ĐỀ ÔN LUYỆN HSG QUỐC GIA 2021-Date:25/7/2021

TEST 13
VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR (30 pts)
Part 1. Choose the word/ phrase that best completes each of the following sentences. (10 pts)

1. The ______________ in our building often falls asleep at the front desk.
A. caretaker(nguoi trong nom cong trinh, kien truc) B. stockbroker C. undertaker D.
bookmaker
2. Police blamed a small hooligan______ in the crowd for the violence which occurred.
A. constituent B. element C. division D. portion
3. The police arrested the wrong man mainly because they ____the names they had been given by the witness.
A. bewildered B. merged C. confused D. puzzled
4. He was arrested for trying to pass______ notes at the bank.
A. camouflaged B. fake C. counterfeit D. fraudulent
5. The safe deposit box _______ a high-pitched sound when it was moved.
A. ejected B. ecluded C. expelled D. emitted
6. He offered me $500 to break my contract. That’s _______.
A. bribery B. blackmail C. compensation D. reward
7. It was such a shock to receive a letter like that________
A.in the red B. out of the blue C.in the pink D. over the moon
8. Mr Wellbred went to a school which______ good manners and self-discipline.
A. blossomed B. planted C. harvested D. cultivated.(dao tao)
9. The smell of the burnt cabbage was so __________ that it spread to every room.
A. pervasive(lan toa) B. effusive(dat dao tinh cam) C. extensive D. diffuse
10. If the terrorists are not sent to prison, there will be a public ______
A. attack B. onslaught C. recrimination D. outcry

Part 2. Read the text and find 5 mistakes and correct them. You should indicate in which line the mistake is. (5 pts)
Let us suppose that you are in the position of a parent. Would you allow your children to read any book they wanted
without first checking its content? Would you take them to see any film without first finding(out) whether it is suitable
for them? If your answer of(to) these questions is yes, then you are either extremely permissive, or just plainly(plain)
irresponsible. If your answer is no, then you are exercising your right as a parent to protect your children from what you
consider to be desirable(undesirable) influences. In other words, by acting as a censor yourself, you are admitting that
there is a strong case for censorship.

Part 3. Put VERBS OR PREPOSITIONS to complete the following sentences. (5pts)

1.He threw ____up_____ his studies when he was offered a well-paid sales job.
2.The play __come in__ for a lot of criticism when it first opened.
3.When you make __out___ the check, please make it payable to Mrs. Smith.
4.The team had to ___pull____out of the competition because of injuries.
5.How did you ever get ______through_____that policeman to let you park here ?

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Part 4. Complete the text by writing the correct form of the word in capitals. The first has been done as an example.
(10 pts)

The (1.CONCEIVE) ____concept____ of “rhetoric”, or elective public speaking, dates back thousands of years. The
underlying(2.ASSUME)___assumption____ behind rhetoric is that how you present an argument can greatly influence
whether people are persuaded by you or not. There is (3.DOUBT) __undoubtedly___ plenty of evidence to support this
idea _it’s practically (4.THINK)__unthinkable____,for example, for a successful politician to be a poor communicator-
but is it just question of style winning over substance ?
Certainly, it is often said of politicians that they talk complete (5.SENSE)___non-sense___ but what they say they say
with such (6.CONVINCE)____conviction____ that we tend to believe them, at least when they’re in opposition. On the
other hand, (7.WISE)__wisdom___and knowledge are of little value if you cannot communicate them effectively to your
peers or the next generation. It is the combination of clear (8.REASON),____reasoning___ sound
(9.JUDGE)____judgements__ and effective presentation and communication skills that defines true rhetoric. A true
rhetorician should always come across as knowledgeable, and never as (10.OPINION)__inopinionated__or ignorant.

C. READING COMPREHENSION (60 pts)

Part 1. For each gap, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which best fits the context. (12 pts)
As petrol prices continue to (1) ……….. , many people are looking for ways to reduce the (2) ……….. of higher prices
while still doing the driving necessary to their work and other activities. (3) ……….. are some suggestions which will
save you a (4) …….. amount of money on petrol.
1. Ask yourself every time you (5) ……….. to use your car, truck, SUV, or van, "Is this trip really necessary?" Every
mile you drive your vehicle will cost you at least an (6) ……….. of 36 cents. If the trip is not necessary, think twice
before using your vehicle.
2. Drive at a (7) ……….. speed on the motorway. According to the Department of Energy, most automobiles get about
20 per- cent more miles per gallon on the motorway at 55 miles per hour than they do at 70 miles per hour.
3. Consider (8) ……….. an automobile which gets the best petrol mileage. For example, generally, the following get
better petrol mileage: lighter weight vehicles, vehicles with smaller engines, vehicles with manual transmissions, those
with four cylinders, and those with fewer accessories. Check the "fuel economy" labels (9) ……….. to the windows of
new automobiles to find the aver- age estimated miles per gallon for given makes and models.
4. Decrease the number of short trips you make. Short trips (10) ……….. reduce petrol mileage. If an automobile gets 20
miles per gallon in general, it may get only 4 miles per gallon on a short trip of 5 miles or less.
1. A. crash B. accelerate C. escalate D. fly

2. A. danger B. occurrence C. burden D. chance

3. A. Below B. After C. Coming D. Later
4. A. measurable B. negotiable C. negligible D. considerable
5. A. think B. plan C. need D. arrange
6. A. equivalent B. average C. amount D. increase
7. A. mild B. conservative C. considerate D. substantial
8. A. inquiring B. trading C. preferring D. purchasing
9. A. attached B. selected C. stretched D. held
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 10. A. extensively B. exclusively C. intensively D. drastically

Part 2. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each space. (12 pts)
From Royalist to Republican
Erskine Childers was not what you would call your (1) ……average…… Irish freedom fighter. A Briton by
birth, and a proud (2) ……one…… at that for most of the early years of his life, Childers was a decorated soldier of the
British Admiralty (3) ……who…… had demonstrated unwavering commitment and loyalty to both king and country.
And yet, somewhere along the way, disillusionment (4) ……set…… in.
While it is difficult to pinpoint the precise moment when doubt started to creep into Childers' mind (5) ……as……
to whether his loyalty was misguided, what was essentially a complete philosophy shift - a total realignment of ideals - did
occur. Childers went from (6) …being……… royalist to a staunch nationalist, obsessed with the cause of Irish freedom.
He befriended the (7) ……likes…… of Eamon DeVelera and Michael Collins, key figures in the Irish Republican
camp, and even went so far as to ship illegal armaments to the leaders of the ill-fated Easter Rising of 1916, which was
easily put (8) ……down…… by the British army.

