Đề luyện đội tuyển HSG Quốc Gia môn Tiếng Anh năm 2020
Đề luyện đội tuyển HSG Quốc Gia môn Tiếng Anh năm 2020 giúp các bạn học sinh sắp tham gia các kì thi Tiếng Anh tham khảo, học tập và ôn tập kiến thức, bài tập và đạt kết quả cao trong kỳ thi sắp tới. Mời bạn đọc đón xem!
Môn: Đề thi chọn học sinh giỏi Tiếng Anh lớp 12 THPT & đội tuyển dự thi học sinh giỏi Quốc gia THPT
Trường: Đề thi chọn HSG Tiếng Anh từ lớp 9 đến lớp 12 cấp trường, quận/ huyện, tỉnh/ thành phố
Thông tin:
Tác giả:
Thông tin :
Môn:
Đề thi chọn học sinh giỏi Tiếng Anh lớp 12 THPT & đội tuyển dự thi học sinh giỏi Quốc gia THPT
Trường:
Đề thi chọn HSG Tiếng Anh từ lớp 9 đến lớp 12 cấp trường, quận/ huyện, tỉnh/ thành phố
Tác giả:
Tài liệu liên quan:
Preview text:
SECTION I. LISTENING (50 points)
Part 1: You will hear an interview with the presenter of a popular radio series about food
and cooking. For questions 1-5, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according
to what you hear. The recording will be played TWICE. (10 pts)
1. What has made “Just a taste” so popular?
A. it gives advice about how to cook traditional dishes.
B. it features interviews with professional chefs.
C. it takes a humorous approach.
D. it presents food and cooking in a more personal light.
2. The presenter of the programme believes that smells ______.
A. will one day be made available to listeners
B. can never be part of a radio cookery programme
C. are more important than sounds in the kitchen
D. cannot be successfully imagined by listeners
3. What makes describing a dish particularly difficult?
A. There are too many ingredients to describe.
B. Listeners are mainly interested in what they should be aiming for.
C. There is a lack of appropriate vocabulary.
D. Each stage of the cooking process needs to be described.
4. The presenter of the series mentions Iceland because ______.
A. it has a particularly unusual cuisine
B. fish-based dishes are particularly popular there
C. it has turned natural features to its advantage
D. it produces large quantities of fruit and vegetables
5. The spices asafoetida and turmeric are used in South India cooking ______.
A. mainly for their therapeutic properties B. mainly for their taste
C. by filtering them into the food
D. it produces large quantities of fruit and vegetables Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5
Part 2: You will hear a lecture on the importance of laughter. For questions 6-11, complete the
notes below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer: The recording will be
played TWICE. (12 pts) LAUGHTER
* The nature of laughter
- Laughter is a (6) ______________ process- involves movement and sound.
- It is controlled by our (7) ______________. * Reasons for laughter
- Only 10 % of laughter is caused by jokes/ funny stories.
- May have begun as sign of (8) ______________ after a dangerous situation.
- Nowadays, may help to develop (9) ______________ within a group.
- Connected to (10) ______________ (e.g. use of humor by politicians or bosses)
- May be related to male/ female differences (e.g.women laugh more at male speakers)
- May be used in a (11) ______________ way to keep someone out of a group. 1 Your answers: 6. ______________________ 9. ________________________ 7. ______________________ 10. _______________________ 8. ______________________ 11. _______________________
Part 3. Listen to the lecture and decide if the following statements are T or F. The recording
will be played TWICE. (10 pts)
12. The lectures aim to raise students’ awareness of psychological features in learning process.
13. Theory of multiple intelligence appeared before Gardner’s theory.
14. A person with kinaesthetic intelligence is good at bodily motion.
15. Being sensitive to others’ feelings is known as interpersonal intelligence.
16. Visually intelligent learners like learning through diagrams. Your answers: 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
Part 4. Listen to the recording about ozone layer and fill in the gap with NO MORE THAN
THREE WORDS taken from the recording. The recording will be played TWICE. (18 pts)
17. The ozone layer plays an indispensable role in the Earth’s _________________ that takes in
the sun’s precarious radiation
18. As a result of ill-adviced choices. human have created a considerable hole that destroys this _________________.
19. Between three months from September to December, this ominous hole covers most of
Antarctica, which results in _________________ where half of the ozone layer has disappeared.
20. The decline in the quantity of ozone since the late 1970s can be ascribed to the continual use
of _________________, which can be identified in hairspray or deorderant.
