Kì thi chọn đội tuyển chính thức dự thi HSG quốc gia lớp 12 THPT tỉnh Tây Ninh năm học 2019-2020 môn thi Tiếng Anh vòng I

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TÂY NINH
TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN HOÀNG LÊ KHA
KIỂM TRA CHỌN ĐỘI HỌC SINH GIỎI VÒNG TỈNH LẦN 1 NĂM HỌC 2019-2020
Ngày kiểm tra:15 tháng 7 năm 2019
Môn kiểm tra: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề) ĐIỂM
HỌ TÊN VÀ CHỮ KÍ GIÁM KHẢO MÃ SỐ PHÁCH Bằng số Bằng chữ GIÁM KHẢO 1 GIÁM KHẢO 2 ĐỀ CHÍNH THỨC
(Đề kiểm tra có 12 trang, thí sinh làm trên giấy kiểm tra) A. LISTENING (3.5 PTS)
Part 1: For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about the Silk Road and answer the questions. Write NO
MORE THAN FIVE WORDS taken from the recording for each answer.
1. What was the Silk Road modelled as?
…………………………………………………………
2. Name THREE things that spread out in parallel with silk.
…………………………………………………………
3. What is the potential of the new Silk Road?
…………………………………………………………
4. What does the new Silk Road seek to?
…………………………………………………………
5. What is the term the author used to describe the infrastructure plan?
…………………………………………………………
Part 2: You will hear five short extracts in which different people are talking about volunteering.
For questions 6-10, choose from the list (A-H) what each speaker did. A. assisted the elderly Speaker 1 6. _____
B. helped to provide a water supply Speaker 2 7. _____
C. helped out in an old people’s home Speaker 3 8. _____
D. took care of wounded people Speaker 4 9. _____ E. worked with computers Speaker 5 10. _____ F. transported supplies G. taught a foreign language H. did construction work Page 1
Part 3: You will hear part of a radio interview with Adrian Jones, who has special responsibility for
overseas students at the University of Bridgeport. For questions 11-15, choose the answer (A, B, C
or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
11. According to Adrian, most overseas students
A. are on science and engineering postgraduate courses.
B. have never studied subjects in the humanities
C. are studying for a business degree.
D. did not complete their first degree course.
12. What does Adrian stress about overseas students at the university?
A. They all suffer from essentially the same problems.
B. The language problems they have are the hardest for them to overcome.
C. They are different from each other in many respects.
D. They are all from similar social backgrounds.
13. According to Adrian, the most serious problem for the majority of overseas students at Bridgeport is
A. learning to work with people from other countries.
B. finding a suitable place to live.
C. getting to grips with the way things are organised and run in Britain.
D. learning the university’s rules and regulations.
14. Adrian makes the point that
A. most overseas students lack self-confidence.
B. in the long term, we’ve all got to help ourselves.
C. it isn’t uncommon for somebody’s studies to be affected by family problems.
D. five overseas students had to leave because they couldn’t cope with their coursework.
15. What statement from the interviewer does Adrian disagree with?
A. British students pay less to attend the university than foreigners.
B. Overseas students can get a place at the university even if they did relatively poorly at school.
C. The university would like to increase the number of overseas students.
D. Accepting more overseas students may damage the university’s reputation. 11………. 12………. 13………. 14………. 15……….
Part 4: You will hear part of a radio programme about oceanography. For questions 16-25,
complete the sentences with a word or short phrase.
The sea is becoming more polluted as a result of the fact that more and more people are living in (16) ______________________.
More than 30% of the world’s (17) ______________________ is extracted from under the oceans.
One reason for the oceans’ importance is that they provide us with food that is rich in (18) ______________________.
(19) ______________________ is responsible for the fact that cod and other types of sea life are becoming scarce.
Plankton is important because of the role it plays in the oceans’ (20) ______________________.
It is the spinning of the Earth that produces the main ocean (21) ______________________.
Much of the energy generated by waves currently remains (22) ______________________.
Each year, the total amount of fish we take out of the ocean does not weigh as much as the amount of (23)
______________________ we put into it.
The fact that the world’s oceans are getting warmer is a direct threat to (24) ______________________.
