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tác giả
TUYỂN TẬP 10 Đề thi học sinh giỏi tiếng anh trung học phổ thông KHỐI 10,11,12 VÒNG TỈNH CÓ ĐÁP ÁN được soạn dưới dạng file word gồm 10 FILE trang. Các bạn xem và tải đề thi học sinh giỏi tiếng anh trung học phổ thông về ở dưới.
PAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO KỲ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI VÒNG TỈNH THPT
ĐỀ THI THỬ HSG TỈNH SỐ 05 NĂM 2020
Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian thi: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi:
Đáp án có 23 trang
* Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển
* Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm.
I. LISTENING (50 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 1-9, listen to a sociology lecturer talking about shopping habits and decide whether these statements are True (T) or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
1. In the past, shops often had a limited range of goods.
2. There are similar shops in most towns today.
3. There are price reductions all the time.
4. The most popular method of payment in this day and age is credit card.
5. Online shopping is popular because it’s convenient and time-saving.
6. Although credit card fraud is raising public concern, statistics show that this is rare.
7. Because old people can not use computers, they gain few benefits from Internet shopping.
8. Shoppers may not like ordering on the Internet because pictures of goods are often unclear.
9. The lecturer believes that shopping habits will continue to change.
Your answers
For the next part of the course on life in Britain today, we are going to look at shopping, at how we shop, and the impact of the consumer society on our lives. Firstly, let's think about the shops themselves. When your parents were the same age as you, the High Street offered less choice, and prices were relatively higher. Shops were often family businesses and many specialised in selling a limited range of goods - for example, there were shops just selling stationery, electrical goods or even knitting wool. Prices remained stable, except for two short periods when the shops held their end-of-season sales. Now its very different. Go to almost any town in Britain and you'll see the same chains of shops. Although there are more shops to choose from, there is a more limited range to buy, especially clothing, so we tend to have a less individual style. And the building of huge shopping centres, housing every type of store, means you can buy everything you want under one roof - these are usually situated on the outskirts of towns where land is cheaper, but can often only be reached by car. And there are sales at regular intervals throughout the year. Another change is the way we pay for our goods. Once you could only pay cash, and had to save up until you could afford the item. Now cash is rarely used - even cheques are being phased out in favour of the credit card - and goods can be bought by paying instalments, allowing us to have what we want
Probably the greatest change in shopping habits is buying goods over the Internet. This is the fastest growing sector of retailing and every year more people are taking this up. This method of purchasing has many advantages, the main one being cost, as prices are lower than on the High Street. Internet companies can charge less for their goods because they don't have to buy and maintain expensive stores, and they need fewer members of staff. And shoppers enjoy being able to select goods quickly and easily from the comfort of their homes at any time of day or night. But there are drawbacks to this way of shopping, er, the main one being the fear that when shoppers use their credit cards to pay for the goods, their details can be accessed and stolen. Internet bosses claim that this is rare, but statistics show that this crime is on the increase. Another problem is that only those people who own a computer can benefit from these low prices, and some companies such as cut-price airlines will only operate through the Internet. Older people, not having grown up with this technology, may not know how to use a computer and so are not able to buy these goods and services. In fact, the Internet would be a perfect way for older people to shop. They're often confined to their homes due to illness, and they could use an Internet supermarket to order food and have it delivered to their door, instead of having to carry the food home themselves, which can be exhausting. A further disadvantage to shopping on the Internet is that you have to order something without trying it on or seeing it with your own eyes. Even though the goods on most Internet shopping sites are clearly illustrated, it's only when you have an item delivered that you can tell whether you want to keep it or not. Should you wish to send it back, you have the inconvenience of having to wrap it up and send it back by post. However many drawbacks we can think of, Internet shopping is here to stay, and the number of shops in the town centres will decrease and perhaps disappear altogether in the not-so-distant future. Next week I will continue this course with a lecture about the kind of holidays the British used to take compared to today. Thank you.
Part 2. For questions 10-15, listen to an interview in which two people, Dana Singleton and Joe Fahey, talk about transport and choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which fits best according to what you hear. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
10. What does Dana say about her reason for joining the Accident Prevention Board?
A. She did it after being involved in an accident herself.
B. She felt strongly about what they were doing.
C. She was close to someone who had been an accident victim.
D. She felt pressure from people she worked with.
11. The interviewer mistakenly believes that the number of serious road accidents
A. has recently overtaken the number of accidents on public transport.
B. is presently at an all-time high.
C. is a direct result of more aggressive drivers on the roads.
D. has risen in proportion to the number of cars on the roads.
12. According to the statistics Dana quotes, there were more serious accidents per year
A. before 1926.
B. between 1926 and 1970.
C. between 1970 and 1990.
D. after 1990.
13. Which of the following facts about public transport does Joe not state?
A. Public transport has a relatively poor safety record.
B. People sometimes feel intimidated when using public transport.
C. The high cost of public transport puts a number of people off.
D. Most complaints are about unreliable services.
14. According to Joe, public transport would improve if the government
A. improved the road network.
B. made it free to travel by bus.
C. re-allocated public spending.
D. banned certain cars from roads.
15. What best sums up Dana’s and Joe’s opinions on driverless cars?
A. Joe feels more strongly that they could help the situation.
B. Dana disagrees with Joe that they are the transport of the future.
C. They share the same views on introducing them gradually.
D. They agree that the poor infrastructure will cancel out any benefit.
Your answers
Int: If you’re listening on the bus or train, or in your car, this next item might be of special interest to you. I’m joined by Dana Singleton from the Accident Prevention Board, or APB, and Joe Fahey, who is a long-time campaigner for greater use of public transport. Dana, I’d like to start with you. To become a member of a board such as the APB, you must have felt strongly about road safety. What made you take a stand?
F: Well, unlike many people, I’m very lucky in that I didn't suffer a personal injury…. that's often what motivates people to campaign and join movements, isn't it? But in a way, that’s exactly the reason…. I was one of the lucky ones…. And I’ve since worked with many colleagues who were victims. Every day, we read about accidents, and I just happened to ask myself, ‘Who’s doing anything to stop them?’ So, when I found the answer, I joined them because …..stand up for what you believe in, and all that.
Int: The APB deals with everything from industrial accidents to safety in the home, am I right?
F: Yes, and I‘ve worked in several fields but, for the last year, I‘ve been compiling information for a report specifically on road safety. It’s going to make for horrific reading, with around 200,000 accidents a year leading to injury or death.
Int: I suppose with the increase in the number of cars on the roads; it’s inevitable that the number of accidents goes up too. You must feel like you’re fighting a losing battle sometimes.
F: It’s actually not what you think. Yes, the number of cars on the road is increasing, but fatal accidents are going down, and have been doing so far many years. If you look at historical statistics, the number of serious road accidents after we started keeping records in 1926 has routinely been three or four times higher than today. It was only in 1970 that a major decline started, and since 1990, most years have recorded the lowest since records began…. so something is happening.
Int: I must say I find that quite shocking. Not at all what I expected.
F: But encouraging at that same time. It’s still too many, and much more can be done, but it’s nice to be able to present the public with something positive.
Int: Yes, indeed. Joe Fahey is sitting patiently here. Joe, if you had your way, more people would be using public transport, wouldn’t they?
M: That’s right. But we’d still need people like Dana because, well, accidents will happen. What I believe is that we need to make public transport an appealing and viable choice. Safety is only one reason for this…we also need to take into account our carbon footprint and the effect on the environment…. but also our quality of life in terms of cutting down noise and reducing stress. We think that public transport can do all those things very effectively. So what’s stopping more people from using public transport?
M: There are several factors. Above all, people complain about the service, and studies have shown that delays and canceled services are the most likely to send people away from public transport and back into cars. High fares are also quoted by many – for some journeys it is cheaper to buy and run a car than it is to use the train, let’s say. And there is a perception among many that their personal safety is somehow compromised on public transport, with a typical complaint being from late-night bus travelers who feel a sense of threat or intimidation from fellow travelers….Although I have to say that with the rise of road-rage incidents among car drivers, this is pretty much a misconception – the danger is perceived to be greater, whereas, in reality, it isn't.
Int: I think we’ve all experienced at least one of these problems. What can be done?
M: I think it comes down to better management, and that needs intervention from central government. Yes, the road network needs improvement, but with greater investment in bus services and train networks, we could manage very well with the roads we have. All the problems I mentioned can be solved; we just need to have the political will to do so. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t see that their massive expenditure on road projects can be avoided simply by boosting the existing rail network. That would take cars off the roads, freeing them up for buses.
F: You see, I agree with Joe. People are going to continue their attachment to cars unless we can offer them a more attractive alternative. We’ve made a lot of progress in some cities and the work of some transport departments is admirable. We just need to do more. From the safety point of view, public transport has an incredibly good record. We can make cars and roads safer….and we are doing so…..but they’ll never be as safe as public transport. It goes back to what you said about the number of cars on the road.
Int: What about driverless cars….would they help?
F: I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of faith in them. I mean, technology goes wrong sometimes too…and the transition period seems problematic because we’re not going to switch overnight so there will be a mix of transport types on the same roads. That worries me. But it’s the road situation that bothers me more. Time and time again, we have seen new roads built to handle way more capacity, and yet within a few years, the traffic grinds to a standstill. It’s not a solution, is it?
M: No, Dana’s right. Driverless cars are still cars, and unless we can build a future – roof road network, the same problems of safety and congestion will always arise.
Int: We’re going to take a short break now, but we’ll be back in a few minutes when I’ll be asking…..
Part 3. For questions 16-25, listen to a recording about earthquakes and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
16. When did Mt. Pinatubo erupt for the first time?
______________________________________________________________________________
17. When was the earthquake measuring 7.8 recorded?
______________________________________________________________________________
18. When did the experts begin to study Mt. Pinatubo?
______________________________________________________________________________
19. What fell on the local villages on 2nd April?
______________________________________________________________________________
20. What does a 'Level 5' alert mean?
______________________________________________________________________________
Several large earthquakes were triggered by the eruption of Pinatubo on 15th June 1991 because of the 21______________ of the summit. The ‘caldera' thus created considerably reduced the height of the mountain. At the same time a 22________________ was passing by and the rain associated with it mixed with the cinders in the air to form a substance called tephra' which fell on the 23_________________ of homes causing them to collapse, crushing hundreds of people.
During the eruption, large amounts of sulphur dioxide gas were emitted, which combined with 24__________________ to make sulphuric acid which was responsible for a great deal of ozone depletion above Antarctica. The overall effect of the cloud from this great eruption was the lowering of 25__________________.
16. 5,500 years ago
17. July 1990
18. mid-March 1991
19. ash
20. eruption in progress
21. collapse
22. tropical storm
23. roofs
24. water and oxygen
25. global temperatures
Good morning, everyone. In these environmental science lectures I guess you're all used to hearing about global warming—well, I'm here today to talk to you about one particular volcano and its effect of global cooling. I'll begin by going back a little bit in time.
Towards the middle of 1991, the second largest volcanic eruption of the last century occurred in the Philippines, not far from the capital city, Manila, on the island of Luzon.
Mount Pinatubo belongs to a chain of volcanoes in the area and this was by no means its first eruption. There is evidence of eruptions from approximately 500, 3,000 and 5,500 years ago.
The events of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption began in July 1990, when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred 100 kilometers northeast of the Pinatubo region. The sleeping giant was re-awakened but few people had any idea of what was in store for them. In mid-March 1991, many earthquakes were experienced around Mount Pinatubo and this is when volcano scientists (or volcanologists as they are called) started their investigation of the mountain. Before the disaster, thousands of people lived in very close proximity to the mountain and, on April 2nd, small explosions from vents near the crater dusted their villages with ash. This resulted in the order for evacuations of 5,000 people later that month.
Earthquakes and explosions continued to harass the residents and, on June 5th, a Level 3 alert was issued for two weeks because of the possibility of a major eruption. However, the appearance of a large amount of lava protruding from the mountain on June 7th led to the announcement of a Level 5 alert on June 9th, indicating an eruption in progress. An evacuation area within 20 kilometers of the volcano was established and this time 25,000 people were evacuated.
On the following day, Clark Air Base was evacuated and the danger radius was extended to 30 kilometers from the volcano resulting in the total evacuation of 58,000 people.
On June 15th, just after midday, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo commenced and lasted for nine hours causing numerous major earthquakes due to the collapse of the land at the top of the mountain and the creation of a huge caldera. `What's a caldera?' I hear you say. Well, it's obvious really—with a huge eruption such as this where enormous amounts of material have exploded into the air, the summit falls into what is now an empty chamber and thus forms a large crater.
As luck would have it, as the eruption was taking place, a tropical storm was passing just to the northeast of Mount Pinatubo, bringing a lot of rainfall to the area. The dust and cinders that had been thrown up into the atmosphere combined with the water vapor from the storm to cause a rainfall of tephra that fell across the whole island of Luzon. Most of the people who perished during the eruption did so because of the weight of the ash collapsing roofs and killing the occupants of the houses. If it hadn't been for that passing storm, the death toll would certainly have been much lower.
But that's not all, besides the ash, Mount Pinatubo expelled between 15 and 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide gas. Can you guess what happened next? Yes, the sulfur dioxide mixed with water and oxygen in the atmosphere to become sulphuric acid, which is a major contributor to ozone reduction.
