Kỳ thi chọn HSGQG lớp 12 THPT năm học 2021 – 2022 môn Tiếng Anh

ENGLISH BONANZA
KỲ THI CHỌN HSGQG KHỐI 12 THPT; NĂM HỌC: 2021 – 2022 (Đề thi gồm 12 trang) MÔN THI: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút (Không kể thời gian giao đề) PART A. LISTENING
Section I. You will hear a sports psychologist talking about how he helps atheletes prepare for major sporting
events. For question 1-9, complete the sentences with a word or short phrases. Sports Psychology
Graeme identifies research into (1) _______________ as the most relevant aspect of psychology for sports coaches.
Graeme points out that certain winter sports require what is called (2) ____________ concentration.
Greaeme is surprised at how often (3) _____________ are a cause of distraction for experienced athletes.
Greame recommends that athletes set themselves (4) ______________ goals as a way of maintaining focus.
Greame gives the example of _____________ (5) as a “trigger” word that help a sprinter.
Greame feels that making use of ______________(6) is the best way to improve self-confidence.
Greame thinks an athlete who wasn’t nervous before an important event might lack of ____________ (7)
Greame has found that athletes use the word _____________ (8) for the various symptom of stress.
Greame mentions that feelings of _______________ (9) can lead to a deterioration in an athlete’s performance.
(Extracted from Pearson Proficiency Expert Student’s Resource Book) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Section II. For questions 10-15, listen to a piece of BBC news about the US wildfires and decide whether the following
statements are true (T), false (F) or not given (NG)
10. Around 1.3 million acres of land in North America have been damaged in 2021 __________
11. The firefighters controlled the wildfires immediately. __________
12. Smoke creates a humid environment on account of blocking the rays of sun. __________
13. High temperatures and wind gusts appear nearby the wildfires. __________
14. covid-19 positiven tests’ results among firefighters has an adverse effect on the fires’ __________ control.
15. The firefighters are looking forward to being able combat the wildfires. __________ 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Section III. You will hear a group of art history students going around an art gallery with their teacher. For questions
16-20, choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
16. Burne-Jones believed that a painting________.
A. ought to be true to nature.
B. must have a clear moral point.
C. should play an instructive role in a modern industrial society.
D. need not have any practical value.
17. It appears that the story of the King and the Beggar Maid was________.
A. a well-known Victorian tale.
B. popularized by a poet.
C. brought to the artist’s attention by his wife.
D. taken up by novelists at a later stage.
18. According to the student, how did the painter approach the work?
A. He wanted to portray the beggar very realistically.
B. He copied parts of the painting from an Italian masterpiece.
C. He had certain items in the painting made for him.
D. He wanted to decorate the clothing with jewels.
19. The student thinks that in some way the painting depicts________.
A. an uncharacteristically personal message
B. the great sadness of the artist
C. the artist’s inability to return the girl’s love
D. the fulfillment of the artist’s hopes and dreams
20. What was people’s reaction to the painting?
A. They recognized Frances Graham as the model for the Beggar Maid
B. They realized how personal the painting was for the artist
C. They interpreted the painting without difficulty
D. They did not approve of the subject matter of the painting
(Extracted from Proficiency Masterclass Student Book) 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
Section IV. You will hear a talk about an investigation into obesity. For questions 21-25, listen and answer the
following questions with NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS. Write your answer in the space provided.
21. What are less common within the family?
____________________________________
22. What can make people eat more than their need?
____________________________________
23. What kind of emotions can affect people’s eating habits?
____________________________________
24. Who are more likely to eat more due to negative emotions?
____________________________________
25. What will the researchers continue to investigate in the coming week?
____________________________________ 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. PART B. LEXICO AND GRAMMAR
Section I. Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D that indicates the word or phrase which best fits in the blank.
