MOCK TEST 8 – ANSWER KEY

I. LISTENING (50 POINTS)

Part 1.
1. FALSE - a summer job, not long-term employment
2. TRUE - there have been a few who didn’t find it easy to get there on time in the morning
3. TRUE - most callers would be people wanting to check the balance on their cards.
4. FALSE - women make up around 55 per cent of the total.
5. FALSE - What kind of experience is needed – None really.

Part 2.
6. journal Nature
7. remission
8. cancer
9. highly resistant
10. Berlin patient
11. critical components
12. antiretroviral therapy

Part 3.
13. C – So we decided to put this unique ability to communicate to good use in helping young people
express themselves.
14. B – Once you can express yourself through movement, it’s easier to open up verbally.
15. D – Also, because we don’t suppress emotions, we let them loose, they’re forced to deal with
whatever is ailing them, any anxieties they may have.
16. A - When I worked with professionals, I noted that, through their training, no matter what type, they
had learnt to express their emotions but not betray their personalities. With the teenagers it was the
opposite. We can already see their personalities but their emotions are suppressed. It was this insight
that showed me how effective this venture could be.
17. C - Actually, it’s not whether someone will dance or how well they dance that’s determined by
their personality but rather how they dance. There was a study conducted to see if you could tell a
person’s personality from the way they moved and the findings were emphatically yes. It seems we
can’t hide who we are when we dance. Be we an extrovert, neurotic, conscientious, open-minded or
agreeable, it all comes out on the dance floor. 

Part 4.
18.cables
19. response times
20. connective tissue
21. network slicing
22. Mobile World Congress
23. cost
24. trials
25. patchy

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II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (20 POINTS)

Part 1.
26.B 27.C 28.C 29.B 30.B 31.C 32.D
33.A 34.C 35.A 36.C 37.B 38.B 39.B

Part 2.
40. hearty
41. priceless
42. mischievous
43. subsides: become calmer
44. overcoming
45. equilibrium: a state of balance, especially between opposing forces or influences

III. READING (50 POINTS)

Part 1.
46. stiff - bored stiff: extremely unhappy
47. money – can not do sth for love nor money: impossible to do sth
48. fray
49. means
50. sit
51. come
52. limited
53. mind
54. unit
55. comprehensive

Part 2.
56 FALSE
57 FALSE
58 NOT GIVEN
59 FALSE
60 TRUE
61 TRUE
62 TRUE
63 TRUE
64 workplace
65 acquaintances
66 conversations
67 Internet
68 cities

Part 3.
69 B
70 E
71 A
72 G
73 D
74 C
75 F

Part 4.
76 A
77 C
78 D
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79 B
80 C
81 D
82 A
83 B
84 C
85 B

Part 5.
86 E
87 C
88 D
89 B
90 A
91 A
92 B
93 E
94 D
95 C

IV. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. (15pts)
Contents (10 points):
- The summary MUST cover the main points
- The summary MUST NOT contain personal opinions.
Language use (5 points)
The summary:
- should show attempts to convey the main ideas of the original text by means of paraphrasing
(structural and lexical use),
- should demonstrate correct use of grammatical structures, vocabulary, and mechanics (spelling,
punctuations,....),
- should maintain coherence, cohesion, and unity throughout (by means of linkers and transitional
devices).
Penalties:
- A penalty of 1 point to 2 points will be given to personal opinions found in the summary.
- A penalty of 1 point to 2 points will be given to any summary with more than 20% of words
copied from the original.
- A penalty of 1 point to 2 points will be given to any summary longer than 130 words or shorter
than 90 words.
Sample:
The extract depicts the history and future of parabiosis. Parabiosis is the combination of two circulatory
systems, which involved two rats in Benjamin Kamrin’s experiment. Initially intended to pinpoint sugar
as the cause for tooth decay, parabiosis was later employed by other researchers, who found that linking
two rats could benefit elderly ones. However, there exist several pitfalls such as the risk of
incompatibility between immune systems and outside blood and hostility-driven attacks among rats.

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Despite earlier stigma surrounding parabiosis, the author believes that its role in decelerating ageing can
be applied to humans, as suggested by recent findings.

Part 2. (15pts)
Contents (10 points):
- The report MUST have at least 2 paragraphs covering the following points:
 Introduce the charts (2 points) and state the overall trends & striking features (2 points)
 Describe main features with relevant data from the charts and make relevant comparisons
(6 points)
- The report MUST NOT contain personal opinions. (A penalty of 1 point to 2 points will be given
to personal opinions found in the answer.)
Language use (5 points)
The report:
- should demonstrate a wide variety of lexical and grammatical structures,
- should have correct use of words (verb tenses, word forms, voice,…); and mechanics (spelling,
punctuations,....).

Sample:
The bar chart compares the number of visits made by people in six age categories to hospital emergency
wards in Northern Ireland in the December of 2016 and 2017.

It is clear that elderly people and the youngest children were the most frequent visitors to A&E (accident
and emergency) departments. Also, there was a slight increase in the rate of emergency care attendances
among all six age groups from December 2016 to December 2017.

Looking first at the older age groups, roughly 65 people, per 1000 population, aged 75 and over
attended A&E wards in December 2016, and this rose to almost 70 attendances per 1000-population one
year later. Interestingly, those aged 65 to 74 were less than half as likely to require emergency
treatment, with around 30 attendances per 1000-population in both months.

