Materials for National English Competition 2021 – Ms Tran Hoai Linh

WORKSHEET 1
LEXICO – GRAMMAR
Part 1. Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.
1. This museum has more visitors than _____ any other in the world.
A. really B. practically C. actually D. utterly
2. I couldn't stop myself from _____ with boredom during the lecture.
A. sighing B. gasping C. panting D. blowing
3. We're not in a _____ hurry so let's have another coffee.
A. dashing B. racing C. rushing D. tearing
4. He shuns work as he is such a(n) _____ student.
A. indolent B. diligent C. indigent D. indigenous
5. Despite all the evidence, he wouldn't admit that he was in the _____.
A. fault B. error C. wrong D. slip
6. I was worried but their reassurances put my mind at _____
A. rest B. comfort C. calm D. relief
7. As he accepted the award, his voice _____ with emotion.
A. quivered B. flinched C. cringed D. winced
8. The thieves took _____ when they heard a police car approaching.
A. retreat B. flight C. escape D. getaway
9. I've _____ how many times she's been late for work this month.
A. lost my marbles of B. lost count of
C. lost my head of D. lost my mind of
10. They lived in a thatched cottage in a _____ village in the heart of the English countryside.
A dense B conventional C lush D quaint

Part 2. Read the text below. Use the word given in CAPITALS at the end of some of the lines to form
a word that fits in the space in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).
1 They are a completely ________________ family. None of them understands each other or tries to get on.
FUNCTION
2 Do you really think Thomas is ________________? Couldn’t he just be a typical grumpy teenager?
ADJUST
3 Peter doesn’t like anyone; he’s basically ________________. MISANTHROPY
4 It’s easy to be ________________ about romance until you fall in love. CYNIC
5 Mia’s teachers said her behaviour had been so _____________ lately that we might have to take her
out of school. ERRANT
6 Johnny is such a ________________ chap. It’s a delight to spend time with him. COMPANY
7 As children, Lisa and Rosie were ________________. They practically lived together. SEPARATE
8 He didn’t want to think about difficult ________________ questions like these. PHILOSOPHY
9 It’s not easy to make a _______________ decision when there is so much at stake, but you must try
to be unbiased. PASSION
10 Our factories are cleaned with ________________ care to ensure our instruments remain uncontaminated.
SCRUPLE
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III. READING
Part 1. Read the following passage and decide which answer best fits each gap. Use only one word in
each space. There is an example at the beginning (0). Write your answers on the separate answer
sheet.
ANCIENT TIME KEEPING
The Aztec and Mayan calendars were very (0) __similar___. The Aztecs, however, had a more primitive
number system and consequently a (1) __more___ exact way of calculating dates. A complicated system of
two concurrent calendars existed, one marking the days and the (2) other_____ the years. The (3)
calendar_____ was arranged on a 260-day cycle divided into 20 periods and then subdivided again. It was
used as a religious calendar and the priests could thereby decide on important activities like going to war or
building projects. The latter was based on the much more familiar 365-day solar count. It was also divided
and subdivided but into smaller periods than our own Julian calendar. Five days, which were not represented
at all, were set aside as a time for festivities. People (4) _____ dress up and sing and dance. Sacrifices were
also carried out, of which the majority were human but some could be performed on animals and fruit. The
Aztec system is further complicated by the fact that in different towns the years started in different months.
Consequently, much historical confusion has arisen due to the fact that the same day can be found twice in
the same year, and (5) _____ 52 years the same name for the year recurs.
Part 2: Read the following text, then the missing paragraphs. Choose from paragraphs A-H the one
which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
SPANISH TREASURE
Gold earrings hung with pearls sank with a Spanish galleon west of Havana, one of the many wrecked by
pirates, storms and treacherous reefs. These and other artefacts offer a wealth of clues about the history of
Cuba’s golden past. A glittering fortune in gold and silver has been recovered from the sea floor. Treasures
including luxuries such as rare wood and exotic feathers were shipped from the New World to Seville by
way of Cuba.
1. _____________
In a typical year, the first of the two annual treasure fleets left Spain in spring and entered the Caribbean
near the island of Margarita, off Venezuela - a source of pearls and a frequent target of pirates. Here the
flotilla usually split in two, following courses that touched much of the Spanish New World. One convoy
stopped at ports along the Spanish Main, as the English called the northern coast of South America and the
Caribbean islands. Colonists, forbidden to manufacture anything, had to buy even such ordinary items as
cutlery, tools and religious medals from the convoy.
2. _____________
In late summer, the merchant ships and war ships sailed to Havana’s well-fortified harbour to form the
treasure fleet. Theoretically, the captain general and his warships defended all the merchantmen against
pirates. In reality, storms frequently scattered the flotilla making individual ships vulnerable. Pirates chose
these loners to attack and loot. But Piet Heyn, to the Spanish a pirate, to the Dutch a fabled admiral, was not
satisfied with picking off the stragglers. He wanted the whole treasure.
3. _____________
Officials in Havana, who feared this legendary figure more than any other foe, kept watch for him,
especially when a treasure fleet was about to sail for Spain. On August 4, 1628, Heyn and his ships lay off

