PRACTICE TEST 30

I. LISTENING (5.0 POINTS)

HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
 Bài nghe gồm 4 phần; mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 05 giây; mở đầu và kết thúc mỗi phần
nghe có tín hiệu. Thí sinh có 20 giây để đọc mỗi phần câu hỏi.
 Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có tín hiệu nhạc.
 Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh (bằng tiếng Anh) đã có trong bài nghe.
Part 1: For questions 1-6, Tim Cole talking about guidebooks and decide whether the following statements
are TRUE (T) or FALSE (F). (1.2 points)
1. Once, when Tim used a guidebook in Australia, it took him ages to find the place he was looking for.
2. Tim believes the problem with guidebooks is that some of them are very poorly researched.
3. The thing Tim particularly dislikes about guidebooks is the recommendations about where to eat.
4. Other things which should be included in guidebooks are good pictures of well-known tourist sites.
5. Tim likes the fact that digital guidebooks are tailored to your individual requirements.
6. What Tim likes about Twitter tourism is the advice from other travelers was extremely helpful.
Your answers
1. F 2. T 3. T 4. F 5. F 6. T

Part 2: For questions 7-11, listen to an interview with Diana McLeod about happiness at work. Listen and
answer the following questions with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each
question. (1.0 point)
7. According to a survey, what was rated as the least boring?
……TEACHING
8. What did the teachers say they enjoyed being able to employ?
…… CREATIVE SKILL
9. What makes it almost impossible for people to enjoy their work?
……POOR RELATIONSHIPS
10. What incident happens more in bigger companies than in smaller ones?
…BULLYING
11. In the long run, what can be reduced by financial incentives?
……MOTIVATION
Your answers:
7. 10.
8. 11.
9.
Part 3: You will hear an interview with the presenter of a popular radio series about food and cooking. For
questions 12-16, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear. (1.0 point)
12. What has made “Just a taste” so popular?
A. it gives advice about how to cook traditional dishes.
B. it features interviews with professional chefs.
C. it presents food and cooking in a more personal light.
D. it takes a humorous approach.
13. The presenter of the programme believes that smells _________
A. will one day be made available to listeners. B. can never be part of a radio cookery programme.
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C. are more important than sounds in the kitchen. D. cannot be successfully imagined by listeners.
14. What makes describing a dish particularly difficult?
A. There are too many ingredients to describe.
B. Listeners are mainly interested in what they should be aiming for.
C. Each stage of the cooking process needs to be described.
D. There is a lack of appropriate vocabulary.
15. The presenter of the series mentions Iceland because _________
A. it has a particularly unusual cuisine. B. fish-based dishes are particularly popular there.
C. it has turned natural features to its advantage. D. it produces large quantities of fruit and vegetables.
16. The spices asafoetida and turmeric are used in South India cooking _________
A. mainly for their taste. B. mainly for their therapeutic properties.
C. by filtering them into the food. D. it produces large quantities of fruit and vegetables.
Your answers:
12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Part 4: For questions 17-25, Listen to part of a talk and complete the sentences with NO MORE THAN
FOUR WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided. (1.8
points)
o Between 1968 and 1972; 12 NASA’s men successfully to set foot on the lunar surface.
o NASA’s lunar exploration, called Artemis, has the task of not just going to the moon but also to be ready for
17.__COMPLEX HUMAN MISSIONS_________to Mars.
o Orion is a(n) 18._ _HUMAN RATED SPACECRAFT__consisting of three parts: the crew module; where up to
four astronauts will live and work throughout the flight; the service module, with life support systems for the
crew and its own engine and fuel reserves; and a(n) 19.____LAUNCH ABORT SYSTEM ____, with engines
capable of pulling the crew module to safety during launch.
o The Space Launch System consists of 20.____A .. HOLD ____, an Exploration Upper Stage, a massive cores
stage and two extended solid rocket boosters.
o All 4 RS-25 engines and the two solid rocket boosters come to life, thundering our crew upwards.
o Two minutes after 21._____X______, the solid rocket boosters are spent and released and eight minutes after
the launch, the core stage is depleted and separated.
o The upper stage fires briefly, placing Orion into a parking orbit around the Earth. Here, the crew
22._____RECONFIGURE THE SPACECRAFT _____and check systems to confirm everything is ready for
deep space travel.
o Once thus burn is complete, the upper stage of the SLS is 23.__X ___and the crew on board Orion coast for
several days toward all that awaits them at the moon.
o The real key in this approach is placing Gateway in a unique halo orbit to perfect the 24.______X_____for Mars
missions.
o To successfully dock on returning, the Orion must match 25.____THE ORBIT_______of the station.
