Kỳ thi chọn học sinh giỏi bảng A và đội tuyển dự thi học sinh giỏi quốc gia năm học 2018 - 2019 đề thi môn Tiếng Anh - Hải Phòng
Kỳ thi chọn học sinh giỏi bảng A và đội tuyển dự thi học sinh giỏi quốc gia năm học 2018 - 2019 đề thi môn Tiếng Anh - Hải Phòng 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
KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI BẢNG A VÀ HẢI PHÒNG
ĐỘI TUYỂN DỰ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA NĂM HỌC 2018 - 2019 ĐỀ CHÍNH THỨC
ĐỀ THI MÔN: TIẾNG ANH
(Đề thi có 16 trang, gồm 04 phần) Ngày thi 15/9/2018
Thời gian làm bài 180 phút, không kể thời gian giao đề
• Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển.
• Thí sinh làm trực tiếp vào đề thi
• Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm. Điểm của bài thi:
Họ tên và chữ ký của 2 giám khảo: Số phách
(Do chủ tịch hội đồng chấm thi ghi)
Bằng số: . . . . . . . . . . . Giám khảo 1: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bằng chữ . . . . . . . .. . Giám khảo 2: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I. LISTENING
HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
• Bài nghe gồm 4 phần; mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 05 giây; mở đầu và kết thúc mỗi
phần nghe có tín hiệu.Thí sinh có 01 phút để hoàn chỉnh bài nghe trước tín hiệu.
• Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh (bằng tiếng Anh) đã có trong bài nghe.
Part 1: You will hear part of a radio interview in which a fashion designer is talking about
her life and career. First, you have 30 seconds to look at Part 1. Then, listen and decide
whether the following sentences are True (T) or False (F) according to what you hear. For
questions 1-5, write your answers in the box provided. (10pts)
1. Barbara once felt embarrassed while driving in London because she thought she was an
acquaintance of a woman who was a total stranger.
2. A store detective once suspected Barbara of being a thief as she was in a shop for long without buying anything.
3. Barbara told her headmistress that she wanted to go to Art College because she was
determined to rebel against the headmistress and her parents.
4. Barbara and her husband were fully prepared for their first trade fair.
5. Barbara’s company was most profitable at a time when they had no proper business systems. Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Part 2: For questions 6-12, you wil hear a talk about the dogs that work in the Arctic. First, you
have 1 minute to look at Part 2. Then, complete the sentences below by writing NO MORE THAN
THREE WORDS for each question in the box provided. (14 pts)
- The dogs are famous for their qualities of courage and dependability.
Physically, the dogs have a deep (6) ______ and powerful shoulders.
- The dogs’ (7) ______ stay at a lower temperature than the rest of their body.
- The dogs are attached to the line pulling the sled by (8) ______ and ropes.
- The dogs that provide the power in the team are called (9) ______ dogs.
- The older dogs usually go at the (10) ______ of the line.
- The driver uses his (11) ______ to control the dogs.
- To survive overnight in the huts, drivers need a (12) ______ as well as a fire. Page 1 of 16 Your answers: 6. 10. 7. 11. 8. 12. 9.
Part 3: For questions 13-17, you will hear two sports commentators called Heidi Stokes and
Rob Aslett taking part in a discussion on the subject of gyms. First, you have 1 minute to look
at Part 3. Then, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
Write your answers in the box provided. (10 pts)
13. What do Rob and Heidi think about government proposals regarding the problem of obesity?
A. They over-emphasize the role of dietary factors.
B. They represent a radical solution that must be worth trying.
C. They over-estimate the extent to which the fitness industry can help.
D. They are attempting to accommodate too many varied perspectives.
14. Heidi agrees with the suggestion that regular gym attendance ______.
A. can discourage people from keeping fit in other ways
B. may lead to obsessive behavior in some cases
C. generally forms the basis of a healthy lifestyle
D. could be harder to keep up in rural areas
15. When asked about motivation, Rob suggests that many gym clients lose interest ______.
A. if they don’t get good value for money
B. if they don’t find it enjoyable on a social level
C. if they don’t make it part of a wider fitness regime
D. if they don’t perceive real gains in personal fitness
16. What does Heidi suggest about membership levels in gyms?
A. The best ones restrict access at peak times.
B. Most recruit more people than they can cope with.
C. It is impossible to predict demand with any accuracy.
D. Over-recruitment can be counter-productive in the long run.
17. Rob thinks the key to successful gym marketing lies in ______.
A. remaining true to the core values of fitness and strength
B. appealing to a wide cross-section of the population
C. joining forces with providers of related activities
D. specializing in the needs of certain key groups Your answers: 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
Part 4: For questions 18-25, you wil hear a radio report about coral, a type of marine creature.
