BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA THPT

ĐỀ THI CHÍNH THỨC

NĂM HỌC 2019 - 2020

Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH

Thời gian: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi thứ nhất: 27/12/2019 SỐ PHÁCH
Đề thi có 12 trang

● Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển.

● Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm.
_______________________________________________________________

l. LISTENING (50 points)

HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
• Bài nghe gồm 4 phần, mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 10 giây; mở đầu và kết thúc mỗi phần
nghe có tín hiệu.
• Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có nhạc hiệu. Thí sinh có 02 phút để hoàn chỉnh bài trước nhạc hiệu kết thúc bài
nghe.
• Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh đã có trong bài nghe.

Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to part of a radio program about online dating and decide whether the
statements are True (T) or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
1. There are nearly 395 million online dating users worldwide.
2. The dating service app named Morno has the greatest number of subscribers in China.
3. 70% of interracial marriages in the U.S. result from online dating services.
4. The app Bumble is unconventional in that women can take a proactive role there.
5. Britain has witnessed a great increase in the number of sexual predators.
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Part 2. For questions 6-10, listen to part of a news report about a natural disaster In Venice and answer the
questions. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS taken from the recording for each answer.

6. In addition to people's residences, what were damaged by the three record-high tides?
_____________________________________________
7. Except for the sidewalks, what parts of St Mark's Basilica were also soaked in saltwater?
_____________________________________________
8. What are put between the wet book pages to absorb the water?
_____________________________________________
9. What does tie Moses project construct to hold back tie tide?
_____________________________________________
10. What factor besides human incapability has accounted for the delays in the Moses project?
_____________________________________________

Page 1 of 13 pages
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to an interview with Kevin Langtree, who has Just been voted Best Young
Chef of the Year and choose the answer A, B, C or D which fits best according to what you hear. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. How does Kevin account for his success?
A. He tries to love every minute of the work.
B. He learns a lot from the diversity of food and people he meets.
C. He envisions how takeaway meals will become in the future.
D. He learns to stop being unkind towards fast food.
12. What is Kevin's opinion about fish and chips?
A He is ambivalent about having them every day.
B. He finds them indispensable in Britons' diet.
C. He thinks they do not bring the diversity that he loves.
D. He wants to incorporate them into food from different countries.
13. What does Kevin think about restaurants and takeaways in Britain?
A. Finding a parking slot to have meals is a major problem.
B. Chey should be restructured to display more variety
C. Too many of them are from India and China.
D. They're all very difficult to get to without a car.
14. What does Kevin Say about the American fast-food outlets?
A. Thev target children and young people. B. They are cheaper than the other restaurants.
C. They make every customer look cool. D. They are slowly taking over other fast-food outlets.
15. On mentioning root vegetables, what point does Kevin want to make?
A. British people are becoming more and more xenophobic.
B. There is greater choice, but imported foodstuffs are expensive.
C. The root vegetables produced in Britain in the past were best.
D. Cosmopolitan food reflects a generally less insular society.

Your answers:
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a radio presenter named Finbarr Baird discussing reports in the news
about first-born children being the smartest siblings and complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN
THREE WORDS taken from the recording in each blank.

• Baird is not happy with deceptive (16) __________________________ appearing in the news this week.
• According to research. the reason for first-borns' superior performance lies in more parental care taken of
them, rather than their (17) ________________________________.
• Baird suggests it is natural for parents to feel (18) ____________________________ on the birth of their
second child and subsequent children.
• The research confirmed that first-borns get (19) ___________________________ in the early days of
childhood and this gives them an advantage, which is evident from as early as one year of age.
• Such advantage is repeatedly manifested in (20) ____________________________.
• The research accounts for what scientists term (21) ____________________________, which sees children
born later into a family being more likely to earn and achieve less.
• As a matter of fact, it is only (22) _________________________ that is missing for younger siblings at times;
the (23) ____________________________ they enjoy is more or less the same as that for first-borns.
• The conclusions drawn from the research make sense to Baird as (24) ____________________________
from parents for each of their kids is disproportionate to number of children they have.
• Much as Baird finds the research interesting and useful in confirming our intuitions, he is annoyed by the
(25)____________________________ which is why he wants to explain the findings clearly.