(25) ______________________ and other pollutants are also doing considerable damage to marine wildlife. Page 2 B. READING (5.0 PTS)
Part1: Read and choose the best answer THE MAKING OF MEMORY
Memories are our most enduring characteristic. In old age we can remember our childhood eighty or more
years ago; a chance remark can conjure up a face, a name, a vision of sea or mountains once seen and
apparently long forgotten. Memory defines who we are and shapes how we act more closely than any
other aspect of our personhood. All of life is a trajectory from experienced past to unknown future,
illuminated only during the always receding instant we call the present, the moment of our actual,
conscious experience. Yet our present appears continuous with our past, grows out of it, is shaped by it,
because of our capacity for memory. It is this which prevents the past from being lost, as unknowable as
the future. It is memory which thus provides time with its arrow.
For each of us, our memories are unique. You can lose a limb, have plastic surgery, a kidney transplant or
a sex-change operation, yet you are still in an important sense recognizably yourself as long as your
memories persist. We know who we are, and who other people are, in terms of memory. Lose your
memory and you as you, cease to exist, which is why clinical cases of amnesia arc so endlessly
fascinating and frightening. Advocates of cryonics, that Californian fantasy of quick-freezing the dead
until future advances in medical technology can bring them back to life, recognize this; they propose a
computer backup store for the frozen corpse’s memories which may somehow be read into the revived
body at a future time. But our own human memories are not embedded in a computer, they are encoded in
the brain, in the ten billion nerve cells that comprise the human cerebrum - and the connections and
pathways between these cells. Memories are living processes, which become transformed, imbued with
new meanings each lime we recall them Most of us worry that we have a poor memory, that we forget
faces, vital appointments. Yet the scale and extent of what any one of us can remember are prodigious.
Imagine sitting down and looking at a photograph for a few seconds. Then another, then another...
Suppose that a week later I show you the photographs again, each accompanied by a new, different one,
and ask you to say which you had seen before. How many photographs do you think you could identify
correctly before your memory ran out or you became confused? When I asked my colleagues in the lab,
their guesses ranged from twenty to fifty. Yet when the experiment is done in reality most people can
identify accurately at least ten thousand different photographs without showing any signs of ‘running out’ of memory capacity.
Do we then really forget at all? Are all our past experiences, as some schools of psychoanalysis maintain,
encoded in some way within our brains, so that, if only we could find the key to accessing them, every
detail of our past would become as transparent to us as is the present moment of our consciousness? Or is
forgetting functional, so that we record and remember only those things which we have reason to believe
are important for our future survival? If that were so then to have a perfect memory would not be a help
but a hindrance in our day-to-day existence, and the long search for techniques or drugs to improve our
memory - a search which goes back far into antiquity - would be at best a chimera.
Above all, how do we remember al all? How can the subtleties of our day-to-day experiences, the joys
and humiliations of childhood, the trivia of last night’s supper or the random digits of a passing car's
number plate become represented within the mix of molecules, of ions, proteins and lipids that make up
the ten billion nerve cells of our brain? It is hard enough to envisage such a great number of cells, it is
enough to note that each human brain contains getting on for three times as many nerve cells as there are
people alive on the earth today, and that if you were to begin counting the connections between them at
the rate of one every second, it would take you anything from three to thirty million years to complete
your tally. Enough here perhaps to store the memories of a lifetime...
And yet there is a problem. During a human lifetime every molecule of our body is replaced many times
over, cells die and are replaced, the connections between them are made and broken thousands, perhaps
millions of times. Yet despite this great flux which constitutes our biological existence, memories remain.
No memory within a computer could survive such a complete turnover of all the machine's constituent Page 3
parts. Somehow just as the shapes of our bodies persist despite the ceaseless ebb and flow of their
molecular components, so do our memories, embedded in the structure and processes of the brain.
