Kì thi chọn đội tuyển chính thức dự thi HSG quốc gia lớp 12 THPT Vĩnh Long năm học 2017-2018 môn thi Tiếng Anh
Kì thi chọn đội tuyển chính thức dự thi HSG quốc gia lớp 12 THPT Vĩnh Long năm học 2017-2018 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
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KÌ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI THPT CẤP TỈNH VÀ CHỌN
ĐỘI TUYỂN THI HỌC SINH GIỎI CẤP QUỐC GIA NĂM HỌC 2017 - 2018 MÔN THI : TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian : 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
(Đề thi gồm có 15 trang)
Ngày thi : 24 / 9 / 2017 Chữ ký Chữ ký Tổng điểm Tổng điểm Số phách Giám khảo 1 Giám khảo 2 (Bằng số) (Bằng chữ) Số thứ tự Điể m từng phần: I. ……………….
Hướng dẫn thi Nghe hiểu: II. ………………
• Thí sinh có 3 phút để nghiên cứu các câu hỏi.
• Bài nghe gồm 3 phần , mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần.
III. ………………
• Bắt đầu mỗi phần đều có thông báo (bằng tiếng Anh)
• Bắt đầu và kết thúc phần thi nghe là đoạn nhạc. IV. ………………
Cộng: ………….….....
I. LISTENING (5 points)
Part 1: Questions 1-9
You will hear a guide speaking to tourists who are visiting some Roman remains. For questions 1-9, fill
in the missing information. You will hear the recording twice. TOUR OF ROMAN REMAINS
pm – Visit to Roman (1) ________________________
Romans came to the area in AD (2) ____________________
Built forts in region to (3) ________________________
In 1201, people began to search for (4) _________________________
In the early 19th century, excavators made some (5) _________________________
Since 1934, archaeological digs have taken place once (6) _______________________
First half of the museum shows the (7) _______________________
Second half of museums shows different aspects of (8) ___________________________
On site: Watch out for loose stones and (9) ___________________________ Trang 1 / 15
Part 2: Questions 10-18
You will hear part of a lecture on the subject of jelly fish. For questions 10 to 18, complete the
sentences with a word or short phrase. You will hear the recording twice.
______________________________________________________________
In appearance, the jellyfish is described as resembling two (10) __________________________
Because of their composition, jellyfish are largely without (11) _________________________
Very few adult jellyfish are alive in (12) _________________________________
as they rarely survive for more than one year.
Tidal movements and the effects of (13) _____________________________
determine where jellyfish can go in the sea.
Both jellyfish and people tend to end up in the sheltered bays where (14) _______________________ are formed.
The body of a box jellyfish can be as large as a (15) _________________________
Box jellyfish are not easy to see in water which is both (16) __________________________ and sunlit.
After being stung by a jellyfish, victims should avoid doing anything which makes their
(17) __________________________ increase.
In the dark, the (18) __________________________ of the blue-colored moon jellyfish appear to be glowing.
Part 3: Questions 19-25
You will hear part of an interview with Norman Cowley, a well-known novelist and biographer. For
questions 19 – 25, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D. You will hear the recording twice.