Page 2 of 13 pages
ll. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (20 points)
Part 1. For questions 26-40, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each of the following questions. Write
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
26. The Egyptian archeologists discovered an enormous quantity of ________ in the tombs of the Pharaohs, including
dainty gold and silver cups.
A. bequests B. legacies C. heirlooms D. artefacts
27. He ________ a gift out of his suitcase and handed it to his son.
A. demonstrated B. embraced C. produced D. exhibited
28. The older generation find contemporary art utterly ________.
A. impenetrable B. unreformable C. impassable D. inveterate
29. The detective is ________ at straws since theres almost no clue to the identity of the killer.
A. clutching B. clinging C. clustering D. clasping
30. The road is packed with vehicles! That's ________ at rush hour!
A. a going concern B. a hue and cry C. par for the course D. part and parcel
31. As Jerry hasn’t put any effort into his work, he doesn't seem ________ worried about his prospects.
A. scandalously B. lavishly C. unduly D worthlessly
32. The candidate was ________ by furious advocates of his opponents when delivering a speech yesterday/
A. heckled B. scrutinized C. dissected D. extolled
33. He has just finished a _________ of compulsory military service.
A. bout B. stint C. patch D. spurt
34. It's no good constantly complaining but at the same time totally ________. You have to do something to help
yourself.
A. idle B. apathetic C. worried D. enraged
35. I ________ it to him that he was lying to me, but he persisted in denying it.
A. talked B. got C. laid D. put
36. The defence counsel convincingly ________ the evidence against the accusation of the state prosecutor.
A. saw about B. vouched for C. set forth D. seized on
37. The professors research made a great contribution to community, _________ that it was funded by the
government.
A. as far as B. so long as C. even so D. so much so
38. They say he was a ________ dictator, but the list of human rights abuses during his reign speaks volumes about
the contradiction to this.
A. benevolent B. vicious C. callous D. depraved
39. I think it would be better for your grandfather to get to the same clinic he was in the previous time; the
physiotherapist is compassionate and besides, he _________ there.
A. takes the lead B. passes the buck C. does wonders D. knows the ropes
40. Having messed around for a lengthy period of time, he eventually made up his mind to put his ______ to the
wheel.
A. hand B. shoulder C. knee D. foot
Your answers:
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

Part 2. For questions 41-45, write the correct form of each bracketed word in each sentence in the numbered
space provided in the column on the right.
Your answers:

41. Mia's teachers said her behaviour had been so (ERRANT) lately that we might 41. __________________
have to take her out of school.
42. __________________
42. Johnny is such a (COMPANY) chap. Ifs a delight to spend time with him.

43. The museum boasts a superb collection of World War Il (MEMORY). 43. __________________

44. The ovemight attack of the police took the criminals (AWARE); they were all
44. __________________
arrested.

45. Breeding animals in captivity can help to avoid the genetic dangers of
(BREED) small populations of endangered species.
Page 3 of 13 pages
 45. __________________

Ill. READING (50 points)

Part 1. For questions 46-55, read the text below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each gap. Write
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
WOMEN'S RIGHTS
It is fewer than 100 years since women were finally and fully (46) _______ in the United Kingdom. Women
over the age of 30 were allowed to vote in 1918, provided they met minimum (47) ________ qualificabons. In other
words, if they didn't own or part-own a house or flat, for example, they would not be (48) ________ the vote. It was not
until 1928 that women were given the same rights as men, (49) ________ to vote from the age of 21. The voting age
was then (50) ________ for both men and women in the U.K. in 1969, which was around the time when many women
had begun fighting for equality with men in the home and in the workplace. The Women's Liberation Movement began
in the 1960s and was (51) _______ with issues such as equal opportunities, equal pay and domestic violence.
Traditionally, it had been almost impossible for women to be (52) ________, especially if they were married and had
children. They were usually financially dependent on their husbands. Things had only begun to change for women
towards the end of the nineteenth century when they were allowed to keep any money they earned with the
introduction of the first Married Women's Property Act in 1870. Women gained a little more independence in 1964
when this act was (53) ________ and women were allowed to keep half of any savings they might have made from
money their husbands gave them for housekeeping. Today, women in countries like the U.K. have the same rights as
men (54) ________ the law. This, however, is not the case for a great many other women all over the world, So the
(55) ________ for female emancipation goes on.
46. A. liberated B. enfranchised C. emancipated D. freed
47. A. formal B. proper C. property D. material
48. A. granted B. approved C. offered D. accepted
49. A. being allowed B. allowing C. having allowed D. having been allowed
50. A. plunged B. declined C. fallen D. reduced
51. A. dealt B. interfered C. associated D. concerned
52. A. emancipated B. entitled C. seIf-sufficient D. self-complacent
53. A. corrected B. revised C. improved D. abolished
54. A. according B. in terms of C. over D. under
55. A. combat B. struggle C. competition D. fighting

