IELTS Reading Sample Test

IELTS Reading Sample Test
Tổng hợp đề thi thử IELTS Reading miễn phí
Đề thi số 1
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Aphantasia: A life without mental images
Close your eyes and imagine walking along a sandy beach and then gazing over the horizon as the
Sun rises. How clear is the image that springs to mind?
Most people can readily conjure images inside their head - known as their mind's eye. But this year
scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualize mental
images.
Niel Kenmuir, from Lancaster, has always had a blind mind's eye. He knew he was different even in
childhood. "My stepfather, when I couldn't sleep, told me to count sheep, and he explained what he
meant, I tried to do it and I couldn't," he says. "I couldn't see any sheep jumping over fences, there was
nothing to count."
Our memories are often tied up in images, think back to a wedding or first day at school. As a result, Niel
admits, some aspects of his memory are "terrible", but he is very good at remembering facts. And, like
others with aphantasia, he struggles to recognise faces. Yet he does not see aphantasia as a disability, but
simply a different way of experiencing life.
Mind's eye blind

Ironically, Niel now works in a bookshop, although he largely sticks to the non-fiction aisles. His
condition begs the question what is going on inside his picture-less mind. I asked him what happens when
he tries to picture his fiancee. "This is the hardest thing to describe, what happens in my head when I
think about things," he says. "When I think about my fiance there is no image, but I am definitely thinking
about her, I know today she has her hair up at the back, she's brunette. But I'm not describing an image I
am looking at, I'm remembering features about her, that's the strangest thing and maybe that is a source of
some regret."
The response from his mates is very sympathetic: "You're weird." But while Niel is very relaxed about his
inability to picture things, it is often a cause of distress for others. One person who took part in a study
into aphantasia said he had started to feel "isolated" and "alone" after discovering that other people could
see images in their heads. Being unable to reminisce about his mother years after her death led to him
being "extremely distraught".
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The super-visualiser
At the other end of the spectrum is children's book illustrator, Lauren Beard, whose work on the Fairytale
Hairdresser series will be familiar to many six-year-olds. Her career relies on the vivid images that leap
into her mind's eye when she reads text from her author. When I met her in her box-room studio in
Manchester, she was working on a dramatic scene in the next book. The text describes a baby perilously
climbing onto a chandelier.
"Straightaway I can visualize this grand glass chandelier in some sort of French kind of ballroom, and the
little baby just swinging off it and really heavy thick curtains," she says. "I think I have a strong
imagination, so I can create the world and then keep adding to it so it gets sort of bigger and bigger in my
mind and the characters too they sort of evolve. I couldn't really imagine what it's like to not imagine, I
think it must be a bit of a shame really."
Not many people have mental imagery as vibrant as Lauren or as blank as Niel. They are the two
extremes of visualization. Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioral neurology, wants to
compare the lives and experiences of people with aphantasia and its polar-opposite hyperphantasia. His
team, based at the University of Exeter, coined the term aphantasia this year in a study in the journal
Cortex.
Prof Zeman tells the BBC: "People who have contacted us say they are really delighted that this has been
recognised and has been given a name, because they have been trying to explain to people for years that
there is this oddity that they find hard to convey to others." How we imagine is clearly very subjective -
one person's vivid scene could be another's grainy picture. But Prof Zeman is certain that aphantasia is
real. People often report being able to dream in pictures, and there have been reported cases of people
losing the ability to think in images after a brain injury.
He is adamant that aphantasia is "not a disorder" and says it may affect up to one in 50 people. But he
adds: "I think it makes quite an important difference to their experience of life because many of us spend
our lives with imagery hovering somewhere in the mind's eye which we inspect from time to time, it's a
variability of human experience."
Questions 1–5
Do the following statements agree with the information in the IELTS reading text?
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1. Aphantasia is a condition, which describes people, for whom it is hard to visualize mental images.
2. Niel Kenmuir was unable to count sheep in his head.
3. People with aphantasia struggle to remember personal traits and clothes of different people.
4. Niel regrets that he cannot portray an image of his fiancee in his mind.
5. Inability to picture things in someone's head is often a cause of distress for a person.
6. All people with aphantasia start to feel 'isolated' or 'alone' at some point of their lives.
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7. Lauren Beard's career depends on her imagination.
8. The author met Lauren Beard when she was working on a comedy scene in her next book.
Questions 9–13
Complete the sentences below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
9. Only a small fraction of people have imagination as Lauren does.
10. Hyperphantasia is to aphantasia.
11.There is a lot of subjectivity in comparing people's imagination - somebody's vivid scene could be
another person's .
12. Prof Zeman is that aphantasia is not an illness.
13. Many people spend their lives with somewhere in the mind's eye.
READING PASSAGE 2
Life lessons from villains, crooks and gangsters
(A) A notorious Mexican drug baron’s audacious escape from prison in July doesn’t, at first, appear to
have much to teach corporate boards. But some in the business world suggest otherwise. Beyond the
morally reprehensible side of criminals' work, some business gurus say organized crime syndicates,
computer hackers, pirates and others operating outside the law could teach legitimate corporations a thing
or two about how to hustle and respond to rapid change.
(B) Far from encouraging illegality, these gurus argue that – in the same way big corporations sometimes
emulate start-ups – business leaders could learn from the underworld about flexibility, innovation and the
ability to pivot quickly. “There is a nimbleness to criminal organizations that legacy corporations [with
large, complex layers of management] don’t have,” said Marc Goodman, head of the Future Crimes
Institute and global cyber-crime advisor. While traditional businesses focus on rules they have to follow,
criminals look to circumvent them. “For criminals, the sky is the limit and that creates the opportunity to
think much, much bigger.”
(C) Joaquin Guzman, the head of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, for instance, slipped out of his prison
cell through a tiny hole in his shower that led to a mile-long tunnel fitted with lights and ventilation.
Making a break for it required creative thinking, long-term planning and perseverance – essential skills
similar to those needed to achieve success in big business.
(D) While Devin Liddell, who heads brand strategy for Seattle-based design consultancy, Teague,
condemns the violence and other illegal activities he became curious as to how criminal groups endure.
Some cartels stay in business despite multiple efforts by law enforcement on both sides of the US border
and millions of dollars from international agencies to shut them down. Liddell genuinely believes there’s
a lesson in longevity here. One strategy he underlined was how the bad guys respond to change. In order
to bypass the border between Mexico and the US, for example, the Sinaloa cartel went to great lengths. It
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built a vast underground tunnel, hired family members as border agents and even used a catapult to
circumvent a high-tech fence.
(E) By contrast, many legitimate businesses fail because they hesitate to adapt quickly to changing market
winds. One high-profile example is movie and game rental company Blockbuster, which didn’t keep up
with the market and lost business to mail order video rentals and streaming technologies. The brand has
all but faded from view. Liddell argues the difference between the two groups is that criminal
organisations often have improvisation encoded into their daily behaviour, while larger companies think
of innovation as a set process. “This is a leadership challenge,” said Liddell. “How well companies
innovate and organise is a reflection of leadership.”
Left-field thinking
(F) Cash-strapped start-ups also use unorthodox strategies to problem solve and build their businesses up
from scratch. This creativity and innovation is often borne out of necessity, such as tight budgets. Both
criminals and start-up founders “question authority, act outside the system and see new and clever ways of
doing things,” said Goodman. “Either they become Elon Musk or El Chapo.” And, some entrepreneurs
aren’t even afraid to operate in legal grey areas in their effort to disrupt the marketplace. The co-founders
of music streaming service Napster, for example, knowingly broke music copyright rules with their first
online file sharing service, but their technology paved the way for legal innovation as regulators caught
up.
(G) Goodman and others believe thinking hard about problem solving before worrying about restrictions
could prevent established companies falling victim to rivals less constrained by tradition. In their book
The Misfit Economy, Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips examine how individuals can apply that
mindset to become more innovative and entrepreneurial within corporate structures. They studied not just
violent criminals like Somali pirates, but others who break the rules in order to find creative solutions to
their business problems, such as people living in the slums of Mumbai or computer hackers. They picked
out five common traits among this group: the ability to hustle, pivot, provoke, hack and copycat.
(H) Clay gives a Saudi entrepreneur named Walid Abdul-Wahab as a prime example. Abdul-Wahab
worked with Amish farmers to bring camel milk to American consumers even before US regulators
approved it. Through perseverance, he eventually found a network of Amish camel milk farmers and
started selling the product via social media. Now his company, Desert Farms, sells to giant mainstream
retailers like Whole Foods Market. Those on the fringe don’t always have the option of traditional,
corporate jobs and that forces them to think more creatively about how to make a living, Clay said. They
must develop grit and resilience in order to last outside the cushy confines of cubicle life. “In many cases
scarcity is the mother of invention,” Clay said.
Questions 14-21
Reading Passage 2 has eight paragraphs A-H. Match the headings below with the paragraphs. Write the
correct letter, A-H, in boxes 14-21 on your answer sheet.
14. Jailbreak with creative thinking
15. Five common traits among rule-breakers
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16. Comparison between criminals and traditional businessmen
17. Can drug baron's escape teach legitimate corporations?
18. Great entrepreneur
19. How criminal groups deceive the law
20. The difference between legal and illegal organisations
21. Similarity between criminals and start-up founders
Questions 22–25
Write ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 22–25 on your answer sheet.
22. To escape from a prison, Joaquin Guzman had to use such traits as creative thinking, long-term
planning and .
23. The Sinaloa cartel built a grand underground tunnel and even used a to avoid the fence.
24. The main difference between two groups is that criminals, unlike large corporations, often have
encoded into their daily life.
25. Due to being persuasive, Walid Abdul-Wahab found a of Amish camel milk farmers.
Question 26
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
26. The main goal of this article is to:
A Show different ways of illegal activity
B Give an overview of various criminals and their gangs
C Draw a comparison between legal and illegal business, providing examples
D Justify criminals with creative thinking
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READING PASSAGE 3
Britain needs strong TV industry