1. Why is memory described as our most enduring characteristic?
A. Old people can remember details of their own childhood.
B. It provides a link between our past and our future.
C. All our actions and behaviour are products of our memory.
D. It is an individual characteristic, unknowable to other people.
2. People are fascinated by cases of amnesia because _______
A. it is a highly unusual condition.
B. it represents a loss of individual identity.
C. it can be brought on by routine medical treatment.
D. they are afraid that others' will not recognize them.
3. What doubts does the author have about cryonics?
A. It oversimplifies the problem.
B. It originated in California.
C. It is completely unscientific.
D. It is too reliant on computers.
4. What is shown by the experiment using photographs?
A. Memory can easily be improved.
B. We worry unnecessarily about our memory.
C. We underestimate our memory.
D. The human memory is very powerful.
5. How might having a perfect memory be a problem?
A. We would confuse present and past.
B. We would remember a lot of irrelevant things.
C. We would need to take drugs to maintain it.
D. We would exhaust the amount of memory available.
6. According to the author, the human brain differs from a computer because of _______ A. the amount it can store.
B. the speed at which it operates.
C. the range of material it can process.
D. its ability to renew itself.
7. The expressions flux, ebb and flow and turnover are all used in the final paragraph to describe _______ A. a rate of change.
B. the consequences of change. C. a state of change.
D. problems associated with change. 1……. 2……. 3……. 4……. 5……. 6……. 7…….
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks below. LOST CIVILIZATION OF PERU
Two thousand years ago a mysterious and little known civilization ruled the northern coast of Peru. Its
people were called the Moche. They built huge and bizarre pyramids that still dominate the surrounding
countryside; some well over a hundred feet tall. Many are so heavily eroded they look like natural hills;
only close up can you see they are made up of millions of mud bricks. Several of the pyramids, known as
'huacas', meaning sacred site in the local Indian dialect, contain rich collections of murals depicting both
secular and sacred scenes from the Moche world. Others house the elaborate tombs of Moche leaders.
Out in the desert, archaeologists have also found the 2,000-year-old remains of an extensive system of
mud brick aqueducts which enabled the Moche to tame their desert environment. Many are still in use
today. Indeed there are signs that the Moche irrigated a larger area of land than farmers in Peru do now. Page 4
But who were the Moche? How did they create such an apparently successful civilisation in die middle of
the desert, what kind of a society was it, and why did it disappear? For decades it was one of the greatest
archaeological riddles in South America. But now at last, scientists are beginning to come up with answers.
As archaeologists have excavated at Moche sites they’ve unearthed some of the most fabulous pottery and
jewellery ever to emerge from an ancient civilization. The Moche were pioneers of metal working
techniques like gilding and early forms of soldering. These skills enabled them to create extraordinarily
intricate artefacts; ear studs and necklaces, nose rings and helmets, many heavily inlaid with gold and precious stones.
But it was the pottery that gave the archaeologists their first real insight into Moche life. The Moche left
no written record but they did leave a fabulous account of their life and times in paintings on pots and
vessels. Many show everyday events and objects such as people, fish, birds and other animals. Others
show scenes from what, at first sight, look like a series of battles.
But as the archaeologists studied them more closely they realised they weren't ordinary battles; all the
soldiers were dressed alike, the same images were repeated time and again. When the battle was won, the
vanquished were ritually sacrificed: their throats cut, the blood drained into a cup and the cup drunk by a
God-like deity. It was, the archaeologists slowly realised, a story not of war but ritual combat followed by human sacrifice.
But what did it mean. Was it a real or mythological scene; and, above all, was it a clue to the Moche’s life and times?
The first breakthrough came when a Canadian archaeologist called Dr Steve Bourget, of the University of
Texas in Austin, discovered a collection of bones at one of the most important Moche huacas. Examining
them he realised he wasn't looking at an ordinary burial site. The bodies had been systematically
dismembered and marks on neck vertebrae indicated they had had their throats cut. Here was physical
proof that the images of combat and sacrifice on the pots were depicting not a mythological scene but a real one.
Many of the skeletons were deeply encased in mud which meant the burials had to have taken place in the
rain. Yet in this part of Peru it almost never rains.
Bourget realised there had to be a deliberate connection between the rain and the sacrifices. It leads him to
a new insight into the Moche world. The Moche, like most desert societies, had practiced a form of ritual
designed to celebrate or encourage rain. The sacrifices were about making an unpredictable world more
predictable. A harsh environment had moulded a harsh civilisation with an elaborate set of rituals
designed to ensure its survival.