First, you have 1 minute to look at Part 4. Then, complete the notes below by writing NO MORE
THAN THREE WORDS for each question in the box provided. (16 pts)
- The speaker describes British coral as both (18) ______ and colorful.
- The speaker notes with surprise that (19) ______ are closely related to coral.
- Members of the coral family defend themselves whilst (20) ______ by firing poisonous threads.
- What’s called “cup” coral is unusual because it does not live in a (21) ______.
- The rarest type of cup coral is called the (22) ______ coral.
- One type of soft coral gives underwater cliffs a (23) ______ appearance.
- The soft coral known as (24) ______ is commonly found on the southwest coast.
- Sea fans are described as resembling “tiny trees” because of the way they grow. They are easily Page 2 of 16
damaged by the actions of people such as (25) ______ and fishermen. Your answers: 18. 22. 19. 23. 20. 24. 21. 25. II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR
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. (15 pts)
26. If my son makes a fool of himself in front of his friends, he'll never ______ it down. A. let B. give C. live D. settle
27. The Press thought the footbal manager would be depressed by his dismissal, but he just ______. A. laughed it off B. called it off C. turned it down D. ran it down
28. Members of the aristocracy don't ______ a great deal of power nowadays. A. wield B. practise C. sway D. manage
29. I'm not serious investor, but I like to ______ in the stock market. A. splash B. splatter C. paddle D. dabble
30. The area has become rather ______ so the restaurants are now more expensive. A. downmarket B. marketable C. marketed D. upmarket
31. In the business world, the big companies seem to be ______ war against the smaller ones. A. fighting B. waging C. winning D. staging
32. Jogging - running in the streets to keep fit - is all the ______ in the States, and will
probably become popular in Europe too. A. craze B. fad C. rage D. cult
33. The teacher said 'Wel done' and pat ed me on the head. I can't stand people who treat me so ______. A. pompously B. maternally C. snobbishly D. patronizingly
34. Whether it was true or not was ______, but it is obviously had the desired effect. A. immaterial B. immaculate C. immeasurable D. impeccable
35. I used to try to get him to do some exercise but then he decided ______. A. a lost cause B. a basket case C. a false down D. a dark horse
36. The investigation was instigated ______the Prime Minister. A. on the part of B. consequence of C. subsequent to D. at the behest of
37. Unemployment threat has been ______for a while now. A. intimidating on the air B. daunting on the lookout C. looming on the horizon D. overwhelming on the wing
38. The man was staggering from one side of the street to the other. He was ______ drunk. A. deep B. hard C. strong D. blind
39. Tel’s not decided yet where to stop on the journey - we’ll just play it by ______ and see how we feel. A. lib B. eye C. ear D. hand
40. A thief despoiled me ______ money and ran away. A. of B. to C. with D. from Your answers: 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. Page 3 of 16
Part 2. For questions 41-45, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided. (5 pts) BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS
Ancient man used sticks of charcoal to draw pictures on cave walls in order to
communicate with, probably, their deities and (41. TRAIN) huntsmen. Today, some of their
direct descendants are still using 'chalk and talk' and other (42. MODE) equipment to make
presentations to sophisticated business audiences. Now, there's nothing wrong with
whiteboards, flip charts and overhead projectors. In their right context, they are still
exceedingly useful presentation tools. But in a business environment in which the
presentation of clear, easily understandable information is a necessity, and in which (43.
MEMORY) is key, managers should be constantly upgrading their equipment to keep pace
with developments. Audiences are coming to expect high-quality presentations that are
visually stimulating and get the message across without wasting time. (44. PROFESSION) -
made presentations clearly signify that the person giving them has thought through the
issues and knows what they are talking about. They can put a persuasive case that wins over
an audience in a way that pieces of paper can't. And they can put you, or your company, in
the most advantageous light possible by delivering a well (45. THINK) message reliably every time. Your answers: 41. 42. 43. 44. 45.
Part 3: Fill in the numbered blank with ONE correct preposition or particle. For questions 46-
55, write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.( 10pts)
46. He’s a genius ______a pencil and can capture a likeness ______a few deft strokes.
47. The presidential candidates touched ______the subject of health care ______the debates.
48. The editor rushed ______a piece on the crash ______the late news.
49. Janet: How did you get the black eye?
John: My friend was in a fight, so I stuck ______ ______ him and got hit too.