26. Those challenges were all __________ by the bereavement, Bruce. A. guaranteed B. dislocated C. eclipsed D. nullified
27. Jade had lost all her notes and had to __________. A. endorse B. extemporize C. feign D. mimic
28. The council decided to demolish the ___________house because it was an eyesore. A. awe-inspring B. destitute C. ramshackle D. stately
29. He has been ___________ away at that essay for constanly three hours. A. beavering B. buggering C. teeing D. branching
30. I haven’t much time for incompetent fools like Elio. I gave him ___________ when he came in here asking for a pay raise. A. the cold shoulder B. short shift C. down pat D. a snow job
31. The gambler is aware of a(n) __________ of adrenalin just as the bet is placed. A. acme B. summit C. zenith D. peak
32. The _____________ reason given for the war was that Germany wanted to expand its borders. A. supercilious B. superfluous C. ostensible D. wistful
33. The poor man stood ______________ at the display of such wealth. A. dumbstruck B. fatigued C. drowsy D. extorted
34. The young man was accused of a terrible crime. His parents were convinced that he was innocent and swore they would
_____________ to get him acquitted.
A. see which way the wind blows
B. be tilt at windmills C. throw in the towel
D. move heaven and earth
35. This book prepares you ___________ for the exam. A. leniently B. thoroughly C. rigidly D. sternly
36. That successful company has used its huge economic ____________ to exert control over prices. A. clout B. slump C. turmoil D. downturn
37. Having national pride may sometimes be admirable, but ____________ can result in negative attitudes towards certain nationalities. A. avarice B. libel C. magnanimity D. jingoism
38. The ambusher’s victim walked _____________ into the trap. A. blindly B. shortsightedly C. ignorantly D. subconsciously
39. He didn't look as ___________ as his wife, but for a man in his late fifties, he looked good. A. airs and graces
B. dazed and desultory C. hale and hearty D. hill and dale
40. He felt that the constant survaillance by the police ______________ his rights. A. abided by B. invested in C. infringed on D. bordered on 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
Section II. Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals to form a word that fits in the gap.
Atheism, like religion, is an act of faith: evidence for the existence of God may be entirely ___________ (41.
ANECDOTE ), but evidence for His absence is even more tenuous. Christians brought up in the ___________ (42.
STREAM) tradition knew several important things about this evidence. One of these was that although the Scriptures were
revered as _____________ (43. DIVINE) inspired, they were certainly written down, lost, edited, translated and interpreted
by __________ (44. FAIL) humans.
There was a difference between the awkwardly right and comfortable wrong; between honesty and _________ (45.
FALSE). One of the most telling books in the Christian ____________ (46. CANONIZE) - once found in many households
- was John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. It is now famous as an example of literary ___________ (47. AGORA) , but those
of us who read it at a very early age thought Giant Despair and Apollyon were real, and that there really might be such
places as Doubting Castle, and the Slough of Despond. Other characters are ____________ (48. DUBIOUS) real.
Washington looks more like Vanity Fair than the Celestial City. It may be full of people who see themselves as
born-again believers and right-on fundamentalists, _____________ (49. CONSERVATISM) and other avatars of moral
robustness. They do not, however, look quite like the kind of Christians who might have listened to the sermon on the
mount: the one that blessed the meek and the _____________ (50. PEACEFUL). They are free to believe whatever they
like. That, however, has for the past 400 years been increasingly difficult to square with the evidence in every stone and every streambed.
(Extracted from theguardian.com) 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. PART C. READING
Section I. Read the passage carefully and think of ONE word that best fits in the numbered blank.
Over the past few years I’ve noticed a rise in the label “toxic” as a response to difficult or destructive behavior.
Media _________ (51) from Psychology Today to Harvard Business Review run articles on how to identify or avoid toxic
people. Politicians like Mitch McConnell use the term to describe their adversaries. Even academic psychologists have
begun to __________ (52) up the language.
The collective interest in toxicity makes __________ (53) in societal context. The MeToo __________ (54) exposed
countless searing, high-profile examples of sexism in workplaces. Psychiatrists argued publicly about whether the US
president – who disliked criticism and seemingly could not stop firing people – could be diagnosed ___________ (55) a
personality disorder. Social justice concepts like “toxic masculinity” were absorbed into ___________ (56) spaces.
Now clinicians and laypeople proliferate endless self-help and pop psychology content about how in every job
interview, family of in-laws, or pool of prospective dates lurk so-called toxic people. Like many colloquial ____________
(57) characterizing psychological phenomena, toxicity is unspecific The entire premise is based on dubious science and
elicits unhelpful and fatalistic behavior from people on ___________ (58) sides of conflict.