21. What if the ozone destruction was _________________ and the life facilitating the layer disappeared?
22. UV light is part and parcel of many main processes of a plant’s life, such as cell expansion and _________________.
23. If vital crops were damaged, the entire food chain would be sent into _________________.
24. As time elapses, the _________________ would accumulate and earth would adapt a smelling odour.
25. If exposing to unfiltered radiation for even less than five minutes, human body would suffer
from a kind of _________________. Your answers:
17. ____________________________
22. ____________________________ 18. __________________________
23. ____________________________ 19. __________________________
24. ____________________________ 20. __________________________
25. ____________________________ 21. __________________________
SECTION II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (40 points)
Part 1. Choose the best answer A, B, C, or D to complete the following sentences. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (20 pts)
1. The picking of the fruit, _______, takes about a week.
A. whose work they receive no money.
B. as they receive no money for that work 2
C. for which work they receive no money
D. they receive no money for it
2. I’m afraid that the herring we had for dinner has given me _______. A. sickness B. indisposition C. infection D. indigestion
3. Architectural pressure groups fought unsuccessfully to save a terrace of eighteenth century houses from ______. A. disruption B. abolition C. demolition D. dismantling
4.The manager’s future _______ whether the team wins or loses this one game. A. stems from B. rests on C. derives from D. counts on
5. Never buy anything second-hand. I bought a second-hand fridge a month and it was _______. A. trouble from the word go B. too awful for words C. a play on word D. lost for words
6. It’s a bit of a _______ statement to say that “all Welsh people can sing” or “all black people
can dance”. I know lots who can do either. A. sweeping B. general C. broad D. tough
7. After congratulating his team, the coach left, allowing the players to let their _______ down for a while. A. hair B. heads C. hearts D. souls
8. Sara brought in a lot of business last month; She should ask for a pay rise while she’s still on a _______. A. run B. roll C. rush D. roam
9. The injury destroyed his hopes of being _______ world champion. A. peaked B. crowded C. awarded D. topped
10. After a six-year relationship, Martha and Billy have decided to _______. A. break the bank B. turn the page C. tie the knot D. make the grade
11. His delight at getting the job was _______by the realization that it would involve long hours commuting every day. A. dimmed B. tempered C. modified D. moistened
12. I've _______ how many times she's been late for work this month. A. lost my marbles of B. lost count of
C. lost my head of D. lost my mind of
13. All the others were experts and I was out of my _______ in the conversation. A. level B. depth C. limit D. range
14. Despite all the evidence, he wouldn't admit that he was in the _______. A. fault B. error C. wrong D. slip
15. Politicians often promise to solve all a country’s problems _______. A. thick and fast B. at a stroke C. on the whole D. of set purpose
16. The government has agreed to _______an additional £5 million to schools in underprivileged regions. A. dole out B. tip off C. crack down D. toss off
17. After testing positive on a doping test, the renowned athlete was advised to lay low and avoid the press like the _______. A. plague B. hawk C. wildfire D. wind
18. There is no need to get so _______about being turned down. There are other advertising agencies out there, you know. A. destitute B. descendant C. despondent D. despicable
19. He likes nothing better than to spend his Sunday mornings _______ in the gardens. A. pottering about B. hanging around C. whiling away D. winding down 3
20. The footballer never really recovered from the injury he _______ at the beginning of the season. A. got B. struck C. endured D. sustained Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
Part 2. Give the correct form of each bracketed word in the following passages. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10 pts)
Passage 1. In a class of your own
Like any form of education, the (1. TEACH) ________ course has its advantages as well as
its drawbacks. On the one hand, you are (2. AUTONOMY) ________; no classroom, no timetable
and so no risk of getting a bad attendance record. You are able to study at your own pace; at
home, in the car or wherever your Walkman takes you. On the other hand, can you really trust
yourself to be (3. SUFFICE) ________ motivated without some form of external stimulus?
I procrastinated dreadfully before beginning my first Spanish course. I made coffee, did
domestic chores that were anything but (4. PRESS) ________; I even watched daytime television.
But, once I got started, I found the course surprisingly engaging. The multimedia formats,
colourful textbooks and imaginative teaching methods all drew me into the excitement of learning a new language.
