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LISTENING PRACTICE FOR NATIONAL ENGLISH COMPETITION
PRACTICE TEST 21
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about five 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is
Changing Your Brain Right Now. What does the speaker say about each of the issues?
Choose five answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-J, in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
A. Love is intensified by the factor of obscurity in the first meeting.
B. Egocentric people will be most happy when using social media to share their stories.
C. d when he or she is stimulated by rewards. One9s ability to control himself is weakene
D. Knowing each other well in real life makes it easier to become close partners.
E. Whenever a phone buzzes, one is hardwired to make a subconscious response and
loses concentration on the present work.
F. This phenomenon is characterized by occasional auditory hallucinations.
G. A small phone buzz cannot interrupt your work if you concentrate enough to neglect
it.
H. Levels of a kind of neurotransmitter are expected to increase as a response to a
rewarding stimulus.
I. White matter in some brain regions that guide one9s consciousness can be triggered by
instant gratification.
J. Distractions become very subtle when one divides his focus on different activities.
Five psychological tendencies:
1. Cannot log off
2. Multi-tasking
3. Phantom vibration syndrome
4. Deriving happiness from being the centre of attention.
5. More successful partnerships
Your answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Part 2 For questions 6-10, listen to a report on a natural disaster and answer the .
questions. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording for each
answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
6. What weather conditions was Orange Beach struggling with?
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7. What did a Category 2 hurricane turn into after one night?
8. What was the state of the boat docks after being hit by bloated waters?
9. How did strong winds damage a church in Alabama?
10. What weather conditions could be expected in many regions in the South East?
Your answers
6.
7.
8.
9.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to an interview in which two academics, Julia Ford
and Stuart Cameron, discuss human memory, and choose the answer (A, B, C or D)
which fits best according to what you hear Write your answers in the corresponding .
numbered boxes provided.
11. Julia and Stuart both think that concerns about the reliability of shared memories are
A. over-emphasised in some studies. B. reasonable in some situations.
C. underestimated by some psychologists. D. unfounded in legal contexts.
12. What surprised Stuart about how older couples remembered information?
. the marked difference in the success of their approach
B. the few signs of personal disagreement
C. the great variety in the memories recalled
D. the evidence of the use of similar processes.
13. Julia and Stuart agree that the least effective sharing of memories occurred when one
person
A. ignored the knowledge of the other person.
B. tried to control the direction of the conversation.
C. knew a lot more about the topic than the other person.
D. contradicted information given by the other person.
14. Julia contrasts humans with animals in order to
A. illustrate human social independence.
B. suggest humans abuse their privileges.
C. emphasise the carelessness of some humans.
D. explain how humans are vulnerable.
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15. When talking about the nature of change in human memory, Julia and Stuart reveal
A. their respect for art history.
B. their insistence on scientific evidence.
C. their interest in cultural explanations.
D. their differences regarding philosophical claims.
Your answers
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about a special plant called bladderwort
and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
BLADDERWORT
16. The unsurpassable speed of bladderworts derives from their exclusive and intricate
______________.
17. Bladderwort is second to _______________ for the title "euphemism of the year."
18. This genus of carnivorous plants can be found in anywhere with shallow water or
______________.
19. The external glamour of bladderworts lies in their ______________.
20. ______________ are inevitable for bladderworts to capture their targets swiftly.
21. The jargon "hair trigger" well explains how this plant can catch its preys with a
______________.
22. The bladder is known to be ______________, and this characteristic facilitates the
operation of the trap.
23. One type of glands produces ______________ to decompose the prey while the other
is responsible for pumping water.
24. Scientists seem to have difficulty in distinguishing ______________ microorganisms
from preys.
25. A certain category of bladderwort, which can be nurtured by humans, is described as
______________ by the speaker.
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KEY AND EXPLANATION
Part 1
1. C
0:27: Specifically, there is a clear degradation of white matter in the regions that control
emotional processing, attention, and decision-making. Because social media provides
immediate rewards with very little effort required, your brain begins to rewire itself,
making you desire these stimulations.
2. J
1:00: Increased multitasking online reduces your brains9 ability to filter out interferences.
3. F
1:25: It would seem that our brains now perceive an itch as an actual vibration from our
phone.
4. H
1.41: Social Media also triggers a release of dopamine the feel good chemical. Using 3
MRI scans scientists found that the reward centres in people9s brains are much more
active when they are talking about their own views, as opposed to listening to others.
5. A
2:16: In fact, studies on relationships have found that partners tend to like each other
more if they meet for the first time online rather than with face-to-face interaction.
Whether it9s because people are anonymous or perhaps more clear about their future
goals, there is a statistical increase in partnerships that started online.
Part 2
6. continued floods
Alabama has seen at least one fatality. The mayor of Orange Beach said one person died
there and another is missing, as the small coastal city grapples with continued floods.
7. (a) tropical depression
Overnight, the storm weakened from a Category 2 hurricane to a tropical depression.
8. driftwood
Heavy rains continue to pound Gulf Coast communities, like Pensacola, Florida, where
bloated waters reduced boat docks to driftwood.
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9. toppled the spire
In Perdido Key, residents like this business owner are picking up the pieces of buildings
destroyed by Sally's 100-mile-plus winds. Those winds also toppled the spire at this
Mobile, Alabama, church.
10. flash and coastal flood
Sally's slow pace as it moves north is also putting swathes of the South east under flash
and coastal flood warnings.
Part 3
11. B
12. A
13. C
14. D
15. C
Interviewer: Hello and welcome to 'Mind to mind'. Today, my guests are Professors Julia
Ford and Stuart Cameron, who are researching human memory. Julia, tell us about your
work.
Julia: Well basically we're investigating the relationship between individual memory and
shared memory, or social memory, and particularly we're looking at how reliable our
memory is when it's shared. So memory researchers have mostly focused on individuals
remembering alone, but in everyday life we probably as often remember with other
people, with our family, our friends, and the people we work with. In cognitive
psychology, memory researchers have been very worried about the influence of other
people on our memories and assessing that.
Stuart: They worry that we're going to influence or infect one another's memories,
particularly in the forensic setting, like if someone's a witness to a crime, and that's
understandable because we don't want people who are giving testimony, for instance, to
report things that they didn't experience, that they just picked up from other people.
Julia: But even so, you know, we don't think that worry necessarily has to extend to
all the kinds of memory that we use and when we look at our everyday interactions it's
actually helpful when we look to other people to help us remember.
Interviewer: Stuart, you've observed many older couples telling their stories and
performing various memory tasks. What did you find?
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Stuart: It was quite interesting because I was quite ideological in a way about the
research, and I thought we would definitely see that everybody collaborated really well,
and showed strong benefits of socially shared remembering. And in fact we didn't see
that. What was really interesting was that some couples collaborated really
effectively and performed much better when they were together than when they
were apart, and other couples disrupted each other and didn't remember together
effectively, at least on certain tasks. So these anomalies became the thing to explain and
what I did was look at the processes that occurred while they discussed and while they
shared remembering. So we recorded the conversations, and we coded each phrase that
was said for what it contained, and we looked for what kinds of ways of interacting with
each other predicted memory performance.
Julia: And we found when they were sharing memories that some couples could cue each
other really effectively in quite novel and idiosyncratic ways, so sometimes they would
say "I know about tools, you know about clothes ..."
Stuart: or, "you remember the first half and I'll remember the second half".
Julia: Right. So they'd split it up according to their understanding of each other's
expertise. Although with tasks where one person was definitely the expert on the
whole thing and the other wasn't, that really hampered successful collaboration,
because the job tended to be all off-loaded onto one person. And so having a lot of
shared experiences and a lot of shared history seemed to be helpful.
Stuart: Yeah. We saw more successful collaboration in tasks where their expertise
was perceived as more shared and more distributed.
Julia: You know we're kind of unlike other animals in the extent to which it's part of our
nature to rely on objects, technologies and the social world as well. Of course we're
always in danger of losing things, of our technologies being destroyed, or you know
losing touch with other people. We are kind of hostage to fortune compared to other
animals, but that's just how we work.
Interviewer: And finally, a question for both of you: there's also the possibility that our