19. How does Norman Cowley feel about his first novel?
A. proud of the directness of the writing
B. pleased by the way the characters interacted
C. worried by the over-refined style he used then
D. said that he could never write anything like that again
20. What was Norman Cowley’s reaction to one very bad review of his second novel?
A. He was surprised as he thought this book was well written.
B. He thought the detailed criticisms of the book were unjustified.
C. He thought the review was written in a clever and amusing style.
D. He did not regard the critic as well qualified to judge his work.
21. What value does Norman Cowley see in book reviews now?
A. They encourage writers to try new subjects.
B. They motivate less committed writers.
C. They give young writers long-term guidance.
D. They are part of a necessary selection process. Trang 2 / 15
22. Norman Cowley thinks that if a writer uses people he knows well in a book,
A. those characters will be very realistic.
B. it will become rather tedious to write.
C. readers will find the dialogue very natural.
D. the writer will have to alter them in some way.
23. Norman Cowley believes that some modern novels
A. are too much violent.
B. contain too much fantasy.
C. don’t analyze the characters sufficiently.
D. don’t describe the setting adequately.
24. What does Norman Cowley see as the main thing a novel should give the reader?
A. psychological theories B. a new angle on life C. a thrilling story D. beautiful language
25. What does Norman Cowley like about writing a biography?
A. basing a narrative on actual events
B. getting to know a famous person very well
C. deciding how to describe a complex personality
D. making the subject known to a wider audience
II. LEXICO AND GRAMMAR (4 points)
Part 1: Choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the following questions and write your
answers (A, B, C, D) in the corresponding numbered boxes:
1. The text doesn’t give you the answer explicitly – you have to _________ it from the evidence. A. convert B. reckon C. grasp D. deduce
2. When I realized that I’d left my homework at home, I quickly ________ back to get it. A. crept B. dashed C. crawled D. drifted
3. My uncle pulled a few _________ and got me a job in the company where he works. A. ropes B. strings C. threads D. chords
4. I always clean the flat before my mum comes around, but she always finds at least one ________ of dust and says it’s filthy. A. scrap B. gust C. speck D. blade
5. The insects looked and tasted so horrible, I __________ with disgust as I tried to force them down. A. gloated B. grinned C. grimaced D. chuckled
6. Alistair is a very impulsive person. He often makes extremely important decisions __________ ,
without consulting anyone, and then regrets them later.
A. on the spur of the moment C. in the nick of time
B. in the nick of the moment D. on the spur of time
7. We don’t know what’s going to happen, so let’s not start counting our chickens before they’re ____________ . A. hatched B. born C. scratched D. brooded Trang 3 / 15
8. The boss knows that some employees are making personal phone calls during working hours, but he prefers to __________ it. A. make a flat view of
C. take a broad look at
B. take a blind look at D. turn a blind eye to
9. When the burglar was away on holiday, somebody broke into his flat and stole everything. It was a case of ________ . A. poet’s justice B. divine justice C. poetic justice D. poetic licence
10. His statement about _________ no truth in the allegations was difficult to believe. A. there had been B. there was C. there having D. there being
11. He left about two hours early, ___________ caught in a traffic jam. A. least he should be B. less he be C. though he be D. lest he be
12. People would use a lot less power if they bought household goods that were energy _________ . A. effective B. efficient C. economical D. ecology
13. The popular press often contains a lot more __________ than hard facts. A. speculation B. realism C. influence D. tolerance
14. It’s one of the worst books that I’ve ever read. Its only redeeming ________ is that it’s quite short. A. aspect B. feature C. element D. factor Your answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Part 2: For questions 15-20, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the corresponding
numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning. Pop Musicals
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, a man whose (0) __________ (COMPOSE), electric rock based works,
helped (15) ________ (VITAL) British and American musical theatre in the late 20th century. As a
student at Oxford University, a (16) __________ (PARTNER) was founded between Webber and
Timothy Rice to put on dramatic productions. Their first notable successful venture was ‘Joseph and
The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, a pop oratorio for children that earned world-wide acclaim. It
was followed by the rock opera, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, an extremely popular, though (17)
_________ (CONTROVERSY) work that blended classical forms to tell the story of Jesus’ life. This
show ran longer than any other similar show in British (18) ________ (THEATRE) history. Lloyd
Webber’s last artistic collaboration with Rice was on ‘Evita’. ‘Cats’ was his next major production, in
which he set to music verses from a children’s book by T.S. Eliot. With two (19) _________ (LYRIC)
Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, he then composed a hugely successful version of ‘The Phantom of
the Opera’. Lloyd Webber’s best works were flashy spectacles that featured vivid melodies and
forceful and dramatic staging. He was able to blend such varied and (20) ________ (SIMILAR) genres
as rock and roll, English music-hall song, and operatic forms into music that had a wide mass appeal. Trang 4 / 15
Your answers : 0. compositions 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
III. READING (4 points)
Part 1: For questions 1- 6, read the text below and decide which answer best fits each gap. NOTHING BUT STYLE
Style is now more important than substance or at least more important than skills; that is the message
of a report (1) ________ last month in Britain that questions the (2) ________ employees project and
how it compares to the one a would-be employer wants to promote. It is now more important to
employers that their employees (3) ________ the lifestyle being sold by the restaurant, café or shop in
which they work, than have technical skills. The idea that workers personify a company has long been
an (4) _________ part of management-level jobs, but this concept has (5) _______to jobs such as shop
assistants and waiters. Employers now rely more on appearance and accept than on qualifications. So is
getting a job all a (6) _________ of style? At many coffee houses and restaurant chains, the answer would seem to be yes. 1. A. taken out B. caught out C. worked out D. brought out
2. A. impression B. image C. picture D. notion 3. A. reflect B. expose C. feature D. flaunt
4. A. exceptional B. accepted C. expressed D. observed
5. A. soaked down B. dripped down C. filtered down D. leaked down 6. A. business B. subject C. concern D. matter Your answers here 1 2 3 4 5 6
Part 2: For questions 7- 14, fill in each of the numbered blanks with ONE suitable word. Arranged marriages
The usual western idea of marriage is that you meet someone, fall in love, and then decide to marry
each other. For those born (7) _________ some cultures, however, marriage may have quite a different
(8) ________. In an arranged marriage, it is the parents who choose the partner and it’s possible for the
young person getting married not to meet their future bride or groom in (9) ________ until the day of
the wedding. In deed, a young person might be (10) _________ to another as a child, many years before the wedding day.