These discoveries answered one question - what was the iconography all about - but still left a central
riddle. What had gone wrong: why had Moche society' finally collapsed? The next clue was to come from
hundreds of miles away in the Andes mountains. Here climate researcher Dr Lonnie Thompson, of Ohio
State University, was gathering evidence of the region's climatic history using ice cores drilled in glaciers.
Almost immediately Thompson and his team noticed something intriguing. The historic records showed
that over the last one hundred years, every time the ice cores showed drought in the mountains, it
corresponded to a particular kind of wet weather on the coast, a weather system known as an El Nino. In
other words drought in the mountains meant an El Nino on the coast. If Thompson could trace back the
climate record in the mountains he'd also get a picture of what happened on the coast.
The result was fascinating. The climate record suggested that at around 560 to 650 AD - the time the
Moche were thought to have collapsed - there had been a 30- year drought in the mountains, followed by
30 years or so of heavy rain and snow.
If the weather on the coast was the opposite, then it suggested a 30-year El Nino - what climatologists call
a mega El Nino - starting at around 560 AD, which was followed by a mega drought lasting another 30
years. Such a huge series of climatic extremes would have been enough to kill off a civilization - even a
modern one. Here, at last, was a plausible theory for the disappearance of the Moche. But could it be proved? Page 5
Archaeologists set out to look for evidence. And it wasn't hard to find. All the huacas are heavily eroded
by rain - but scientists couldn't tell if this was recent damage or from the time of the Moche. But then
Steve Bourget found evidence of enormous rain damage at a Moche site called Huancaco which he could
date. Here new building work had been interrupted and tom apart by torrential rain, and artefacts found in
the damaged area dated to almost exactly the period Thompson had predicted there would have been a
mega El Nino. Thompson's theory seemed to be stacking up.
Then archaeologists began to find evidence of Thompson's mega drought. They found huge sand dunes
which appeared to have drifted in and engulfed a number of Moche settlements around 600 to 650 AD.
The story all fitted together. The evidence suggested the Moche had been hit by a double whammy: a
huge climate disaster had simply wiped them out.
For several years this became the accepted version of events; the riddle of the Moche had been solved.
There was only one problem. In the late 1990s American archaeologist Dr Tom Dillehay revisited some
of the more obscure Moche sites and found that the dates didn't match with the climate catastrophe
explanation. Many of these settlements were later than 650 AD. Clearly the weather hadn't been the cause of their demise.
He also found something else. Many of the new settlements were quite unlike previous Moche
settlements. Instead of huge huacas, the Moche had started building fortresses. They had been at war.
But who with? Searching the site for clues. Dillehays's team were unable to find any non-Moche military
artefacts. It could only mean one thing. The Moche had been fighting amongst themselves.
Dillehay now put together a new theory. The Moche had struggled through the climatic disasters but had
been fatally weakened. The leadership - which at least in part claimed authority on the basis of being able
to determine the weather - had lost its authority and control over its people. Moche villages and and/or
clan groups turned on each other in a battle for scarce resources like food and land. The Moche replaced
ritual battles and human sacrifices with civil war. Gradually they fought themselves into the grave.
Yet even that’s not the whole story. Today, along the coast of Peru it’s impossible to escape the legacy of
this lost civilization. Their art lives on in the work of local craftsmen. And if you travel to the highlands,
the Moche tradition of ritualised combat is preserved in the Tinku ceremonies where highland villages
conduct ceremonial battles against each other in the hope of ensuring a good harvest.
Today, after 1,500 years, the Moche, and their legacy are beginning to take their place in world history.
The story of the Moche is an epic account of society that thought it could control the world and what
happened to it when it found it couldn't. It's a story of human achievement and natural disaster, human sacrifice and war.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? Write TRUE
if the statement agrees with the information FALSE
if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN
if there is no information on this
8. Chiefs are buried in some pyramids.
9. Moche water channels have lasted to the present day.
10. Archaeologists found evidence that the Moche used money.
11. Texts in the Moche language were discovered.
12. Pottery designs had scenes of the Moche fighting foreign armies.
8. _______ 9. _______ 10. _______ 11. _______ 12. _______
Complete the notes. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the
Reading Passage for each answer.
