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

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
KỲ THI LẬP ĐỘI TUYỂN HỌC SINH GIỎI CỦA TỈNH TỈNH QUẢNG NINH
DỰ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA THPT NĂM 2020 MÔN THI : TIẾNG ANH
Ngày thi : 01/10/2019 ĐỀ THI CHÍNH THỨC
Thời gian thi: 180 phút, không kể thời gian giao đề
(Đề thi có 13 trang)
Cán bộ coi thi 1 Họ và tên thí sinh: SỐ BÁO DANH (Họ tên, chữ ký) Ngày sinh: Nơi sinh: Học sinh trường:
Cán bộ coi thi 2 Hội đồng coi thi: SỐ PHÁCH (Họ tên, chữ ký) Điểm bài thi
Họ tên, chữ ký của cán bộ chấm thi Số phách
Bằng số: ……………………………… 1: ………………………………………………
Bằng chữ: …………………………………
2: ……………………………………………… Ghi chú:
- Thí sinh trả lời ngay vào bài thi này. Nếu viết sai phải gạch bỏ rồi viết lại.
- Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển.
- Cán bộ coi thi không giải thích gì thêm. I. LISTENING (50 POINTS)
HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
• Bài nghe gồm 4 phần; mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 10 giây; mở đầu và kết thúc
mỗi phần nghe có tín hiệu.
• Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có nhạc hiệu.
• Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh (bằng tiếng Anh) đã có trong bài nghe.
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to part of a conversation between a woman and two assistants at an
insurance company about a car accident and answer the questions. Write NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer.
1. To which department does the first assistant put the woman through?
_______________________________________________________
2. What is the woman’s surname?
_______________________________________________________
3. What is the woman’s street name?
_______________________________________________________
4. What is the woman’s insurance policy number?
_______________________________________________________
5. When did the accident happen?
_______________________________________________________
Part 2. For questions 6-10, listen to five short extracts in which people have been working at home for
some time talk about returning to work in an office. Choose from the list (A – H) how each speaker feels
about returning to work in an office.
A. happy about the increased supervision 6. Speaker 1
B. guilty about leaving pets alone 7. Speaker 2
C. optimistic about possible promotion 8. Speaker 3
D. anxious about fitting in 9. Speaker 4
E. hopeful about financial benefits 10. Speaker 5
F. eager for the social contact
G. worried about working hours
H. uncertain about new company regulations Your answers: 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to part of a discussion between two language experts, George
Steadman and Angela Conti, who are talking about how advances in communication are affecting
English usage. Choose the answer A, B, C, or D which fits best according to what you hear.
11. What point is made about the effect of the Internet on language?
A. It is making the standard written form of language obsolete.
B. It will radically alter the way grammar rules are followed.
C. It may have less serious consequences than feared.
D. It will bring about more changes than TV and radio have. Page | 1
12. When discussing the main criticism of text messaging, George reveals ______.
A. his concern that there is insufficient research
B. his understanding of the annoyance some people feel
C. his certainty that the criticism is totally unfounded
D. his doubt as to how widespread the criticism is
13. What view is stated about abbreviation in texting?
A. They are mainly to be found in commercial messages.
B. Some are beginning to enter official documents.
C. Adults are just as much to blame for them as teenagers.
D. They are not as novel as many people imagine.
14. When discussing the new genre of text-poetry, both researchers agree that ______.
A. limiting a poem to a fixed number of letters is unhelpful
B. it will never match some of the traditional verse forms
C. it has potential if the writer is gifted
D. the means of delivery is effective
15. What final conclusion do both the researchers reach about the state of English today?
A. Language development need no longer be a concern in schools.
B. The negative predictions about its decline are mistaken.
C. Children’s written style is improving significantly.
D. The pace of change is unprecedented. Your answers: 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to part of a news report on forest fires in Indonesia and complete the
following sentences. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording to complete each blank.
Wildfires are burning across vast forests in Indonesia, (16) ____________________________ that
have scorched Brazil's Amazon rainforest and triggering new concerns over climate change.
As in Brazil, a significant number of the Indonesian fires are believed to be (17)
_____________________________ to clear forests for agricultural production.
Indonesia has a thriving palm oil industry. Now, in its worst fire season since 2015, hundreds of
wildfires have scorched more than 800,000 acres. And government officials say most were set to clear
space for palm plantations – a lucrative industry that has been (18) _____________________________ on
Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands and elsewhere.