Your answers:
46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

Part 2. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
CRITICAL THINKING
Society has long cherished the ability to think beyond the ordinary, and in a world where knowledge is revered
and innovation equals progress, those able to bring forth greater insight and understanding are destined to make their
mark. ‘Critical thinking as an attitude is embedded in Western culture. There is a belief that argument is the way to
finding truth,’ observes Adrian West, research director at the Edward de Bono Foundation U.K., and a former computer
science lecturer at the University of Manchester.
Although there's little debate that information technology complements - and often enhances - the human mind
in the quest to retain information and process an ever-growing tangle of bits and bytes, there's increasing concern that
the same technology is changing the way we approach complex problems and conundrums, and making it more
difficult to really think. ‘We're exposed to greater amounts of poor yet charismatic thinking, the fads of intellectual
fashion, opinion, and mere assertion,’ says West. ‘The wealth of communications and information can easily
overwhelm our reasoning abilities.’ Whats more. its ironic that ever-growing piles of data and information do not
equate to greater knowledge and better decision-making. Whats remarkable, West says, is just ‘how little this has
affected the quality of our thinking.’
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, literary reading has declined 10 percentage points, and the
rate of decline is accelerating. Many, including Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and
director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, believe that a greater focus on visual media exacts a toll.
‘A drop-off in reading has possibly contributed to a decline in critical thinking,’ she says. 'There is a greater emphasis
on real-time media and multitasking rather than on a single thing.' Nevertheless, the verdict isn't in and a definitive
answer about how technology affects critical thinking is not yet available. Instead, critical thinking lands in a mushy
swamp somewhere between perception and reality, measurable and incomprehensible.

Page 4 of 13 pages
 Arriving at a clear definition for critical thinking is tricky. One Source describes it as 'purposeful and reflective
judgment about what to believe or what to do in to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or
arguments.' Overlay technology and thafs where things get complex. We can do the critical-reasoning operations
without technology as we can with it - just at different speeds,' West says.

Moreover, while it's tempting to view computers, video games, and the Intemet in a largely good or bad way,
the reality is that they may be both. and different technologies, systems, and uses yield entirely different results. For
example, a computer game may promote critical thinking or detract from it. Reading on the Internet may ratchet up
one's ability to analyze while chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut deeper thought.
Exposure to technology fundamentally changes the way people think, says Greenfield, who recently analyzed
more than 50 studies on leaming and technology, including research on multitasking and the use of computers, the
Internet, and video games. As visual media have exploded, noticeable changes have resulted, she notes. ‘Reading
enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do
not,’ Greenfield explains. ‘It develops imaginatlon, induction. reflection, and critical thinking. as well as vocabulary.’
However, she has found that visual media actually improve some types of information processing. Unfortunately, ‘most
visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis, or imagination,’ she says. The upshot?
Many people - particularly those who are younger - wind up not realizing their intellectual potential.
How society views technology has a great deal to do with how it forms perceptions about critical thinking. And
nowhere is the conflict more apparent than at the intersection of video games and cognition. James Paul Gee, a
professor of educational psychology and author of What Video Games Have to Teach us about Leaming and Literacy,
points out that things aren't always as they appear. ‘There is a strong undercurrent of opinion that video games aren't
healthy for kids,’ he says. ‘The reality is that they are not only a major form of entertainment, they often provide a very
good tool for learning.’ In fact, an expanding body of evidence indicates that joysticks can go a long way toward
helping children gain better reasoning skills. Games such as Sim City and Civilization extend beyond rote
memorization, and teach decision-making and analytical skills in immersive, virtual environments that resemble the
real world, Gee says. Moreover, these games - and some virtual worlds - give participants freedom to explore ideas
and concepts that might otherwise be inaccessible or off limits.
It's certain that in the digital age, critical thinking is a topic that's garnering greater attention. As reading and
math scores decline on standardized tests, many observers argue that its time to take a closer look at technology and
understand the subtleties of how it affects thinking and analysis.
For questions 56-61, decide whether the following statements are True (T), False (F) or Not Given (NG). Write
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
56. People able to think out of the box are highly likely to make great changes to the society.
57. Many people view visual media as a culprit for the decline in literary reading.
58. The task of finding the definition of critical thinking has been greatly facilitated by technology.
59. Computer games are deemed a mixed blessing to one's capacity for thinking critically.
60. Reading online can be beneficial if readers are judicious about following hyperlinks.
61. The level of exposure to technology is disproportionate to one's performance in standardized tests.

