Kì thi chọn đội tuyển chính thức dự thi HSG quốc gia lớp 12 THPT tỉnh Quảng Ngãi năm học 2019-2020 môn thi Tiếng Anh
Kì thi chọn đội tuyển chính thức dự thi HSG quốc gia lớp 12 THPT tỉnh Quảng Ngãi năm học 2019-2020 môn thi Tiếng Anh 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:
SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO QUẢNG NGÃI ĐỀ CHÍNH THỨC | KỲ THI CHỌN ĐỘI TUYỂN THAM DỰ KỲ THI CHỌN HSG QUỐC GIA NĂM 2020 Ngày thi: 26/9/2019 Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút
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(Đề thi gồm có 16 trang. Thí sinh làm bài trên giấy thi.)
I. LISTENING (5 pts.)
Part 1. For questions 1-5, you will hear two students, Bella and Tom, discussing an article they have read about a woman astronaut. For questions 1-5, decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxex provided.
1. The speakers agree that being an astronaut is an unexpected job for woman.
2. Bella particularly admires the astronaut Ellen Ochoa because of her determination to fulfil a childhood dream.
3. Tom was surprised to learn that people who want to become astronauts should have experience as aeroplane pilots.
4. Bella thinks the most interesting part of Ellen’s life is coping with unexpected problems.
5. Tom and Bella both now decide to go to some talks on space travel in films and literature.
Part 2: For questions 6-12, listen to a report on the Natural phenomena that science cannot explain and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recoding for each answer in the space provided.
There are a lot of (6) ______________ things in the world such as animals raining from the sky.
Mammatus clouds – which means "mammary cloud", is a (7) ______________ of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud, these are typically heavy cumulonimbus rainclouds.
Scientists have been studying the Great Pyramid of Giza and have found strange heat (8) ______________ that have no explanation.
Australia is the home of the unusual (9) ______________ 600 meters long and surrounded by a rim of sand and thick woods of eucalyptus trees, this place still surprises and intrigues scientists.
Socotra Island has been called the most (10) ______________ place on Earth, and a “lost world” because the heat and drought conditions of the island have produced around 800 rare species of (11) ________________ .
Mount Kelimutu has three (12) ______________ crater lakes that vary colors from each other at different times, making them surreal and exciting to be discovered.
Part 3: You will hear an interview with an artist called Liam Carolan. For questions 13 – 17, choose the answer A, B, C or D which fits best according to what you hear.
13. What comment do people sometimes make about Liam’s painting?
A. It’s old-fashioned. B. It lacks formal training.
C. It’s so intellectual. D. It lacks individuality.
14. According to Liam, people generally prefer to have paintings in their home to photos because
A. paintings look more pleasant than photos.
B. they suit the design of most houses.
C. they are not produced by machine.
D. they don’t look as modern as photos.
15. Why does Liam prefer painting portraits with the sitter in front of him?
A. He thinks the final result is more interesting and alive.
B. He enjoys working with other people in the room.
C. He finds the work more challenging.
D. He receives instant feedback from his sitters.
16. According to Liam, the sitter’s personality is revealed in portraits as a result of ___
A. good artistic technique. B. artistic interpretation.
C. the artist’s acute observation. D. the way people look at portraits.
17. What problems does Liam have when he is painting a self-portrait?
A. He lacks time to practice painting self-portraits.
B. He has difficulty staying in the same position while painting.
C. He cannot make himself look as relaxed or as handsome as he would like.
D. He cannot get close enough to the image he is painting.
Part 4: For questions 18-25, Listen to a piece of news report about the loss of rainforests and complete the summary below. WRITE NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
Since the beginning of 20th century rainforests have been under threat of extinction. One major cause of deforestation is repurposing the land for (18) ________ such as growing rubber or palm oil on its property.
The loss of this dense biodiversity can pose several threats to our modern society. It is estimated that (19) ________ modern medicines would be lost along with thousands of (20) _______ derived from plants while underprivileged groups are relying on rainforest plants for medicines. According to World Health Organization, herbal remedies take up to 50% of all medicines in China. Another major problem is climate change. Known as (21) _________, rainforests absorb CO2, clearing it from the atmosphere. A rise in carbon dioxide levels and a fall in rainforest acreage would contribute to (22) _______ and severe droughts. More seriously, (23) __________ over resources such as farming land has led to farmers’ deaths globally.