The eruption plume from Mount Pinatubo reached high into the atmosphere, attaining an altitude of 34 kilometers and the resulting aerosol cloud spread around the earth in two weeks and had covered the planet within a year. During the years 1992 and 1993, the ozone hole situated over Antarctica reached an unprecedented size.
The cooling effects of this cloud over the earth were remarkable. It reduced global temperatures considerably. In the United States, for example, we experienced our third coldest and third wettest summer in 77 years during 1992.
II. PHONETICS (10 POINTS)
Part 1. Choose the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from the others.
26. A. produced B. arranged C. checked D. fixed
27. A. eyes B. apples C. tables D. faces
28. A. absent B. descent C. recent D. decent
29. A. argue B. tongue C. dialogue D. plague
30. A. charisma B. chemise C. characteristic D. chemotherapy
Part 2. Choose the word which is stressed differently from the others.
31. A. decay B. attack C. depend D. vanish
32. A. commercial B. constructive C. essential D. national
33. A. considerate B. continental C. territorial D. economic
34. A. mischievous B. authority C. apartheid D. ambassador
35. A. profile B. morale C. blindfold D. insight
Your answers
III. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (40 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 36-55, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D to each of the following questions and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
36. Tom: “Can I have another cup of tea?”
Christy: “___________.”
A. Be yourself B. Do it yourself
C. Help yourself D. Allow yourself
Help yourself: tự phục vụ, tự nhiên làm gì đó (ăn, uống ...)
37. The police officer assured ___________ as soon as she had news about my stolen phone.
A. to me that she would call B. me that she would call
C. to call D. that she was calling
assure sb (that) + clause
38. ___________, the meeting stops here.
A. If no question being asked B. Without any question, however
C. No questions asked D. There being no question
Chọn phương án D, rút gọn của If there is no question. Phương án A sai vì sử dụng mệnh đề If nên động từ phải là is thay vì being. Phương án B sai vì however không cần thiết. Phương án C sai vì questions số nhiều.
39. Two weeks ___________, we will celebrate our coronation.
A. yet B. hence C. hitherto D. albeit
… days, weeks, etc. hence: a number of days, etc. from now
40. Our plans to hold an end-of-year picnic in the woods were ___________ by the bad weather.
A. provoked B. thwarted C. emulated D. vented
thwart: to prevent somebody from doing what they want to do
41. My daughter has a very sunny ___________, unlike my son who is often moody and uncommunicative.
A. behaviour B. conditioning C. disposition D. nurture
disposition: the natural qualities of a person’s character
42. Lisa attempted to ___________ herself with her new boss by volunteering to take on extra work.
A. ingratiate B. please C. gratify D. command
ingratiate yourself (with somebody): to do things in order to make somebody like you, especially somebody who will be useful to you
43. The ___________ workers were expecting thousands of refugees to turn up at the camps over the next few weeks.
A. social B. concern C. relief D. agency
relief worker: a person who works for a charity providing aid for people in need, esp in disaster areas
44. Kate’s been ___________ for six months now, so she really hopes that this job interview works out well for her.
A. on duty B. burnt out C. outside the box D. on the dole
on the dole: registered as unemployed and receiving benefit from the government
45. I’m sorry I forgot to collect your dry-cleaning, but it completely ___________ my mind.
A. jogged B. threw C. crossed D. slipped
slip one’s mind: be forgotten
46. I'm afraid we got our ___________ crossed. I thought my husband would be picking up the children and he thought I was doing it.
A. minds B. purposes C. fingers D. wires
get one’s wires crossed: fail to understand each other
47. It’s important to keep your ___________ about you when you are walking through the African bush.
A. wits B. heads C. brains D. minds
keep/have one's wits about one: to remain alert and observant (cẩn trọng).
48. I’m not sure I can answer that. I’ve only thought about it in the ____________before.
A. general B. hypothetical C. indefinite D. abstract
think about something in the abstract: nghĩ chung chung
49. The modification has been the ____________ on the cake for both of us, for a lot of hard work has gone into the design and development of the course.
A. chilling B. cooling C. freezing D. icing
the icing on the cake: điều may mắn hay tuyệt vời nào đó đến sau một điều may mắn hay tuyệt vời khác
50. She expects the political experience gained in this election will stand her in good ____________ in her future career, which, she suggests, could include another campaign.
A. footing B. grounding C. precedent D. stead
stand someone in good stead: có lợi cho ai
51. Congratulations on your success! How does it feel to be____________?
A. the man of the hour B. a word of honor
C. an egg on the face D. the top of the morning
the man of the hour: người được ngưỡng mộ, ngợi ca
52. At first, Tom insisted he was right, but then began to ____.
A. back down B. follow up C. drop off D. break up
back down: nhường bước
53. I was promised a good job from January this year, but it’s April now and I’m afraid that they are just ____________ me along.
A. cheating B. swindling C. stringing D. bringing
string somebody along: lừa ai đó
54. Tears ____________ up out of the baby's eyes.
A. raised B. mounted C. welled D. filled
well up: tuôn ra
55. Once the storm ____________, we’ll take the boat out on the lake.
A. beats down B. holds off C. rolls in D. blows over
blow over: lắng xuống (bão, cuộc tranh cãi)
Your answers
Part 2. For questions 56-60, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided.
Is consumerism such a bad thing? However (56-simple) _______________ it might sound, the truth is
we can’t really survive without it. Our economy depends entirely on consumer spending, perpetuated by our never-ending need for the new. Unless we are in the service sector, or doctors, teachers or lawyers, we are most likely to be involved in one way or another with consumerism. There is no doubt that our houses are stuffed with an (57-abundant) _______________ of things we don’t need and don’t want any more, things we’ve hardly ever used, clothes never worn, gadgets (58-discard) _______________ once a better one comes along. It is a very strong-minded person who isn’t seduced at some point or another by some useless but (59-lure) _______________ new contraption or item of clothing. And so, despite the detrimental effects of overwork, people work harder and harder to afford all the tat they don’t need. And although consumerism is the bedrock of our economy it is also (60-instrument) _______________ in much of our downfall. We are overburdened with huge debts which we won’t be able to pay back, all for the sake of stuff we never really needed. As Scottish thinker James Steuart wrote in 1770, ‘men are
forced to labour now because they are slaves to their own wants’.
56. simplistic: making a problem, situation, etc. seem less difficult or complicated than it really is
57. abundance
58. discarded
59. alluring: hấp dẫn, thu hút
60. instrumental: có vai trò quan trọng
Part 3. For questions 61-65, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided.
61. The ___________ (tranquil) of the beach in spring is the perfect antidote to the city.
tranquility: the state of being quiet and peaceful
62. There is a ___________ (hold) belief that flamenco is typical throughout Spain, but that is not true.
long-held / widely-held: lâu đời
63. The earliest written records were simply ___________ (picture) representations of natural objects, such as birds and animals.
pictorial: thuộc về hình ảnh
64. Redundancy payment, or a golden ___________ (hand) in lieu of notice, up to the value of ￡30,000.
golden handshake: a payment given to someone who is laid off or retires early
65. The President authorizes the ____________ (judge) use of military force to protect our citizens.
judicious: có suy xét, khôn ngoan
Part 4. For questions 66-75, find and correct 10 mistakes in the passage. Write them in the numbered boxes provided.
Interest in the phenomena of space is not recent, its origins lost in the shadows of antiquism. Impelled by curiosity and a desire to understand, man has long studied, charted and debated the mysteries of the celestial spheres. Out of this interest eventually coming the revolution in thought and outlook initiated by Copernicus, supported by the remarkably precise measurements of Tycho Brahe, illuminated by the observations of Galileo and the insights of Kepler, and given a theoretical basis by Newton in his proposed law about gravitation. The Copernican revolution continues to unfold today in human thought and lies at the heart of modern astronomy and cosmology. Yet, until recently, outer space was unaccessible to man, and whatever was learnt about the sun, planets and stars were obtained by often elaborate deductions from observations of the radiations that reached the surface of the Earth. Nor were all the inaccessible reaches of space far away. The ionosphere, was important because of its role in radio communications, was not as far away from the man on the ground below as Baltimore is from Washington. Nevertheless, until the advent of the large rocket, the ionosphere remained inaccessible not only to man himself but even his instruments. As a result, many of the conclusions about the upper atmosphere and the space environment of the Earth were quite tentative, being based on highly indirect evidence and long chains of theoretical reason. Time and again the theorist found himself struggling with a plethora of possibilities that could reduce in number only if it were possible to make in situ measurements. Lacking of the measurements, the researcher was forced into guesswork and speculation.
Small wonder, then, that when large rockets appeared they were soon put to work carrying scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere for making the long-needed in situ measurements. From the very start it was clear that the large rocket brought to it numerous possibilities for aiding the investigation and exploration of the atmosphere and space...
66. antiquism → antiquity
67. coming → came
68. about → of
69. were → was
70. was important → important
71. but even → but even to
72. reason → reasoning
73. reduce → be reduced
74. lacking of → lacking
75. to → with
III. READING (50 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 76-85, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Are you one of those people who 76.____________ and turn all night, unable to get to sleep? Although many people who have sleeping problems, either chronic or occasional, automatically reach for sleeping pills when they sense a difficult night 77.____________ of them, a number turn to natural remedies, which are not only cheaper but safer in the long 78.____________. Most poor sleepers will, at some point, have tried the well-known trick of consuming a hot drink such as milk before going to bed. But 79.____________ are aware of the more unusual folk remedies that can help them on their way to a restful night's sleep. One effective remedy involves running very cold water over the forearms and lower legs for several minutes just before hopping into 80.____________. The shock of the cold 81.____________ by the warmth of the bed relaxes the body and leads to drowsiness. Another unusual approach has to 82.____________ with eating — or, more precisely, chewing. Eating an apple just before bedtime, taking particular care to chew the peel slowly and thoroughly, can help 83.____________ droop. The reason? Apple peel contains a natural substance which induces relaxation. Not only that, the chewing action is relaxing in 84.____________. Other than that, meditation, stretching. reading and even walking around prove helpful for many people. In short, there are many ways to avoid the pill-popping route, And if all 85.____________ fails, you can always try counting sheep.
76. toss
toss and turn: trằn trọc
77. ahead
78. run
in the long run: về lâu dài
79. few
80. bed
81. followed
82. do
83. eyelids: mí mắt
84. itself
85. else
Part 2. For questions 86-95, 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.
Does wealth have anything to do with how (86) _____ and generous a person is? Can we (87) _____ greater generosity to the better off in society? And are people stingier the less (88) _____ they are? Research by psychologists in the UK and the US has revealed that, on the contrary, when it comes to charity and (89) _____, it seems that poverty brings out the (90) _____ in people. They found that although the wealthiest gave more in absolute terms, they gave less as a proportion of their income. While the poorest appear to give over three per cent of their monthly income to good causes, the richest are giving less than two per cent. But the (91) _____ classes aren’t only more (92) _____, they also
seem to be less thoughtful and kind. An experiment to find out which cars were most likely to stop for a pedestrian at a zebra crossing revealed that the grander and more expensive the car, the less (93) _____ the driver was to stop. Does this mean that the more privileged you are, the more (94) _____ you feel, in this case to get there more quickly without having to stop for others? But it isn’t all bad news for the well-to-do when it comes to generosity. There are many great (95) _____ who are prepared to give away their fortunes to the more vulnerable in society, and it has been found that the rich are more likely to do voluntary work than the poor.
86. A prosperous B vulnerable C affluent D empathetic
87 A attach B bring about C attribute D credit
88 A well-heeled B well-kept C opulent D shady
well-heeled = rich
89 A affluence B miserliness C compassion D want
compassion: a strong feeling of sympathy for people or animals who are suffering and a desire to help them
90 A best B worst C most D least
91 A wanting B moneyed C thrifty D cautious
moneyed: có nhiều tiền
92 A thick-skinned B impassive C impartial D tight-fisted
tight-fisted: not willing to spend or give much money
93 A likely B often C possible D expected
94 A entitled B essential C indispensable D critical
95 A misanthropes B sponsors C philanthropists D donors
philanthropist: a rich person who helps the poor and those in need, especially by giving money
misanthrope: a person who hates and avoids other people
Part 3. For questions 96-108, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
For the first time, linguists have put a price on language. To save a language from extinction isn't cheap — but more and more people are arguing that the alternative is the death of communities.
There is nothing unusual about a single language dying. Communities have come and gone throughout history and with them their language. But what is happening today is extraordinary, judged by the standards of the past. It is language extinction on a massive scale. According to the best estimates, there are some 6,000 languages in the world. Of these, about half are going to die out in the course of the next century: that's 3,000 languages in 1,200 months. On average, there is a language dying out somewhere in the world every two weeks or so.
How do we know? In the course of the past two or three decades, linguists all over the world have been gathering comparative data. If they find a language with just a few speakers left, and nobody is bothering to pass the language on to the children, they conclude that language is bound to die out soon. And we have to draw the same conclusion if a language has less than 100 speakers. It is not likely to last very long. A 1999 survey shows that 97 percent of the world's languages are spoken by just four percent of the people.