Amongst communities that practice arranged marriage, it’s not unusual for a generation (11)
_________ to open up between parents and children, with many young people refusing to accept an
arrange marriage. However, if the parents treat each other with (12) _________ and recognize that
they are both of equal (13) __________ , there doesn’t seem to be any real (14) _________ to having a happy married life. Trang 5 / 15
Part 3 : For questions 15-21. Read the following newspaper article about an expedition and choose
the best answers (A, B, C or D). Write your answers (A, B, C, D) in the corresponding numbered boxes:
An awfully big adventure
The Taklamakan Desert in western China is one of the last unexplored places on earth. It is also one of
the most dangerous. Charles Blackmore crossed it, and lived to tell the tale.
There are very few big adventures left and very
days to cross from west to east, and the desert
few heroes. Children’s stories used to specialize was very kind to us.”
in them – courageous explorers with sunburnt,
Anyone reading his extraordinary account of
leathery skin and eyes narrowed by straining to
that crossing will wonder at the use of the word
see into far horizons on their journeys into the
“kind”. The team suffered unspeakable
unknown. These days you no longer find such
hardships: dysentery; extremes of temperature;
people in fiction, let alone in real life. Or so I
severe thirst and dehydration; the loss part of
thought until I met Charles Blackmore.
their precious water supply. “But”, Blackmore
Blackmore’s great adventure consisted of
explains, “when we were at the limits of our
leading an expedition across one of the last
own endurance and the camels had gone
unexplored places on earth, the Taklamakan
without water for seven days, we managed to
Desert in western China. Its name means “once
find some. We didn’t experience the
entered you never come out”, but local people
Taklamakan’s legendary sandstorms. And we
call it the Desert of Death. He recalled the
never hit the raw, biting desert cold that would
dangers and exhilaration of that amazing trek,
have totally immobilized us. That’s not to say
in the calm atmosphere of his family home.
that we weren’t fighting against hurdles the
whole time. The fine sand got into everything,
The team he led was composed of four Britons
(one of them the party’s medical officer), an
especially blisters and wounds. The high dunes
were torture to climb, for us and for the heavily
American photographer, four Chinese (all
laden camels, which often rolled over onto us.
experts on the area), 30 camels and six camel
handlers. It later turned out that the camel
“What drove me on more than anything else
handlers had never worked with camels before,
was the need to survive. We had no
but were long-distance lorry drivers: a
contingency plan. Neither our budget nor time
misunderstanding that could have cost everyone
allowed one. No aircraft ever flew over us.
their lives and certainly jeopardized the
Once we got into the sandhills we were
expedition’s success. This mixed bunch set out completely on our own.
to cross 1,200 kilometers of the world’s least
“I knew I had the mental stamina for the trip
hospitable desert and Charles Blackmore has
but I was very scared of my physical ability to
written a mesmerizing account of their journey.
do it. I remember day one – we sat at the edge
At the time, he was about to leave the Army
of the desert and it was such an inferno that you
after 14 happy years. He launched the
couldn’t breathe. I thought, “We’ve got to do it
expedition for fun, to fill a gap in his life, to
now!” At the moment I was a very scared
prove something. “I had always assumed I’d man.”
spend my whole life in the Army. I had been
If it was like that at the beginning, how did they
offered promotion but suddenly I felt I wanted
feel towards the end” “When you’ve walked for
to see who Charles Blackmore really was,
1,000 kilometers you’re not going to duck out.
outside all that. It was a tremendous gamble.