It is not easy to find a feasible approach to stopping deforestation as many people on Earth survive by means of natural resource (24) __________. A typical example is palm oil industry which helps to (25) _______ by creating jobs for millions of farmers. Switching to another production of alternative vegetable oils like sunflower or soybean would even cause more land destruction.
II. LEXICO – GRAMMAR (2 pts)
Part 1: For question 26-40, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each of the following questions. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
26. Don't worry; you are as safe as houses here as long as you are in my good ______.
A. graces B. feelings C. likes D. regards
27. Samuel couldn't find any reasonable arguments to _______ his claims in the court.
A. assure B. enforce C. persist D. uphold
28. Numerous _______ have prevented us from going to the lakeside again this year.
A. inhibitions B. deterrents C. impairments D. adversities
29.Although the patient received intensive treatment, there was no________ improvement in her condition.
A. decipherable B. legible C. discernible D. intelligible
30. Judging by the latest results, the team look ________ to return without a single medal.
A. doomed B. forecast C. convicted D. sentenced
31. Tourism provides people with jobs – albeit often rather ________ ones!
A. superficial B. menial C. trivial D. remedial
32. He’s a fairly pleasant child but he has a strong ________ of stubbornness when he doesn’t get his own way.
A. trait B. streak C. character D. mark
33. He ________ so much harm on the nation during his regime that it has never fully recovered.
A. indicted B. inferred C. induced D. inflicted
34.Because of cutbacks in council spending, plans for the new swimming pool had to
be ________.
A. stockpiled B. overthrown C. shelved D. disrupted
35. I’m opting out of the ________race and going to live on a small farm in the countryside.
A. horse B. dog C. rat D. cat and mouse
36. I have enough money on me, but I’ll take my credit card with me to be________.
A. at the safe side B.on the safe side C. in the safe side D.with the safe side
37. Few people do creative work unless they are in the right of ________mind.
A. attitude B.tendency C. trend D. frame
38. In spite of his poor education, he was a most________ speaker.
A. articulate B.ambigous C.attentive D. authoritarian
39. British and Australian people share the same language, but in other respects they are as different as________.
A. cats and dogs B. salt and pepper C. chalk and cheese D. here and there
40. Some employers impose a(n) ________ working in regime on under-aged employees.
A. abusive B. manipulative C. exploitative D. oppressive
Part 2. For questions 41-45, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided in the column on the right. 0 has been done as an example
The signal broke a seven-hour wait of (0. AGONY) ______ intensity and sparked scenes of jubilation at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt. The team in charge of the Rosetta mission achieved what at times seemed an impossible task by landing a robotic (41. CRAFT) ______ on a comet for the first time in history. The moment the tension broke came shortly after 1600 GMT when the Philae called home. “We are there. We are sitting on the surface. Philae is talking to us,” said a (42. JUBILEE) ______ Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the DLR German space centre. “We are on the comet.” Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations director, added: “We cannot be happier than we are now.” But celebrations were tempered by the later discovery that the probe’s two harpoons had not fired to fasten the craft down in the (43. LOW) ______ gravity. Scientists now think the probe may have bounced after first coming into contact with the surface. Ulamec said: “Maybe today we didn’t just land once, we landed twice.” The safe, if precarious (44. TOUCH) ______ of the lander gives scientists a unique chance to ride onboard a comet and study from the surface what happens as its activity ramps up as it gets closer to the sun. The first images beamed back from the lander’s descent revealed a dramatic (45. SCAPE) ______ of pits and precipices, craters and boulders. However, there have been gaps in its radio link with the orbiting Rosetta mothership. | 0. agonising 41. ___________ 42. ___________ 43. ___________ 44. ___________ 45. ___________ |
III/ READING (5 pts)
Part 1. For questions 46-55, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Vitamins are substances required for the proper functioning of the body. In this century, thirteen vitamins have been (46) __________. A lack of any vitamins in a person’s body can cause illness. In some cases, an excess of vitamins can also (47) __________ to illness. For example, sailors in the past were prone to (48) __________ from scurvy that is a disease resulting from the lack of vitamin C. It causes bleeding of the gum, loss of teeth and skin rashes. Sailors suffer from scurvy because they did not eat fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables (49) __________vitamin C which is necessary for good (50) __________.