It is too late to do anything to help many languages, where the speakers are too few or too old, and where the community is too busy just trying to survive to care about their language. But many languages are not in such a serious position. Often, where languages are seriously endangered, there are things that can be done to give new life to them. It is called revitalization. Once a community realizes that its language is in danger, it can start to introduce measures which can genuinely revitalize. The community itself must want to save its language. The culture of which it is a part must need to have a respect for minority languages. There needs to be funding, to support courses, materials, and teachers. And there need to be linguists, to get on with the basic task of putting the language down on paper. That's the bottom line: getting the language documented —recorded, analyzed, written down. People must be able to read and write if they and their language are to have a future in an increasingly computer-literate civilization.
But can we save a few thousand languages, just like that? Yes, if the will and funding were available. It is not cheap, getting linguists into the field, training local analysts, supporting the community with language resources and teachers, compiling grammars and dictionaries, writing materials for use in schools. It takes time, lots of it, to revitalize an endangered language. Conditions vary so much that it is difficult to generalize, but a figure of $100,000 a year per language cannot be far from the truth. If we devoted that amount of effort over three years for each of 3,000 languages, we would be talking about some $900 million.
There are some famous cases which illustrate what can be done. Welsh, alone among the Celtic languages, is not only stopping its steady decline towards extinction but showing signs of real growth. Two Language Acts protect the status of Welsh now, and its presence is increasingly in evidence wherever you travel in Wales.
On the other side of the world, Maori in New Zealand has been maintained by a system of so-called 'language nests', first introduced in 1982. These are organizations which provide children under five with a domestic setting in which they are intensively exposed to the language. The staff are all Maori speakers from the local community. The hope is that the children will keep their Maori skills alive after leaving the nests and that as they grow older they will in turn become role models to a new generation of young children. There are cases like this all over the world. And when the reviving language is associated with a degree of political autonomy, the growth can be especially striking, as shown by Faroese, spoken in the Faroe Islands, after the islanders received a measure of autonomy from Denmark.
In Switzerland, Romansch was facing a difficult situation, spoken in five very different dialects, with small and diminishing numbers, as young people left their community for work in the German-speaking cities. The solution here was the creation in the 1980s of a unified written language for all these dialects. Romansch Grischun, as it is now called, has official status in parts of Switzerland, and is being increasingly used in spoken form on radio and television.
A language can be brought back from the very brink of extinction. The Ainu language of Japan, after many years of neglect and repression, had reached a stage where there were only eight fluent speakers left, all elderly. However, new government policies brought fresh attitudes and a positive interest in survival. Several 'semi-speakers' — people who had become unwilling to speak Ainu because of the negative attitudes of Japanese speakers — were prompted to become active speakers again. There is fresh interest now and the language is more publicly available than it has been for years.
If good descriptions and materials are available, even extinct languages can be resurrected. Kaurna, from South Australia, is an example. This language had been extinct for about a century but had been quite well documented. So, when a strong movement grew for its revival, it was possible to reconstruct it. The revised language is not the same as the original, of course. It lacks the range that the original had, and much of the old vocabulary. But it can nonetheless act as a badge of present-day identity for its people. And as long as people continue to value it as a true marker of their identity, and are prepared to keep using it, it will develop new functions and new vocabulary, as any other living language would do.
It is too soon to predict the future of these revived languages, but in some parts of the world they are attracting precisely the range of positive attitudes and grassroots support which are the preconditions for language survival. In such unexpected but heart-warming ways might we see the grand total of languages in the world minimally increased.
Questions 96-100: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the passage? Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
YES if the statement agrees with the writer 's views
NO if the statement contradicts the writer's views
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
96. The rate at which languages are becoming extinct has increased.
97. Research on the subject of language extinction began in the 1990s.
98. In order to survive, a language needs to be spoken by more than 100 people.
99. Certain parts of the world are more vulnerable than others to language extinction.
100. Saving language should be the major concern of any small community whose language is under threat.
Your answers
96. YES
But what is happening today is extraordinary, judged by the standards of the past. It is language extinction on a massive scale.
97. NO
In the course of the past two or three decades, linguists all over the world have been gathering comparative data.
98. YES.
If they find a language with just a few speakers left, and nobody is bothering to pass the language on to the children, they conclude that language is bound to die out soon. And we have to draw the same conclusion if a language has less than 100 speakers.
99. NOT GIVEN
100. NO
It is too late to do anything to help many languages, where the speakers are too few or too old, and where the community is too busy just trying to survive to care about their language.
Questions 101-103:
The list below gives some of the factors that are necessary to assist the revitalization of a language within a community.
Which THREE of the factors are mentioned by the writer of the text? Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
A. the existence of related languages
B. support from the indigenous population
C. books tracing the historical development of the language
D. on-the-spot help from language experts
E. a range of speakers of different ages
F. formal education procedures
G. a common purpose for which the language is required
Your answers
101. B
The community itself must want to save its language. The culture of which it is a part must need to have a respect for minority languages.
102. D
It is not cheap, getting linguists into the field, training local analysts,….
103. F
…..supporting the community with language resources and teachers, compiling grammars and dictionaries, writing materials for use in schools.
Questions 104-108: Match the languages A—F with the statements below which describe how a language was saved. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
Languages
A Welsh
B Maori
C Faroese
D Romansch
E Ainu
F Kaurna
104. The region in which the language was spoken gained increased independence.
105. People were encouraged to view the language with less prejudice.
106. Language immersion programs were set up for sectors of the population.
107. A merger of different varieties of the language took place.
108. Written samples of the language permitted its revitalization.
Your answers
104. C
And when the reviving language is associated with a degree of political autonomy, the growth can be especially striking, as shown by Faroese,...
105. E
However, new government policies brought fresh attitudes and a positive interest in survival.
106. B
These are organizations which provide children under five with a domestic setting in which they are intensively exposed to the language.
107. D
The solution here was the creation in the 1980s of a unified written language for all these dialects.
108. F
This language had been extinct for about a century, but had been quite well documented.
Part 4. For questions 109-118, read the following passage and choose the answer A, B, C or D that fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Perhaps the most pervasive climatic effect of global warming is rapid escalation of ice melt. Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, portions of the South American Andes, and the Himalayas will very likely lose most of their glacial ice within the next two decades, affecting local water resources. Glacial ice continues its retreat in Alaska. NASA scientists determined that Greenland's ice sheet is thinning by about 1 m per year. The additional meltwater, especially from continental ice masses and glaciers, is adding to a rise in sea level worldwide. Satellite remote sensing is monitoring global sea level, sea ice, and continental ice. Worldwide measurements confirm that sea level rose during the last century.
Surrounding the margins of Antarctica, and constituting about 11% of its surface area, are numerous ice shelves, especially where sheltering inlets or bays exist. Covering many thousands of square kilometers, these ice shelves extend over the sea while still attached to continental ice. The loss of these ice shelves does not significantly raise sea level, for they already displace seawater. The concern is for the possible surge of grounded continental ice that the ice shelves hold back from the sea.
Although ice shelves constantly break up to produce icebergs, some large sections have recently broken free. In 1998 an iceberg (150 km by 35 km) broke off the Ronne Ice Shelf, southeast of the Antarctic Peninsula. In March 2000 an iceberg tagged B-15 broke off the Ross Ice Shelf (some 900 longitude west of the Antarctic Peninsula), measuring 300 km by 40 km. Since 1993, six ice shelves have disintegrated in Antarctica. About 8000 km of ice shelf are gone, changing maps, freeing up islands to circumnavigation, and creating thousands of icebergs. The Larsen Ice Shelf, along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, has been retreating slowly for years. Larsen-A suddenly disintegrated in 1995. In only 35 days in early 2002, Larsen-B collapsed into icebergs. This ice loss is likely a result of the 2.5°C temperature increase in the region in the last 50 years. In response to the increasing warmth, the Antarctic Peninsula is sporting new vegetation growth, previously not seen there.
A loss of polar ice mass, augmented by melting of alpine and mountain glaciers (which experienced more than a 30% decrease in overall ice mass during the last century) will affect sea-level rise. The IPCC assessment states that "between one-third to one-half of the existing mountain glacier mass could disappear over the next hundred years." Also, "there is conclusive evidence for a worldwide recession of mountain glaciers ... This is among the clearest and best evidence for a change in energy balance at the Earth's surface since the end of the 19th century."
[A.] Sea-level rise must be expressed as a range of values that are under constant reassessment. [B.] The 2001 IPCC forecast for global mean sea-level rise this century, given regional variations, is from 0.11-0.88 m. [C.] The median value of 0.48 m is two to four times the rate of previous increase. These increases would continue beyond 2100 even if greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilized. [D.]
The Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, has kept ocean temperature records since 1916. Significant temperature increases are being recorded to depths of more than 300 m as ocean temperature records are set. Even the warming of the ocean itself will contribute about 25% of sealevel rise, simply because of thermal expansion of the water. In addition, any change in ocean temperature has a profound effect on weather and, indirectly, on agriculture and soil moisture. In fact the ocean system appears to have delayed some surface global warming during the past century through absorption of excess atmospheric neat.
A quick survey of world coastlines shows that even a moderate rise could bring changes of unparalleled proportions. At stake are the river deltas, lowland coastal farming valleys, and low-lying mainland areas, all contending with high water, high tides, and higher storm surges. Particularly tragic social and economic consequences will affect small island states - being able to adjust within their present country boundaries, disruption of biological systems, loss of biodiversity, reduction in water resources, among the impacts. There could be both internal and international migration of affected human populations, spread over decades, as people move away from coastal flooding from the sea-level rise.
109. There is more new plant life in Antarctica recently because ______.
A. the mountain glaciers have melted
B. the land masses have split into islands
C. the icebergs have broken into smaller pieces
D. the temperature has risen by a few degrees
Câu hỏi này ngắn, chỉ cần ghi trong đầu các từ " more new plant life in Antarctic" và tìm các từ liên quan. Trong trường hợp này, ta chỉ cần tìm các từ liên quan đến từ Antarctic, và đoạn 1 không có từ này. Từ Antartic bắt đầu xuất hiện ở đoạn 2 nhưng đến cuối đoạn 3 mới xuấtt hiện các từ liên quan đến các từ khóa còn lại.
This ice loss is likely a result of the 2.5°C temperature increase in the region in the last 50 years. In response to the increasing warmth, the Antarctic Peninsula is sporting new vegetation growth, previously not seen there.
Suy ra D là đáp án đúng
110. It may be inferred from this passage that icebergs are formed ______.
A. by a drop in ocean temperatures B. when an ice shelf breaks free
C. from intensely cold islands D. if mountain glaciers melt
Since 1993, six ice shelves have disintegrated in Antarctica. About 8000 km of ice shelf are gone, changing maps, freeing up islands to circumnavigation, and creating thousands of icebergs.
111. The word ‘there’ in paragraph 3 refers to ______.
A. polar ice mass in the last 50 years B. the temperature increase
C. new vegetation growth D. in the Antarctic Peninsula
112. The author explains the loss of polar and glacial ice by ______.
A. stating an educated opinion B. referring to data in a study
C. comparing sea levels worldwide D. presenting his research
A loss of polar ice mass, augmented by melting of alpine and mountain glaciers (which experienced more than a 30% decrease in overall ice mass during the last century) will affect sea-level rise. The IPCC assessment states that "between one-third to one-half of the existing mountain glacier mass could disappear over the next hundred years."
113. The word ‘conclusive’ in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. definite B. independent C. unique D. valuable
114. Why does the author mention the Scripps Institute of Oceanography?
A. The location near the coast endangers the Scripps facility.
B. Research at Scripps indicates that the ocean is getting warmer.
C. One quarter of the rising sea levels has been recorded at Scripps.
D. Records at Scripps have been kept for nearly one hundred years.
The Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, has kept ocean temperature records since 1916. Significant temperature increases are being recorded to depths of more than 300 m as ocean temperature records are set.
115. Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage? The other choices change the meaning or leave out important information.
Global warming on the surface of the planet may have been retarded during the last
hundred years because heat in the atmosphere was absorbed by the oceans.
Global warming on the surface of the ocean was greater than it was on the rest of the
planet during the past century because of heat in the atmosphere.
Too much heat in the atmosphere has caused global warming on the surface of the
planet for the past hundred years in spite of the moderation caused by the oceans.
There is less heat being absorbed by the oceans now than there was a hundred years
ago before the atmosphere began to experience global warming.
retard = delay: làm chậm
116. Why will people move away from the coastlines in the future?
A. It will be too warm for them to live there.
B. The coastlines will have too much vegetation.
C. Flooding will destroy the coastal areas.
D. No agricultural crops will be grown on the coasts.
There could be both internal and international migration of affected human populations, spread over decades, as people move away from coastal flooding from the sea-level rise
117. Which of the following statements most accurately reflects the author's opinion about rising sea levels?
A. Sea levels would rise without global warming.
B. Rising sea levels can be reversed.
C. The results of rising sea levels will be serious.
D. Sea levels are rising because of new glaciers.
118. Look at the four squares [.] that show where the following sentence could be inserted in the passage.
Where could the sentence best be added?
A. [A.] B. [B.] C. [C.] D. [D.]
Xuất hiện theo trình tự thời gian: last century → forecast for this century suy ra câu đã cho phải đứng trước câu forecast for this century → B
Your answers
Part 5. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 119-125, read the passage and choose from the 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 box provided.
Critics dismissed Craeme Mather' s attempts to make clouds rain. But now recent experiments appear to have vindicated him. Anjana Ahuya reports.
Dr. Craeme Mather lived his life with his head in the clouds, as a documentary film to be shown this week shows. Against the advice of almost everybody else in the meteorological community, the Canadian scientist devoted his professional life to trying to make clouds rain.