The conversational idea of a toxic person can be traced to the clinical category of personality disorders, a nebulous
set of diagnoses defined by supposedly lifelong, unchanging ____________ (59) dysfunction. Personality pathology, though
treated as legitimate in a discourse, is __________ (60) debated by actual clinicians.
(Extracted from theguardian.com) 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60.
Section II. Read the passage carefully and choose the correct letter A, B, C or D that indicates the correct answer for the question. “PIGS” OF EUROPE
PIGS; that is the phrase the rest of Europe has coined for the dirty quartet that is Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain
and Italy. This offensive and derogatory term is a sign of the times and the attitudes of the people of Europe's wealthier
nations who have grown tired of hearing about Greece's debt crisis, bailout plans for Ireland and Portugal, and Spain's
similarly precarious position as it teeters on the edge of the financial abyss into which the other three nations have already
been sucked. The perception exists that they - the quartet - are the makers of their own undoing and doom; that their
questionable fiscal policies and corrupt and inefficient governments have led them up the proverbial creek they now find
themselves paddling in. People ask: 'why should WE bail them out?'; 'why should We give away our hard-earned money in
order to save THEM?'. 'Let THEM rot', they say, 'let THEM reap what they've sown'. But we should know by now, the truth
is never that simple; nothing is black and white and all that exists is different shades of grey. The them' and 'us' attitude is
quite telling - what happened to the notion of a united Europe? Most of the strongest critics of the policy of trying to save
the so-called PIGS miss the fairly crucial point that if THEY go, so do WE. WE' are in this marriage together now, for better
or for worse, and the fate of Europe rests in the ability of the PIGS to recover, otherwise, the entire monetary union will
collapse and be revealed as a complete and utter shambles.
Take the case of Ireland, for example, a country whose fall from grace has been so sudden. Less than five years
ago, Ireland was setting an example for small nations the world over. Think tanks were doing studies of her fiscal policy in
an attempt to uncover the secrets of the Celtic Tiger. She was held up as a shining light; a perfect example of capitalism and
how a nation can prosper by becoming an open economy and embracing the concept of free trade. German, French and
British banks couldn't put enough money into the country - they were virtually giving it away, for goodness' sake. They lent
and lent and lent to Irish banks who, much to their own discredit it has to be said, kept taking and taking and taking, like a
child that doesn't know when to stop gorging itself on sweets. This reckless borrowing was unsustainable and, ultimately,
all it served to do was inflate the property market to a point where collapse was a virtual certainty. At the height of the
lending euphoria, about one-eighth of all borrowing in the Eurozone went to the tiny little nation of Ireland, whose
population accounts for 0.01% of the total population of the union. The idea of co-responsibility has always existed in
finance. What this means is that for every reckless borrower there is a reckless lender, and, if one suffers, so, too, should
the other. In other words, responsibility for Ireland's reckless borrowing lies just as much at the door of the likes of France
and Germany as it does at that of Ireland itself; in order to borrow recklessly, you have to find an equally reckless lender happy to part with its funds.
In actual fact, had Ireland not been a member of the Eurozone at the time of the most recent global economic crisis
sparked by the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy, it may have been in a far better position to protect itself. Naturally, as one of
the most open economies in the world, it would have been hard hit by the crisis whatever happened; however, had Ireland
retained its own currency, it could have devalued immediately to make itself competitive again and regain lost ground in
trade. Moreover, it could have adjusted its interest rate to account for what was happening on the ground. Instead, it was
tied to a strong currency and low interest rates dictated by the European Central Bank, the combination of which only sent
Ireland deeper into recession. So let's get one thing straight; being a member of the EU was not as advantageous to Ireland
at the time of the economic crisis as some might automatically think. There is also the manner in which the country was
forced into accepting a bailout deal. Effectively, the Irish taxpayers like their Greek and Portuguese counterparts) have been
asked to pay back the debts of every borrower who defaulted to every reckless lender who lent them money that should not
have been lent in the first place. This is the first time in history when the lenders have gotten away scot-free. The only
people getting a raw deal here are the ordinary taxpayers of Ireland and the other PIGS.
(Extracted from Success in IELTS Reading and Vocabulary)
61. Of the four countries that make up the so-called PIGS, Spain
A is the only one which has so far avoided financial disaster.
B is in the most precarious position.