50. She left the potatoes cooking ______so long that the water boiled ______, and the potatoes were burnt.
51. This stove must be cleaned ______once a week, or it gets choked ______ashes.
52. Nobody backed me ______when I complained about the food in the canteen, so nothing was done ______ it.
53. The idea has gradual y grown ______that the State should look after every citizen ______the cradle to the grave.
54. The first comedian didn’t go______well with the audience at all, and he was booed ______the stage.
55. I need to read ______ ______the company before I go on the job interview. Your answers: 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.
Part 4: For questions 56 - 65, read the below passage, find out 10 incorrect words and
correct them. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. (10pts) Line Page 4 of 16 1
When a celebrity, a (0) politics or other person in the media spotlight loses their
temper in public, they run the risk of hitting the headings in a most embarrassing
way. For such uncontrol ing outbursts of anger are often triggered by what seem to
be trivial matters and, if they are caught on camera, can make the person appear slightly 5
ridiculousness. But it's not only the rich and famous who is prone to fits of rage.
According to recent surveys, ordinary people are increasingly tending to lose their
cool in public. Although anger is a potentially destructive emotion that uses up a lot
of energy and creates a high level of emotional and physical stress - and it stops us
thinking rational. Consequently, angry people often end up saying, and doing things 10
they later have cause to regret.
So, how can anger be avoided? Firstly, diet and lifestyle may be to blame. Tolerance
and irritability certainly come to the surface when someone hasn't slept properly or
has skipped a meal, and any intake of caffeine can make things worst. Taking regular
exercise can help to ease and diffuse feelings of aggression, however, reduce the 15
chances of an angry response. But if something or someone does make you angry, it's
advisable not to react immediately. Once you've calmed down, things won't look half as badly as you first thought. Your answers: Number Mistakes Line Correction 0. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. III. READING
Part 1: For questions 66-75, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable
word. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. (10pts) THE NEW INVADERS
Not since the Spanish Conquest has an invasion on this (66) ______ so threatened Peru's
precious Inca heritage. Today, they come (67) ______ with backpacks and cameras rather than
muskets and swords. Last year alone, (68) ______ the country's 2.25 million foreign visitors,
nearly half headed straight for Machu Picchu, (69) ______ thousands tromping along the ancient Inca Trail to get there.
In 2004, under mounting pressure from UNESCO, the Peruvian government took measures to
protect the ancient site, setting a 500-a-day limit on the number of visitors allowed in. But this
hasn't (70) ______ off tour companies out to (71) ______ a quick buck, which openly flout the
law and get around it by opening up new 'unofficial' hiking routes to the top. Page 5 of 16
UNESCO has been infuriated by seeming government complicity in this behaviour. After all, the
infamous Carrilluchayoc bridge, and others like it, which (72) ______Machu Picchu up to
hundreds of thousands of illegal visitors each year, could, quite easily, be blocked off by the state
were it only to show an interest. Instead, it (73) ______ a blind eye as the situation escalates out of control.
And UNESCO has finally (74) ______ its patience, demanding of the Peruvian government
immediate action to (75) ______ the tide of unauthorised tourists whose careless, nitwitted
trespass is putting the future of the ancient wonder under threat. Your answers: 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.
Part 2: You are going to read a newspaper article about technology and personal privacy. For
questions 76-82, 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. (7 pts) WHAT PRICE PRIVACY?
Don't blame technology for threatening our privacy: it's the way the institutions choose to use it.
The most depressing moment of my day is first thing in the morning, when I download my
overnight batch of emails. Without fail, it will contain dozens of messages from people who,
knowing my interest in the subject, write to me describing violations of their personal
privacy. Throughout the day, the stream continues, each message in my inbox warning of
yet another nail in the coffin of personal privacy. In other centuries, such invasions of liberty
would have arisen from religious persecution or the activities of tax collectors. Nowadays,
the invasions take place through the use of information technology.
So, when those of us who value personal privacy are asked for their view, we will invariably
speak in disparaging terms about such technologies. In an effort to stem the speed and force
of the invasion, we will sometimes argue that the technologies themselves should simply be
banned. 'Just stop using the cursed technology,' we cry, 'then there won't be any privacy
issue.' Of course, things are not so simple. Even the strongest advocate of privacy recognises
that technology can offer enormous benefits to individuals and to society. To prohibit a
technology on the grounds that it is being used to invade privacy would also be to deny
society the benefits of that innovation.
The sensible perspective is that technology does not necessarily have to invade privacy. The
reality is that it invariably does. Companies may well argue that customers are prepared to
'trade off’ a little privacy in return for better service or a cooler and more sophisticated
product. They say that this is a matter of free choice. I doubt that there is any genuine free
choice in the matter. Whether I go with Orange or Vodaphone is indeed a free choice. But I
have no choice over whether my communications data will or will not be stored by my
communications provider. They know the location of my mobile and the numbers from
which I received calls, and the emails I send are routinely stored by all providers, whether I like it or not.