Before Dr. Mather became involved, the science of weather modification had already claimed many reputations. The idea that clouds could be manipulated first circulated in the 1940s, and efforts gathered pace soon after the Second World War.
However, the entire discipline fell into disrepute when commercial companies hijacked the idea, took it around the world, and then failed to deliver on their promises. Cloud-seeding, as the process was known, became the preserve of crackpots and charlatans.
Scientists theorized that if they could inject the cloud with similarly shaped crystals, these imposter crystals would also act as frames around which droplets would clump. The cloud would then be tricked into raining. Silver iodide, whose crystals resemble those of ice, seemed the best bet. Sadly, none of the experiments, including Dr. Mather's, which had been going for more than five years, seemed to work. Dr. Mather was about to admit defeat when serendipity intervened.
Dr. Mather was convinced that something that the place was spewing into the atmosphere was encouraging the downpour. Subsequent experiments confirmed that hygroscopic salts pouring into the sky from them were responsible. Hygroscopic salts attract water - once in the atmosphere, the particles act as magnets around which raindrops can form.
He was wary; Dr. Mather was known to be a smooth-talking salesman. 'He was charming and charismatic, and many scientists don't trust that; he says. 'He was also not well-published because he had been working in the commercial sector. Overall, he was regarded as a maverick. On that occasion, he presented results that I was convinced were impossible. Yet the statistical evidence was overwhelming, which I couldn't understand.
'If those findings can be reproduced there, it will be the most exciting thing to have happened in the field for 20 years. It will be remarkable because some of the results are not scientifically explainable.’ He adds, however, that scientists must exercise caution because cloud-seeding is still mired in controversy. He also points out that, with water being such a precious resource, success will push the research into the political arena.
Dr. Cooper says: 'With the paper mill, he saw something that other people wouldn't have seen. I am still uncomfortable with his idea because it throws up major puzzles in cloud physics. But if Dr. Mather was right, it will demonstrate that humans can change clouds in ways that were once thought impossible.'
A Dr. Mather refused to be daunted by this image. After all, the principle seemed perfectly plausible. Water droplets are swept up to the top of the clouds on updrafts, where they become supercooled (i.e., although the temperature is below freezing, the water remains liquid). When a supercooled droplet collides with an ice crystal, it freezes on contact and sticks. Successive collisions cause each ice crystal to accumulate more water droplets; the crystals grow until they become too heavy to remain suspended in the atmosphere. As the crystals fall through the cloud, they become raindrops. The ice crystals, therefore, act as frames to 'grow' raindrops.
B Dr. Mather, unfortunately, will not be involved in the debate about such matters. He died aged 63, shortly before the documentary was completed. It will ensure that this smooth-talking maverick is given the recognition he deserves.
C He and a colleague decided to collect a last batch of data when they flew into a tiny but ferocious storm. That storm, Dr. Mather says in the film, changed his life. Huge droplets were spattering on the tiny plane's windscreen. No such storm had been forecast. Back on the ground, they discovered the storm was located directly above a paper mill.
D A trial in Mexico has been running for two years, and the signs are promising. 'We were sufficiently encouraged in the first year to continue the seeding research. But the results are preliminary because we have only a very small sample of clouds at the moment. We need to work over two more summers to reach a proper conclusion.
E He arranged to fly to South Africa 'with the full intention of explaining what was wrong with the experiment'. Instead, he came back convinced that Dr. Mather was on to something. He is now running two experiments, one in Arizona and one in northern Mexico to try to verify the South African results. The experiments use potassium chloride, which is similar to table salt (sodium chloride) and, it is claimed, non-polluting.
F The scientific community remained sniffy in the face of this apparent proof. Foremost among the skeptics was Dr. William Cooper, of the United States National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Dr. Cooper, regarded as one of the world's finest cloud scientists, saw Dr. Mather present his astonishing claims at a cloud physics conference in Montreal.
G They involved weather experts firing rockets into clouds to stop them from producing hail, which damages crops. The clouds, it was hoped, would dissolve into a harmless shower.
H The desire to do so led him to set up a project in South Africa, which was ultimately to convince him that it was possible. As the program reveals, experiments around the world appear to prove his faith was justified.
Your answers
119. H: In the opening paragraph, we learn that Dr Mather tried to make clouds rain and that almost everyone else in the meteorological community (people involved in the study of the earth's atmosphere and the weather) advised him not to. We also learn that a film has been made about him. The opening sentence is a play on words - if you 'have your head in the clouds', you have unrealistic aims or ideas, which some people thought was true of Dr Mather, who was also involved in the study of actual clouds.
In H, the phrase “to do so” refers back to the end of the opening paragraph and means 'to make clouds rain'. As a result of his desire to make clouds rain, he set up a project. A film has been made which shows that various experiments have proved that he was right to think it could be done.
The paragraph after the gap gives some information about what had happened regarding weather modification (causing the weather to change) before Dr Mather got involved in it.
120. G: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that the science of weather modification had claimed many reputations, which means that many scientists had lost their good reputations as a result of getting involved in it. We also learn that the idea began in the 1940s and grew after the Second World War.
In G, they at the beginning refers back to the efforts made after the Second World War that are mentioned at the end of the paragraph before the gap. The paragraph then describes efforts to prevent clouds from producing hail (frozen rain that fails as little balls of ice) that would damage crops and make them produce rain instead.
In the paragraph after the gap, we are told that the entire discipline (the whole field of weather modification) then acquired a bad reputation.
121. A: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that the science of weather modification got a bad reputation because commercial companies “hijacked the idea” (took it over for their own purposes) and “failed to deliver on their promises” (failed to do what they had promised to do - this must mean they did not prove that cloud-seeding was possible, as they had promised to). As a result, the process became the preserve (an activity exclusively done by) of crackpots (crazy people) and charlatans (cheats who make false claims about being experts to something in order to make money).
In A, we are told that Dr Mather refused to be daunted by this image. This image refers back to the image that people had of weather modification, or cloud-seeding, which was that it was the preserve of crackpots and charlatans. Dr Mather was not discouraged by the fact that people had this image of weather modification because the principle (the basic idea on which a theory is based) seemed perfectly plausible (believable). The rest of the paragraph consists of a detailed explanation of what that principle is with regard to what happens in clouds.
In the paragraph after the gap, this explanation is continued, moving on from what happens in clouds to what scientists believed they could do to change what naturally happens in clouds.
122. C: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that none of the experiments which were carped out to prove the theory that clouds could be affected by scientists worked. Dr Mather had no success himself in this, and so he was about to admit defeat (accept that success was impossible and give up), but then serendipity (the ability to make fortunate discoveries completely by chance) intervened (entered into the situation and changed it).
In C, we are told what happened when serendipity intervened. The last batch of data refers back to the experiments he made that are mentioned in the paragraph before the gap and means that he collected a last batch of data before giving up these experiments. When he was collecting this, there was an unexpected storm, which he discovered was directly above a paper mill (a factory for processing paper).
In the paragraph after the gap, the place and from there both refer back to the paper mill mentioned at the end of C. We learn in this paragraph that Dr Mather thought that the paper mill had caused the storm.
123. F: In the paragraph before the gap, we !earn that Dr Mather decided that there was a direct link between the hygroscopic salts coming from the paper mill and the storm and that subsequent experiments he connected proved that rain could be caused by certain substances being put into clouds.
In F, we learn that the scientific community did not believe this apparent proof - that clouds could be made to produce rain by putting certain substances into them, as described in the paragraph before the gap. The scientific community remained sniffy (contemptuous) and Foremost among the skeptics (one of the main people to be extremely doubtful) was Dr Cooper. He saw Dr Mather present his astonishing claims - this refers back to his claims concerning the effect of hygroscopic salts on clouds in the paragraph before the gap - at a conference.
At the beginning of the paragraph after the gap. He is Dr Cooper and the first sentence means that Dr Cooper was wary (cautious, suspicious) when he heard the claims referred to at the end of F. In this paragraph, we learn that he was wary because Dr Mather was considered to be a smooth-talking salesman (someone who tried to convince others of something that is probably not true by means of speaking persuasively), because scientists don't trust other scientists who are charming and charismatic (having a great personal charm that makes them have influence over other people because other people are impressed by them), because Dr Mather had been working in the commercial sector (this implies that Dr Mather's conclusions might have been influenced by commercial considerations) and because Dr Mather was considered to be a maverick (someone in a particular field of work with unconventional views and methods which are often disapproved of). The phrase On that occasion refers back to Dr Mather's appearance at the conference, mentioned at the end of F.
124. E: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that Dr Cooper considered Dr Mather's results impossible but felt that the statistical evidence for them was overwhelming (enormous) and as a result was confused.
In E, Dr Cooper goes to South Africa to prove Dr Mather wrong but comes back believing that Dr Mather was on to something (had discovered something that could have important consequences). Dr Cooper is now conducting two experiments himself - in Arizona and in Mexico - to verify (to confirm, to make sure that they are what they seem) the results so far obtained in South Africa, using a kind of salt.
In the paragraph after the gap, Dr Cooper is speaking about the experiments referred to in E. In the first sentence, those findings refers back to the South African results in E and there refers back to Arizona and Mexico in E. He talks shout how significant it would be if his experiments have the same results as those already conducted in South Africa, since this would prove that clouds can be made to produce rain if certain substances are put into them.
125. B: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that, although it might have been proved that cloud - seeding is possible, scientists must exercise (use) caution on the matter because it is a subject that is still mired in (prevented from making progress because of) controversy. Another reason why caution is necessary is that because water is such a precious resource, the possibility that it can be produced from making clouds rain puts the subject into the political arena (the world of politics).
In B, such matters refer back to the controversy surrounding cloud-seeding and the fact that it could become a political issue, both of which are mentioned in the paragraph before the gap. Dr Mather won't be involved in discussing these issues because he died shortly before the film about him had been completed. However, we are told that the film will result in Dr Mather getting the recognition he deserves.
In the paragraph after the gap, we are told why Dr Mather deserves such recognition.
IV. WRITING (50 points)
Part 1. Rewrite the following sentences using the words given.
1. Do you understand what he’s written at the end?
- Can you make any sense of what he’s written at the end?
Make sense of something: understand something
2. If the referee hadn’t intervened promptly, a fight would have developed on the pitch.
- But for the referee’s prompt intervention, a fight would have developed on the pitch.
3. Fiona will not join the strike because she thinks it is morally incorrect.
- It is a matter of principle that she won’t join the strike.
A matter of principle: a situation that requires something be done a certain way because one believes it is the only right way
4. Our plans to visit Jamaica this summer have fallen through again.
- Our plans to visit Jamaica this summer have come to nothing again.
Come to nothing: to fail
5. Mary was always making Jones the subject of her cruel jokes.
- Jones was always the butt of Mary’s cruel jokes.
Be the butt of something: if you are the butt of jokes or criticism, people often make jokes about you or criticize you.
Part 2. The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone calls in the UK, divided into three categories, from 1995-2002. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The bar chart compares the amount of time spent by people in the UK on three different types of phone call between 1995 and 2002.
It is clear that calls made via local, fixed lines were the most popular type, in terms of overall usage, throughout the period shown. The lowest figures on the chart are for mobile calls, but this category also saw the most dramatic increase in user minutes.
In 1995, people in the UK used fixed lines for a total of just over 70 billion minutes for local calls, and about half of that amount of time for national or international calls. By contrast, mobile phones were only used for around 4 billion minutes. Over the following four years, the figures for all three types of phone call increased steadily.
By 1999, the amount of time spent on local calls using landlines had reached a peak at 90 billion minutes. Subsequently, the figure for this category fell, but the rise in the other two types of phone call continued. In 2002, the number of minutes of national / international landline calls passed 60 billion, while the figure for mobiles rose to around 45 billion minutes.
Part 3. Write an essay of 300 words on the following topic:
Some people think that instead of preventing climate change, we need to find a way to live with it. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Climate change represents a major threat to life on Earth, but some people argue that we need to accept it rather than try to stop it. I completely disagree with this opinion, because I believe that we still have time to tackle this issue and reduce the human impact on the Earth's climate.
There are various measures that governments and individuals could take to prevent, or at least mitigate, climate change. Governments could introduce laws to limit the carbon dioxide emissions that lead to global warming. They could impose “green taxes” on drivers, airline companies and other polluters, and they could invest in renewable energy production from solar, wind or water power. As individuals, we should also try to limit our contribution to climate change, by becoming more energy efficient, by flying less, and by using bicycles and public transport. Furthermore, the public can affect the actions of governments by voting for politicians who propose to tackle climate change, rather than for those who would prefer to ignore it.
If instead of taking the above measures we simply try to live with climate change, I believe that the consequences will be disastrous. To give just one example, I am not optimistic that we would be able to cope with even a small rise in sea levels. Millions of people would be displaced by flooding, particularly in countries that do not have the means to safeguard low-lying areas. These people would lose their homes and their jobs, and they would be forced to migrate to nearby cities or perhaps to other countries. The potential for human suffering would be huge, and it is likely that we would see outbreaks of disease and famine, as well as increased homelessness and poverty.
In conclusion, it is clear to me that we must address the problem of climate change, and I disagree with those who argue that we can find ways to live with it.
THẦY CÔ TẢI NHÉ!