Your answers:
56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.

For questions 62-68, match each of the following opinions with the correct letter A, B or C. You may use each
of the letters more than once. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

A. Adrian West
B. Patricia Greenfield
C. James Paul Gee

62. Computer games can serve both recreational and educational purposes.
63. People's exposure to rnore information doesn't correlate with their acquisition of knowledge.
64. There is currently an emphasis on doing more than one thing at once rather than focusing on individual jobs.
65. How quickly people are able to think critically can be affected by the use of technology.
66. Unlike reading, real-time visual media prohibit people from utilising their imagination.
67. The virtual worlds can be conducive to novel ideas that would otherwise be far-fetched in the real world.
68. People are surrounded with vogue of shallow yet trendy thinking.

Page 5 of 13 pages
Your answers:
62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.

Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 69-75, read the passage
and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you do not
need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA PRODUCT PLACEMENT JUGGERNAUT
Social media is the air that celebrities breathe. No other platforms can keep them so relevant in the cut-throat business
of fame. But beyond satisfying their need to connect with the public, social media is also helping to fill bank accounts.
To maintain their fabulous lifestyle, celebrities can turn to social media where the world of Instagram and influencer
marketing awaits. And what a lucrative world it is.
69
So what do we know about specific rates for social media posts? Mid-level reality TV stars can earn anywhere from
$1,000 to $20,000 for a brand sponsored Instagram post This can go as high as $50,000 for a TV sitcom star. That's a
lot of money, but relatively low compared to the current crop of It-girl model who can command up to $300 000 for a
single Instagram post, or an A-list actor who can receive u to $500 000.
70
Although celebrity endorsements have been around for as long as advertising itself, their foray into social media is
new territory. Traditional print and TV advertising is replete with famous faces pushing products we doubt they use or
consume. but there is an understanding that we accept the falsehood because we know the game, we know they’ve
been paid. The pseudo-ads posted as selfies on Instagram or Twitter, however, usually contain no clear indication that
money has changed hands, despite the fact that, in many cases, it's legally required to do so.
71
Beginning enthusiastically with "OMG", the Original post was liked online by hundreds of thousands of followers. There
was no doubt that she had actually used the medication, as it had been prescribed by her doctor. But had she included
the mandatory information, it would have given the very distinct, and true, impression that it was a promotion. Ever
mindful of her public image, she was aware this may not go down well with her followers. For her sins, she was forced
to remove her gushing reviews from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and repost with risk of disclaimer.
72
Celebrities love social media because it helps them to build some semblance of authenticity and social intimacy with
fans. First they create an image of openness and honesty with their online followers and then they exploit it in their
sponsored posts. One star, for example, recently confided that her "secret" to staying trim was a certain weight loss
tea. A photo of her looking slim and healthy, holding a cup of the miraculous fat-melting infusion was there for all to
see. No mention was made of frequent, grueling sessions with a well-paid personal trainer. A clearly sponsored post -
though honest - would have dismantled her credibilit
73
As advertising professionals will tell you, that is exactly the goal of any ad - to sell an idea or a desirable lifestyle, and it
doesn't even have to be true or attainable. The personality vouching for the product isn't even required to actually use
it. All that needs to happen is for consumers to want some glamour and coolness to rub off on them. That is how
advertising works. But this sneaky new form of celebrity endorsement, with its camouflaged product promotions
requires consumers to completely suspend belief in order to place their trust in someone with an agenda.
74
As such, the language has to be just right, peppered with the kinds of casual terms mends use with each other.
Celebrities ‘swear by’ a new skincare product, are 'in love with' a new coconut water, 'cant live without' a new protein
shake. The more cynical among us might question the true author of these snappy captions - is it the paid influencer or
has the brand's marketing department come up with the text and tailored it to the target audience? Because the
audience is what all about. Keeping it is important, but first it has to be found.
75
So far, it's been a very successful strategy, and as long as a supply of famous faces are willing to accept cash for
comments, the use of social media as a unique advertising tool won't be going away any time soon.
Missing Paragraphs:
A. Make no mistake - they are raking in it even those who are no longer as famous as they once were can be
offered tantalizing amount by companies to promote products on the main personal social media platforms -
Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The uber - famous with the largest followings are making money hand over
fist, and the amounts are staggering.

