VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY Student’s Full Name:________________________________

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

Student ID:________________________________________
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS Class Code: _______________________________________

In-Service Program
Instructor: ________________________________________

FINAL EXAMINATION
Course: Reading – Writing B2 (Reading)
Time Allotted: 75 minutes Exam Date: __________
Notes: Materials and dictionaries of all kinds are NOT allowed.
Students write their answers on the answer sheet.

A. VOCABULARY (2 points)

I. Choose the lettered words/phrases to complete the sentences. (1 point)

1. Parents can create a positive or a negative environment for their highly intelligent children. The mother of
six-year-old Hungarian cellist Janos Starker wanted her son to ________ his music practice, so she made
tiny sandwiches ang left them on his music stand. She didn’t want him to have to get up and look for a snack.
A. display B. concentrate on C. focus on D. think about

2. Given the results, we should not be critical of this mother’s methods. Janos Starker’s ________ success as
an international cellist lasted over 50 years, and his is one of the great musical careers of our time.
A. considerable B. great C. expert D. extensive

3. Another musician to ________ exceptional musical promise was pianist Ruth Slezynska. She performed
at a major concert for the first time in 1929 at the age of four.
A. reveal B. display C. utilize D. demonstrate

4. Whereas Starker’s mother encouraged him with tiny sandwiches, Slezinska’s father created _________
of fear. He forced her to practice nine hours every day and hit her when she played a wrong note.
A. a feeling B. an environment C. an atmosphere D. a setting

5. The abnormal ________ was too much for the young girl. At 15 she suffered a major breakdown that
ended her career.
A. isolation B. anxiety C. pressure D. stress

6. Information ________ child safety researchers indicates that many playground designs are unsafe for
children.
A. obtained by B. obtained with C. obtained against D. obtained for

7. Playgrounds are ________ causing over 150,000 accidents each year, most of which are due to design
flaws like inappropriately high structures or unnecessarily hard surfaces.
A. credited for B. credited in C. credited with D. credited to

8. These poorly designed playgrounds exist partly because few places have drafted _______ playground
safety.
A. regulations on B. regulations against
C. regulations with D. regulations from

9. The government tries to ensure that school playgrounds do not violate any of the engineering standards
set for child safety, but it does not give ________ public parks.
A. input in B. input from C. input on D. input for
Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 1 of 7
In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
10. As parents become more concerned about outdoor play equipment that they purchase for their children,
some companies have begun to cover their packaging with _______ explanation about the safety standards
they use to design their products, or, at the very least, a brief list of its safety features.
A. paragraphs at B. paragraphs from C. paragraphs of D. paragraphs to

II. Choose the lettered words/phrases that is closes in meaning to the underlined part in each of the
following sentences. (1 point)

1. A few malls in China pretended to be American amusement parks like Disneyland in an effort to attract
more shoppers.
A. simulated B. indicated C. denoted D. encouraged

2. Constructing an aquarium and an ice skating rink in the hot desert climate presented a special challenge to
architects in the U.A.E.
A. constructed B. posed C. built D. enhanced

3. The megacity is specifically described as a city with a population of more than ten million.
A. declared B. reached C. defined D. determined

4. Sometime around 1940, New York City was the first to reach megacity rank.
A. network B. sources C. status D. globe

5. The artist decides on a subject for the project and then convinces the community and a sponsor that it is a
worthwhile project.
A. topic B. object C. fact D. person

6. In other cases, public art projects are started by communities that want to improve the appearance of their
neighborhoods, for example by using cultural art to celebrate the culture of local residents.
A. rules B. ethnic C. behaviour D. attitude

7. Penfield discovered that gentle electrical stimulation of the brain could produce the recall of images and
sounds from a patient’s memory.
A. induce B. insight C. apply D. refer

8. Although Penfield was interested in mapping both seen and auditory memories, he attached a lot of
significance to the large number and variety of songs in patient’s heads.
A. audio B. visual C. taping D. insight

9. His knowledge related to his theory continued throughout his life. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1921.
A. application B. well-known C. expertise D. lecture

10. One factor that led to his interest in physics sprang from an incident that occurred when he was only five.
His uncle showed him a compass. From then on, Einstein tried to understand physics with great passion.
A. revealed B. persuaded C. pursued D. kept

B. READING COMPREHENSION (8 points)

1. Passage 1

You are going to read an article about the actress Harriet Walter. For questions 1-8, choose the
answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 2 of 7

In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
 Acting minus the drama
Harriet Walter has written a fascinating book about her profession.
Benedicte Page reports.