brains are changing the way they operate, the way the memory works. Could that be a
problem?
Stuart: It can be a problem, absolutely. I mean from a scientific and philosophical point
of view I suppose it's more immediately just fascinating to try and observe cultural
changes in the kinds of technologies and objects that people have access to, and ignore
the need for hard facts.
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Julia: I'm certainly interested in the social nature of memory from the time that we
started to draw paintings on the walls of caves, and I know Stuart is investigating
our contemporary reliance on artefacts, technologies and so on.
Stuart: Yes, although it's a controversial theory, the role of civilisation is embedded in
our view. It means over time and in different places and contexts human memory
actually changes, not just its support but in its nature as well.
Part 4.
16. suction traps 0.25
17. squirting cucumber 0.53
18. boggy conditions 1.16
19. colourful snapdragon-like flowers 1.39
20. tiny sacs 2.09
21. vacuum-like force 2.42
22. hermetically sealed 3.05
23. digestive enzymes 3.17
24. commensal 3.51
25. water-loving carnivores 4.31
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PRACTICE TEST 22
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about five inventions that changed the world.
What does the speaker say about each of the inventions? Choose five answers from the
box and write the correct letter, A-J, in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
A. This invention marked the height of a momentous era - a transition towards modernity.
B. A man invented this equipment because he found it difficult to effectively load goods
onto his truck.
C. This invention gave rise to the construction of one of the basic components of the
infrastructure.
D. The initial motivation for this invention was to create better information exchange
between computer manufacturers, but it flourished beyond this.
E. The idea of this invention started when people found it difficult to move horse carts
around.
F. This invention does not only transform several aspects of human life in a superficial
way.
G. This invention had an enormous impact on the transformation of global education.
H. The first attempt failed to work because the inventor used a false tool.
I. This invention has mechanical components that make it attachable to its counterparts.
J. This invention was created to facilitate the process of gathering agricultural produce.
Top five inventions:
1. ISO shipping container
2. The light bulb
3. The wheel
4. The printing press
5. The Internet
Your answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Part 2 For questions 6-10, listen to a talk about the future of power and answer the .
questions. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording for each
answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
6. What is the position of Saudi Arabia in the oil cartel?
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7. Which technology has helped the United States to take advantage of oil reserves?
8. What are multiple nations trying to seek for?
9. What is the adjective used to describe two environmentally-friendly sources of
energy?
10. What should be established across borders to boost the efficiency of renewable
energy sources?
Your answers
6.
7.
8.
9.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to part of an interview with two British architects,
Malcolm Fletcher and Alison Brooks, about the design of new low-cost housing, and
choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear Write .
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. What view is expressed about the government's plans to build houses on greenfield
sites?
A. Opposition groups are unlikely to have any real influence.
B. It may be possible to create space by demolishing some existing buildings.
C. There is a more important priority than preserving the countryside.
D. New developments should show continuity with what has gone before.
12. What does Malcolm regard as special about the Newhall housing development in
Essex?
A. the involvement of local people in the planning process
B. the unusual attitude of the original landowners
C. the good relationship between the builders and the architect
D. the freedom given to the designers
13. The aspect of Margaret Gibbs's houses which both Alison and Malcolm appreciate is
A. their visual appeal. B. their generous dimensions.
C. their structural strength. D. their internal layout.
14. When designing the space around the Essex houses, Margaret Gibbs
A. attempted to integrate homes with recreational areas.
B. conceded to the general demand for a garden.
C. allowed a bigger external area than usual.
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D. aimed to safeguard the inhabitants' privacy.
15. What do Malcolm and Alison agree about the aesthetic qualities of buildings?
A. Architectural form may sometimes take precedence over function.
B. Beauty is an intrinsic aspect of good architecture.
C. There is little consensus concerning what constitutes good style.
D. Popular notions of good taste inevitably change over time.
Your answers
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about a revolution of art and supply the
blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken
from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
A REVOLUTION OF ART
16. While ______________ music originated in the 1960s, the style of art synonymous
with this kind of music derived from an art movement initiated in the late 1800s.
17. The movement was called with different names, for example, ______________ in
Austria.
18. ely: flat, decorative patterns; This <new art= was an admixture of many factors nam
organic and ______________; and feminine figures.
19. The 1960s, as well as the late 1800s, could be deemed as a period of
______________.
20. Plain typeface and a ______________ failed to capture the attention of the audience,
so the introduction of high-quality posters is necessary to advertise the new generation of
hippie bands.
21. The mid-60s was witnessing the rejuvenation of ______________.
22. Feminine figures in such new style of art feature nudity, flowing hair and a
______________.
23. Some designers in this new art tended to alter the ______________ from original
images.
24. ted in the eyes of beholders could refer to the experience of The <vibrancy= reflec
______________.
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25. The ______________ was applied and renovated by artists in the 1960s.
KEY AND EXPLANATION
Part 1
1. I
0:28: It9s fitted with a twist-lock system which allows them to stack.
2. C
2:15: An entire electrical grid was created over time which now powers our world.
3. J
2:35: The wheel allowed for faster and more efficient transportation of goods. They were
first used on farms to help carry and transport grain during the harvest season.
4. G
3:22: This led to an awakening as millions of people around the world started reading
learning and educating themselves at a level never seen before.
5. F
4:22: Its effects on business, communication, economics, and social culture are profound.
Part 2
6. (the) linchpin 0.39
7. fracking 0.54
8. energy self-sufficiency 2.25
9. intermittent 2.58
10. vast shared electricity grids 3.00
Part 3
11. C 12. B 13. D 14. A 15. C
Interviewer: Welcome to today's programme on current issues. Today I'd like to welcome
two architects, Malcolm Fletcher and Alison Brooks, who both specialise in domestic
architecture. So, starting with you Alison ... What's your reaction to the government's
plans to build houses on what in the UK are classified as greenfield sites - sites that
are currently in their natural state, or used as farmland?
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Alison: Well I think it's inevitable really. There'll be a lot of opposition to it from groups
who want to protect the countryside from any development. It's understandable, but
Britain is a small crowded country and you have to be realistic. People need homes,
don't they, Malcolm?
Malcolm: Yes, if you take some of our older cities, like Bath, or York, or Edinburgh
- they were built on what were originally greenfield sites, but no one's suggesting
that we pull them down. Because people like those buildings. Compared to them,
houses that have been built in recent years are unimaginative, to say the least.
Interviewer: So how can we ever get out of this situation, break the mould? Malcolm?
Malcolm: There are individual cases where an architect's designed something different,
and better. For example there's a small housing development in Essex called Newhall.
The key to the innovative design of these houses seems to have been the fact that the
people who the land previously belonged to didn't just take as much money as they
could and then lose interest. Before they agreed to sell the land, they set conditions
which the architect and builders had to meet in order to ensure that the local people
would benefit as much as possible from the development.
Alison: The commission for the development was actually won by an architect called
Margaret Gibbs. I went there recently. There are about eighty houses altogether. They're
quite an unusual shape, and they're made of black timber and yellowish-coloured brick.
They're quite striking just because they look different, and I must say that although I like
the visual aspect of her design myself and the reference they make to traditional
architecture, they're not everybody's cup of tea.
Malcolm: I think what really distinguishes them from most recent housing developments
in this country is that the architect really has paid attention to details which affect the
quality of life of the people living in them. And like the way that by using a clever system
of timber cassettes she avoided the need to have timber beams supporting the roof. That
means that instead of being wasted, . Often the roof space became available for use
young couples have to move to a bigger house when they have children, but in Gibbs's
houses they can use the roof space as an extra bedroom.
Alison: But in terms of total area, they're the same as a conventional plot for small
houses. But whereas conventional developers build long thin houses, Gibbs has made
hers almost square. she calls them So her hall and stairs aren't just narrow strips 4
'an active, social space' which is more central to the plan.
Interviewer: What are the Essex houses like outside? What about the surrounding space?
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Malcolm: Well Margaret Gibbs has given her houses patios and roof decks and porches,
but not gardens, so they aren't suitable for horticulturists. But then not everyone wants to