Later, he would fight on the (9) ……side…… of the Irish rebels in the War of Independence, until an uneasy truce
was agreed between Britain and Ireland. Eventually, a treaty was signed partitioning the country. For Childers, by now
totally devoted to the cause of Irish freedom and the notion of a united Ireland, partition was (10) ……too……bitter a
pill to swallow.
Part 3. Read the passage and choose the best answer to each of the questions. (12 pts)
Legend has it that sometime toward the end of the Civil War (1861-1865) a government train carrying oxen
traveling through the northern plains of eastern Wyoming was caught in a snowstorm and had to be abandoned. The driver
returned the next spring to see what had become of his cargo. Instead of the skeletons he had expected to find, he saw his
oxen, living, fat, and healthy. How had they survived?
The answer lay in a resource that unknowing Americans lands trampled underfoot in their haste to cross the
"Great American Desert" to reach lands that sometimes proved barren. In the eastern parts of the United States, the
preferred grass for forage was a cultivated plant. It grew well with enough rain, then when cut and stored it would cure
and become nourishing hay for winter feed. But in the dry grazing lands of the West that familiar bluejoint grass was
often killed by drought. To raise cattle out there seemed risky or even hopeless.
Who could imagine a fairy-tale grass that required no rain and somehow made it possible for cattle to feed
themselves all winter? But the surprising western wild grasses did just that. They had wonderfully convenient features that
made them superior to the cultivated eastern grasses. Variously known as buffalo grass, grama grass, or mesquite grass,
not only were they immune to drought; but they were actually preserved by the lack of summer and autumn rains. They
were not juicy like the cultivated eastern grasses, but had short, hard stems. And they did not need to be cured in a barn,
but dried right where they grew on the ground. When they dried in this way, they remained naturally sweet and nourishing
through the winter. Cattle left outdoors to fend for themselves thrived on this hay. And the cattle themselves helped plant
the fresh grass year after year for they trampled the natural seeds firmly into the soil to be watered by the melting snows
of winter and the occasional rains of spring. The dry summer air cured them much as storing in a bam cured the cultivated
grasses.
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 1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. A type of wild vegetation B. Western migration after Civil War
C. The raising of cattle D. The climate of the Western United States
2. What can be inferred by the phrase "Legend has it" in line I?·
A. Most history book include the story of the train.
B. The story of the train is similar to other ones from that time period.
C. The driver of the train invented the story.
D. The story of the train may not be completed factual.
3. The word "they" in line 4 refers to ………….. .
A. plains B. skeletons C. oxen D. Americans
4. What can be inferred about the "Great American Desert" mentioned in line 7?
A. Many had settled there by the 1860's.
B. It was not originally assumed to be a fertile area.
C. It was a popular place to raise cattle before the Civil War.
D. It was not discovered until the late 1800's.
5. The word "barren" in line 7 is closed in meaning to …………… "
A. lonely B. uncomfortable C. infertile D. dangerous
6. The word "preferred" in line 8 is closed in meaning to ………….. .
A. favored B. available C. ordinary D. required
7. Which of the following can be inferred about the cultivated grass mentioned in the second paragraph?
A. Cattle raised in the Western United States refused to eat it.
B. It had to be imported into the United States.
C. It would probably not grow in the western United States.
D. It was difficult for cattle to digest.
8. Which of the following was NOT one of the names given to the western grasses?
A. Mesquite grass B. Bluejoint grass C. Buffalo grass D. Grama grass
9. Which of the following was NOT mentioned as a characteristic of western grasses?
A. They contain little moisture B. They have tough stems
C. They can be grown indoors D. They are not affected by dry weather
10. According to the passage, the cattle help promote the growth of the wild grass by ……………"
A. eating only small quantities of grass.
B. continually moving from one grazing area to another.
C. naturally fertilizing the soil.
D. stepping on and pressing the seeds into the ground.
Part 4. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (12 pts)
A After hours of driving south in the pitch-black darkness of the Nevada desert, a dome of hazy gold suddenly appears on
the horizon. Soon, a road sign confirms the obvious: Las Vegas 30 miles. Looking skyward, you notice that the Big
Dipper is harder to find than it was an hour ago.
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B Light pollution—the artificial light that illuminates more than its intended target area—has become a problem of
increasing concern across the country over the past 15 years. In the suburbs, where over-lit shopping mall parking lots are
the norm, only 200 of the Milky Way’s 2,500 stars are visible on a clear night. Even fewer can be seen from large cities.
In almost every town, big and small, street lights beam just as much light up and out as they do down, illuminating much
more than just the street. Almost 50 percent of the light emanating from street lamps misses its intended target, and
billboards, shopping centres, private homes and skyscrapers are similarly over-illuminated.
C America has become so bright that in a satellite image of the United States at night, the outline of the country is visible
from its lights alone. The major cities are all there, in bright clusters: New York, Boston, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles,
Seattle, Chicago, and, of course, Las Vegas. Mark Adams, superintendent of the McDonald Observatory in west Texas,
says that the very fact that city lights are visible from on high is proof of their wastefulness. “When you’re up in an
airplane, all that light you see on the ground from the city is wasted. It’s going up into the night sky. That’s why you can
see it.”
D But don’t we need all those lights to ensure our safety? The answer from light engineers, light pollution control
advocates and astronomers is an emphatic “no.” Elizabeth Alvarez of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), a
non-profit organization in Tucson, Arizona, says that overly bright security lights can actually force neighbours to close
the shutters, which means that if any criminal activity does occur on the street, no one will see it. And the old assumption
that bright lights deter crime appears to have been a false one: A new Department of Justice report concludes that there is
no documented correlation between the level of lighting and the level of crime in an area. And contrary to popular belief,
more crimes occur in broad daylight than at night.
E For drivers, light can actually create a safety hazard. Glaring lights can temporarily blind drivers, increasing the
likelihood of an accident. To help prevent such accidents, some cities and states prohibit the use of lights that impair
night-time vision. For instance, New Hampshire law forbids the use of “any light along a highway so positioned as to
blind or dazzle the vision of travellers on the adjacent highway.”
F Badly designed lighting can pose a threat to wildlife as well as people. Newly hatched turtles in Florida move toward
beach lights instead of the more muted silver shimmer of the ocean. Migrating birds, confused by lights on skyscrapers,
broadcast towers and lighthouses, are injured, sometimes fatally, after colliding with high, lighted structures. And light
pollution harms air quality as well: Because most of the country’s power plants are still powered by fossil fuels, more
light means more air pollution.
G So what can be done? Tucson, Arizona is taking back the night. The city has one of the best lighting ordinances in the
country, and, not coincidentally, the highest concentration of observatories in the world. Kitt Peak National Optical
Astronomy Observatory has 24 telescopes aimed skyward around the city’s perimeter, and its cadre of astronomers needs
a dark sky to work with.
H For a while, that darkness was threatened. “We were totally losing the night sky,” Jim Singleton of Tucson’s Lighting
Committee told Tulsa, Oklahoma’s KOTV last March. Now, after retrofitting inefficient mercury lighting with low-
sodium lights that block light from “trespassing” into unwanted areas like bedroom windows, and by doing away with
some unnecessary lights altogether, the city is softly glowing rather than brightly beaming. The same thing is happening
in a handful of other states, including Texas, which just passed a light pollution bill last summer. “Astronomers can get