Comedy writer Armando Iannucci has called for an industry-wide defence of the BBC and British
programme-makers. "The Thick of It" creator made his remarks in the annual MacTaggart Lecture at the
Edinburgh TV Festival.
"It's more important than ever that we have more strong, popular channels... that act as beacons, drawing
audiences to the best content," he said. Speaking earlier, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale rejected
suggestions that he wanted to dismantle the BBC.
'Champion supporters'
Iannucci co-wrote "I'm Alan Partridge", wrote the movie "In the Loop" and created and wrote the hit
"HBO" and "Sky Atlantic show Veep". He delivered the 40th annual MacTaggart Lecture, which has
previously been given by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, former BBC director general Greg Dyke, Jeremy
Paxman and Rupert Murdoch. Iannucci said: "Faced with a global audience, British television needs its
champion supporters."
He continued his praise for British programming by saying the global success of American TV shows had
come about because they were emulating British television. "The best US shows are modelling
themselves on what used to make British TV so world-beating," he said. "US prime-time schedules are
now littered with those quirky formats from the UK - the "Who Do You Think You Are"'s and the variants
on "Strictly Come Dancing" - as well as the single-camera non-audience sitcom, which we brought into
the mainstream first. We have changed international viewing for the better."
With the renewal of the BBC's royal charter approaching, Iannucci also praised the corporation. He said:
"If public service broadcasting - one of the best things we've ever done creatively as a country - if it was a
car industry, our ministers would be out championing it overseas, trying to win contracts, boasting of the
British jobs that would bring." In July, the government issued a green paper setting out issues that will be
explored during negotiations over the future of the BBC, including the broadcaster's size, its funding and
governance.
Primarily Mr Whittingdale wanted to appoint a panel of five people, but finally he invited two more
people to advise on the channer renewal, namely former Channel 4 boss Dawn Airey and journalism
professor Stewart Purvis, a former editor-in-chief of ITN. Iannucci bemoaned the lack of "creatives"
involved in the discussions.
"When the media, communications and information industries make up nearly 8% our GDP, larger than
the car and oil and gas industries put together, we need to be heard, as those industries are heard. But
when I see the panel of experts who've been asked by the culture secretary to take a root and branch look
at the BBC, I don't see anyone who is a part of that cast and crew list. I see executives, media owners,
industry gurus, all talented people - but not a single person who's made a classic and enduring television
show."
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'Don't be modest'
Iannucci suggested one way of easing the strain on the licence fee was "by pushing ourselves more
commercially abroad".
"Use the BBC's name, one of the most recognised brands in the world," he said. "And use the reputation
of British television across all networks, to capitalise financially overseas. Be more aggressive in selling
our shows, through advertising, through proper international subscription channels, freeing up BBC
Worldwide to be fully commercial, whatever it takes.
"Frankly, don't be icky and modest about making money, let's monetise the bezeesus Mary and Joseph out
of our programmes abroad so that money can come back, take some pressure off the licence fee at home
and be invested in even more ambitious quality shows, that can only add to our value."
Mr Whittingdale, who was interviewed by ITV News' Alastair Stewart at the festival, said he wanted an
open debate about whether the corporation should do everything it has done in the past. He said he had a
slight sense that people who rushed to defend the BBC were "trying to have an argument that's never been
started".
"Whatever my view is, I don't determine what programmes the BBC should show," he added. "That's the
job of the BBC." Mr Whittingdale said any speculation that the Conservative Party had always wanted to
change the BBC due to issues such as its editorial line was "absolute nonsense".
Questions 27-31
In boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet, write
27. Armando Iannucci expressed a need of having more popular channels.
28. John Whittingdale wanted to dismantle the BBC.
29. Iannucci delivered the 30th annual MacTaggart Lecture.
30. Ianucci believes that British television has contributed to the success of American TV-shows.
31. There have been negotiations over the future of the BBC in July.
Questions 32–35
Write the correct letter in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.
32. Ianucci praised everything EXCEPT
A US shows
B British shows
C Corporation
D British programming
33. To advise on the charter renewal Mr Whittingdale appointed a panel of
A five people
B two people
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C seven people
D four people
34. Who of these people was NOT invited to the discussion concerning BBC renewal?
A Armando Iannucci
B Dawn Airey
C John Whittingdale
D Stewart Purvis
35. There panel of experts lacks:
A media owners
B people who make enduring TV-shows
C gurus of Television industry
D top executives
Questions 36–40
Complete the summary below.
Easing the strain on the licence fees
Iannucci recommended increasing BBC's profit by pushing ourselves more 36……… . He suggests being
more aggressive in selling British shows, through advertising and proper international 37……... Also, he
invokes producers to stop being 38……... and modest about making money and invest into even
39……... quality shows. However, Mr Whittingdale denied any 40………... that the Conservative Party
had always wanted to change the BBC because of its editorial line.
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Đề thi số 2
READING PASSAGE 1
Sea monsters are the stuff of legend - lurking not just in the depths of the oceans, but also the
darker corners of our minds. What is it that draws us to these creatures?
"This inhuman place makes human monsters," wrote Stephen King in his novel The Shining. Many
academics agree that monsters lurk in the deepest recesses, they prowl through our ancestral minds
appearing in the half-light, under the bed - or at the bottom of the sea.
"They don't really exist, but they play a huge role in our mindscapes, in our dreams, stories,
nightmares, myths and so on," says Matthias Classen, assistant professor of literature and media at Aarhus
University in Denmark, who studies monsters in literature. "Monsters say something about human
psychology, not the world."
One Norse legend talks of the Kraken, a deep sea creature that was the curse of fishermen. If sailors
found a place with many fish, most likely it was the monster that was driving them to the surface. If it saw
the ship it would pluck the hapless sailors from the boat and drag them to a watery grave.
This terrifying legend occupied the mind and pen of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson too. In his short
1830 poem The Kraken he wrote: "Below the thunders of the upper deep, / Far far beneath in the abysmal
sea, / His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep / The Kraken sleepeth."
The deeper we travel into the ocean, the deeper we delve into our own psyche. And when we can go no
further - there lurks the Kraken.
Most likely the Kraken is based on a real creature - the giant squid. The huge mollusc takes pride of
place as the personification of the terrors of the deep sea. Sailors would have encountered it at the surface,
dying, and probably thrashing about. It would have made a weird sight, "about the most alien thing you
can imagine," says Edith Widder, CEO at the Ocean Research and Conservation Association.
"It has eight lashing arms and two slashing tentacles growing straight out of its head and it's got
serrated suckers that can latch on to the slimiest of prey and it's got a parrot beak that can rip flesh. It's got
an eye the size of your head, it's got a jet propulsion system and three hearts that pump blue blood."
The giant squid continued to dominate stories of sea monsters with the famous 1870 novel, Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne. Verne's submarine fantasy is a classic story of puny
man against a gigantic squid.
The monster needed no embellishment - this creature was scary enough, and Verne incorporated as
much fact as possible into the story, says Emily Alder from Edinburgh Napier University. "Twenty
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Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and another contemporaneous book, Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea,
both tried to represent the giant squid as they might have been actual zoological animals, much more
taking the squid as a biological creature than a mythical creature." It was a given that the squid was
vicious and would readily attack humans given the chance.
That myth wasn't busted until 2012, when Edith Widder and her colleagues were the first people to
successfully film giant squid underwater and see first-hand the true character of the monster of the deep.
They realised previous attempts to film squid had failed because the bright lights and noisy thrusters on
submersibles had frightened them away.
By quietening down the engines and using bioluminescence to attract it, they managed to see this most
extraordinary animal in its natural habitat. It serenely glided into view, its body rippled with metallic
colours of bronze and silver. Its huge, intelligent eye watched the submarine warily as it delicately picked
at the bait with its beak. It was balletic and mesmeric. It could not have been further from the gnashing,
human-destroying creature of myth and literature. In reality this is a gentle giant that is easily scared and
pecks at its food.
Another giant squid lies peacefully in the Natural History Museum in London, in the Spirit Room,
where it is preserved in a huge glass case. In 2004 it was caught in a fishing net off the Falkland Islands
and died at the surface. The crew immediately froze its body and it was sent to be preserved in the
museum by the Curator of Molluscs, Jon Ablett. It is called Archie, an affectionate short version of its
Latin name Architeuthis dux. It is the longest preserved specimen of a giant squid in the world.
"It really has brought science to life for many people," says Ablett. "Sometimes I feel a bit
overshadowed by Archie, most of my work is on slugs and snails but unfortunately most people don't
want to talk about that!"
And so today we can watch Archie's graceful relative on film and stare Archie herself (she is a female)
eye-to-eye in a museum. But have we finally slain the monster of the deep? Now we know there is
nothing to be afraid of, can the Kraken finally be laid to rest? Probably not says Classen. "We humans are
afraid of the strangest things. They don't need to be realistic. There's no indication that enlightenment and
scientific progress has banished the monsters from the shadows of our imaginations. We will continue to
be afraid of very strange things, including probably sea monsters."
Indeed we are. The Kraken made a fearsome appearance in the blockbuster series Pirates of the
Caribbean. It forced Captain Jack Sparrow to face his demons in a terrifying face-to-face encounter.
Pirates needed the monstrous Kraken, nothing else would do. Or, as the German film director Werner
Herzog put it, "What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep
without dreams."
Questions 1–7
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
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1. Matthias Classen is unsure about the possibility of monster's existence.
2. Kraken is probably based on an imaginary animal.
3. Previous attempts on filming the squid had failed due to the fact that the creature was scared.
4. Giant squid was caught alive in 2004 and brought to the museum.
5. Jon Ablett admits that he likes Archie.
6. According to Classen, people can be scared both by imaginary and real monsters.
7. Werner Herzog suggests that Kraken is essential to the ocean.
Questions 8–12
Write the correct letter in boxes 8–12 on your answer sheet.
8. Who wrote a novel about a giant squid?
A. Emily Alder
B. Stephen King
C. Alfred Lord Tennyson
D. Jules Verne
9. What of the featuring body parts, mollusc DOESN'T have?
A. two tentacles
B. serrated suckers
C. beak
D. smooth suckers
10. Which of the following applies to the bookish Kraken?
A. notorious
B. scary
C. weird
D. harmless
11. Where can we see a giant squid?
A. at the museum
B. at a seaside
C. on TV
D. in supermarkets
12. The main purpose of the text is to:
A. help us to understand more about both mythical and biological creatures of the deep
B. illustrate the difference between Kraken and squid
C. shed the light on the mythical creatures of the ocean
D. compare Kraken to its real relative
Questions 13–16
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
13. According to the Victor Hugo's novel, the squid would if he had such opportunity.
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14. The real squid appeared to be and .
15. Archie must be the of its kind on Earth.
16. We are able to encounter the Kraken's in a movie franchise.
READING PASSAGE 2
The atom bomb was one of the defining inventions of the 20th Century. So how did science fiction
writer HG Wells predict its invention three decades before the first detonations?
(A) Imagine you're the greatest fantasy writer of your age. One day you dream up the idea of a bomb
of infinite power. You call it the "atomic bomb". HG Wells first imagined a uranium-based hand grenade
that "would continue to explode indefinitely" in his 1914 novel The World Set Free. He even thought it
would be dropped from planes. What he couldn't predict was how a strange conjunction of his friends and
acquaintances - notably Winston Churchill, who'd read all Wells's novels twice, and the physicist Leo
Szilard - would turn the idea from fantasy to reality, leaving them deeply tormented by the scale of
destructive power that it unleashed.
(B) The story of the atom bomb starts in the Edwardian age, when scientists such as Ernest Rutherford
were grappling with a new way of conceiving the physical world. The idea was that solid elements might
be made up of tiny particles in atoms. "When it became apparent that the Rutherford atom had a dense
nucleus, there was a sense that it was like a coiled spring," says Andrew Nahum, curator of the Science
Museum's Churchill's Scientists exhibition. Wells was fascinated with the new discoveries. He had a track
record of predicting technological innovations. Winston Churchill credited Wells for coming up with the
idea of using aeroplanes and tanks in combat ahead of World War One.
(C) The two men met and discussed ideas over the decades, especially as Churchill, a highly popular
writer himself, spent the interwar years out of political power, contemplating the rising instability of
Europe. Churchill grasped the danger of technology running ahead of human maturity, penning a 1924
article in the Pall Mall Gazette called "Shall we all commit suicide?". In the article, Churchill wrote:
"Might a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of
buildings - nay to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke?"
This idea of the orange-sized bomb is credited by Graham Farmelo, author of Churchill's Bomb, directly
to the imagery of The World Set Free.
(D) By 1932 British scientists had succeeded in splitting the atom for the first time by artificial means,
although some believed it couldn't produce huge amounts of energy. But the same year the Hungarian
emigre physicist Leo Szilard read The World Set Free. Szilard believed that the splitting of the atom could
produce vast energy. He later wrote that Wells showed him "what the liberation of atomic energy on a
large scale would mean". Szilard suddenly came up with the answer in September 1933 - the chain
reaction - while watching the traffic lights turn green in Russell Square in London. He wrote: "It suddenly
occurred to me that if we could find an element which is split by neutrons and which would emit two
neutrons when it absorbed one neutron, such an element, if assembled in sufficiently large mass, could
sustain a nuclear chain reaction."
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(E) In that eureka moment, Szilard also felt great fear - of how a bustling city like London and all its
inhabitants could be destroyed in an instant as he reflected in his memoir published in 1968:
"Knowing what it would mean - and I knew because I had read HG Wells - I did not want this patent to
become public." The Nazis were on the rise and Szilard was deeply anxious about who else might be
working on the chain reaction theory and an atomic Bomb. Wells's novel Things To Come, turned into a
1936 film, The Shape of Things to Come, accurately predicted aerial bombardment and an imminent
devastating world war. In 1939 Szilard drafted the letter Albert Einstein sent to President Roosevelt
warning America that Germany was stockpiling uranium. The Manhattan Project was born.
(F) Szilard and several British scientists worked on it with the US military's massive financial backing.
Britons and Americans worked alongside each other in "silos" - each team unaware of how their work
fitted together. They ended up moving on from the original enriched uranium "gun" method, which had
been conceived in Britain, to create a plutonium implosion weapon instead. Szilard campaigned for a
demonstration bomb test in front of the Japanese ambassador to give them a chance to surrender. He was
horrified that it was instead dropped on a city. In 1945 Churchill was beaten in the general election and in
another shock, the US government passed the 1946 McMahon Act, shutting Britain out of access to the
atomic technology it had helped create. William Penney, one of the returning Los Alamos physicists, led
the team charged by Prime Minister Clement Atlee with somehow putting together their individual pieces
of the puzzle to create a British bomb on a fraction of the American budget.
(G) "It was a huge intellectual feat," Andrew Nahum observes. "Essentially they reworked the
calculations that they'd been doing in Los Alamos. They had the services of Klaus Fuchs, who [later]
turned out to be an atom spy passing information to the Soviet Union, but he also had a phenomenal
memory." Another British physicist, Patrick Blackett, who discussed the Bomb after the war with a
German scientist in captivity, observed that there were no real secrets. According to Nahum he said: "It's a
bit like making an omelette. Not everyone can make a good one."When Churchill was re-elected in 1951
he "found an almost complete weapon ready to test and was puzzled and fascinated by how Atlee had
buried the costs in the budget", says Nahum. "He was very conflicted about whether to go ahead with the
test and wrote about whether we should have 'the art and not the article'. Meaning should it be enough to
have the capability… [rather] than to have a dangerous weapon in the armoury."
(H) Churchill was convinced to go ahead with the test, but the much more powerful hydrogen bomb
developed three years later worried him greatly.HG Wells died in 1946. He had been working on a film
sequel to The Shape of Things To Come that was to include his concerns about the now-realised atomic
bomb he'd first imagined. But it was never made. Towards the end of his life, says Nahum, Wells's
friendship with Churchill "cooled a little". "Wells considered Churchill as an enlightened but tarnished
member of the ruling classes." And Churchill had little time for Wells's increasingly fanciful socialist
utopian ideas.
(I) Wells believed technocrats and scientists would ultimately run a peaceful new world order like in
The Shape of Things To Come, even if global war destroyed the world as we knew it first. Churchill, a
former soldier, believed in the lessons of history and saw diplomacy as the only way to keep mankind
from self-destruction in the atomic age. Wells's scientist acquaintance Leo Szilard stayed in America and
campaigned for civilian control of atomic energy, equally pessimistic about Wells's idea of a bold new
13
scientist-led world order. If anything Szilard was tormented by the power he had helped unleash. In 1950,
he predicted a cobalt bomb that would destroy all life on the planet. In Britain, the legacy of the Bomb
was a remarkable period of elite scientific innovation as the many scientists who had worked on
weaponry or radar returned to their civilian labs. They gave us the first commercial jet airliner, the Comet,
near-supersonic aircraft and rockets, highly engineered computers, and the Jodrell Bank giant moveable
radio telescope.
(J) The latter had nearly ended the career of its champion, physicist Bernard Lovell, with its huge
costs, until the 1957 launch of Sputnik, when it emerged that Jodrell Bank had the only device in the West
that could track it. Nahum says Lovell reflected that "during the war the question was never what will
something cost. The question was only can you do it and how soon can we have it? And that was the spirit
he took into his peacetime science." Austerity and the tiny size of the British market, compared with
America, were to scupper those dreams. But though the Bomb created a new terror, for a few years at
least, Britain saw a vision of a benign atomic future, too and believed it could be the shape of things to
come.
Questions 17–25
Reading Passage 2 has ten paragraphs, A–J.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A–J, in boxes 17–25 on your answer sheet. Note that one paragraph is not used.
17. Scientific success
18. Worsening relations
19. The dawn of the new project
20. Churchill's confusion
21. Different perspectives
22. Horrifying prediction
23. Leaving Britain behind the project
24. Long-term discussion
25. New idea
Questions 26–27
26. How can you describe the relations between Churchill and Wells throughout the years?
A. passionate → friendly → adverse
B. curious → friendly
C. respectful → friendly → inhospitable
D. friendly → respectful → hostile
27. What is the type of this text?
A. science-fiction story
B. article from the magazine
C. historical text
D. Wells autobiography
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READING PASSAGE 3
As More Tech Start-Ups Stay Private, So Does the Money
Not long ago, if you were a young, brash technologist with a world-conquering start-up idea, there was
a good chance you spent much of your waking life working toward a single business milestone: taking
your company public.
Though luminaries of the tech industry have always expressed skepticism and even hostility toward the
finance industry, tech’s dirty secret was that it looked to Wall Street and the ritual of a public offering for
affirmation — not to mention wealth.
But something strange has happened in the last couple of years: The initial public offering of stock has
become déclassé. For start-up entrepreneurs and their employees across Silicon Valley, an initial public
offering is no longer a main goal. Instead, many founders talk about going public as a necessary evil to be
postponed as long as possible because it comes with more problems than benefits.
“If you can get $200 million from private sources, then yeah, I don’t want my company under the
scrutiny of the unwashed masses who don’t understand my business,” said Danielle Morrill, the chief
executive of Mattermark, a start-up that organizes and sells information about the start-up market. “That’s
actually terrifying to me.
Silicon Valley’s sudden distaste for the I.P.O. — rooted in part in Wall Street’s skepticism of new tech
stocks — may be the single most important psychological shift underlying the current tech boom. Staying
private affords start-up executives the luxury of not worrying what outsiders think and helps them avoid
the quarterly earnings treadmill.
It also means Wall Street is doing what it failed to do in the last tech boom: using traditional metrics
like growth and profitability to price companies. Investors have been tough on Twitter, for example,
because its user growth has slowed. They have been tough on Box, the cloud-storage company that went
public last year, because it remains unprofitable. And the e-commerce company Zulily, which went public
last year, was likewise punished when it cut its guidance for future sales.
Scott Kupor, the managing partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and his colleagues
said in a recent report that despite all the attention start-ups have received in recent years, tech stocks are
not seeing unusually high valuations. In fact, their share of the overall market has remained stable for 14
years, and far off the peak of the late 1990s.
That unwillingness to cut much slack to young tech companies limits risk for regular investors. If the
bubble pops, the unwashed masses, if that’s what we are, aren’t as likely to get washed out.
Private investors, on the other hand, are making big bets on so-called unicorns — the Silicon Valley
jargon for start-up companies valued at more than a billion dollars. If many of those unicorns flop, most
15
Americans will escape unharmed, because losses will be confined to venture capitalists and hedge funds
that have begun to buy into tech start-ups, as well as tech founders and their employees.
The reluctance — and sometimes inability — to go public is spurring the unicorns. By relying on
private investors for a longer period of time, start-ups get more runway to figure out sustainable business
models. To delay their entrance into the public markets, firms like Airbnb, Dropbox, Palantir, Pinterest,
Uber and several other large start-ups are raising hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, that
they would otherwise have gained through an initial public offering.
“These companies are going public, just in the private market,” Dan Levitan, the managing partner of
the venture capital firm Maveron, told me recently. He means that in many cases, hedge funds and other
global investors that would have bought shares in these firms after an I.P.O. are deciding to go into
late-stage private rounds. There is even an oxymoronic term for the act of obtaining private money in
place of a public offering: It’s called a “private I.P.O.”
The delay in I.P.O.s has altered how some venture capital firms do business. Rather than waiting for an
initial offering, Maveron, for instance, says it now sells its stake in a start-up to other, larger private
investors once it has made about 100 times its initial investment. It is the sort of return that once was only
possible after an I.P.O.
But there is also a downside to the new aversion to initial offerings. When the unicorns do eventually
go public and begin to soar — or whatever it is that fantastical horned beasts tend to do when they’re
healthy — the biggest winners will be the private investors that are now bearing most of the risk.
It used to be that public investors who got in on the ground floor of an initial offering could earn
historic gains. If you invested $1,000 in Amazon at its I.P.O. in 1997, you would now have nearly
$250,000. If you had invested $1,000 in Microsoft in 1986, you would have close to half a million. Public
investors today are unlikely to get anywhere near such gains from tech I.P.O.s. By the time tech
companies come to the market, the biggest gains have already been extracted by private backers.
Just 53 technology companies went public in 2014, which is around the median since 1980, but far
fewer than during the boom of the late 1990s and 2000, when hundreds of tech companies went public
annually, according to statistics maintained by Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of
Florida. Today’s companies are also waiting longer. In 2014, the typical tech company hitting the markets
was 11 years old, compared with a median age of seven years for tech I.P.O.s since 1980.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked several founders and investors why they’re waiting; few were
willing to speak on the record about their own companies, but their answers all amounted to “What’s the
point?”
Initial public offerings were also ways to compensate employees and founders who owned lots of
stock, but there are now novel mechanisms — such as selling shares on a secondary market — for
insiders to cash in on some of their shares in private companies. Still, some observers cautioned that the
16
new trend may be a bad deal for employees who aren’t given much information about the company’s
performance.
“One thing employees may be confused about is when companies tell them, ‘We’re basically doing a
private I.P.O.,’ it might make them feel like there’s less risk than there really is,” said Ms. Morrill of
Mattermark. But she said it was hard to persuade people that their paper gains may never materialize.
“The Kool-Aid is really strong,” she said.
If the delay in I.P.O.s becomes a normal condition for Silicon Valley, some observers say tech
companies may need to consider new forms of compensation for workers. “We probably need to
fundamentally rethink how do private companies compensate employees, because that’s going to be an
issue,” said Mr. Kupor, of Andreessen Horowitz.
During a recent presentation for Andreessen Horowitz’s limited partners — the institutions that give
money to the venture firm — Marc Andreessen, the firm’s co-founder, told the journalist Dan Primack
that he had never seen a sharper divergence in how investors treat public- and private-company chief
executives. “They tell the public C.E.O., ‘Give us the money back this quarter,’ and they tell the private
C.E.O., ‘No problem, go for 10 years,’ ” Mr. Andreessen said.
At some point this tension will be resolved. “Private valuations will not forever be higher than public
valuations,” said Mr. Levitan, of Maveron. “So the question is, Will private markets capitulate and go
down or will public markets go up?”
If the private investors are wrong, employees, founders and a lot of hedge funds could be in for a
reckoning. But if they’re right, it will be you and me wearing the frown — the public investors who
missed out on the next big thing.
Questions 28–31
28. How much funds would you gain by now, if you had invested 1000$ in the Amazon in 1997?
A. 250,000$
B. close to 500,000$
C. It is not stated in the text
D. No funds
29. Nowadays founders talk about going public as a:
A. necessity.
B. benefit.
C. possibility.
D. profit.
30. In which time period was the biggest number of companies going public?
A. early 1990s
B. late 1900s and 2000s
C. 1980s
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D. late 1990s
31. According to the text, which of the following is true?
A. Private valuations may be forever higher than public ones.
B. Public valuations eventually will become even less valuable.
C. The main question is whether the public market increases or the private market decreases.
D. The pressure might last for a long time.
Questions 32–36
32. Skepticism was always expected by the …….. of tech industry.
33. The new aversion to initial offerings has its ………….
34. Selling shares on a secondary market is considered a …….. mechanism.
35. Workers' compensation might be an…………..
36. The public investors who failed to participate in the next big thing might be the ones wearing the
………..
Questions 37–40
37. Private investors are bearing most of the risk.
38. Not many investors were willing to speak on the record.
39. The typical tech company hitting the markets in 1990s was 5 years old.
40. Marc Andreessen, the firm's co-founder, expressed amazement with divergency in how investors treat
public.
18
Đề thi số 3
READING PASSAGE 1
The students’ problem
(A) The college and university accommodation crisis in Ireland has become ‘so chronic’ that students are
being forced to sleep rough, share a bed with strangers – or give up on studying altogether.
(B) The deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland, Kevin Donoghue, said the problem has
become particularly acute in Dublin. He told the Irish Mirror: “Students are so desperate, they’re not just
paying through the nose to share rooms – they’re paying to share a bed with complete strangers. It
reached crisis point last year and it’s only getting worse. “We’ve heard of students sleeping rough; on
sofas, floors and in their cars and I have to stress there’s no student in the country that hasn’t been touched
by this crisis. “Commutes – which would once have been considered ridiculous – are now normal,
whether that’s by bus, train or car and those who drive often end up sleeping in their car if they’ve an
early start the next morning.”
(C) Worry is increasing over the problems facing Ireland's 200,000 students as the number increases over
the next 15 years. With 165,000 full-time students in Ireland – and that figure expected to increase to
around 200,000 within the next 15 years –fears remain that there aren’t enough properties to
accommodate current numbers.
(D) Mr. Donoghue added: “The lack of places to live is actually forcing school-leavers out of college
altogether. Either they don’t go in the first place or end up having to drop out because they can’t get a
room and commuting is just too expensive, stressful and difficult.”
(E) Claims have emerged from the country that some students have been forced to sleep in cars, or out on
the streets, because of the enormous increases to rent in the capital. Those who have been lucky enough to
find a place to live have had to do so ‘blind’ by paying for accommodation, months in advance, they
haven’t even seen just so they will have a roof over their head over the coming year.
(F) According to the Irish Independent, it’s the ‘Google effect’ which is to blame. As Google and other
blue-chip companies open offices in and around Dublin’s docklands area, which are ‘on the doorstep of
the city’, international professionals have been flocking to the area which will boast 2,600 more
apartments, on 50 acres of undeveloped land, over the next three to 10 years.
(G) Rent in the area soared by 15 per cent last year and a two-bedroom apartment overlooking the Grand
Canal costs €2,100 (£1,500) per month to rent. Another two-bedroom apartment at Hanover Dock costs
€2,350 (almost £1,700) with a three-bedroom penthouse – measuring some 136 square metres – sits at
€4,500 (£3,200) per month in rent.
(H) Ireland’s Higher Education Authority admitted this was the first time they had seen circumstances ‘so
extreme’ and the Fianna Fáil party leader, Michael Martin, urged on the Government to intervene. He
19
said: “It is very worrying that all of the progress in opening up access to higher education in the last
decade – particularly for the working poor – is being derailed because of an entirely foreseeable
accommodation crisis.
Questions 1-8
Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A–H.
Choose the most suitable paragraph headings from the list of headings and write the correct letter, A–H,
in boxes 1–8 on your answer sheet.
1. Cons of the commuting
2. Thing that students have to go through
3. Commutes have become common in Ireland nowadays
4. Danger of the overflow
5. Cause of the problems
6. Pricing data
7. Regression
8. Eyeless choice
Questions 9–14
9. The accommodation problem in Ireland is especially bad in Dublin.
10. Commutes are considered ridiculous.
11. The number of students in Ireland is not likely to increase in the future.
12. Due to the opening of the new offices around Dublin, the number of local restaurants will go up
significantly over the next 3 to 10 years.
13. The rent price went up by 15% last year.
14. Michael Martin stated that crisis could have been omitted if the government reacted properly.
READING PASSAGE 2
The science of sleep
We spend a third of our lives doing it. Napoleon, Florence Nightingale and Margaret Thatcher got by
on four hours a night. Thomas Edison claimed it was waste of time.
So why do we sleep? This is a question that has baffled scientists for centuries and the answer is, no
one is really sure. Some believe that sleep gives the body a chance to recuperate from the day's activities
but in reality, the amount of energy saved by sleeping for even eight hours is miniscule - about 50 kCal,
the same amount of energy in a piece of toast.
20
With continued lack of sufficient sleep, the part of the brain that controls language, memory, planning
and sense of time is severely affected, practically shutting down. In fact, 17 hours of sustained
wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05% (two glasses
of wine). This is the legal drink driving limit in the UK.
Research also shows that sleep-deprived individuals often have difficulty in responding to rapidly
changing situations and making rational judgements. In real life situations, the consequences are grave
and lack of sleep is said to have been a contributory factor to a number of international disasters such as
Exxon Valdez, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and the Challenger shuttle explosion.
Sleep deprivation not only has a major impact on cognitive functioning but also on emotional and
physical health. Disorders such as sleep apnoea which result in excessive daytime sleepiness have been
linked to stress and high blood pressure. Research has also suggested that sleep loss may increase the risk
of obesity because chemicals and hormones that play a key role in controlling appetite and weight gain
are released during sleep.
What happens when we sleep?