It is not often that an experienced actor with a high public profile will sit down to answer in depth the
ordinary theatergoer's questions: how do you put together a character which isn’t your own?; what is it like
to perform the same play night after night?; or simply, why do you do it? Harriet Walter was prompted to
write Other People’s Shoes: Thoughts on Acting by a sense that many people’s interest in theater extended
beyond the scope of entertainment chit-chat. ‘I was asked very intelligent, probing questions by people who
weren’t in profession, from taxi drivers to dinner party hosts to people in shopping queues. It made me
realize that people have an interest in what we do which goes beyond show business gossip,’ she says.

Other People’s Shoes avoids insider gossip and, mostly, autobiography: ‘If events in my life had had
a huge direct influence, I would have put them in, but they didn’t,’ Harriet says, though she does explain
how her parents’ divorce was a factor in her career. But the focus of the book is to share - remarkably
Openly - the inside experience of the stage and the rehearsal room, aiming to replace the false sense of
mystery with a more realistic understanding and respect for the profession.

‘There’s a certain double edge to the publicity an actor can get in the newspapers: it gives you
attention but, by giving it to you, simultaneously criticizes you, ‘Harriet says. ‘People ask you to talk about
yourself and then say, “Oh, actors are so self-centered.” And the “sound-bite” variety of journalism, which
touches on many things but never allows you to go into them in depth, leaves you with a sort of shorthand
which reinforces prejudices and myths.’

Harriet’s career began in the 1970s and has included theater performances with the Royal
Shakespeare Company and television and film roles. She writes wittily about the embarrassment of the
rehearsal room, as actor try out their half-formed ideas. And she is at pains to demystify the theater: the
question ‘How do you do the same play every night?’ is answered by a simple comparison with the familiar
car journey to take every day, which presents a slightly different challenge each time. ‘I was trying to get
Everyone to understand it isn’t this extraordinary mystery and you’re not visited by some spiritual
inspiration every night.’

Harriet’s own acting style is to build up a character piece by piece. She says that this process is not
widely understood: ‘There’s no intelligent vocabulary out there for discussing the craft of building
characters. Reviews of an actor’s performance which appear in the newspaper are generally based on
whether the reviewer likes the actors or not. It’s not about whether they are being skilful or not, or how
intelligent their choices are.’

There remains something mysterious about slipping into ‘other people’s shoes’: ‘It’s something like
falling in love,’ Harriet says, ‘When you’re in love with someone, you go in and out of separateness and
togetherness. It’s similar with acting and you can slip in and out of a character. Once a character has been
built, it remains with you, at the end of a phone line, as it were, waiting for your call.’

Harriet includes her early work in Other People’s Shoes - ‘I wanted to separate myself from those
who say, “What an idiot I was, what a load of nonsense we all talked in those days!”, it wasn’t all rubbish,
and it has affected how I approach my work and my audiences.’ And she retains from those days her belief
in the vital role of the theatre.

1. Harriet Walter decided to write her book because she ……

A. was tired of answering people’s questions about acting.
B. knew people liked to read about show business gossip.
C. wanted to entertain people through her writing.
D. wanted to satisfy people’s curiosity about acting in the theatre.

Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 3 of 7

In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
2. In paragraph two, we learn that Harriet’s book aims to ……..
A. correct some of the impressions people have of the theatre.
B. relate important details about her own life story.
C. analyse the difficulties of a career in the theatre.
D. Tell the truth about some of the actors she has worked with.

3. What problem do actors have with newspaper publicity?

A. It never focuses on the actors who deserve it.
B. It often does more harm than good.
C. It never reports what actors have actually said.
D. It often makes mistakes when reporting facts.

4. Harriet uses the example of the car journey to show that ……

A. acting can be boring as well as rewarding.
B. actors do not find it easy to try new ideas.
C. actors do not deserve the praise they receive.
D. acting shares characteristics with other repetitive activities.

5. What does ‘it’ refer to in paragraph four?

A. facing a different challenge
B. taking a familiar car journey
C. acting in the same play every night
D. working with fellow actors

6. Harriet criticizes theatre reviewers because they ……

A. do not give enough recognition to the art of character acting.
B. do not realize that some parts are more difficult to act than others.
C. choose the wrong kinds of plays to review.
D. suggest that certain actors have an easy job.

7. Harriet says that after actors have played a particular character, they …..
A. may be asked to play other similar characters.
B. may become a bit like the character.
C. will never want to play the part again.
D. will never forget how to play the part.

8. What does Harriet say about her early work?

A. It has been a valuable influence on the work she has done since.
B. It was completely different from the kind of work she does now.
C. She finds it embarrassing to recall that period of her life.
D. She is annoyed when people criticize the work she did then.