Of course, if your aim is (5. EXPERT) ________ in the language, nothing can beat actually
going to the country concerned. Round-the-clock immersion is clearly always going to be more
effective than the odd half hour with a set tapes. But that odd half hour will give you an invaluable
head start when you step out onto the streets. Passage 2
Complaining can be used constructively, for example to draw attention to inefficiency but
all too often in western society it consists of (6. SOCIAL) ________ moaning and groaning which
leads to mistrust and unnecessary arguments within relationships. So it is refreshing to live in a
society where people do not complain. By western standards, the islanders, diet is plain and
monotonous but thanks to plentiful fish, none of the islanders suffer from (7. NUTRIENT)
________. Feasts are popular social occasions, but if the fish is (8. DO) __________ or the rice
proven to be (9. EAT) _________, nobody complains. Similarly, in restaurants, if the waiter
brings the wrong dish or the bill is (10. CALCULATE) ________, the error is pointed out with a calm smile, not a surly frown. Your answesr: 1. _______________________ 6. _______________________ 2. _______________________ 7. _______________________ 3. _______________________ 8. _______________________ 4. _______________________ 9. _______________________ 5. _______________________ 10. _______________________
Part 3. Identify 10 errors in the following passage and correct them, (0) has been done as an
example. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10 pts). Line 0
The role of the traditional zoo, inheriting from the 19th century, has undergone a 4 1
dramatic shift. A growing recognition that zoos ought to be in the vanguard of the fight 2
for the devastation of our natural world has begun a zoologic revolution. The change 3
occurred in the 1960s, when the Jersey zoo was set up to breed endangered species. As 4
a result, the breeding of animals in captive has become a complex science, with zoos 5
around the world co-ordinate their efforts to avoid the genetic dangers of in-breeding 6 small populations. 7
The answer for the question of whether zoos can have much impact on the 8
preservation of endangered species is probably minimal. Zoos do not focus their 9
education efforts on those people in the strongest positions to affect the future of the 10
wildlife being exhibited. For the most part, conservation education is targeted at 11
children and other non-decision makers in a process too slow or too far away to address 12
the extinction crisis which exists now. Furthermore, the efforts of zoos to inform 13
lawmakers and government authorities are usually low-key or un-existent. Campaigns 14
are more likely to be for an animal exhibit other than for the existence of the animal 15 itself. 16
Nevertheless, it does not do to address the future from a foundation of pessimism. A 17
vision of the future is embraced in which the human population has leveled off at about 18
8.8 billion and wherein human effects upon the environment have been tethered and 19
considerable wildlife remain. It certainly will not be as rich or abundant as today’s 20
wildlife, but with substantially diversity, numbers of more or less wild ecosystems, and 21
the zoos’ work, this vision can become reality. Your answers: Line Mistakes Corrections 0 inheriting inherited
SECTION III. READING (50 points)
Part 1. For questions 1-10, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space.
Use only one word in each space. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (10 pts) Memory Theories
Theories about memory are important because they offer (1) ______ about how individuals
learn. Since learning is relatively (2) ______ influence on behavior, knowledge, and thinking
skills that results when information is (3) ______ through experience, and experience is (4) 5
______ contacted with or observation of facts or events, then memory is the retained information from experience.
Memory (5) ______ involves three main processes. They are encoding, storage, and
retrieval. Encoding is the process of taking information as it is experience; storage is the metal
process of storing or (6) ______ that information in the mind; and retrieval is the process of
recalling information as it is (7) ______ for specific or related tasks.
Encoding relies on learning and attention. While learning involves how the senses interpret
an experience, attention is concentrating and focusing (8) ______ resources on a specific task.
Attention includes being able to shift from one activity to another and to use different skills to
accomplish a relevant goal. For example, in order to (9) ______ to writing a sentence, an
individual must focus on the purpose of the letter as well as how to write the letters and and how
to spell the words correctly on (10) ______. Proper capitalization, grammar and punctuation must be implemented. Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 2. For questions 1-8, read the extract below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. (8 pts) GREENHOUSE GAS ALERT
Friday 10 May 2013 was a climate (1) ______ in human history. It was the day when data
released by the carbon dioxide (2) ______ stations at Mauna Loa revealed that the greenhouse gas
had reached its highest level for more than three million years. The 400 ppm barrier which was
last broken during the Pliocene era, is regarded as an indication that the increase in global average
temperature is approaching the (3) ______ of no return.
Although the catastrophic consequences of climate change do not appear to be just round
the (4) ______, various regions across the world are already feeling the effects of rising
temperatures. Wet and cold spells during European summers, for example, have been (5) ______
to changes in the high-level jet stream winds caused by melting sea ice in the Arctic, which has
now (6) ______ to its lowest level.