What happens every time we get a bit of shut eye? Sleep occurs in a recurring cycle of 90 to 110
minutes and is divided into two categories: non-REM (which is further split into four stages) and REM
sleep.
Non-REM sleep
Stage one: Light Sleep
During the first stage of sleep, we're half awake and half asleep. Our muscle activity slows down and
slight twitching may occur. This is a period of light sleep, meaning we can be awakened easily at this
stage.
Stage two: True Sleep

Within ten minutes of light sleep, we enter stage two, which lasts around 20 minutes. The breathing
pattern and heart rate start to slow down. This period accounts for the largest part of human sleep.
Stages three and four: Deep Sleep

During stage three, the brain begins to produce delta waves, a type of wave that is large (high
amplitude) and slow (low frequency). Breathing and heart rate are at their lowest levels.
Stage four is characterised by rhythmic breathing and limited muscle activity. If we are awakened
during deep sleep we do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes
after waking up. Some children experience bed-wetting, night terrors, or sleepwalking during this stage.
REM sleep
The first rapid eye movement (REM) period usually begins about 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep.
We have around three to five REM episodes a night.
21
Although we are not conscious, the brain is very active - often more so than when we are awake. This
is the period when most dreams occur. Our eyes dart around (hence the name), our breathing rate and
blood pressure rise. However, our bodies are effectively paralysed, said to be nature's way of preventing
us from acting out our dreams.
After REM sleep, the whole cycle begins again.

How much sleep is required?
There is no set amount of time that everyone needs to sleep, since it varies from person to person.
Results from the sleep profiler indicate that people like to sleep anywhere between 5 and 11 hours, with
the average being 7.75 hours.
Jim Horne from Loughborough University's Sleep Research Centre has a simple answer though: "The
amount of sleep we require is what we need not to be sleepy in the daytime."
Even animals require varied amounts of sleep:

Species Average total sleep time per day
Python 18 hrs
Tiger 15.8 hrs
Cat 12.1 hrs
Chimpanzee 9.7 hrs
Sheep 3.8 hrs
African elephant 3.3 hrs
Giraffe 1.9 hr
The current world record for the longest period without sleep is 11 days, set by Randy Gardner in
1965. Four days into the research, he began hallucinating. This was followed by a delusion where he
thought he was a famous footballer. Surprisingly, Randy was actually functioning quite well at the end of
his research and he could still beat the scientist at pinball.
Questions 15–22
15. Thomas Edison slept 4 hours a night.
16. Scientists don't have a certain answer for why we have to sleep.
17. Lack of sleep might cause various problems.
22
18. Sleep-deprivation may be the cause of anorexia.
19. There are four stages of the REM sleep.
20. According to Jim Horne, we need to sleep as much as it takes to not be sleepy during the day.
21. Giraffes require less sleep than dogs.
22. After four sleepless days, Randy had a delusion about him being a football celebrity.
Questions 23–27
23. During the Light Sleep stage:
A. Muscle activity increases
B. Jiggling might occur
C. It is not easy to be woken up
D. After waking up, one may experience slight disorientation
24. Heart rate is at the lowest level during:
A. Light Sleep stage
B. Rem Sleep
C. True Sleep stage
D. Third Sleep stage
25. The brain activity is really high:
A. During REM sleep
B. During the stage of True Sleep
C. When we are awake
D. During the Deep sleep stage
26. Humans require at least:
A. 7.75 hours of sleep
B. 5 hours of sleep
C. 8 hours
D. There is no set amount of time
27. Pythons need:
A. Less sleep than tigers
B. Twice as much sleep as cats
C. Almost ten times more sleep than giraffes
D. More sleep than any other animal in the world
Questions 28–30
28. If we continually lack sleep, the specific part of our brain that controls language, is………...
29. True Sleep lasts approximately …………..
30. Although during REM sleep our breathing rate and blood pressure rise, our bodies …………….
23
READING PASSAGE 3
A new study finds that half of human cultures don't practice romantic lip-on-lip kissing. Animals
don't tend to bother either. So how did it evolve?
When you think about it, kissing is strange and a bit icky. You share saliva with someone, sometimes
for a prolonged period of time. One kiss could pass on 80 million bacteria, not all of them good.
Yet everyone surely remembers their first kiss, in all its embarrassing or delightful detail, and kissing
continues to play a big role in new romances.
At least, it does in some societies. People in western societies may assume that romantic kissing is a
universal human behaviour, but a new analysis suggests that less than half of all cultures actually do it.
Kissing is also extremely rare in the animal kingdom.
So what's really behind this odd behaviour? If it is useful, why don't all animals do it – and all humans
too? It turns out that the very fact that most animals don't kiss helps explain why some do.
According to a new study of kissing preferences, which looked at 168 cultures from around the world,
only 46% of cultures kiss in the romantic sense.
Previous estimates had put the figure at 90%. The new study excluded parents kissing their children,
and focused solely on romantic lip-on-lip action between couples.
Many hunter-gatherer groups showed no evidence of kissing or desire to do so. Some even considered
it revolting. The Mehinaku tribe in Brazil reportedly said it was "gross". Given that hunter-gatherer
groups are the closest modern humans get to living our ancestral lifestyle, our ancestors may not have
been kissing either.
The study overturns the belief that romantic kissing is a near-universal human behaviour, says lead
author William Jankowiak of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Instead it seems to be a product of
western societies, passed on from one generation to the next, he says. There is some historical evidence to
back that up.
Kissing as we do it today seems to be a fairly recent invention, says Rafael Wlodarski of the
University of Oxford in the UK. He has trawled through records to find evidence of how kissing has
changed. The oldest evidence of a kissing-type behaviour comes from Hindu Vedic Sanskrit texts from
over 3,500 years ago. Kissing was described as inhaling each other's soul.
In contrast, Egyptian hieroglyphics picture people close to each other rather than pressing their lips
together.
24
So what is going on? Is kissing something we do naturally, but that some cultures have suppressed? Or
is it something modern humans have invented?
We can find some insight by looking at animals.
Our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, do kiss. Primatologist Frans de Waal of Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia, has seen many instances of chimps kissing and hugging after conflict.
For chimpanzees, kissing is a form of reconciliation. It is more common among males than females. In
other words, it is not a romantic behaviour.
Their cousins the bonobos kiss more often, and they often use tongues while doing so. That's perhaps
not surprising, because bonobos are highly sexual beings.
When two humans meet, we might shake hands. Bonobos have sex: the so-called bonobo handshake.
They also use sex for many other kinds of bonding. So their kisses are not particularly romantic, either.
These two apes are exceptions. As far as we know, other animals do not kiss at all. They may nuzzle or
touch their faces together, but even those that have lips don't share saliva or purse and smack their lips
together. They don't need to.
Take wild boars. Males produce a pungent smell that females find extremely attractive. The key
chemical is a pheromone called androstenone that triggers the females' desire to mate.
From a female's point of view this is a good thing, because males with the most androstonene are also
the most fertile. Her sense of smell is so acute, she doesn't need to get close enough to kiss the male.
The same is true of many other mammals. For example, female hamsters emit a pheromone that gets
males very excited. Mice follow similar chemical traces to help them find partners that are genetically
different, minimising the risk of accidental incest.
Animals often release these pheromones in their urine. "Their urine is much more pungent," says
Wlodarski. "If there's urine present in the environment they can assess compatibility through that."
It's not just mammals that have a great sense of smell. A male black widow spider can smell
pheromones produced by a female that tell him if she has recently eaten. To minimise the risk of being
eaten, he will only mate with her if she is not hungry.
The point is, animals do not need to get close to each other to smell out a good potential mate.
On the other hand, humans have an atrocious sense of smell, so we benefit from getting close. Smell
isn't the only cue we use to assess each other's fitness, but studies have shown that it plays an important
role in mate choice.
25
A study published in 1995 showed that women, just like mice, prefer the smell of men who are
genetically different from them. This makes sense, as mating with someone with different genes is likely
to produce healthy offspring. Kissing is a great way to get close enough to sniff out your partner's genes.
In 2013, Wlodarski examined kissing preferences in detail. He asked several hundred people what was
most important when kissing someone. How they smelled featured highly, and the importance of smell
increased when women were most fertile.
It turns out that men also make a version of the pheromone that female boars find attractive. It is present
in male sweat, and when women are exposed to it their arousal levels increase slightly.
Pheromones are a big part of how mammals chose a mate, says Wlodarski, and we share some of
them. "We've inherited all of our biology from mammals, we've just added extra things through
evolutionary time."
On that view, kissing is just a culturally acceptable way to get close enough to another person to detect
their pheromones.
In some cultures, this sniffing behaviour turned into physical lip contact. It's hard to pinpoint when this
happened, but both serve the same purpose, says Wlodarski.
So if you want to find a perfect match, you could forego kissing and start smelling people instead.
You'll find just as good a partner, and you won't get half as many germs. Be prepared for some funny
looks, though.
Questions 31–35
31. Both Easter and Wester societies presume that kissing is essential for any part of the world.
32. Our ancestors were not likely to kiss.
33. Chimpanzees and bonbons kiss not for the romance.
34. There are other animal, rather than apes, that kiss.
35. Scent might be important in choosing your partner.
Questions 36–39
36. According to the Mehinaku tribe, kissing is .
37. Human tradition is to when they meet.
38. A male black widow will mate with the female if only she is .
26
39. Humans benefit from getting close due to the fact that we have an of smell.
Question 40
40. Passage 3 can be described as:
Strictly scientific text
Historical article
Article from a magazine
Dystopian sketch
27
Đề thi số 4
READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-12, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The potential to sniff out disease

The fact diseases have a smell comes as no surprise - but finding someone or something that can
detect them at an early stage could hold huge potential for medicine.
Breath, bodily odours and urine are all amazingly revealing about general health. Even the humble cold
can give off an odour, thanks to the thick bacteria-ridden mucus that ends up in the back of the throat. The
signs are not apparent to everyone - but some super-smellers are very sensitive to the odours. Joy Milne,
for example, noticed her husband's smell had changed shortly before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease.
Humans can detect nearly 10,000 different smells. Formed by chemicals in the air, they are absorbed by
little hairs, made of extremely sensitive nerve fibres, hanging from the nose's olfactory receptors. And the
human sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than the sense of taste. But dogs, as the old joke
might have had it, smell even better.
Their ability to detect four times as many odours as humans makes them a potential early warning system
for a range of diseases. Research suggesting dogs' could sniff out cancers, for example, was first
published about 10 years ago. And there have been many tales of dogs repeatedly sniffing an area of their
owner's body, only for it to turn out to be hiding a tumour.
What they are smelling are the "volatile molecules" given off by cells when they become cancerous.
Some studies suggest dogs can be 93% accurate. Others suggest they can detect very small tumours
before clinical tests can. And yet more studies have produced mixed results.
Does cancer smell?
At Milton Keynes University Hospital, a small team has recently begun to collect human urine samples to
test dogs' ability to detect the smell of prostate cancer. The patients had symptoms such as difficulty
urinating or a change in flow, which could turn out to be prostate, bladder or liver cancer.
Rowena Fletcher, head of research and development at the hospital, says the role of the dogs - which have
been trained by Medical Detection Dogs - is to pick out samples that smell of cancer. Further down the
line, a clinical test will show if the dogs' diagnosis is correct. She says the potential for using dogs in this
way is far-reaching - even if it is not practical to have a dog in every surgery.
"We hope one day that there could be an electronic machine on every GP's desk which could test a urine
sample for diseases by smelling it," she says. "But first we need to pick up the pattern of what the dogs
are smelling."
28
And that's the key. Dogs can't tell us what their noses are detecting, but scientists believe that different
cancers could produce different smells, although some might also be very similar.
Electronic noses
Lab tests to understand what these highly-trained dogs are smelling could then inform the development of
'electronic noses' to detect the same molecules. These might then give rise to better diagnostic tests in the
future. The potential for using smell to test for a wide range of diseases is huge, Ms Fletcher says.
Bacteria, cancers and chronic diseases could all have their own odour - which may be imperceptible to
only the most sensitive humans, but obvious to dogs. It may be possible in the future to use disease
odours as the basis for a national screening programme or to test everybody at risk of a certain cancer in a
particular age group.
However, there are fewer than 20 dogs in the UK trained to detect cancer at present. Training more will
take more funding and time. On the positive side, all dogs are eligible to be trained provided they are keen
on searching and hunting. Whatever their breed or size, it's our four-legged friend's astounding sense of
smell which could unlock a whole new way of detecting human diseases.
Questions 1-5
1. You can have a specific smell even due to simple cold.
2. Human sense of taste is 10,000 less sensetive than human sense of smell.
3. Dogs and cats can sniff out different diseases.
4. Doctors believe that different cancers might have the same specific smell.
5. There are more than 20 dogs in the UK trained to detect cancer.
Questions 6-9
6. All the studies suggest that dogs:
A. Can be 93% accurate
B. Can detect very small tumours
C. Can't detect tumours at all
D. Different studies have shown different results
7. What scientists give dogs to detect cancer?
A. Urine samples
B. Bacterias
C. Different odours
D. Nothing
8. What's an electronic nose?
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A. A specific tool for dogs
B. A gadget to diagnose diseases
C. A recovery tool for ill patients
D. An artificial nose
9. The main objective of this passage is to:
A. Bring awareness to the cancer problem
B. Show us how good dogs are at detecting cancer
C. Show us how important it can be to be able to diagnose a disease by an odour
D. Tell us about new technologies
Questions 10-12
10. Scientists hope that one day an will be on every desk.
11. Electronic nose would help to detect the .
12. Dogs can a new way of diagnosing diseases.
READING PASSAGE 2
Trash Talk
Sorting through a mountain of pottery to track the Roman oil trade
(A) In the middle of Rome’s trendiest neighborhood, surrounded by sushi restaurants and nightclubs with
names like Rodeo Steakhouse and Love Story, sits the ancient world’s biggest garbage dump—a
150-foot-tall mountain of discarded Roman amphoras, the shipping drums of the ancient world. It takes
about 20 minutes to walk around Monte Testaccio, from the Latin testa and Italian cocci, both meaning
“potsherd.” But despite its size—almost a mile in circumference—it’s easy to walk by and not really
notice unless you are headed for some excellent pizza at Velavevodetto, a restaurant literally stuck into the
mountain’s side. Most local residents don’t know what’s underneath the grass, dust, and scattering of
trees. Monte Testaccio looks like a big hill, and in Rome people are accustomed to hills.
(B) Although a garbage dump may lack the attraction of the Forum or Colosseum, I have come to Rome
to meet the team excavating Monte Testaccio and to learn how scholars are using its evidence to
understand the ancient Roman economy. As the modern global economy depends on light sweet crude, so
too the ancient Romans depended on oil—olive oil. And for more than 250 years, from at least the first
century A.D., an enormous number of amphoras filled with olive oil came by ship from the Roman
provinces into the city itself, where they were unloaded, emptied, and then taken to Monte Testaccio and
thrown away. In the absence of written records or literature on the subject, studying these amphoras is the
best way to answer some of the most vexing questions concerning the Roman economy—How did it
operate? How much control did the emperor exert over it? Which sectors were supported by the state and
which operated in a free market environment or in the private sector?
30
(C) Monte Testaccio stands near the Tiber River in what was ancient Rome’s commercial district. Many
types of imported foodstuffs, including oil, were brought into the city and then stored for later distribution
in the large warehouses that lined the river. So, professor, just how many amphoras are there?” I ask José
Remesal of the University of Barcelona, co-director of the Monte Testaccio excavations. It’s the same
question that must occur to everyone who visits the site when they realize that the crunching sounds their
footfalls make are not from walking on fallen leaves, but on pieces of amphoras. (Don’t worry, even the
small pieces are very sturdy.) Remesal replies in his deep baritone, “Something like 25 million complete
ones. Of course, it’s difficult to be exact,” he adds with a typical Mediterranean shrug. I, for one, find it
hard to believe that the whole mountain is made of amphoras without any soil or rubble. Seeing the
incredulous look on my face as I peer down into a 10-foot-deep trench, Remesal says, “Yes, it’s really
only amphoras.” I can’t imagine another site in the world where archaeologists find so much—about a ton
of pottery every day. On most Mediterranean excavations, pottery washing is an activity reserved for
blisteringly hot afternoons when digging is impossible. Here, it is the only activity for most of Remesal’s
team, an international group of specialists and students from Spain and the United States. During each
year’s two-week field season, they wash and sort thousands of amphoras handles, bodies, shoulders,
necks, and tops, counting and cataloguing, and always looking for stamped names, painted names, and
numbers that tell each amphora’s story.
(D) Although scholars worked at Monte Testaccio beginning in the late 19th century, it’s only within the
past 30 years that they have embraced the role amphoras can play in understanding the nature of the
Roman imperial economy. According to Remesal, the main challenge archaeologists and economic
historians face is the lack of “serial documentation,” that is, documents for consecutive years that reflect a
true chronology. This is what makes Monte Testaccio a unique record of Roman commerce and provides a
vast amount of datable evidence in a clear and unambiguous sequence. “There’s no other place where you
can study economic history, food production and distribution, and how the state controlled the transport of
a product,” Remesal says. “It’s really remarkable.”
Questions 13-16
Reading Passage 2 has four paragraphs A-D. Which paragraph contains what information? Write the
correct letter, A-D, in boxes 13-16 on your answer sheet.
13. Questions about the Roman economy
14. A unique feature
15. Description of the dump
16. Dialogue with a professor
Questions 17–21
17. World’s biggest garbage dump is surrounded by restaurants and nightclubs.
18. The garbage dump is as popular as the Colosseum in Rome.
19. Ancient Roman economy depended on oil.
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20. There is no information on how many amphoras are there.
21. Remesal says that Monte Testaccio is a great place to study economics.
Questions 22–26