Officials say the fires are impacting endangered species of (19) ____________________________,
with animals uprooted by flames or smoke.
Indonesian authorities say they have arrested nearly 200 people for investigation of illegal burning.
A police spokesman said, “Indonesian Police will enforce the law against anyone who is proven to have carried out forest and land burning, whether it was done intentionally or (20)
_____________________________.”
The Indonesian government in 2011 created a sustainable production plan for palm oil. It set
conditions to address environmental impacts, including (21) _____________________________ for
parcels with unauthorized burning.
But a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster management agency says that hasn't stopped (22)
_____________________________ agriculture. He said: “That’s how they clear the land, using the cheapest method.”
Indonesia's cities are choked with smoke, and more than 150,000 people have been treated for (23)
_____________________________. In addition to concerns over forestry practices of foreign
corporations, the smoke is (24) _____________________________ with neighboring countries as
Singapore and Malaysia complain about unhealthy air.
Malaysia's environmental minister told reporters that a diplomatic appeal would be sent to
Indonesia, demanding more action to put out the fires.
More than 9,000 Indonesian firefighters are battling the blazes. And President Joko Widodo says
the government will (25) _____________________________ and that he will personally pray for rain. Page | 2
II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (20 points)
Part 1. For questions 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. Sandra’s unpleasant ______ suggested that she knew about Amanda’s terrible secret. A. grimace B. smirk C. wince D. snort
27. He didn’t mean to be offensive; it was quite an ______ remark. A. innocuous B. inaugural C. integral D. insidious
28. I am sick of hearing the same old ______ in meetings. A. plenitudes B. placidities C. pliabilities D. platitudes
29. She was rudely awakened by a sudden bout of ______ turbulence. A. stern B. somber C. weighty D. heavy
30. She was very frustrated by his behaviour, but didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to ______ the boat. A. shake B. rattle C. rock D. roll
31. I still ______ in the morning even though I gave up smoking a week ago. A. whistle B. wheeze C. whirl D. whip
32. George had a(n) ______ and enduring affection for the garrulous old man. A. unabashed B. crude C. forward D. shameless
33. James could no longer bear the ______ surroundings of the decrepit old house. A. oppressive B. domineering C. pressing D. overbearing
34. She found the novel absolutely ______ and impossible to put down. A. riveting B. pinning C. enfastening D. nailing
35. Having beaten all six challengers, he is now the ______ champion of the world. A. unquestioned B. undisputed C. unchallenged D. unaccosted
36. I was ______ when I heard that the MP for Burnham had been arrested for fraud. A. leveled B. floored C. hurled D. heaved
37. Their decision on whether I get the job or not will be based mostly on my academic ______. A. reputation B. credits C. credentials D. standing
38. When Eric’s mother could no longer stand his ______, she bought him the toy car. A. crowing B. squirreling C. wolfing D. badgering
39. 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
40. All the members of the board were ______ themselves to please the Chairperson. A. coming about B. jumping over C. carrying off D. falling over Your answers: 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
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. Hypersensitive Canines Your answers:
Tonic-clonic seizures are the most serious form of the (0. ORDER), 0. disorder
and involves loss of consciousness and convulsions of the body. It can
be extremely (41. NERVE) ______ for sufferers since these attacks 41. ______________________
often come on without warning, meaning they can injure themselves
by falling or be at risk from, for example, passing vehicles if they collapse in a road.
There are dogs, like guided dogs for people with partial or total
blindness, trained to help sufferers deal with attacks by alerting
parents or (42. SURE) ______ the victim is not in a position of danger. 42. ______________________
However, a very small percentage of dogs are also what is called
“seizure-alert”; that is, they can sense a coming seizure up to half an
hour before it happens and (43. WARN) ______ their owners. 43. ______________________
It is not known quite how these dogs know an attack is Page | 3
approaching, but trainers look for dogs that possess a (44. HIGH) 44. ______________________
______ sensitivity to sounds and smells, and a natural empathy with
people. It is possible that such dogs are more sensitive to the
trademark symptoms that precede an attack, or maybe there is a
particular smell (45. COMPANY) ______ one. Whatever the reason, 45. ______________________
the dog can literally change the life of the sufferers long trapped by their illness. III. READING (50 points)
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.
Altering the modern mind
A recently published book claims that the (46) _________ of time we spend on the Internet is
changing the very structure of our brains. Its thesis is simple (47) _________: not only that the modern
world’s relentless informational overload is killing our capacity (48) _________ reflection, contemplation
and patience, but that our online habits are also altering the way our brains are wired.