Page 6 of 13 pages
B. Besides failing to list the downsides of the product, the celebrity fell foul 0f the law by not being explicit about
the fact that she was paid to make the post. There are rules about this sort of thing, too. Celebrities receiving
payment to promote a product on their platforms are required to tag the post #ad or #sponsored - something to
indicate that a monetary transaction has taken place in return for their endorsement So what's preventing
them from adding those few letters?
C. The beauty of influencer marketing for brands is that they dont have to build their target audience from scratch
- something which is costly and time-consuming as it involves extensive market research. Once the influencer
has been chosen, it is just a matter of getting the followers to support the brand, talk about it themselves to
others, and buy the products.
D. For that kind of money, celebrities are happy to plug a product hard. Juice cleaners, meal replacement
regimes, weight-loss teas, waist shapers, teeth whitening kits - they comprise a range of categories that are
perfectly suited to the highly narcissistic nature of the medium that is social media, requiring nothing more than
a love of selfies and a complete lack of shame. The questionable efficacy of the products is no deterrent to the
blatant money-grab.
E. But what makes people susceptible to such influence? When asked, consumers said they trusted celebrities
over brands. The problem with branded marketing content is that it is biased; influencer marketing, on the
other hand, does not come across as an overt marketing attempt. Instead, it looks like a recommendation from
a trusted friend.
F. Advertisers have a major responsibility to inform celebrities, bloggers and anyone else they're paying to push
a product that appropriate disclosures need to be made. Advertising should be identifiable as advertising so
that consumers know when they're hearing a marketing pitch versus an independent viewpoint.
G. Advertising is powerful and its manipulation runs deep when consumers are gullible to such marketing ploys.
The endorsements - casually slipped in between a candid photo with a beloved pet and a carefree snap with a
close friend, for example - make unwitting followers feel that this product is simply a part of the celebrity's daily
life, and that they should make it a part of theirs too. They want it, and at that point, they're hooked.
H. Disclosure with regards to medication is one of these instances. An American celebrity got into hot water with
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for promoting a medication without providing information about
possible side effects. The FDA, which is responsible for protecting public health through the regulation and
supervision of a range of products including dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter
medications, took a very dim view of this.
Your answers:
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Part 4. For questions 76-85, read an article on super humans and choose the answer A, B, C or D which you
think fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
SUPER HUMANS
Sit down with an anthropologist to talk about the nature of humans, and you are likely to hear this pearl of
wisdom: Well, you have to remember that 99 percent of human history was spent on the open savanna in small bands
of hunter-gatherers.' It's a classic scientific cliché, and it's true. Indeed, those millions of ancestral years produced
many of our hallmark traits - upright walking and big brains, for instance. Of course, those useful evolutionary
innovations come at a price: aching backs from our bipedal stance and existential despair from our large,
self-contemplative cerebral cortex.
Compounding the challenges of those trade-offs, the world we have invented is dramatically different frorn the
one to which our bodies and minds are adapted. Have your dinner delivered to you instead of chasing it down on foot;
log in to Facebook to interact with your nearest and dearest instead of spending most of the day with them. But this is
where the utility of the anthropologists cliché for explaining the human condition ends.
The reason for this mismatch between the setting we evolved to live in and the situations we encounter in our
modern era derives from another defining characteristic Of our kind, arguably the most important one: our impulse to
push beyond the limitations evolution imposed on us by developing tools to make us faster. smarter and longer-lived.
Science is one such tool - an invention that requires us to break out of our Stone Age seeing-is-believing mindset so
that we can clearly see the next hurdle we have to overcome, be it a pandemic fiu or climate change. You could call it
the ultimate expression of humanity's singular drive to aspire to be better than we are.
To understand how natural selection moulded us into the unique primates we have become, let us return to the
ancestral savanna. There the sun was hotter and nutritious plant foods were scarcer. In response, our predecessors
lost their hair and their molars dwindled as they abandoned a tough vegetarian diet for one focused in part on meat
from grassland grazers. Meanwhile, the selective demands of food scarcities sculpted our distant forebears into having
a body that was extremely thrifty and good at storing calories. Now, having inherited that same metabolism, we hunt
and gather burgers as diabetes becomes a worldwide scourge. Or consider how our immune systems evolved in a

