. c-b-a C. a-c-b D. a-b-c

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the option that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 1 to 5.

The fossil fuel divestment movement is a global campaign that seeks to stigmatize the industry; it employs tactics such as the direct petitioning of university boards, the launching of public awareness campaigns that highlight the financial risks of "stranded assets", as well as (1) ________, a multi-pronged approach designed to weaken the industry's political influence.

Opponents, who often include the financial managers of these large endowments, argue that divestment is a purely symbolic gesture, one that ultimately harms the institution's own portfolio, (2) ________. This argument frames the decision as a breach of fiduciary duty.

Such a narrow financial argument, however, fundamentally misunderstands the movement's core strategy. The primary objective is not to bankrupt these companies directly but to revoke their social license. (3) ________. This makes it significantly harder for them to attract top talent and to influence policy.

This recontextualizes the climate crisis not as a distant environmental problem, but as an immediate moral failing of the current system. (4) ________. The campaign's lasting impact, which is still unfolding, is therefore a measure of its success in shifting the Overton window of what is considered politically possible, which is its most visible tactic, and, equally, of (5) ________ for subsequent environmental and social justice campaigns.

(Adapted from ResearchGate)

Question 1:
A. the strategic use of litigation aimed at challenging corporate permits
B. the challenge of litigation strategically aimed at permitting corporate use
C. a corporate strategy using litigation to challenge the aim of permits
D. the strategic challenge of litigation aims at corporate permissive use

Question 2:
A. while fewer investors are ethically concerned about the other shares they simply sell or purchase
B. if the investors selling shares are simply less ethically concerned than the other investors purchasing them
C. and other investors are simply concerned with the ethics of the purchase, less so the shares they sell
D. since the shares they sell are simply purchased by other investors with fewer ethical concerns

Question 3:

A. The goal of reputable banks, universities, and governments is rendering the industry an undesirable "pariah" partnership
B. The industry is rendered a "pariah" to make reputation an undesirable goal for partnerships with banks, universities, and governments

C. The goal is to render the industry a "pariah," an undesirable partner for reputable banks, universities, and governments
D. The reputation of banks, universities, and governments becomes an undesirable goal for partnering with the "pariah" industry

Question 4:

A. It effectively shifts the moral burden from the individual consumer to the corporate entities that profit from the crisis

B. The individual consumer effectively shifts the moral burden of the crisis to the corporate entities that profit from it

C. The profit from the crisis effectively shifts the moral burden from corporate entities to the individual consumer
D. The effectiveness of the shift in moral burden is consumed by profiting corporate entities from the individual's crisis

Question 5:
A. its profound effectiveness in establishing a new moral baseline
B. its profoundly effective moral baseline being a new establishment
C. what effectively and profoundly establishes a new moral baseline
D. that the establishment of a new moral baseline is profoundly effective

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 6 to 13.

Our friendship was forged in a small, windowless office where we worked as a two-person team. In that cramped space, we were allies, a united front against our megalomaniac boss. We bonded over lukewarm coffee and a shared desire to be anywhere else. Our conversations, once confined to work, soon began to encompass our personal lives. We became privy to each other’s emotional hardships, aspirations, family conflicts, and financial anxieties.

She was the first person I called when I secured a new job; I was the first she called when she got engaged. For years, our victories felt shared, often treated as team accomplishments, celebrated with impromptu dinners. Our bond was a welcome respite from the sharp-edged professional world and the sometimes-lonely realities of city life. There was no envy, only a genuine, reciprocal joy in seeing the other person advance. Our friendship was a sanctuary, a rare space of unconditional support in a world that felt increasingly hard.

But as we moved through our late 20s and into our 30s, a subtle shift occurred. The promotions, engagements and pregnancies that once prompted joint celebration began to feel like points on a scoreboard. Our easy camaraderie was replaced by a quiet, unspoken competition. Phone calls became less frequent. When we did talk, our conversations were filled with careful omissions. We curated the versions of our lives we presented to each other, highlighting the successes and concealing the struggles.

The intimacy we once had was built on vulnerability, on the shared conviction that we were in it together. But “it” — life — was no longer a shared foxhole. It had become a ladder, and we were acutely aware of our positions on it. The tragedy is that I don't believe either of us wanted this. The competition was not a conscious choice but an involuntary symptom of the ambient pressures around us, a reflection of the societal expectation to always be moving forward. We had simply forgotten how to be vulnerable with each other, and in doing so, forfeited the essential quality that made our friendship worthwhile.

(Adapted from The New York Times)

Question 6: Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a personal subject the two friends shared during the early stages of their relationship?
A. Aspirations B. Family reunions C. Emotional hardships D. Financial anxieties

Question 23: Which of the following best summarises the passage?

A. The historical drive for artistic novelty has stalled in the digital age, creating a culture of imitation and a subsequent need to redefine creative value beyond an obsession with progress.

B. The modernist obsession with novelty has faded in a digital era of temporal confusion, suggesting the new cultural task is to focus on producing high-quality, nostalgic content for audiences.

C. In an age of imitation created by digital media's flattening of history, an artwork's merit is no longer based on its novelty but rather on the technical skill used in reinterpreting past forms.

D. The modernist drive for progress has stalled due to digital culture's endless feed, resulting in a contemporary era where distinctions between high art and popular entertainment have eroded.