22. It is unknown for ……….. what’s underneath the grass, dust, and scattering of trees.
23. Monte Testaccio stands near the ancient Rome’s ……….. .
24. Remesal doesn't believe that the whole mountain is made of ……….. without any soil or rubble.
25. Remesal’s team washes and sorts thousands of amphoras each year’s two-week ……….. .
26. ……….. started working at Monte Testaccio in the late 19th century.
READING PASSAGE 3
Mysterious Dark Matter May Not Always Have Been Dark
Dark matter particles may have interacted extensively with normal matter long ago, when the universe
was very hot, a new study suggests. The nature of dark matter is currently one of the greatest mysteries in
science. The invisible substance — which is detectable via its gravitational influence on "normal" matter -
is thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe.
Astronomers began suspecting the existence of dark matter when they noticed the cosmos seemed to
possess more mass than stars could account for. For example, stars circle the center of the Milky Way so
fast that they should overcome the gravitational pull of the galaxy's core and zoom into the intergalactic
void. Most scientists think dark matter provides the gravity that helps hold these stars back. Astronomers
know more about what dark matter is not than what it actually is.
Scientists have mostly ruled out all known ordinary materials as candidates for dark matter. The
consensus so far is that this missing mass is made up of new species of particles that interact only very
weakly with ordinary matter. One potential clue about the nature of dark matter has to do with the fact
that it's five times more abundant than normal matter, researchers said.
"This may seem a lot, and it is, but if dark and ordinary matter were generated in a completely
independent way, then this number is puzzling," said study co-author Pavlos Vranas, a particle physicist at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California. "Instead of five, it could have been a
million or a billion. Why five?" The researchers suggest a possible solution to this puzzle: Dark matter
particles once interacted often with normal matter, even though they barely do so now. "This may have
happened in the early universe, when the temperature was very high — so high that both ordinary and
dark matter were 'melted' in a plasma state made up of their ingredients".
The protons and neutrons making up atomic nuclei are themselves each made up of a trio of particles
known as quarks. The researchers suggest dark matter is also made of a composite "stealth" particle,
which is composed of a quartet of component particles and is difficult to detect (like a stealth airplane).
32
The scientists' supercomputer simulations suggest these composite particles may have masses ranging up
to more than 200 billion electron-volts, which is about 213 times a proton's mass. Quarks each possess
fractional electrical charges of positive or negative one-third or two-thirds. In protons, these add up to a
positive charge, while in neutrons, the result is a neutral charge. Quarks are confined within protons and
neutrons by the so-called "strong interaction."
The researchers suggest that the component particles making up stealth dark matter particles each have a
fractional charge of positive or negative one-half, held together by a "dark form" of the strong interaction.
Stealth dark matter particles themselves would only have a neutral charge, leading them to interact very
weakly at best with ordinary matter, light, electric fields and magnetic fields. The researchers suggest that
at the extremely high temperatures seen in the newborn universe, the electrically charged components of
stealth dark matter particles could have interacted with ordinary matter. However, once the universe
cooled, a new, powerful and as yet unknown force might have bound these component particles together
tightly to form electrically neutral composites. Stealth dark matter particles should be stable — not
decaying over eons, if at all, much like protons. However, the researchers suggest the components making
up stealth dark matter particles can form different unstable composites that decay shortly after their
creation. "For example, one could have composite particles made out of just two component particles,"
Vranas said.
These unstable particles might have masses of about 100 billion electron-volts or more, and could be
created by particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beneath the France-Switzerland
border. They could also have an electric charge and be visible to particle detectors, Vranas said.
Experiments at the LHC, or sensors designed to spot rare instances of dark matter colliding with ordinary
matter, "may soon find evidence of, or rule out, this new stealth dark matter theory," Vranas said in a
statement. If stealth dark matter exists, future research can investigate whether there are any effects it
might have on the cosmos.
"Are there any signals in the sky that telescopes may find?" Vranas said. "In order to answer these
questions, our calculations will require larger supercomputing resources. Fortunately, supercomputing
development is progressing fast towards higher computational speeds." The scientists, the Lattice Strong
Dynamics Collaboration, will detail their findings in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review
Letters.
Questions 27-34
27. One of the greatest mysteries in science is the nature of the .
28. All known materials have been mostly as candidates for dark matter.
29. Dark matter is a lot more than normal matter.
30. Due to high temperature, both ordinary and dark matter were 'melted' in a .
31. It is confirmed that quarks are within protons and neutrons by .
32. It is suggested that stealth dark matter particle would only have a .
33. Experiments at the LHC may soon find of the new stealth dark matter theory.
33
34. To answer questions we require resources.
Questions 35-39
35. The nature of dark matter is a mystery.
36. It is likely that dark matter consists of ordinary materials.
37. Quarks have neither positive nor negative charge.
38. Protons are not stable.
39. Dark matter has a serious impact on the cosmos.
Question 40
40. Passage 3 is:
A. a scientific article
B. a sci-fi article
C. a short sketch
D. an article from a magazine
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Đề thi số 5
READING PASSAGE 1
Scientists Are Mapping the World's Largest Volcano
Scientists Are Mapping the World's Largest Volcano
(A) After 36 days of battling sharks that kept biting their equipment, scientists have returned from the
remote Pacific Ocean with a new way of looking at the world’s largest - and possibly most mysterious -
volcano, Tamu Massif.
(B) The team has begun making 3-D maps that offer the clearest look yet at the underwater mountain,
which covers an area the size of New Mexico. In the coming months, the maps will be refined and the
data analyzed, with the ultimate goal of figuring out how the mountain was formed.
(C) It's possible that the western edge of Tamu Massif is actually a separate mountain that formed at a
different time, says William Sager, a geologist at the University of Houston who led the expedition. That
would explain some differences between the western part of the mountain and the main body.
(D) The team also found that the massif (as such a massive mountain is known) is highly pockmarked
with craters and cliffs. Magnetic analysis provides some insight into the mountain’s genesis, suggesting
that part of it formed through steady releases of lava along the intersection of three mid-ocean ridges,
while part of it is harder to explain. A working theory is that a large plume of hot mantle rock may have
contributed additional heat and material, a fairly novel idea.
35
(E) Tamu Massif lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) east of Japan. It is a rounded dome, or shield
volcano, measuring 280 by 400 miles (450 by 650 kilometers). Its top lies more than a mile (about 2,000
meters) below the ocean surface and is 50 times larger than the biggest active volcano on Earth, Hawaii’s
Mauna Loa. Sager published a paper in 2013 that said the main rise of Tamu Massif is most likely a single
volcano, instead of a complex of multiple volcanoes that smashed together. But he couldn’t explain how
something so big formed.
(F) The team used sonar and magnetometers (which measure magnetic fields) to map more than a million
square kilometers of the ocean floor in great detail. Sager and students teamed up with Masao Nakanishi
of Japan’s Chiba University, with Sager receiving funding support from the National Geographic Society
and the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
(G) Since sharks are attracted to magnetic fields, the toothy fish “were all over our magnetometer, and it
got pretty chomped up,” says Sager. When the team replaced the device with a spare, that unit was nearly
ripped off by more sharks. The magnetic field research suggests the mountain formed relatively quickly,
sometime around 145 million years ago. Part of the volcano sports magnetic "stripes," or bands with
different magnetic properties, suggesting that lava flowed out evenly from the mid-ocean ridges over time
and changed in polarity each time Earth's magnetic field reversed direction. The central part of the peak is
more jumbled, so it may have formed more quickly or through a different process.
(H) Sager isn’t sure what caused the magnetic anomalies yet, but suspects more complex forces were at
work than simply eruptions from the ridges. It’s possible a deep plume of hot rock from the mantle also
contributed to the volcano’s formation, he says. Sager hopes the analysis will also help explain about a
dozen other similar features on the ocean floor, as well as add to the overall understanding of plate
tectonics.
Questions 1-8
Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H.
What paragraph has the following information? Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-8 on your answer
sheet.
1. Possible explanation of the differences between parts of the mountain
2. Size data
3. A new way of looking
4. Problem with sharks
5. Uncertainty of the anomalies
6. Equipment which measures magnetic fields
7. The start of making maps
8. A working theory
Questions 9-12
Complete the sentences using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.
9. A large plume of ………… rock may have contributed additional heat and material.
10.Tamu Massif is a ………… , or shield volcano.
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11. Replacing the device with a ………… didn't help, as that unit was nearly ripped off by more sharks.
12. Sager believes that the magnetic anomalies were caused by something more than ………… from the
ridges.
READING PASSAGE 2
We know the city where HIV first emerged
It is easy to see why AIDS seemed so mysterious and frightening when US medics first encountered it 35
years ago. The condition robbed young, healthy people of their strong immune system, leaving them weak
and vulnerable. And it seemed to come out of nowhere.
Today we know much more how and why HIV – the virus that leads to AIDS – has become a global
pandemic. Unsurprisingly, sex workers unwittingly played a part. But no less important were the roles of
trade, the collapse of colonialism, and 20th Century sociopolitical reform.
HIV did not really appear out of nowhere, of course. It probably began as a virus affecting monkeys and
apes in west central Africa.
From there it jumped species into humans on several occasions, perhaps because people ate infected
bushmeat. Some people carry a version of HIV closely related to that seen in sooty mangabey monkeys,
for instance. But HIV that came from monkeys has not become a global problem.
We are more closely related to apes, like gorillas and chimpanzees, than we are to monkeys. But even
when HIV has passed into human populations from these apes, it has not necessarily turned into a
widespread health issue.
HIV originating from apes typically belongs to a type of virus called HIV-1. One is called HIV-1 group O,
and human cases are largely confined to west Africa.
In fact, only one form of HIV has spread far and wide after jumping to humans. This version, which
probably originated from chimpanzees, is called HIV-1 group M (for "major"). More than 90% of HIV
infections belong in group M. Which raises an obvious question: what's so special about HIV-1 group M?
A study published in 2014 suggests a surprising answer: there might be nothing particularly special about
group M.
It is not especially infectious, as you might expect. Instead, it seems that this form of HIV simply took
advantage of events. "Ecological rather than evolutionary factors drove its rapid spread," says Nuno Faria
at the University of Oxford in the UK.
Faria and his colleagues built a family tree of HIV, by looking at a diverse array of HIV genomes
collected from about 800 infected people from central Africa.
37
Genomes pick up new mutations at a fairly steady rate, so by comparing two genome sequences and
counting the differences they could work out when the two last shared a common ancestor. This technique
is widely used, for example to establish that our common ancestor with chimpanzees lived at least 7
million years ago.
"RNA viruses such as HIV evolve approximately 1 million times faster than human DNA," says Faria.
This means the HIV "molecular clock" ticks very fast indeed.
It ticks so fast, Faria and his colleagues found that the HIV genomes all shared a common ancestor that
existed no more than 100 years ago. The HIV-1 group M pandemic probably first began in the 1920s.
Then the team went further. Because they knew where each of the HIV samples had been collected, they
could place the origin of the pandemic in a specific city: Kinshasa, now the capital of the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
At this point, the researchers changed tack. They turned to historical records to work out why HIV
infections in an African city in the 1920s could ultimately spark a pandemic.
A likely sequence of events quickly became obvious. In the 1920s, DR Congo was a Belgian colony and
Kinshasa – then known as Leopoldville – had just been made the capital. The city became a very
attractive destination for young working men seeking their fortunes, and for sex workers only too willing
to help them spend their earnings. The virus spread quickly through the population.
It did not remain confined to the city. The researchers discovered that the capital of the Belgian Congo
was, in the 1920s, one of the best connected cities in Africa. Taking full advantage of an extensive rail
network used by hundreds of thousands of people each year, the virus spread to cities 900 miles (1500km)
away in just 20 years.
Everything was in place for an explosion in infection rates in the 1960s.The beginning of that decade
brought another change.
Belgian Congo gained its independence, and became an attractive source of employment to French
speakers elsewhere in the world, including Haiti. When these young Haitians returned home a few years
later they took a particular form of HIV-1 group M, called "subtype B", to the western side of the Atlantic.
It arrived in the US in the 1970s, just as sexual liberation and homophobic attitudes were leading to
concentrations of gay men in cosmopolitan cities like New York and San Francisco. Once more, HIV took
advantage of the sociopolitical situation to spread quickly through the US and Europe.
"There is no reason to believe that other subtypes would not have spread as quickly as subtype B, given
similar ecological circumstances," says Faria.
The story of the spread of HIV is not over yet.
For instance, in 2015 there was an outbreak in the US state of Indiana, associated with drug injecting.
38
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been analyzing the HIV genome sequences and
data about location and time of infection, says Yonatan Grad at the Harvard School of Public Health in
Boston, Massachusetts. "These data help to understand the extent of the outbreak, and will further help to
understand when public health interventions have worked."
This approach can work for other pathogens. In 2014, Grad and his colleague Marc Lipsitch published an
investigation into the spread of drug-resistant gonorrhoea across the US.
"Because we had representative sequences from individuals in different cities at different times and with
different sexual orientations, we could show the spread was from the west of the country to the east," says
Lipsitch.
What's more, they could confirm that the drug-resistant form of gonorrhoea appeared to have circulated
predominantly in men who have sex with men. That could prompt increased screening in these at-risk
populations, in an effort to reduce further spread.
In other words, there is real power to studying pathogens like HIV and gonorrhoea through the prism of
human society.
Questions 13-20
13. AIDS were first encountered 35 years ago.
14. The most important role in developing AIDS as a pandemia was played by sex workers.
15. It is believed that HIV appeared out of nowhere.
16. Humans are not closely related to monkey.
17. HIV-1 group O originated in 1920s.
18. HIV-1 group M has something special.
19. Human DNA evolves approximately 1 million times slower than HIV.
20. Scientists believe that HIV already existed in 1920s.
Questions 21-28
21. Scientists can place the origin of in a specific city.
22. Kinshasa was a very for young working men and many others willing to spend their money.
23. In just 20 years virus managed to to cities 900 miles away.
24. Belgian Congo became an attractive source of employment to French speakers when it gained .
25. HIV has spread quickly through the US and Europe because of the .
26. It is said that outbreak in Indiana was associated with .
39
27. The same approach as for HIV can work for .
28. The form of gonorrhoea that is drug-resistant appeared to have in men who have sex with men.
READING PASSAGE 3
Penguins' anti-ice trick revealed
Scientists studying penguins’ feathers have revealed how the birds stay ice free when hopping in and out
of below zero waters in the Antarctic. A combination of nano-sized pores and an extra water repelling
preening oil the birds secrete is thought to give Antarctic penguins’ feathers superhydrophobic properties.
Researchers in the US made the discovery using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to study penguin
feathers in extreme detail. Antarctic penguins live in one of Earth’s most extreme environments, facing
temperatures that drop to -40C, winds with speeds of 40 metres per second and water that stays around
-2.2C. But even in these sub-zero conditions, the birds manage to prevent ice from coating their feathers.
“They are an amazing species, living in extreme conditions, and great swimmers. Basically they are living
engineering marvels,” says research team member Dr Pirouz Kavehpour, professor of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Birds’ feathers are known
to have hydrophobic, or non-wetting, properties. But scientists from UCLA, University of Massachusetts
Amherst and SeaWorld, wanted to know what makes Antarctic penguins’ feathers extra ice repelling.
“What we learn here is how penguins combine oil and nano-structures on the feathers to produce this
effect to perfection,” explains Kavehpour. By analysing feathers from different penguin species, the
researchers discovered Antarctic species the gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) was more
superhydrophobic compared with a species found in warmer climes – the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus
magellanicus) – whose breeding sites include Argentinian desert.
Gentoo penguins’ feathers contained tiny pores which trapped air, making the surface hydrophobic. And
they were smothered with a special preening oil, produced by a gland near the base of the tail, with which
the birds cover themselves. Together, these properties mean that in the wild, droplets of water on
Antarctic penguins’ superhydrophobic feathers bead up on the surface like spheres – formations that,
according to the team, could provide geometry that delays ice formation, since heat cannot easily flow out
of the water if the droplet only has minimal contact with the surface of the feather.
“The shape of the droplet on the surface dictates the delay in freezing,” explains Kavehpour. The water
droplets roll off the penguin's feathers before they have time to freeze, the researchers propose. Penguins
living in the Antarctic are highly evolved to cope with harsh conditions: their short outer feathers overlap
to make a thick protective layer over fluffier feathers which keep them warm. Under their skin, a thick
layer of fat keeps them insulated. The flightless birds spend a lot of time in the sea and are extremely agile
and graceful swimmers, appearing much more awkward on land.
Kavehpour was inspired to study Antarctic penguins’ feathers after watching the birds in a nature
documentary: “I saw these birds moving in and out of water, splashing everywhere. Yet there is no single
drop of frozen ice sticking to them,” he tells BBC Earth. His team now hopes its work could aid design of
better man-made surfaces which minimise frost formation.
40
“I would love to see biomimicking of these surfaces for important applications, for example, de-icing of
aircrafts,” says Kavehpour. Currently, airlines spend a lot of time and money using chemical de-icers on
aeroplanes, as ice can alter the vehicles’ aerodynamic properties and can even cause them to crash.
Questions 29-33
29. Penguins stay ice free due to:
A. A combination of nano-sized pores
B. An extra water repelling preening oil
C. A combination of nano-sized pores and an extra water repelling preening oil
D. A combination of various factors
30. Antarctic penguins experience extreme weather conditions, including:
A. Low temperature, that can drop to -40
B. Severe wind, up to 40 metres per second
C. Below zero water temperature
D. All of the above
31. In line 5 words engineering marvels mean:
A. That penguins are very intelligent
B. That penguins are good swimmers
C. That penguis are well prepared to living in severe conditions
D. Both B and C
32. Penguis feather has everything, EXCEPT:
A. Hydrophobic properties
B. Extra ice repelling
C. Soft structures
D. Oil structures
33. The gentoo penguin:
A. Is less superhydrophobic compared to the Magellanic penguin
B. Has feathers that contain tiny pores
C. Can't swim
D. Lives in Argentinian desert
Questions 34-40
34. Formations like ………….. could provide geometry that delays ice formation.
35. The delay in freezing is dictated by the ………….. of the droplet.
36. Penguins in Antarctic are highly evolved to be able to cope with ………….. conditions.
37. Penguins are insulated by a………….. layer of fat.
38. On the land, penguins appear much more ………….. than in the sea.
39. The inspiration came to Kavehpour after watching a ………….. about penguins.
40. Kavehpour would like to see………….. surfaces which minimise frost formation.
41
Đề thi số 6
READING PASSAGE 1
Why are Americans so angry?
Americans are generally known for having a positive outlook on life, but with the countdown for
November's presidential election now well under way, polls show voters are angry. This may explain the
success of non-mainstream candidates such as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders.
But what is fuelling the frustration?
A CNN/ORC poll carried out in December 2015 suggests 69% of Americans are either "very angry" or
"somewhat angry" about "the way things are going" in the US. And the same proportion - 69% - are angry
because the political system "seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those
on Wall Street or in Washington," according to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from November. Many
people are not only angry, they are angrier than they were a year ago, according to an NBC/Esquire
survey last month - particularly Republicans (61%), somewhat white people (54%), but also 42% of
Democrats, 43% of Latinos and 33% of African Americans.
Candidates have sensed the mood and are adopting the rhetoric. Donald Trump, who has arguably tapped
into voters' frustration better than any other candidate, says he is "very, very angry" and will "gladly
accept the mantle of anger" while rival Republican Ben Carson says he has encountered "many
Americans who are discouraged and angry as they watch the American dream slipping away".
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders says: "I am angry and millions of Americans are angry,"
while Hillary Clinton says she "understands why people get angry". Here are five reasons why some
voters feel the American dream is in tatters.
1. Economy
"The failure of the economy to deliver real progress to middle-class and working-class Americans over
the past 15 years is the most fundamental source of public anger and disaffection in the US," says William
Galston, an expert in governance studies at the Brookings Institution think tank. Although the country
may have recovered from the recession - economic output has rebounded and unemployment rates have
fallen from 10% in 2009 to 5% in 2015 - Americans are still feeling the pinch in their wallets. Household
incomes have, generally speaking, been stagnant for 15 years. In 2014, the median household income was
$53,657, according to the US Census Bureau - compared with $57,357 in 2007 and $57,843 in 1999
(adjusted for inflation). There is also a sense that many jobs are of lower quality and opportunity is
dwindling, says Galston. "The search for explanations can very quickly degenerate into the identification
of villains in American politics. On the left it is the billionaires, the banks, and Wall Street. On the right it
is immigrants, other countries taking advantage of us and the international economy - they are two sides
of the same political coin."
2. Immigration
America's demographics are changing - nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the US since 1965,
not all of whom entered the country legally. Forty years ago, 84% of the American population was made
42
up of non-Hispanic white people - by last year the figure was 62%, according to Pew Research. It projects
this trend will continue, and by 2055 non-Hispanic white people will make up less than half the
population. Pew expects them to account for only 46% of the population by 2065. By 2055, more Asians
than any other ethnic group are expected to move to US.
"It's been an era of huge demographic, racial, cultural, religious and generational change," says Paul
Taylor, author of The Next America. "While some celebrate these changes, others deplore them. Some
older, whiter voters do not recognise the country they grew up in. There is a sense of alien tribes," he
says.
The US currently has 11.3 million illegal immigrants. Migrants often become a target of anger, says
Roberto Suro, an immigration expert at the University of Southern California. "There is a displacement of
anxiety and they become the face of larger sources of tensions, such as terrorism, jobs and dissatisfaction.
We saw that very clearly when Donald Trump switched from [complaining about] Mexicans to Muslims
without skipping a beat after San Bernardino," he says, referring to the shooting in California in
December that left 14 people dead.
3. Washington
"When asked if they trust the government, 89% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats say "only
sometimes" or "never", according to Pew Research. Six out of 10 Americans think the government has
too much power, a survey by Gallup suggests, while the government has been named as the top problem
in the US for two years in a row - above issues such as the economy, jobs and immigration, according to
the organisation.
The gridlock on Capitol Hill and the perceived impotence of elected officials has led to resentment among
20 to 30% of voters, says polling expert Karlyn Bowman, from the American Enterprise Institute. "People
see politicians fighting and things not getting done - plus the responsibilities of Congress have grown
significantly since the 1970s and there is simply more to criticise. People feel more distant from their
government and sour on it," she says.
William Galston thinks part of the appeal of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is down to frustration
with what some see as a failing system. "So on the right you have someone who is running as a 'strong
man', a Berlusconi and Putin, who will get things done, and on the left you have someone who is rejecting
incrementalism and calling for a political revolution," he says.
Ted Cruz, who won the Republican caucuses in Iowa, is also running as an anti-establishment candidate.
"Tonight is a victory for every American who's watched in dismay as career politicians in Washington in
both parties refuse to listen and too often fail to keep their commitments to the people," he said on
Monday night.
4. America's place in the world