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what they need at the same time that citizens get what they need: safety, security and good visibility at night,” says
McDonald Observatory’s Mark Adams, who provided testimony at the hearings for the bill.
I And in the long run, everyone benefits from reduced energy costs. Wasted energy from inefficient lighting costs us
between $1 and $2 billion a year, according to IDA. The city of San Diego, which installed new, high-efficiency street
lights after passing a light pollution law in 1985, now saves about $3 million a year in energy costs.
J Legislation isn’t the only answer to light pollution problems. Brian Greer, Central Ohio representative for the Ohio
Light Pollution Advisory Council, says that education is just as important, if not more so. “There are some special
situations where regulation is the only fix,” he says. “But the vast majority of bad lighting is simply the result of not
knowing any better.” Simple actions like replacing old bulbs and fixtures with more efficient and better-designed ones can
make a big difference in preserving the night sky.
Questions 1- 6
The first six paragraphs of the reading passage are lettered A-F.
Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below.
NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings

I .Why lights are needed

ii.  Lighting discourages law breakers

iii.  The environmental dangers

iv. People at risk from bright lights

v. Illuminating space

vi.  A problem lights do not solve

vii.  Seen from above

viii. More light than is necessary

ix. Approaching the city

1) Paragraph A  ix 
2) Paragraph B   viii
3) Paragraph C   vii
4) Paragraph D   vi
5) Paragraph E iv
6) Paragraph F iii 
Questions 7-10
Complete each of the following statements with words taken from the passage.
Write ONE or TWO WORDS for each answer.

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 7) According to a recent study, well-lit streets do not .....deter crime............... or make neighbourhoods safer to live in.
8) Inefficient lighting increases ............air........ because most electricity is produced from coal, gas or oil.
9) Efficient lights ..........block light.......... from going into areas where it is not needed.
10) In dealing with light pollution ...........education......... is at least as important as passing new laws.
Part 5. You are going to read some reviews of art events. For questions 1 - 10, choose from the reviews (A-F).
The reviews may be chosen more than once.
In which review is the following mentioned?
Institutions could suffer because of a thoughtless act. 1D

Many different styles offered by artists in Europe. 2F

A substantial amount of time needed to complete one piece of work. 3B

Land and sea treated very differently. 4C

Paintings about other paintings. 5

Man's negative impact on the environment. 6

Finding ways to payoff debts. 7D

A primitive style of interior decoration. 8F

Showing how something is set up for public viewing. 9E

Fantasy images based on a real environment. 10

Reviews of art events

A Ben Cook and Phil Whiting
Landscape, such a dominant theme in Cornwall, has the chalk and cheese treatment from two artists showing in Penzance
this month. At Cornwall Contemporary Gallery Ben Cook " uses abstract vocabulary to make almost entirely
conceptual references. His use of found objects and time spent surfing drew him to look at the processes involved in
surfboard manufacture. Based on these, his constructions and paintings combine areas of high resist, high speed, water
deflecting sheen with those tempered by wax to produce mottled, opaque, non-slip surfaces that smack of stone and
solidity. Phil Whiting is a painter. His vigorous use of materials - acrylics in thick impasto inks, charcoal applied with a
brush, knife and 'whatever' - recalls a terrain smarting from the brute force of man's misuse of it. This is not the
celebrated, picturesque Cornwall we so often see but its dirty, rain-soaked underbelly, a landscape left bereft by
voracious mining and haphazard industrial development.
B Shanti Panchal