Page 7 of 13 pages
world where one hardly ever encountered someone carrying a novel pathogen. Today, if you sneeze near someone in
an airport, your rhinovirus could be set free 12 time zones away by the next day.
As regards behavior, our abilities abound. We can follow extraordinarily complex scenarios of social interaction
and figure out if a social contract has been violated. And we are peerless when it comes to facial recognition: we even
have an area Of the cortex in the fusiform gyrus that specializes in this activity.
The selective advantages of evolving a highly social brain are obvious. It paved the way for us to finetune our
capabilities for reading one another's mental states, to excel at social manipulation and to deceive and attract mates
and supporters. Among Americans, tie extent of social intelligence in youth is a better predictor of adult success in the
occupational world than are academic scores. Indeed. when it comes to social intelligence in primates, humans reign
Supreme. The social brain hypothesis of primate evolution is built on the fact that across primate species the
percentage of the brain devoted to the neocortex correlates with the average size of the social group of that species.
This correlation is more dramatic in humans than in any other primate species.
The fact that we have created this world proves a point - namely, that it is in our nature to be unconstrained by
our nature. Science is one of the strangest, newest domains where we challenge our hominid limits. It also tests our
sense of what is the norm, what counts as better than well and it challenges our sense of who we are. Thanks to
science, human life expectancy keeps extending, our average height increases, our intelligence test scores improve
and we eventually break every world record. But when it comes to humans becoming, on average. smarter, taller and
better at athletics, there is a problem: Who cares about the average? As individuals, we want to be better than other
individuals. Our brain is invidious, comparative and more interested in contrasts. a state that begins with sensory
systems that do not normally tell us about the quality of a stimulus but instead about the quality relative to the stimuli
around it.

76. According to the writer, the anthropological cliché to explain the nature of mankind _________.
A. needs some slight modifications B. requires little analysis
C. should be considered paradoxical D. is limited in scope
77. Humankind will only be able to use science to progress if ________.
A. ethical considerations are ignored
B. we discard an outdated approach to acquiring knowledge
C. our drive to eliminate barriers continues
D. the philosophy we adopt can be widely understood
78. Our ancient ancestors lived in a world where _________.
A. the necessity to hunt for food led to good health
B. it was vitally important to have a balanced diet
C. isolation allowed them to develop immunity frorn disease
D. heir restricted movement protected them from illness
79. The word peerless (Para.5, Line 2) in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.
A. friendless B. unsurpassed C. uncompetitive D. flawless
80. Having a highly social brain _______.
A. allows us to create groups with more members B. prevents us from being misunderstood
C. causes us to be more devious D. helps us to read other people's minds
81. The way we tend to think _______.
A. forces us to overlook our shortcomings
B. has enhanced our understanding of sense perception
C. distorts our perception of the notion of average
D. makes us less likely to be concerned with absolutes
82. The word invidious (Para.7, Line 3 from bottom) in the passage mostly means ________.
A. prejudiced B. preordained C. unfathomable D. attitudinal
83. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the paragraph the sentence
"We are no strangers to going out of bounds.” can be inserted?
[A] The fact that we have created this world proves a point - namely, that it is in our nature to be unconstrained by
our nature. [B] Science is one of the strangest. newest domains where we challenge our hominid limits. It also tests
our sense of what is the norm, what counts as better than well and it challenges our sense of who we are. [C]
Thanks to science, human life expectancy keeps extending, Our average height increases, our intelligence test
scores improve and we eventually break every world record. [D] But when it comes to humans becoming, on
average smarter, taller and better at athletics, there is a problem: Who cares about the average? As individuals, we
want to be better than other individuals. Our brain is invidious, comparative and more interested in contrasts, a state
that begins with sensory systems that do not normally tell us about the quality of a stimulus but instead about the
quality relative to the stimuli around it.
A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]
84. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. there are no limits to human capabilities B. we will be able to adapt to harsh environments
C humankind's evolutionary path will not be smooth D. our knowledge of the past is crucial to our future
Page 8 of 13 pages
85. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?
A. Social intelligence enables Americans to be both academically and professionally successful.
B. Science helps prolong human life and improve human intelligence to break all world records.
C. Our evolutionary limits can be exceeded and that's what sets us apart from other species.
D. A highly evolved social brain paved the way for humans to be able to read and distort others' thinking.