America is used to being seen as a superpower but the number of Americans that think the US "stands
above all other countries in the world" went from 38% in 2012 to 28% in 2014, Pew Research suggests.
43
Seventy percent of Americans also think the US is losing respect internationally, according to a 2013 poll
by the centre.
"For a country that is used to being on top of the world, the last 15 years haven't been great in terms of
foreign policy. There's a feeling of having been at war since 9/11 that's never really gone away, a sense
America doesn't know what it wants and that things aren't going our way," says Roberto Suro. The rise of
China, the failure to defeat the Taliban and the slow progress in the fight against the so-called Islamic
State group has contributed to the anxiety.
Americans are also more afraid of the prospect of terrorist attacks than at any time since 9/11, according
to a New York Times/CBS poll. The American reaction to the San Bernardino shooting was different to
the French reaction to the Paris attacks, says Galston. "Whereas the French rallied around the government,
Americans rallied against it. There is an impression that the US government is failing in its most basic
obligation to keep country and people safe."
5. Divided nation
Democrats and Republicans have become more ideologically polarised than ever. The typical (median),
Republican is now more conservative in his or her core social, economic and political views than 94% of
Democrats, compared with 70% in 1994, according to Pew Research. The median Democrat, meanwhile,
is more liberal than 92% of Republicans, up from 64%.
The study also found that the share of Americans with a highly negative view of the opposing party has
doubled, and that the animosity is so deep, many would be unhappy if a close relative married someone of
a different political persuasion.
This polarisation makes reaching common ground on big issues such as immigration, healthcare and gun
control more complicated. The deadlock is, in turn, angering another part of the electorate. "Despite this
rise in polarisation in America, a large mass in the middle are pragmatic. They aren't totally disengaged,
they don't want to see Washington gridlocked, but they roll their eyes at the nature of this discourse," says
Paul Taylor. This group includes a lot of young people and tends to eschew party labels. "If they voted,"
he says, "they could play an important part of the election."
Questions 1-8
Complete the sentences below using ONLY ONE WORD for each answer.
1. Conducted poll in December says that most Americans are with the way that hing are going.
2. Many people are angrier than a year ago, particulary .
3.The economical rates are decreasing, even though the country has recovered from the .
4. Billionaires and immigrants are the two sides of one political .
5. It is expected that the will be the biggest ethnic group to move in the USA by the year 2055.
6. It has been an era of demographic, racial, cultural, religious and change.
7. Roberto Suro says that migrants might become a of anger.
8. Six to ten Americans believe that government has too much .
Questions 9-16
44
9. The Congress has more responsibilities now than in 1970s.
10. William Galston believes that the appeal of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is growing bigger each
day.
11. Ted Cruz is running as an anti-establishment candidate.
12. The number of Americans who think that the US "stands above all other countries in the world"
increased by 10% in 2014 compared to 2012.
13. Since 9/11 there's been a feeling of war in America and it's still here.
14. The Americans had the same reaction to the San Bernardino shooting as French to the Paris attacks.
15. The ideological diversity between the Democrats and the Republicans is stronger than ever now.
16. The pragmatic mass consists of a lot of young people.
READING PASSAGE 2
Do e-cigarettes make it harder to stop smoking?
(A) People trying to give up smoking often use e-cigarettes to help wean themselves off tobacco. Most
experts think they are safer than cigarettes but a surprising paper was published recently - it suggests that
people who use e-cigarettes are less successful at giving up smoking than those who don't. "E-cigarettes
WON'T help you quit," reported the Daily Mail. "Smokers using vapers are '28% less likely to ditch
traditional cigarettes,'" read the paper's headline. The story was reported on many other websites around
the world, including CBS: "Study: E-cigarettes don't help smokers quit," it said.
(B) The study causing the fuss was written by researchers at the Center for Tobacco Control Research
and Education at the University of California, and published in one of the Lancet's sister journals, Lancet
Respiratory Medicine. It is a meta-analysis, which means the authors reviewed the academic literature
already available on the topic. They sifted out the weaker papers - ones that didn't have control groups, for
example - and were left with 20.
(C) The conclusion? Smokers who use e-cigarettes have a 28% lower chance of quitting than smokers
who don't use them, according to Prof Stanton Glantz, one of the authors. But while the conclusion is
surprising, so is the number of academics who have criticised the paper. One was Ann McNeill, professor
of tobacco addiction at Kings College London, whose own research is included in Glantz's analysis. "This
review is not scientific," she wrote on the Science Media Centre website. "The information… about two
studies that I co-authored is either inaccurate or misleading… I believe the findings should therefore be
dismissed.
(D) "I am concerned at the huge damage this publication may have - many more smokers may
continue smoking and die if they take from this piece of work that all evidence suggests e-cigarettes do
45
not help you quit smoking; that is not the case." Prof Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence
Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute also called the findings "grossly misleading".
(E) The critics are making three main points. First, the definition of e-cigarettes is a bit loose. There
are many different types - some look like cigarettes, others have tanks for the vaping liquid, some are
disposable and other are multi-use. They all deliver different doses of nicotine. Many of the papers
included in the analysis don't specify which type people are using, according to Linda Bauld, professor of
health policy at the University of Stirling. Another point is that the studies vary in the way they measure
how often people use e-cigarettes. "Some only assessed whether a person had ever tried an e-cigarette or
if they had tried one recently, not whether they were using it regularly or frequently," Bauld says.
(F) Even the paper's author admits it's possible that in some of the studies e-cigarettes may only have
been used once, which he says would not be a good predictor of whether they had affected people's ability
to stop smoking. And there is another problem. You might expect, if you were going to draw conclusions
about how useful e-cigarettes are in helping people quit, to focus on studies looking at people who are
trying to give up. Prof Robert West, who heads a team at University College London researching ways to
help people stop smoking, says this analysis mashed together some very different studies - only some of
which include people using e-cigarettes to help them quit.
(G) "To mix them in with studies where you've got people using an e-cigarette and are not particularly
trying to stop smoking is mixing apples and oranges," he says. Some of the studies track smokers who use
e-cigarettes for other reasons - perhaps because smoking a cigarette in a bar or an office is illegal and they
want a nicotine hit. "With the studies where people are using electronic cigarettes specifically in a quit
attempt the evidence is consistent," says West, referring to two randomised control trials.
(H) Both are quite small and one was funded by the e-cigarette industry. They took two groups of
smokers, and gave one real e-cigarettes, and the other a placebo. The studies reach a broadly similar
conclusion to a large, real-world study called the Smoking Toolkit run by West. West's investigation
follows people in their daily lives and assesses how successful various methods of giving up smoking are
- this includes nicotine patches, medicines and going cold turkey. These studies suggest that people using
e-cigarettes to help them quit are 50% to 100% more successful than those who use no aids at all.
(I) In his paper, Glantz acknowledges there are limitations to the research that he analysed. He agrees
there are problems with the way the use of e-cigarettes is measured and accepts it's not clear which
devices people are using. But he is sticking by his analysis because he believes he has taken these factors
into account. The editor of Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Emma Grainger, defends the article too. She
says she does not see a problem with the paper and that it has been through the normal peer-review
process.
Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A–I.

Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 17–25 on your answer sheet.
17. Possible damage
18. Shocking news
46
19. Mix of different studies
20. Misleading information
21. Types of e-cigarettes
22. A place where the controversial research was written
23. The defence of the article
24. A research by an e-cigarette industry
25. The consistent evidence
Questions 26–28
26. New controversial research suggests that e-cigarettes:
A. make it easier to quit smoking
B. make it harder to quit smoking
C. don't play a major role in quitting smoking
D. the research doen't answer this question
27. Ann McNeill critisized the research because:
A. the majority of other researches disagree with this review
B. the definition of e-cigarettes is a bit loose
C. some information is either inaccurate or misleading
D. the analysis mashed together some very different studies
28. This article aims at:
A. finding the truth about e-cigarettes, providing facts
B. showing that the e-cigarettes are worthless
C. promoting the use of e-cigarettes
D. analyzing different scientific researches
READING PASSAGE 3
The battle over the gender price gap
Boots has reduced the price of "feminine" razors to bring them in line with men's. The chemist chain says
it's just an isolated incident, but campaigners say its part of a "pink tax" that discriminates against women.
Who's right and what's the bigger story, ask Jessica McCallin and Claire Bates.
Campaigners against what's been dubbed the "pink tax" - where retailers charge women more than men
for similar products - are celebrating after Boots said it would change the price of some of its goods. A
Change.org petition has already gathered more than 43,000 signatures. The issue has been raised in
Parliament. Paula Sherriff, Labour MP for Dewsbury, called a debate on the issue on Tuesday. She wants
the government to commission independent research to quantify the extent of the problem, arguing that it
amounts to women paying thousands of pounds more over the course of their lives.
47
Stevie Wise, who launched the petition, was driven by a Times investigation which claimed that women
and girls are charged, on average, 37% more for clothes, beauty products and toys. The investigation was
inspired by research in the US which found that women's products are routinely more expensive than
men's. The New York Department of Consumer Affairs had compared the prices of 800 products with
male and female versions and concluded that, after controlling for quality, women's versions were, on
average, 7% more expensive than men's.
Boots says the two examples highlighted in the Change.org petition are exceptional cases, but
campaigners are not so sure. "This is a very exciting response," says Wise. "We are delighted with Boots'
decision, but we now need to get them to look at all of their products, not just the ones highlighted in the
petition. We hope this decision is just the first of many and we may broaden our campaign to focus on
other retailers as well." Wise says that women have been getting in touch with examples of other price
discrepancies from lots of companies and says there seems to be a particular problem with toys and
clothes. Argos has been criticised for identical scooters that cost £5 more if they were pink rather than
blue. Argos said it was an error that had already been rectified and that it would never indulge in
differential pricing.
Among the examples sent to Wise was Boots selling identical child car seats that cost more in pink.
Another retailer was selling children's balance bikes which cost more for a flowery print aimed at girls
than a pirate print aimed at boys. But the latter example already appears to have been tweaked on the
retailer's website, albeit by applying a £10 discount to the flowery version. With many retailers indulging
in complicated algorithms to calculate price, or frequently changing prices around promotions, it's easy
for them to argue that what appears to be a gender price gap is in fact an innocent mistake.
One of the main things that retailers consider when deciding what to charge is what the customer is
willing to pay, argues Mark Billige, UK managing partner at Simon-Kucher, a management consultancy
that advises companies on things like pricing. "They have to consider what it costs to make the product
and what their competitors are charging, but in a world where consumers have lots of choices, willingness
to pay becomes very important as people will vote with their wallets if they don't like the price of a
product. There is something in the fact that women are willing to pay more. Why, I don't know, but it will
probably have something to do with psychology."
When challenged over sexist pricing, both Levi's and Tesco argued that different versions of things could
have different production costs even if appearing fairly similar. Prof Nancy Puccinelli, a consumer
psychologist at Oxford University says that her research suggests that women are actually much more
careful shoppers than men, better able to scrutinise adverts and pricing gimmicks. She wonders if women
are perceiving more value in the more expensive products. "For men, razors are functional, whereas
women may perceive hair removal as more hedonistic, more about self-care, and be more willing to pay
more. But there could also be environmental factors hindering their choices, like product placement in the
store. If products are separated into male and female sections far away from each other it's harder to
scrutinise prices." Such a situation could either be deliberate or accidental but the campaigners are not
convinced.
48
"It's just the tip of the iceberg," says the Fawcett Society's head of policy, Jemima Olchawski. "It's been
happening in plain sight and, to me, it shows that bias against women is ingrained across our society. The
worst thing about it is that women are getting ripped off twice. They are paid less than men and are also
charged more for similar products." The campaign may lead to further changes, but the perennial advice
to shop around remains the same. "There are quite a few comparison websites you can use to see if there's
a price difference," says Sally Francis, senior writer at moneysavingexpert.com. If, as Tesco claim, there
are "additional design and performance features" testing the male and female versions at home should
settle whether they are worth it.
There is an opportunity for some companies, argues Olchawski. "The finding shows the power of
marketing in our lives, how it shapes our perception of what it means to be a man or a women. Some
companies could choose not to play into this, not to play into the stereotypes and rip women off, but
launch products more in tune with moves toward gender equality."
Questions 29–35
Who's responsible for what? Choose A, B, C or D and write your answers in boxes 29–35 on your answer
sheet.
A Stevie Wise
B Mark Billige
C Jemima Olchawski
D Nobody from the above
29. Called a debate on the issue