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Cuba, not sure whether the treasure fleet’s Mexican component (the Dutch called it the silver fleet) had left
for Havana to link up with the rest of the flotilla. Spanish scout vessels spotted the Dutch and sent swift
courier ships to Veracruz to warn Juan de Benavides, captain general of the treasure fleet. But, unknown to
the Spanish, Heyn had captured one of the courier ships. Now aware that his prey would soon arrive off
Cuba, Heyn waited to pounce.
4. _____________
Finally in August, he set sail again. As he neared Matanzas Bay, about 50 miles east of Havana, he saw more
than 30 Dutch warships bearing down on him. ‘I continued my course, resolved to die,’ Benavides bravely
wrote in a letter to the king. But another officer later testified that Benavides had foolishly led the fleet into
the bay. In his panic, he grounded his own ship and all that followed.
5. _____________
‘I jumped into a boat,’ Benavides later recounted, claiming he had arranged in vain for his ship to be set afire
in his absence. Leoz, seeing his ship boarded by the Dutchmen, ran below, changed into the clothes of an
ordinary sailor, and slipped in among the crewmen who already had laid down their muskets.
6. _____________
That done, Heyn put his men aboard the six looted galleons, along with three others, and sent them off to the
Netherlands in the wake of the nine he had captured earlier. Benavides’ flagship, so jammed with cargo that
the cannon ports were obstructed, had 29 guns; Leoz’s had 22. Neither had fired a shot.
7. _____________
The story of Heyn’s triumph and Benavides’ death is preserved in the General Archives of the Indies in
Seville, Spain. Treasure searchers begin here, sifting through the voluminous records that officials kept on
every flotilla, on every ship and every cargo. Even though the locations are sometimes imprecise, the
searchers press on, going from document to hunch, from the shelves in Seville to the waters off Havana.
A Their pursuers rapidly closed in, anchored or grounded their ships, boarded boats manned with
musketeers and headed for the hapless Spanish ships. The Dutch swarmed aboard Benavides’ ship and the
ship of Admiral Don Juan de Leoz, second in command of the flotilla.
B Spain’s long reign in the New World is chronicled in archives, tucked away in endless shelves in the
vaulted, echoing halls of a stately 17th century building. Included in these archival treasures are intriguing
charts and maps from the 16th and 17th century, vividly portraying the harbour of Havana. Here historians
and treasure hunters plough through documents which bear witness to Spain’s and Cuba’s turbulent marine
history.
C The Netherlands hailed Heyn as a hero and cast a commemorative medal from the silver. Long
afterward children sang a song — ‘He has won the Silver Fleet, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!’ Benavides and Leoz
returned to Spain in disgrace. Leoz was imprisoned for life. Benavides was tried, not for loss of the treasure
fleet but for cowardice, and later executed. Heyn did not last long as a hero. In 1629, while attacking pirates
in the English Channel, he was killed by a cannonball.
D Other ships carrying similar cargoes sailed into Cartagena, Colombia, and then west to Portobelo,
Panama, the collecting point for the silver that flowed in from the mines of Peru. One day, a Dominican friar
in Portobelo counted 200 mules laden with silver, which was stacked in the marketplace ‘like heaps of
stones in the street.’
E Flushed with a previous success — they had already captured nine ships of the silver fleet - Heyn and