You’ve endured so much; you’ve got so much
Tina, my life, was very worried that I wouldn’t
behind you. We were very thin, but very
come back as nobody had ever done that route;
muscular and sinewy despite our physical
we went into it blind. In the event, it took 59
exhaustion. My body was well-toned and my Trang 6 / 15
legs were like pistons. I could walk over
that of anything else I’ve done. Yet in terms of anything.”
a lifetime’s achievement, I think of my family
and the happiness we share – against the
Midway through the book, Blackmore went on
yardstick, the desert does not measure up, does
to describe lying in the desert gazing up at a not compare.”
full moon, thinking of his family. How
conscious was he of the ordeal it must have
Has Charles Blackmore found peace? “I yearn
been for them? “Inside me there’s someone
for the challenge – for the open spaces – the
trying to find peace with himself. When I have
resolve of it all. We were buoyed up by the
doubts about myself now, I go back to the
sense of purpose. I find it difficult now to be
image of the desert and think, well, we
part of the uniformity of modern life.”
managed to pull that together. As a personal
achievement, I feel prouder of that expedition
15. Meeting Charles Blackmore changed the writer’s opinion about ___________ .
A. the content of children’s fiction
B. the nature of desert exploration
C. the existence of traditional heroes
D. the activities of explorers
16. When the expedition members set off, some of the group __________ .
A. posed an unexpected risk
B. disagreed with each other
C. were doubt about the success
D. went on ahead of the others
17. Blackmore had decided to set up the expedition because _________ .
A. he was certain he could complete it
B. he wanted to write a book
C. his aims in life had changed
D. his self-confidence was low
18. Which of the following best describes the team’s experience of the desert?
A. They were not able to have enough rest.
B. It presented continual difficulties.
C. They sometimes could not make any progress at all.
D. It was worse than they had expected.
19. Which of the following did Blackmore experience during the trip?
A. frustration at the lack of funding
B. regret about the lack of planning
C. realization that they would receive no help
D. fear that he would let his companions down
20. According to Blackmore, what enabled him to finish the expedition?
A. his strength of will
B. his physical preparation
C. his closeness to his family
D. his understanding of desert Trang 7 / 15
21. How does Blackmore feel now that the expedition is over?
A. tired but pleased to be home
B. regretful about his family’s distress
C. unsure of his ability to repeat it
D. unsettled by the experience
Write your answers here 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Part 4: Questions 22-26 are based on the reading passage below. Great Migrations
Animal migration, however it is defined, is far more than just the movement of animals. It can loosely
be described as travel that takes place at regular intervals – often in an annual cycle – that may involve
many members of a species, and is rewarded only after a long journey. It suggests inherited instinct.
The biologist Hugh Dingle has identified five characteristics that apply, in varying degrees and
combinations, to all migrations. They are prolonged movements that carry animals outside familiar
habitats; they tend to be linear, not zigzaggy; they involve special behaviours concerning preparation
(such as overfeeding) and arrival; they demand special allocations of energy. And one more: migrating
animals maintain an intense attractiveness to the greater mission, which keeps them undistracted by
temptations and undeterred challenges that would turn other animals aside.
An arctic tern, on its 20,000 km flight from the extreme south of South America to the Arctic circle,
will take no notice of a nice smelly herring offered from a bird-watcher’s boat along the way. While
local gulls will dive voraciously for such handouts, the tern flies on. Why? The arctic tern resists
distraction because it is driven at that moment by an instinctive sense of something we humans find
admirable: larger purpose. In other words, it is determined to reach its destination. The bird senses that
it can eat, rest and mate later. Right now it is totally focused on the journey; its undivided intent is
arrival. Reaching some gravely coastline in the Arctic, upon which other arctic terns have converged,
will serve its larger purpose as shaped by evolution: finding a place, a time, and a set of circumstances
in which it can successfully hatch and rear offspring.
But migration is a complex issue, and biologists define it differently, depending in part on what sorts of
animals they study. Joel Berger, of the University of Montana, who works on the American pronghorn
and other large terrestrial mammals, prefers what he calls a simple, practical definition suited to his
beasts: ‘movements from a seasonal home area away to another home area and back again”. Generally
the reason for such seasonal back-and-forth movement is to seek resources that aren’t available within a single area year-round.
But daily vertical movements by zooplankton in the ocean – upward by night to seek food, downward
by day to escape predators – can also be considered migration. So can the movement of aphids when,
having depleted the young leaves on one food plant, their offspring then fly onward to a different host
plant, with no-one aphid ever returning to where it started.