13. The aim of the killings and burials was to make it more likely there would be _______
14. The extremely dry weather led to some Moche sites being covered by _______
15. It was thought their civilization had been destroyed by changes in the _______
16. Dillehay found evidence that Moche society had survived beyond _______
17. The first evidence of military activity was the discovery of _______ Page 6
Which THREE of these reasons does Dillehay suggest contributed to the disappearance of the Moche civilization?
A. a disastrous war with an external enemy
B. six decades of extreme weather
C. people no longer obeying their leaders D. declining religious belief
E. the practice of sacrificing people
18. _______ 19. _______ 20. _______
Part 3: You are going to read a passage and choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. 21. _________
Telephone, television, radio, and the telegraph all help people communicate with each other. Because of
these devices, ideas and news of events spread quickly all over the world. For example, within seconds,
people can know the results of an election in Japan or Argentina. An international soccer match comes
into the home of everyone with a television set. News of a disaster such as an earthquake or a flood can
bring help from distant countries. Within hours, help is on the way. 22. _________
How has speed of communication changed the world? To many people, the world has become smaller. Of
course, this does not mean that the world is physically smaller. Two hundred years ago. communication
between the continents took a long time. All news was carried on ships that took weeks or even months to
cross the oceans. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it took six weeks for news from Europe to
reach the Americas. This time difference influenced people's actions. For example, one battle in the war
of 1812 between the English and the United States armies could have been avoided if the warring sides
had known that a peace agreement had already been signed. Peace was made in England, but the news of
peace took six weeks to reach America. During those six weeks, the large and serious Battle of New
Orleans was fought, and many lives were lost. 23. _________
An important part of the history of the world is the history of communication. In prehistoric times, people
had limited knowledge of the world. They had little information about geography, the study of the Earth.
People knew very little beyond their small groups except what was happening near their homes. Later,
people were organized into villages, and verbal communication between small towns was possible. Still,
the people’s knowledge was limited because they had no outside information. Kingdoms and small
countries then developed, with a king directing the people. Cities developed, too, but still communication
was limited to the small geographical area of the country. Much later in history, after the invention of the
printing press, many more people learned to read, and communication was improved. 24. _________
In this modern age, communication is so fast that it is almost instant. People's lives have been changed
because of the immediate spread of news. Sometimes the speed is so great that it does not allow people
time to think. For example, leaders of countries have only minutes, or, at most, hours to consider all the
parts of a problem. They are expected to answer immediately. Once they had days and weeks to think before making decisions. 25. _________
The speed of communication demands a new- responsibility from all people of the world. People in
different countries must try harder to understand each other. An example is that people with different
religions must try to understand each other's beliefs and values, even if they do not accept them.
Sometimes their cultures are quite different. What one group considers a normal part of life is strange to
another culture. In some cases, a normal part of one culture might be bad or impolite to people of another
culture. That kind of difference is a possible basis for misunderstanding. People must learn not to judge Page 7
others, but to accept them as they are. As the world grows smaller, people must learn to talk to each other
more effectively as well as communicate more rapidly.
Match the headings given in the box below with their appropriate numbers (21 - 25) that lead the
five paragraphs and write the letters A-H in the corresponding numbered boxes. (The headings
outnumber the paragraphs, so you will not use all of them).
A. A disadvantage of fast communication
B. High speed of communication and its benefits C. Our shrinking world D. Communication devices
E. A brief history of communication development
F. Modern communication and a change in thinking pattern
G. The changing world resulting from fast communication
H. Modem communication and expected responsibility
Then choose the correct answer to each of the following questions by circling A, B, C, or D.
26. Modern communications have _________ .
A. affected the results of elections and news of disasters
B. only allowed people to see world sports events at home
C. kept people better informed of their world and beyond
D. made people happier, busier, but less informed
27. Before the invention of communication devices,_________ .
A. people gave better care to their local affairs
B. there was no transportation between countries
C. people were much interested in world affairs
D. people were mostly kept in the dark about the world
28 A negative aspect of fast communication is that it _________ .
A. makes people think too fast
B. will push governments into dead ends
C. deprives decision makers of correct information
D. may rush governments into decisions
29. There were instances in which lives could have been saved if _________ .
A. intercommunication had been established
B. there had not been a delay in communication
C. officers’ demands of information had been met
D. carrier pigeons had arrived in time
30. The speed of communication has helped create opportunity for _________ .
A. mutual understanding and cultural tolerance
B. better understanding and freer trade
C. the expansion of cultural differences
D. the growth of the physical world
Part 4: You are going to read an article about Captain Cook. For questions 31 - 40, choose from the
sections (A - D). The sections may be chosen more than once.