PAGE TÀI LIỆU TIẾNG ANH NÂNG CAO KỲ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI VÒNG TỈNH THPT
ĐỀ THI THỬ HSG TỈNH SỐ 05 NĂM 2020
Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian thi: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi:
Đáp án có 23 trang
* Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển
* Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm.
I. LISTENING (50 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 1-9, listen to a sociology lecturer talking about shopping habits and decide whether these statements are True (T) or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
1. In the past, shops often had a limited range of goods.
2. There are similar shops in most towns today.
3. There are price reductions all the time.
4. The most popular method of payment in this day and age is credit card.
5. Online shopping is popular because it’s convenient and time-saving.
6. Although credit card fraud is raising public concern, statistics show that this is rare.
7. Because old people can not use computers, they gain few benefits from Internet shopping.
8. Shoppers may not like ordering on the Internet because pictures of goods are often unclear.
9. The lecturer believes that shopping habits will continue to change.
Your answers
| 1. T | 2. T | 3. F | 4. T | 5. T | 6. F | 7. F | 8. F | 9. T |
Probably the greatest change in shopping habits is buying goods over the Internet. This is the fastest growing sector of retailing and every year more people are taking this up. This method of purchasing has many advantages, the main one being cost, as prices are lower than on the High Street. Internet companies can charge less for their goods because they don't have to buy and maintain expensive stores, and they need fewer members of staff. And shoppers enjoy being able to select goods quickly and easily from the comfort of their homes at any time of day or night. But there are drawbacks to this way of shopping, er, the main one being the fear that when shoppers use their credit cards to pay for the goods, their details can be accessed and stolen. Internet bosses claim that this is rare, but statistics show that this crime is on the increase. Another problem is that only those people who own a computer can benefit from these low prices, and some companies such as cut-price airlines will only operate through the Internet. Older people, not having grown up with this technology, may not know how to use a computer and so are not able to buy these goods and services. In fact, the Internet would be a perfect way for older people to shop. They're often confined to their homes due to illness, and they could use an Internet supermarket to order food and have it delivered to their door, instead of having to carry the food home themselves, which can be exhausting. A further disadvantage to shopping on the Internet is that you have to order something without trying it on or seeing it with your own eyes. Even though the goods on most Internet shopping sites are clearly illustrated, it's only when you have an item delivered that you can tell whether you want to keep it or not. Should you wish to send it back, you have the inconvenience of having to wrap it up and send it back by post. However many drawbacks we can think of, Internet shopping is here to stay, and the number of shops in the town centres will decrease and perhaps disappear altogether in the not-so-distant future. Next week I will continue this course with a lecture about the kind of holidays the British used to take compared to today. Thank you.
Part 2. For questions 10-15, listen to an interview in which two people, Dana Singleton and Joe Fahey, talk about transport and choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which fits best according to what you hear. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
10. What does Dana say about her reason for joining the Accident Prevention Board?
A. She did it after being involved in an accident herself.
B. She felt strongly about what they were doing.
C. She was close to someone who had been an accident victim.
D. She felt pressure from people she worked with.
11. The interviewer mistakenly believes that the number of serious road accidents
A. has recently overtaken the number of accidents on public transport.
B. is presently at an all-time high.
C. is a direct result of more aggressive drivers on the roads.
D. has risen in proportion to the number of cars on the roads.
12. According to the statistics Dana quotes, there were more serious accidents per year
A. before 1926.
B. between 1926 and 1970.
C. between 1970 and 1990.
D. after 1990.
13. Which of the following facts about public transport does Joe not state?
A. Public transport has a relatively poor safety record.
B. People sometimes feel intimidated when using public transport.
C. The high cost of public transport puts a number of people off.
D. Most complaints are about unreliable services.
14. According to Joe, public transport would improve if the government
A. improved the road network.
B. made it free to travel by bus.
C. re-allocated public spending.
D. banned certain cars from roads.
15. What best sums up Dana’s and Joe’s opinions on driverless cars?
A. Joe feels more strongly that they could help the situation.
B. Dana disagrees with Joe that they are the transport of the future.
C. They share the same views on introducing them gradually.
D. They agree that the poor infrastructure will cancel out any benefit.
Your answers
| 10. B | 11. D | 12. B | 13. A | 14. C | 15. D |
Int: If you’re listening on the bus or train, or in your car, this next item might be of special interest to you. I’m joined by Dana Singleton from the Accident Prevention Board, or APB, and Joe Fahey, who is a long-time campaigner for greater use of public transport. Dana, I’d like to start with you. To become a member of a board such as the APB, you must have felt strongly about road safety. What made you take a stand?
F: Well, unlike many people, I’m very lucky in that I didn't suffer a personal injury…. that's often what motivates people to campaign and join movements, isn't it? But in a way, that’s exactly the reason…. I was one of the lucky ones…. And I’ve since worked with many colleagues who were victims. Every day, we read about accidents, and I just happened to ask myself, ‘Who’s doing anything to stop them?’ So, when I found the answer, I joined them because …..stand up for what you believe in, and all that.
Int: The APB deals with everything from industrial accidents to safety in the home, am I right?
F: Yes, and I‘ve worked in several fields but, for the last year, I‘ve been compiling information for a report specifically on road safety. It’s going to make for horrific reading, with around 200,000 accidents a year leading to injury or death.
Int: I suppose with the increase in the number of cars on the roads; it’s inevitable that the number of accidents goes up too. You must feel like you’re fighting a losing battle sometimes.
F: It’s actually not what you think. Yes, the number of cars on the road is increasing, but fatal accidents are going down, and have been doing so far many years. If you look at historical statistics, the number of serious road accidents after we started keeping records in 1926 has routinely been three or four times higher than today. It was only in 1970 that a major decline started, and since 1990, most years have recorded the lowest since records began…. so something is happening.
Int: I must say I find that quite shocking. Not at all what I expected.
F: But encouraging at that same time. It’s still too many, and much more can be done, but it’s nice to be able to present the public with something positive.
Int: Yes, indeed. Joe Fahey is sitting patiently here. Joe, if you had your way, more people would be using public transport, wouldn’t they?
M: That’s right. But we’d still need people like Dana because, well, accidents will happen. What I believe is that we need to make public transport an appealing and viable choice. Safety is only one reason for this…we also need to take into account our carbon footprint and the effect on the environment…. but also our quality of life in terms of cutting down noise and reducing stress. We think that public transport can do all those things very effectively. So what’s stopping more people from using public transport?
M: There are several factors. Above all, people complain about the service, and studies have shown that delays and canceled services are the most likely to send people away from public transport and back into cars. High fares are also quoted by many – for some journeys it is cheaper to buy and run a car than it is to use the train, let’s say. And there is a perception among many that their personal safety is somehow compromised on public transport, with a typical complaint being from late-night bus travelers who feel a sense of threat or intimidation from fellow travelers….Although I have to say that with the rise of road-rage incidents among car drivers, this is pretty much a misconception – the danger is perceived to be greater, whereas, in reality, it isn't.
Int: I think we’ve all experienced at least one of these problems. What can be done?
M: I think it comes down to better management, and that needs intervention from central government. Yes, the road network needs improvement, but with greater investment in bus services and train networks, we could manage very well with the roads we have. All the problems I mentioned can be solved; we just need to have the political will to do so. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t see that their massive expenditure on road projects can be avoided simply by boosting the existing rail network. That would take cars off the roads, freeing them up for buses.
F: You see, I agree with Joe. People are going to continue their attachment to cars unless we can offer them a more attractive alternative. We’ve made a lot of progress in some cities and the work of some transport departments is admirable. We just need to do more. From the safety point of view, public transport has an incredibly good record. We can make cars and roads safer….and we are doing so…..but they’ll never be as safe as public transport. It goes back to what you said about the number of cars on the road.
Int: What about driverless cars….would they help?
F: I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of faith in them. I mean, technology goes wrong sometimes too…and the transition period seems problematic because we’re not going to switch overnight so there will be a mix of transport types on the same roads. That worries me. But it’s the road situation that bothers me more. Time and time again, we have seen new roads built to handle way more capacity, and yet within a few years, the traffic grinds to a standstill. It’s not a solution, is it?
M: No, Dana’s right. Driverless cars are still cars, and unless we can build a future – roof road network, the same problems of safety and congestion will always arise.
Int: We’re going to take a short break now, but we’ll be back in a few minutes when I’ll be asking…..
Part 3. For questions 16-25, listen to a recording about earthquakes and supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
16. When did Mt. Pinatubo erupt for the first time?
______________________________________________________________________________
17. When was the earthquake measuring 7.8 recorded?
______________________________________________________________________________
18. When did the experts begin to study Mt. Pinatubo?
______________________________________________________________________________
19. What fell on the local villages on 2nd April?
______________________________________________________________________________
20. What does a 'Level 5' alert mean?
______________________________________________________________________________
Several large earthquakes were triggered by the eruption of Pinatubo on 15th June 1991 because of the 21______________ of the summit. The ‘caldera' thus created considerably reduced the height of the mountain. At the same time a 22________________ was passing by and the rain associated with it mixed with the cinders in the air to form a substance called tephra' which fell on the 23_________________ of homes causing them to collapse, crushing hundreds of people.
During the eruption, large amounts of sulphur dioxide gas were emitted, which combined with 24__________________ to make sulphuric acid which was responsible for a great deal of ozone depletion above Antarctica. The overall effect of the cloud from this great eruption was the lowering of 25__________________.
16. 5,500 years ago
17. July 1990
18. mid-March 1991
19. ash
20. eruption in progress
21. collapse
22. tropical storm
23. roofs
24. water and oxygen
25. global temperatures
Good morning, everyone. In these environmental science lectures I guess you're all used to hearing about global warming—well, I'm here today to talk to you about one particular volcano and its effect of global cooling. I'll begin by going back a little bit in time.
Towards the middle of 1991, the second largest volcanic eruption of the last century occurred in the Philippines, not far from the capital city, Manila, on the island of Luzon.
Mount Pinatubo belongs to a chain of volcanoes in the area and this was by no means its first eruption. There is evidence of eruptions from approximately 500, 3,000 and 5,500 years ago.
The events of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption began in July 1990, when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred 100 kilometers northeast of the Pinatubo region. The sleeping giant was re-awakened but few people had any idea of what was in store for them. In mid-March 1991, many earthquakes were experienced around Mount Pinatubo and this is when volcano scientists (or volcanologists as they are called) started their investigation of the mountain. Before the disaster, thousands of people lived in very close proximity to the mountain and, on April 2nd, small explosions from vents near the crater dusted their villages with ash. This resulted in the order for evacuations of 5,000 people later that month.
Earthquakes and explosions continued to harass the residents and, on June 5th, a Level 3 alert was issued for two weeks because of the possibility of a major eruption. However, the appearance of a large amount of lava protruding from the mountain on June 7th led to the announcement of a Level 5 alert on June 9th, indicating an eruption in progress. An evacuation area within 20 kilometers of the volcano was established and this time 25,000 people were evacuated.
On the following day, Clark Air Base was evacuated and the danger radius was extended to 30 kilometers from the volcano resulting in the total evacuation of 58,000 people.
On June 15th, just after midday, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo commenced and lasted for nine hours causing numerous major earthquakes due to the collapse of the land at the top of the mountain and the creation of a huge caldera. `What's a caldera?' I hear you say. Well, it's obvious really—with a huge eruption such as this where enormous amounts of material have exploded into the air, the summit falls into what is now an empty chamber and thus forms a large crater.
As luck would have it, as the eruption was taking place, a tropical storm was passing just to the northeast of Mount Pinatubo, bringing a lot of rainfall to the area. The dust and cinders that had been thrown up into the atmosphere combined with the water vapor from the storm to cause a rainfall of tephra that fell across the whole island of Luzon. Most of the people who perished during the eruption did so because of the weight of the ash collapsing roofs and killing the occupants of the houses. If it hadn't been for that passing storm, the death toll would certainly have been much lower.
But that's not all, besides the ash, Mount Pinatubo expelled between 15 and 30 million tons of sulfur dioxide gas. Can you guess what happened next? Yes, the sulfur dioxide mixed with water and oxygen in the atmosphere to become sulphuric acid, which is a major contributor to ozone reduction.
The eruption plume from Mount Pinatubo reached high into the atmosphere, attaining an altitude of 34 kilometers and the resulting aerosol cloud spread around the earth in two weeks and had covered the planet within a year. During the years 1992 and 1993, the ozone hole situated over Antarctica reached an unprecedented size.
The cooling effects of this cloud over the earth were remarkable. It reduced global temperatures considerably. In the United States, for example, we experienced our third coldest and third wettest summer in 77 years during 1992.
II. PHONETICS (10 POINTS)
Part 1. Choose the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from the others.
26. A. produced B. arranged C. checked D. fixed
27. A. eyes B. apples C. tables D. faces
28. A. absent B. descent C. recent D. decent
29. A. argue B. tongue C. dialogue D. plague
30. A. charisma B. chemise C. characteristic D. chemotherapy
Part 2. Choose the word which is stressed differently from the others.
31. A. decay B. attack C. depend D. vanish
32. A. commercial B. constructive C. essential D. national
33. A. considerate B. continental C. territorial D. economic
34. A. mischievous B. authority C. apartheid D. ambassador
35. A. profile B. morale C. blindfold D. insight
Your answers
| 26. B | 27. D | 28. B | 29. B | 30. B | 31. D | 32. D | 33. A | 34. A | 35. B |
III. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (40 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 36-55, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D to each of the following questions and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
36. Tom: “Can I have another cup of tea?”
Christy: “___________.”
