In countless panel discussions on the future of technology, I’m not sure I ever got anything right. As I look back on technological progress, I experience first retrospective surprise, then surprise that I’m surprised, because it all crept up on me when I wasn’t looking. How can something like Google feel so inevitable and yet be impossible to predict? I’m filled with wonder at all that we engineers have accomplished, and I take great communal pride in how we’ve changed the world in so many ways. Decades ago I never dreamed we would have satellite navigation, computers in our pockets, the Internet, cellphones, neither robots that would explore Mars. How did all this happen, and what are we doing for our next trick? The software pioneer Alan Kay has said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it, and that’s what we’ve been busy doing.

The word 'it', underlined in the sentence “As I look back on technological progress, I experience first retrospective surprise, then surprise that I’m surprised, because it all crept up on me when I wasn’t looking” refers to which idea mentioned in the text?

Glaciers at the equator. The legendary source of the River Nile. Mysterious snow-capped peaks shrouded in an impenetrable cloud. These may sound like the stuff of myths – but in this case these descriptions aptly depict Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, known for more than 2,000 years as the Mountains of the Moon. Located at Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Rwenzori Mountains rise as much as 5,109 m (16,763 ft) above gorges at equatorial sea-level to create an amazingly diverse environment that includes tropical rain forests, marshes and lakes, grasslands, glaciers and snowfields. The flora and fauna that flourish there are as unique as the region itself. On gentler slopes, rare mountain gorillas may inhabit bamboo forests, while giant tree heathers up to 10 m (33 ft) tall sway on open ridge tops. It’s no wonder much of the region is now designated World Heritage Site – yet only the lucky visitors will actually see the 100 km (62 mi) of mountain peaks, as a cloak of thick fog envelopes the Rwenzori year-round. It was this fog cloud that kept the legendary peaks from being documented until the late 1800s by non-African explorers – and the summit wasn’t reached until year later.

About the Rwenzori Mountains, it is correct to say that ...

Glaciers at the equator. The legendary source of the River Nile. Mysterious snow-capped peaks shrouded in an impenetrable cloud. These may sound like the stuff of myths – but in this case these descriptions aptly depict Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, known for more than 2,000 years as the Mountains of the Moon. Located at Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Rwenzori Mountains rise as much as 5,109 m (16,763 ft) above gorges at equatorial sea-level to create an amazingly diverse environment that includes tropical rain forests, marshes and lakes, grasslands, glaciers and snowfields. The flora and fauna that flourish there are as unique as the region itself. On gentler slopes, rare mountain gorillas may inhabit bamboo forests, while giant tree heathers up to 10 m (33 ft) tall sway on open ridge tops. It’s no wonder much of the region is now designated World Heritage Site – yet only the lucky visitors will actually see the 100 km (62 mi) of mountain peaks, as a cloak of thick fog envelopes the Rwenzori year-round. It was this fog cloud that kept the legendary peaks from being documented until the late 1800s by non-African explorers – and the summit wasn’t reached until year later.

According to the passage, Rwenzori’s summits…

Glaciers at the equator. The legendary source of the River Nile. Mysterious snow-capped peaks shrouded in an impenetrable cloud. These may sound like the stuff of myths – but in this case these descriptions aptly depict Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, known for more than 2,000 years as the Mountains of the Moon. Located at Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Rwenzori Mountains rise as much as 5,109 m (16,763 ft) above gorges at equatorial sea-level to create an amazingly diverse environment that includes tropical rain forests, marshes and lakes, grasslands, glaciers and snowfields. The flora and fauna that flourish there are as unique as the region itself. On gentler slopes, rare mountain gorillas may inhabit bamboo forests, while giant tree heathers up to 10 m (33 ft) tall sway on open ridge tops. It’s no wonder much of the region is now designated World Heritage Site – yet only the lucky visitors will actually see the 100 km (62 mi) of mountain peaks, as a cloak of thick fog envelopes the Rwenzori year-round. It was this fog cloud that kept the legendary peaks from being documented until the late 1800s by non-African explorers – and the summit wasn’t reached until year later.

The region described in the passage…

Zürich is the engine of the Swiss economy. Despite having all the conveniences and daily activities of a metropolis, Zürich has been able to preserve the charm of a small town. Yet every day, more than 300,000 commuters, visitors, tourists and business travelers come to this ‘small town’ through Zürich Central Train Station – and that number has been rising steadily. To meet the increasing demand, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) together with the Canton of Zürich is expanding the station.

According to the passage …

Built in the mid-1960s, the Riverside Drive Parking Deck in Elgin, Illinois, is quite large. Approximately 1,000-ft (300-m) long by 60-ft (18-m) wide – and nearly all of it over the Fox River – the deck is built on hundreds of ‘piles’, large concrete cylinders pushed down into the muddy river bottom. Pre-cast elements in the piles used high-tensile steel wire for reinforcement, and that steel is now rusting. A trail-sized piece of the deck has even fallen into the river causing concern to local authorities.

About the Riverside Drive Parking Deck, what can NOT be concluded?

Picture yourself on a tranquil tropical beach. The late afternoon sun warms your face, chest and legs. Squeaky clean sand sifts through your salt-flavored fingers. Your mind thinks little further than the splashing of waves on the shoreline and the light flickering off shoals of little fish whizzing around in the crystal clear shallows. That’s the scenario on many Pacific islands, where the sands, in an inevitable process, are always shifting, therefore ... .

The phrase “Your mind thinks little further than the splashing of waves on the shoreline” means that …

Picture yourself on a tranquil tropical beach. The late afternoon sun warms your face, chest and legs. Squeaky clean sand sifts through your salt-flavored fingers. Your mind thinks little further than the splashing of waves on the shoreline and the light flickering off shoals of little fish whizzing around in the crystal clear shallows. That’s the scenario on many Pacific islands, where the sands, in an inevitable process, are always shifting, therefore ... .

According to the passage, it can be inferred that the sand shifting process mentioned in the text is …

Picture yourself on a tranquil tropical beach. The late afternoon sun warms your face, chest and legs. Squeaky clean sand sifts through your salt-flavored fingers. Your mind thinks little further than the splashing of waves on the shoreline and the light flickering off shoals of little fish whizzing around in the crystal clear shallows. That’s the scenario on many Pacific islands, where the sands, in an inevitable process, are always shifting, therefore ... .

Which of the following sentences correctly completes the idea of the passage?

Modern buildings incorporate exciting forms with glittering façades and compelling interior spaces. Surveying for these projects requires sophisticated computation, aggressive quality control and close interaction with construction teams.

Tick the alternative that corresponds to “glittering”, still keeping the same meaning of the sentence.