CCTV also gives me no free choice. Its purpose may be to keep me secure, but I have no
alternative but to accept it. Visual surveillance is becoming a fixed component in the design
of modern urban centres, new housing areas, public buildings and even, in Britain at least,
throughout the road system. Soon, people will expect spy cameras to be part of all forms of
architecture and design. Of course, there is another side to the coin, many technologies have Page 6 of 16
brought benefits to the consumer with little or no cost to privacy. Encryption is one that
springs to mind. Many of the most valuable innovations in banking and communications
could never have been deployed without this technique.
The problem with privacy is not technology, but the institutions which make use of it.
Governments are hungry for data, and will use their powers to force companies to collect,
retain and yield personal information on their customers. In recent years, governments have
managed to incorporate surveillance into almost every aspect of our finances,
communication and lifestyle. While acknowledging the importance of privacy as a
fundamental right, they argue that surveillance is needed to maintain law and order and
create economic efficiency. The right to privacy, it is always claimed, should not be allowed
to stand in the way of the wider public interest. This argument is sound in principle, but
there seems little intellectual or analytical basis for its universal and unquestioned application.
When the UK government introduced the RIP legislation in 2000, it originally intended to
allow an unprecedented degree of communications interception on the grounds that the
dangers of crime on the Internet warranted increased surveillance. At no time did anyone
produce much evidence for this crime wave, however, nor did anyone in government seem
to think any was required. It was left to an eleventh-hour campaign by civil rights activists
to block the more offensive elements of the legislation from a personal privacy point of
view. Such lack of prior justification is a common feature of privacy invasion for law
enforcement and national security purposes.
As I've said, technology does not have to be the enemy of privacy. But while governments
insist on requiring surveillance, and while companies insist on amassing personal
information about their customers, technology will continue to be seen as the enemy of privacy.
76. From the first paragraph, we understand that the writer ______
A. resents receiving such distressing emails from people.
B. is resigned to the fact that invasions of privacy are on the increase.
C. is surprised that people should contact him about privacy.
D. finds it hard to cope with the tone of the emails he receives.
77. What view does the writer put forward in the second paragraph?
A. It is unrealistic to deny people the benefits that technology can bring.
B. People should be willing to do without certain forms of technology.
C. It is a mistake to criticise people for the way they use technology.
D. People shouldn't be allowed to use technologies that threaten privacy.
78. The writer feels that some companies ______
A. fail to recognise that their products may invade people's privacy.
B. do not really give customers a say in issues related to privacy.
C. underestimate the strength of their customers' feelings about privacy.
D. refuse to make compromises with customers concerned about privacy.
79. What point does the writer make about CCTV?
A. People feel more secure the more widely it is used.
B. It ought to be a feature of all new building projects.
C. it would be difficult for society to function without it.
D. People no longer question how necessary it is.
80. The writer gives encryption as an example of a technology which______
A. brings only questionable benefits to society in general.
B. actually helps us to protect personal privacy.
C. poses much less of a threat to privacy than others.
D. is worth losing some personal privacy for. Page 7 of 16
81. In the fifth paragraph, the writer suggests that governments are ______
A. wrong to dismiss the individual's right to privacy so lightly.
B. justified in denying the right of privacy to criminals.
C. mistaken in their view that surveillance prevents crime.
D. unreasonable in their attitude towards civil rights campaigners.
82. What is the writer's main criticism of the RIP legislation in the UK?
A. Changes were made to it at the last moment.
B. There was no proof that it was really needed.
C. It contained elements that had to be removed.
D. Civil rights groups were not consulted about it. Your answers: 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82.
Part 3: You are going to read an extract from an article on gender. For questions 83-92,
choose from the extracts (A-E). The extracts may be chosen more than once. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. (10 pts)
In which section are the following mentioned? Your answers
83. The details of a linguist's theory _______
84. Judith Butler's ideas around the distinction often made between gender and sex _______
85. The disagreeing of a philosopher with a linguist's theory _______
86. The possibility of using Judith Butler's work to improve a situation _______
87. Sexism towards women by members of the same sex _______
88. The misinterpretation of a term in Judith Butler's work _______
89. The worst problems of gender-assignment _______
90. The difficulty in trying to summarize Judith Butler's ideas _______
91. The surrounding of human beings in language _______
92. That people today aren't different from people of a different era _______ NEITHER THIS NOR THAT
A. Most of us sit happily within our binary categorised genders. We push the boundaries a little
bit. We like to think we're being a bit alternative with our decisions in clothing, or even in
attitude. It isn't difficult to find perfectly straight househusbands taking an interest in the decor of
the family home and to find misogynistic women in boardrooms and on factory floors alike
across the globe today. We might be able to do more within our assigned gender, but we're still
very much pinned down by the borders of our gender - we're still only reacting against our strict
Victorian predecessors - we've yet to step into the future of our possible selves.
