II. READING

TASK 1. Read the passage. Circle the best answer A, B or C to each of the questions.

These days, students have great chances to get hold of learning applications to assist them in their schoolwork. However, many of them tend to rely on these apps too much, especially using homework helper apps. Instead of doing assignments on their own, idle students frequently capture English questions or mathematical problems, upload them on these apps, and then copy the suggested answers as well as solutions into their notebooks. The shortcoming is that these students can hardly understand what they are writing down, which leaves them a big gap of knowledge. Moreover, it’s very unfair for diligent students who burn the midnight oil to complete the tasks without any help. Plus, depending on these apps is a double-edged sword because when teachers are suspicious of cheating ones, they have many ways to examine whether students solve problems themselves or not. In short, it is advisable that learning apps, Photomath, QANDA, to name but a few, should be used as a last resort or by advanced learners who prefer finding out more various solutions to their problems.

Its gale-force winds blew down several trees, (1) ___________ of houses and electric poles leading to a widespread power cut.