Variant 1 You could have come first and won the race if you … faster

21. What is the main idea of the passage?

A) Losses of the lightning. B) Unpredictable lightning.

C) Lightning causes the danger. D) Storms cause the lightning.

22. What does the word SURPASS in the text mean?

A) widen B) spread C) exceed D) reduce

23. The passage implies that all of the following are FALSE EXCEPT:

A) The amount of women’s deaths from lightning is superior to men’s.

B) The figure of deaths from tornados and hurricanes enlarges.

C) The quantity of men’s deaths from lightning is superior to women’s.

D) The number of deaths from winds increases every year.

24. It is implied in the text that lightning can strike far from the centre of a storm when ...

A) it rises from a positive charge in the cloud. B) it moves parallel to the ground first.

C) lightning has already appeared at the same cloud. D) the storm has a huge cloud.

In the town of Larmpang in northern Thailand, there is an unusual group of musicians. They play many different kinds of music – everything from traditional Thai songs to music by Beethoven. They are elephants. These musical elephants started at the Thai elephant Conservation Center (TECC) in Lampang. It protects animals and encourages elephants to paint. Richard Lair works with the TECC. He knows a lot about elephants. He says some of the animals’ paintings are very good. But, in fact, elephants hear better than they see. And so he had an idea: if elephants are play a variety of instruments, including the drums and the xylophone, the animals also use their voices and trunks to make sounds. Elephants are very creative. Humans encourage the animals to play, but the elephants make their own songs they don't just copy their trainers or other people.