Despite views to the (7) ______, the rising carbon dioxide levels are cause for concern. If
this warning sign goes unheeded, we are in danger of (8) ______ the climate clock to a time when
humans did not roam this planet. 1. A. benchmark B. yardstick C. way station D. milestone 2. A. observing B. counting C. evaluating D. monitoring 3. A. stage B. level C. point D. verge 4. A. corner B. bend C. verge D. cusp 5. A. linked B. associated C. referred D. joined 6. A. reduced B. recorded C. wasted D. shrunk 7. A. opposite B. converse C. contrary D. alternative 8. A. setting off B. turning back C. winding up D. changing down Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 6
Part 3. You are going to read a text about the impact of social media. For question 1-5, choose
the answer (A, B, C, or D) which you think fits best according to the text. (5 pts)
The Impact of social Media on Children, Adolescents and Families
Engaging in social media is a routine activity that has been shown to benefit young people
by enhancing communication and social skills. Social media sites such as Facebook offer multiple
opportunities for connecting with friends and people with shared interests. In recent years, the
number of young people using such sites has increased drammatically, with many logging on
more than ten times a day. In addition, a large proportion of teenagers noe own mobile phones, so
a large part of their social and emotional development is occurring while they are on the Internaet or on mobiles.
Because of their limited capacity for self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure,
young people are at some risk as they experiment with social media. Research indicates that there
are frequent online expressions of offline behaviours, such as bullying and clique-forming, that
have introduced problems such as cyberbullying. Other problems ath merit awareness include internet addiction.
Many parents today use technology incredibly well and feel comfortable with the programs
and online venues that their children are using. Nevertheless, for various reasons, some may find
it difficult to relate to their digitally smart youngsters. Such parents may lack a basic
understanding of these forms of socialization, which are integral to children’s lives. Frequently,
the do not have the technical abilities or time needed to keep pace with their children in their ever-
changing internet habits. In addition, these parents often lack a basic understanding that children’s
online lives are an extension of their offline lives. The result can be a knowledge and skill gap,
which creates a disconnect in how these parents and their children relate.
Social media sites allow young people to accomplish online many of the tasks that are
important to them offline: staying connected with friends and family, making new friends, and
exchanging ideas. Other students also use social media to connect with one another on school
work. For example, Facebook allows students to gather outside class to exchange ideas about
assignments. Some schools successfully use blogs as teaching tools, which has the benefit of
reinforcing skills in written expression and creativity. Adolescents are also finding that they can
access online information about their health concerns easily and anonymously. Excellent health
resources are increasingly available to youth on topics such as stress reduction. However, because
of their young age, adolescents can encounter inaccuracies during these searches and may require
parental involvement to be sure they are using reliable online resources, interpreting the
information correctly, and not becoming overwhelmed by what they are reading.
Using social media becomes a risk to adolescents more often than adults realize. Most risks
fall into these categories: peer-to-peer; lack of understanding of online privacy issues; and the
influences of advertisers. Although “online harassment” is often used interchangeably with the
term “cyberbullying”, it is actually different. Research suggests that online harassment is not as
common as offline harassment, and participation in social networking sites does not put most
children at risk of onlne harassment. Cyberbullying is deliberately using digital media to
communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about another person. It is the most
common online risk for all teens, and can have profound emotional effects.
Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression”, defined as
depression that develops when youngsters spend a great deal of time on social media sites and
then begin to exhibit classic symtoms of depression. The intensity of the online world is thought
to be a factor that may trigger depression in some adolescents. As with offline depression, young
people who suffer from Facebook depression are at risk of social isolation and sometimes turn to 7
risky internet sites for “help”. The main risks to young people online today are each other, risks of
improper use of technology, lack of privacy, or posting false information about themselves or
others. These types of behaviour endanger their privacy.
When people go onto wedsites, they can leave evidence of their visits. This ongoing record
of online activity is called the “digital footprint”. One of the biggest threats to young people on
social media sites is to their digital footprint and future reputations. Young people who lack an
awareness of privacy issues often post inappropriate material without understanding that “what
goes online stays online”. As a result, future job and college acceptance may be put in jeopardy by
inexperienced clicks of the mouse.