A. Be yourself B. Do it yourself
C. Help yourself D. Allow yourself
Help yourself: tự phục vụ, tự nhiên làm gì đó (ăn, uống ...)
37. The police officer assured ___________ as soon as she had news about my stolen phone.
A. to me that she would call B. me that she would call
C. to call D. that she was calling
assure sb (that) + clause
38. ___________, the meeting stops here.
A. If no question being asked B. Without any question, however
C. No questions asked D. There being no question
Chọn phương án D, rút gọn của If there is no question. Phương án A sai vì sử dụng mệnh đề If nên động từ phải là is thay vì being. Phương án B sai vì however không cần thiết. Phương án C sai vì questions số nhiều.
39. Two weeks ___________, we will celebrate our coronation.
A. yet B. hence C. hitherto D. albeit
… days, weeks, etc. hence: a number of days, etc. from now
40. Our plans to hold an end-of-year picnic in the woods were ___________ by the bad weather.
A. provoked B. thwarted C. emulated D. vented
thwart: to prevent somebody from doing what they want to do
41. My daughter has a very sunny ___________, unlike my son who is often moody and uncommunicative.
A. behaviour B. conditioning C. disposition D. nurture
disposition: the natural qualities of a person’s character
42. Lisa attempted to ___________ herself with her new boss by volunteering to take on extra work.
A. ingratiate B. please C. gratify D. command
ingratiate yourself (with somebody): to do things in order to make somebody like you, especially somebody who will be useful to you
43. The ___________ workers were expecting thousands of refugees to turn up at the camps over the next few weeks.
A. social B. concern C. relief D. agency
relief worker: a person who works for a charity providing aid for people in need, esp in disaster areas
44. Kate’s been ___________ for six months now, so she really hopes that this job interview works out well for her.
A. on duty B. burnt out C. outside the box D. on the dole
on the dole: registered as unemployed and receiving benefit from the government
45. I’m sorry I forgot to collect your dry-cleaning, but it completely ___________ my mind.
A. jogged B. threw C. crossed D. slipped
slip one’s mind: be forgotten
46. I'm afraid we got our ___________ crossed. I thought my husband would be picking up the children and he thought I was doing it.
A. minds B. purposes C. fingers D. wires
get one’s wires crossed: fail to understand each other
47. It’s important to keep your ___________ about you when you are walking through the African bush.
A. wits B. heads C. brains D. minds
keep/have one's wits about one: to remain alert and observant (cẩn trọng).
48. I’m not sure I can answer that. I’ve only thought about it in the ____________before.
A. general B. hypothetical C. indefinite D. abstract
think about something in the abstract: nghĩ chung chung
49. The modification has been the ____________ on the cake for both of us, for a lot of hard work has gone into the design and development of the course.
A. chilling B. cooling C. freezing D. icing
the icing on the cake: điều may mắn hay tuyệt vời nào đó đến sau một điều may mắn hay tuyệt vời khác
50. She expects the political experience gained in this election will stand her in good ____________ in her future career, which, she suggests, could include another campaign.
A. footing B. grounding C. precedent D. stead
stand someone in good stead: có lợi cho ai
51. Congratulations on your success! How does it feel to be____________?
A. the man of the hour B. a word of honor
C. an egg on the face D. the top of the morning
the man of the hour: người được ngưỡng mộ, ngợi ca
52. At first, Tom insisted he was right, but then began to ____.
A. back down B. follow up C. drop off D. break up
back down: nhường bước
53. I was promised a good job from January this year, but it’s April now and I’m afraid that they are just ____________ me along.
A. cheating B. swindling C. stringing D. bringing
string somebody along: lừa ai đó
54. Tears ____________ up out of the baby's eyes.
A. raised B. mounted C. welled D. filled
well up: tuôn ra
55. Once the storm ____________, we’ll take the boat out on the lake.
A. beats down B. holds off C. rolls in D. blows over
blow over: lắng xuống (bão, cuộc tranh cãi)
Your answers
| 36. | 37. | 38. | 39. | 40. | 41. | 42. |
| 43. | 44. | 45. | 46. | 47. | 48. | 49. |
| 50. | 51. | 52. | 53. | 54. | 55. |
Part 2. For questions 56-60, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided.
Is consumerism such a bad thing? However (56-simple) _______________ it might sound, the truth is
we can’t really survive without it. Our economy depends entirely on consumer spending, perpetuated by our never-ending need for the new. Unless we are in the service sector, or doctors, teachers or lawyers, we are most likely to be involved in one way or another with consumerism. There is no doubt that our houses are stuffed with an (57-abundant) _______________ of things we don’t need and don’t want any more, things we’ve hardly ever used, clothes never worn, gadgets (58-discard) _______________ once a better one comes along. It is a very strong-minded person who isn’t seduced at some point or another by some useless but (59-lure) _______________ new contraption or item of clothing. And so, despite the detrimental effects of overwork, people work harder and harder to afford all the tat they don’t need. And although consumerism is the bedrock of our economy it is also (60-instrument) _______________ in much of our downfall. We are overburdened with huge debts which we won’t be able to pay back, all for the sake of stuff we never really needed. As Scottish thinker James Steuart wrote in 1770, ‘men are
forced to labour now because they are slaves to their own wants’.
56. simplistic: making a problem, situation, etc. seem less difficult or complicated than it really is
57. abundance
58. discarded
59. alluring: hấp dẫn, thu hút
60. instrumental: có vai trò quan trọng
Part 3. For questions 61-65, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided.
61. The ___________ (tranquil) of the beach in spring is the perfect antidote to the city.
tranquility: the state of being quiet and peaceful
62. There is a ___________ (hold) belief that flamenco is typical throughout Spain, but that is not true.
long-held / widely-held: lâu đời
63. The earliest written records were simply ___________ (picture) representations of natural objects, such as birds and animals.
pictorial: thuộc về hình ảnh
64. Redundancy payment, or a golden ___________ (hand) in lieu of notice, up to the value of ￡30,000.
golden handshake: a payment given to someone who is laid off or retires early
65. The President authorizes the ____________ (judge) use of military force to protect our citizens.
judicious: có suy xét, khôn ngoan
Part 4. For questions 66-75, find and correct 10 mistakes in the passage. Write them in the numbered boxes provided.
Interest in the phenomena of space is not recent, its origins lost in the shadows of antiquism. Impelled by curiosity and a desire to understand, man has long studied, charted and debated the mysteries of the celestial spheres. Out of this interest eventually coming the revolution in thought and outlook initiated by Copernicus, supported by the remarkably precise measurements of Tycho Brahe, illuminated by the observations of Galileo and the insights of Kepler, and given a theoretical basis by Newton in his proposed law about gravitation. The Copernican revolution continues to unfold today in human thought and lies at the heart of modern astronomy and cosmology. Yet, until recently, outer space was unaccessible to man, and whatever was learnt about the sun, planets and stars were obtained by often elaborate deductions from observations of the radiations that reached the surface of the Earth. Nor were all the inaccessible reaches of space far away. The ionosphere, was important because of its role in radio communications, was not as far away from the man on the ground below as Baltimore is from Washington. Nevertheless, until the advent of the large rocket, the ionosphere remained inaccessible not only to man himself but even his instruments. As a result, many of the conclusions about the upper atmosphere and the space environment of the Earth were quite tentative, being based on highly indirect evidence and long chains of theoretical reason. Time and again the theorist found himself struggling with a plethora of possibilities that could reduce in number only if it were possible to make in situ measurements. Lacking of the measurements, the researcher was forced into guesswork and speculation.
Small wonder, then, that when large rockets appeared they were soon put to work carrying scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere for making the long-needed in situ measurements. From the very start it was clear that the large rocket brought to it numerous possibilities for aiding the investigation and exploration of the atmosphere and space...
66. antiquism → antiquity
67. coming → came
68. about → of
69. were → was
70. was important → important
71. but even → but even to
72. reason → reasoning
73. reduce → be reduced
74. lacking of → lacking
75. to → with
III. READING (50 POINTS)
Part 1. For questions 76-85, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Are you one of those people who 76.____________ and turn all night, unable to get to sleep? Although many people who have sleeping problems, either chronic or occasional, automatically reach for sleeping pills when they sense a difficult night 77.____________ of them, a number turn to natural remedies, which are not only cheaper but safer in the long 78.____________. Most poor sleepers will, at some point, have tried the well-known trick of consuming a hot drink such as milk before going to bed. But 79.____________ are aware of the more unusual folk remedies that can help them on their way to a restful night's sleep. One effective remedy involves running very cold water over the forearms and lower legs for several minutes just before hopping into 80.____________. The shock of the cold 81.____________ by the warmth of the bed relaxes the body and leads to drowsiness. Another unusual approach has to 82.____________ with eating — or, more precisely, chewing. Eating an apple just before bedtime, taking particular care to chew the peel slowly and thoroughly, can help 83.____________ droop. The reason? Apple peel contains a natural substance which induces relaxation. Not only that, the chewing action is relaxing in 84.____________. Other than that, meditation, stretching. reading and even walking around prove helpful for many people. In short, there are many ways to avoid the pill-popping route, And if all 85.____________ fails, you can always try counting sheep.
76. toss
toss and turn: trằn trọc
77. ahead
78. run
in the long run: về lâu dài
79. few
80. bed
81. followed
82. do
83. eyelids: mí mắt
84. itself
85. else
Part 2. For questions 86-95, 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.
Does wealth have anything to do with how (86) _____ and generous a person is? Can we (87) _____ greater generosity to the better off in society? And are people stingier the less (88) _____ they are? Research by psychologists in the UK and the US has revealed that, on the contrary, when it comes to charity and (89) _____, it seems that poverty brings out the (90) _____ in people. They found that although the wealthiest gave more in absolute terms, they gave less as a proportion of their income. While the poorest appear to give over three per cent of their monthly income to good causes, the richest are giving less than two per cent. But the (91) _____ classes aren’t only more (92) _____, they also
seem to be less thoughtful and kind. An experiment to find out which cars were most likely to stop for a pedestrian at a zebra crossing revealed that the grander and more expensive the car, the less (93) _____ the driver was to stop. Does this mean that the more privileged you are, the more (94) _____ you feel, in this case to get there more quickly without having to stop for others? But it isn’t all bad news for the well-to-do when it comes to generosity. There are many great (95) _____ who are prepared to give away their fortunes to the more vulnerable in society, and it has been found that the rich are more likely to do voluntary work than the poor.
86. A prosperous B vulnerable C affluent D empathetic
87 A attach B bring about C attribute D credit
88 A well-heeled B well-kept C opulent D shady
well-heeled = rich
89 A affluence B miserliness C compassion D want
compassion: a strong feeling of sympathy for people or animals who are suffering and a desire to help them
90 A best B worst C most D least
91 A wanting B moneyed C thrifty D cautious
moneyed: có nhiều tiền
92 A thick-skinned B impassive C impartial D tight-fisted
tight-fisted: not willing to spend or give much money
93 A likely B often C possible D expected
94 A entitled B essential C indispensable D critical
95 A misanthropes B sponsors C philanthropists D donors
philanthropist: a rich person who helps the poor and those in need, especially by giving money
misanthrope: a person who hates and avoids other people
Part 3. For questions 96-108, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
SAVING LANGUAGE
For the first time, linguists have put a price on language. To save a language from extinction isn't cheap — but more and more people are arguing that the alternative is the death of communities.
There is nothing unusual about a single language dying. Communities have come and gone throughout history and with them their language. But what is happening today is extraordinary, judged by the standards of the past. It is language extinction on a massive scale. According to the best estimates, there are some 6,000 languages in the world. Of these, about half are going to die out in the course of the next century: that's 3,000 languages in 1,200 months. On average, there is a language dying out somewhere in the world every two weeks or so.
How do we know? In the course of the past two or three decades, linguists all over the world have been gathering comparative data. If they find a language with just a few speakers left, and nobody is bothering to pass the language on to the children, they conclude that language is bound to die out soon. And we have to draw the same conclusion if a language has less than 100 speakers. It is not likely to last very long. A 1999 survey shows that 97 percent of the world's languages are spoken by just four percent of the people.
It is too late to do anything to help many languages, where the speakers are too few or too old, and where the community is too busy just trying to survive to care about their language. But many languages are not in such a serious position. Often, where languages are seriously endangered, there are things that can be done to give new life to them. It is called revitalization. Once a community realizes that its language is in danger, it can start to introduce measures which can genuinely revitalize. The community itself must want to save its language. The culture of which it is a part must need to have a respect for minority languages. There needs to be funding, to support courses, materials, and teachers. And there need to be linguists, to get on with the basic task of putting the language down on paper. That's the bottom line: getting the language documented —recorded, analyzed, written down. People must be able to read and write if they and their language are to have a future in an increasingly computer-literate civilization.
But can we save a few thousand languages, just like that? Yes, if the will and funding were available. It is not cheap, getting linguists into the field, training local analysts, supporting the community with language resources and teachers, compiling grammars and dictionaries, writing materials for use in schools. It takes time, lots of it, to revitalize an endangered language. Conditions vary so much that it is difficult to generalize, but a figure of $100,000 a year per language cannot be far from the truth. If we devoted that amount of effort over three years for each of 3,000 languages, we would be talking about some $900 million.