tend the apron of green that you get with conventional new houses. And there are
playing fields and other public green spaces nearby anyway.
Alison: Yes. And Gibbs says she wanted to make the street itself into an extension of
the living space. So the balconies and the studies face the street and people who
work from home don't feel isolated. She wanted to change the suburban street from
a desolate place into a little working community.
Interviewer: So to round up then, how do Margaret Gibbs's new houses match up to those
of Britain's older cities? Are they just as aesthetically pleasing as houses in Bristol or
Bath for example?
Alison: They're very different, and they won't please everyone. But I don't think it's
helpful to talk about beauty actually. It's so subjective.
Malcolm: Yes. When people talk about a building being 'beautiful' or 'stylish', they
usually mean that it matches their own personal tastes. So it's not a very useful
criterion for assessing architecture. Where we should be going in future I think, is
looking at the extent to which houses enhance people's quality of life and function well.
Interviewer: Right ... well ... Malcolm Fletcher and Alison Brooks 4 thank you.
Part 4.
16. psychedelic 0.16
17. the Secessionists 0.58
18. plant motifs 1.15
19. cultural upheaval 1.52
20. grayscale photo 2.37
21. art nouveau 2.55
22. come hither glance 3.34
23. colour palette 3.59
24. an LSD tripper 4.10
25. bold, dynamic typeface 4.23
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6. The UK government will be implementing the plan B strategy to fight against the new
strain of Delta variant.
7. The subvariant has two additional mutations, which demonstrates why it is growing so
quickly in the UK.
8. The UK has witnessed a substantial increase in the percentage of this particular
subvariant.
9. The UK has a more robust genomic surveillance program than many other countries.
10. The subvariant shows greater resistance to antibodies than the original Delta variant.
Your answers
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to a report on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
in building a more sustainable food system and answer the following questions with
NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS. Write your answers in the space provided.
11. What does Brightseed look for by using artificial intelligence?
_____________________________________________________________
12. How does SomaDetect in Canada generate relevant data for dairy farmers?
_____________________________________________________________
13. What field has received more financial support as a result of limited agricultural
workforce?
_____________________________________________________________
14. What product is the AI-generated flavour created for?
_____________________________________________________________
15. In addition to ecosystem diversity, what factor can challenge the application of AI in
agriculture?
_____________________________________________________________
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about A brief history of cannibalism and
supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANNIBALISM
16. ______________ was the basic ingredient of mumia, a so-called elixir in Europe.in
the 15th century.
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17. There were rumours that the Caribs ______________before turning inmates into
meals.
18. Columbus pigeonholed anyone who defied his ______________ as a Caribe.
19. The word < = was first used Carib by colonizers to ______________.
20. Survival cannibalism refers to incidents when people resort to eating human flesh or
internal organs to tide themselves over during a famine, ______________ or a cursed
journey.
21. An example of medicinal cannibalism can be found in the way bodies from Egyptian
mummies and ______________ were stolen in the fifteenth century.
22. While blood was used as a remedy for a special neurological disorder, other internal
organs were treated as ______________.
23. A form of flesh-eating that occurred in families in China is called ______________
cannibalism.
24. Another practice of cannibalism named ______________was the result of cultural
precepts from a group of ethnic people in Oceania.
25. People have not identified the true root of cannibalism, whether the legitimate
customs, limits of human understanding or ______________.
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KEY AND EXPLANATION
Part 1
1. I
1:43: But of course I9d go from day to day to day recycling the bottom half of my to-do
list because I wasn9t making time to do those tasks.
2. A
2:26: Make time for it in your day so it9s not something you are only using every time
you feel bored or lonely.
3. H
2:52: By surfing the urge and noticing what it is that we9re experiencing and allowing
that sensation to crest and then subside kind of like a surfer might surf a wave. We allow
that emotion, that uncomfortable internal trigger to crest and then pass.
4. D
3:18: So for example, if you start checking your email on the way back from the meeting
and you9re finally at your desk, and you keep checking your email instead of getting to
the task at hand, well now that liminal moment has turned into a distraction.
5. C
3:56: So when we think that technology is hijacking our brains or it9s addicting everyone,
we are making it more likely that we won9t be able to put technology distractions in their
place.
Part 2
6. FALSE
0.00 UK is seeing a dramatic surge in Covid 19 cases its health secretary says he is not
rolling out plan B contingency measures just yet. We'll be staying vigilant preparing for
all eventualities while strengthening our vital defenses that can help us fight back against
this virus.
7. NOT GIVEN
1.27 This is essentially Delta that has two additional mutations…it really remains to be
seen what the significance of this particular Delta sublineage is although it appears to be
growing in the UK.
8. FALSE
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1.55 There has been an increase in an uptick of the percentage of this particular
sublineage in the UK…
9. TRUE
2.36 The UK is really a world leader in what we call genomic surveillance…
10. NOT GIVEN
3.51 It9s hard to say that they would have any impact beyond what Delta already has on
antibody neutralization…
Part 3
11. new nutritional compounds within plants 0.25
12. optical sensors; deep learning algorithms 0.41
13. farm robotics and automation 1.08
14. plant-based meat alternatives 1.35
15. patchy connectivity 2.27
Part 4.
16. mummified human flesh 0.28
17. made violent raids 0.51
18. plundering and kidnapping 1.08
19. dehumanize indigenous people 1.20
20. siege 1.51
21. European cemeteries 2.39
22. popular medical concoctions 3.10
23. filial 3.21
24. Cannibalistic funerary rites 3.40
25. fictionalized stories 4.11
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PRACTICE TEST 24
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about the complex changes of human body
after death and decide whether these statements are True (T), False (F) or Not Given
(NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
1. Primary flaccidity is a condition in which muscles become firm and difficult to bend.
2. a body will take twice the time to Casper9s law states that if all other factors are equal,
decompose in water than it would in air.
3. Zoroastrians nowadays choose to burn dead bodies instead of traditionally exposing
them to the Sun and scavenging birds.
4. Burial costs have increased exponentially over the years and many people can only
afford simple burials.
5. The remains resulting from the practice of promession can be in organic form.
Your answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Part 2 For questions 6-10, listen to a report on tornadoes hitting Midwest and answer .
the questions. Write NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS taken from the recording for
each answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
6. Which factors make the devastating storms stronger?
7. What can be recorded in the state of Wincosin in one day?
8. How do high waters affect transportation in Pennsylvania?
9. What have been issued across the Midwest and the northeast?
10. What is expected to regain strength upon heading towards Florida?
Your answers
6.
7.
8.
9.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to a radio programme in which two people, Janet
Jennings and Hal Brentford, are discussing corporate tax rates and choose the answer
(A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear Write your answers in the .
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. Hat suggests that
A records show businesses pay more tax than the media suggests.
B low tax rates attract skilled workers to the country.
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20
C businesses pay the government a tot of indirect taxes.
D businesses bring benefits that warrant the low tax rates.
12. Janet implies attracting desirable foreign investment is
A dependent more on workforce characteristics than corporate tax.
B not critical to the long-term success of the economy.
C more likely if tax rates are slightly increased.
D going to require workforce retraining and upskilling.
13. According to Hat, if business rates increased.
A established companies like his might leave.
B the country might not attract as much new foreign investment.
C the skilled workforce might move elsewhere.
D local businesses might struggle to compete.
14. Why does Janet mention corruption levels, productivity and infrastructure?
A to highlight areas for improvement
B to highlight the negative effects of low corporation taxes
C to suggest other factors of competitiveness outweigh business tax rates
D to suggest where increased tax revenues could be spent
15. Hal believes that raising the corporate tax rate could
A have a devastating impact on the economy.
B cause potential investors to lose confidence.
C have an impact on levels of corruption in the country.
D be more damaging in the short- than long-term
Your answers
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about the history of the modern hamburger
and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR
WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
The hamburger, often regarded as a (16) ______________________________ and recent
innovation, has its roots
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LISTENING PRACTICE FOR NATIONAL ENGLISH COMPETITION PRACTICE TEST 21
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about five 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is
Changing Your Brain Right Now. What does the speaker say about each of the issues?