In the book, the author looks (49) _________ on such human inventions as the map and the clock
and the (50) _________ to which they influenced our essential models of thought. He argues that the
Internet’s multiplicity of stimuli and mass of information have (51) _________ rise to hurried and
distracted thinking. Without putting too fine a point on it, the author concludes that our ability to learn (52)
_________ at all worthwhile has become superficial. Surprisingly very (53) _________ research has
looked into the Internet’s effects on the brain, but further research is (54) _________ hand and is
investigating whether deep-thinking processes really are in (55) _________ of disappearing. Your answers: 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.
Part 2. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Chelsea Rochman, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis, has been trying to answer a
dismal question: Is everything terrible, or are things just very, very bad?
Rochman is a member of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis’s marine-
debris working group, a collection of scientists who study, among other things, the growing problem of
marine debris, also known as ocean trash. Plenty of studies have sounded alarm bells about the state of
marine debris, in a recent paper published in the journal Ecology, Rochman and her colleagues set out to
determine how many of those perceived risks are real.
Often, Rochman says, scientists will end a paper by speculating about the broader impacts of what
they’ve found. For example, a study could show that certain seabirds eat plastic bags, and go on to warn
that the whole bird populations are at risk of dying out. “But the truth was that nobody had yet tested those
perceived threats,” Rochman says. “There wasn’t a lot of information.”
Rochman and her colleagues examined more than a hundred papers on the impacts of marine debris
that were published through 2013. Within each paper, they asked what threats scientists had studied – 366
perceived threats in all – and what they’d actually found.
In 83 percent of cases, the perceived dangers of ocean trash were proven true. In the remaining
cases, the working group found the studies had weaknesses in design and content which affected the
validity of their conclusions – they lacked a control group, for example, or used faulty statistics.
Strikingly, Rochman says, only one well-designed study failed to find the effect it was looking for,
an investigation of mussels ingesting microscopic plastic bits. The plastic moved from the mussels’
stomachs to their blood streams, scientists found, and stayed there for weeks – but didn’t seem to stress out the shellfish.
While mussels may be fine eating trash, though, the analysis also gave a clearer picture of the many
ways that ocean debris is bothersome.
Within the studies they looked at, most of the proven threats came from plastic debris, rather than
other materials like metal or wood. Most of the dangers also involved large pieces of debris – animals
getting entangled in trash, for example, or eating it and severely injuring themselves.
But a lot of ocean debris is “microplastic”, or pieces smaller than five millimeters. These may be
ingredients used in cosmetics and toiletries, fibers shed by synthetic clothing in the wash, or eroded Page | 4
remnants of larger debris. Compared to the number of studies investigating large-scale debris, Rochman’s
group found little research on the effects of these tiny bits. “There are a lot of open questions still for
microplastic,” Rochman says, though she notes that more papers on the subject have been published since
2013, the cutoff point for the group’s analysis.
There are also, she adds, a lot of open questions about the way that ocean debris can lead to sea-
creature death. Many studies have looked at how plastic affects an individual animal, or that animal’s
tissues or cells, rather than whole populations. And in the lab, scientists often use higher concentrations of
plastic than what’s really in the ocean. None of that tells us how many birds or fish or sea turtles could die
from plastic pollution – or how deaths in one species could affect that animal’s predators, or the rest of the ecosystem.
“We need to be asking more ecologically relevant questions,” Rochman says. Usually, scientists
don’t know exactly how disasters such as a tanker accidentally spilling its whole cargo of oil and polluting
huge areas of the ocean will affect the environment until after they’ve happened. “We don’t ask the right
questions early enough,” she says. But if ecologists can understand how the slow-moving effect of ocean
trash is damaging ecosystems, they might be able to prevent things from getting worse.
Asking the right questions can help policy makers, and the public, figure out where to focus their
attention. The problems that look or sound most dramatic may not be the best places to start. For example,
the name of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” – a collection of marine debris in the northern Pacific Ocean
– might conjure up a vast, floating trash island. In reality though, much of the debris is tiny or below the
surface; a person could sail through the area without seeing any trash at all. A Dutch group called “The
Ocean Cleanup” is currently working on plans to put mechanical devices in the Pacific Garbage Patch and
similar areas to suck up plastic. But a recent paper used simulations to show that strategically positioning
the cleanup devices closer to shore would more effectively reduce pollution over the long term.