30. Launched the petition
31. States that women are willing to pay more
32. Says that women are more careful shoppers than men
33. Says that companies should keep in mind gender equality while making products
34. Was told that there are many problems with prices, especially with toys and clothes
35. States that women are getting ripped off twice
Questions 36-40
36. "Pink tax" means that women are being charged more than men for the same products.
Choose
37. Due to the fact that the petition gathered more than 43,000 signatures the issue has been raised in
Parliament.
38. After comparing the prices of 800 products., it was concluded that women's versions were 7% more
expensive than men's.
39. It is hard for the retailers to pretend that the gender price gap is an innocent mistake. Choose
40. If male and female products are situated in different sections, it makes it harder to examine the prices.
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Đề thi số 7
READING PASSAGE 1
How bacteria invented gene editing
This week the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority okayed a proposal to modify human
embryos through gene editing. The research, which will be carried out at the Francis Crick Institute in
London, should improve our understanding of human development. It will also undoubtedly attract
controversy - particularly with claims that manipulating embryonic genomes is a first step towards
designer babies. Those concerns shouldn't be ignored. After all, gene editing of the kind that will soon be
undertaken at the Francis Crick Institute doesn't occur naturally in humans or other animals.
It is, however, a lot more common in nature than you might think, and it's been going on for a surprisingly
long time - revelations that have challenged what biologists thought they knew about the way evolution
works. We're talking here about one particular gene editing technique called CRISPR-Cas, or just
CRISPR. It's relatively fast, cheap and easy to edit genes with CRISPR - factors that explain why the
technique has exploded in popularity in the last few years. But CRISPR wasn't dreamed up from scratch
in a laboratory. This gene editing tool actually evolved in single-celled microbes.
CRISPR went unnoticed by biologists for decades. It was only at the tail end of the 1980s that researchers
studying Escherichia coli noticed that there were some odd repetitive sequences at the end of one of the
bacterial genes. Later, these sequences would be named Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short
Palindromic Repeats - CRISPRs. For several years the significance of these CRISPRs was a mystery,
even when researchers noticed that they were always separated from one another by equally odd 'spacer'
gene sequences.
Then, a little over a decade ago, scientists made an important discovery. Those 'spacer' sequences look
odd because they aren't bacterial in origin. Many are actually snippets of DNA from viruses that are
known to attack bacteria. In 2005, three research groups independently reached the same conclusion:
CRISPR and its associated genetic sequences were acting as a bacterial immune system. In simple terms,
this is how it works. A bacterial cell generates special proteins from genes associated with the CRISPR
repeats (these are called CRISPR associated - Cas - proteins). If a virus invades the cell, these Cas
proteins bind to the viral DNA and help cut out a chunk. Then, that chunk of viral DNA gets carried back
to the bacterial cell's genome where it is inserted - becoming a spacer. From now on, the bacterial cell can
use the spacer to recognise that particular virus and attack it more effectively.
These findings were a revelation. Geneticists quickly realised that the CRISPR system effectively
involves microbes deliberately editing their own genomes - suggesting the system could form the basis of
a brand new type of genetic engineering technology. They worked out the mechanics of the CRISPR
system and got it working in their lab experiments. It was a breakthrough that paved the way for this
week's announcement by the HFEA. Exactly who took the key steps to turn CRISPR into a useful genetic
tool is, however, the subject of a huge controversy. Perhaps that's inevitable - credit for developing
CRISPR gene editing will probably guarantee both scientific fame and financial wealth.
50
Beyond these very important practical applications, though, there's another CRISPR story. It's the account
of how the discovery of CRISPR has influenced evolutionary biology. Sometimes overlooked is the fact
that it wasn't just geneticists who were excited by CRISPR's discovery - so too were biologists. They
realised CRISPR was evidence of a completely unexpected parallel between the way humans and bacteria
fight infections. We've known for a long time that part of our immune system "learns" about the
pathogens it has seen before so it can adapt and fight infections better in future. Vertebrate animals were
thought to be the only organisms with such a sophisticated adaptive immune system. In light of the
discovery of CRISPR, it seemed some bacteria had their own version. In fact, it turned out that lots of
bacteria have their own version. At the last count, the CRISPR adaptive immune system was estimated to
be present in about 40% of bacteria. Among the other major group of single-celled microbes - the archaea
- CRISPR is even more common. It's seen in about 90% of them. If it's that common today, CRISPR must
have a history stretching back over millions - possibly even billions - of years. "It's clearly been around
for a while," says Darren Griffin at the University of Kent.
The animal adaptive immune system, then, isn't nearly as unique as we thought. And there's one feature of
CRISPR that makes it arguably even better than our adaptive immune system: CRISPR is heritable. When
we are infected by a pathogen, our adaptive immune system learns from the experience, making our next
encounter with that pathogen less of an ordeal. This is why vaccination is so effective: it involves priming
us with a weakened version of a pathogen to train our adaptive immune system. Your children, though,
won't benefit from the wealth of experience locked away in your adaptive immune system. They have to
experience an infection - or be vaccinated - first hand before they can learn to deal with a given pathogen.
CRISPR is different. When a microbe with CRISPR is attacked by a virus, the record of the encounter is
hardwired into the microbe's DNA as a new spacer. This is then automatically passed on when the cell
divides into daughter cells, which means those daughter cells know how to fight the virus even before
they've seen it. We don't know for sure why the CRISPR adaptive immune system works in a way that
seems, at least superficially, superior to ours. But perhaps our biological complexity is the problem, says
Griffin. "In complex organisms any minor [genetic] changes cause profound effects on the organism," he
says. Microbes might be sturdy enough to constantly edit their genomes during their lives and cope with
the consequences - but animals probably aren't. The discovery of this heritable immune system was,
however, a biologically astonishing one. It means that some microbes write their lifetime experiences of
their environment into their genome and then pass the information to their offspring – and that is
something that evolutionary biologists did not think happened.
Darwin's theory of evolution is based on the idea that natural selection acts on the naturally occurring
random variation in a population. Some organisms are better adapted to the environment than others, and
more likely to survive and reproduce, but this is largely because they just happened to be born that way.
But before Darwin, other scientists had suggested different mechanisms through which evolution might
work. One of the most famous ideas was proposed by a French scientist called Jean-Bapteste Lamarck.
He thought organisms actually changed during their life, acquiring useful new adaptations non-randomly
in response to their environmental experiences. They then passed on these changes to their offspring.
People often use giraffes to illustrate Lamarck's hypothesis. The idea is that even deep in prehistory, the
giraffe's ancestor had a penchant for leaves at the top of trees. This early giraffe had a relatively short
neck, but during its life it spent so much time stretching to reach leaves that its neck lengthened slightly.
The crucial point, said Lamarck, was that this slightly longer neck was somehow inherited by the giraffe's
51
offspring. These giraffes also stretched to reach high leaves during their lives, meaning their necks
lengthened just a little bit more, and so on. Once Darwin's ideas gained traction, Lamarck's ideas became
deeply unpopular. But the CRISPR immune system - in which specific lifetime experiences of the
environment are passed on to the next generation - is one of a tiny handful of natural phenomena that
arguably obeys Lamarckian principles.
"The realisation that Lamarckian type of evolution does occur and is common enough, was as startling to
biologists as it seems to a layperson," says Eugene Koonin at the National Institutes of Health in
Bethesda, Maryland, who explored the idea with his colleagues in 2009, and does so again in a paper due
to be published later this year. This isn't to say that all of Lamarck's thoughts on evolution are back in
vogue. "Lamarck had additional ideas that were important to him, such as the inherent drive to perfection
that to him was a key feature of evolution," says Koonin. No modern evolutionary biologist goes along
with that idea. But the discovery of the CRISPR system still implies that evolution isn't purely the result
of Darwinian random natural selection. It can sometimes involve elements of non-random Lamarckism
too – a "continuum", as Koonin puts it. In other words, the CRISPR story has had a profound scientific
impact far beyond the doors of the genetic engineering lab. It truly was a transformative discovery.
Questions 1–5
1. The research carried out at the Francis Crick Institute in London is likely to be controversial.
2. Gene editing, like the one in the upcoming research, can happen naturally in humans or other
animals.
3. CRISPR-Cas is a gene editing technique.
4. CRISPR was noticed when the researchers saw some odd repetitive sequences at the ends of all
bacterial genes.
5. A group of American researchers made an important revelation about the CRISPR.
Questions 6–9
6. 'Spacer' sequences look odd because:
A. they are a bacterial immune system
B. they are DNA from viruses
C. they aren't bacterial in origin
D. all of the above
7. The ones, who were excited about the CRISPR's discovery, were:
A. biologists
B. geneticists
C. physicists
D. A and B
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8. Word "learns" in the line 44, 6th paragraph means:
A. determines
B. gains awarness
C. adapts
D. studies
9. What makes CRISPR better than even our adaptive immune system?
A. long history of existence
B. immortality
C. heritability
D. adaptiveness
Questions 10–16
10. Vaccination is so effective, because it involves with a weakened version of a pathogen .
11. CRISPR adaptive immune system works in a way that seems, at least superficially, superior to ours.
But perhaps our is the problem, according to Griffin.
12. Some microbes write their experience into the genome and pass the information to their .
13. Before Darwin, one of the most famous idea was proposed by a scientist, Lamarck.
14. are often used to demonstrate Lamarck's hypothesis.
15. Lamarck's ideas became deeply unpopular as soon as Darwin's ideas .
16. No biologist agrees with Lamarck's idea that inherent drive to perfection is the key feature of
evolution.
READING PASSAGE 2
Museum of Lost Objects: The Lion of al-Lat
(A) Two thousand years ago a statue of a lion watched over a temple in the ancient Syrian city of
Palmyra. More recently, after being excavated in the 1970s, it became an emblem of the city and a
favourite with tourists. But it was one of the first things destroyed during military fightings in the country.
It's said that there are more than 300 words for lion in Arabic. That's a measure of the importance of the
lion in the history of the Middle East. For Bedouin tribes, the lion represented the biggest danger in the
wild - until the last one in the region died, some time in the 19th Century.
(B) The animal was feared and admired and this must explain why a statue of a lion twice as high as a
human being, weighing 15 tonnes, was fashioned by artists in ancient Palmyra. With spiralling, somewhat
loopy eyes, and thick whiskers swept back angrily along its cheek bones, the lion was clearly a fighter,
but it was also a lover. In between its legs, it held a horned antelope. The antelope stretched a delicate
hoof over the lion's monstrous paws, and perhaps it was safe. The lion was a symbol of protection - it was
both marking and protecting the entrance to the temple. But no-one could protect the lion when *IS
53
arrived and wrecked it in May 2015. "It was a real shock, because you know, in a way, it was our lion,"
says Polish archaeologist Michal Gawlikowski, whose team unearthed it in 1977.
(C) For well over 1,000 years, the statue had lain buried in the ruins of the ancient city, though parts
had been used as foundations stones in other buildings. "You could hardly see what it was. I could see it
was a sculpture and an old one for Palmyra, so we decided it was necessary to put it together immediately.
It wasn't apparent from the beginning what this was - and then we found the head, and it became
obvious."
(D) Here are 30 of the approximately 300 Arabic words for "lion": Ghazhanfar, haidera, laith, malik
al-ghaab (king of the jungle), qasha'am, asumsum, hatam, abu libdeh, hamza, nebras, basel, jasaas, assad,
shujaa, rihab, seba'a, mayyas, khunafis, aabas, aafras, abu firas, qaswarah, ward, raheeb, ghadi, abu harith,
dargham, hammam, usama, jaifer, qasqas... Most describe different moods of the lion. For example, hatam
the destroyer, rihab the fearsome, ghazhanfar the warrior, abu libdeh the one with the fur, or the mane. As
luck would have it, Michal had on his team that year the sculptor Jozef Gazy, who enthusiastically took
on the job of restoring the lion. By 2005, though, the lion had become unbalanced and another restoration
job - again led by a Polish team - rebuilt the statue to resemble as closely as possible what is thought to be
the ancient design, with the lion appearing to leap out of the temple wall. After this it was placed in front
of the Palmyra museum.
(E) Across the left paw of the lion is a Palmyrene inscription: "May al-Lat bless whoever does not spill
blood on this sanctuary." The goddess al-Lat was a pre-Islamic female deity popular throughout Arabia,
the descendant of earlier Mesopotamian goddesses such as Ishtar Inanna. "Ishtar Inanna is goddess of
warfare and also love and sex, particularly sex outside marriage," says Augusta McMahon, lecturer of
archaeology at Cambridge University. Al-Lat shared most of these attributes, and like Ishtar Inanna she
was associated with lions. "It's very interesting to find a lion and a female figure in such close association,
and no male deities have the lion - so this is something which is unique to her," says McMahon.
(F) The region's kings, however, were keen to be associated with lions, even if male deities weren't.
Some of the earliest known representations of Mesopotamian leaders, from around 3,500 BC, depict them
engaged in combat with the creatures. "They're not shown fighting or killing other people because that's
almost demeaning," says Augusta McMahon. "They have to have a lion who is the
not-quite-equal-but-near rival - because they're incredibly powerful and sort of unpredictable." This
tradition continues right up to the medieval and early modern period, when Islamic miniatures would
often show scenes of the hunt, of brave princes struggling with lions. The lion was both regal and
untameable, the quintessence of strength and man's ultimate opponent. And today, fathers still love to
name their sons and heirs after this fearsome predator - Osama for example.
(G) The family of Syria's current ruling dynasty went even further. Al-Assad means "the lion" and
different stories are told about how, a few generations ago, they adopted this name. One version says that
Sulayman, great-grandfather of current president Bashar al-Assad, had been given the name al-Wahhish,
or "the wild beast", because of his exploits while waging war on the Ottomans. This had negative
connotations, though - so Sulayman swapped al-Wahhish for al-Assad "the lion". In neighbouring Iraq,
Saddam Hussein even more directly channelled the rulers of times gone by. Some of his fanciful
54
propaganda - often seen in newspapers or even city billboards - would show him posing as an Assyrian
king, trampling on lions while shooting at American missiles with a bow and arrow.
(H) But Saddam didn't have full control over his lion symbolism. One of the many words referring to
lion in Arabic can connote "brazenness" and "audacity", and it was this lion-word that many Iraqis
applied to him. "The lion has several names and one of them is seba'a," says the Iraqi archaeologist Lamia
al-Gailani. "It was considered one the worst things in the culture of the Iraqis this word seba'a because it
gives license to be corrupt. When Saddam did things, people said [they were] seba'a and what he did was
so wrong, so illegal, but he was able to get away with it."
(I) For most people who went to Palmyra, the Lion of al-Lat provided a key photo opportunity. For
London-based Syrian sculptor Zahed Tajeddin, it also provided artistic inspiration. In the early 1990s
Tajeddin held an exhibition in Germany where he produced miniature sculptures of his favourite
archaeological monuments from Syria - including the lion - but by 2015 all had been sold. Fatefully,
though, during the week in May 2015 when IS took Palmyra and destroyed the Lion of al-Lat, he found
the moulds.
(J) "And I thought, OK, that's a message," he says. "And so I reproduced three and put them next to
each other and I painted them in white, red and black to represent the Syrian flag." The lion was often a
symbol of vanity and masculine power. It was the badge of self-aggrandising kings and presidents. But in
Tajeddin's reproductions of the lion of al-Lat, the lion becomes something else - a protest against the
devastation engulfing his country and its ancient heritage.
*IS - Islamic State (of Iraq and the Levant), a terrorist organisation.
Questions 17–25
Reading Passage 2 has ten paragraphs, A-J.
Write the correct letter, A-J, in boxes 17-25 on your answer sheet. Note that one paragraph is not used.
17. Goddess, associated with lions
18. One of the worst words
19. An emblem of the city
20. History of the family name
21. Art exhibition
22. The description of the lion statue
23. Symbolic meaning of the lion's reproduction by Tajeddin
24. Synonyms for word lion
25. Representations of leaders
Questions 26–28
26. Most words for the lion describe different…………. of the animal.
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27. You could often see…………. struggling with lions in Islamic miniatures.
28. The Lion of al-Lat provided an…………. for sculptor Zahed Tajeddin.
READING PASSAGE 3
The Truth About ART
Modern art has had something of a bad press recently - or, to be more precise, it has always had a bad
press in certain newspapers and amongst certain sectors of the public. In the public mind, it seems, art
(that is, graphic art - pictures - and spatial art - sculpture) is divided into two broad categories. The first is
'classic' art, by which is meant representational painting, drawing and sculpture; the second is 'modern'
art, also known as abstract or non-representational. British popular taste runs decidedly in favour of the
former, if one believes a recent survey conducted by Charlie Moore, owner of the Loft Gallery and
Workshops in Kent, and one of Britain's most influential artistic commentators. He found that the man (or
woman) in the street has a distrust of cubism, abstracts, sculptures made of bricks and all types of
so-called 'found' art, He likes Turner and Constable, the great representatives of British watercolour and
oil painting respectively, or the French Impressionists, and his taste for statues is limited to the realistic
figures of the great and good that litter the British landscape - Robin Hood in Nottingham and Oliver
Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament. This everyman does not believe in primary colours,
abstraction and geometry in nature - the most common comment is that such-and-such a painting is
"something a child could have done".
Lewis Williams, director of the Beaconsfield Galleries in Hampshire, which specialises in modern
painting, agrees. "Look around you at what art is available every day," he says. "Our great museums and
galleries specialise in work which is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It may be
representational, it may be 'realistic' in one sense, but a lot of it wouldn't make it into the great European
galleries. Britain has had maybe two or three major world painters in the last 1000 years, so we make up
the space with a lot of second-rate material."
Williams believes that our ignorance of what modern art is has been caused by this lack of exposure to
truly great art. He compares the experience of the average British city-dweller with that of a citizen of
Italy, France or Spain.
"Of course, we don't appreciate any kind of art in the same way because of the paucity of good art in
Britain. We don't have galleries of the quality of those in Madrid, Paris, Versailles, Florence, New York or
even some places in Russia. We distrust good art - by which I mean both modern and traditional artistic
forms - because we don't have enough of it to learn about it. In other countries, people are surrounded by
it from birth. Indeed they take it as a birthright, and are proud of it. The British tend to be suspicious of it.
It's not valued here."
Not everyone agrees. Emily Cope, who runs the Osborne Art House, believes that while the British do not
have the same history of artistic experience as many European countries, their senses are as finely attuned
to art as anyone else's.
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"Look at what sells - in the great art auction houses, in greetings cards, in posters. Look at what's going on
in local amateur art classes up and down the country. Of course, the British are not the same as other
countries, but that's true of all nationalities. The French artistic experience and outlook is not the same as
the Italian. In Britain, we have artistic influences from all over the world. There's the Irish, Welsh, and
Scottish influences, as well as Caribbean, African and European. We also have strong links with the Far
East, in particular the Indian subcontinent. All these influences come to bear in creating a British artistic
outlook. There's this tendency to say that British people only want garish pictures of clowns crying or
ships sailing into battle, and that anything new or different is misunderstood. That's not my experience at
all. The British public is poorly educated in art, but that's not the same as being uninterested in it."
Cope points to Britain's long tradition of visionary artists such as William Blake, the London engraver and
poet who died in 1827. Artists like Blake tended to be one-offs rather than members of a school, and their
work is diverse and often word-based so it is difficult to export.
Perhaps, as ever, the truth is somewhere in between these two opinions. It is true that visits to traditional
galleries like the National and the National Portrait Gallery outnumber attendance at more modern shows,
but this is the case in every country except Spain, perhaps because of the influence of the two most
famous non-traditional Spanish painters of the 20th century, Picasso and Dali. However, what is also true
is that Britain has produced a long line of individual artists with unique, almost unclassifiable styles such
as Blake, Samuel Palmer and Henry Moore.
Questions 29–37
Classify the following statements as referring to
A Charlie Moore
B Lewis Williams
C Emily Cope
Write the appropriate letters A, B or C in boxes 29-37 on your answer sheet.

29. British people don't appreciate art because they don't see enough art around them all the time.
30. British museums aim to appeal to popular tastes in art.
31. The average Englishman likes the works of Turner and Constable.
32. Britain, like every other country, has its own view of what art is.
33. In Britain, interest in art is mainly limited to traditional forms such as representational painting.
34. British art has always been affected by other cultures.
35. Galleries in other countries are of better quality that those in Britain.
36. People are not raised to appreciate art.
37. The British have a limited knowledge of art.
Questions 38–40
38. Many British artists
A. are engravers or poets
B. are great but liked only in Britain
C. do not belong to a school or general trend
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D. are influenced by Picasso and Dali
39. Classic' art can be described as
A. sentimental, realistic paintings with geometric shapes
B. realistic paintings with primary colours
C. abstract modern paintings and sculptures
D. realistic, representational pictures and sculptures
40. In Spain, people probably enjoy modern art because
A. their artists have a classifiable style
B. the most renowned modern artists are Spanish
C. they attend many modern exhibitions
D. they have different opinions on art
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Đề thi số 8
READING PASSAGE 1
Harsh marks 'put pupils off languages'
(A) Harsh and inconsistent marking is putting pupils in England off studying languages beyond age 14, a
report says. The dawn of more rigorous GCSEs will further reduce interest in languages, research by the
British Council and Education Development Trust suggests. It says a focus on maths and sciences, as well
as a perception languages are a hard option, is also de-motivating pupils and teachers.
(B) Exams watchdog Ofqual said last year's languages results were "very stable". From September 2016,
new GCSE and A-level modern language syllabuses will be taught in England, and new exams will be
taken in the summer of 2018. The Language Trends Survey, in its 14th year of charting the state of
language learning in England's schools, suggests these changes - particularly at A-level - will deter pupils
from studying languages. It says: "The exam system is seen as one of the principal barriers to the
successful development of language teaching. "The comparative difficulty of exams in languages in
relation to other subjects, and widely reported harsh and inconsistent marking, are deeply de-motivating
for both pupils and teachers."
(C) The report says the EBacc, where pupils have to study English, a language, maths, science and history
or geography to GCSE, "appears to be having very little impact on the numbers of pupils taking languages
post-16". Uptake after GCSE is found to be a particular concern, with some state schools suggesting the
small numbers of students opting to take languages at A-level means the subject is becoming "financially
unviable".
(D) The proportion of the total cohort sitting a GCSE in a language dropped by one percentage point (to
48%) between 2014 and 2015, ending the rise in entries seen from 2012 onward, when the EBacc was
brought in. Entries for each of the three main languages fell this year compared with 2014, French is
down 6%, German is down 10% and Spanish is down 3%. Overall entries for languages at A-level are at
94% of their 2002 level, and they declined by 3% between 2014 and 2015 - French uptake declined by
1% and German by 2.5% while Spanish uptake rose by almost 15%.
(E) The report does note some positive developments, particularly at primary level, saying just over half
of England's primary schools now have access to specialist expertise in the teaching of languages. But
primary schools report finding it hard to fit languages into the curriculum time available and to recruit
suitably qualified teaching staff. Teresa Tinsley, co-author of the report, said: "Languages are already one
of the harder GCSEs, and teachers fear that with the new exams it will be even tougher for pupils to get a
good grade. "Combine this with the expectation that a wider range of pupils will be sitting the exam and it
is not surprising that teachers feel embattled. "Improving their morale and confidence in the exam system
is crucial if languages are to thrive in our schools."
(F) A spokesman for the exam regulator, Ofqual, said: "We are committed to ensuring that all GCSEs,
AS- and A-levels, including those in modern foreign languages, are sufficiently valid, produce fair and
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reliable results and have a positive impact on teaching and learning. "Last year's results in modern foreign
languages were very stable, with only small changes in the proportions achieving each grade compared to
the previous year. "We have looked into concerns that it is harder for students to achieve the highest
grades in A level languages. "We found this is because of the way the exams are designed, rather than the
nature of the subject content. "We are keeping this under review and will be further publishing
information shortly."
(G) Referring to the new modern foreign language A-levels and GCSEs being taught from this
September, the spokesman added: "Before we accredit a qualification, we check the exams will be
designed to allow good differentiation - including that the best students will be able to achieve the highest
grades - and whether they are properly based on the new subject content."
(H) Mark Herbert, head of schools programmes at the British Council, said: "The country's current
shortage of language skills is estimated to be costing the economy tens of billions in missed trade and
business opportunities every year. "Parents, schools and businesses can all play their part in encouraging
our young people to study languages at school and to ensure that language learning is given back the
respect and prominence that it deserves." Tony McAleavy, director of research and development at the
Education Development Trust, said: "The reduction in pupils opting for GCSE and A-level languages is
concerning, particularly coupled with teachers' lack of faith in the exam system. "Solutions are required to
give languages a firmer place in the curriculum, to make languages more compelling for pupils who find
the examination process a barrier and to boost teacher morale."
Questions 1-8
Choose the most suitable paragraph headings from the list of headings and write the correct letter, A-H, in
boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
1. Data about studying
2. Stable results
3. Heavy economic losses
4. Fairness of the exams
5. A hard option
6. A-level changings
7. The most important thing for languages to be able to prosper
8. Weak influence on pupils
Questions 9-13
Classify the events with the following dates.
A. 2018
B. 2016
C. 2014-2015
D. None of the above
In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write either A, B, C or D.