Choose five answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-J, in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
A. Love is intensified by the factor of obscurity in the first meeting.
B. Egocentric people will be most happy when using social media to share their stories.
C. One9s ability to control himself is weakened when he or she is stimulated by rewards.
D. Knowing each other well in real life makes it easier to become close partners.
E. Whenever a phone buzzes, one is hardwired to make a subconscious response and
loses concentration on the present work.
F. This phenomenon is characterized by occasional auditory hallucinations.
G. A small phone buzz cannot interrupt your work if you concentrate enough to neglect it.
H. Levels of a kind of neurotransmitter are expected to increase as a response to a rewarding stimulus.
I. White matter in some brain regions that guide one9s consciousness can be triggered by instant gratification.
J. Distractions become very subtle when one divides his focus on different activities.
Five psychological tendencies:
1. Cannot log off 2. Multi-tasking 3. Phantom vibration syndrome
4. Deriving happiness from being the centre of attention.
5. More successful partnerships Your answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Part 2
. For questions 6-10, listen to a report on a natural disaster and answer the
questions. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording for each
answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

6. What weather conditions was Orange Beach struggling with? 1 about:blank 1/58 00:05 1/8/24
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7. What did a Category 2 hurricane turn into after one night?
8. What was the state of the boat docks after being hit by bloated waters?
9. How did strong winds damage a church in Alabama?
10. What weather conditions could be expected in many regions in the South East? Your answers 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to an interview in which two academics, Julia Ford
and Stuart Cameron, discuss human memory, and choose the answer (A, B, C or D)
which fits best according to what you hear
. Write your answers in the corresponding