C is the only one that does not yet have any financial problems.
D is the only one that has been sucked into accepting financial aid to prevent it from facing further disaster.
62. What does the writer say about the them' and 'us' attitude some people have adopted?
A In a financial crisis of this scale, every country should look after itself and not worry about what happens elsewhere.
B It is futile to try and save the PIGS because they will cause the collapse of the entire union.
C The members of the union are co-dependent and must support each other to have any hope of escaping the crisis.
D The PIGS must act now to save Europe from financial disaster by supporting fellow members of the union.
63. What does the writer mean when he uses the analogy 'like a child that doesn't know when to stop gorging itself on sweets'?
A Ireland showed no self-restraint and acted in a very immature way by continuing to engage in an activity that was
sure to have very bad consequences.
B The mentality of the Irish people is very childish and near-sighted.
C Ireland has no control over how it behaves and relies on bigger countries to tell it what to do.
D Irish banks should have known better than to continue lending to foreign banks as this was bound to have a bad outcome in the end.
64. Why is the statistic about the amount of Eurozone borrowing Ireland had so extraordinary?
A Because the percentage of borrowing was so tiny compared to the country's size.
B Because the amount of borrowing is seven-eighths less than the Eurozone average
C Because Ireland's borrowing is massively disproportionate to the country's size.
D Because Ireland's borrowing level was so low compared to that of the total population of the union.
65. Who does the writer feel is responsible for Ireland's reckless borrowing policy?
A He puts the blame on large lenders such as Germany and France for letting the situation get out of control.
B He believes Ireland should bear most of the blame for not keeping control of its borrowing.
C He believes that only lenders should accept co-responsibility for what happened.
D He believes Ireland, as the borrower, is jointly responsible for the situation with those countries that lent it funds.
66. What made it difficult for Ireland to recover from the global economic crisis?
A The European Central Bank imposed harsh rates of interest on the country's banks.
B It made bad decisions with regard to its interest rate and currency value.
C A combination of a strong currency, which made trading with Ireland unattractive, and low rates of interest.
D Ireland had surrendered all control of its fiscal policy to the European Central Bank.
67. What is unique about the bailout arrangements the Portuguese, Greeks and Irish have accepted?
A There is no arrangement in place for the lenders to take a portion of the loss.
B Taxpayers are being asked to borrow more money to pay off their debts.
C The people who defaulted on their loans are not being punished.
D Only the lenders are being asked to absorb the cost of the bailout.
68. How would you sum up the writer's feelings towards the so-called PIGS and do they differ from the general consensus?
A We can infer that the writer's views are in contrast with those of most commentators, who are much less sympathetic than him.
B The writer adopts a similar position on the crisis to most other analysts and is quick to condemn the so-called
PIGS for their reckless behaviour
C The writer is sympathetic towards the plight of the so-called PIGS, in line with the general consensus on the issue.
D The writer, in contrast to most analysts, feels the so-called PIGS have been wrongly blamed for creating a
financial situation which was absolutely no fault of their own. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.
Section III. You are going to read a newspaper article about maths. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the
article. Choose from the paragraphs A–H the one which fits each gap (69–75). There is one extra paragraph which
you do not need to use. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
The man who proved that everyone is good at Maths
The French academic Marc Chemillier has shown that humans have remarkable innate skills with numbers.
Reporter Alex Duval Smith accompanies him to Madagascar to see this at first hand.