B. A difficult pill for us to swallow though is that we can't imagine ourselves without gender.
Who are we without our box labels of "man" and "woman"? As we ask ourselves this question, a
beautiful songbird flies past our eyes and it dawns on us that we don't exist without these
categories. Or, rather we cannot imagine - we are unintelligible to ourselves without these
demarcations. This is one of the basic ideas of Judith Butler, a theorist on many aspects of
identity, but who made her name in the public domain with her research upon gender. She works
from within a number of perspectives and any cursory attempt at an introduction to her and her
ideas would be to do unto her a great injustice, but for those who are unfamiliar with her work,
she argues that gender is performative. This term has, indeed, caused some of the many problems
and confusions with Butler's theory, but as a base from which to start, one who would like to Page 8 of 16
understand should soon dispose of the theatrical notion hanging around in your connotational
mind and turn towards the field of linguistics. More specifically towards a particular linguist and
his work; J. I. Austin's How To Do Things With Words.
C. J. I. Austin's work couldn't be further away from gender studies if it tried, but Judith Butler
made use of his famous theory upon the performativity of certain types of speech or utterances.
He argued that some utterances had no reference outside of the sentence, so these utterances are
performative. Austin refers to the utterances in naming ceremonies and marriage ceremonies as
instances of the performativity of language. It takes a while to get one's head around this, but
essentially Austin argues that in certain cases utterances do not describe nor state the "doing" of
an action, but rather the utterance itself is the action; the utterance performs the action. "I name
this ship..." would be an example of a performative utterance. Judith Butler arrives at Austin's
work through a critique of it by the French philosopher Jacque Derrida. Derrida takes issue with
Austin's narrow usage of his theory.
D. This is where Judith Butler picks up the thread. She argues that from the moment we are born,
we are encased by language. We don't speak back for a year or so, but the people around us are
already dressing us up in the finery of the language we will one day use to decorate ourselves - to
create our identities with. But, further than this and more explicitly as Butler develops in her later
work Bodies That Matter, the moment we are born the sentence is uttered, "it's a girl" or "it's a
boy" - this is the basis of her argument of gender being performative. I suppose a good way to
imagine it is through Spiderman's web that he shoots from his wrist. The web is language and
language that is inescapable. The implications of this though, are very serious for Butler. She
often writes about children who are born with two sets of genitals or whose genitals are
ambiguous. For these people, Butler argues, the "gendering" is most cruel. These human beings
aren't left as the beautiful products that they are, but quite the opposite - they are mutilated as
babies and find it very difficult to live sexually fulfilling lives as adults.
E. Although never explicitly stated in Judith Butler's work, what her work might lead on to is a
lessening of the gendering process. She would be incredibly sceptical about such an idea. She
would suggest that this is impossible; that we cannot think outside of the gendered categories.
She believes that the only way to make life more bearable in the gendering process is through
subversion. One way she suggests is to overdo gender. She argues that the hyperbolically
feminine and the hyperbolically masculine draw attention to the edges of the categories whilst at
the same time undermining the categories by the very fact of their borders. Some would suggest
you see, that man and woman, male and female (Butler has a very interesting perspective when it
comes to the pop-science differentiation between "gender" and "sex" with the latter often being
read as "biological" and the former as "cultural") are related to the notion of "nature". The
househusband who takes an interest in the decor of the family home would probably
complacently suggest that, in nature, women would usually do this and men would do that, but
because we live in a society that allows for the reverse, we can do otherwise. Butler would have
problems with this for a number of reasons including the unquestioning usage of the term "nature".
Part 4: For questions 93-105, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. (13 pts)
GIANT CAMEL FOSSIL FOUND IN ARCTIC
Camels are well known for their ability to survive the hot and dry conditions of the desert but
research suggests that they once thrived in a colder climate … Page 9 of 16
The idea that giant camels once roamed the Arctic along with polar bears and walruses is
startling. Yet this is the key implication of research published by scientists working on Canada's
Ellesmere Island. Lying deep inside the Arctic Circle, opposite Greenland's northern coast,
Ellesmere is one of the world's coldest, bleakest spots. However, researchers have also found it
was the home of a 3.5 million year old species of camel that later evolved into the creatures that
now roam the Sahara and other hot spots. It seems that evolution can still throw up surprises.