There are some famous cases which illustrate what can be done. Welsh, alone among the Celtic languages, is not only stopping its steady decline towards extinction but showing signs of real growth. Two Language Acts protect the status of Welsh now, and its presence is increasingly in evidence wherever you travel in Wales.
On the other side of the world, Maori in New Zealand has been maintained by a system of so-called 'language nests', first introduced in 1982. These are organizations which provide children under five with a domestic setting in which they are intensively exposed to the language. The staff are all Maori speakers from the local community. The hope is that the children will keep their Maori skills alive after leaving the nests and that as they grow older they will in turn become role models to a new generation of young children. There are cases like this all over the world. And when the reviving language is associated with a degree of political autonomy, the growth can be especially striking, as shown by Faroese, spoken in the Faroe Islands, after the islanders received a measure of autonomy from Denmark.
In Switzerland, Romansch was facing a difficult situation, spoken in five very different dialects, with small and diminishing numbers, as young people left their community for work in the German-speaking cities. The solution here was the creation in the 1980s of a unified written language for all these dialects. Romansch Grischun, as it is now called, has official status in parts of Switzerland, and is being increasingly used in spoken form on radio and television.
A language can be brought back from the very brink of extinction. The Ainu language of Japan, after many years of neglect and repression, had reached a stage where there were only eight fluent speakers left, all elderly. However, new government policies brought fresh attitudes and a positive interest in survival. Several 'semi-speakers' — people who had become unwilling to speak Ainu because of the negative attitudes of Japanese speakers — were prompted to become active speakers again. There is fresh interest now and the language is more publicly available than it has been for years.
If good descriptions and materials are available, even extinct languages can be resurrected. Kaurna, from South Australia, is an example. This language had been extinct for about a century but had been quite well documented. So, when a strong movement grew for its revival, it was possible to reconstruct it. The revised language is not the same as the original, of course. It lacks the range that the original had, and much of the old vocabulary. But it can nonetheless act as a badge of present-day identity for its people. And as long as people continue to value it as a true marker of their identity, and are prepared to keep using it, it will develop new functions and new vocabulary, as any other living language would do.
It is too soon to predict the future of these revived languages, but in some parts of the world they are attracting precisely the range of positive attitudes and grassroots support which are the preconditions for language survival. In such unexpected but heart-warming ways might we see the grand total of languages in the world minimally increased.
Questions 96-100: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the passage? Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
YES if the statement agrees with the writer 's views
NO if the statement contradicts the writer's views
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
96. The rate at which languages are becoming extinct has increased.
97. Research on the subject of language extinction began in the 1990s.
98. In order to survive, a language needs to be spoken by more than 100 people.
99. Certain parts of the world are more vulnerable than others to language extinction.
100. Saving language should be the major concern of any small community whose language is under threat.
Your answers
| 96. | 97. | 98. | 99. | 100. |
But what is happening today is extraordinary, judged by the standards of the past. It is language extinction on a massive scale.
97. NO
In the course of the past two or three decades, linguists all over the world have been gathering comparative data.
98. YES.
If they find a language with just a few speakers left, and nobody is bothering to pass the language on to the children, they conclude that language is bound to die out soon. And we have to draw the same conclusion if a language has less than 100 speakers.
99. NOT GIVEN
100. NO
It is too late to do anything to help many languages, where the speakers are too few or too old, and where the community is too busy just trying to survive to care about their language.
Questions 101-103:
The list below gives some of the factors that are necessary to assist the revitalization of a language within a community.
Which THREE of the factors are mentioned by the writer of the text? Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
A. the existence of related languages
B. support from the indigenous population
C. books tracing the historical development of the language
D. on-the-spot help from language experts
E. a range of speakers of different ages
F. formal education procedures
G. a common purpose for which the language is required
Your answers
| 101. | 102. | 103. |
The community itself must want to save its language. The culture of which it is a part must need to have a respect for minority languages.
102. D
It is not cheap, getting linguists into the field, training local analysts,….
103. F
…..supporting the community with language resources and teachers, compiling grammars and dictionaries, writing materials for use in schools.
Questions 104-108: Match the languages A—F with the statements below which describe how a language was saved. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered box provided.
Languages
A Welsh
B Maori
C Faroese
D Romansch
E Ainu
F Kaurna
104. The region in which the language was spoken gained increased independence.
105. People were encouraged to view the language with less prejudice.
106. Language immersion programs were set up for sectors of the population.
107. A merger of different varieties of the language took place.
108. Written samples of the language permitted its revitalization.
Your answers
| 104. | 105. | 106. | 107. | 108. |
104. C
And when the reviving language is associated with a degree of political autonomy, the growth can be especially striking, as shown by Faroese,...
105. E
However, new government policies brought fresh attitudes and a positive interest in survival.
106. B
These are organizations which provide children under five with a domestic setting in which they are intensively exposed to the language.
107. D
The solution here was the creation in the 1980s of a unified written language for all these dialects.
108. F
This language had been extinct for about a century, but had been quite well documented.
Part 4. For questions 109-118, read the following passage and choose the answer A, B, C or D that fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
"Rising Sea Levels"
Perhaps the most pervasive climatic effect of global warming is rapid escalation of ice melt. Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, portions of the South American Andes, and the Himalayas will very likely lose most of their glacial ice within the next two decades, affecting local water resources. Glacial ice continues its retreat in Alaska. NASA scientists determined that Greenland's ice sheet is thinning by about 1 m per year. The additional meltwater, especially from continental ice masses and glaciers, is adding to a rise in sea level worldwide. Satellite remote sensing is monitoring global sea level, sea ice, and continental ice. Worldwide measurements confirm that sea level rose during the last century.
Surrounding the margins of Antarctica, and constituting about 11% of its surface area, are numerous ice shelves, especially where sheltering inlets or bays exist. Covering many thousands of square kilometers, these ice shelves extend over the sea while still attached to continental ice. The loss of these ice shelves does not significantly raise sea level, for they already displace seawater. The concern is for the possible surge of grounded continental ice that the ice shelves hold back from the sea.
Although ice shelves constantly break up to produce icebergs, some large sections have recently broken free. In 1998 an iceberg (150 km by 35 km) broke off the Ronne Ice Shelf, southeast of the Antarctic Peninsula. In March 2000 an iceberg tagged B-15 broke off the Ross Ice Shelf (some 900 longitude west of the Antarctic Peninsula), measuring 300 km by 40 km. Since 1993, six ice shelves have disintegrated in Antarctica. About 8000 km of ice shelf are gone, changing maps, freeing up islands to circumnavigation, and creating thousands of icebergs. The Larsen Ice Shelf, along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, has been retreating slowly for years. Larsen-A suddenly disintegrated in 1995. In only 35 days in early 2002, Larsen-B collapsed into icebergs. This ice loss is likely a result of the 2.5°C temperature increase in the region in the last 50 years. In response to the increasing warmth, the Antarctic Peninsula is sporting new vegetation growth, previously not seen there.
A loss of polar ice mass, augmented by melting of alpine and mountain glaciers (which experienced more than a 30% decrease in overall ice mass during the last century) will affect sea-level rise. The IPCC assessment states that "between one-third to one-half of the existing mountain glacier mass could disappear over the next hundred years." Also, "there is conclusive evidence for a worldwide recession of mountain glaciers ... This is among the clearest and best evidence for a change in energy balance at the Earth's surface since the end of the 19th century."
[A.] Sea-level rise must be expressed as a range of values that are under constant reassessment. [B.] The 2001 IPCC forecast for global mean sea-level rise this century, given regional variations, is from 0.11-0.88 m. [C.] The median value of 0.48 m is two to four times the rate of previous increase. These increases would continue beyond 2100 even if greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilized. [D.]
The Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, has kept ocean temperature records since 1916. Significant temperature increases are being recorded to depths of more than 300 m as ocean temperature records are set. Even the warming of the ocean itself will contribute about 25% of sealevel rise, simply because of thermal expansion of the water. In addition, any change in ocean temperature has a profound effect on weather and, indirectly, on agriculture and soil moisture. In fact the ocean system appears to have delayed some surface global warming during the past century through absorption of excess atmospheric neat.
A quick survey of world coastlines shows that even a moderate rise could bring changes of unparalleled proportions. At stake are the river deltas, lowland coastal farming valleys, and low-lying mainland areas, all contending with high water, high tides, and higher storm surges. Particularly tragic social and economic consequences will affect small island states - being able to adjust within their present country boundaries, disruption of biological systems, loss of biodiversity, reduction in water resources, among the impacts. There could be both internal and international migration of affected human populations, spread over decades, as people move away from coastal flooding from the sea-level rise.
109. There is more new plant life in Antarctica recently because ______.
A. the mountain glaciers have melted
B. the land masses have split into islands
C. the icebergs have broken into smaller pieces
D. the temperature has risen by a few degrees
Câu hỏi này ngắn, chỉ cần ghi trong đầu các từ " more new plant life in Antarctic" và tìm các từ liên quan. Trong trường hợp này, ta chỉ cần tìm các từ liên quan đến từ Antarctic, và đoạn 1 không có từ này. Từ Antartic bắt đầu xuất hiện ở đoạn 2 nhưng đến cuối đoạn 3 mới xuấtt hiện các từ liên quan đến các từ khóa còn lại.
This ice loss is likely a result of the 2.5°C temperature increase in the region in the last 50 years. In response to the increasing warmth, the Antarctic Peninsula is sporting new vegetation growth, previously not seen there.
Suy ra D là đáp án đúng
110. It may be inferred from this passage that icebergs are formed ______.
A. by a drop in ocean temperatures B. when an ice shelf breaks free
C. from intensely cold islands D. if mountain glaciers melt
Since 1993, six ice shelves have disintegrated in Antarctica. About 8000 km of ice shelf are gone, changing maps, freeing up islands to circumnavigation, and creating thousands of icebergs.
111. The word ‘there’ in paragraph 3 refers to ______.
A. polar ice mass in the last 50 years B. the temperature increase
C. new vegetation growth D. in the Antarctic Peninsula
112. The author explains the loss of polar and glacial ice by ______.
A. stating an educated opinion B. referring to data in a study
C. comparing sea levels worldwide D. presenting his research
A loss of polar ice mass, augmented by melting of alpine and mountain glaciers (which experienced more than a 30% decrease in overall ice mass during the last century) will affect sea-level rise. The IPCC assessment states that "between one-third to one-half of the existing mountain glacier mass could disappear over the next hundred years."
113. The word ‘conclusive’ in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. definite B. independent C. unique D. valuable
114. Why does the author mention the Scripps Institute of Oceanography?
A. The location near the coast endangers the Scripps facility.
B. Research at Scripps indicates that the ocean is getting warmer.
C. One quarter of the rising sea levels has been recorded at Scripps.
D. Records at Scripps have been kept for nearly one hundred years.
The Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, has kept ocean temperature records since 1916. Significant temperature increases are being recorded to depths of more than 300 m as ocean temperature records are set.
115. Which of the sentences below best expresses the information in the highlighted statement in the passage? The other choices change the meaning or leave out important information.
Global warming on the surface of the planet may have been retarded during the last
hundred years because heat in the atmosphere was absorbed by the oceans.
Global warming on the surface of the ocean was greater than it was on the rest of the
planet during the past century because of heat in the atmosphere.
Too much heat in the atmosphere has caused global warming on the surface of the
planet for the past hundred years in spite of the moderation caused by the oceans.
There is less heat being absorbed by the oceans now than there was a hundred years
ago before the atmosphere began to experience global warming.
retard = delay: làm chậm
116. Why will people move away from the coastlines in the future?
A. It will be too warm for them to live there.
B. The coastlines will have too much vegetation.
C. Flooding will destroy the coastal areas.
D. No agricultural crops will be grown on the coasts.
There could be both internal and international migration of affected human populations, spread over decades, as people move away from coastal flooding from the sea-level rise
117. Which of the following statements most accurately reflects the author's opinion about rising sea levels?
A. Sea levels would rise without global warming.
B. Rising sea levels can be reversed.
C. The results of rising sea levels will be serious.
D. Sea levels are rising because of new glaciers.
118. Look at the four squares [.] that show where the following sentence could be inserted in the passage.
During the last century, sea level rose 10-20 cm; a rate 10 times higher than
the average rate during the last 3000 years
the average rate during the last 3000 years
Where could the sentence best be added?
A. [A.] B. [B.] C. [C.] D. [D.]
Xuất hiện theo trình tự thời gian: last century → forecast for this century suy ra câu đã cho phải đứng trước câu forecast for this century → B
Your answers
| 109. | 110. | 111. | 112. | 113. |
| 114. | 115. | 116. | 117. | 118. |
Part 5. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 119-125, read the passage and choose from the 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 box provided.
Rainmaker with his Head in the Clouds
Critics dismissed Craeme Mather' s attempts to make clouds rain. But now recent experiments appear to have vindicated him. Anjana Ahuya reports.