Vitamin B complex is composed of eight different vitamins. A lack of any of these vitamins will lead to different (51) __________. For instance, a person who has too little vitamin B1 will suffer from beri-beri, a disease that causes heart problems and mental (52) __________. A lack of vitamin B2 results in eye and skin problems while deficiency of vitamin B6 causes problems of the nervous system. Too little vitamin B12 will cause anemia. The (53) __________ that vitamin deficiencies caused certain diseases led doctors to cure people suffering from these illnesses by giving them doses of the (54) __________ vitamins.
Today, vitamins are (55) __________ in the form of pills and can easily be bought at any pharmacy.
Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow
IMPLEMENTING THE CYCLE OF SUCCESS:
A CASE STUDY
Within Australia, Australian Hotels Inc (AHI) operates nine hotels and employs over 2000 permanent full-time staff, 300 permanent part-time employees and 100 casual staff. One of its latest ventures, the Sydney Airport hotel (SAH), opened in March 1995. The hotel is the closest to Sydney Airport and is designed to provide the best available accommodation, food and beverage and meeting facilities in Sydney's southern suburbs. Similar to many international hotel chains, however, AHI has experienced difficulties in Australia in providing long-term profits for hotel owners, as a result of the country's high labor-cost structure. In order to develop an economically viable hotel organization model, AHI decided to implement some new policies and practices at SAH.
The first of the initiatives was an organizational structure with only three levels of management - compared to the traditional seven. Partly as a result of this change, there are 25 per cent fewer management positions, enabling a significant saving. This change also has other implications. Communication, both up and down the organization, has greatly improved. Decision-making has been forced down in many cases to front-line employees. As a result, guest requests are usually met without reference to a supervisor, improving both customer and employee satisfaction.
The hotel also recognized that it would need a different approach to selecting employees who would fit in with its new policies. In its advertisements, the hotel stated a preference for people with some 'service' experience in order to minimize traditional work practices being introduced into the hotel. Over 7000 applicants filled in application forms for the 120 jobs initially offered at SAH. The balance of the positions at the hotel (30 management and 40 shift leader positions) was predominantly filled by transfers from other AHI properties.
A series of tests and interviews were conducted with potential employees, which eventually left 280 applicants competing for the 120 advertised positions. After the final interview, potential recruits were divided into three categories. Category A was for applicants exhibiting strong leadership qualities, Category C was for applicants perceived to be followers, and Category B was for applicants with both leader and follower qualities. Department heads and shift leaders then composed prospective teams using a combination of people from all three categories. Once suitable teams were formed, offers of employment were made to team members.
Another major initiative by SAH was to adopt a totally multi-skilled workforce. Although there may be some limitations with highly technical jobs such as cooking or maintenance, wherever possible, employees at SAH are able to work in a wide variety of positions. A multi-skilled workforce provides far greater management flexibility during peak and quiet times to transfer employees to needed positions. For example, when office staff are away on holidays during quiet periods of the year, employees in either food or beverage or housekeeping departments can temporarily The most crucial way, however, of improving the labor cost structure at SAH was to find better, more productive ways of providing customer service. SAH management concluded this would first require a process of 'benchmarking'. The prime objective of the benchmarking process was to compare a range of service delivery processes across a range of criteria using teams made up of employees from different departments within the hotel which interacted with each other. This process resulted in performance measures that greatly enhanced SAH's ability to improve productivity and quality.
The front office team discovered through this project that a high proportion of AHI Club member reservations were incomplete. As a result, the service provided to these guests was below the standard promised to them as part of their membership agreement. Reducing the number of incomplete reservations greatly improved guest perceptions of service.
In addition, a program modeled on an earlier project called 'Take Charge' was implemented. Essentially, Take Charge provides an effective feedback loop from both customers and employees. Customer comments, both positive and negative, are recorded by staff. These are collated regularly to identify opportunities for improvement. Just as importantly, employees are requested to note down their own suggestions for improvement. (AHI has set an expectation that employees will submit at least three suggestions for every one they receive from a customer.) Employee feedback is reviewed daily and suggestions are implemented within 48 hours,if possible,or a valid reason is given for non-implementation.If suggestions require analysis or data collection , The Take Charge team has 30 days in which to address the issue and come up with recommendations.
Although quantitative evidence of AHI’s initiatives at SAH is limited at present, anecdotal evidence clearly suggests that these practices are working. Indeed AHI is progressively rolling out these initiatives in other hotels in Australia, while numerous overseas visitors have come to see how the program works.