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his men seized half a dozen Spanish ships and put the Spaniards ashore. In the days that followed, the Dutch
sailors inventoried and transferred the ‘large amount of plunder present,’ which included 46 tons of silver.
F Hundreds of ships sank in Cuban waters, victims of pirates, war, storms or bad navigation. These are
the ships sought today in the hope of finding the richest prize in the Cuban seas: ships of the Spanish
treasure fleets, the flotillas which carried New World gold, silver and gems to the royal court of Spain. The
flotillas, first sailed into history in the 16th century when Spain’s powerful Casa de Contratación (House of
Trade) ordered merchant ships to travel in convoy, guarded by armed warships.
G As a young privateer in Spanish waters, he had been captured and sentenced to be a galley slave.
Freed in a prisoner exchange, he returned to sea and sought vengeance. In 1623 and 1626, as a Dutch
admiral fighting against Spain for his homeland, he led rampages against Spanish America, sacking the
Cuban port of Matanzas and capturing many ships.
H Scion of a wealthy family of shipbuilders, Juan de Benavides was an admiral who had never fought a
sea battle. He got his appointment through influence, not skill. Benavides, shepherding about 20 ships, had
left Veracruz for Havana in July, but was forced back to port because of what he described as ‘an
emergency’ that had dismasted his flagship.
Part 3. You are going to read an article containing reviews of restaurants throughout the United
States. Choose from the reviews (A-F). The reviews may be chosen more than once.
In which review are the following stated?
1. The writer let someone else choose what he ate. _____
2. The customers make an effort with their appearance. _____
3. There are contrasting dining areas. _____
4. Creative variations on a popular dish are offered. _____
5. The writer would like to have eaten much more of one dish. _____
6. The location is unusual for an expensive restaurant. _____
7. The server was more skilled than he initially appeared. _____
8. The restaurant resembles another place from the past. _____
9. The food was sophisticated and surprisingly inexpensive. _____
10. It is possible to watch the staff preparing the food. _____
11. The food is not what you’d expect from the decor. _____
12. Not all the tables can be booked in advance. _____
GOOD FOOD GUIDE TO THE STATES
For tourists who love to visit interesting restaurants while on holiday, here is my pick of six
special places which I've enjoyed in the USA.
A Flour and Water
Reservations at Flour and Water In San Francisco are tough. Lines are long — half the tables are saved for
walk-ins. The music is too loud; techno the night I ate there. The servers look as though they're ready to toss
aside their order pads and dance. The design appears to be inspired by the Wild West. Nothing hints at the
brilliance of the dishes you will be served there. Flour and Water offers simple Italian dining in a very
special way. using remarkable ingredients and providing stunning layers of flavor. San Francisco produces
the most fascinating pizza toppings on earth, and these are among the most original and delicious: bone
marrow, soft cheese, broccoli leaves, and fresh horseradish on one; tomato, spiced meat and olives on
another. Pizza gets no better than this.