“I think clearing up some of these misperceptions is really important,” Rochman says. Among
scientists as well as in the media, she says, “A lot of the images about strandings and entanglement and all
of that cause the perception that debris is killing everything in the ocean.” Interrogating the existing
scientific literature can help ecologists figure out which problems really need addressing, and which ones
they’d better off – like the mussels – absorbing and ignoring.
For questions 56-62, decide whether the following statements are True, False or Not Given. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
56. Rochman and her colleagues were the first people to research the problem of marine debris.
57. The creatures most in danger from ocean trash are certain seabirds.
58. The studies Rochman has reviewed have already proved that populations of some birds will soon become extinct.
59. Rochman analyzed papers on the different kinds of danger caused by ocean trash.
60. Most of the research analyzed by Rochman and her colleagues was badly designed.
61. One study examined by Rochman was expecting to find that mussels were harmed by eating plastic.
62. Some mussels choose to eat plastic in preference to their natural diet. Your answers: 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62.
For questions 63-68, complete the summary with ONE WORD taken from the passage. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Findings related to marine debris
Studies of marine debris found the biggest threats were
• plastic (not metal or wood)
• bits of debris that were (63) ____________ (harmful to animals)
There was little research into (64) ____________e.g. from synthetic fibres.
Drawbacks of the studies examined
• most of them focused on individual animals, not entire (65) ____________
• the (66) ____________ of plastic used the lab did not always reflect those in the ocean
• there was insufficient information on
numbers of animals which could be affected
the impact of a reduction in numbers on the (67) ____________ of that species the impact on the ecosystem
Rochman says more information is needed on the possible impact of future (68) ____________ (e.g. involving oil). Page | 5 Your answers: 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.
Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 69-75, read the
passage and choose from paragraphs 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. Spanish Treasure
Gold earrings hung with pearls sank with a Spanish galleon west of Havana, one of the many wrecked by
pirates, storms and treacherous reefs. These and other artefacts offer a wealth of clues about the history of
Cuba’s golden past. A glittering fortune in gold and silver has been recovered from the sea floor. Treasures
including luxuries such as rare wood and exotic feathers were shipped from the New World to Seville by way of Cuba. 69.
In a typical year, the first of the two annual treasure fleets left Spain in spring and entered the Caribbean
near the island of Margarita, off Venezuela – a source of pearls and a frequent target of pirates. Here the
flotilla usually split in two, following courses that touched much of the Spanish New World. One convoy
stopped at ports along the Spanish Main, as the English called the northern coast of South America and the
Caribbean islands. Colonists, forbidden to manufacture anything, had to buy even such ordinary items as
cutlery, tools and religious medals from the convoy. 70.
In late summer, the merchant ships and war ships sailed to Havana’s well-fortified harbor to form the
treasure fleet. Theoretically, the captain general and his warships defended all the merchantmen against
pirates. In reality, storms frequently scattered the flotilla making individual ships vulnerable. Pirates chose
the loners to attack and loot. But Piet Heyn, to the Spanish a pirate, to the Dutch a fabled admiral, was not
satisfied with picking off the stragglers. He wanted the whole treasure. 71.
Officials in Havana, who feared this legendary figure more than any other foe, kept watch for him,
especially when a treasure fleet was about to sail for Spain. On August 4, 1628, Heyn and his ships lay off
Cuba, not sure whether the treasure fleet’s Mexican component (the Dutch called it the silver fleet) had left
for Havana to link up with the rest of the flotilla. Spanish scout vessels spotted the Dutch and sent swift
courier ships to Veracruz to warn Juan de Benavides, captain general of the treasure fleet. But, unknown to
the Spanish, Heyn had captured one of the courier ships. Now aware that his prey would soon arrive off Cuba, Heyn waited to pounce. 72.
Finally in August, he set sail again. As he neared Matanzas Bay, about 50 miles east of Havana, he saw
more than 30 Dutch warships bearing down on him. “I continued my course, resolved to die,” Benavides
bravely wrote in a letter to the king. But another officer later testified that Benavides had foolishly led the
fleet into the bay. In his panic, he grounded his own ship and all that followed. 73.
“I jumped into a boat,” Benavides later recounted, claiming he had arranged in vain for his ship to be set
afire in his absence. Leoz, seeing his ship boarded by the Dutchmen, ran below, changed into the clothes of
an ordinary sailor, and slipped in among the crewmen who already had laid down their muskets. 74.