1. How does the writer explain why young people could face some problems when they use social media?
A. They spend more time than they should on social media sites.
B. They cannot control their use of social media sites well enough.
C. They are unaware of the ways in which others use social media sites.
D. Their use of social media sites and mobile phones has increased
2. The writer suggests that there is a problem between parents and their children because parents ______.
A. do not understand the technology behind social media sites
B. take little interest in their children’s online behaviour
C. feel excluded from their children’s online lives
D. do not understand the relationship between children’s online and offline lives
3. The writer suggests it may be dangerous for young people to access online health information because ______.
A. they can get information without saying who they are
B. the information they find may not be correct
C. they may refuse to share the information they find with their parents
D. they may not be able to find the information they need
4. In the sixth paragraph, the writer suggests that young social media users who feel socially excluded may ______.
A. give away more personal information than they should
B. be at risk of becoming seriously depressed
C. look for advice and support on unreliable wedsites
D. tell lies about themselves and other people
5. The writer uses the term ‘digital footprint’ to refer to ______.
A. a permanent account of someone’s contributions to a social media site
B. a list of places someone has visited
C. the information that someone wishes to keep private
D. a record of jobs and college places someone has applied for Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Part 4. You are going to read an introduction to a book. Seven paragraphs have been removed
from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap (1-7). There is
one extra paragraph which you do not need to use. (7 pts) 8
If you work for an advertising agency, the early years of the 1990s may well have been the
toughest of your professional life. The recession in business was bad enough. It was longer,
deeper and more severe than anticipated by even the most pessimistic, hitting industrialised
nations as hard as anything else for thirty years. 1. ______
Every single business in the country was affected, some the vehicle and building trades - finding
themselves 30 per cent down. A lot of people - a lot of companies in a lot of countries suffered. Of
course, advertising people are scarcely unique in losing their jobs in such difficult times, but of all
those still in employment, they often feel particularly under pressure. 2. ______
And yet, alongside these psychological and financial imperatives lies an almost paradoxical rise in
the perceived importance of the marketing process. The notion that companies should be making
sure they are producing services and goods that their customers want, as opposed to merely what
it is convenient for them to provide, is not a new one. Still, it's scarcely unfair to say that it has
been only over the past ten or fifteen years that many companies seem to have put the idea
intentionally, rather than fortuitously, into practice. 3. ______
All these things have pleasingly increased the status of marketing people, while simultaneously
adding to their burden. Marketing is increasingly regarded as that which it is not: a universal
panacea. With approximately half of most marketing budgets being spent on advertising, there's
some truth in saying that the buck then stops with the ad-people. It is certainly true that if the 80s
was the decade in which advertising never had it so good, the start of the 90s saw the industry
enduring its worst downturn for a generation. This was, of course, partly a direct consequence of
the economic climate at the time. 4. ______
And, generally, in the absence of concrete, convincing and quantitative evidence to the contrary,
they had to conclude that the benefits of advertising might be questionable. At a time when
enthusiasm to account for every dollar spent was naturally high, it was simply not clear enough to
many client companies exactly what they were getting for the large sums of money they were
spending, exactly what return they were seeing on their investment. Advertising - ever a business
to excite the suspicions of the sceptic - was, as a consequence, more than ever before on trial. 5. ______
Now, while none of this should elicit sympathy for a thoroughly tough business, it does mean that
many of those advertising people still in work continue to face precisely the same problems as
their clients: how to do more with less. If this is, in itself, sufficiently trying, a number of other
factors have made the production of effective advertising particularly difficult. 6. ______
These inclade, for example, the dramatic demographic changes facing much of the West; the
burgeoning power of the retailer; the changing needs and desires of consumers; the rise of
sponsorship; the increasingly onerous legal restrictions on advertising. And, of course, for some
companies there is the new challenge of advertising abroad. Together with the economic situation, 9
it is these matters which have forced many of those responsible for advertising to revisit Lord
Leverhulme's commonplace that: 'Only half my advertising works. The trouble is I don't know
which half. Because now more than ever before, the pressure is on to increase the proportion of advertising that works. 7. ______
This means that while conferences and seminars may provide some useful information, the books
currently available on advertising, and how to do it, really don't. Those that are available tend to
treat the process of producing advertising with too much respect. To give the impression that the
work advertising agencies produce is invariably of the highest quality, deeply considered and
remarkable value for money, is neither true nor likely to help those employees of the client
company who are ultimately responsible. Missing paragraphs
A. Thus, client companies almost everywhere took the view of one of their leaders quoted in the
British trade magazine Campaign: "We want better strategies, better targeting, better creativity,
better media placement, better thinking. We aim to ensure we get advertising agencies' best people
on our business and then ensure they are motivated to work their fingers to the bone, producing outstanding work for us.
B. The consequences have been that marketing activities have at last begun to be given the
attention they deserve by management, that these people have acquired a little learning about the
subject, and that a few brands have actually begun to be genuinely marketed.
C. Ultimately, the poverty of the current advertising scene is due to the nature of the relationship
between agencies and their clients. The best way of getting better advertising lles partly in
improving this, and partly in adopting a more empirical approach to the whole advertising process.
D. However, there was also evidence of more deep seated change which would not simply be
waved away as, and when, economic prospects brightened. The fact was that while this recession
naturally caused potential clients to review, reconsider and often cut their budgets at the time, it
also made them examine more closely than ever before the economics of advertising.
E. It is not terribly surprising that, at the moment, help for those who want or need to do just that
is far from freely available. Generally, companies and the advertising agencies they use have been
far too busy simply coping with these circumstances to wish to talk or write about them, while
those that have succeeded in keeping their heads above water are often understandably anxious to
keep the secrets of their success to themselves.