9. A Drop of GCSE to 48%
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10. New syllabus system arrives in England
11. The start of new exams
12. The rise in entries
13. The decline of French by 1 percent
READING PASSAGE 2
Making sense of scent
With every whiff you take as you walk by a bakery, a cloud of chemicals comes swirling up your nose.
Identifying the smell as freshly baked bread is a complicated process. But, compared to the other senses,
the sense of smell is often underappreciated.
In a survey of 7,000 young people around the world, about half of those between the age of 16 and 30
said that they would rather lose their sense of smell than give up access to technology like laptops or cell
phones.
We're not that acutely aware of our use of olfaction in daily living. In fact, mammals have about a
thousand genes that code for odor reception. And even though humans have far fewer active odor receptor
genes, 5 percent of our DNA is devoted to olfaction, a fact that emphasizes how important our sense of
smell is.
Smell begins at the back of nose, where millions of sensory neurons lie in a strip of tissue called the
olfactory epithelium. Molecules of odorants pass through the superior nasal concha of the nasal passages
and come down on the epithelium. The tips of the epithelium cells contain proteins called receptors that
bind odor molecules. The receptors are like locks and the keys to open these locks are the odor molecules
that float past, explains Leslie Vosshall, a scientist who studies olfaction.
People have about 450 different types of olfactory receptors. (For comparison, dogs have about two
times as many.) Each receptor can be activated by many different odor molecules, and each odor molecule
can activate several different types of receptors. However, the forces that bind receptors and odor
molecules can vary greatly in strength, so that some interactions are better “fits” than others.
The complexity of receptors and their interactions with odor molecules are what allow us to detect a
wide variety of smells. And what we think of as a single smell is actually a combination of many odor
molecules acting on a variety of receptors, creating an intricate neural code that we can identify as the
scent of a rose or freshly-cut grass.
This neural code begins with the nose’s sensory neurons. Once an odor molecule binds to a receptor, it
initiates an electrical signal that travels from the sensory neurons to the olfactory bulb, a structure at the
base of the forebrain that relays the signal to other brain areas for additional processing.
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One of these areas is the piriform cortex, a collection of neurons located just behind the olfactory bulb
that works to identify the smell. Smell information also goes to the thalamus, a structure that serves as a
relay station for all of the sensory information coming into the brain. The thalamus transmits some of this
smell information to the orbitofrontal cortex, where it can then be integrated with taste information. What
we often attribute to the sense of taste is actually the result of this sensory integration.
"The olfactory system is critical when we're appreciating the foods and beverages we consume," says
Monell Chemical Senses Center scientist Charles Wysocki. This coupling of smell and taste explains why
foods seem lackluster with a head cold.
You’ve probably experienced that a scent can also conjure up emotions and even specific memories,
like when a whiff of cologne at a department store reminds you of your favorite uncle who wears the
same scent. This happens because the thalamus sends smell information to the hippocampus and
amygdala, key brain regions involved in learning and memory.
Although scientists used to think that the human nose could identify about 10,000 different smells,
Vosshall and her colleagues have recently shown that people can identify far more scents. Starting with
128 different odor molecules, they made random mixtures of 10, 20, and 30 odor molecules, so many that
the smell produced was unrecognizable to participants. The researchers then presented people with three
vials, two of which contained identical mixtures while the third contained a different concoction, and
asked them to pick out the smell that didn’t belong.
Predictably, the more overlap there was between two types of mixtures, the harder they were to tell
apart. After calculating how many of the mixtures the majority of people could tell apart, the researchers
were able to predict how people would fare if presented with every possible mixture that could be created
from the 128 different odor molecules. They used this data to estimate that the average person can detect
at least one trillion different smells, a far cry from the previous estimate of 10,000.
This number is probably an underestimation of the true number of smells we can detect, said Vosshall,
because there are far more than 128 different types of odor molecules in the world. And our olfaction is
quite powerful comparing to other mammals. For example, marine animals can detect only water-soluble
odorants.
No longer should humans be considered poor smellers. “It’s time to give our sense of smell the
recognition it deserves,” said Vosshall.
Questions 14-19
14. In general, olfaction and sense of taste are considered equally important.
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15. About 7,000 young people around the world would prefer losing their sense of smell than access to
laptops.
16. Odor reception is an integral function of all mammals.
17. Superior nasal concha is compared to a lock and odor molecules are like keys that are used to open it.
18. Cats have two times as many olfactory receptors as humans.
19. We are able to detect a lot of different scents because of a variety of odor receptors, which translate
impact of molecules into a neural code.
Questions 20-25
20. The part of our brain responsible for identifying the smell is called ……….. .
21. The ……….. is a region in our brain that serves as a transition station for all sensory information that
we receive.
22. Sense of smell is closely related to ……….. .
23. ……….. and ……….. are involved in arousing memories caused by specific smells.
24. The experiment proved that the average person can discriminate between at least ……….. smells.
25. Sea mammals can smell only odorants that are ……….. in water.
READING PASSAGE 3
Cognitive dissonance
(A) Charles Darwin said, “This not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but
the one most responsive to change.” So you've sold your home, quit your job, shunned your colleagues,
abandoned your friends and family. The end of the world is nigh, and you 'know for a fact' that you are
one of the chosen few who will be swept up from the 'great flood' approaching on 21st December at
midnight to be flown to safety on a far off planet. And then midnight on 21st December comes around
and there is no flood. No end of the world. No flying saucer to the rescue. What do you do? Admit you
were wrong? Acknowledge that you gave up position, money, friends - for nothing? Tell yourself and
others you have been a schmuck? Not on your life.
(B) Social psychologist Leon Festinger infiltrated a flying saucer doomsday cult in the late 1950s. The
members of this cult had given up everything on the premise that the world was about to self destruct and
that they, because of their faith, would be the sole survivors. In the lead up to the fateful day, the cult
shunned publicity and shied away from journalists. Festinger posed as a cultist and was present when the
space ship failed to show up. He was curious about what would happen. How would the disappointed
cultists react to the failure of their prophecy? Would they be embarrassed and humiliated? What actually
happened amazed him.
(C) Now, after the non-event, the cultists suddenly wanted publicity. They wanted media attention and
coverage. Why? So they could explain how their faith and obedience had helped save the planet from the
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flood. The aliens had spared planet earth for their sake - and now their new role was to spread the word
and make us all listen. This fascinated Festinger. He observed that the real driving force behind the
cultists' apparently inexplicable response was the need, not to face the awkward and uncomfortable truth
and 'change their minds', but rather to 'make minds comfortable' - to smooth over the unacceptable
inconsistencies.
(D) Festinger coined the term 'cognitive dissonance' to describe the uncomfortable tension we feel when
we experience conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions), or engage in behavior that is apparently
opposed to our stated beliefs. What is particularly interesting is the lengths to which people will go to
reduce the inner tension without accepting that they might, in fact, be wrong. They will accept almost any
form of relief, other than admitting being at fault, or mistaken. Festinger quickly realized that our
intolerance for 'cognitive dissonance' could explain many mysteries of human behavior.
(E) In a fascinating experiment Festinger and his colleagues paid some subjects twenty dollars to tell a
specific lie, while they paid another group of subjects only one dollar to do the same. Those who were
paid just one dollar were far more likely to claim, after the event, that they had actually believed in the lie
they were told to tell. Why? Well, because it's just so much harder to justify having done something that
conflicts with your own sense of being 'an honest person' for a mere pittance. If you get more money, you
can tell yourself: 'Yeah, I lied, but I got well paid! It was justified.' But for one dollar? That's not a good
enough reason to lie, so what you were saying must have been true in the first place, right?
(F) Emotional factors influence how we vote for our politicians much more than our careful and logical
appraisal of their policies, according to Drew Westen, a professor of psychiatry and psychology. This may
come as little surprise to you, but what about when we learn that our favored politician may be dishonest?
Do we take the trouble to really find out what they are supposed to have done, and so possibly have to
change our opinions (and our vote), or do we experience that nasty cognitive dissonance and so seek to
keep our minds comfortable at the possible cost of truth?
(G) Cognitive dissonance is essentially a matter of commitment to the choices one has made, and the
ongoing need to satisfactorily justify that commitment, even in the face of convincing but conflicting
evidence. This is why it can take a long time to leave a cult or an abusive relationship - or even to stop
smoking. Life's commitments, whether to a job, a social cause, or a romantic partner, require heavy
emotional investment, and so carry significant emotional risks. If people didn’t keep to their
commitments, they would experience uncomfortable emotional tension. In a way, it makes sense that our
brains should be hard-wired for monitoring and justifying our choices and actions - so as to avoid too
much truth breaking in at once and overwhelming us.
(H) I guess we can't really develop unless we start to get a grip and have some personal honesty about
what really motivates us. This is part of genuine maturity. If I know I am being lazy, and can admit it to
myself, that at least is a first step to correcting it. If, however, I tell myself it's more sensible to wait
before vacuuming, then I can go around with a comfortable self-concept of 'being sensible' while my
filthy carpets and laziness remain unchanged. Cognitive dissonance can actually help me mature, if I can
bring myself, first, to notice it (making it conscious) and second, to be more open to the message it brings
64
me, in spite of the discomfort. As dissonance increases, providing I do not run away into self-justification,
I can get a clearer and clearer sense of what has changed, and what I need to do about it.
And then I can remember what Darwin had to say about who will survive…
Questions 26-33
Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A–H. Choose the most suitable headings for these paragraphs
from the list of ten headings below. Write the appropriate number i-x in the text boxes 26-33. There are
more paragraph headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.
List of headings:
i. Leon Festinger: On being stood up by the aliens
ii. Dishonest politicians? Never!
iii. Mind manipulation: the true reason of strange behaviour
iv. You can't handle the truth!
v. The catastrophe of 21st December
vi. Grow up - make cognitive dissonance work for you
vii. How many dollars would you take to tell a lie?
viii. Revealing mysteries: Darwin was right.
ix. Cognitive dissonance: who are you kidding?
x. The high cost of commitment exposes us to cognitive dissonance
26. Passage A
27. Passage B
28. Passage C
29. Passage D
30. Passage E
31. Passage F
32. Passage G
33. Passage H
Questions 34-40
34. After the space ship didn’t show up on the fateful day, the members of flying saucer doomsday cult
A. didn’t want to admit the uncomfortable truth and still believed that the world would self destruct.
B. were embarrassed and humiliated because of their failure.
C. wanted media attention to say that they saved the planet.
35. The main reason why people fight cognitive dissonance is
A. a desire to reduce the inner tension.
B. people’s unwillingness to accept their mistakes.
C. wish to avoid the awkward feeling of lying for not a good reason.
36 During the experiment, people who were telling lies were more likely to claim that they believed in the
lie if
A. they were paid less.
B. they were paid more.
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C. they felt uncomfortable because of lying
37. Commitment to the choices someone has made, and the ongoing need to justify that commitment,
despite the conflicting evidence can be explained by the fact that
A. it causes uncomfortable emotional tension.
B. commitments require heavy emotional investment.
C. our brain always justifies our choices.
38. The big part of genuine maturity is the ability of
A. sensible reasoning.
B. disregarding cognitive dissonance.
C. being honest with yourself.
39. According to the text, which of the situations below is NOT an example of cognitive dissonance?
A. A man learns that his favored politician is dishonest, but continues to vote for him.
B. A woman doesn’t want to do vacuuming, but convinces herself that otherwise her carpet will
remain filthy and finally does it.
C. A woman has been dating with her boyfriend for five years. Everyone tells her that it’s an
abusive relationship because he often beats and humiliates her, but she doesn’t want to leave her
romantic partner.
40. Charles Darwin quote from the beginning of the text implies that
A. cognitive dissonance helps us to change and therefore makes us more enduring species
B. people often accept almost any form of relief, rather than admitting being at fault, to survive.
C. fighting the discomfort caused by cognitive dissonance is a survival mechanism developed
during the evolution.
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Đề thi số 9
READING PASSAGE 1
We French do love to demonstrate
We French do love to demonstrate
(A) Josiane Bertrand has a small family business - a neighbourhood charcuterie selling sausage, poached
pigs' trotters, pate and jellied pig snouts. Her ham, she says, is the best in Paris and her queue of
customers is long. Despite the ceaseless rain outside - among all its other woes, France is now flooding -
it's a convivial crowd waiting to be served, and the animated conversation is all about strikes.
(B) If the opinion pages of Le Monde are to be believed, the charcuterie queue is a pretty accurate
reflection of the mood of the country. Split, roughly half and half, between those for the Work Bill and
those against. Philippe's 28. He's landed what most French would regard as a dream job. He's a
fonctionnaire working in local government. A fonctionnaire is an employee of the French state in almost
any form of public administration and service. It's a job for life - with solid pay and conditions, fixed
working hours, a good pension, generous holidays. So, what many young French people aspire to is not to
change the world - explore, create, set-up alone - but, with self-employment difficult and taxes punitive,
they dream of becoming steadily employed bureaucrats.
(C) Philippe knows he's lucky. And he's against any change. "I'm happy," he says. "I know exactly where
I am and where I'll be in 40 years' time, with a good pension." Eleonore, who has four children, two of
them dancing around the shop as they wait, is in her early 40s. As a secondary school teacher she has also
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got a job for life and generous state benefits. But, unlike Philippe, she's all for change. "It can't go on like
this. For every person like me, there are 20 or more with no hope at all," she says.
(D) A quarter of all French people under 25, many of them well-qualified, have no work. A large number
of those are from immigrant families, making their chances of employment even slimmer. These are the
kind of people who voted Francois Hollande into the presidency in 2012, with his pledge to end the
country's employment troubles.
(E) Now he's made a new promise, putting his own political career on the line - he's not running for
re-election next spring unless he cuts unemployment. A bold move for a president with an approval rating
of only 14% in a country riven by industrial disputes. Along with his prime minister, Manuel Valls, and
Pierre Gattaz - known as the "boss of bosses", president of Medef, the largest federation of employers in
France - Hollande stands against the combined power of the country's two biggest unions.
(F) The proposed Work Bill runs to over 500 pages. It aims to simplify and liberalise the French Work
Code which, at 3,689 pages, is a vast labyrinth beset with perils for employers. The unions won't even
consider negotiations until the bill is removed from parliament. The president and his allies refuse to
change a word of it. "It's a good law, good for France," says Hollande. The result? Total stalemate. An
ongoing siege. Just after one o'clock on the glassed-in terrace of a popular restaurant on the Boulevard
Montparnasse, and everything begins to go quiet. The traffic disappears from the street. Cordons of riot
police move in, three columns deep, flanked by armoured vans. There's a whirr of helicopters overhead.
(G) In the distance, a gathering roar and blare - the protesters. The noise becomes deafening. The riot
police take up positions. Frederique, the waiter, temporarily locks the doors - and those having lunch find
themselves exhibits in a kind of transparent, gastronomic showcase along with various grilled fish, bottles
of wine and assorted desserts. Looking in from the outside, hundreds of protesters passing down the
boulevard, some marching, others ambling, a few dancing to music booming from the accompanying
floats. Looking out from the inside, the lunchers. The lunchers comment on the demonstrators, the
demonstrators wave cheerily at the lunchers. There's general resigned, amused talk amid the eating -
"Here we go again," and "Where will this round end?" And self-deprecating comments such as, "We
French do love to demonstrate…"
(H) Then it all subsides, passes on, the noise, the marchers, the red balloons and pounding music, leaving
a trailing wake of litter. Frederique unlocks the doors. The conversation leaves the political, returns to the
personal. Similar reforms have already been implemented in Italy and Spain. Germany did so long ago -
its unemployment, at 5%, is less than half that of France, which according to some commentators here
now stands alone as the last bastion of 20th Century-style socialism in Europe.
Questions 1-8
Which paragraph contains what information? Choose the headings and write the correct letter, A-H, in
boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.
1. A bold promise
2. Similar reforms in other countries
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3. A refusal to change the law
4. Unemployment rate statistics
5. The dream of young French people
6. Different opinions
7. Best ham in all Paris
8. The demonstration itself
Questions 9-13
9. Most french would say that Philippe has a very good job.
10. Eleonore and Philippe have same views on the situation.
11. 25% of all people in France have no job.
12. Francois Hollande might not run for re-election next year.
13. The French Work Code is concidered simplier than the proposed Work Bill.
14. The unemployment rate in Spain is less than in Italy.
READING PASSAGE 2
How I was floored by a tick
When Allan Little began to feel ill, he knew almost immediately what it was - Lyme Disease. But getting
a medical diagnosis, and treatment, took a lot longer. I'd been going for years to the same little town in
New England and Lyme Disease is everywhere there. You can't walk more than a few hundred metres in
the countryside without coming across a public health notice warning you not to get bitten by a deer tick.
So the intense headache, the aching limbs, the burning joints, the ferocious fever and night sweats that hit
me in a matter of hours, a few days after I'd got back to London, were all consistent with what I'd read
about the condition. I went to a London GP, who wasn't convinced. She took a blood sample and advised
me to go home, rest, and take paracetamol. The next day, the blood test came back. It was negative for
Lyme. My condition grew worse. I could hardly stand up. I called another doctor, who came to my house.
He was also sceptical. He took another blood test. This too came back negative. But he gave me a
prescription for powerful painkillers which made me feel well enough to get on a train to Edinburgh, my
home town.
Within three hours of arriving at Waverley Station I was an in-patient in the Infectious Diseases
Department of the city's Western General Hospital: diagnosis, Acute Lyme Disease. By now I had found
the tick bite and the distinctive livid red rash, about six inches in diameter. (To be fair to those London
GPs, I hadn't noticed it when I'd consulted them.)
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"It's attacked your liver," the Edinburgh Consultant said. "You have three distinct kinds of liver
inflammation". I made a lame sick-bed joke: "You're sure that's not like Lager-and-Lime Disease then?"
She laughed politely and reassured me that that would look quite different. Why then had both blood tests
come back negative? Dr Roger Evans of Raigmore Hospital in Inverness is one of the UK's leading Lyme
Disease researchers. "In early Lyme Disease," he told me, "the test is not reliable because no antibodies
have been produced. In the first few weeks of infection, you could test negative, but still have Lyme
Disease."
This is a problem for GPs, especially in urban centres where Lyme Disease is unfamiliar. Lyme is not a
viral infection. It's bacterial. GPs will not prescribe antibiotics if they think you're showing symptoms of a
viral infection - and it does look and feel like a bad case of flu, or chronic fatigue syndrome, neither of
which can, or should, be treated with antibiotics. "In the early weeks of infection, when the blood test is
not reliable," says Evans, "the GP needs to assess the patient clinically, looking for other symptoms that
identify Lyme Disease." In other words, symptoms that distinguish it from flu.
If you have been bitten:

