PRACTICE TEST 9 SECTION B - LEXICO & GRAMMAR (2.0 points) Part 1. For each sentence, choose one answer A, B, C or D that best fits in each blank. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (0.5 point) 1. | know you didn’t want to upset me but I’d sooner you me the whole truth yesterday. A. could have told B. told C. have told D. had told 2. All is a continuous supply of the basic necessities of life. A. what is needed B. for our needs C. the thing needed D. that is needed 3. They attempted to the painting to its original. A. renovate B. restore C. repaii D. refurbish 4. They came to inspect the house buying it. A. in the event of B. with reference to C. with a view to D. on account of 5. Those students had to burn the midnight before they became successful physicists. ‘A. coal B. light C. lamp D.oil 6. Before the firm closed down, it made 500 workers é A. obsolete B. unemployed C. redundant D. extra 7. Cable TV revolutionized communication is now threatened by satellites. . the very existence of that service A. moreover B. consequently C. eventually D. nevertheless 8. It was by chance that we managed to find her. A. sheerly B. purely C. plainly D. highly 9. The strike was owing to a last-minute agreement with the management. A. broken up B. called off C. come through D. set back 10. I wish you’d do the accounts. I don’t have for numbers. A. ahead B.amind C. the heart D. the nerve Trang 3/12 Scanned with CamScannerYour answers: 1 2 3. 4. 5. 6. 2 8. % 10. Part 2. In each sentence, there is ONE error. Choose the underlined part A, B, C or D that needs correcting, then correct it. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning (0). (0.5 point). Example: 0. I (A) have (B) studied English (C) since seven (D) years now. 1. The automobile, (A) along with several other important inventions (B) have increased (C) our quality of life (D) remarkably. 2. The food (A) cooked (B) in the kitchen was giving (C) up (D) a wonderful smell. 3. The more (A) frequent you (B) exercise, the (C) greater physical endurance you (D) will have. 4. We stopped (A) taking pictures (B) because the area had some (C) of the (D) most awesome scenery. 5. He is really (A) annoyed when he is (B) always interrupting me and (C) asking silly (D) questions. Your answers: 0c Q 2 3. 4 5. > for Part 3, For each sentence, supply the correct form of the word provided in brackets. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (1.0 point) 1. The operation could (LONG) his life by three or four years. 2. They lost the battle, despite (NUMBER) __the enemy by two to one. 3. You can never be sure what the man is going to do. He is so (PREDICT) 4. That news conference was (SPEAK). boring! 5. Please keep emails short, (BRIEF) makes everyone's lives easier. 6. She stood there completely (EXPRESS) , so I had no idea at all what she was thinking. 7. Union members expressed their (APPROVE) of the management's offer by walking out of the meeting. 8. Before enrolling on a course, you should first ensure that it has been (VALID) by an officially recognized body. 9. He was fined £500 and (QUALIFY) from driving for three years. 10. It is thought that the food was not exposed to (SUFFICIENCY) high temperatures to rid it of infection. Your answers: L 6. Trang 4/12 Scanned with CamScanner2 1 2 8. 4. % 5. 10. SECTION C. READING (3.0 points) Part 1. Read the text below and think of ONE word which best fits each gap. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning (0). (1.0 point). ISLAND LIFE a small island may seem very inviting to the tourists who spend a few weeks there in the summer, but the realities of living on (1) is virtually a rock surrounded by water are quite different from what the casual visitor imagines. Although in summer the island villages are (2) of people, life and activity, (3)_______ the tourist season is over, many of the shop owners shut (4)____ their businesses and return to the mainland to spend the winter in town. (5) to say, those who remain on the island, (6)_____by choice or necessity, face many hardships. One of the worst of these is isolation, with so many attendant problems. When the weather is bad, which is often the (7) in winter, the island is entirely cut off; this (8) _____ not only that people cannot have goods delivered but also that a medical emergency can be fatal to someone confined to an island. At (9) » telephone communication is cut off, which means that no word from the outside world can get through. Isolation and loneliness are basic reasons why so many people have (10) ___ the islands for a better and more secure life in the mainland cities. Life (0) Your answers: 0. on lL 2 3. 4 5. 6. 1 8. 9% 10. Part 2. Read the text below and choose the best answer A, B, C or D for each gap. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (0.5 point) Have you ever (1) why we dream? It seems such an easy question, but itis very difficult to answer. Most scientists agree that we don't yet know what purpose dreams (2) . Given the amount of time we spend in a dreaming (3) . this may at first seem baffling. However, it isn't really surprising when we consider that science is still (4) the exact purpose and function of sleep itself. Scientists have (5) a number of theories as to why we dream, but as yet no single consensus has emerged. Some experts are (6) the opinion that in all likelihood dreaming has no real purpose. They maintain that sleep probably has a biological function (allowing the body and the brain to recuperate), but that dreaming is merely a mental (7) , nothing but a sequence of Trang 5/12 Scanned with CamScannerimages and feeling experienced while sleeping. Other scientists, on the other hand, believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. They suggest that dreams are (8) triggered by the feelings we experience while we are awake, such as fear, anger or love. This is why dreams are more frequent and intense following powerful emotional experiences, especially stressful or traumatic ones. According to this theory, such dreams allow the mind to (9) sense of the emotional experiences, (10) suggests that they help us both to reduce the distress caused by the trauma, and to cope better if further traumatic or stressful events occur. 1. A. wondered B. thought C. speculated D. reflected B. carry C. complete D.do . condition B. circumstance C. position D. state 4. A. unwinding B. unravelling C. separating D. untying 5. A. put out B. put off C. put forward D. put on 6. A. of B.in C. at D. on TA. act B. activity C. action D. procedure 8. A. somewhat B. somehov C. anyhow D. anyway 9, A. do B. get 7 make, D. take 10. A. this B. anc D. which Your answers: 1. 2 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9% 10. Part 3. Read the text below and choose the best answer A, B, C or D for each of the following questions. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (0.4 point) People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy - one plate, one spoon, one knife, one fork, for each of the five chairs. Soon they are capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons, and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment. Of course, the truth is not so simple. In the twentieth century, the work of cognitive psychologists illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped - or, as the case might be, bumped into - concepts that adults take for granted, as they refused, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short stout glass into a tall thin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a Trang 6/12 Scanned with CamScannerpile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers - the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that applies to any class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table - is itself far from innate. 1, What does the passage mainly discuss? A. Trends in teaching mathematics to children B. The use of mathematics in child psychology C. The development of mathematical ability in children D. The fundamental concepts of mathematics that children must learn 2. It can be inferred from the passage that children normally learn simple counting A. soon after they learn to talk B. by looking at the clock C. when they begin to be mathematically mature D. after they reach second grade in school 3. The word “illuminated” is closest in meaning to A. illustrated B. accepted clarified D. lighted 4, The author implies that the most small children believe that the quantity of water changes when it is transferred to a container of a different A. color B. quality C. weight D. shape 5. According to the passage, when small children were asked to count a pile of red and blue pencils, they ‘A. counted the number of pencils of each color B, guessed at the total number of pencils C. counted only the pencils of their favorite color D. subtracted the number of red pencils from the number of blue pencils 6. The word "prerequisite" is closest in meaning to A. reason B. theory C.requirement —_D. technique 7. The word “itself” refers to A. the total B. the concept of abstract numbers C. any class of objects D. setting a table 8. With which of the following statements would the author be LEAST likely to agree? A. Children naturally and easily learn mathematics. B. Children learn to add before they learn to subtract. C. Most people follow the same pattern of mathematical development. D. Mathematical development is subtle and gradual. Your answers: 1. 2 3. 4. 5. 6. 2 8. Part 4, You are going to read four paragraphs about people who made predictions. For each question below, choose one person A, B, C or D. The people may be chosen ‘Trang 7/12 Scanned with CamScannermore than once. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (0.5 point) Predicting The Future? A- Arthur C. Clarke Arthur C. Clarke began writing science fiction in the 1930s. Many ideas and elements from his stories, which are set on space stations and distant planets, have become reality here on Earth, For example, in a novel he wrote in 1951, Clarke predicted the 1969 Moon landing, though he suggested that this would probably not occur until 1978. Sometimes his abilities to see into the future are uncannily accurate. The orbit for communications satellites is named after him because in 1945 he suggested precisely where it should be located. Nevertheless, Clarke does not believe that he - or anybody else for that matter - can see into the future. Instead, he says, he simply tries ‘to outline possible “futures” while pointing out that totally unexpected inventions or events can make any forecasts absurd after a very few years.” In 1999, he did make a list of some of the events that he thought might happen during the 2st century. Most of these were positive develonments because he believes that it is always better to be optimistic about the future. B- Jules Verne Before he died in 1905, Jules Verne wrote almost sixty novels in which he described a world very like the one we live in today. He predicted inventions such as planes, movies, guided missiles, submarines, air conditioning and the fax machine. Between 1865 and 1870, Verne wrote two novels about space exploration in which an aluminium craft launched from central Florida achieves a speed of 24,500 miles per hour, circles the Moon and splashes down in the Pacific. A century later Apollo 8, made of aluminium and travelling at 24,500 miles per hour, did just that. Of course, not all of what Verne predicted has actually become a reality. For example, in Propeller Island he wrote about a 10-square-mile island that could be moved from one part of the world to another. He was right about the submarine, though, to the astonishment of his contemporaries. He dismissed their claims that he could see into the future saying that nothing he wrote about was "beyond the bounds of actual scientific knowledge”. C- Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus) Nostradamus has been given credit for prophesying dozens of important historical episodes, most recently the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers in September 2001. Born in 1503 into a wealthy family, he left home in 1522 to study medicine. He then worked as a physician and invented some effective medicines for the treatment of the bubonic plague. Perhaps as a result of the tragic loss of his wife and children to the plague in 1538, he spent the rest of his life formulating prophecies. Nostradamus claimed an angelic spirit helped him understand the relationship between the movements of the stars and planets and what occurred on Earth. Over the years, Nostradamus followers have noted hundreds of instances where his book, The Centuries, apparently describes modern events. Critics say that the way Nostradamus wrote is very vague and imprecise and that his prophecies are of deaths, wars and natural disasters, which, unfortunately, occur again and again throughout history. This makes it easy for people to find what seem like connections between his writings and actual events. Trang 8/12 Scanned with CamScannerD- Edgar Cayce Edgar Cayce made his name in the first half of the last century as a psychic healer and clairvoyant. According to his followers, he predicted the two world wars and the stock market crash of 1929, More disturbing still were prophecies of geological upheavals that would lead to the destruction of whole areas of the United States’ coastline sometime before 1998. Cayce was from a humble background and left school when he was still very young. He claimed that his ability to heal and see into the future came to him via a vision of a winged figure clothed in white. Many people believe Cayce's explanation for his abilities because they consider that such a simple person could not have known many of the things he mentioned in his diagnoses and predictions. Nevertheless, as critics point out, he worked in a bookshop for several years and was a voracious reader. He would inevitably have acquired a good knowledge of a range of subjects during that time. Which person: 1. had formally studied a science? 2. surprised other people by predicting an invention? 3. gave his name to a scientific development? 4, had a job that helped him learn what he needed to know? 5, predicted good things that might happen? 6. used language that is easily misinterpreted? 7. was exactly right about an important scientific event? 8. only predicted bad things? 9, had very little formal education? 