numbered boxes provided.
11. Julia and Stuart both think that concerns about the reliability of shared memories are
A. over-emphasised in some studies.
B. reasonable in some situations.
C. underestimated by some psychologists.
D. unfounded in legal contexts.
12. What surprised Stuart about how older couples remembered information?
. the marked difference in the success of their approach
B. the few signs of personal disagreement
C. the great variety in the memories recalled
D. the evidence of the use of similar processes.
13. Julia and Stuart agree that the least effective sharing of memories occurred when one person
A. ignored the knowledge of the other person.
B. tried to control the direction of the conversation.
C. knew a lot more about the topic than the other person.
D. contradicted information given by the other person.
14. Julia contrasts humans with animals in order to
A. illustrate human social independence.
B. suggest humans abuse their privileges.
C. emphasise the carelessness of some humans.
D. explain how humans are vulnerable. 2 about:blank 2/58 00:05 1/8/24
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15. When talking about the nature of change in human memory, Julia and Stuart reveal
A. their respect for art history.
B. their insistence on scientific evidence.
C. their interest in cultural explanations.
D. their differences regarding philosophical claims. Your answers 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about a special plant called bladderwort
and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE

WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided. BLADDERWORT
16. The unsurpassable speed of bladderworts derives from their exclusive and intricate ______________.
17. Bladderwort is second to _______________ for the title "euphemism of the year."
18. This genus of carnivorous plants can be found in anywhere with shallow water or ______________.
19. The external glamour of bladderworts lies in their ______________.
20. ______________ are inevitable for bladderworts to capture their targets swiftly.
21. The jargon "hair trigger" well explains how this plant can catch its preys with a ______________.
22. The bladder is known to be ______________, and this characteristic facilitates the operation of the trap.
23. One type of glands produces ______________ to decompose the prey while the other
is responsible for pumping water.
24. Scientists seem to have difficulty in distinguishing ______________ microorganisms from preys.
25. A certain category of bladderwort, which can be nurtured by humans, is described as
______________ by the speaker. 3 about:blank 3/58 00:05 1/8/24
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FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO KEY AND EXPLANATION Part 1 1. C
0:27: Specifically, there is a clear degradation of white matter in the regions that control
emotional processing, attention, and decision-making. Because social media provides
immediate rewards with very little effort required, your brain begins to rewire itself,
making you desire these stimulations. 2. J
1:00: Increased multitasking online reduces your brains9 ability to filter out interferences. 3. F
1:25: It would seem that our brains now perceive an itch as an actual vibration from our phone. 4. H
1.41: Social Media also triggers a release of dopamine 3 the feel good chemical. Using
MRI scans scientists found that the reward centres in people9s brains are much more
active when they are talking about their own views, as opposed to listening to others. 5. A
2:16: In fact, studies on relationships have found that partners tend to like each other
more if they meet for the first time online rather than with face-to-face interaction.
Whether it9s because people are anonymous or perhaps more clear about their future
goals, there is a statistical increase in partnerships that started online. Part 2 6. continued floods
Alabama has seen at least one fatality. The mayor of Orange Beach said one person died
there and another is missing, as the small coastal city grapples with continued floods. 7. (a) tropical depression
Overnight, the storm weakened from a Category 2 hurricane to a tropical depression. 8. driftwood
Heavy rains continue to pound Gulf Coast communities, like Pensacola, Florida, where
bloated waters reduced boat docks to driftwood. 4 about:blank 4/58 00:05 1/8/24
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FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO 9. toppled the spire
In Perdido Key, residents like this business owner are picking up the pieces of buildings
destroyed by Sally's 100-mile-plus winds. Those winds also toppled the spire at this Mobile, Alabama, church. 10. flash and coastal flood
Sally's slow pace as it moves north is also putting swathes of the South east under flash and coastal flood warnings. Part 3 11. B 12. A 13. C 14. D 15. C
Interviewer: Hello and welcome to 'Mind to mind'. Today, my guests are Professors Julia
Ford and Stuart Cameron, who are researching human memory. Julia, tell us about your work.
Julia: Well basically we're investigating the relationship between individual memory and
shared memory, or social memory, and particularly we're looking at how reliable our
memory is when it's shared. So memory researchers have mostly focused on individuals
remembering alone, but in everyday life we probably as often remember with other
people, with our family, our friends, and the people we work with. In cognitive
psychology, memory researchers have been very worried about the influence of other
people on our memories and assessing that.
Stuart: They worry that we're going to influence or infect one another's memories,
particularly in the forensic setting, like if someone's a witness to a crime, and that's
understandable
because we don't want people who are giving testimony, for instance, to
report things that they didn't experience, that they just picked up from other people.
Julia: But even so, you know, we don't think that worry necessarily has to extend to
all the kinds of memory that we use
and when we look at our everyday interactions it's
actually helpful when we look to other people to help us remember.
Interviewer: Stuart, you've observed many older couples telling their stories and
performing various memory tasks. What did you find? 5 about:blank 5/58 00:05 1/8/24
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Stuart: It was quite interesting because I was quite ideological in a way about the
research, and I thought we would definitely see that everybody collaborated really well,
and showed strong benefits of socially shared remembering. And in fact we didn't see
that. What was really interesting was that some couples collaborated really
effectively and performed much better when they were together than when they
were apart, and other couples disrupted each other and didn't remember together
effectively, at least on certain tasks.
So these anomalies became the thing to explain and
what I did was look at the processes that occurred while they discussed and while they
shared remembering. So we recorded the conversations, and we coded each phrase that
was said for what it contained, and we looked for what kinds of ways of interacting with
each other predicted memory performance.
Julia: And we found when they were sharing memories that some couples could cue each
other really effectively in quite novel and idiosyncratic ways, so sometimes they would
say "I know about tools, you know about clothes ..."
Stuart: or, "you remember the first half and I'll remember the second half".
Julia: Right. So they'd split it up according to their understanding of each other's
expertise. Although with tasks where one person was definitely the expert on the
whole thing and the other wasn't, that really hampered successful collaboration,
because the job tended to be all off-loaded onto one person
. And so having a lot of
shared experiences and a lot of shared history seemed to be helpful.
Stuart: Yeah. We saw more successful collaboration in tasks where their expertise
was perceived as more shared and more distributed.