Passage 2:

Mark each sentence as TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN according to the information in Passage 2

- True: if the statement agrees with the information

- False: If the statement contradicts the information
- Not given: If there is no information on this

Educating Psyche

Educating Psyche by Bernie Neville is a book which looks at radical new approaches to learning,
describing the effects of emotion, imagination and the unconscious on learning. One theory discussed in the
book is that proposed by George Lozanov, which focuses on the power of suggestion.
Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 4 of 7
In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
 Lozanov’s instructional technique is based on the evidence that the connections made in the brain
through unconscious processing (which he calls non-specific mental reactivity) are more durable than those
made through conscious processing. Besides the laboratory evidence for this, we know from our experience
that we often remember what we have perceived peripherally, long after we have forgotten what we set out
to learn. If we think of a book we studied months or years ago, we will find it easier to recall peripheral
details - the colour, the binding, the typeface, the table at the library where we sat while studying it - than the
content on which we were concentrating. If we think of a lecture we listened to with great concentration, we
will recall the lecturer’s appearance and mannerisms, our place in auditorium, the failure of air-conditioning,
much more easily than the ideas we went to learn. Even if these peripheral details are a bit elusive, they
come back readily in hypnosis or when we relive the event imaginatively, as in psychodrama. The details of
the content of the lecture, on the other hand, seem to have gone forever.
This phenomenon can be partly attributed to the common counterproductive approach to study
(making extreme efforts to memo-rise, tensing muscles, inducing fatigue), but it also simply reflects the way
the brain functions. Lozanov therefore made indirect instruction (suggestion) central to his teaching system.
In suggestopedia, as he called his method, consciousness is shifted away from the curriculum to focus on
something peripheral. The curriculum then becomes peripheral and is dealt with by the reserve capacity of
the brain.
The suggestopedic approach to foreign language learning provides a good illustration. In its most
recent variant (1980), it consists of the reading of vocabulary and text while the class is listening to music.
The first session is in two parts. In the first part, the music is classical (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms) and the
teacher reads the text slowly and solemnly, with attention to the dynamics of the music. The students follow
the text in their books. This is followed by several minutes of silence. In the second part, they listen to
baroque music (Bach, Corelli, Handel) while the teacher reads the text in a normal speaking voice. During
this time they have their books closed. During the whole of this session, their attention is passive; they listen
to the music but make no attempt to learn the material.
Beforehand, the students have been carefully prepared for the language learning experience. Through
meeting with the staff and satisfied students they develop the expectation that learning will be easy and
pleasant and that they will successfully learn several hundred words of the foreign language during the class.
In a preliminary talk, the teacher introduces them to the material to be covered, but does not ‘teach’ it.
Likewise, the students are instructed not to try to learn it during this introduction.
Some hours after the two-part session, there is a follow-up class at which the students are stimulated
to recall the material presented. Once again the approach is indirect. The students do not focus their attention
on trying to remember the vocabulary, but focus on using the language to communicate (e.g. through games
or improvised dramatizations). Such methods are not unusual in language teaching. What is distinctive in the
suggestopedic method is that they are devoted entirely to assisting recall. The ‘learning’ of the material is
assumed to be automatic and effortless, accomplished while listening to music. The teacher’s task is to assist
the students to apply what they have learned para-consciously, and in doing so to make it easily accessible to
consciousness. Another difference from conventional teaching is the evidence that students can regularly
learn 1000 new words of a foreign language during a suggestopedic session, as well as grammar and idiom.
Lozanov experimented with teaching by direct suggestion during sleep, hypnosis and trance states,
but found such procedures unnecessary. Hypnosis, yoga, Silva mind-control, religious ceremonies and faith
healing are all associated with successful suggestion, but none of their techniques seem to be essential to it.
Such rituals may be seen as placebos. Lozanov acknowledges that the ritual surrounding suggestion in his
own system is also a placebo, but maintains that without such a placebo people are unable or afraid to tap
the reserve capacity of their brains. Like any placebo, it must be dispensed with authority to be effective.
Just as a doctor calls on the full power of autocratic suggestion by insisting that the patient take precisely
this white capsule precisely three times a day before meals, Lozanov is categoric in insisting that the
suggestopedic session be conducted exactly in the manner designated, by trained and accredited
suggestopedic teachers.
While suggestopedia has gained some notoriety through success in the teaching of modern languages,
few teachers are able to emulate the spectacular results of Lazanov and his associates. We can, perhaps,
attribute mediocre results to an inadequate placebo effect. The students have not developed the appropriate
mind set. They are often not motivated to learn through this method. They do not have enough ‘faith’. They

Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 5 of 7

In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
do not see it as ‘real teaching’, especially as it does not seem to involve the ‘work’ they have learned to
believe is essential to learning.