Your answers:
76. 77. 78. 79. 80.
81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

Part 5. The passage below consists of five paragraphs marked A, B, C, D and E. For questions 86-95, read the
passage and do the task that follows. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
BE PREPARED
Mark Pollan offers a deft and persuasive account of the art and science of cooking - Linda Libero
Cooked: A natural history of transformation
A. In the half dozen years since The Omnivores Dilemma became the benchmark argument for knowing where
the stuff you eat comes from, Pollan has ascended to the top of the locavore food chain. He's now arguably
the most respected, and certainly one of the most visible, proponents of locally grown and sourced food. Alice
Waters may have been doing it longer and Eric Schlosser louder, but Pollan's influence on how we eat and
what we think about it has been widespread and profound enough to reach the ear of our current commander
in chief and to spark a spate of serious activism around farm legislation. Waters coined a verb - 'Pollanise' - for
what happens to your relationship with food after reading his work - and the result has meant many people
changing the way they eat, or at least trying to.
B. Pollan has always been quick to point out that he is, in fact, a science journalist whenever an interviewer pegs
him as a food writer, and readers of The Omnivore's Dilemma will recall the arduousness, the anxiety and the
trepidation with which he approached the preparation of his 'perfect meal' in the final chapter. (Plus, he burned
the top of his cherry galette.) Even when he's championing his ethical concerns, Pollan is a researcher, a
prodigious gatherer of vast reams Of information. Having thoroughly scrutinised every other link in the food
chain, he finally turns his skills to the one link missing from his repertoire and, in the process, learned to cook.
C. Cooked, perhaps his most personal and engaging book, reaffirms why Pollan is such a phenomenal success
at selling his message, much of which involves explaining subject matter that might otherwise be stultifying
and pressing points that, in lesser hands, would sound unbearably strident He is a breathtakingly fine writer
and a mesmerising storyteller. Even when he draws material from other sources - works of science, history
and anthropology, all generously cited - his skill at weaving those Separate strands into a forceful narrative is
singular and has rarely been equaled by any of the multitude of food critics, celebrity chefs, and
nutrition-obsessed crusaders. Pollan's writing conjures an eminently reasonable, fair-minded persona, the
gently inquisitive guide who cares more for the truth than for any particular agenda, even when he
passionately argues for his agenda with every elegant sentence.
D. That he's thoroughly versed in the most recent evidence from evolutionary science makes it pretty difficult to
refute his claims. That his research is seamlessly wedded to his own intrepid adventures in cooking makes for
surprisingly thrilling reading. In each chapter, Pollan takes the reader on a dizzying tour Of the very particular
science behind cooking: what happens, for instance, to an onion when you chop it up — the inherent
sweetness Of its liquid defensively exploding into a volatile compound Of sulphurous acids On penetration —
as well as the magical permutations of taste that evolve from the slow excretion of flavours as you sweat the
humble vegetable into a sauce. He caps that with a personal reflection on how the boredom Of chopping
onions becomes an opportunity to contemplate what Pollan elsewhere calls the 'mystery, doubt, uncertainty'
that accompany waiting for the results.
E. Cooking requires, Pollan asserts again and again, a yielding of control, the very thing that manufacturers of
ready-made packaged food attempt to elide with the certainty of efficiency and speed. But, he argues, that
efficiency is an illusion. In a scene that approaches Slapstick, the author describes an evening meal that he,
his wife and their teenage son ‘prepared’ from an assortment of frozen dinners, an experiment designed to test
the advantages of yielding the job of cooking to the corporation, as so many harried consumers are wont to
Page 9 of 13 pages
 do. Juggling the various times required and the stubborn limitation of being able to prepare only one
microwave entrée at a time, Pollan and his family found not only that 'convenience' prohibited sitting down
together for a meal, but also that it was far more costly - both in time and expense - than throwing together a
simple repast out of real food. Of course, the latter approach is healthier. too. It may seem paradoxical, but
Pollan uncovers evidence that people who cook are thinner than those who rely on convenience foods for
sustenance.