That done, Heyn put his men aboard the six looted galleons, along with three others, and sent them off to
the Netherlands in the wake of the nine he had captured earlier. Benavide’s flagship, so jammed with cargo
that the cannon ports were obstructed, had 29 guns; Leoz’s had 22. Neither had fired a shot. 75.
The story of Heyn’s triumpth and Benavides’ death is preserved in the General Archives of the Indies in
Seville, Spain. Treasure searchers begin here, sifting through the voluminous records that officials kept on
every flotilla, on every ship and every cargo. Even though the locations are sometimes imprecise, the
searchers press on, going from document to hunch, from the shelves in Seville to the waters off Havana. Page | 6 The missing paragraphs:
A. Their pursuers rapidly closed in, anchored or grounded their ships, boarded boats manned with
musketeers and headed for the hapless Spanish ships. The Dutch swarmed aboard Benevides’ ship and the
ship of Admiral Don Juan de Leoz, second in command of the flotilla.
B. Spain’s long reign in the New World is chronicled in archives, tucked away in endless shelves in the
vaulted, echoing halls of a stately 17th century building. Included in these archival treasures are intriguing
charts and maps from the 16th and 17th century, vividly portraying the harbor of Havana. Here historians
and treasure hunters plough through documents which bear witness to Spain’s and Cuba’s turbulent marine history.
C. The Netherlands hailed Heyn as a hero and cast a commemorative medal from the silver. Long
afterward children sang a song – “He has won the Silver Fleet, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!” Benavides and
Leoz returned to Spain in disgrace. Leoz was imprisoned for life. Benavides was tried, not for loss of the
treasure fleet but for cowardice, and later executed. Heyn did not last long as a hero. In 1629, while
attacking pirates in the English Channel, he was killed by a cannonball.
D. Other ships carrying similar cargoes sailed into Cartagena, Colombia, and then west to Portobelo,
Panama, the collecting points for the silver that flowed in from the mines of Peru. One day, a Dominican
friar in Portobelo counted 200 mules laden with silver, which was stacked in the marketplace “like heaps of stones in the streets.”
E. Flushed with a previous success – they had already captured nine ships of the silver fleet – Heyn and his
men seized half a dozen Spanish ships and put the Spaniards ashore. In the days that followed, the Dutch
sailors inventoried and transferred the “large amount of plunder present,” which included 46 tones of silver.
F. Hundreds of ships sank in Cuban waters, victims of pirates, war, storms or bad navigation. These are the
ships sought today in the hope of finding the richest prize in the Cuban seas: ships of the Spanish treasure
fleets, the flotillas which carried New World gold, silver and gems to the royal court of Spain. The flotillas,
first sailed into history in the 16th century when Spain’s powerful Casa de Contratacion (House of Trade)
ordered merchant ships to travel in convoy, guarded by armed warships.
G. As a young privateer in Spanish waters, he had been captured and sentenced to be a galley slave. Freed
in a prisoner exchange, he returned to sea and sought vengeance. In 1623 and 1626, as a Dutch admiral
fighting against Spain for his homeland, he led rampages against Spanish America, sacking the Cuban port
of Matanzas and capturing many ships.
H. Scion of a wealthy family of shipbuilders, Juan de Benavides was an admiral who had never fought a
sea battle. He got his appointment through influence, not skill. Benavides, shepherding about 20 ships, had
left Veracruz for Havana in July, but was forced back to port because of what he described as “an
emergency” that had dismasted his flagship. Your answers: 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.
Part 4. For questions 76-85, read an article on the Mediterranean 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.
The Geologic History of the Mediterranean
In 1970 geologists Kenneth J. Hsu and William B F. Ryan were collecting research data while
aboard the oceanographic research vessel Glomar Challenger. An objective of this particular cruise was to
investigate the floor of the Mediterranean and to resolve questions about its geologic history. One question
was related to evidence that the invertebrate fauna (animals without spines) of the Mediterranean had
changed abruptly about 6 million years ago. Most of the older organisms were nearly wiped out, although a
few hardy species survived. A few managed to migrate into the Atlantic. Somewhat later, the migrants
returned, bringing new species with them. Why did the near extinction and migrations occur?
Another task for the Glomar Challenger’s scientists was to try to determine the origin of the
domelike masses buried deep beneath the Mediterranean seafloor. These structures had been detected years
earlier by echo-sounding instruments, but they had never been penetrated in the course of drilling. Were
the salt domes as such are common along the United States Gulf Coast, and if so, why should there have
been so much solid crystalline salt beneath the floor of the Mediterranean? Page | 7
With questions such as these clearly before them, the scientists aboard the Glomar Challenger
proceeded to the Mediterranean to search for the answers. On August 23, 1970, they recovered a sample.