Dr. Craeme Mather lived his life with his head in the clouds, as a documentary film to be shown this week shows. Against the advice of almost everybody else in the meteorological community, the Canadian scientist devoted his professional life to trying to make clouds rain.
| 119. |
Before Dr. Mather became involved, the science of weather modification had already claimed many reputations. The idea that clouds could be manipulated first circulated in the 1940s, and efforts gathered pace soon after the Second World War.
| 120. |
However, the entire discipline fell into disrepute when commercial companies hijacked the idea, took it around the world, and then failed to deliver on their promises. Cloud-seeding, as the process was known, became the preserve of crackpots and charlatans.
| 121. |
Scientists theorized that if they could inject the cloud with similarly shaped crystals, these imposter crystals would also act as frames around which droplets would clump. The cloud would then be tricked into raining. Silver iodide, whose crystals resemble those of ice, seemed the best bet. Sadly, none of the experiments, including Dr. Mather's, which had been going for more than five years, seemed to work. Dr. Mather was about to admit defeat when serendipity intervened.
| 122. |
Dr. Mather was convinced that something that the place was spewing into the atmosphere was encouraging the downpour. Subsequent experiments confirmed that hygroscopic salts pouring into the sky from them were responsible. Hygroscopic salts attract water - once in the atmosphere, the particles act as magnets around which raindrops can form.
| 123. |
He was wary; Dr. Mather was known to be a smooth-talking salesman. 'He was charming and charismatic, and many scientists don't trust that; he says. 'He was also not well-published because he had been working in the commercial sector. Overall, he was regarded as a maverick. On that occasion, he presented results that I was convinced were impossible. Yet the statistical evidence was overwhelming, which I couldn't understand.
| 124. |
'If those findings can be reproduced there, it will be the most exciting thing to have happened in the field for 20 years. It will be remarkable because some of the results are not scientifically explainable.’ He adds, however, that scientists must exercise caution because cloud-seeding is still mired in controversy. He also points out that, with water being such a precious resource, success will push the research into the political arena.
| 125. |
Dr. Cooper says: 'With the paper mill, he saw something that other people wouldn't have seen. I am still uncomfortable with his idea because it throws up major puzzles in cloud physics. But if Dr. Mather was right, it will demonstrate that humans can change clouds in ways that were once thought impossible.'
A Dr. Mather refused to be daunted by this image. After all, the principle seemed perfectly plausible. Water droplets are swept up to the top of the clouds on updrafts, where they become supercooled (i.e., although the temperature is below freezing, the water remains liquid). When a supercooled droplet collides with an ice crystal, it freezes on contact and sticks. Successive collisions cause each ice crystal to accumulate more water droplets; the crystals grow until they become too heavy to remain suspended in the atmosphere. As the crystals fall through the cloud, they become raindrops. The ice crystals, therefore, act as frames to 'grow' raindrops.
B Dr. Mather, unfortunately, will not be involved in the debate about such matters. He died aged 63, shortly before the documentary was completed. It will ensure that this smooth-talking maverick is given the recognition he deserves.
C He and a colleague decided to collect a last batch of data when they flew into a tiny but ferocious storm. That storm, Dr. Mather says in the film, changed his life. Huge droplets were spattering on the tiny plane's windscreen. No such storm had been forecast. Back on the ground, they discovered the storm was located directly above a paper mill.
D A trial in Mexico has been running for two years, and the signs are promising. 'We were sufficiently encouraged in the first year to continue the seeding research. But the results are preliminary because we have only a very small sample of clouds at the moment. We need to work over two more summers to reach a proper conclusion.
E He arranged to fly to South Africa 'with the full intention of explaining what was wrong with the experiment'. Instead, he came back convinced that Dr. Mather was on to something. He is now running two experiments, one in Arizona and one in northern Mexico to try to verify the South African results. The experiments use potassium chloride, which is similar to table salt (sodium chloride) and, it is claimed, non-polluting.
F The scientific community remained sniffy in the face of this apparent proof. Foremost among the skeptics was Dr. William Cooper, of the United States National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Dr. Cooper, regarded as one of the world's finest cloud scientists, saw Dr. Mather present his astonishing claims at a cloud physics conference in Montreal.
G They involved weather experts firing rockets into clouds to stop them from producing hail, which damages crops. The clouds, it was hoped, would dissolve into a harmless shower.
H The desire to do so led him to set up a project in South Africa, which was ultimately to convince him that it was possible. As the program reveals, experiments around the world appear to prove his faith was justified.
Your answers
| 119. | 120. | 121. | 122. | 123. | 124. | 125. |
119. H: In the opening paragraph, we learn that Dr Mather tried to make clouds rain and that almost everyone else in the meteorological community (people involved in the study of the earth's atmosphere and the weather) advised him not to. We also learn that a film has been made about him. The opening sentence is a play on words - if you 'have your head in the clouds', you have unrealistic aims or ideas, which some people thought was true of Dr Mather, who was also involved in the study of actual clouds.
In H, the phrase “to do so” refers back to the end of the opening paragraph and means 'to make clouds rain'. As a result of his desire to make clouds rain, he set up a project. A film has been made which shows that various experiments have proved that he was right to think it could be done.
The paragraph after the gap gives some information about what had happened regarding weather modification (causing the weather to change) before Dr Mather got involved in it.
120. G: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that the science of weather modification had claimed many reputations, which means that many scientists had lost their good reputations as a result of getting involved in it. We also learn that the idea began in the 1940s and grew after the Second World War.
In G, they at the beginning refers back to the efforts made after the Second World War that are mentioned at the end of the paragraph before the gap. The paragraph then describes efforts to prevent clouds from producing hail (frozen rain that fails as little balls of ice) that would damage crops and make them produce rain instead.
In the paragraph after the gap, we are told that the entire discipline (the whole field of weather modification) then acquired a bad reputation.
121. A: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that the science of weather modification got a bad reputation because commercial companies “hijacked the idea” (took it over for their own purposes) and “failed to deliver on their promises” (failed to do what they had promised to do - this must mean they did not prove that cloud-seeding was possible, as they had promised to). As a result, the process became the preserve (an activity exclusively done by) of crackpots (crazy people) and charlatans (cheats who make false claims about being experts to something in order to make money).
In A, we are told that Dr Mather refused to be daunted by this image. This image refers back to the image that people had of weather modification, or cloud-seeding, which was that it was the preserve of crackpots and charlatans. Dr Mather was not discouraged by the fact that people had this image of weather modification because the principle (the basic idea on which a theory is based) seemed perfectly plausible (believable). The rest of the paragraph consists of a detailed explanation of what that principle is with regard to what happens in clouds.
In the paragraph after the gap, this explanation is continued, moving on from what happens in clouds to what scientists believed they could do to change what naturally happens in clouds.
122. C: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that none of the experiments which were carped out to prove the theory that clouds could be affected by scientists worked. Dr Mather had no success himself in this, and so he was about to admit defeat (accept that success was impossible and give up), but then serendipity (the ability to make fortunate discoveries completely by chance) intervened (entered into the situation and changed it).
In C, we are told what happened when serendipity intervened. The last batch of data refers back to the experiments he made that are mentioned in the paragraph before the gap and means that he collected a last batch of data before giving up these experiments. When he was collecting this, there was an unexpected storm, which he discovered was directly above a paper mill (a factory for processing paper).
In the paragraph after the gap, the place and from there both refer back to the paper mill mentioned at the end of C. We learn in this paragraph that Dr Mather thought that the paper mill had caused the storm.
123. F: In the paragraph before the gap, we !earn that Dr Mather decided that there was a direct link between the hygroscopic salts coming from the paper mill and the storm and that subsequent experiments he connected proved that rain could be caused by certain substances being put into clouds.
In F, we learn that the scientific community did not believe this apparent proof - that clouds could be made to produce rain by putting certain substances into them, as described in the paragraph before the gap. The scientific community remained sniffy (contemptuous) and Foremost among the skeptics (one of the main people to be extremely doubtful) was Dr Cooper. He saw Dr Mather present his astonishing claims - this refers back to his claims concerning the effect of hygroscopic salts on clouds in the paragraph before the gap - at a conference.
At the beginning of the paragraph after the gap. He is Dr Cooper and the first sentence means that Dr Cooper was wary (cautious, suspicious) when he heard the claims referred to at the end of F. In this paragraph, we learn that he was wary because Dr Mather was considered to be a smooth-talking salesman (someone who tried to convince others of something that is probably not true by means of speaking persuasively), because scientists don't trust other scientists who are charming and charismatic (having a great personal charm that makes them have influence over other people because other people are impressed by them), because Dr Mather had been working in the commercial sector (this implies that Dr Mather's conclusions might have been influenced by commercial considerations) and because Dr Mather was considered to be a maverick (someone in a particular field of work with unconventional views and methods which are often disapproved of). The phrase On that occasion refers back to Dr Mather's appearance at the conference, mentioned at the end of F.
124. E: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that Dr Cooper considered Dr Mather's results impossible but felt that the statistical evidence for them was overwhelming (enormous) and as a result was confused.
In E, Dr Cooper goes to South Africa to prove Dr Mather wrong but comes back believing that Dr Mather was on to something (had discovered something that could have important consequences). Dr Cooper is now conducting two experiments himself - in Arizona and in Mexico - to verify (to confirm, to make sure that they are what they seem) the results so far obtained in South Africa, using a kind of salt.
In the paragraph after the gap, Dr Cooper is speaking about the experiments referred to in E. In the first sentence, those findings refers back to the South African results in E and there refers back to Arizona and Mexico in E. He talks shout how significant it would be if his experiments have the same results as those already conducted in South Africa, since this would prove that clouds can be made to produce rain if certain substances are put into them.
125. B: In the paragraph before the gap, we learn that, although it might have been proved that cloud - seeding is possible, scientists must exercise (use) caution on the matter because it is a subject that is still mired in (prevented from making progress because of) controversy. Another reason why caution is necessary is that because water is such a precious resource, the possibility that it can be produced from making clouds rain puts the subject into the political arena (the world of politics).
In B, such matters refer back to the controversy surrounding cloud-seeding and the fact that it could become a political issue, both of which are mentioned in the paragraph before the gap. Dr Mather won't be involved in discussing these issues because he died shortly before the film about him had been completed. However, we are told that the film will result in Dr Mather getting the recognition he deserves.
In the paragraph after the gap, we are told why Dr Mather deserves such recognition.
IV. WRITING (50 points)
Part 1. Rewrite the following sentences using the words given.
1. Do you understand what he’s written at the end?
- Can you make any sense of what he’s written at the end?
Make sense of something: understand something
2. If the referee hadn’t intervened promptly, a fight would have developed on the pitch.
- But for the referee’s prompt intervention, a fight would have developed on the pitch.
3. Fiona will not join the strike because she thinks it is morally incorrect.
- It is a matter of principle that she won’t join the strike.
A matter of principle: a situation that requires something be done a certain way because one believes it is the only right way
4. Our plans to visit Jamaica this summer have fallen through again.
- Our plans to visit Jamaica this summer have come to nothing again.
Come to nothing: to fail
5. Mary was always making Jones the subject of her cruel jokes.
- Jones was always the butt of Mary’s cruel jokes.
Be the butt of something: if you are the butt of jokes or criticism, people often make jokes about you or criticize you.
Part 2. The chart below shows the total number of minutes (in billions) of telephone calls in the UK, divided into three categories, from 1995-2002. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The bar chart compares the amount of time spent by people in the UK on three different types of phone call between 1995 and 2002.
It is clear that calls made via local, fixed lines were the most popular type, in terms of overall usage, throughout the period shown. The lowest figures on the chart are for mobile calls, but this category also saw the most dramatic increase in user minutes.
In 1995, people in the UK used fixed lines for a total of just over 70 billion minutes for local calls, and about half of that amount of time for national or international calls. By contrast, mobile phones were only used for around 4 billion minutes. Over the following four years, the figures for all three types of phone call increased steadily.
By 1999, the amount of time spent on local calls using landlines had reached a peak at 90 billion minutes. Subsequently, the figure for this category fell, but the rise in the other two types of phone call continued. In 2002, the number of minutes of national / international landline calls passed 60 billion, while the figure for mobiles rose to around 45 billion minutes.
Part 3. Write an essay of 300 words on the following topic:
Some people think that instead of preventing climate change, we need to find a way to live with it. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Climate change represents a major threat to life on Earth, but some people argue that we need to accept it rather than try to stop it. I completely disagree with this opinion, because I believe that we still have time to tackle this issue and reduce the human impact on the Earth's climate.
There are various measures that governments and individuals could take to prevent, or at least mitigate, climate change. Governments could introduce laws to limit the carbon dioxide emissions that lead to global warming. They could impose “green taxes” on drivers, airline companies and other polluters, and they could invest in renewable energy production from solar, wind or water power. As individuals, we should also try to limit our contribution to climate change, by becoming more energy efficient, by flying less, and by using bicycles and public transport. Furthermore, the public can affect the actions of governments by voting for politicians who propose to tackle climate change, rather than for those who would prefer to ignore it.
If instead of taking the above measures we simply try to live with climate change, I believe that the consequences will be disastrous. To give just one example, I am not optimistic that we would be able to cope with even a small rise in sea levels. Millions of people would be displaced by flooding, particularly in countries that do not have the means to safeguard low-lying areas. These people would lose their homes and their jobs, and they would be forced to migrate to nearby cities or perhaps to other countries. The potential for human suffering would be huge, and it is likely that we would see outbreaks of disease and famine, as well as increased homelessness and poverty.
In conclusion, it is clear to me that we must address the problem of climate change, and I disagree with those who argue that we can find ways to live with it.
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