However, there is more to the project than merely uncovering the camel's unexpected
evolutionary history. The researchers' work has also demonstrated the power of a dramatic new
technique for investigating the pre - historic past. It is known as collagen fingerprinting, and
many researchers believe it could transform our understanding of life on Earth. 'This is the first
time that collagen has been extracted and used to identify a species from such ancient bone
fragments' said Dr Mike Buckley of Manchester University's Institute of Biotechnology. 'This
unlocks the huge potential of collagen fingerprinting to better identify extinct species’.
Collagen is a protein that forms the connective tissue that holds bones together in an animal's
skeleton, and it was only by analysing scraps of the material, found in the bones on Ellesmere,
that scientists were able to identify the remains as those of an ancient camel. Indeed it was not
evident at first that the remains were actually fossils. 'The first time I picked up a piece, I thought
that it might be wood' said expedition leader Dr Natalia Rybczynski of the Canadian Museum of
Nature. 'It was only back at the field camp that I was able to ascertain that it was not only bone,
but also from a fossil mammal larger than anything we had seen so far'.
However, it was the analysis of the collagen attached to the bones that provided proof that these
once belonged to the family Paracamelus, from which all modern camels are descended. The
results show an almost identical match to the modem-day one-humped camel, the dromedary. A
comparison of the chemical makeup of the collagen with the tissue from Ice Age Yukon camels
revealed more than similarities - they were found to be closely related, and possibly the same
species. In addition, anatomical data suggest the leg bone found on Ellesmere was one third
larger than the same bone in a modem camel indicating that this giant creature would likely have
stood about 3.5 metres tall at the hump. The findings suggest that mineralization worked along
with cold temperatures to help preserve the proteins in the bones. 'This specimen is spectacular
and provides important clues about how such exceptional preservation may occur' said Dr Buckley.
In the past, scientists have speculated that the camel still bears features that could have evolved
to cope with harsh polar winters. Traits found in modern camels, such as their humps which
serve as a fat store, would have benefited their ancestors during the deep winters when food was
scarce. Other camel characteristics that would have been useful in the frozen conditions include
the species' flat feet, which support the animal on soft ground such as loose sand or in the same
way that a snowshoe helps a person walk on snow. Their large eyes would also have helped them
peer through low light and forage for food during the long, Arctic winter. At that time, annual
average temperatures in the area was about -4 degrees C, barely below freezing but still about 18
degrees C warmer than the modern average. The camels that evolved in North America may
have then migrated across Asia via a land bridge between Alaska and Russia.
The Ellesmere Island site is about 1200 kilometres further north than any previous camel find.
Fossils unearthed at a location about ten kilometres away from the camel find and from rocks of
approximately the same age, reveal that the landscape hosted an open forest inhabited by bears,
rabbits, beavers and a pony, sized three, toed horse. The findings indicate that these animals were
living, even thriving, at latitudes where few mammals can now exist. Page 10 of 16
The idea is intriguing - but it is only the start. Collagen fingerprinting is several orders of
magnitude more effective at establishing links between ancient fossils and modern species
compared with DNA fingerprinting, which has been used up to now. Collagen does not break
down as speedily as DNA and so it can be used to study animals that are millions of years old
and establish links with modern species by studying slight changes in their amino acid structure.
As a result, scientists are now focussing on a wide range of species, from angelfish to zebras, to
uncover links between ancient and modern animals. 'This is going to provide some startling results', said Dr Buckley. Questions 93-100 Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. Collagen fingerprinting
Fossil research using collagen fingerprinting shows that camels once lived on Ellesmere Island.
By studying fossils, scientists have made surprising discoveries about the animal's (93)______
history. The research team took collagen which is a (94) ______ found in bone, from the fossil
and compared it with collagen found in other fossils and modern animals. They found a near
perfect (95) ______ between the now extinct camel and the modern one-hump camel. It also
shared a number of (96) ______ with the Ice Age Yukon camel. Both the collagen and (97)
______ information demonstrated that the bone fragments belonged to a giant camel. They were
approximately three times (98) ______ compared to the same bones in a modern day camel. The
protein was able to survive for three and a half million years due to the process of (99) ______
which helped seal the bones. The cold climate of the region also ensured the (100) ______ of the collagen in the fossils. Your answers: 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100.
Questions 101-105: Complete the notes below.