The sample consisted of pebbles of hardened sediment that had once been soft, deep-sea mud, as well as
granules of gypsum and fragments of volcanic rock. Not a single pebble was found that might have
indicated that the pebbles came from the nearby continent. In the days following, samples of solid
gypsum were repeatedly brought on deck as drilling operations penetrated the seafloor. Furthermore, the
gypsum was found to possess peculiarities of composition and structure that suggested it had formed on
desert flats. Sediment above and below the gypsum layer contained tiny marine fossils, indicating open
ocean conditions. As they drilled into the central and deepest part of the Mediterranean basin, the scientists
took solid, shiny, crystalline salt from the core barrel. Interbedded with the salt were thin layers of what
appeared to be windblown silt.
The time had come to formulate a hypothesis. The investigators theorized that about 20 million
years ago, the Mediterranean was a broad seaway linked to the Atlantic by two narrow straits. Crustal
movements closed the straits, and the landlocked Mediterranean began to evaporate. Increasing salinity
caused by the evaporation resulted in the extermination of scores of invertebrate species. Only a few
organisms especially tolerant of very salty conditions remained. As evaporation continued, the remaining
brine salt water became so dense that the calcium sulfate of the hard layer was precipitated. In the central
deeper part of the basin, the last of the brine evaporated to precipitate more soluble sodium chloride salt.
Later, under the weight of overlying sediments, this salt flowed plastically upward to form salt domes.
Beforeithis happened, however, the Mediterranean was a vast desert 3,000 meters deep. Then, about 5.5
million years ago came the deluge. As a result of crustal adjustments and faulting, the Strait of
Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean now connects to the Atlantic, opened, and water cascaded
spectacularly back into the Mediterranean. Turbulent waters tore into the hardened salt flats, broke
them up, and ground them into the pebbles observed in the first sample taken by the Challenger. As the
basin was refilled, normal marine organisms returned. Soon layers of oceanic ooze began to accumulate above the old hard layer.
The salt and gypsum, the faunal changes, and the unusual gravel provided abundant evidence that
the Mediterranean was once a desert.
* gypsum: a mineral made of calcium sulfate and water
76. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 1 as a change that occurred in the fauna of the Mediterranean?
A. Most invertebrate species disappeared during a wave of extinctions.
B. A few hardy species wiped out many of the Mediterranean’s invertebrates.
C. Some invertebrates migrated to the Atlantic Ocean.
D. New species of fauna populated the Mediterranean when the old migrants returned.
77. What does the author imply by saying “Not a single pebble was found that might have indicated
that the pebbles came from the nearby continent”?
A. The most obvious explanation for the origin of the pebbles was not supported by the evidence.
B. The geologists did not find as many pebbles as they expected.
C. The geologists were looking for a particular kind of pebble.
D. The different pebbles could not have come from only one source.
78. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 3 about the solid gypsum layer?
A. It did not contain any marine fossils.
B. It had formed in open-ocean conditions.
C. It had once been soft, deep-sea mud.
D. It contained sediment from nearby deserts.
79. Select the TWO answer choices from paragraph 3 that identify materials discovered in the deepest
part of the Mediterranean basin. To receive credit, you must select TWO answers.
A. Volcanic rock fragments B. Thin silt layers
C. Soft, deep-sea mud D. Crystalline salt
80. What is the main purpose of paragraph 3?
A. To describe the physical evidence collected by Hsu and Ryan
B. To explain why some of the questions posed earlier in the passage could not be answered by the
findings of the Glomar Challenger
C. To evaluate techniques used by Hsu and Ryan to explore the sea floor
D. To describe the most difficult problems faced by the Glomar Challenger expedition Page | 8
81. According to paragraph 4, which of the following was responsible for the evaporation of the Mediterranean’s waters?
A. The movements of Earth’s crust
B. The accumulation of sediment layers
C. Changes in the water level of the Atlantic Ocean D. Changes in Earth’s temperature
82. According to paragraph 4, what caused most invertebrate species in the Mediterranean to become extinct?
A. The evaporation of chemicals necessary for their survival
B. Crustal movements that connected the Mediterranean to the saltier Atlantic
C. The migration of new species through the narrow straits
D. Their inability to tolerate the increasing salt content of the Mediterranean
83. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the underlined sentence in paragraph 4?