F. Seen, as they are, to spearhead efforts to support the bottom line, they suppose themselves to be
under close enough scrutiny from their colleagues, let alone their bosses. Moreover, they are also
faced with the very considerable problem of increasingly being asked to do their ever more
difficult jobs with smaller and smaller budgets. They have been told that less must be more. 10
G. Some of these are a direct consequence of the recession discussed earlier: the controversy over
production costs, and the disinclination to take the sort of risks that are ironically often the
essence of good advertising. Other events would have happened irrespective of local or global economic conditions.
H. In Britain, it meant in 1991 alone that while gross domestic product (GDP) declined, interest
rates remained punitively high, consumer spending on almost everything other than staples fell,
more than half a million people lost their jobs, and some 75,000 homes were repossessed. Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Part 5. Read the passage and do the tasks that follow. (10 pts) Multitasking
In the social media era, we’re all required to do several things at once. But this constant
multitasking is taking its toll. Neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin talks about our addicition to technology and its impact.
Our brains are busier than ever before. We're assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and
rumour, all posing as information. Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can
ignore is exhausting. At the same time, we are all doing more. Thirty years ago, travel agents
made our airline reservations and salespeople helped us find what we needed in shops. Now we
do most things ourselves. We're doing a broad spectrum of tasks while still trying to keep up with
our lives, our families, our hobbies and our favourite TV shows, and helping us do all this is our
smartphones. They play a pivotal role - part of the 21st-century mania for cramming everything
we do into every single spare moment of downtime.
But there's a fly in the ointment. Although we think we're multitasking - doing several things at
once-and making a good job of it, this is a powerful illusion. Now new research shows that the
mind can easily deal with two separate tasks at the same time, because it can channel them into
the two separate parts of the front of the brain. However, when a third activity was introduced the
mind became overloaded. Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and world expert on divided
attention, says that our brains are 'not wired to multitask well... When people think they're
multitasking, they're actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time
they do, there's a cognitive cost in doing so'. So we're not actually keeping a lot of balls in the air
like expert jugglers; we're more like amateur plate spinners, frantically switching from one task to
another, ignoring the one that's not right in front of us but worried it'll come crashing down any
minute. Even though we think we're getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient.
Multitasking has been found to increase the production of the stress hormone cortisol as well as
the fight-or flight hormone adrenaline, which can overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog
or scrambled thinking. Multitasking creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop, effectively
rewarding the brain for losing focus and for constantly searching for external stimulation. To
make matters worse, the area of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex has a novelty bias,
meaning that its attention can be easily hijacked by something new - the proverbial shiny objects
that we use to entice infants, for example. The irony here for those of us who are trying to focus
amid competing activities is clear, the very brain region we need to rely on for staying on task is easily distracted. 11
Just having the opportunity to multitask is detrimental to cognitive performance. Glenn Wilson,
former visiting. professor of psychology at Gresham College, London, calls it info-mania. His
research found that being in situations where you're making a concerted effort to concentrate on a
task as an email sits unread in your inbox reduces your effective Intelligence Quotient (IQ) by
almost 10 points. Wilson showed that the cognitive losses from multitasking are even greater than
the cognitive losses from taking certain drugs.
Russ Poldrack, a neuroscientist at Stanford, found that learning information while multitasking
causes the new information to go to the wrong part of the brain. If students do their homework
and watch TV at the same time, for instance, the information from their schoolwork goes into the
striatum, a region specialised for storing new procedures and skills, as opposed to facts and ideas.
Without the distraction of TV, the information goes into the hippocampus, where it's organised
and categorised in a variety of ways, making it easier to retrieve.
To make matters worse, lots of multitasking requires decision-making: Do I answer this text
message or ignore it? How do I respond to this? It turns out that decision-making is also very hard
on our neural resources and that little decisions appear to take up. as much energy as big ones.
One of the first things we lose is impulse control. This rapidly spirals into a depleted state in
which, after making lots of insignificant decisions, we can end up making truly bad decisions about something important.
In discussing information overload with Fortune 500 leaders, top scientists, writers, students and
business owners, email comes up again and again as a problem. It's not a philosophical objection
to email itself, but rather the mind-numbing number of communications that come in. When the
10-year-old son of my neuroscience colleague Jeff Mogil at McGill University was asked what his
father does for a living. he responded, 'He answers emails'. Jeff admitted after some thought that
it's not so far from the truth. Workers in government, the arts, and industry report that the sheer
volume of email they receive is overwhelming. taking a huge bite out of their day not only in
terms of answering them, but also prioritising which ones to answer. We feel obliged to reply our
emails, but it seems impossible to do so and get anything else done. Questions 1-4
Do the following statements reflect the claims of the writer in the reading passage?
