Answer for Thursday 23 April.

Reading comprehension

1. What does the article not say about ebook devices?

    b) They offer reading cheaper than real books do.

2. Which company plans to scan the world's books?

    d) Google

3. How many books can an ebook device store?

    d) hundreds

4. For many students, ebook devices could replace

    c) libraries

5. What can one not control with an ebook?

    a) colour

Listen and answer the following questions

1. Khmer reality TV can be described as

    b) a successful adaptation of foreign models.

2. How much will the winner of Cellcard Star receive?

    c) $2,500

3. What, seemingly, has won viewers' loyalty?

    d) the finalists' moral rectitude

4. The model for the Cellcard Star program comes from

    b) Mexico

Listening Comprehension

TOEFL tester

Select the correct choice in the sentences below.

1. We are now in the midst of (a/an) economic crisis.

2. Many observers belief this economic crisis is the worst to be (see/seen) since the 1930s.

3. It differs from the economic (crisis/crises) of the 1980s and 1990 insofar as it affects almost all countries throughout the world, not just one country or region.

4. According to most observers, the crisis began in the American financial system (which/where) banks extended loans and mortgages to unqualified borrowers.

5. The loans, (in turn/therefore), were "packaged" into financial derivatives which were then sold to unsuspecting banks, many of which were in foreign countries.

6. To give a concrete example: Imagine a manual worker, making (only/solely) a little more than the American minimum wage, being granted a mortgage to buy a $400,000 house.

7. This so-called "sub-prime" mortgage is then (sell/sold) to another bank or hedge fund that then uses it as collateral for (farther/further) investment, often leveraged up to 30:1 or 40:1.

8. When these sub-prime mortgages finally were exposed as almost worthless or "toxic", the entire debt "house of cards" (collapses/coalesces), leaving many bankers, hedge funds and investors (in/on) a desperate condition.

9. The causes of the financial crisis, (therefore, insofar) can be attributed to a deadly mixture: a failure of government regulation, corporate greed, inadequate financial reporting and gullibility (among, between) so-called financial experts.