Maths is simple. But to discover this requires travelling to the ends of the earth where an illiterate, chain-smoking fortune
teller lives in a room with a double bed and a beehive. As the sun rises over the hut belonging to Raoke, a 70-year-old witch
doctor, a highly pitched din heralds bee rush hour. The insects he keeps shuttle madly in and out through the window. This
bizarre setting, near nowhere in the harsh cactus savannah of southern Madagascar, is where a leading French academic,
Marc Chemillier, has achieved an extraordinary pairing of modern science and illiterate intuition. 69
Mr Chemillier argues that children should be encouraged to do maths before they learn to read and write. "There is a strong
link between counting and the number of fingers on our hands. Maths becomes complicated only when you abandon basic
measures in nature, like the foot or the inch, or even the acre, which is the area that two bulls can plough in a day." 70
With a low table covered in pieces of wood – each of which has a particular medicinal virtue – Raoke sits on his straw mat
and chants as he runs his fingers through a bag of shiny, dark brown tree seeds. "There were about 600 seeds in the bag to
begin with but I have lost a few," he says. "They come from the fane tree and were selected for me many years ago. The
fane from the valley of Tsivoanino produces some seeds that lie and others that tell the truth so it is very important to test
each seed. I paid a specialist to do that," said the father of six. 71
From this selection of wood pieces before him, Raoke can mix concoctions to cure ailments, banish evil spirits and restore
friendships. A basic session with the seeds costs 10,000 ariary (£3), then a price is discussed for the cure. It seems there is
nothing Raoke cannot achieve for the top price of one or two zebus – Malagasy beef cattle that cost about £300 each –
though some remedies are available for the price of a sheep. 72
Given the thousands of plant species in Madagascar that are still undiscovered by mainstream medicine, it is entirely possible
that Raoke holds the key to several miracle cures. But Mr Chemillier is not interested in the pharmacopaeic aspect of the fortune teller’s work. 73
The startling reality of the situation is explained to me. Raoke can produce 65,536 grids with his seeds – Mr Chemillier has
them all in his computer now. ‘But we still need to do more work to understand his mental capacity for obtaining the
combinations of single seeds and pairs,’ he says. 74
Over the years, Mr Chemillier has earned respect from Raoke and other Malagasy fortune tellers. ‘Initially they thought
France had sent me to steal their work in an attempt to become the world’s most powerful fortune teller. But once I was
able to share grids with them that had been through my computer program, we established a relationship of trust,’ says Mr Chemillier 75
When not consulting clients, the diminutive fortune teller spends hours with his seeds, laying them in different formations
and copying the dots down in pencil. Those grids have value and Raoke sells them to other fortune tellers. He is indeed a
most remarkable man, and the full value of his work is, one suspects, something that even Chemillier may take years to fathom
A This is indeed impressive. The way in which Raoke poses questions over the seeds requires the same faculties for mental
speculation as might be displayed by a winner of the Fields Medal, which is the top award any mathematician can aspire to, according to Mr Chemillier.
B Indeed, I can see it is the lack of memory and computer aids that helps keep Raoke’s mind sharp. In the developed world
people are over-reliant on calculators, dictionaries, documents. And also the developed world is wrong to ignore the basic
human connection with numbers that goes back to using the fingers on your hands and relating them to the environment around you.
C In his book, Les Mathématiques Naturelles, the director of studies at EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social
Sciences) argues that mathematics is not only simple, it is ‘rooted in human, sensorial intuition’. And he believes that
Madagascar’s population, which remains relatively untouched by outside influences, can help him to prove this.
D ‘A white man came from Réunion with a stomach ailment that the hospitals in France could not cure. I gave him a powder
to drink in a liquid. He vomited and then he was cured,’ says Raoke.
E Raoke duly felt able to reveal that a divine power shows him how to position the seeds. He does not understand why
‘Monsieur Marc’, and now this other visiting white person, keeps asking him why he lays the seeds in a certain way. Yet it
is clear from a stack of grimy copybooks he keeps under his bed that he is kept very busy indeed as a receiver of divine messages.
F To make his point, Mr Chemillier chose to charge up his laptop computer, leave Paris and do the rounds of fortune tellers
on the Indian Ocean island because its uninfluenced natural biodiversity also extends to its human population. Divinatory
geomancy – reading random patterns, or sikidy to use the local word – is what Raoke does, when not attending to his insects.
G He is, after all, a mathematician, not a scientist. ‘Raoke is an expert in a reflexive view of maths of which we have lost
sight in the West,’ he says. ‘Even armed with my computer program, I do not fully comprehend Raoke’s capacities for mental arithmetic.’
H Raoke proceeds from explanation to demonstration, pouring a random number on to his mat, then picking them up singly
or in twos and laying them in a grid from right to left. Each horizontal gridline has a name – son, livestock, woman or enemy
– and each vertical one has a name, too: chief, zebu (cattle), brother and earth. Whether one or two seeds lie at the intersection
of two gridlines determines the subject’s fortune and informs Raoke as to the cure required, and its price
(Extracted from The Independent) 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.
Section IV. Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.