At the other end of the age scale, the figures for A&E visits by under-5s rose marginally from around 50
to approximately 52 per 1000-population over the one-year period. Children aged 5 to 15 made the
fewest visits, at just over 20 per 1000-population in both months. Finally, there was almost no difference
in the figures for emergency care attendances among people aged 16 to 44, 45 to 64 and 65 to 74.

Part 3. (30 points)

The mark given to part 3 is based on the following criteria:
1. Task achievement: (10 points)
a. ALL requirements of the task are sufficiently addressed.
b. Ideas are adequately supported and elaborated with relevant and reliable explanations,
examples, evidence, personal experience, etc.
2. Organization: (10 points)
a. Ideas are well organized and presented with coherence, cohesion, and unity.
b. The essay is well-structured:
 Introduction is presented with clear thesis statement.
 Body paragraphs are written with unity, coherence, and cohesion. Each body
paragraph must have a topic sentence and supporting details and examples when
necessary.

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  Conclusion summarises the main points and offers personal opinions (prediction,
recommendation, consideration,…) on the issue.
3. Language use: (5 points)
a. Demonstration of a variety of topic-related vocabulary
b. Excellent use and control of grammatical structures
4. Punctuation, spelling, and handwriting (5 points)
a. Correct punctuation and no spelling mistakes
b. Legible handwriting

Sample:
With the dramatic rise of biotechnology and the anti-ageing industry, many claim that humans can
expect to live a longer life and make greater contributions to society. Others, meanwhile, oppose such
idea as extending the human life span could interfere with the natural development of human beings or
become repugnant to cultural views. From my perspective, ageing is an inevitable process, although it is
obvious that longer life span brings about some benefits.

For one thing, there are cogent reasons why we should embrace ageing. Firstly, everything from
intelligence to longevity seems to be encoded in our genes and is beyond our control. Ageing is a
biological process and it is unavoidable. Human body will change and become weaker with time as
during the process of ageing, an organism accumulates damage to its macromolecules, cells, tissues and
organs. Furthermore, human beings will also be culturally and socially obsolete as time goes by. Society
keeps developing and the way people live and interact will soon come under drastic change. Therefore,
living longer, in some cases, just means facing up with more difficulties and failing to catch up with the
world, not to mention obliterating the generational shift that occurs over time. Secondly, longevity could
lead to a massive increase in global population. Such issue can result in complex problems such as
shortage of land, aggravated pollution, traffic congestion and a heavier burden on younger generations
who have to take care of elders. The current world has already been occupied with such troubles and it
would be harder to handle if these are exacerbated. And finally, the attempt to cure ageing may backfire.
Extension of maximum lifespan in humans could be achieved by hormone therapy and alternative
medicine. Unfortunately, the use of purported anti-ageing products such as supplements and hormone
replacement has not been proven to be effective or safe and some of them have even been criticized for
possible dangers and side-effects. After all, the pursuit of immortality is merely a narcissistic fantasy.

For another thing, if human nature could be changed, there would be some merits to society as a whole.
Increased lifespan often leads to increased healthspan, which in turn lowers the socioeconomic cost for
caring for the old. If we could achieve lifespan extension in human, we would not only live longer but
also spend most of twilight years disease-free. Humans, therefore, can enjoy greater level of life
satisfaction and contribute more to the community by spending more years learning, working or just
simply doing voluntary work. However, movies that have no endings will no longer be movies. The
human life is analogous, and living longer disrupts the story of what is necessarily human.

In conclusion, should we embrace our end, or should we cure ageing will remain a headache for
mankind in the 21st century? In my opinion, despite the merits that lifespan elongation can bring about,
we should accept the basis of human nature, which is the endless cycle of birth, ageing and death.

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V. SPEAKING (20 POINTS)

Introduction:

As access to safe food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health, food hygiene is always high
on the agenda. In Viet Nam, food safety issues have become a crippling burden, deteriorating public
health and tarnishing the reputation of businesses, restaurants and food stores. Some effective measures
need to be adopted to tackle this nagging problem.

Body:

1. During the past years, Vietnam has witnessed the prevalence of unsafe amounts of foods.

- Basically, it is due to people’s low awareness of food safety procedures.

+ farm production with high use of agricultural inputs such as antibiotics, pesticides and chemical
fertilisers

+ poorly regulated practices (cooking and storage) of households and other small producers.

- Food contamination exerts negative impacts on Vietnamese society as a whole.

+ the burden of food-borne diseases and food poisonings in Vietnam, ranging from infections, diarrhoea
to cancers.

+ the reputation of Vietnam as a major exporter of farm produce is suffering

+ local food production may be put at risk as food safety concerns motivate consumers to purchase more
imported foods.

2. In order to solve this problem, various strategies can be implemented.

- Education at school should focus on acquainting students with food-related knowledge.

- Conduct campaigns, to raise people’s awareness of the negative effects of contaminated and poisonous
food on public health

- Set certain standards of food hygiene

- Introduce stricter rules

Conclusion:

All things considered, the current food safety situation in Viet Nam is not positive owing to poor
awareness of the general public and the misconduct of several businesses but as long as feasible
solutions are taken properly, it is just a matter of time to completely eliminate the problem.