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer NO
if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks
1. People are making greater demands on their time than ever before.
2. The smartphone has become an indispensible device for our careers.
3. People have incorrect beliefs regarding their ability to multitask well.
4. The maximum number of tasks the mind can deal with successfully at a given time to achieve a desired outcome is three. Questions 5-10 12
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
5. Earl Miller uses the term 'cognitive cost' in the second paragraph ______.
A. to imply that multitasking may result in us missing vital information
B. to explain what actually happens in the brain during multitasking
C. to demonstrate the speed with which we work while multitasking
D. to suggest that multitasking adds to the time needed to complete a task
6. What does the writer say about one particular hormone in relation to multitasking?
A. It causes people to lose their concentration.
B. It triggers a part of the brain used for practical activities.
C. It allows people to focus on several things simultaneously.
D. It acts as a way of slowing down the front region of the brain.
7 According to Glenn Wilson, 'info-mania' means people
A. place a strong emphasis on learning.
B. rise to the challenge of performing well.
C. find it difficult to resist the chance to multitask.
D. become less competent at what they are doing
8. What is suggested by Russ Poldrack's research?
A. There is some overlap in the brain's zones.
B. Television plays a useful role in education.
C. There are benefits to doing uninterrupted study.
D. Some people are better than others at recalling information.
9. What does the writer say about decision making?
A. The brain has the ability to distinguish between big and small decisions.
B. The brain struggles to deal with the questions involved in making a decision.
C. We often make mistakes when it comes to making decisions about minor matters.
D. We need equal amounts of brain power to make major and unimportant decisions.
10. Which problem concerning emails does the writer mention?
A. the quantity that has to be dealt with
B. the difficulty in deciding when to respond
C. the guilt experienced by failing to write a reply
D. the boring nature of this type of communication Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 6. You are going to read about the experiences and opinions of five educators online
courses and learning. For questions 1-10, match the information with a suitable section (A-E).
The sections may be chosen more than once. (10 pts) ONLINE STUDY
A. Educators have known for 30 years that students perform better when given one-on-one
tutoring and mastery learning – working on a subject until it is masteres, not just until a test is
scheduled. Success also requires motivation, whether from an inner drive or from parents, mentors
or peers. For years my colleagues and I have given srtificial-intelligence courses: we lectured,
assigned homework and gave everyone the same exam at the same time. Each semester just 5 to 13
10 per cent of students regularly engaged in deep discussion; the rest were more passive. We felt
there had to be a better way, so we created a free online course, which was completed by only
23,000 participants of an initial ‘intake’ of 100,000. Our second scheme was more successful as
we made learning happen actively. This helped us increase motivation and keep attention from
wavering, both of which led us to a much lower dropout rate. For our class. Teachers analyzed the
data generated by student participation, but an artificial-intelligence system could perform this
function and then make recommendations for what a student could try next to improve.
B. Today students in most classrooms sit, listen and take notes while a professor lectures. Despite
there being 20 to 300 students in the room, there is little or no human interaction. Exams often
offer the first opportunity to get real information on how well the students digested the
knowledge. If the exam identifies a lack of understanding of a basic concept, the class still moves
on to a more advanced concept. Virtual tools are providing an opportunity to rethink this
methodology. If a lecture is available online, class time can be freed for discussion, peer-tutoring
or professor-led exploration. If a lecture is removed from class time and we have on-demand
adaptive exercises and diagnostic, we can enter the realm of ‘blended learning’. In the blended
leraning reality, the professor’s role is moved up the value chain. Rather than spending the bulk of
their time lecturing, writing exams and grading them, they can interact with their students. Rather
than enforcing a sit-and-listen passivity, teachers will mentor and challenge their students to take
control of their rate of learning- the most valuable skill of all.
C. Digital technologies have the potential to transform Indian higher education. A new model
built around massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are developed locally and combined with
those provided by top universities abroad could deliver higher education on a scale and at a
quality not possible before. India has experimented with online classes before, but their impact
has been marginal. A decade ago, the country began using the internet to distribute video and
Web-based courses under a government-funded initiative, the National Program on Technology
Enhanced Learning. Developers created over 900 courses, focused mainly on science and
engineering with about 40 hours of introduction each. With limited interactivity and uneven
quality, these courses failed to attract a large body of students. Now, though, MOOCs have given
Indian academics a better sense of how a lecture could be restructured into short, self-contained
segments with higher interactivity to engage students more effectively. This appears to be a step
in the right direction, but what is really needed is the right model to use MOOCs in an Indian
context. With a decade of experience in this space and a vibrant technology ecosystem, India will
most likely find its way very soon.