1. ________ In the example of suggestopedic teaching in the fourth paragraph, the only variable that
changes is the music.

2. ________ Prior to suggestopedia class, students are made aware that the language experience will be
demanding.

3. ________ In the follow-up class, the teaching activities are similar to those used in conventional classes.

4. ________ As an indirect benefit, students notice improvements in their memory.

5. ________ Teacher say they prefer suggestopedia to traditional approaches to language teaching.

6. ________ Students in a suggestopedia class retain more new vocabulary than those in ordinary classes.

2. Passage 3:

Read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap.

SHOPPING MALLS

Victor Gruen, an American architect, revolutionized shopping in the 1950s by creating the type of
shopping center that we now call a shopping mall.
Gruen’s (1) ________ was to provide a pleasant, quiet and spacious shopping environment with
large car parks, which usually (2) ________ building in the suburbs. He also wanted people to be able to
shop in all kinds of weather. He (3) ________ on using building designs that he knew people would feel (4)
________ with, but placed them in landscaped ‘streets’ that were entirely enclosed and often covered with a
curved glass roof. This was done to (5) ________ some of the older shopping arcades of city centers, but
while these housed only small speciality shops, Gruen’s shopping mall were on a much grander (6)
________.
Access to the whole shopping mall was gained by using the main doors, which (7) ________ the
shopping ‘streets’ from the parking (8) ________ outside. As there was no need to (9) ________ out bad
weather, shops no longer needed windows and doors, and people could wander (10) ________ from shop to
shop. In many cities, shopping malls now contain much more than just shops; cinemas, restaurants and other
forms of entertainment are also growing in popularity.
1. A. direction B. aim C. search D. view
2. A. resulted B. sought C. intended D. meant
3. A. insisted B. demanded C. requested D. emphasized
4. A. favourable B. agreeable C. comfortable D. enviable
5. A. model B. imitate C. repeat D. shadow
6. A. measure B. height C. size D. scale
7. A. disconnected B. withdrew C. separated D. parted
8. A. strips B. lines C. areas D. plots
9. A. hold B. get C. stay D. keep
10. A. freely B. loosely C. simply D. entirely

Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 6 of 7

In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
 ANSWER KEYS
A. VOCABULARY (2 points)
I.
1A 2C 3C 4A 5A 6A 7C 8A 9C 10C
II.
1A 2B 3C 4C 5A 6B 7A 8B 9C 10C

B. READING COMPREHENSION
1. Passage 1:
1D 2A 3B 4D 5C 6A 7D 8A
2. Passage 2:
1 FALSE 2 FALSE 3 TRUE 4 NOT GIVEN 5 NOT GIVEN 6 TRUE
3. Passage 3:
1B 2D 3A 4C 5B 6D 7C 8C 9D 10A

*** SOURCES
A. VOCABULARY (2 points)
In textbook - Unit 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8
B. READING COMPREHENSION (8 points)
1. Passage 1: Cambridge FCE 3 - Test 4, Paper 1, Part 1, trang 74
2. Passage 2: Cambridge IELTS 7 - Test 1 - Passage 3, trang 26
3. Passage 3: Cambridge FCE 1 - Test 4 - Paper 3 - Part 1, trang 82

Final – Reading – Writing B2/Reading – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 7 of 7

In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-R.[month.year]
 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY Student’s Full Name:________________________________
UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
Student ID:________________________________________
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS Class Code: _______________________________________

In-Service Program
Instructor: ________________________________________

FINAL EXAMINATION
Course: Reading – Writing B2 (Writing)
Time Allotted: 60 minutes Exam Date: __________

Approved by Proctors
Examiner(s) Score
(CBCT)

1. 1. In figures:

2. 2. In words:

Notes: Materials and dictionaries of all kinds are NOT allowed.

Students write their answers on the answer sheet.

Choose one of the following topics to write a short essay of 300-400 words about it.

1. Describe a favorite building or a kind of architecture. Why do you like it? What effect does it have
on you?
2. Compare or contrast shopping at stores and shopping online.
3. Discuss how graduating from college changed my life.
4. Classify different college courses that are available to students.

ANSWER SHEET
_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Final – Reading – Writing B2/Writing – [June/2021-BICHHONG] Page 1 of 2
In-Service Program – IS.RWB2-W.[month.year]