In which section are the following mentioned?
Cook's voyages enhancing knowledge in a range of fields 31. _______
Cook's fateful decision to challenge a figure of authority 32. _______
the concept of giving up one's life for a greater good 33. _______
meticulous methodology being crucial to Cook's achievements 34. _______
remarkable coincidences facilitating Cook's purpose 35. _______
a change in circumstances clouding a situation 36. _______
the abandonment of an enlightened approach 37. _______
the privileged seeking to reinforce an image 38. _______ Page 8
the possibility of Cook being passed for a divinity 39. _______
asking if Cook merely performed his duty or actively shaped regional policy 40. _______
The Changing Faces of Captain Cook A
In the painting by Johann Zoffany which depicts the death of Captain James Cook - the tireless
eighteenth-century explorer - the captain is shown lying on the ground, mortally wounded and surrounded
by an angry group of half-naked warriors. The painting, in keeping with others of the late eighteenth
century, contributed to the growing demand for stylised depictions of heroic deaths of British officers.
This fashion reinforced the viewpoint that the British elite, at that time, were selflessly willing to sacrifice
themselves in the name of enlightenment and progress. During his career in the navy, Cook made three
important voyages into the Pacific. A quick look at a map of that area today will show reminders of that
time - for example, the Cook Islands, and Mount Cook on the South Island of New Zealand. B
There is some controversy as to whether Cook should be regarded simply as part of the process which led
to Europe spreading its influence and strength into the Pacific or whether he played a more active role.
Either way, the significance of his discoveries remains immense. His expeditions contributed greatly to
the study of botany, anthropology, navigation, exploration, cartography, and medicine. In fact, his greatest
accomplishments probably stemmed from his thorough approach to whatever he undertook, which led
him to be able to consolidate the work of earlier explorers. Cook’s first two voyages into the Pacific were
characterised by his tolerance and forbearance towards the inhabitants of the islands he visited and the
importance he placed on the physical well-being of his crew. His recognition of the fact that there was a
huge cultural difference between his men and the islanders influenced his dealings with the latter and the
commands issued to the former. By contrast, his third and last voyage saw a different, more irritable
Cook, a man who frequently punished his own men for minor misdemeanors. Flogging became a
relatively common event and some crew members even began to plot mutiny. C
On 16th January, 1779, Cook’s ships put in at Kealakekua Bay on Hawaii having first slowly
circumnavigated the island. He had decided that they should pass the winter in a warm region before
sailing to the west coast of America to restock the ships. The arrival of the ships coincided with the rituals
surrounding the worship of the god Lono. By landing at the bay where the temple of the god was situated
in this particular season, the expedition managed to fulfil with amazing precision the various legends
associated with Lono. Even the ship’s masts and sails bore some resemblance to the emblem of the god.
Speculation has it that the inhabitants of the island may have supposed Cook to actually be the god,
visiting them in human form, or that he was a human representative of the god. Either way, they
welcomed him with open arms and gave him help in stocking his ships with food. D
The expedition’s departure happened to coincide with the end of this season of worship, no doubt further
adding to the islanders’ conviction that Cook was a man of importance to them. Unfortunately, the
expedition had to return to the bay after one of the ships suffered storm damage. On the island, it was now
a period dedicated to the worship of the god Ku, a deity opposed to Lono. Cook’s return was therefore
contradictory and confusing, and potentially upset the delicate relationship that had been previously
established. Events took a turn for the worse with his decision to confront the Hawaiian king after the
theft of one of his boats. This served to incur the wrath of the islanders and triggered a series of events
that led to his being killed by them on the beach of the bay while trying to flee from the island.