I It is almost thirty years since Shanti Panchal first came from India to study art in London, where he has lived ever since.
This retrospective at Chelmsford Museum elucidates his distinctive, radical water-colourist's achievement. Growing lip in
a Gujarati village, he decorated local houses with Images of birds and animals. As a Bombay art student, cave paintings
and images from Jain temples inspired him, and as a student in Europe, he was drawn to medieval icons. It is erroneous to
say that his work is characterised by poignant nostalgia for India. The paintings are not nostalgic. Rather they evoke with
subtle clarity what it is like to be exiled and dispossessed while at the same time rooted inalienably in
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 nature and the cosmos.
Every watercolour is multi-layered, giving a similar surface to Buddhist cave paintings. It can take days in order to face
Nhat is going to happen in a piece. Each picture takes weeks and sometimes months. Recent pictures include portraits and
even a homage to Frida Kahlo, a painter that Shanti respects immensely.
I C Iwan Gwyn Parry
Ian Gwyn Parry's first solo exhibition at Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff is a significant event. Until now the artist has
shown mostly in North Wales. Now there is an opportunity to experience, further south, a coherent and powerful
assemblage of his latest work. It is clear the show will be something special. For these remarkable landscapes and
seascapes appear to have emerged from deep within his psyche and are a highly imaginative response to a coastal terrain
familiar to the artist. There is a strong sense of mysticism, the painting suffused with ethereal vapours and incandescent
light; there are restless swathes of deep orange and yellow. The seascapes are haunting and elemental while the
landscapes are more reflective studies in grey, black and white. His oil The Irish Sea, for example is on an awesome
scale, its seething waters of churning paint intensely lit by a low sun. Definitely a show not to be missed.
D Art auctions
Of the top three Modern British sales last month, it was Christie's who kicked off the, proceedings, but not without
controversy. Bury district council, in their wisdom, auctioned a major painting by LS. Lowry so as to cover a £10 million
shortfall in their finances. The £1.2 million hammer price, less expenses, will not make all that much difference but the
issue has raised the wrath of the Museums Association, who in future, could block lottery and National Arts Collection
Fund resources in all aspects of museum and gallery development. Bury may well live to regret their foolhardy action as
current and future donators will also not be encouraged to gift works of art which could be sold on a whim. Bonhams
followed ten days later with a good but not exceptional sale of which a solid 70% was sold and totaled £2.3 million.
It was then Sotheby's turn to shine which they succeeded in doing, with 80% of lots sold and an impressive total of £7.7
million, though some way behind their arch rival. Records were broken for works by Sir Winston Churchill, former
British Prime Minister.
E Andrew Grassie
Andrew Grassie's exhibition at Maureen Paley Gallery is aptly entitled 'Installation', since it provides a look backstage at
the rituals involved in hanging an exhibition before it officially opens to the public. To achieve this, Grassie devised and
followed a pre-determined strategy, namely: "Install a series of paintings at the gallery depicting last year's previous
exhibitions during their installation. Each painting should hang at the very spot from which the image was taken, enabling
the viewer to compare views of the space." The result is five jewel-like paintings, each one painstakingly copied from a
mid-installation photograph taken by Grassie before the opening of the previous year's shows. The paintings are executed
with such detail that it is difficult at times to uncover the illusion that these are photographs rather than paintings.
F Story
Alexia Goethe has selected fourteen artists, including six resident in the UK and four from Leipzig, for her show 'Story'.
She seeks to demonstrate that whatever technique is used - painting, text, video, photograph or concept - and regardless of
style, the artist is telling a story. The tales being told made me come away feeling a sense of recovery. Tales of politics,
war, social unrest, personal tragedy, to name just a few, are depicted here. Jin Meng who now resides in Europe, produces
exquisitely framed views from the present onto China's past. Political statues, glimpsed from a deserted bedroom, evoke
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the vast changes sweeping his birthplace. Jean Tinguely's kinetic assemblages illustrate how the mechanical is subverted
into the amusing and the desirable. This is an eclectic mix of treasures that can't fail to shock, amuse and move.
TEST 14
GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY (30 points)
Part 1. Choose the word or phrase that best fits each blank in the following sentences.
26. Don’t take your mobile phone with you to the exam, the examiners will ________ it if they find it on you.
A. seize B. spurn C. confiscate(tich thu) D. toil
27. It’s best to meet your problems ________ and solve them before they get worse.
A. eye-on B. hair-on C. nose-on D. head-on
28. He will be sue for __________ of contract if he does not do what he promised
A. breach(vi pham) B. fracture C. crack D. rupture
29. I didn’t know which way to go at the junction, so I just went with my __________ feeling and turned right.
A. golem B. goiter C. gooey D. gut
30. When people live in such close __________ to each other, there are bound to be occasional problems
A. neighborhood B. vicinity C. position D. proximity
31. The __________ were stacked against them but they survived their ordeal.
A. fates B. hopes C. odds(moi thu deu chong lai) D. chances
32. Every time a boy walked past them, the girls started ________.
A. whirring B. buzzing(xi xao) C. giggling(cuoi khuc khich)_ D. clicking
33. I’m a vegetarian. I refuse to eat meat on __________.
A. belief B. conscience C. principle D. theory
34. We’ve heard the __________of tires a Janet’s boyfriend drew up outside her front door.
A. creaking(cot ket) B. screeching(tieng phanh rit len) C. crunching(lao xao) D.
slurping(chop chep)
35. Tragedy __________ yesterday when a man was swept out to sea by a freak wave.
A. struck(tham hoa ap toi) B. sparked C. hit D. came
Part 2: The passage below contains 5 mistakes. Underline the mistakes and write the corrections in the corresponding
numbered boxes.
1 Even before the turn of the century, movies began to develop in two major directions:
2 the realistic and the formalistic. Realism and formalism are merely general, rather than absolute,
3 terms. When using(used) to suggest a tendency toward either polarity, such labels can be
4 helpful, but at(in) the end they are still just labels. Few films are exclusive(exclusively)
5 formalist in style, and fewer yet are completely realist. There is also an important difference
6 between realism and reality, although this distinction is often forgotten. Realism is a particular
7 style, where(whereas) physical reality is the source of all the raw materials of film, both
8 realistic and formalistic. Virtually all movie directors go to the photography(photographable)
9 world for their subject matter, but what they do with this material - how they shape and
10 manipulate it - determines their stylistic emphasis.
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Your answers
Line Mistake Correction
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.