D. The rapid evolution of digital resources like video, interactive multimedia and new modes of
assessment challenges us to reimagine what we can and should do when we are face-to-face with
our students. As I develop online courses on cellular metabolism, for instance, I hypothesise that
the blend of animation and appropriate embedded assessments will communicate the intricacies of
electron transfer more effectively than that protion of my traditional lecture. After rebalancing
class assignments to include both reading and online materials, while maintaining the same
overall workload, I nonetheless gain time with my students in the classroom to discuss and
critically analyse the metabolic consequences of experimentally disrupting electron transfer.
Underlying this progress is the awareness that experimentation is the key and that we do not yet
know how best to harness the enormous positive potential of the online revolution for on-campus 14
learning. This is why every course or module should have a associated research component where student progress is measured.
E. Technology is transforming education for the worse and one of its dubious uses is to grade
essays. Major testing companies are using software to score written test answers as machines can
work faster than teachers. However, they cannot evaluate the imaginative use of language. Thus,
students will learn to write according to the formula that the machine responds to best at the
expense of accuracy, creativity and imagination. Worse, the teacher will abandon the important
job of reading what the students write and will be less informed about how they think. That is a
loss for the quality of education. A more worrisome use of technology is the accumulation and
storage of personal, confidential data an a cloud. Who needs all this personal information and why
is it being shared? Advocates say that the goal is to create better products for individual students.
Critics believe that the information will be given or sold to vendors, who will use it to market
products to children and their parents.
In which section are the following mentioned?
a strategy that helped the learners focus 1.
the reason why more data is required to make the best use of computer-based learning 2.
digital resources leading to the standardisation of student learning 3.
the necessity to adapt online courses to a specific culture 4.
a claim that information will be used to enhance product quality 5.
personally combining digital and traditional tools to provide a more effective learning experience 6.
the problem of gaps in students’ knowledge not being addressed 7.
humans undertaking a task that machines could carry out 8.
the importance of students progressing at their own pace 9.
computer-based courses that attracted a disappoiting number of participants 10.
SECTION IV. WRITING (60 points)
Part 1:Read the following passage and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary
should be between 100 and 120 words long. (10 pts)
Vitamin A is found only in yellow animal fats, in egg-yolk, milk and cheese. It is
particularly plentiful in fish-liver oils, hence fish-liver oils are used for preventing and curing
illness caused by lack of vitamin A. In a well-fed, healthy human being, the liver can store up
sufficient vitamin A to meet the body's requirements for six months.
Although vitamin A itself is not present in plants, many plants produce a substance called
carotene, formed from leaf-green which our bodies can convert into vitamin A. Carotene is the
yellowish-red coloring matter in carrots. The greener a leaf is, the more carotene it usually
contains. Hence the importance of green, leafy vegetables in the diet as a source of carotene.
Tomatoes, papayas, mangoes and bananas contain more carotene than most other fruits. Red palm
oil contains so much carotene that it is used instead of cod-liver oil. Thus, it is very valuable, both
as a food-fat and for deep-frying.
Vitamin A and carotene are insoluble in water and they are not destroyed by heat unless
oxygen is present. Boiling in water, therefore, does not destroy much vitamin A or carotene. 15
Vitamin A encourages healthy growth and physical fitness. Young animals soon stop
growing and die if vitamin A is not present in their diet. This vitamin keeps the moist surfaces
lining the digestive canal, the lungs and air passages healthy. It also helps keep the ducts of the
various glands, the tissue that lines the eyelids and covers the front of the eyeball functional. As
vitamin A helps these tissues build up resistance to infection, it is often called the anti-infective vitamin.
Some of the most common disorders in people are caused by a shortage of vitamin A,
when the moist tissues become dry and rough. This often causes serious eye disease, followed by
infection of the air-passages. The skin may also become flaky and rough. Another defect caused
by shortage of vitamin A is 'night-blindness', when the affected person has distinct vision only in bright light.
As the body cannot produce vitamin A, it has to come from external sources. Thus a well-
balanced diet is required and is usually sufficient to provide the necessary amount. There is
therefore no need to supplement the need in the form of pills.
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Part 2. The table below gives the information about wheat exports in three different countries
from 2010 to 2015. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and
make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words. (20 points)
WHEAT EXPORTS 2010 – 2015 (in millions of tons) 16 30 25 20 France 15 Canada European Community 10 5 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
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Part 2: Essay writing (30 pts)
Some people believe that learning depends not upon the personality or methodology of
the teacher, but rather on the student's attitude to his or her own learning.
To what extent would you support or reject this idea? Give reasons for your answer and
include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 300 words. 17
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That’s the end of the test! 19