Write TWO WORDS OR A NUMBER ONLY for each answer.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Physical characteristics of the Giant Camel Measured 101______ in height Used its hump as a 102 ______
Had large eyes to cope with 103 ______ in winter
Had ideal feet for 104 ______ terrain so it didn't sink through 105______ Your answers: 101. 102. 103. 104. 105.
Part 5: For questions 106-115, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (10 pts) One Who Hopes
A. Language lovers, just like music lovers, enjoy variety. For the latter there's Mozart, The
Rolling Stones and Beyonce. For the former there's English, French, Swahili, Urdu ... the list is Page 11 of 16
endless. But what about those poor overworked students who find learning difficult, confusing
languages a drudge? Wouldn't it put a smile on their faces if there were just one simple, easy-to-
Iearn tongue that would cut their study time by years? Well, of course, it exists. It's called
Esperanto, and it's been around for more than 120 years. Esperanto is the most widely spoken
artificially constructed international language. The name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the
pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published his Unua Libro in 1887. The phrase
itself means 'one who hopes'. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language as a
universal second language to promote peace and international understanding.
B. Zamenhof, after ten years of developing his brain-child from the late 1870s to the early 1880s,
had the first Esperanto grammar published in Warsaw in July 1887. The number of speakers
grew rapidly over the next few decades, at first primarily in the Russian empire and Eastern
Europe, then in Western Europe and the Americas, China, and Japan. In the early years, speakers
of Esperanto kept in contact primarily through correspondence and periodicals, but since 1905
world congresses have been held on five continents every year except during the two World
Wars. Latest estimates for the numbers of Esperanto speakers are around 2 million. Put in
percentage terms, that's about 0.03% of the world's population - no staggering figure,
comparatively speaking. One reason is that Esperanto has no official status in any country, but it
is an optional subject on the curriculum of several state education systems. It is widely estimated
that it can be learned in anywhere between a quarter to a twentieth of the time required for other languages.
C. As a constructed language, Esperanto is not genealogically related to any ethnic language.
Whilst it is described as 'a language lexically predominantly Romanic', the phonology, grammar,
vocabulary, and semantics are based on the western Indo-European languages. For those of us
who are not naturally predisposed to tucking languages under our belts, it is an easy language to
learn. It has 5 vowels and 23 consonants. It has one simple way of conjugating all of its verbs.
Words are often made from many other roots, making the number of words which one must
memorise much smaller. The language is phonetic, and the rules of pronunciation are very
simple, so that everyone knows how to pronounce a written word and vice-versa, and word order
follows a standard, logical pattern. Through prefixing and suffixing, Esperanto makes it easy to
identify words as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, direct objects and so on, by means of easy-
to-spot endings. All this makes for easy language learning. What's more, several research studies
demonstrate that studying Esperanto before another foreign language speeds up and improves the
learning of the other language. This is presumably because learning subsequent foreign
languages is easier than learning one's first, while the use of a grammatically simple and
culturally flexible language like Esperanto softens the blow of learning one's first foreign
language. In one study, a group of European high school students studied Esperanto for one year,
then French for three years, and ended up with a significantly better command of French than a
control group who had studied French for all four years.
D. Needless to say, the language has its critics. Some point to the Eastern European features of
the language as being harsh and difficult to pronounce, and argue that Esperanto has an artificial
feel to it, without the flow of a natural tongue, and that by nature of its artificiality, it is
impossible to become emotionally involved with the language. Others cite its lack of cultural
history, indigenous literature - "no one has ever written a novel straight into Esperanto" -
together with its minimal vocabulary and its inability to express all the necessary philosophical,
emotional and psychological concepts.
E. The champions of Esperanto - Esperantists - disagree. They claim that it is a language in
which a great body of world literature has appeared in translation: in poetry, novels, literary Page 12 of 16
journals, and, to rebut the accusation that it is not a 'real' language, point out that it is frequently
used at international meetings which draw hundreds and thousands of participants. Moreover, on
an international scale, it is most useful - and fair - for neutral communication. That means that
communication through Esperanto does not give advantages to the members of any particular
people or culture, but provides an ethos of equality of rights, tolerance and true internationalism.
F. Esperantists further claim that Esperanto has the potential - were it universally taught for a
year or two throughout the world - to empower ordinary people to communicate effectively
worldwide on a scale that far exceeds that which is attainable today by only the most
linguistically brilliant among us. It offers the opportunity to improve communication in business,
diplomacy, scholarship and other fields so that those who speak many different native languages
will be able to participate fluently in international conferences and chat comfortably with each
other after the formal presentations are made. Nowadays that privilege is often restricted to
native speakers of English and those who have special talents and opportunities for learning
English as a foreign language.