Remove the tick as soon as possible - the safest way is to use a pair of fine-tipped tweezers, or a tick
removal tool
Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible, pull upwards slowly and firmly, as mouthparts left in the
skin can cause a local infection
Once removed, apply antiseptic to the bite area, or wash with soap and water and keep an eye on it for
several weeks for any changes
Contact your GP if you begin to feel unwell and remember to tell them you were bitten by a tick or have
recently spent time outdoors
Catching it early is vital. Angela Howard fell ill with Lyme Disease in the 1990s. She had never heard of
it. Her doctor, she says, told her to go home and see whether her symptoms persisted. It was only when a
visiting American friend saw the distinctive rash - concentric red rings around the place where the tick
bite had occurred that she realised she might have Lyme Disease. She says her doctor was still reluctant to
diagnose Lyme. "Doctors say you can only get this abroad - that it comes from overseas. But I hadn't been
abroad. I'd been picnicking in Wiltshire." She was not treated early and her symptoms have persisted for
years.
There is an accumulation of anecdotal evidence that Lyme Disease often goes undiagnosed. One problem
is that no-one knows how prevalent it now is. It is not a notifiable disease in the National Health Service -
doctors are not required to inform a central database when they diagnose it. So there is no reliable
evidence of how widespread it is, or where in the country you are most likely to get it. Roger Evans at
Raigmore Hospital wants to remedy that.
"We're using Scotland as a pilot study," he said. "We're trying to create maps of areas where there's a risk
of tick exposure. We're using satellite data from the European Space Agency to create an app that will
give information, but which will also be interactive, so that users can put in information about where
they've been bitten and whether the Lyme Disease rash has appeared." Why has Lyme, which 30 years
ago seemed largely limited to a small area of New England - Lyme is the town in Connecticut where it
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was first identified - now so prevalent across the continental USA and in Europe? One theory is climate
change: that small gradations in climate can create new habitats for micro-organisms, or keep them alive
and active for longer.
I was struck, at the time of my own treatment, that awareness was far greater in Scotland than in England
and Wales. And awareness of the condition is vital to catching it early. For when you catch it early,
treatment is easy and in most cases successful. It floors you though. It took me four or five months to get
my strength and stamina back. It is a debilitating and dangerous illness and there is no doubt that it is
getting more common. You can get it in the Scottish Highlands, in Devon and Cornwall, in Richmond
Park in London and probably in your own back garden - anywhere where there are small furry animals on
whose skins a deer tick can live. If you get it, you can get treatment. But take it from me: it really helps if
you know what it is you've got.
Questions 15-22
15. Alan had no doubt about his illness from the beginning.
16. Both blood tests were negative for Lyme Disease.
17. Alan didn't become a Waverley Station patient for more than 3 hours.
18. Blood tests were inaccurate because they were taken unprofessionaly.
19. Lyme Disease is very unfamiliar in the UK.
20. When bitten, you should remove the tick, preferably with a tool.
21. After you remove the tick and apply antiseptic, you should take paracetamol.
22. It is advise to contact a doctor, if you feel ill after removing the tick.
Questions 23-27
23. Angela's friend recognized the Lyme Disease as soon as she saw the rash.
24. One problem is, it's unknown how Lyme Disease is nowadays.
25. Roger Evans says that they try to create maps of Scotland where there's a risk of .
26. The one possible reason for Lyme Diseaes to move all over the world is .
27. You can catch the disease even in your own back
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READING PASSAGE 3
Structure and function of cell membranes
(A) Human body is made up of millions of cells - little building blocks of life. Each cell contains many
functional subunits (organelles) that enable its proper functioning and is protected from the external
environment by a cell membrane. While structure and function of organelles are extensively covered in
various biology courses, the importance of study of cell membranes is often underrated. This article is
dedicated to provide a short introduction into the basic functions and anatomy of a cell membrane.
(B) Cell membranes protect and organize cells. Most importantly they serve as barriers, discriminating the
cell’s interior from the outer milieu. Because cells always exist in aqueous environment their membranes
should be structured in such way so they do not solve in water. This function is ideally carried by special
chemical molecules - phospholipids. These molecules are constructed from two parts: tails made up of 2
molecules of fat that ‘avoid’ water and heads that have an affinity for water. For this specific behaviour
the phospholipid’s tails are called hydrophobic (‘hydro’ means water and ‘phobia’ means fear) and heads
are called hydrophilic (‘philos’ means love). When phospholipids are added to water, they self-assemble
into double-layered structures, shielding their hydrophobic portions from water and exposing their
hydrophilic portions to the environment. This phospholipid bilayer may resemble a sandwich, where
phospholipid heads are bread rolls and tails are the sandwich filling.
(C) In addition to lipids, membranes are loaded with proteins. They usually go through the lipid bilayer
and are exposed to both aqueous environment and cell's interior. In fact, proteins account for roughly half
the mass of most cellular membranes. They make the membrane semi-permeable, which means that some
molecules can diffuse across the lipid bilayer but others cannot. Small hydrophobic molecules and gases
like oxygen and carbon dioxide cross membranes rapidly. Small molecules, such as water and ethanol,
can also pass through membranes, but they do so more slowly. On the other hand, cell membranes restrict
diffusion of highly charged molecules, such as ions, and large molecules, such as sugars and amino acids.
The passage of these molecules relies on specific transport proteins embedded in the membrane.
(D) Membrane transport proteins are specific and selective for the molecules they move, and they often
use energy to enhance passage. Also, these proteins transport some nutrients against the concentration
gradient, which requires additional energy. The ability to maintain concentration gradients and sometimes
move materials against them is vital to cell health and maintenance. Thanks to membrane barriers and
transport proteins, the cell can accumulate nutrients in higher concentrations than exist in the environment
and, conversely, dispose of waste products.
(E) Other membrane-embedded proteins have communication-related jobs. Large molecules from the
extracellular environment, such as hormones or immune mediators, bind to the receptor proteins on the
cell membrane. Such binding causes a conformational change in the protein that transmits a signal to
intracellular messenger molecules. Like transport proteins, receptor proteins are specific and selective for
the molecules they bind.
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(F) Another important type of membrane’s components are cholesterol molecules, which account for
about 20 percent of the lipids in animal cell plasma membranes. However, cholesterol is not present in
bacterial membranes or mitochondrial membranes. The cholesterol molecules are embedded in place of
phospholipid molecules and help to regulate the stiffness of membranes. To function properly, the cell
membrane should be in fluid state. Cholesterol reduces membrane fluidity at moderate temperatures by
reducing the moving of phospholipids. But at low temperatures, it hinders solidification by disrupting the
regular packing of phospholipids.
Questions 28-30
Label the diagram below.
Write NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage for each answer. Do not write the articles.
Which elements of cell membrane correspond to the numbers in the diagram?
28.
29.
30.
Questions 31-35
Reading Passage 3 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 31–35 on your answer sheet.
31. Specific proteins transport nutrients from the external environment against the concentration gradient.
32. The barrier function of cell membranes is supported by a bilayer of phospholipids.
33. The level of membrane fluidity is regulated by cholesterol molecules.
34. The importance of cell membranes are often underestimated.
35. Proteins make the membrane semi-permeable.
Questions 36–40
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.
Cell membranes protect cells and organize their activities. The first main function of cell membrane -
barrier function - is carried by phospholipids. These molecules don’t solve in water and, thus, are ideal for
cells that always exist in 36…………. environment.
In addition to lipids, membranes are loaded with 37…………. that make the membrane 38…………. ,
which means that some molecules can diffuse across the lipid bilayer but others cannot. One of the most
important types of membrane proteins are 39…………. proteins and receptor proteins.
The last type of membrane elements are cholesterol molecules, which are embedded in place of
40…………. molecules and help to regulate the stiffness of membranes.
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Đề thi số 10
READING PASSAGE 1
Phi Phi Island Resort
The “Phi Phi Island Resort” is located in Phi Phi Leh island in Thailand, between the large island of
Phuket and the west Strait of Malacca coast of the mainland. Phi Phi consists of six small islands 46km
south of Phuket. Fine sandy beaches give way to soaring limestone cliffs to form spectacular scenery. Add
crystal clear water, a refreshing lack of roads, plus a laid-back lifestyle, and it's easy to see why Phi Phi is
one of southern Thailand's most popular destinations.
The islands are administratively part of Krabi province. Ko Phi Phi is the largest island of the group, and
is the most populated island of the group, although the beaches of the second largest island, Ko Phi Phi
Leh are visited by many people as well. The rest of the islands in the group, including Bida Nok, Bida
Noi, and Bamboo Island are not much more than large limestone rocks jutting out of the sea. The Islands
are reachable by speedboats or Long-tail boats most often from Krabi Town or from various piers in
Phuket Province.
The islands came to worldwide prominence when Ko Phi Phi was used as a location for the 2000
British-American film The Beach. This attracted criticism, with claims that the film company had
damaged the island's environment, since the producers bulldozed beach areas and planted palm trees to
make it resemble description in the book, an accusation the film's makers contest. An increase in tourism
was attributed to the film's release, which resulted in increases in waste on the Islands, and more
developments in and around the Phi Phi Don Village.
Unlike its larger brother Ko Phi Phi, Phi Phi Leh is a virgin island - it is almost untouched by human
civilization. Surrounded by sheer limestone walls dotted with caves and passages the island's shallow
blue-green lagoons and coral gardens are a snorkeler’s paradise. The island also has two magnificent
beaches, Loh Samah and Maya Bay.
The climate on Phi Phi Leh island is influenced by tropical monsoon winds. There are two seasons: the
rainy season from May till December and the hot season from January till April. Average temperature
ranges between 17–37 degrees Celsius. Average rainfall per year is about 2,231 millimetres, wettest in
July and driest in February.
The “Phi Phi Island Resort” is an eco-friendly hotel that aims at providing excellent service without
hurting the local environment. This dreamy lodging in Thailand is as environmentally friendly as it gets.
The building itself is built with natural materials, such as local stone and wood. Moreover, all utilities
(such as cutlery, hygiene items, towels, kitchen utensils) are made of bio-degradable materials.
The pool is created in the local stone quarry, so that the harmony of local landscape was not infringed.
Since the water in the pool is replete with natural salts and minerals, there is no need in further
disinfection with chlorinated compounds and the pool is absolutely chemical-free.
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The hotel provides soaps, gels and creams, which are all natural and organic. Waste is recycled to the
garden via a bio-cycle septic system, and “Phi Phi Island Resort” uses hydro-electricity from a Pelton
wheel and solar power.
The restaurant values locally sourced products. That’s why only locally grown vegetables and fruits along
with natural sea products are served. The resort ensures that fishing and croppage don’t contravene the
local equilibrium of the island.
Diving and snorkeling at Phi Phi Leh Island are excellent. Many dive companies offer all-inclusive trips
only in this location. And other little secluded islands are accessible from “Phi Phi Island Resort” by
long-tail boats. Visitors can take advantage of the free bike rentals, free shuttle service in an electric
vehicle and even green spa, with all organic products.
On the other hand, this beautiful resort combines the seclusion much sought after in Thailand with
refinement of a 4.5 star resort. Privacy is certain on 70 tranquil acres of swaying coconut palms, fragrant
gardens, and a half-mile of sparkling shore overlooking the crystal Andaman Sea. Spacious and secluded
bungalows conform comfortably to the natural surroundings, welcoming stunning coastal vistas and cool
sea breezes. Stylish furnishings, gracious hospitality and a private 800 metres stretch of pristine white
sand beach lapped by the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea create an idyllic setting for a green and
calm holiday.
Questions 1-8
1. Phi Phi is located 46km south of Phuket.
2. Ko Phi Phi is the largest, though not the most populated island of the group.
3. Islands gained their popularity after Ko Phi Phi was used for a famous film.
4. The increase in tourism had a negative effect on the Ko Phi Phi island.
5. Unlike its larger brother Phi Phi Leh, Ko Phi Phi is a virgin island.
6. There are two seasons on the Phi Phi Leh island: rainy and hot.
7. July is the hottest month on the Phi Phi Leh.
8. The “Phi Phi Island Resort” is very environmentally friendly.
Questions 9-13
9. Due to the fact that the pool is rich in natural salts and minerals, there is no need to use for further
disinfection.
10. The "Phi Phi Island Resort" uses a bio-cycle ………….. to recycle waste.
11. The restaurant serves only natural ………….. products.
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12. Visitors can take free bike rentals, free shuttle service and even………….. .
13. Phi Phi Island Resort has a refinement of a 4.5 ………….. .
READING PASSAGE 2
Sponging dolphins
(A) In 1984, researchers spotted dolphins doing something unusual in Shark Bay, Western Australia.
When the animals got hungry, they ripped a marine basket sponge from the sea floor and fitted it over
their beaks like a person would fit a glove over a hand. The scientists suspected that as the dolphins
foraged for fish, the sponges protected their beaks, or rostra, from the rocks and broken chunks of coral
that litter the sea floor, making this behavior the first example of tool use in this species.
(B) The researchers surmised that a long time ago one ingenious Shark Bay dolphin figured out that by
prodding the sediments with a sponge attached to her beak, she could stir up these swim bladder-less fish
without being hurt. Eventually, such technique became popular among other dolphins. But why do
dolphins go to all of this trouble when they could simply snag a fish from the open sea? The answer is that
the bottom-dwelling fish are a lot more nutritious. Some species also don't have swim bladders, gas
chambers that help other fish control their buoyancy as they travel up and down the water column. In the
Bahamas, where dolphins are also known to forage for bottom-dwelling fish, dolphins hunt partly by
echolocating these bladders, which give off a strong acoustic signal. That helps the cetaceans find prey
even when it's buried in sea sand. But bottom-dwelling fish, such as barred sandperch, which are favored
by some Shark Bay dolphins, don't have swim bladders and so are harder to find with echolocation. The
sea floor is not nearly as soft here as it is in the Bahamas, so if dolphins want to probe for these fish, they
risk injuring their rostra.
(C) Not every dolphin in Shark Bay hunts with sponges. "It's primarily done by females," says Janet
Mann, a behavioral ecologist. She believes the female dolphins invented the method because of the
"selective pressures they face while raising a calf as long as they do," about 4 to 5 years. "These clever
dolphins have figured out a way to target fish that other dolphins cannot," she says, adding that even the
local fishermen do not catch, or even know about, this particular species. Mann's previous research has
shown that dolphin mothers pass the sponging method to their daughters and some of their sons, rare
evidence of a cultural tradition in an animal other than humans. The team has documented three
generations of sponging dolphins.
(D) The foraging technique came to light a few decades ago - very recently in evolutionary terms - when a
local fisherman spotted what looked like a strange tumour on a dolphin’s nose. Researchers eventually
worked out that the ‘tumour’ was a conically shaped sponge and it became apparent that the dolphins
would spend considerable time searching for one the right shape to fit their nose. The sponge is used to
scatter the sand gently on the sea floor and disturb buried fish. When a fish is spotted, the dolphin drops
the sponge and gives chase. "It has been thought that behaviours which are exclusively learnt from one
parent are not very stable. With our model we could now show that sponging can be a stable behaviour,"
said Dr Anna Kopps, a biologist at the University of New South Wales.
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(E) By modelling the emergence of "sponger" dolphins in a computer simulation, the team of researchers
could see different scenarios in which the skill could have spread among the dolphin population over the
years. They then compared the results of these simulations with field data on the genetic relationship
between the spongers, to estimate the role of mothers teaching their offspring in transmitting the skill.
They found that if the likelihood of a sponger's offspring learning the ability was less than certain, the
dolphins that did pick up the technique needed to gain a survival advantage from the skill, in order for the
ability to pass on to the next generation. The model also allowed them to attempt to calculate the date that
the behaviour was likely to have originated."The results suggested that sponging was innovated at least
120 to 180 years ago - it is only a best estimate," said Dr Kopps. Scientists discovered that although
dolphins tried to teach the hunting technique to all their young, it was mainly female offspring that
grasped the concept. Why male offspring rarely acquire the same skill remains unclear, though the team
put forward one possible explanation: male bottlenose dolphins tend to form close bonds with other
males, and such alliances aren't suited to seabed foraging, since it is a time-consuming, solitary activity.
(F) The US scientists say discovering a new tool is a direct sign of intelligence. “There’s a strong link
between animals with larger brains and tool users. Bottlenose dolphins have a brain second in size only to
humans.” said Janet Mann, a marine biologist who led the research. “Dolphins are already good at
catching fish so they don’t need tools, but they’ve discovered this sponge makes their job easier. Working
out how to use tools in a creative way like that is a hallmark of intelligence.” Mann admits we still do not
understand dolphins well. “It’s hard to get inside their heads because their brains are constructed
differently and it’s very hard to analyse their language, but they do seem very intelligent,” she said.
(G) Dolphins are also often seen engaging in playful behaviour and creating tools to use for
entertainment. They have been observed to blow bubbles which they form into rings to play with. After
creating the bubble ring, a dolphin will use its nose and body to maintain the shape of the bubble and keep
it from floating to the surface. The study provides a "better understanding of the why and how of
sponging" by the Shark Bay dolphins, says Louis Herman, a cognitive psychologist. The work "adds to
previously documented" examples of "innovation by this highly intelligent species." Patterson's and
Mann's results also "reinforce a pattern" often seen in other tool-using animals, says Simon Reader, a
behavioral biologist. "Tool use appears to be almost a last option, taken when other options fail or are
unavailable," he says, noting that woodpecker finches in the Galápagos Islands "turn to tool use only in
arid areas," wielding cactus spines to extract grubs from tree branches. Using tools takes time and energy,
Reader says, and animals tend to rely on them only when there's a guaranteed payoff, such as turning up a
fatty fish that most other dolphins (and fishermen) know nothing about.
Questions 14-20
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
14. Hallmark of intelligence
15. Fisrt example of dolphins using tools
16. Tool for entertainment
17. The reason why dolphins go through trouble of getting fish from the bottom of the ocean
18. The evidence of tradition in dolphins
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19. The estimated time of sponging innovation
20. The observation of a local fisherman
Questions 21-25
21. Dolphins use sponges for hunting fish because:
A. they like it.
B. it helps them get fish from the bottom of the ocean.
C. it makes hunting easier.
D. it helps them to get more fish during the hunt.
22. All the following statements about dolphins are true, EXCEPT:
A. Females discovered the method of hunting with sponges.
B. The sponging method is passed by female dolphins to their daughters.
C. Male dolphins never use the sponging technique.
D. Three generations of sponging dolphins have been documented.
23. Biologist Dr. Anna says that
A. sponging is very dangerous for dolphins.
B. dolphins do not inherit sponging method from their parents.
C. she has benn studying dolphins for a few decades now.
D. sponging can be a stable behaviour.
24. With the computer simulation that modeled sponging, researchers
A. managed to find out approximately when sponging was originated.
B. were able to predict the behaviour of dolphins.
C. found out the true reason of sponging.
D. discovered a new way treating dolphins
25. According to Janet Mann
A. bottlenose dolphins have brain as big as humans have.
B. we can understand dolphins well now.
C. dolphins are very intelligent.
D. all of the above.
E.
READING PASSAGE 3
Toddlers Bond With Robot
(A) Will the robot revolution begin in nursery school? Researchers introduced a state-of-the-art social
robot into a classroom of 18- to 24-month-olds for five months as a way of studying human-robot
interactions. The children not only came to accept the robot, but treated it as they would a human buddy -
hugging it and helping it - a new study says. "The results imply that current robot technology is
surprisingly close to achieving autonomous bonding and socialization with human toddlers," said
Fumihide Tanaka, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego
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(B) The development of robots that interact socially with people has been difficult to achieve, experts say,
partly because such interactions are hard to study. "To my knowledge, this is the first long-term study of
this sort," said Ronald Arkin, a roboticist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who was not involved
with the study. "It is groundbreaking and helps to forward human-robot interaction studies significantly,"
he said.
(C) The most successful robots so far have been storytellers, but they have only been able to hold human
interest for a limited time. For the new study, researchers introduced a toddler-size humanoid robot into a
classroom at a UCSD childhood education center. Initially the researchers wanted to use a 22-inch-tall
model, but later they decided to use another robot of the QRIO series, the 23-inch-tall (58-centimeter-tall)
machine was originally developed by Sony. Children of toddler age were chosen because they have no
preconceived notions of robots, said Tanaka, the lead researcher, who also works for Sony. The
researchers sent instructions about every two minutes to the robot to do things like giggle, dance, sit
down, or walk in a certain direction. The 45 sessions were videotaped, and interactions between toddlers
and the robot were later analyzed.
(D) The results showed that the quality of those interactions improved steadily over 27 sessions. The tots
began to increasingly interact with the robot and treat it more like a peer than an object during the first 11
sessions. The level of social activity increased dramatically when researchers added a new behavior to
QRIO's repertoire: If a child touched the humanoid on its head, it would make a giggling noise. The
interactions deteriorated quickly over the next 15 sessions, when the robot was reprogrammed to behave
in a more limited, predictable manner. Finally, the human-robot relations improved in the last three
sessions, after the robot had been reprogrammed to display its full range of behaviors. "Initially the
children treated the robot very differently than the way they treated each other," Tanaka said. "But by the
end they treated the robot as a peer rather than a toy."
(E) Early in the study some children cried when QRIO fell. But a month into the study, the toddlers
helped QRIO stand up by pushing its back or pulling its hands. “The most important aspect of interaction
was touch”, Tanaka said. “At first the toddlers would touch the robot on its face, but later on they would
touch only on its hands and arms, like they would with other humans”. Another robotlike toy named
Robby, which resembled QRIO but did not move, was used as a control toy in the study. While hugging
of QRIO increased, hugging of Robby decreased throughout the study. Furthermore, when QRIO laid
down on the floor as its batteries ran down, a toddler would put a blanket over his silver-colored "friend"
and say "night-night."
(F) "Our work suggests that touch integrated on the time-scale of a few minutes is a surprisingly effective
index of social connectedness," Tanaka says. "Something akin to this index may be used by the human
brain to evaluate its own sense of social well-being." He adds that social robots like QRIO could greatly
enrich classrooms and assist teachers in early learning programs. Hiroshi Ishiguro - robotics expert at
Osaka University in Japan - says, "I think this study has clearly reported the possibilities of small, almost
autonomous humanoid robots for toddlers. Nowadays robots can perform a variety of functions that were
thought to be incident to people only - in short time we’ll have electronic baby-sitters and peer-robots in
every kindergarten," said Ishiguro, who was not involved with the study but has collaborated with its
authors on other projects.
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(G) Now this study has taken a new direction - the researchers are now developing autonomous robots for
the toddler classroom. "I cannot avoid underlining how great potential it could have in educational
settings assisting teachers and enriching the classroom environment," Tanaka said. However, some
scientists don’t share his opinion.
(H) Arkin, the Georgia Tech roboticist, said he was not surprised by the affection showed by the toddlers
toward the robot. "Humans have a tremendous propensity to bond with artifacts with any or all sort,
whether it be a car, a doll, or a robot," he said. But he also cautioned that researchers don't yet understand
the consequences of increased human-robot interaction. "Just studying how robots and humans work
together can give us insight into whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for society," Akrin said. "What
are the consequences of introducing a robot artifact into a cadre of children? How will that enhance, or
potentially interfere with, their social development? It might make life easier for the teacher, but we really
don't understand the long-term impact of having a robot as a childhood friend, do we?"
Questions 26-32
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 26-32 on your answer sheet. You may use any letter more than
once.
26. Changes in toddler-robot interactions quality.
27. Comparison of two different robots.
28. The fact that previous robots could maintain people’s interest only for a short time.
29. The importance of touch.
30. The new direction of the study.
31. Technical parameters of the introduced robot.
32. The significance and novelty of the conducted study.
Questions 33-37
Connect each of the statements below with the name of scientist who expressed it. Answer A, B, or C to
questions 33-37.
A Fumihide Tanaka
B Ronald Arkin
C Hiroshi Ishiguro
33. Robots will perform duties of baby-sitters in the nearest future.
34. By the end of the study children treated the robot as a living creature rather than a toy.
35. The long-term impact of having a robot as a childhood friend can be negative.
36. The conducted study is the first major study of this sort.
37. Robots can be used in classrooms and assist teachers
.
Questions 38-40
80
38. For the study, researchers introduced a toddler-size humanoid robot that was
A. 58-inch-tall
B. 22-inch-tall
C. 23-inch-tall
D. 45-inch-tall
39. The researchers sent instructions to the robot to perform different actions EXCEPT
A. laugh
B. dance
C. sit down
D. crawl
40. The toddlers began to increasingly interact with the robot during
A. the first 11 sessions
B. the next 15 sessions
C. the first 27 sessions
D. the last 15 sessions
81

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