Questions 56-60: Choose the best answer
56. The high costs of running AHI’s hotels are related to their __________.
A. management B. size C. staff D. policies
57. SAH’s new organizational structure requires__________.
A. 75%of the old management positions B. 25%of the old management positions
C. 25% more management positions D. 5% fewer management positions
58. The SAH’s approach to organizational structure required changing practices in ______
A. industrial relations B. firing staff C. hiring staff D. marketing
59. The total number of jobs advertised at the SAH was __________.
A. 70 B. 120 C. 170 D. 280
60. Categories A,B and C were used to select __________.
A. front office staff B. new team
C. department heads D. new managers
Questions 61-66 : Complete the following summary of the last four paragraphs of Reading Passage using ONE OR TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
WHAT THEY DID AT SAH
Teams of employees were selected from different hotel departments to participate in a (61) __________ exercise. The information collected was used to compare (62) __________ processes which, in turn, led to the development of (63) __________ that would be used to increase the hotel's capacity to improve productivity as well as quality. Also, an older program known as “Take Charge” was introduced at SAH. In this program, (64) __________ is sought from customers and staff. Wherever possible (65) __________ suggestions are implemented within 48 hours. Other suggestions are investigated for their feasibility for a period of up to (66) __________.
Part 3. In the passage bellow, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 67-73, read the passage and choose from the paragraph A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
FAMILY BUSINESS
‘Look here, it’s no good’ said my Dad. We were in the car on the way back to London. My father, with my brother Maurice in tow, had just collected me and my trunk from the posh girls’ school I attended. He had also just sat through Parents’ Day, in the course of which I was presented with the Latin prize and the prize for the girl who had done best in her end-of- school exams. He had had a long conversation with my headteacher, and now here we were bound for home and holidays.
67 |
‘So?’ I said, brazening it out. ‘Mightn’t that be useful?’ ‘I am also given to understand,’ he went on, and then I knew the confrontation was coming, ‘that you have ambitions to be a barrister. A barrister of all things!’ My father knew quite a lot about barristers and the law.
68 |
‘I don’t know about that,’ I said. ‘All I know is what I see in television dramas.’ ‘Be that as it may,’ he went on, pulling himself together, ‘I feel your heart’s never going to be in the business now. Obviously. you’ll go to Oxford University, and after that I can’t see you fancying it.’
69 |
‘It’s too soon to know,’ I said feebly. ‘I tell you you’re not going to want to join us,’ said my father, who had an annoying way of usually being right in such prophecies, ‘and it’s a pity because you’ve got the gifts — the brains, the nerves, the vision.’
70 |
It was not as if my mother was around to lend a hand — she had died early in my childhood and my father had brought me and Maurice up. Maurice was two years younger than I was, and because he was motherless, early in our lives I got into the habit of taking care of him. It was not a hardship. I loved Maurice. Because the business was so successful we lived in a good deal of luxury — in a big house in London, posh schools for both of us, nice clothes, parties, theatres, operas. My father knew all kinds of people — politicians, actors, businessmen and our house buzzed with good talk and interesting encounters.
71 |
‘OK,’ I said, relieved to be spared immediate choices and decisions, and especially the bout of depression and sulks my father would sink into if I opposed him. This was the way he controlled us. So it happened. In my last term at school, and then on vacations from university, I lent a hand, never more than about twice a year, and always on the safer assignments. I became one of the smarter undergraduates. with a little house of my own, a small but powerful white car, designer clothes, and a black dress with a Paris label that I intended to wear when l took my final exams.
72 |
This was not to be. My father told me that, in about a week, he needed me to do one last assignment for him, that it was the most important piece of business the family firm had ever attempted, and that he would see that it was more than worth my while. ‘But Dad,’ I protested, ‘I’ve got my final exams coming up, and I just need to concentrate on that. It’s really important that I do well and l don’t want to have to think about anything else just now.’
73 |
That was not all. As he described the procedures I saw more clearly than ever before the single-mindedness of my father the clarity and resourcefulness with which he set about his life’s work, the dynamic energy, the perfect self-control of the man. In his way he was a sort of genius and I bowed to that in him. It made my own plans and hopes seem less important.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘I’ll do it.