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Part 3. Fill in the blank with a suitable preposition or a particle to complete the following sentences
41. It would be nice if I passed my exams but I don’t hold ______out____ much hope.
42. As the weather was bad, the tourists while _____away_____ the time strolling round the local shops.
43. The book was really funny – it had me _____in_____ stiches.
44. Our teacher is wonderful – she can put _____over_____ the most difficult subject really clearly.
45. We need to come _____at_____ the problem from a different angle.
Part 4. Fill in each blank with the most suitable form of the word in brackets.
WITH MANY THANKS
Many people have given (0) ...assistance… to me during the writing of this book, but it is ASSIST
to Miss Leigh Keith, senior editor of Ramsay and Brown that I am most deeply (46) DEBT
__________ for her loyalty and (47) ____devotion______ during the four years the DEVOTE
project lasted. She gave her time and advice (48) ____stintly______ in order for this
work to be completed, giving both moral and practical support for the lengthy research STINT
into social conditions the project (49) _____necessity_____. Her (50) NECESSARY
_____assurance_____ and encouragement sustained me in my belief that this was ASSURE
valuable work and it was (51) _____undoubtedly_____ what enabled me to continue in DOUBT
the face of often (52) ____couraging______ circumstances. COURAGE
I must also thank my father, who has been a (53) _____willing_____ collaborator in all WILL
my efforts and who spent long hours in libraries and on trains to distant parts of the FLAG
country in search of material. I know that he will say that he enjoyed it, but without his
(54) ____unflagging______ enthusiasm this book would never have been written.
Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family, who have had to put up with what EXCEPT
must have seemed to them an (55) _____exceptionallyy_____ long drawn out piece of
writing. Thank you, all of you, very much.

Your answers

46. 47. 48. 49.

50. 51. 52. 53.
54. 55.

PART III: READING (60 points)

Part 1. For each gap, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which best fits the context.
NOT THAT FAMOUS
A few weeks before Christmas 1962 I joined an unknown group of guys who were learning to play blues music. Four
months later, a small provincial newspaper wrote an article about us; I kept it. Then we made a single, which did (56)
_______ well. I have a son, Stephen, who was then eighteen months old. I was proud of him, and wanted him to be proud
of me when he grew up. I decided to keep some small (57) _______ of my limited success for him to see when he was old
enough to understand. I bought a scrapbook, which was soon filled. I bought another - and another and another. Items
were coming (58) _______ and fast. Stephen didn’t really show much interest in my career until he was seven years old.
During his first week at boarding-school, a boy asked the (59) _______ question: 'What does your dad do?’ Stephen
replied in all (60) _______ : ‘He’s in the Rolling Stones.’ When Stephen arrived home the next weekend he took me aside
and said shyly, ‘I didn’t know you were that famous!’
‘Neither did I son, neither did I!’

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 56. A. moderately B. ordinarily C. marginally D. barely
57. A. memorials B. recollections C. reminiscences D. mementoes
58. A. hard B. long C. sweet D. thick
59. A. destined B. irrefutable C. inevitable D. fated
60. A. oblivion B. innocence C. negligence D. disregard