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B The Tasting Kitchen

I wasn't impressed by the menu at The Tasting Kitchen, not at first. “Very confusing I apologise,” the waiter
admitted. To be honest, he didn't seem all that coherent, either. When I told him I had no idea what to order,
he suggested I trust the chef. I rather apprehensively said okay. Nothing to lose. That's when the experience
changed. The Tasting Kitchen then began to feel like a top-class restaurant in Paris, despite the fact that its
prices are actually remarkably reasonable. The food was creamy, complex, and compelling. The only break
from richness was two different salads, the lettuces piled high, accented with beautifully biting vinaigrettes.
The wines were exquisitely matched That waiter suddenly transformed into a mastermind, when it came to
the wine list. This meal at The Tasting Kitchen had turned out to be a masterpiece.
C Longman and Eagle
The way I heard it from my waiter, Longman and Eagle aspires to become a guesthouse. That will happen
once the planned half dozen rooms are completed and ready to be made available for overnight stays.
Longman and Eagle has two dining areas, wildly dissimilar. The back one looks like it was decorated by an
11-year-old with crayons. The front room, substantially more popular, has an unpainted plank ceiling, black
tables, rusted industrial lamps, exposed pipes, a few plants, and no art except that found on the bodies of the
customers. The food is first-class. A considerable number of dishes were triumphant, including spicy
chicken wings with a blue-cheese dip, chicken-liver mousse and a sunny- side-up duck egg with truffle
vinaigrette.
D Commis
Across the street from Commis is Anatoly's Men's Clothing, new suits for $99. (Not cheap enough? Take
advantage of the liquidation sale.) An unlikely locale for a restaurant with such style. Commis is a block
buster, a neighborhood- changer, a primal economic and cultural force. Whether or not it's embraced by
locals, it has to be admired for venturing where nobody is used to paying serious prices for food. The
kitchen staff works out front, behind a tiny counter, eerily silent — as is the entire restaurant. The food was
perfect but so much quiet made me desperate to shatter the hush, yell out, ‘Hey, there's a sale at Anatoly's—
anybody want to join me?’
E Menton
Menton is one of Boston's fanciest restaurants. It is cool, minimalist, all blacks, whites, and grays, not a hint
of color in the dining room. The servers are so discreet they seldom talk to the table, preferring to lean in
and have a conversation with each diner. The patrons are living up to the restaurant — I can't recall seeing
such a nicely dressed dinner crowd in America's worst-dressed city. The food tends toward upscale French,
lush and rich. The meat preparations stand out, particularly the thick, juicy slab of pheasant and the tender,
barely gamy Scottish hare, presented rare. Menton is gracious, serious, luxurious, and very un-Boston.
F The Walrus and the Carpenter
You walk down a long hallway to a half-hidden door where a cheerful young maître d' seats you in a room
that's joyous, lively, and oh so cramped. It’s filled with diners enjoying oysters and other sea food. The
Walrus and the Carpenter feels like a throwback to an earlier era of Seattle dining. It reminds me of the once
wonderful Pike Place, long before it got touristy and bland. On the zinc bar are wire baskets filled with
chopped ice and fresh oysters. There's so much else: including my favorite savory course: smoked trout with
pickled red onions on a lentil salad studded with walnuts. The panna cotta dessert was so light I was thinking
of eating a half-dozen portions, the way I ate a half-dozen oysters. In my opinion, this restaurant offers the
very best food in the area.

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Part 4. You are going to read part of the preface from a book on modern lifestyles. Choose the answer
(A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
This book is about the angst of normal people, of people like us. It offers an explanation of why we are so
much more likely to be miserable than our grandparents, why we are so discontented and self- attacking,
why the moments of emotional richness and freedom of our childhood are less frequent, why so many of us
feel there is ‘something missing' from life.
It establishes that, compared with 1950, the general rise in aspirations has spawned depression and an
epidemic of compulsions like drug abuse, gambling and eating disorders. We compare ourselves obsessively
and enviously, corrupting the quality of our inner lives. No sooner do we achieve a goal than we move the
goalposts to create a new one, leaving ourselves permanently depleted. There is an outbreak of living in the
future and a pathological re-enactment of the past.
People with most of these problems are more likely than those without to have low levels of the
neurotransmitter ‘serotonin’, the so-called ‘happiness brain chemical’. Given that there is a chemistry of
despair, one might suppose that it has a chemical, physical cause. Perhaps the problem is pollution. Is it
something to do with the processing of the foods we eat or the methods of cultivation of the raw materials?
Maybe the new technologies such as mobile phones and computers are interfering with our brains? Though
far from impossible that some of these things are contributing, the strongest contender by far for explaining
what has gone wrong is the way we organise society. I shall show that advanced capitalism, as currently
organised, creates low-serotonin societies. Far from being the product of other chemicals, serotonin levels in
animal and human brains largely reflect what is happening around them, socially and emotionally.
Put crudely, advanced capitalism makes money out of misery and dissatisfaction, as if it were
encouraging us to fill the psychic void with material goods. It can also profit from fostering spurious
individualism by encouraging us to define ourselves through our purchases, with ever more precisely
marketed products that create a fetishistic concern to have ‘this’ rather than ‘that’, even though there is often
no significant practical or aesthetic difference. It can even make money from restoring the chemical
imbalance in our brains which results from these false ambitions and identities, by selling pills and
therapeutic services.
I am not suggesting that there is a conspiracy by a secret society of top-hat-clad, black-coated bankers
and blindly materialistic retailers to make us miserable. Writing of ‘advanced capitalism' as if it has volition
is to make ‘human’ an abstract entity which has no will of its own, just as describing genes as ‘selfish’ is
nonsense. But it has to be acknowledged that the way advanced capitalism happens to have evolved, it does
very nicely at both ends (creating and curing misery), with our inner lives footing the bill.
Nor am I suggesting that a spiritual renaissance is what is required, and that we must eschew our
materialism and return to the simple agrarian life of idealised noble savages; rather, that we are suffering
from a crucial delusion that we need to be richer as a nation in order to be happier.
Increased prosperity is the cornerstone of all major political parties’ manifestos and yet, if studies of
national well-being are to be believed, voters are mistaken in supposing that greater national wealth will be
accompanied by greater happiness. Once a society passes beyond a basic level of wealth, anything beyond
that makes no difference to overall contentment. Advanced capitalism has made most of us physically better
off by meeting biological needs with unprecedented efficiency, but it has actually made us more prone to
low-serotonin problems such as depression and aggression.
New disciplines of evolutionary psychology and psychiatry suggest that advanced capitalism does not
meet our primordial needs, evolved over millions of years, for status and emotional attachment. Our genes
were developed to cope with completely different psychological and technological circumstances than the
ones facing us today. For example, most of our adult lives we fight against the problem of being overweight.