The missing paragraphs:
A. It was in my last term that my father came up to see me and drove me out to a village for a meal and a chat. There were only a few weeks to go. My tutor predicted I would get a First Class degree (in Law), and l knew that if I kept my head and spent these last precious days carefully arranging information in my mind, he might well be right. I felt poised, confident, concentrated.
B. The trouble was that, like most children of hereditary trades, I did feel confined by the family expectations. I could see there were various professions open to me, and I wanted to explore the possibilities. At the same time, like a coward, I didn’t want to upset my father. I wasn’t as frightened of him as Maurice was — I was the favourite — but I found him formidable.
C. ‘What isn’t?’ I said, though I had guessed the trend of his thoughts from my father’s unusual silence. He was a talkative man as a rule. ‘You can’t fool me. You’ll do what you want now,’ he said. ‘What with all those certificates, I was told you will get a scholarship to Oxford.’
D. I was studying hard one day when a letter arrived from Maurice. He mentioned that a friend had asked him to join him in setting up a business, that he was really attracted to the idea, but that Father was against it. He wrote that Father was a danger to us both and did not care about us as much as he pretended. He wondered whether now was the time for him to break free of Father.
E. ‘There’s still Maurice,’ I said, sullen. My father snorted. We both knew Maurice hated the business. ‘Anyway,’ I went on, ‘you could always use me as a sort of consultant.’
F. I could tell that such pressures were simply beyond my father’s imagination (or was it that he was somehow jealous of my life away from him?) and that he would interpret a refusal from me as a heartless betrayal in his hour of need.
G. ‘I just said that,’ I said. ‘I couldn’t think of anything else to say!’ ‘And apparently,’ he went on, ‘you have the right sort of personality — you can pick the bones out of a mass of material pretty quickly, you have the gift of the gab and you enjoy performing.’
H. ‘I tell you what,’ my father continued our conversation. ‘You can go on helping us out in holidays until you leave Oxford, and then if you decide to leave us you can. It will give you a bit of pocket money, and be a real help to me.”
Part 4. For questions 74-83, read an extract from an article and choose the answer A, B, C or D which you think fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Line (5) (10) (15) (20) (25) (30) (35) | Paul Bunyan is perhaps America’s best-known folk hero. A fictional logger of incredible strength, he was most likely based on an actual nineteenth-century logger from the northern United States or Canada. As a folk hero, he struck a chord with Americans on some level, perhaps because he was incredibly strong but also because he was hard-working and capable, ingenious in solving problems, and fun-loving. Though there is evidence that Paul Bunyan tales were part of oral tradition in the nineteen century, Paul Bunyan stories did not appear in written form until the early twentieth century. Journalist James McGillivray included descriptions of Bunyan in a series of essay entitled “The Round River Drive” which appeared in a number of Midwestern newspapers between 1906 and 1910. However, it was through an extensive advertising campaign that Paul Bunyan moved solidly into print. Recognizing the appeal of Paul Bunyan as a figure for his company’s advertising, William Laughead, an advertising executive for the Red River Lumber Company, initiated a campaign that consisted of a series of publications featuring Paul Bunyan. For several decades, the company distributed these publications free of charge and made no attempt to obtain a copyright on them. In fact, the company vigorously encouraged other writers to make use of Paul Bunyan because it felt that the use of this character enhanced the name recognition of the Red River Lumber Company inasmuch as the name of the folk hero and the name of the company had become interwoven. The Bunyan stories published by Red River and further circulated by others were tall tales of gigantic proportions. In these tales, Banyan is depicted as a man of superhuman proportions, who is strong, hard-working, entrepreneurial, and innovative. In one story, for example, Paul is credited with digging the Great Lakes in order to create a watering hole for his giant ox, Babe. In another of these tales, Paul caused an entire winter of blue snow to fall by swearing a blue streak after he injured himself by smashing his thumb with a large hammer. A third story in the series describes Paul’s role in establishing the Mississippi River. Fascination with Paul Bunyan has continued to grow, and today he is a standard of American folklores. The prevalence of Bunyan as a figure of folklore today is evidenced by references to him in countless stories, cartoons, poems, and songs as well as the numerous community festivals and logging competitions featuring Paul Bunyan that can be found throughout the sections of the country where logging has strong tradition. |
74. The purpose of this passage is to ______.
A. present the actual feats of a real-life logger
B. provide an overview of American folktales
C. describe logging in North America
D. discuss a “larger than life” folk hero
75. It is NOT stated in the passage that Paul Bunyan is known for his ______.
A. unusual strength B. dedication to work
C. ingenuity in difficult situations D. serious nature
76. The passage states that Paul Bunyan tales first appeared ______.
A. in oral stories B. in advertising
C. in newspapers D. in a series of essays
77. Which of the following CANNOT be inferred about the Red River Lumber Company’s advertising campaign featuring Paul Bunyan?