PART 5: Fill each of the numbered spaces with one suitable word. One has been done for you as an example.
Come Rain or Come Shine
It is hard to believe that the British could (0) have greeted the arrival of the umbrella with anything (41)
____________ enthusiasm. It is, after all, the item which completes the uniform of the City Gent; and the
(42)___________of spectators huddling under them at Wimbledon is an enduring image of the British Page 9
summer. But, (43)___________the umbrella has been used around the world for (44)__________ excess
of 3000 years, it has only been in the last 200 years that it has been accepted in Britain.
When, in the 1750s, Jonas Hanway, the philanthropist, traveller and champion of the umbrella, became
the first man to walk London's streets with one, he was laughed at and taunted by everyone he met. It took
another 50 years before their appearance at the (45) __________sign of rain became the norm.
It used to be thought that umbrellas were originally a Chinese invention. But T. S. Crawford, one of the
few umbrella historians, offers Egypt (46)_________its birthplace. He suggests that umbrellas were
created for religious purposes, and that this (47)________for the object becoming a mark of status in many cultures.
It seems it was the ever-practical Ancient Romans who first latched onto the umbrella's potential as a
shield from the sun or shelter from the rain. Although the British were slow to (48)_______suit, their
change of heart when it came was nothing (49)____________not energetic. In 1852, the English inventor,
Samuel Fox, created the slim-line frame, still in (50)______today, which made British umbrellas the most popular in the world.
C. GRAMMAR AND VOCABUALRY (3.0PTS)
Part 1: Choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the following questions and write your answer
(A, B, C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes.
1. Fred has a _______ of staying out of trouble at the office - he never gets involved. A. trait B. ability C. skill D. knack
2. _____ leaves of the rare weeping tree even though the sky may be cloudless.
A. Great drops of water dripping from the
B. Great drops of water drip from the
C. Water dripping in great drops from the
D. That great drops of water are dripping from
3. Anyone who lies under oath will be charged with _______ the course of justice. A. perverting B. inverting C. converting D. diverting
4. The recently discovered documents_______ credence to Professor Vaughan's interpretation of events. A. afford B. lend C. provide D. send
5. I thought I had made it ______ that I didn’t wish to discuss this matter. A. distinct B. plain C. frank D. straight
6. As we were in an urgent need of syringes and other medical equipment, the aid organization promised
to deliver them _______ the double. A. at B. in C. with D. round
7. I’ve yet _________________ a person as his father.
A. to have known such generous B. to know as generous C. knowing as generous D. been knowing such generous
8. He may be _______to penicillin, so you should give him some tests before giving a shot. A. allergic B. reactive C. resistant D. preventive
9. You should _______at least three days for the journey. A. expect B. permit C. accept D. allow
10. She resigned ______. No one forced her to do so. A. for her own sake B. of her own accord C. with a will D. on purpose
11. She ______ control of the family investments to her son. A. renounced B. disowned C. disclaimed D. relinquished
12. Dealing with ______ refusal from an employee is easier than dealing with false compliance. A. an offset B. a remedial C. an outright D. an agile
13. Companies are joining forces with governments in Africa to ______ regional campaigns against malaria. A. fabricate B. originate C. produce D. mount
14. That was a bit of a ______ for the books: I never expected him to show up. A. turn-up B. turn-out C. turn-in D. turn-away Page 10 Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Part 2: Write the correct form of each bracketed word in the corresponding numbered boxes.
A day out to Rosslyn Chapel
lf you have a spare afternoon why not take the kids to visit the remarkable Rosslyn Chapel?