Your answers:
17. 22.
18. 23.
19. 24.
20. 25.
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 21.
II. LEXICO AND GRAMMAR (2.0 pts)
Part 1: Choose the answer A, B, C, or D that best completes each of the following sentences. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. (1.5 points)
26. She talks about her home town in ________terms; it must be a wonderful place.
A. glowing B. sparkling C. glistening D. flashing
In glowing terms: in an enthusiastic way
27. Before a child can learn a musical instrument, he or she first needs to acquire the necessary ________ skills.
A. incorporative B. manipulative C. imaginative D. demonstrative
Manipulative skills:  moving or using an object with the hands or feet to achieve a goal or complete a task.
28. The government decided to ________smoking in public areas.
A. walk out on B. break out in C. clamp down on D. put down for
Clamp down on: take strong action to stop or limit sth
29. He's been ________ for over 20 years and intends to continue for as long as possible.
A. holding the fort B. holding the field C. holding the horse D. holding the reins
Hold the fort: to have responsibility for something while someone else is absent
Hold the field: wrong => lead the field: to be in the leading position in a particular area of activity
Hold the horse: wrong
Hold the reins: be in control
30. The ________ intent of the new government is to reduce unemployment.
A. pledged B. committed C. avowed D. promised
Avow intent: solemn or serious promise publicly to attempt to reach a certain goal
31. I don't know exactly how much it will cost, but a (n) ________figure would be around $10, 000.
A. ballpoint B. ballpark C. ballroom D. ballcock
Ballpark figure: rough numerical estimate of the value of sth
32. As time passed, the pharaoh came to be considered a god on earth, a kind of ________ between gods and
humans.
A. intermediary B. interpreter C. intermediate D. interloper
Intermediary: người trung gian, ở giữa
Interpreter: phiên dịch viên
Intermediate: giữa, trung gian
Interloper: người xâm phạm quyền lợi người khác
33. Mike couldn't keep things to himself any longer. He decided to ________ his soul to his best friend.
A. open B. show C. confess D. bare
34. You’d better ________ your arguments if you want to defend your case.
A. add up B. beef up C. cough up D. dig up
Beef up: to make something stronger or more important
35. There are not secret negotiations. Our dealings have always been ________.
A. above all B. above itself C. above board D. above the fold
Above the fold: in the top part of a newspaper page
36. After generations of doctors in the family, he ________ by becoming a fashion designer.
A. broke the mould B. broke a leg C. broke fresh ground D. broke the back
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Break fresh ground: do sth new
37. The floral bouquets we entered into the competition were a _______ of color.
A. riot B. wham C. drop D. buzz
38. You get seasick but you’re going to travel by boat – you’re a glutton for __________!
A. estrangement B. management C. amazement D. punishment
A glutton for punishment: to be someone who seems to enjoy doing something that you consider unpleasant
39. I don’t know if he would be right for the job; he’s a bit of an unknown __________.
A. ability B. capacity C. quantity D. identity
40. The police __________tough penalties for people driving without a license.
A. fork out B. deal out C. stick out D. bail out
Your answers:
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.
36. 37. 38. 39. 40.
Part 2: Give the correct form of each given word to complete the following sentences. Write your answers in
the numbered boxes. (0.5 points)
41. Some people argue that indigenous people must be_SUBCULTURAL_to dominant society values and
economic activities so that they can participate in national development.