G. What Esperanto does offer in concrete terms is the potential of saving billions of dollars
which are now being spent on translators and interpreters, billions which would be freed up to
serve the purposes of governments and organisations that spend so much of their resources to
change words from one language into the words of others. Take, for example, the enormously
costly conferences, meetings and documentation involved in the European Union parliamentary
and administrative procedures - all funded, essentially, by tax payers. And instead of the World
Health Organisation, and all NGOs for that matter, devoting enormous sums to provide
interpreters and translations, they would be able to devote those huge amounts of money to
improving the health of stricken populations throughout the world.
Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B - G from the list of headings below. Write the
correct number i - ix. List of Headings Paragraph A vii i.
A non-exclusive language vi. A real language 106. Paragraph B … ii. Fewer languages, more vii. Harmony through 107. Paragraph C … results language 108. Paragraph D …
iii. Language is personal
viii. The mechanics of a 109. Paragraph E …
iv. What's fashionable in language 110. Paragraph F … language ix. Lost in translation 111. Paragraph G … v. From the written word to the spoken word
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage? Write _ YES
if the statement agrees with the information NO
if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
112. Supporters of Esperanto say it gives everyone an equal voice.
113. Esperanto is the only artificially-constructed language.
114. Esperanto can be learned as part of a self-study course.
115. Esperanto can be used equally in formal and casual situations. Your answers: Page 13 of 16 112. 113. 114. 115. IV. WRITING
Part 1: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary
should be between 100 and 120 words long. (15 pts)
Many scientists believe that dolphins are very intelligent creatures because dolphins have
large brains, show intelligent behavior, and are creative. All of these factors make dolphins very
compelling animals for scientists to study. Some scientists believe that by studying dolphins,
they can learn how humans became such intelligent animals.
Dolphins’ brains are quite large compared to other animals. In fact, their brains are bigger
than humans’ if you consider their weight. However, if you look at the weight of the brain
compared to overall body size, then humans have slightly larger brains. Compared to
chimpanzees, which are also considered intelligent animals and which many people believe are
related to humans, a bottle-nosed dolphin’s brain is four times larger. One part of an animal’s
brain, the cerebral cortex, is 40% larger in dolphins than in humans. This is an area of the brain
that many scientists believe that much complex thinking occurs.
The complex behavior of dolphins shows that they are very intelligent. For example, they
usually swim in small groups of six to twelve individuals. Researchers believe that the dolphins
can recognize one another in their groups. Some scientists in Scotland have shown that two or
three dolphins often make strong bonds with one another, similar to human’s making close
friendships. In addition, dolphins work together as a unit to help one another survive and live
well. When a shark approaches, the dolphins move together at the exact same time to avoid the
threat. Some scientists even believe that they make clicking sounds to warn one another. They
seem to work well together and are always aware of their surroundings, which people often are
not. Dolphins are also exceptional because of their creativity. An American scientist named
Karen Pryor performed an experiment on captive dolphins to learn how creative they are. The
dolphins had been taught tricks, but Pryor wanted to see if she could make them act creatively.
For instance, if they performed their tricks in an original way, they were rewarded with extra
fish. When the dolphins performed the same tricks they had done before, they were not
rewarded. The dolphins learned after awhile that they would be rewarded for doing original
tricks, so they started doing more and more original and creative ones. Pryor measured the
amount of time it took the dolphins to learn what was wanted of them. Afterwards, she tried an
experiment where people were taught simple tricks and they were rewarded for doing the tricks
originally. Interestingly, it took the humans about the same amount of time as it took the
dolphins to learn what was wanted of them.
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Part 2: The table shows data about the average length of time (in minutes) that people of
different ages spend in a consultation with family doctors in a number of countries. (15 pts)
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons
where relevant. You should write about 150 words.
Minutes spent with a doctor on average Age (years) France Brazil Japan USA India Kenya UK Italy Chile 0-10 16 12 14 13 12 15 9 17 32 10-20 18 21 12 17 14 14 12 18 32 20-40 25 23 16 19 20 12 13 23 34 40-60 29 26 15 21 21 12 15 24 36 60-70 34 23 13 27 19 11 15 27 38 70+ 38 20 14 31 11 10 21 29 39
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Paper 3: Write an essay of about 350 words on the following topic:
Some people think that all university students should study whatever they like. Others
believe that they should only be allowed to study subjects that will be useful in the future, Page 15 of 16
such as those related to science and technology. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. (30 pts)
You should give reasons for your answer using your own ideas and experience.
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