10. was accurate about an event but wrong about the date? Your answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. %. 10. Part 5. The article below has seven sentences which have been removed. Choose from sentences A-H the one which best fits each gap. There is one extra sentence that you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning (0). (0.6 point) Laughter Tharapy Whenever you see a group of people rolling about with laughter, you want to know one thing: what's the joke? If Julie Whitehead is responsible for it, the answer is that there simply is no joke, (0) . Whitehead is at the forefront of moves to make laughter an integral part of the National Health Service in Britain. Whitehead's movement, Laughter Yoga, was started in Mumbai by a man called Dr Kataria, and has spread to groups around Europe. Several groups and charities, involving comedians, coaches and clowns, are working with health service doctors who realise that joy and happiness have a serious role in the treatment of patients. Professor Duncan Geddes, a consultant in chest medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, says: ‘Laughter is an important medicine. It is an expression of happiness, and happiness is good for all of us in three main ways. (1) . Laughter therapy is Trang 9/12 Scanned with CamScannerdeveloping fast and new research is looking into the ways that laughter happens, how it stimulates the brain and how it makes us all healthier and happier’. Whitehead says, ‘Laughter has wonderful health benefits and, unlike most drugs, there are no side-effects. It's also free. (2) . She adds: 'New research at Indiana State University compared groups of people who watched either comedy films or a boring tourist film, and found the group who laughed had their immune system boosted by 40 per cent.’ Whitehead's laughter sessions last around an hour and a quarter. We start by clapping hands, and saying ‘ho, ho ho, ha, ha ha’, while maintaining eye contact with each other. (3) Other exercises involve laughing higher and higher. This can all feel excruciatingly embarrassing, but the idea is that soon it should turn into real laughter. When Dr Kataria first developed the concept of Laughter Yoga, he tried using jokes. Not everyone, however, laughs at the same gags, so instead the club used simulated laughter exercises, They have the same physical benefits for breathing and circulation. There is also a psychological side, as Whitehead explains: ‘We encourage childlike openness. (4) __. It builds confidence and helps you look people in the eye,’ she claims. Meanwhile, ‘clown doctors’ are being introduced into British hospitals to make sick children laugh themselves back to health. (5) . I toured the hospital with them in the early days, and was amazed at their warmth and depth of emotional generosity. It takes a lot to bring joy to a building filled with sick children, The project has proved a lasting success and now a team of nine clowns works in a growing number of hospitals, entertaining about 27,000 children and their families every year. But it's not all 'hee-hee, ha-ha’ for pioneers of healthy humour. When Roland Schutzbach and his partner, Christine Fleur de Lys, both from Switzerland, tried to cheer up the Scottish town of Aberdeen, the locals failed to see the gag. Last month, the pair took to the streets dressed in bright red-and-orange wigs, enormous spectacles, huge ties and angel wings at the start of a three-year mission to look for the ‘laughter cities’ of Europe. (6) "Aberdeen is a difficult case,’ Schutzbach admits. ‘People did not laugh with us. They did not even look at us." ‘A- That's why it doesn’t make the drug companies very happy! B- Instead, it’s part of a deadly serious form of medical treatment. C- The first two were introduced to a children’s hospital in London almost ten years ago. D- Next we do the lion laugh, a yogic practice that involves sticking out your tongue. E- For this reason, most people are reluctant to laugh freely when they are surrounded by strangers. F- But the couple found that their style of humour failed to amuse the Scots. G- In order to achieve this, we play silly games and sing nursery rhymes, breaking down inhibitions. H- It stimulates the body's defences, reduces pain and helps recovery from illness. ‘Your answers: (0). B 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Trang 10/12 Scanned with CamScannerSECTION D. WRITING (1.5 points) Essay writing “Face-to-face communication is better than other types of communication, such as letters, e-mail, or telephone calls”. ‘To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Write an essay of 180-200 words to express your ideas using explanations, relevant examples, or both to support your opinion. Write your answers in the space provided. Trang 11/12 Scanned with CamScanner