A. The Strait of Gibraltar reopened when the Mediterranean and the Atlantic became connected and
the cascades of water from one sea to the other caused crustal adjustments and faulting.
B. The Mediterranean was dramatically refilled by water from the Atlantic when crustal
adjustments and faulting opened the Strait of Gibraltar, the place where the two seas are joined.
C. The cascades of water from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean were not as spectacular as the
crustal adjustments and faulting that occurred when the Strait of Gibraltar was connected to those seas.
D. As a result of crustal adjustments and faulting and the creation of the Strait of Gibraltar, the
Atlantic and Mediterranean were connected and became a single sea with spectacular cascades of water between them.
84. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 4 about the salt domes in the Mediterranean?
A. They began as layers of oceanic ooze.
B. They contain large quantities of calcium sulfate.
C. They were destroyed when the basin refilled with water.
D. They formed after the Mediterranean basin refilled with water.
85. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the paragraph the
sentence “Thus, scientists had information about the shape of the domes but not about their chemical
composition and origin.” can be inserted?
[A] Another task for the Glomar Challenger’s scientists was to try to determine the origin of the domelike
masses buried deep beneath the Mediterranean seafloor. [B] These structures had been detected years
earlier by echo-sounding instruments, but they had never been penetrated in the course of drilling. [C]
Were the salt domes as such are common along the United States Gulf Coast, and if so, why should there
have been so much solid crystalline salt beneath the floor of the Mediterranean? [D] A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D] Your answers: 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85.
Part 5. The passage below consists of five paragraphs marked A, B, C, D and E. For questions 86-95, read
the passage and do the task that follows. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. Seeking Socrates
It may be more than 2,400 years since his death, but the Greek philosopher can still teach us a thing or
two about leading “the good life”. Bettany Hughes digs deeper.
A. Sharing breakfast with an award-winning author in an Edinburgh hotel a few years back, the
conversation came round to what I was writing next. “A book on Socrates,” I mumbled through
my muesli. “Socrates!” he exclaimed. “What a brilliant doughnut subject. Really rich and
succulent with a great hole in the middle where the central character should be.” I felt my smile
fade because, of course, he was right. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, might be one of the most
famous thinkers of all time, but, as far as we know, he wrote not a single word down. Born in
Athens in 469 BC, condemned to death by a democratic Athenian court in 399 BC, Socrates
philosophized freely for close on half a century. Then he was found guilty of corrupting the young
and of disrespecting the city’s traditional gods. His punishment? Lethal hemlock poison in a small
prison cell. We don’t have Socrates’ personal archive; and we don’t even know where he was Page | 9
buried. So, for many, he has come to seem aloof and nebulous – a daunting intellectual figure – always just out of reach.
B. But that is a crying shame. Put simply, we think the way we do because Socrates thought the way
he did. His famous aphorism, “the unexamined life is not worth living”, is a central tenet for
modern times. His philosophies – 24 centuries old – are also remarkably relevant today. Socrates
was acutely aware of the dangers of excess and overindulgence. He berated his peers for a selfish
pursuit of material gain. He questioned the value of going to fight under ideological banner of
“democracy”. What is the point of city walls, warships and glittering statues, he asked, if we are
not happy? The pursuit of happiness is one of the political pillars of the West. We are entering
what has been described as “an age of empathy”. So Socrates’ forensic, practical investigation of
how to lead “the good life” is more illuminating, more necessary than ever.
C. Rather than being some kind of remote, tunic-clad beardy who wandered around classical
columns, Socrates was a man of the streets. The philosopher tore through Athens like a tornado,
drinking, partying, sweating in the gym as hard as, if not harder than the next man. For him,
philosophy was essential to human life. His mission: to find the best way to live on earth. As
Cicero, the Roman author, perceptively put it: “Socrates brought philosophy down from the skies.”
And so to try to put him back on to the streets he loved and where his philosophy belonged, I have
spent 10 years investigating the eastern Mediterranean landscape to find clues of his life and the
“Golden Age of Athens”. Using the latest archaeology, newly discovered historical sources, and
the accounts of his key followers, Plato and Xenophon, I have endeavoured to create a Socrates-
shaped space, in the glittering city of 500 BC Athens – ready for the philosopher to inhabit.