PSYCHOLOGY AND PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
A Our daily lives are largely made up of contacts with other people, during which we are constantly making judgments of
their personalities and accommodating our behaviour to them in accordance with these judgments. A casual meeting of
neighbours on the street, an employer giving instructions to an employee, a mother telling her children how to behave, a
journey in a train where strangers eye one another without exchanging a word – all these involve mutual interpretations of personal qualities.
B Success in many vocations largely depends on skill in sizing up people. It is important not only to such professionals as
the clinical psychologist, the psychiatrist or the social worker, but also to the doctor or lawyer in dealing with their clients,
the businessman trying to outwit his rivals, the salesman with potential customers, the teacher with his pupils, not to speak
of the pupils judging their teacher. Social life, indeed, would be impossible if we did not. to some extent, understand, and
react to the motives and qualities of those we meet; and clearly we are sufficiently accurate for most practical purposes,
although we also recognize that misinterpretations easily arise – particularly on the pare of others who judge us!
C Errors can often be corrected as we go along. But whenever we are pinned down to a definite decision about a person,
which cannot easily be revised through his ‘feed-back’, the Inadequacies of our judgments become apparent. The hostess
who wrongly thinks that the Smiths and the Joneses will get on well together can do little to retrieve the success of her party.
A school or a business may be saddled for years with an undesirable member of staff, because the selection committee
which interviewed him for a quarter of an hour misjudged his personality.
D Just because the process is so familiar and taken for granted, It has aroused little scientific curiosity until recently.
Dramatists, writers and artists throughout the centuries have excelled in the portrayal of character, but have seldom stopped
to ask how they, or we, get to know people, or how accurate is our knowledge. However, the popularity of such unscientific
systems as Lavater’s physiognomy in the eighteenth century, Gall’s phrenology in the nineteenth, and of handwriting
interpretations by graphologists, or palm-readings by Gypsies, show that people are aware of weaknesses in their judgments
and desirous of better methods of diagnosis. It is natural that they should turn to psychology for help, in the belief that
psychologists are specialists in ‘human nature’.
E This belief is hardly justified: for the primary aim of psychology had been to establish the general laws and principles
underlying behaviour and thinking, rather than to apply these to concrete problems of the individual person. A great many
professional psychologists still regard it as their main function to study the nature of learning, perception and motivation in
the abstracted or average human being, or in lower organisms, and consider it premature to put so young a science to
practical uses. They would disclaim the possession of any superior skill in judging their fellow-men. Indeed, being more
aware of the difficulties than is the non-psychologist, they may be more reluctant to commit themselves to definite
predictions or decisions about other people. Nevertheless, to an increasing extent psychologists are moving into educational,
occupational, clinical and other applied fields, where they are called upon to use their expertise for such purposes as fitting
the education or job to the child or adult,and the person to the job,Thus a considerable proportion of their activities consists of personality assessment.
F The success of psychologists in personality assessment has been limited, in comparison with what they have achieved in
the fields of abilities and training, with the result that most people continue to rely on unscientific methods of assessment.
In recent times there has been a tremendous amount of work on personality tests, and on carefully controlled experimental
studies of personality. Investigations of personality by Freudian and other ‘depth’ psychologists have an even longer history.
And yet psychology seems to be no nearer to providing society with practicable techniques which are sufficiently reliable
and accurate to win general acceptance. The soundness of the methods of psychologists in the field of personality assessment
and the value of their work are under constant fire from other psychologists, and it is far from easy to prove their worth.
G The growth of psychology has probably helped responsible members of society to become more aware of the difficulties
of assessment. But it is not much use telling employers, educationists and judges how inaccurately they diagnose the
personalities with which they have to deal unless psychologists are sure that they can provide something better. Even when
university psychologists themselves appoint a new member of staff, they almost always resort to the traditional techniques
of assessing the candidates through interviews, past records, and testimonials, and probably make at least as many bad
appointments as other employers do. However, a large amount of experimental development of better methods has been
carried out since 1940 by groups of psychologists in the Armed Services and in the Civil Service, and by such organizations
as the (British) National Institute of Industrial Psychology and the American Institute of Research.