A. It endured for quite a time.
B. The company did not protect its ownership of the stories.
C. The campaign did little to enhance the company’s profitability.
D. The company wanted the name Paul Bunyan to be known as widely as possible.
78. The pronoun “them” in line 19 refers to ______.
A. publications B. series C. decades D. writers
79. The word “interwoven” in line 23 could be best replaced by ______.
A. unfashionable B. mixed together
C. not compatible D. too separate
80. Where in the passage does the author discuss a weather phenomenon that Paul Bunyan supposedly caused?
A. Lines 3-5 B. Lines 16-20 C. lines 27-29 D. Lines 29-34
81. The word “countless” in line 35 could be best replaced by the expression ______.
A. an overestimated number of B. an insubstantial number of
C. a large number of D. a specified number of
82. Which paragraph describes the plots of some of the tales of Paul Bunyan?
A. The second paragraph B. The third paragraph
C. The fourth paragraph D. The fifth paragraph
83. The author’s tone in this passage is ______.
A. humorous B. neutral C. sarcastic D. pessimistic
Part 5: You are going to read a newspaper article in which women talk about their attitudes toward cars. For questions 84-95, choose from the women (A-D). When more than one answer is required, these may be given in any order.
WOMEN DRIVERS
What do women think about the cars they drive? We talked to four women about their views.
A. Megan Fields
Megan Fields lives in rural Hertfordshire, just outside a small village. In recent years the bus service in the village has improved, and there is also a good link now to the nearest town. Consequently, she uses a car mainly to commute to her office almost forty miles away. Megan works normal office hours, Mondays to Fridays, and this means she has to make a round trip of very nearly eighty miles a day in the enervating rush-hour traffic. However, since the latest increases in the price of fuel, she and her husband feel they have to think more carefully about car maintenance costs.
Megan was forced to purchase a new car only a short while ago: she was recently involved in a collision with a lorry. It was an unequal contest, and Megan’s car was a write-off. Fortunately, nobody was badly hurt, but Megan was shaken by the experience. She promised herself that her next car would have more robust bodywork in case anything like that ever happens again. Since their old car had been on its last ages anyway, she and her husband had been looking at the options available on the market even before the crash, and they had narrowed the choice down to three or four models. Before they made their final decision, they took a number of other factors into consideration. They wanted a car that would be fuel-efficient and that would produce as few harmful emissions as possible. Megan left the choice of car to her husband; she claims she is ignorant of the technical issues involved and has no desire to learn. She stresses that she would rather be able to manage without a car at all. However, given their circumstances, doing without a car does not appear to be a viable option.
B. Vera Aziz
Vera is one of the growing numbers of people who have purchased an SUV – a sports utility vehicle. In her view, there is something very reassuring about the height of the vehicle, which places the driver and passengers above the majority of other road users. Though she has no statistics to back up her opinion, she is convinced that this means she would be far better off in an accident. There is another practical factor at work in her choice of vehicle: her SUV seats eight people quite comfortably, and she needs this room since she regularly ferries her two daughters and their four friends to and from ballet classes.
Vera says that a car is an absolute necessity for her. Public transport in the part of survey where she lives in woefully inadequate and there is no school bus, so when the weather is bad she has to drive the children to their school nearby. About once a fortnight she and her husband go up to London for the day and they need the car to get them to the local train station. Otherwise, she admits, the car stays in the garage most of their time. When asked about what influenced her choice of vehicle, she is unequivocal: safety was the crucial point, and she imagines that this is the case for the vast majority of women.