Julia: You know we're kind of unlike other animals in the extent to which it's part of our
nature to rely on objects, technologies and the social world as well. Of course we're
always in danger of losing things, of our technologies being destroyed, or you know
losing touch with other people.
We are kind of hostage to fortune compared to other
animals, but that's just how we work.
Interviewer: And finally, a question for both of you: there's also the possibility that our
brains are changing the way they operate, the way the memory works. Could that be a problem?
Stuart: It can be a problem, absolutely. I mean from a scientific and philosophical point
of view I suppose it's more immediately just fascinating to try and observe cultural
changes in the kinds of technologies and objects that people have access to, and ignore the need for hard facts. 6 about:blank 6/58 00:05 1/8/24
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Julia: I'm certainly interested in the social nature of memory from the time that we
started to draw paintings on the walls of caves, and I know Stuart is investigating
our contemporary reliance on artefacts, technologies and so on.

Stuart: Yes, although it's a controversial theory, the role of civilisation is embedded in
our view
. It means over time and in different places and contexts human memory
actually changes, not just its support but in its nature as well. Part 4. 16. suction traps 0.25 17. squirting cucumber 0.53 18. boggy conditions 1.16
19. colourful snapdragon-like flowers 1.39 20. tiny sacs 2.09 21. vacuum-like force 2.42 22. hermetically sealed 3.05 23. digestive enzymes 3.17 24. commensal 3.51
25. water-loving carnivores 4.31 7 about:blank 7/58 00:05 1/8/24
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FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO PRACTICE TEST 22
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about five inventions that changed the world.
What does the speaker say about each of the inventions? Choose five answers from the
box and write the correct letter, A-J, in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

A. This invention marked the height of a momentous era - a transition towards modernity.
B. A man invented this equipment because he found it difficult to effectively load goods onto his truck.
C. This invention gave rise to the construction of one of the basic components of the infrastructure.
D. The initial motivation for this invention was to create better information exchange
between computer manufacturers, but it flourished beyond this.
E. The idea of this invention started when people found it difficult to move horse carts around.
F. This invention does not only transform several aspects of human life in a superficial way.
G. This invention had an enormous impact on the transformation of global education.
H. The first attempt failed to work because the inventor used a false tool.
I. This invention has mechanical components that make it attachable to its counterparts.
J. This invention was created to facilitate the process of gathering agricultural produce. Top five inventions: 1. ISO shipping container 2. The light bulb 3. The wheel 4. The printing press 5. The Internet Your answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Part 2
. For questions 6-10, listen to a talk about the future of power and answer the
questions. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording for each
answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

6. What is the position of Saudi Arabia in the oil cartel? 8 about:blank 8/58 00:05 1/8/24
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7. Which technology has helped the United States to take advantage of oil reserves?
8. What are multiple nations trying to seek for?
9. What is the adjective used to describe two environmentally-friendly sources of energy?
10. What should be established across borders to boost the efficiency of renewable energy sources? Your answers 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to part of an interview with two British architects,
Malcolm Fletcher and Alison Brooks, about the design of new low-cost housing, and
choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear
. Write
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. What view is expressed about the government's plans to build houses on greenfield sites?
A. Opposition groups are unlikely to have any real influence.
B. It may be possible to create space by demolishing some existing buildings.
C. There is a more important priority than preserving the countryside.
D. New developments should show continuity with what has gone before.
12. What does Malcolm regard as special about the Newhall housing development in Essex?
A. the involvement of local people in the planning process
B. the unusual attitude of the original landowners
C. the good relationship between the builders and the architect
D. the freedom given to the designers
13. The aspect of Margaret Gibbs's houses which both Alison and Malcolm appreciate is A. their visual appeal. B. their generous dimensions. C. their structural strength. D. their internal layout.
14. When designing the space around the Essex houses, Margaret Gibbs
A. attempted to integrate homes with recreational areas.
B. conceded to the general demand for a garden.
C. allowed a bigger external area than usual. 9 about:blank 9/58 00:05 1/8/24
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D. aimed to safeguard the inhabitants' privacy.
15. What do Malcolm and Alison agree about the aesthetic qualities of buildings?
A. Architectural form may sometimes take precedence over function.
B. Beauty is an intrinsic aspect of good architecture.
C. There is little consensus concerning what constitutes good style.
D. Popular notions of good taste inevitably change over time. Your answers 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about a revolution of art and supply the

blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken
from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
A REVOLUTION OF ART
16. While ______________ music originated in the 1960s, the style of art synonymous
with this kind of music derived from an art movement initiated in the late 1800s.
17. The movement was called with different names, for example, ______________ in Austria.
18. This organic and ______________; and feminine figures.
19. The 1960s, as well as the late 1800s, could be deemed as a period of ______________.
20. Plain typeface and a ______________ failed to capture the attention of the audience,
so the introduction of high-quality posters is necessary to advertise the new generation of hippie bands.
21. The mid-60s was witnessing the rejuvenation of ______________.
22. Feminine figures in such new style of art feature nudity, flowing hair and a ______________.
23. Some designers in this new art tended to alter the ______________ from original images. 24. The ______________. 10 about:blank 10/58 00:05 1/8/24
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25. The ______________ was applied and renovated by artists in the 1960s. KEY AND EXPLANATION Part 1 1. I
0:28: It9s fitted with a twist-lock system which allows them to stack. 2. C
2:15: An entire electrical grid was created over time which now powers our world. 3. J
2:35: The wheel allowed for faster and more efficient transportation of goods. They were
first used on farms to help carry and transport grain during the harvest season. 4. G
3:22: This led to an awakening as millions of people around the world started reading
learning and educating themselves at a level never seen before. 5. F
4:22: Its effects on business, communication, economics, and social culture are profound. Part 2 6. (the) linchpin 0.39 7. fracking 0.54
8. energy self-sufficiency 2.25 9. intermittent 2.58
10. vast shared electricity grids 3.00 Part 3 11. C 12. B 13. D 14. A 15. C
Interviewer: Welcome to today's programme on current issues. Today I'd like to welcome
two architects, Malcolm Fletcher and Alison Brooks, who both specialise in domestic
architecture. So, starting with you Alison ... What's your reaction to the government's
plans to build houses on what in the UK are classified as greenfield sites - sites that
are currently in their natural state, or used as farmland?
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Alison: Well I think it's inevitable really. There'll be a lot of opposition to it from groups
who want to protect the countryside from any development. It's understandable, but
Britain is a small crowded country and you have to be realistic. People need homes, don't they, Malcolm?

Malcolm: Yes, if you take some of our older cities, like Bath, or York, or Edinburgh
- they were built on what were originally greenfield sites, but no one's suggesting
that we pull them down.
Because people like those buildings. Compared to them,
houses that have been built in recent years are unimaginative, to say the least.
Interviewer: So how can we ever get out of this situation, break the mould? Malcolm?
Malcolm: There are individual cases where an architect's designed something different,
and better. For example there's a small housing development in Essex called Newhall.
The key to the innovative design of these houses seems to have been the fact that the
people who the land previously belonged to didn't just take as much money as they
could and then lose interest
. Before they agreed to sell the land, they set conditions
which the architect and builders had to meet in order to ensure that the local people
would benefit as much as possible from the development.
Alison: The commission for the development was actually won by an architect called
Margaret Gibbs. I went there recently. There are about eighty houses altogether. They're
quite an unusual shape, and they're made of black timber and yellowish-coloured brick.
They're quite striking just because they look different, and I must say that although I like
the visual aspect of her design myself and the reference they make to traditional
architecture, they're not everybody's cup of tea.
Malcolm: I think what really distinguishes them from most recent housing developments
in this country is that the architect really has paid attention to details which affect the
quality of life of the people living in them. And like the way that by using a clever system
of timber cassettes she avoided the need to have timber beams supporting the roof. That
means that instead of being wasted, the roof space became available for use. Often
young couples have to move to a bigger house when they have children, but in Gibbs's
houses they can use the roof space as an extra bedroom.
Alison: But in terms of total area, they're the same as a conventional plot for small
houses. But whereas conventional developers build long thin houses, Gibbs has made
hers almost square. So her hall and stairs aren't just narrow strips 4 she calls them
'an active, social space' which is more central to the plan.
Interviewer: What are the Essex houses like outside? What about the surrounding space? 12 about:blank 12/58 00:05 1/8/24
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Malcolm: Well Margaret Gibbs has given her houses patios and roof decks and porches,
but not gardens, so they aren't suitable for horticulturists. But then not everyone wants to
tend the apron of green that you get with conventional new houses. And there are
playing fields and other public green spaces nearby anyway.

Alison: Yes. And Gibbs says she wanted to make the street itself into an extension of
the living space.
So the balconies and the studies face the street and people who
work from home don't feel isolated. She wanted to change the suburban street from
a desolate place into a little working community.

Interviewer: So to round up then, how do Margaret Gibbs's new houses match up to those
of Britain's older cities? Are they just as aesthetically pleasing as houses in Bristol or Bath for example?
Alison: They're very different, and they won't please everyone. But I don't think it's
helpful to talk about beauty actually. It's so subjective.
Malcolm: Yes. When people talk about a building being 'beautiful' or 'stylish', they
usually mean that it matches their own personal tastes. So it's not a very useful
criterion for assessing architecture.
Where we should be going in future I think, is
looking at the extent to which houses enhance people's quality of life and function well.
Interviewer: Right ... well ... Malcolm Fletcher and Alison Brooks 4 thank you. Part 4. 16. psychedelic 0.16 17. the Secessionists 0.58 18. plant motifs 1.15 19. cultural upheaval 1.52 20. grayscale photo 2.37 21. art nouveau 2.55 22. come hither glance 3.34 23. colour palette 3.59 24. an LSD tripper 4.10
25. bold, dynamic typeface 4.23 13 about:blank 13/58 00:05 1/8/24
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6. The UK government will be implementing the plan B strategy to fight against the new strain of Delta variant.
7. The subvariant has two additional mutations, which demonstrates why it is growing so quickly in the UK.
8. The UK has witnessed a substantial increase in the percentage of this particular subvariant.
9. The UK has a more robust genomic surveillance program than many other countries.
10. The subvariant shows greater resistance to antibodies than the original Delta variant. Your answers 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to a report on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
in building a more sustainable food system and answer the following questions with

NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS. Write your answers in the space provided.
11. What does Brightseed look for by using artificial intelligence?
_____________________________________________________________
12. How does SomaDetect in Canada generate relevant data for dairy farmers?
_____________________________________________________________
13. What field has received more financial support as a result of limited agricultural workforce?
_____________________________________________________________
14. What product is the AI-generated flavour created for?
_____________________________________________________________
15. In addition to ecosystem diversity, what factor can challenge the application of AI in agriculture?
_____________________________________________________________
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about A brief history of cannibalism and
supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANNIBALISM
16. ______________ was the basic ingredient of mumia, a so-called elixir in Europe.in the 15th century. 15 about:blank 15/58 00:05 1/8/24
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17. There were rumours that the Caribs ______________before turning inmates into meals.
18. Columbus pigeonholed anyone who defied his ______________ as a Caribe.
19. The word 20. Survival cannibalism refers to incidents when people resort to eating human flesh or
internal organs to tide themselves over during a famine, ______________ or a cursed journey.
21. An example of medicinal cannibalism can be found in the way bodies from Egyptian
mummies and ______________ were stolen in the fifteenth century.
22. While blood was used as a remedy for a special neurological disorder, other internal
organs were treated as ______________.
23. A form of flesh-eating that occurred in families in China is called ______________ cannibalism.
24. Another practice of cannibalism named ______________was the result of cultural
precepts from a group of ethnic people in Oceania.
25. People have not identified the true root of cannibalism, whether the legitimate
customs, limits of human understanding or ______________. 16 about:blank 16/58 00:05 1/8/24
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FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO KEY AND EXPLANATION Part 1 1. I
1:43: But of course I9d go from day to day to day recycling the bottom half of my to-do
list because I wasn9t making time to do those tasks. 2. A
2:26: Make time for it in your day so it9s not something you are only using every time you feel bored or lonely. 3. H
2:52: By surfing the urge and noticing what it is that we9re experiencing and allowing
that sensation to crest and then subside kind of like a surfer might surf a wave. We allow
that emotion, that uncomfortable internal trigger to crest and then pass. 4. D
3:18: So for example, if you start checking your email on the way back from the meeting
and you9re finally at your desk, and you keep checking your email instead of getting to
the task at hand, well now that liminal moment has turned into a distraction. 5. C
3:56: So when we think that technology is hijacking our brains or it9s addicting everyone,
we are making it more likely that we won9t be able to put technology distractions in their place. Part 2 6. FALSE
0.00 UK is seeing a dramatic surge in Covid 19 cases its health secretary says he is not
rolling out plan B contingency measures just yet. We'll be staying vigilant preparing for
all eventualities while strengthening our vital defenses that can help us fight back against this virus. 7. NOT GIVEN
1.27 This is essentially Delta that has two additional mutations…it really remains to be
seen what the significance of this particular Delta sublineage is although it appears to be growing in the UK. 8. FALSE 17 about:blank 17/58 00:05 1/8/24
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FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO
1.55 There has been an increase in an uptick of the percentage of this particular sublineage in the UK… 9. TRUE
2.36 The UK is really a world leader in what we call genomic surveillance… 10. NOT GIVEN
3.51 It9s hard to say that they would have any impact beyond what Delta already has on antibody neutralization… Part 3
11. new nutritional compounds within plants 0.25
12. optical sensors; deep learning algorithms 0.41
13. farm robotics and automation 1.08
14. plant-based meat alternatives 1.35 15. patchy connectivity 2.27 Part 4.
16. mummified human flesh 0.28 17. made violent raids 0.51
18. plundering and kidnapping 1.08
19. dehumanize indigenous people 1.20 20. siege 1.51 21. European cemeteries 2.39
22. popular medical concoctions 3.10 23. filial 3.21
24. Cannibalistic funerary rites 3.40
25. fictionalized stories 4.11 18 about:blank 18/58 00:05 1/8/24
Listening Practice FOR National English Competition Fanpage Tài liệu Tiếng Anh …
FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO PRACTICE TEST 24
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about the complex changes of human body
after death and decide whether these statements are True (T), False (F) or Not Given
(NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided
.
1. Primary flaccidity is a condition in which muscles become firm and difficult to bend.
2. Casper9s law states that if all other factors are equal, a body will take twice the time to
decompose in water than it would in air.
3. Zoroastrians nowadays choose to burn dead bodies instead of traditionally exposing
them to the Sun and scavenging birds.
4. Burial costs have increased exponentially over the years and many people can only afford simple burials.
5. The remains resulting from the practice of promession can be in organic form. Your answers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Part 2
. For questions 6-10, listen to a report on tornadoes hitting Midwest and answer
the questions. Write NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS taken from the recording for

each answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
6. Which factors make the devastating storms stronger?
7. What can be recorded in the state of Wincosin in one day?
8. How do high waters affect transportation in Pennsylvania?
9. What have been issued across the Midwest and the northeast?
10. What is expected to regain strength upon heading towards Florida? Your answers 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to a radio programme in which two people, Janet
Jennings and Hal Brentford, are discussing corporate tax rates and choose the answer
(A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear
. Write your answers in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. Hat suggests that
A records show businesses pay more tax than the media suggests.
B low tax rates attract skilled workers to the country. 19 about:blank 19/58 00:05 1/8/24
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FANPAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO
C businesses pay the government a tot of indirect taxes.
D businesses bring benefits that warrant the low tax rates.
12. Janet implies attracting desirable foreign investment is
A dependent more on workforce characteristics than corporate tax.
B not critical to the long-term success of the economy.
C more likely if tax rates are slightly increased.
D going to require workforce retraining and upskilling.
13. According to Hat, if business rates increased.
A established companies like his might leave.
B the country might not attract as much new foreign investment.
C the skilled workforce might move elsewhere.
D local businesses might struggle to compete.
14. Why does Janet mention corruption levels, productivity and infrastructure?
A to highlight areas for improvement
B to highlight the negative effects of low corporation taxes
C to suggest other factors of competitiveness outweigh business tax rates
D to suggest where increased tax revenues could be spent
15. Hal believes that raising the corporate tax rate could
A have a devastating impact on the economy.
B cause potential investors to lose confidence.
C have an impact on levels of corruption in the country.
D be more damaging in the short- than long-term Your answers 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about the history of the modern hamburger
and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR

WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
The hamburger, often regarded as a (16) ______________________________ and recent innovation, has its roots 20 about:blank 20/58