Questions 76-81. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Write your answer
in the corresponding numbered boxes on the answer sheet. LIST OF HEADINGS
i The advantage of an intuitive approach to personality assessment
ii Overall theories of personality assessment rather than valuable guidance
iii The consequences of poor personality assessment
iv Differing views on the importance of personality assessment
v Success and failure in establishing an approach to personality assessment
vi Everyone makes personality assessments
vii Acknowledgement of the need for improvement in personality assessment
viii Little progress towards a widely applicable approach to personality assessment
ix The need for personality assessments to be well-judged
x The need for a different kind of research into personality assessment Paragraph A vi
76. Paragraph B __________
77. Paragraph C __________
78. Paragraph D __________
79. Paragraph E __________
80. Paragraph F __________
81. Paragraph G __________ 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.
Question 82-84. Choose THREE letters A-F
Write your answers in box 82 on your answer sheet.
Which THREE of the following are stated about psychologists involved in personality assessment?
A Depth’ psychologists are better at it than some other kinds of psychologist.
B Many of them accept that their conclusions are unreliable.
C They receive criticism from psychologists not involved in the field.
D They have made people realise how hard the subject is.
E They have told people what not to do, rather than what they should do.
F They keep changing their minds about what the best approaches are. 82. 83. 84. Questions 85- 88.
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the text in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
85 Unscientific systems of personality assessment have been of some use.
86 People make false assumptions about the expertise of psychologists.
87 It is likely that some psychologists are no better than anyone else at assessing personality.
88 Research since 1940 has been based on acceptance of previous theories. 85. 86. 87. 88.
Section V. Read the passage and answer question 89-95
The accepted concept of a career path followed a similar pattern for decades. After completing their education,
people would enter the adult world of work, settling down to a job in which they would likely remain from that point onward.
Not only would this occupation provide their income for their entire working life, it would also allow them a healthy pension
when they retired and moved into old age. Over the past twenty years, however, the relationship between a wage earner and
their chosen profession has changed enormously. Today, the idea of a 'job-for-life' has all but disappeared, to be replaced
by an unforgiving world of unstable employment. Some observers even argue that current society appears to pit old against
young in a constant battle to find work of some description, all against a backdropof increasing debt and economic difficulties.
At the same time, the government regularly releases figures that suggest that the economy is prospering, evidencing
this claim with the fact that the unemployment rate continues to fall annually. Given this claim, logic would seem to dictate
that, since there are fewer people out of work, an increasing number of people are enjoying a regular income. To dispute
this, Frank Thomas's 2016 study on the nature of work, Employment as a Myth, revealed an interesting and contradictory
interpretation. There are indeed more jobs available. However, a huge number of these are casual, temporary or short-term
positions, all of which are low-paid and create little in the way of tax income for the government. This has a number of
debilitating long-term effects, not least because this assurance of a growing economy is based more in myth than fact.
Thomas explains, 'Without tax income, the economy cannot grow; if the economy stays weak, new jobs will not be created.’
He also illustrates how, around the world, increases in life expectancy have created a problem for a huge number
of retired workers, who are starting to find that the sum of money they have saved for their retirement does not stretch far
enough to provide the financial security that they had expected. As a result, there has been a widespread return of these
workers to the job market, very often in search of the type of casual employment that was once the preserve of people in
their late teens and early 20s. Lois Lawrence expands on this view in Unfair Returns: 'Older people are taking opportunities
away from their grandchildren. Post-education, those new to the world of work are not able to earn any sort of living wage,
nor are they getting the opportunity to develop the 'soft skills', e.g. social intelligence, that will enable them to flourish in the job market.'
For Lawrence, the days of the salaried worker - comfortable, assured, financially secure - are coming to an end, and
are being replaced by a new model: the exploited worker. Instead, these are the days of the 'zero-hours' contract, where an
employee is told by an employer to be available for work, but is not necessarily given any, and so earns nothing for their
time simply spent waiting. She argues that this is causing even more inequality in the employment market, as business
leaders realise that they have no obligation to provide their staff with a full- or part-time contract, and can therefore avoid
additional expenditure. The 'zero-hours' worker receives no holiday or sick pay, and is considered to be selfemployed, so
has to pay their own taxes. They also have no hope of stability, and can be instantly dismissed without any hope of recourse.