C. Sue Henderson
The new charges for drivers entering inner London, coupled with exorbitant parking fees throughout the capital, mean that the situation has changed for Sue. She says she would far rather take the train to the city instead of driving in from Faversham in Kent, so these days she mostly uses the car to stock up with groceries from the local supermarket on Friday evenings. But there has been another more radical change in her driving habits over the past few months. Some good neighbors of hers, who only used their cars very occasionally, were thinking of buying a new one, and Sue suggested that instead of going to the expense and trouble this would involve, they should just use hers whenever they wanted to. Sue says that some careful planning is required to make this arrangement work smoothly, but it has resulted in considerable savings for everyone concerned. She also makes the point that a scheme like this works best if people are relaxed about the car they drive and don’t insist on a spotlessly clean high-performance model. Sue’s present car is fairly old, large and sturdy – one of the Scandinavian models that offer their owners a sense of security. She is rather dismissive of SUVs, which she doesn’t consider particularly safe. This is because she read somewhere that they can roll over quite easily. Furthermore, they are a danger to cyclists because SUV drivers tend not to notice them. Sue also has strong opinions about the jokey stereotype of the bad woman driver, which she regards as absolute nonsense. She is similarly dismissive of the ideas that men are natural born drivers, claiming that statistics prove the opposite, and that men cause far more accidents than women, especially serious ones.
D. Heather Adams
Four years ago Heather Adams’s husband injured his leg in an accident which left him unable to drive. Heather herself then reluctantly took charge of the car not only driving it but also making sure it was serviced regularly and generally looking after it. The Adams’s children are still very young, so Heather is the only one in the family who uses the car now. In fact, she only passed her driving test three and a half years ago, so she had little practical experience with vehicles of any until then. Their present car is the only one she has ever driven, apart from the car at the driving school when she was learning to drive. She says she never expected to get such enormous pleasure from sitting behind the wheel, and believes that learning to drive gave her a sense of independence and confidence that she lacked when she was younger. She regards a car as an essential part of her life now – public transport in the northern city where she lives is unreliable and not convenient for her needs.
Her husband has clearly influenced her views on road safety. He believes it is important to be able to put your foot down and accelerate away from trouble. Heather agrees and clearly relishes driving a car with a powerful engine. For her, this would be a prime consideration if she were to buy another car.
Which woman _____
has only had a driving license for a few years? | 84. ______ |
has a prejudice against a particular kind of car? | 85. ______ |
feels safety considerations are paramount when buying a car? | 86. ______ |
wanted a car that would have a minimal impact on the environment? | 87. ______ |
didn’t want to be responsible for the car at first? | 88. ______ |
acknowledges that she knows little about cars? | 89. ______ |
uses other means of transport because of rising costs? | 90. ______ |
drives a kind of car which is becoming increasingly popular? | 91. ______ |
needs a large car? | 92. ______ |
is an enthusiastic driver? | 93. ______ |
wishes she didn’t need to rely on a car? | 94. ______ |
dissuaded someone from buying a car? | 95. ______ |
IV. WRITING: (6pts)
Part 1: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary should be between 100 and 120 words long.
This majestic creature is unfortunately not the most attractive. It is an endangered species but it is neither cute nor lovable like the panda or the orangutan.
What makes this giant so odd? Well, its legs appear too short to support its weight. The rhinoceros' skin hangs loosely over its body. It is huge. A full grown rhino is about two meters high and about four meters long from nose to tail. African rhinos have two horns, one much larger than the other. It is a heavy animal weighing more than a ton. The animal has a keen sense of smell and acute hearing but it has very weak eyesight. The rhino cannot see until it is almost in front of its target.
Clumsy as it looks, the rhino is an agile animal. It can easily climb up steep slopes, charge at 50 km an hour and leap up from a lying position.
The rhino's temper is also well known. It often attacks trucks, jeeps and even moving trains. Yet it is also considered a wild African animal that is very easy to tame. A penned rhino will even eat out of the hands of its keeper.
The black rhino is also very adaptable. It can be found over a large area - from mountainous areas, to plains, and desert areas. The two countries with the most rhinos are Kenya and Tanzania.
About fifty years ago, the rhinoceros was a common animal in Africa. However, today it is becoming rare. It is being hunted to extinction for its horn. Unfortunately, the rhino horn is considered very powerful medicine, especially for men. The horn can fetch several thousand dollars in Asia. The lure of money means the animal is hunted even though it is a protected species. The Sumatran rhino is almost extinct and if we are not careful, the African rhino will follow suit.
2. The diagrams below show the changes that have taken place at Queen Mary
Hospital since its construction in 1960.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Part 3:
Some people believe that the Earth is being damaged by human activities. Others argue that human activities have made the Earth a more livable planet
Write an essay of about 350 words to discuss both these views and give reasons and specific examples to support your opinions.
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