Dingle is an evolutionary biologist who studies insects. His definition is more intricate than Berger’s,
citing those five features that distinguish migration from other forms of movement. They allow for the
fact that, for example, aphids will become sensitive to blue light (from the sky) when it’s time for
takeoff on their big journey, and sensitive to yellow light (reflected from tender young leaves) when
it’s appropriate to land. Birds will fatten themselves with heavy feeding in advance of a long
migrational flight. The value of his definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses attention on what the Trang 8 / 15
phenomenon of the aphids, and therefore helps guide researchers towards understanding how evolution has produced them all.
Human behaviours, however, is having a detrimental impact on animal migration. The pronghorn,
which resembles an antelope, though they are unrelated, is the fastest land mammal of the New World.
One population, which spends the summer in the mountainous Grand Teton National Park of the
western USA, follows a narrow route from its summer range in the mountains, across a river, and down
onto the plains. Here they wait out the frozen months, feeding mainly on sagebrush blown clear of
snow. These pronghorn are notable for the invariance of their migration route and the severity of its
constriction at three bottlenecks. If they can’t pass through each of the three during their spring
migration, they can’t reach their bounty of summer grazing; if they can’t pass through again in autumn,
escaping south onto those windblown plains, they are likely to die trying to overwinter in the deep
snow. Pronghorn, dependent on distance vision and speed to keep safe from predators, traverse high,
open shoulders of land, where they can see and run. At one of the bottlenecks, forested hills rise to
form a V, leaving a corridor of open ground only about 150 meters wide, filled with private homes.
Increasing development is leading toward a crisis for pronghorn, threatening to choke off their passageway.
Conversation scientists, along with some biologists and land managers within the USA’s National Park
Service and other agencies, are now working to preserve migrational behaviours, not just species and
habitats. A National Forest has recognized the path of the pronghorn, much of which passes across its
land, as a protected migration corridor. But neither the Forest Service nor the Park Service can control
what happens on private land at a bottleneck. And with certain other migrating species, the challenge is
complicated further – by vastly greater distances traversed, more jurisdictions, more borders, more
dangers along the way. We will require wisdom and resoluteness to ensure that migrating species can
continue their journeying a while longer.
Questions 22 -26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage.
In the boxes 22-26 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 22
Local gulls and migrating arctic terns behave in the same way when offered food. 23
Experts’ definitions of migration tend to vary according to their area of study. 24
Very few experts agree that the movement of aphids can be considered migration. 25
Aphids’ journeys are affected by changes in the light that they perceive. 26
Dingle’s aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species.
Write your answers here 22 23 24 25 26 Trang 9 / 15
Questions 27 -30
Compete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G below. Write the correct letter, A-G in the boxes 27-30. 27
According to Dingle, migratory routes are likely to 28
To prepare for migration, animals are likely to 29
During migration, animals are unlikely to 30
Arctic terns illustrate migrating animals’ ability to A
be discouraged by difficulties. B
travel on open land where they can look out for predators. C
eat more than they need for immediate purposes. D be repeated daily E ignore distractions. F
be governed by the availability of water. G follow a straight line.
Write your answers here 27 28 29 30
Questions 31 -34
Complete the summary below. Choose only ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in the given spaces.
The migration of pronghorns
Pronghorns rely on their eyesight and (31) _______________ to avoid predators. One particular
population’s summer habitat is a national park, and their winter home is on the (32) _____________,
where they go to avoid the danger presented by the snow at that time of year. However, their route
between these two areas contains three (33) ______________. One problem is the construction of new
homes in a narrow (34) ________________ of land on the pronghorns’ route.
Part 5: You are going to read an extract from a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been
removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (35-40).
There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
_______________________________________________________________________________ The Magic Lute
For hundred years ago, the royal courts of Europe resounded to strains of the lute. Then the instrument
did a mysterious vanishing act. Arthur Robb is one of a small band of craftsmen bringing the
instrument back from the past. Trang 10 / 15
Arthur Robb has been marching to a different
clues as to the details of the instrument’s
tune all his life. When the youth of Europe was
design. The lute has certainly altered over time,
listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones,
evolving from an elongated oval to a deep pear-
he went to Paris and Amsterdam as part of a
shape. The stringing and the sound produced
classical choir. And then in swinging London,
must also have changed as a result. “The lute is
he discovered even earlier music. It has all been
like a time machine,” says Robb. “Its history
good training, though. Now in his fifties, he is
goes back into antiquity, possibly to ancient
recognized as a leading expert in one of Egypt.”
contemporary music’s most fashionable 38
offshoots – the revival of interest in the
accident string instrument, the lute.