D. The street jargon used to describe the Athens of Socrates’day gives us a sense of its character. His
hometown was known as “sleek”, “oily”, “violet-crowned”, “busybody” Athens. Lead curse
tablets left in drains, scribbled down by those in the world’s first true democracy, show that
however progressive fifth-century Athenians were, their radical political experiment – allowing
the demos (the people) to have kratos (power) – did not do away with personal rivalries and
grudges. Far from it. In fact, in the city where every full citizen was a potent politician, backbiting
and cliquey came to take on epic proportions. By the time of his death, Socrates was caught up in this crossfire.
E. His life story is a reminder that the word “democracy” is not a magic wand. It does not
automatically vaporize all ills. This was Socrates’ beef, too – a society can only be good not
because of the powerful words it bandies around, but thanks to the moral backbone of each and
every individual within it. But Athenians became greedy, they overreached themselves, and lived
to see their city walls torn down by their Spartan enemies, and their radical democracy
democratically voted out of existence. The city state needed someone to blame. High-profile,
maddening, eccentric, freethinking, free-speaking Socrates was a good target. Socrates seems to
me to be democracy’s scapegoat. He was condemned because, in fragile times, anxious political
masses want certainties – not the eternal questions that Socrates asked of the world around him.
In which paragraph is each of the following mentioned? Your answers:
relationships between people in Socrates’ time 86. _______
the continuing importance of Socrates’ beliefs 87. _______
the writer’s theory concerning what happened to Socrates 88. _______
why little is known about Socrates as a man 89. _______
how the writer set about getting information relevant to Socrates 90. _______
the difference between common perceptions of Socrates and what he was really like 91. _______
an aim that Socrates was critical of 92. _______
the realization that finding out about Socrates was a difficult task 93. _______
how well-known Socrates was during his time 94. _______
an issue that Socrates considered in great detail 95. _______ Page | 10
IV. WRITING (60 POINTS)
Part 1. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be
between 100 and 120 words long. Team-based Learning
In team-based learning, students spend a large part of their in-class time working in permanent and
heterogeneous teams. Most teams are made up of individuals with different socio-cultural backgrounds and
varying skill levels. Team activities concentrate on using rather than just learning concepts, whilst student
grades are a combination of overall team performance and peer evaluation of individual team members.
In a team-based environment, the teacher takes on the role of a facilitator and manager of learning,
instead of just providing information to passive students. The facilitator/ teacher also guides the team in
identifying their goals and establishing standards of team performance. Team exercises then help the
students to improve their problem-solving skills by applying theory to simulated real-world situations.
Working as a team allows students to adopt new roles and empowers them to control their own learning.
Students in teams are taught to use each other as resources and accept the responsibility of managing tasks.
Team members must also study assigned material individually to ensure their preparation for
classes. There are individual assessment tests to measure if students have not only read the assigned
material, but also understand the concepts of the module, and can apply them to given problems.
Additional team assessment tests present a problem for discussion and require consensus, helping students
learn critical communication skills. This also enables them to deal with conflicts between members before
they escalate to crises. Team presentations (written or verbal) allow the team to focus and build cohesion,
with team members sharing the responsibility for presenting and persuading the audience to accept their
viewpoint. Feedback on how the team is functioning with task management, team dynamics and overall
work is given by the facilitator. Team exercises that are application-oriented help students experience the
practical application of concepts and learn from other students' perspectives.
Team-based classrooms are especially beneficial in colleges with international students. Since this
type of learning encourages people to listen and communicate with others, share problems, resolve
personal conflicts, and manage their time and resources, it is a great environment for students who are in a
new social situation. Since social interaction plays an important role during teamwork, team learning has
an added advantage for students who are not comfortable in traditional classroom settings. It allows
students from different cultures to understand their differences and use them productively. This learning
model was designed to better prepare students for today's global workplace. Students are encouraged to
explore ideas together, to build communication skills and achieve superior results. It is likely that
employers will increasingly seek out students with these skills as we move into the future.
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Part 2. The following chart and table show data on the energy consumption in the country of Fantasia in 2017 and 2018.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where
relevant. You should write about 150 words.
ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN FANTASIA, 2018 Hydroelectricity 6% Oil Coal 34% 30% Natural gas 24% Renewables Nuclear 1% energy 5% 2018 % CHANGE ON 2017 Coal +7.5 Nuclear energy +2 Hydroelectricity +5 Oil +3 Natural gas +7 Renewables +15.5
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Part 3. Write an essay of 350 words on the following topic.
Plagiarism in all kinds of writing is becoming more frequent. Some people think plagiarism causes
problems, but others accept it.
Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
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