Employment laws, written decades ago at a time when the vast majority of the country's workforce benefitted from
permanent positions, do not protect the new breed of worker from being unfairly dismissed at a moment's notice by their manager.
Less pessimistic interpretations of today's employment market do exist elsewhere. A 2015 study by William
Haroldson, How the Market Adjusts to Opportunity, advocated a definition of a new type of multi-skilled worker: the model
employee who not only refuses to age, but also does not want to work in the same office every day, or even to be an
employee in the first place. In such a progressive, forward-looking environment, young and old are supposed to collaborate
extensively, sharing the benefits of each other's talents and prior knowledge. Furthermore, although younger people are
traditionally thought to be more willing to try any number of routes into work before deciding on an industry in which they
want to develop, such an approach to employment no longer excludes workers of a more advanced age. Thomas agrees:
'Most of today's self-starters believe that the job market offers a vast array of potential opportunities from which they can
learn and gain experience. Whether they have a wide range of existing experience, or none at all, is irrelevant to them.'
Moving from job to job is no longer seen in a negative way, he goes on to argue. In the past, anyone with a series
of short-term positions on their CV was seen as unreliable or disloyal. Most of today's self-starters, however, approach the
job market as a vast source of possibilities, while employers themselves are more likely to be entrepreneurs who are willing
to accept job mobility without question, and less likely to punish potential staff for doing so. One positive result of this
development is that 'soft skills' such as social intelligence can therefore be learnt in a new way, and through a greater number
of person-to-person encounters than used to be available. This has been made possible through the fact that so much of
human contact today now takes place in one enormous meeting room - the internet. Even if it means that the people in
contact are not actually present together in the same room, the encounter still happens.
(Extracted from Mindset for IELTS) Question 89-95
Look at the following statements and the list of studies below. Match each statement with the correct study, A-C
89 Unlike in previous years, a willingness to experiment with a wide range of possible roles is visible in all groups of job- seekers.
90 Younger people are being denied the chance to develop the social skills necessary for the modern office environment.
91 Many modern positions can be more easily terminated than ever before.
92 Claims of economic expansion are demonstrably incorrect.
93 An unforeseen problem has led to an increase in the number of people available to work.
94 Much of today's workforce do not feel constrained by a lack of familiarity with a new position.
95 Refusal to conform to traditional behaviour models at work is a positive step. List of studies A Employment as a Myth B Unfair Returns
C How the Market Adjusts to Opportunity 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. PART E. WRITING
Section I. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary should be between 100 and 120 words long.
One of the risks of alcoholism is depletion of nutrients like thiamine and folic acid. Thiamine, found in foods such
as cereals, lean meats, dairy products, fruit, and eggs, is needed to regulate the body’s metabolism. Depletion of thiamine
can lead to the development of Wernicke’s syndrome, a condition characterized by severe confusion, lack of balance, and
paralysis of certain eye muscles. Folic acid helps in the synthesis of the cell’s genetic material and maturation of certain
blood cells, and deficiency can lead to anemia. These vitamin deficiencies are thought to be caused not only by poor diet
but also by alcohol-induced damage to the digestive tract.
Recognizing these risks, scientists in Great Britain have proposed “medicating” beer by adding thiamine to it. They
claim fortification of beer or other alcohol would be among the most direct measures yet taken to address problems
associated with alcohol abuse. Supporters point out that in addition to helping heavy drinkers avoid certain diseases, such a
measure could reduce the burgeoning national health care bill. Additionally, they argue that fortifying food products is
hardly unprecedented. They point out, for example, that bakers routinely add thiamine to bread to make up for its loss during
production. However, the proposal is not without its detractors. Brewers, pub owners, and drinkers’ organizations tend to
oppose the move. Among their concerns is that supplements could change the taste of beer. Some even suggest that to add
vitamins to beer might encourage more people to drink too much in the mistaken belief that if one beer is good for you, ten beers are better.
Section II. The table above shows the percentage of mobile phone owners using various mobile phone features. Write
a report of at least 150 words, summarizing the information and making comparisons where relevant.
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Section III. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest
accomplishment.” is the Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote.
What is your thoughts about the significance of being yourself? Discuss this matter within an essay of at least 350 words.
Use relevant reasons and examples from your experience for your ideas.
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__________________________________________________________________________________________________ -THE END- BEST OF LUCK