Lute music is considered rather quiet compared
with the volume of today’s orchestration. But 35
centuries ago, when music was being written
Yet lutes were once produced in astonishing
for the instrument, people’s ears were better
numbers. When the celebrated Italian lute attuned to quieter sounds.
maker Laux Mahler died in 1552, an inventory 39
of his workshop revealed more than a thousand
lutes in various stages of construction. The
Despite his enthusiasm, his initial efforts did
instrument’s disappearance was so dramatic,
not meet with immediate approval. A novice
however, that very few early examples survive.
carpenter, he practiced for a year, making
wooden toys and household items to improve 36
his basic skills, before joining and adult
What happened to all the others is a mystery.
education class in musical instrument making.
Robb’s theory is that the lute was killed off by
After months of meticulous work, he proudly
the development of keyboard instruments like
offered a completed lute to a music shop in
pianoforte. But the end must have come Bristol.
suddenly. Some of the last music for solo lute 40
was written by J.S. Bach. Within years of his
death in 1750, the instrument which had
Far from being discouraged, Robb set about
dominated Europe’s musical repertoire for
putting things to rights. Modern-day lute
centuries had all but vanished.
makers have problems their craftsmen forebears
could never have imagined. Worldwide concern 37
about the use of rare timber, for example, has
Digging into literature and odd manuscripts,
meant that he has had to adapt his methods to
such as early musical scores, has allowed him
the materials that are most readily available. He
to discover how the music might have sounded,
has, however, gone on to make dozens of lutes,
whilst the examination of old paintings gives
each finer than last, and repaired many more. A
Those that do are now priceless museum pieces, and even these treasured relics have been
damaged or altered so much during their life that copying them doesn’t guarantee historical accuracy. B
What’s more, no authentic plan of a genius fifteenth – or sixteenth-century lute has ever been
found, and so no-one knows what tools were used to make the instruments. Robb, alongside
fellow enthusiasts in Britain and the USA, has been spearheading the lute’s revival. This means
unearthing fragments of information from surrounding strata like archaeologists hunting a fossil. Trang 11 / 15 C
In turning it down, they left him in no doubt as to the shortcomings of his creation. It was the
wrong shape, the wrong weight, the strings were too long to achieve the right pitch and the pegs
which tightened the strings were too bulky for comfort. D
But so little factual evidence remains, even from more recent times, that Robb has to think
himself back in time in order to begin to see how they should be made. Only by appreciating the
way people lived, how they behaved and the technology they used, can he begin to piece
together the complete picture. E
“Appreciating small nuances like that is vital to an appreciation of how the instrument might
have been played”, Robb says. As one of a small band of professional lute makers who keep in
touch via the Internet, Robb can share these impressions, as well as swapping problems and
possible solutions. No such forum existed when Robb began to construct his first lute 25 years
ago, however. He had to work things out on his own. F
Robb’s enquiries have, however, punctured one other popular myth – that of the lute player as a
wandering minstrel. Almost from its introduction into Europe, the lute was a wealthy person’s
instrument, the players attaining a status comparable to modern-day concert pianists. G
From a tiny attic workshop in the English countryside, Robb makes exquisite examples of this
forgotten instrument. Piecing together the few remaining clues to the instrument’s construction
and musical characteristics has demanded all his single-minded concentration. IV. WRITING (5 points)
Part 1: Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the
word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three and eight words, including the word given.
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1. The new teacher was so nervous that the class reacted mischievously. drew
The new teacher’s _________________________________________________ the class.
2. My neighbor assumes that he can use my lawnmower whenever he likes. granted
My neighbor _______________________________________________________ him to use my lawnmower whenever he likes.
3. Fewer people are buying fresh food since convenience foods have become available. demand
Fresh food is _____________________________________________________ of convenience food.
4. The doctor’s advice was to wait and see what happened and the baby would be fine. nature
The doctor said that we should ____________________________________________ and the baby would be fine.
5. It is quite obvious that we shall have to work faster in order to finish the project on time. escaping
There is _______________________________________ we shall have to work faster in order
to finish the project on time. Trang 12 / 15
Part 2: The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less
productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the 1990s.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where
relevant. Write your answer to the task in at least 150 words.
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Part 3: Write an essay about 250 words on the following topic.
Some people think that it is better to stick to one job, while others think when they swap jobs
they will have a better chance to gain more knowledge and money.
Which do you agree with and why? Discuss both sides and provide specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.
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(NB: You may continue your writing on the back page if you need more space) ---HẾT--- Trang 15 / 15