In which paragraph is each of the following mentioned? Your answers:

• the compelling use of contemporary research 86. __________
• rectifying a genre-related misconception 87. __________
• the far-reaching effects of the authors work 88. __________
• a sequence of events that is almost comical 89. __________
• a line of reasoning regarded as being a standard for others to follow 90. __________
• a knack for holding readers' attention to potentially uninteresting topics 91. __________
• a finding that is possibly unexpected to many 92. __________
• the apprehension caused by having to undertake a particular task 93. __________
• an approach of disclosing facts that is bewildering to readers 94. __________
• a capability of doing interdisciplinary synthesis 95. __________

IV. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be between
100 and 120 words.
The terms "productive vocabulary" and "receptive vocabulary" perhaps need explanation. The distinction
between them is certainly essential for teaching purposes. Native speakers and foreign language leamers alike
recognize and understand more words than they actually use. The words they recognize but do not use are the items
by which their receptive vocabularies exceed their productive ones. The native speaker normally hears and sees a
word many times in many slightly differing contexts and collocations before he begins to use it. It is recorded in his
mind before it comes to the tip of his tongue or pen. In early life when the language is first being leamt, the incubation
period is very lengthy. The eminent British foreign language teaching methodologist H. E. Palmer tells the story of a
boy brought up by bilingual parents in Alsace who spoke French in the home; six months before the child began to
speak, they moved into Germany and switched the home language to German. The babys first words six months
afterwards were none the less French.
As greater mastery of the language is achieved, words pass more rapidly and easily from receptive knowledge
to productive use when the need arises, and in teaching English to native English-speakers no sharp distinction
between receptive and productive use is normally made. The foreign language leamer, however, wishes to reach
general fluency as rapidly as possible and if he can do so within a limited vocabulary which is nevertheless satisfactory
for all general purposes, time will be saved. Moreover, if the active vocabulary is also a good foundation for reading
unsimplified English, he will be able to go on learning new words for himself, and the natural process of movement at
need from receptive to productive use can be allowed to take place unforced and, as far as the student is concerned,
almost unperceived.

............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Page 10 of 13 pages
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Part 2. The tables below show consumers' average income and spending and changes in expenses by age
groups in the country of Fantasia in 2016.
Describe the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
You should write about 150 words.

Average Income and Spending by Age Groups

Age Income Spending

31-40 $36,321 $39,752
41-50 $41,585 $38,667
51-60 $50,846 $41,891
61-70 $35,850 $40,745

Changes in Expenses by Age Groups

Accommodation Transportation Health Care Food, Entertainment

Age
& Others
31-40 34.1% 28.5% 10.6% 26.8%
41-50 30.4% 30.6% 14.4% 24.6%
51-60 25.3% 29.2% 23.8% 21.7%
61-70 21.3% 24.6% 35.8% 18.3%

............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Page 11 of 13 pages
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Part 3. Write an essay of 350 words on the following topic.
In the circumstances of the present-day world, children should be given every encouragement to regard the learning of
several languages as normal; to suggest the contrary seems both prejudiced and harmful.
Discuss this statement and give your opinion.
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
Page 12 of 13 pages
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................................
(You may write overleaf if you need more space.)
- THE END -

Page 13 of 13 pages