This must surely be one of Britain's most (1-ORDINARY) ___________________ buildings. lf you
were shown pictures of it without any clues to its (2- LOCATE) ___________________ , you might
guess it to be somewhere like Moldavia or Transylvania. ln fact, it is just outside Edinburgh. The chapel
and the (3- NEIGHBOUR) ___________________ village of Rosslyn are both quite stunning; in fact,
the whole area is generally very (4- PICTURE) ___________________ . Nearly the entire surface of the
chapel's stonework is carved with flowers or stars and another (5- IDIOSYNCRACY)
___________________ feature of the chapel is that although most of the design of the chapel is Gothic,
the aisles are similar to architecture found in Babylon or Egypt. The chapel's 15th-century builder, St
Clair Prince of Orkney, believed that he was (6- ESSENTIAL) ___________________
buying his way into heaven by creating such an exquisite chapel. He was famous for his (7-PERFECT)
___________________ but this in itself created problems. Because everything had to be exactly as he
dreamed it should be it was (8- REAL) ___________________ of him to expect the work to be finished
in his lifetime. The chapel is now considered to be a local treasure and a (9-CHARITY)
___________________ trust was set up in 1996 to oversee and fund its (10- GO)__________ restoration. Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3: The passage below contains 6 errors. Underline the errors and write the corrections in the
corresponding numbered boxes. Line 1
Researchers who studies the evolution of language and the psychology of swearing say Line 2
what cursing is a human universal. Every language or dialect ever studied, living or dead, Line 3
spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have their share of forbidden speech. Line 4
Young children will memorize the illicit inventory long before they could grasp its sense Line 5
and writers have always constructed their art on its spine. Other investigators have been Line 6
determined that hearing a curse elicits a literal rise out of people. When electrodermal Line 7
wires are placed on people’s arms and fingertips to study their skin conductance patterns, Line 8
and the subjects then hear a little obscenities spoken clearly and firmly, participants show Line 9
signs of instant arousal. Their skin conductance patterns spike, the hairs on their arms Line 10
rise, their pulse quickens, and their breathing becomes shallow. Line 11
Interestingly, said Kate Burridge, a professor of linguistics at Monash University in Line 12
Melbourne, Australia, a similar reaction occurs among university students and others who Line 13
pride themselves in being educated, when they listen to bad grammar or slang Line 14
expressions that they regard as irritating or illiterate. 'People can feel very passionate Line 15
about language,’ she said, ‘as though it were a cherished artefact that must be protected Line 16
at all costs against the depravities of barbarians and lexical aliens.’ Page 11 Your answers:
Example. 0. Line 1: studies -> study 1. 4. 2. 5. 3. 6. D. WRITING (6.0 PTS)
Part 1: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary
should be between 120 and 140 words long. (1.5 pts)
The world of fashion is not easy to comprehend. With its haute couture designers, its catwalks, its sylph-
like models and glitzy clothes that most of us would not be seen dead in - even if we could afford them - it
is hard to believe that it has anything to do with the real world. It is difficult to understand the motives
behind fashion, and to fathom what it has got to do with us in our everyday lives. The vast majority of us,
however, are affected to varying degrees by fashion and, on reflection, we can conclude that this is
because of a basic desire we possess to conform within our social group. Ever since people started to
cover their bodies, they have tended to conform in the way that they do so, and thus it would be logical to
say that fashion has existed from the word go. Most of us live and socialize in groups made up of our
peers, and we dress according to the rules of the group. Looking the same as our peer group could well be
a remnant of a survival strategy which guaranteed solidarity and protection for look-alikes. This tendency
towards conformity consequently makes it possible to date paintings and photographs with great accuracy
just by looking at the garments the subject is wearing. We can place a portrait of a lady in a particular era
simply because her clothes and hairstyle reflect the fashion of the day.
It could be argued, of course, that there have always been those who refuse to conform to the prevailing
rules of fashion. However, this refusal to follow the crowd, if taken up by more than one person, becomes
a type of conforming itself. Ironically, the revolutionary garments may become fashionable in their turn,
as with jeans for instance, and non-conformity is suddenly the ‘latest thing’.
Part 2. The table below shows the average tourism revenue in unit of thousand dollars in selected
country in 2005, 2010 and 2015. Write a report for a lecturer describing the information in the table. (1.5 pts.)
Write at least 150 words Countries 2005 2010 2015 Vietnam 13 14 15 Thailand 30 35 35 Cambodia 10 18 20 Singapore 46 45 43 The Philippines 15 15 15 Malaysia 18 19 21 Laos 12 12 13
Part 3: “In order for any business to be successful, it must spend a lot of money on advertising.”
Do you agree or disagree? Write an essay of about 350 words to express your own opinion. Give reasons
and specific examples to support your answer (3.0 pts) -The end- Page 12 Page 13