A PRIVATE MAN
Alec Guinness is a difficult subject for a biographer. He has, very deliberately, covered what he wants to hide with a truth
that partly satisfies him and (61) _______ the curious. His reaction against revealing himself is deep, instinctive and
should be respected. But while respected, this can also be questioned and not followed in (62) _______ subservience.
Guinness has frequently defended his privacy. He has also complained that some of his contemporaries have become, in
later life, ‘unexpectedly and brutally frank’. There is surely only one way to (63) _______ one's private life, and that is not
to become a public figure. Paul Schofield, another great actor, has done just this, truly denying himself the attention that
should have been his (64) _______. Guinness, on the other hand, has enjoyed the limelight while claiming not to; he has
enjoyed fame very much on his own (65) _______.
61. A. swerves B. deflects C. veers D. rebounds
62. A. void B. blind C. blank D. bare
63. A. safeguard B. immunize C. harbour D. cage
64. A. merit B. justification C. due D. credit
65. A. particulars B. requirements C. rules D. terms
Part 2: For questions 66-75, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in
each space.
Vietnamese education will (66) __________ that of Singapore’s and share the top spots in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) – such a promising prospect has always been students’ source of inspiration so that we will strive
harder in our studies.
Our greatest aspiration is learning in a truly wholesome environment where teachers and students teach and learn and are
(67) __________ on the basis of their real abilities. Leaders of the education sector would create auspicious conditions to
turn schools into homes where students really exercise their mastery.
There we would fully harness our independence, creativity and self-control in our studies, and become dynamic,
enterprising youths who decide our own lives and are bursting with energy and ambitions to express ourselves and (68)
__________ out a fruitful career.
As a 12th grader who has experienced numerous (69) __________ conducted by the Ministry of Education and Training,
I’ve realized that the lack of a wholesome educational environment is behind inadequate renovations and a (70)
__________ to our learning capacity and inventiveness.
Vietnam’s education sector lags (71) __________ its regional counterparts due to its failure to implement reforms in the
teaching and learning of English at school.
In order to create and cherish a healthy, nourishing educational environment and a liberal academic space which allows
both teachers and students to take their own initiative, investment should be made in infrastructure and equipment, while
(72) __________ should be redesigned. Changes to teaching and learning methodology are necessary, and equity between
teachers and learners should also be promoted.
Such changes include the construction of classrooms to trim the number of students in each class down to 20 so as to
maximize interaction between teachers and students. More laboratories, visual aids and restrooms should be added to better
(73) __________ to demands. Three-fourths of the construction costs should be taken from the state coffers, while the (74)
__________ one-fourth is culled from society.
If the government considers education a national priority, it’s advisable that all efforts and resources be spent on the
education sector, which is a really wise choice. Regarding social campaigning, I believe that everyone is willing to make a
(75) __________ effort, as the cause is supposed to do everyone good. I also hope that the education ministry, departments
and school management boards will be dedicated administrators who wisely and transparently spend the funding without
acting in their self-interest.
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Part 3. Read the following passage and choose the best answer A, B, C or D for each question. Write your answers in
the space provided.
Getting a life - the state of biography today
During a decade in which the British publishing industry was finally obliged to make watchful friends with business,
biography has line-managed the cultural transition beautifully. The best biographies still brim with scholarship but they
also sell in their thousands. Readers - ordinary ones with birthday presents to get, book vouchers to spend and rainy
holidays to fill - love buying books about the life and times of their favorite people. Every year before Christmas, a lorry
load of brick-thick biographies appears on the suggestion table in bookshops.
That biography has done so well is thanks to fiction's vacation of middle-ground, that place where authorial and readerly
desire just about match. Novels in the last ten years, unable to claim the attention of the common reader, have dispersed
across several registers, with the high ground still occupied by those literary novels which continue to play with post-
modern concerns about the narrator's impotence, the narrator's fibs and the hero's failure to actually exist.
Biography, by contrast, has until recently shown no such unsettling humility. At its heart lies the biological plot, the birth-
to-death arc with triumphs and children, perhaps a middle-aged slump or late-flowering dotted along the way. Pages of
footnotes peg this central story, this actual life, into a solid, teeming context. Here was a man or woman who wrote letters,
had friends, ate breakfast and smelt a certain way. The process of being written about rematerialises the subject on the
page. Writing a life becomes a way of reaffirming that life itself endures.
Until now, that is. Recently biography has started to display all the quivering self-scrutiny which changed the face of
fiction twenty years ago. Exhaustion now characterises the genre. All the great lives have been done. But there are ways
of proceeding. Ian Hamilton was the pioneer who failed to find J.D. Salinger. Five years later, Janet Malcolm's study of
Sylvia Plath, The Silent Woman, brilliantly exposed the way in which academics and biographers stalk and hunt one
another around the globe in a bid to possess and devour their subject.
The latest in this tradition of books about writing - or not writing - biography is Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Range, in
which he plots his failure to get started on a study of D.H. Lawrence. Dyer describes every delaying trick familiar to
biographers: lugging heavy editions of letters on holiday and then not bothering to unpack; having a motorcycle accident
(an extreme prevarication, but preferable to staring at a blank screen); and finally forcing himself to re read the subject's
novels without any pleasure. 'Footstepping' is the new word to describe this approach; ‘life-writing' has become the
favoured term on university courses. In the wrong hands, it can become 'so-whatish'. Writers less accomplished then Dyer,
Hamilton or Malcolm could be accused of annexing some of their subjects' clout to get mediocre work into print.
The second approach is to write a partial biography, to take a moment or a strand in the subject’s life and follow it through
without any claims for completeness. This year Ian Hamilton entered the biographical arena again with a slim, sharp
examination of why Mathew Arnold stopped writing good poetry once he took up his job as a school inspector. Earlier,
Lyndall Gordon's A Private Life of Henry Jams tracked the great man through his odd relationship with two of his female
muses. Far from claiming to displace Leon Edel's 'definitive' biography of James, Gordon's book hovered over it,
reconfiguring the material into a new and crisper pattern.
The final tack is to move away from a single, life altogether, and look at the places where it encounters other events. Dava
Sobel's best-selling Longitude puts a cultural puzzle at the heart of her story and read human lives against it. Sebastien
Junger’s The Perfect Storm, meanwhile, makes the weather its subject, placing the seamen who encounter it into second
place. No longer able to demonstrate a human life shaping its destiny, biographers have been obliged to subordinate their
subjects to an increasingly detailed context.
Biography will survive its jitters, but it will emerge looking and sounding different. Instead of the huge door stops of the
early 1990s, which claimed to be 'definitive' while actually being undiscriminating, we will see a series of pared-down,
sharpened up 'studies’. Instead of speaking in a booming, pedagogic voice, the new biography will ask the reader to
decide. Consuming this new biography may not be such a cozy experience, but it will bring us closer than ever to the real
feeling of being alive.
76. What is the 'cultural transition' referred to?
A. the scholarship exemplified in the best biographies
B. the change in taste among ordinary readers
C. the rising importance of sales figures in publishing
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 D. the range of books available for purchase
77. In the second paragraph, what explanation is given for the current interest in biography?
A. the range of subject matter in novels
B. the failure of fiction to appeal to the average reader
C. the choice of unsuitable main characters in novels
D. the lack of skill of certain novelists
78. The word “impotence” in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by _______.
A. feebleness B. infantilism C. coarseness D.
inventiveness
79. What contrast does the writer draw between literary novels and biography?
A. Biography has dealt with more straightforward issues.
B. Literary novels have presented a different type of truth.
C. Biography has described a longer period in a person's life.
D. Literary novels have been written in a more universal style,
80. In describing the work of Dyer, the writer _______.
A. underestimates his difficulties. B. makes fun of his efforts,
C. acknowledges his expertise. D. is inspired by his achievements.
81. The word “annexing” in paragraph 5 could best be replaced by _______.
A. flirting B
. seizing C. mastering D.
covering
82. What is the writer’s opinion of ‘partial biography’?
A. It can provide new insights.
B. It tends to remain inconclusive
C. It works when the subject is sufficiently interesting.
D. It can detract from fuller studies.
83. What trend is exemplified by Longitude and The Perfect Storm?
A. the fact that readers like complex puzzles
B. the lack of interest generated by single lives
C. the continuing sympathy towards human struggle
D. the need to take account of the wider environment
84. What does the word “definitive” in the passage mostly mean?
A. tentative B. perfect
C. prolific D. testified
85. Considering the future of biography, the writer anticipates ________.
A. a decline in the standard of biographical investigation.
B. a greater challenge to the reading public.
C. an improvement in the tone adopted by biographers.
D. the growth of a new readership for biography.
Part 4.
The following passage has six paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct headings for paragraph A-G from the list of
headings below. Write the correct number, i-xv, in 86- 92.
NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings
i Breastfeeding and envy
ii A victim of envy
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 iii A global remedy for envy
iv What is envy?
v The Evil Eye in Europe
vi Sharing success
vii No grounds for envy
viii Envy and illness
ix Envy where resources are limited
x The Swahili in Africa
xi The work of social scientists
xii Envy in relation to other emotions
xiii A dictionary definition of envy
xiv A universal phenomenon
xv Envy in poor societies