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This a wholly new problem in the history of the world, caused in the first instance by technology creating
diverse and abundant foods. Unfortunately, like all animals, humans were designed to assume that food
would be scarce and not on the premise that there would be unlimited supplies of highly calorific food
available at all times.

1. The writer argues that people feel there is something missing in life because they
A. exaggerate the freedom of their youth.
B. no longer know what they want.
C. are constantly aiming for what they do not have.
D. do not possess sufficient depth of emotion.
2. In the writer’s view, the ‘chemical’ nature of the problem relates to
A. the side-effects of modern technologies.
B. chemicals produced naturally by the body.
C. the interaction of bodily and external chemicals.
D. drugs people introduce to their bodies.
3. Advanced capitalism promotes feelings of despair through its culture of
A. work promotion.
B. marketing.
C. therapy.
D. aesthetic values.
4. The writer makes it clear that
A. advanced capitalism has no answers for the problems it creates.
B. we need to reject materialism.
C. particular groups are not directly responsible for the problems.
D. the system governing society has a will of its own.
5. In the writer’s view, political parties aggravate the problem by
A. setting out to achieve basic standards of wealth.
B. thinking only of efficiency.
C. depressing people further by enriching themselves.
D. equating happiness with prosperity.
6. In the last paragraph, the writer suggests that the defining characteristic of our times is that
A. evolution is speeding up.
B. we no longer get what we most need from society.
C. machinery has displaced humans in certain fields of activity.
D. meeting primordial human needs is no longer enough.
7. In the writer’s general view, a possible way forward for society lies in
A. further prosperity creating time for reflection.
B. our capacity to find remedies for compulsions.
C. restoring the way of life of pre-industrial times.
D. a reassessment of the value of material wealth.

Part 5. Read the text below and then decide which word on best fits each space. Put the letter you
choose for each question in the correct box on your answer sheet.
The knowledge and eloquence that people gain through travelling is usually perceived as the best _____ (1)
in life. It is the inquisitive human nature that impels people to seek _____ (2) experiences and to set out on
an exploration trip. Those who travel frequently and to diverse places benefit from establishing new
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relationships and acquiring a better knowledge about other cultures and lifestyles.
However, there is a grain of truth in the assumption that people are prone to _____ (3) cliches and
unfounded prejudices about other nations and their characteristics. Sometimes, it is only the first-hand
encounter that can help change the approach towards the so-called 'inferior communities'. This direct contact
with a different civilization enables travellers to _____ (4) their baseless assumptions and get acquainted
with the real concept of life in all four corners of the globe.
Beyond question, travelling facilitates friendship and makes it easier for many individuals to acknowledge
the true value of different traditions and customs. Yet, it does not always mean enjoyment. It may also
involve coming close with the atrocities of real existence as well as becoming aware of the challenges and
hardships that other people have to struggle with. Hence, a true voyage is the one with a good deal of
experience to _____ (5) about, very often combined with exposure to abhorrent sights and incredible
ordeals. The learning to be complete, thus, requires an ability to observe and analyse the surroundings, both
their glamour and brutality.
1. A. completion B. fulfilment C. conclusion D. resolution
2. A. thriving B. throbbing C. thwarting D. thrilling
3. A. persevering B. cherishing C. indulging D. persisting
4. A. drop B. cease C. fail D. quit
5. A. commemorate B. reminisce C. resemble D. remind

THE END

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