86. Paragraph A______ 89. Paragraph D ______

92. Paragraph G ______
87. Paragraph B______ 90. Paragraph E ______
88. Paragraph C______ 91. Paragraph F ______
ENVY WITHOUT REASON?
A Do you come from a culture which places emphasis on the emotion of envy? Without a doubt, envy is something that
we all feel at some time in our lives. The Concise Oxford Dictionary lists envy as ‘resentful or admiring contemplation of
more fortunate person’. Instead of sharing in the joy of a new job, car or party dress, a friend either pretends she or he
has not noticed the fantastic new BMW or says ‘Mercedes are better’. But does it matter? In many parts of the world,
the personal satisfaction felt by those who prosper is tinged with concerns about the ill-will which success provokes
in friends, and even family members. Envy becomes something to be feared, for it may have the power to cause harm.
B The Swahili people of Coastal East Africa take envy very seriously. They frequently feel the need to hide or minimise
personal success. Hence, boasting can be a dangerous pastime. Envy emanates from neighbours, friends and family. After
all, a stranger does not care if you have managed to replace your thatched roof with corrugated iron. But those Swahili who
have struggled to build houses which are a little better than their neighbours often paint on the front of their houses
the slogan, hasidi hana sababu: this means ‘envy without reason’. The slogan seems to be a forlorn attempt to remind
neighbours and any envious passers-by that the apparent good fortune indicated by a superior house has been
earned. The message is that there is no reason for envy, and that those harbouring ill-will should control their
feelings. The successful are pleading to be allowed to succeed.
C In Swahili culture, and many others, envy emanates from the eye of the beholder. The Evil Eye, as a source of harm to
those who fall under its gaze, is reported throughout much of the world. Indeed, according to Brian Spooner, an expert on
the various ways used to keep envy at bay, the idea of the Evil Eye is so widespread that it can be regarded as a universal
phenomenon. In the parts of Europe that border the Mediterranean, in the Middle East and North Africa, the wearing of
pendants depicting one large eye is a popular way of repelling envy.
D Ideas about the Evil Eye moved from the Mediterranean to the New World of America. Atwood Gaines has traced the
origin of beliefs about the Evil Eye as a cause of sickness from Spain to Mexico, Haiti and Puerto Rica. The illnesses
caused by the Evil Eye are given specific names such as gusto. In such cases, the Evil Eye is suspected after an illness or
misfortune has already occurred.

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E Marcia Inkhorn has written about the Evil Eye in Egypt. There, women may attribute infertility and other health
problems to the envy of neighbours or friends. But in the Middle East, as elsewhere, envy can occur in many settings.
Hence, at the end of an important meeting to discuss a research study, the head of the project noticed that her best silk suit
had white marks on both the jacket and skirt. It was ruined. She worked out that after the sumptuous lunch, which had
preceded the meeting, the table had been cleaned with bleach. She had then brushed against the table. Nobody else’s
clothes were damaged. Her Palestinian colleague suggested that envy, harbored by an unknown acquaintance, had ruined
her suit. The grounds for envy were either her beautiful clothes or her powerful position within the research team.
F Some social scientists argue that envy is widespread in societies where resources are scarce and one person’s gain
is considered another’s loss. The reasoning behind this theory of envy is that, when people are poor and in competition
with each other, they believe that there is not enough good food, good fortune or good jobs to go around. G M Foster
studied peasant society in Latin America and propounded ‘the image of limited good’. According to his theory, when
somebody from a family or village prospers, they use up part of a stock of limited good and reduce the chances
of the success of others. Foster sees the ‘image of limited good’ as operating in peasant societies where people know
and compete with each other in adverse economic conditions. However, the theory may hold good for many
other social and economic contexts. Take scholarships, for example. There are only so many to go round. If you’re best
friend gets the scholarship, your chances of getting one too may be greatly reduced.
G Western psychoanalysts have also studied envy. Melanie Klein sees envy as an emotion felt by the breastfeeding infant
towards its mother’s breast. Although the infant feels love and gratitude towards its mother, it also wants the goodness of
the milk for itself. Some of these scholars, unlike everyday speakers of English, are careful to distinguish between envy
and jealousy. Swahili people make the same distinction. Jealousy is a triangular relationship. For example, two friends
spend all their free time together until one takes a lover. The neglected friend grows jealous of the affection lavished on the
new lover. When there is jealousy, three people are involved. Envy, on the other hand, is more straightforward: one person
envies another’s achievement, quality or possession. While most English people do not take envy seriously, it remains a
matter of concern to people worldwide. It makes ambition and the pursuit of success more difficult, and some would
say, dangerous. Many seek ways to avoid falling victim to envy. How do you deal with it?
Questions 93 - 95
Complete the following sentences with information from the passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS to
fill each blank space.
93. The Evil Eye is a __________________________ to those who come within its range.
94. Among the Swahili, boasting is a ________________________________.
95. The Swahili on the East African coast often feel they have to conceal or _______________________________
Part 5.
You are going to read four different opinions from leading scientists about the future of fuel. For questions 96-105,
choose from the writers A-D. The writers may be chosen more than once.
A. Howard Bloom, Author
Even though most people are convinced that peak oil has already passed, to me, peak oil is just a hypothesis. There is a
theory that carbon molecules can be found in interstellar gas clouds, comets and in space ice, and if this is the case, our
planet could ooze oil forever. And even if we stay earthbound, those who say we have raped the planet of all its resources
are wrong. There's a huge stock of raw materials we haven't yet learned to use. There are bacteria two miles beneath our
feet which can turn solid granite into food. If bacteria can do it, surely we creatures with brains can do it better. As far as
the near future of energy is concerned, I believe the most promising alternative fuels are biofuels, such as ethanol. It's an
alcohol made from waste products such as the bark of trees, woodchips, and other 'waste materials'. And that's not the

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only waste that can create energy. My friend in the biomass industry is perfecting an energy-generation plant which can
run on human waste. We produce that in vast quantities, and it's already gathered in centralised locations.
B. Michael Lardelli, Lecturer in Genetics at the University of Adelaide
Nothing exists on this planet without energy. It enables flowers and people to grow and we need it to mine minerals,
extract oil or cut wood and then to process these into finished goods. So the most fundamental definition of money is as a
mechanism to allow the exchange and allocation of different forms of energy. Recently, people have been using more
energy than ever before. Until 2005 it was possible to expand our energy use to meet this demand. However, since 2005
oil supply has been in decline, and at the same time, and as a direct result of this, the world's economy has been unable to
expand, leading to global recession. With the world's energy and the profitability of energy production in decline at the
same time, the net energy available to support activities other than energy procurement will decrease. We could increase
energy production by diverting a large proportion of our remaining oil energy into building nuclear power stations and
investing in renewable forms of energy. However, this is very unlikely to happen in democratic nations, because it would
require huge, voluntary reductions in living standards. Consequently, the world economy will continue to contract as oil
production declines. With energy in decline, it will be impossible for everyone in the world to become wealthier. One
person's increased wealth can only come at the expense of another person's worsened poverty.
C. Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell
People are understandably worried about a future of growing energy shortages, rising prices and international conflict for
supplies. These fears are not without foundation. With continued economic growth, the world's energy needs could
increase by 50% in the next 25 years. However, I do not believe that the world is running out of energy. Fossil fuels will
be able to meet growing demand for a long time in the future. Taking unconventional resources into account, we are not
even close to peak oil. The priority for oil companies is to improve efficiency, by increasing the amount of oil recovered
from reservoirs. At present, just over a third is recovered. We can also improve the technology to control reservoir
processes and improve oil flow. However, these projects are costly, complex and technically demanding, and they depend
on experienced people, so it is essential to encourage young people to take up a technical career in the energy industry.
Meanwhile, alternative forms of energy need to be made economically viable. International energy companies have the
capability, the experience and the commercial drive to work towards solving the energy problem so they will play a key
role. But it is not as simple as merely making scientific advances and developing new tools; the challenge is to deliver the
technology to people worldwide. Companies will need to share knowledge and use their ideas effectively.
D. Craig Severance, blogger
What will it take to end our oil addiction? It's time we moved on to something else. Not only are world oil supplies
running out, but what oil is still left is proving very dirty to obtain. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred precisely
because the easy-to-obtain oil is already tapped. If we don't kick oil now, we will see more disasters as oil companies
move to the Arctic offshore and clear more forests. The cheap petroleum is gone; from now on, we will pay steadily more
and more for our oil — not just in dollars, but in the biological systems that sustain life on this planet. The only solution is
to get on with what we will have to do anyway - end our dependence on it! There are many instances in which oil need not
be used at all. Heat and electricity can be produced in a multitude of other ways, such as solar power or natural gas. The
biggest challenge is the oil that is used in transportation. That doesn't mean the transportation of goods worldwide, it's the
day-to-day moving around of people. It means we have to change what we drive. The good news is that it's possible.
There are a wide range of fuel efficient cars on offer, and the number of all-electric plug-in cars is set to increase. For long
distance travel and freight, the solution to this is to look to rail. An electrified railway would not be reliant upon oil, but
could be powered by solar, geothermal, hydro, and wind sources. There is a long way to go, but actions we take now to
kick our oil addiction can help us adapt to a world of shrinking oil supplies.
Which writer:

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96. believes oil will be available for many more years C
97. believes that from now on, less oil is available B
98. believes there are ways to obtain energy that we have not yet discovered A
99. sees a great potential in natural fuels A
100. believes the fuel crisis will cause the poor to become poorer B
101. sees energy and the economy as intrinsically linked B
102. believes we should reduce our dependence on oil immediately D
103. believes that people need to be attracted to working in the energy industry C
104. believes that it is unlikely that governments will invest a lot of money into alternative energy B
105. believes that future oil recovery will lead to more environmental disasters D
PART IV: WRITING (60 points)
Part 1.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word given. Don’t change the
word given. You must use between three and eight words including the word given.
106. He really wants to see animals living in the wild. (INTENT)
He ... …………………………………………. .... animals living in the wild.
107. She’s not very good at arranging flowers. (FLAIR)
She .... …………………………………………..... arranging flowers.
108. The handling of the matter has been heavily criticized by the press. (SCORN)
The press has …………………………………………. the handling of the matter.

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one.
109. He didn't want to get into a position where he might lose all his money.
He didn't want to expose ... ………………………………………… all his money.
110. If you remember, I was the one who started this project in 1995.
If you cast ...………………………………………….... I was the one who started this project in 1995.

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