CULTURE
42. Like his famous NAMESAKE , young Washington had a brave, adventurous spirit. NAME
43. Watching the children together gave reassurance that childhood is not all ONE-UPMANSHIP and go-for-the-
jugular. MAN
44. Its authors say the motorway has opened the FLOODGATE for development on a scale planners hadn't
envisaged. FLOOD
45. It has been a NAIL-BITING couple of weeks waiting for my results. NAIL
Your answers:
41. 42. 43.
44. 45.
III. READING (5.0 pts)
Part 1: Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE word in each
space. Write your answers in the space provided.
The changing face of working life
The accepted concept of a career 46. _HAS_followed a similar pattern for decades. After completing their
education, people would enter the adult world of work, 47. _SETTLING_down on to a job which they would likely
remain from that point 48. _X_. Not only would this occupation provide their income for their entire working life, it
would also allow them a healthy pension when they retired and move into 49. _OLD_age. Over the past twenty
years, however, the relationship between a wage earner and their chosen profession has changed enormously.
Today, the idea of a ‘job-for-life’ has all 50. _BUT_disappeared, to be replaced by an unforgiving world of unstable
employment. Some observers even argue that current society to pit old 51. _AGAINST_young in a constant battle
to find work of some description, all against a 52. _X__of increasing debt and economic difficulties.
At the same time, the government regularly releases figures that suggest the economy is prospering,
evidencing this claim with the fact that the unemployment rate continues to fall annually. There are indeed more
jobs available. However, a huge number of these are casual, temporary or short-term positions, all of which are low-
paid and create little in the way of tax income for the government. This has a number of debilitating long-term
effects, not 53. _LEAST_because this assurance of a growing economy is based more in myth than fact.
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Your answers:
46. 47. 48. 49.
50. 51. 52. 53.
Part 2: Read the following passage and 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.
Fashions in sightseeing
The question of what makes an entertaining sightseeing excursion is just as subject to the whims of fashion
as any other leisure activity. A trip around the spectacular coastal scenery of western Scotland is now a 54.
__________attractive option but a couple of centuries ago that same landscape was 55. __________as a wild and
scary wasteland. Increasingly, in Western Europe, safely decommissioned mines and other 56. __________of the
region’s industrial heritage are now being reinvented as visitor attractions, whilst redundant factories and power
stations get a new 57. __________of life as shopping centers and art galleries.
This 58. __________the question: if 59. __________industrial sites can attract tourists, then why not
functioning one?
The Yokohama Factory Scenery Night Cruise is just one of several industrial sightseeing tours now
available in Japan. These are part of an emerging niche tourist trade, 60. __________by a craze amongst urbanites
to reconnect with the country’s industrial base. Seeing the oil refineries and steelworks at night, when lights and
flares are more visible, apparently 61. __________to the aesthetic charm of the experience.
54. A. greatly B. strongly C. highly D. widely
55. A. referred B. regarded C. reputed D. renowned
56. A. legacies B. remainders C. inheritances D. bequests
57. A.term B. source C. grant D. lease
58. A. begs B. leads C. rises D. brings
59. A. demented B. defunct C. depraved D. demure
60. A. demanded B. powered C. pushed D. fueled
61. A. boosts B. proves C. adds D. works
Your answers:
54. 55. 56. 57.
58. 59. 60. 61.
Part 3: Read the article below and choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the
text.
A Special Sports Photographer
It has to be said that most sports journalists pride themselves on their lack of imagination. They simply provide
the required material on time. From such people you get your eight paragraphs bang on the final whistle, along with
your perfectly sharp photograph of the goal-scorer. Who could ask for anything more than that? Few sports editors
do.
Nobody has ever asked the readers, however. Maybe they are intelligent enough to want more. Sports journalists
tend to get submerged by their own deadlines, and by their subject; nothing but sport and the recording of sport
seems to matter. No unsporting thoughts ever enter the heads of such professionals, you would think from their
work. It is more than their jobs are worth, for a start. Back at the editorial office, the men who judge the material
produced are equally slaves to the “news value” of events, to the entire myopic philosophy of gritty professionalism.
Sports journalists are not required to go beyond the recording of the day-to-day trivia of sporting life. If you are
a photographer, you must get stuck in with your ultra-long lenses and your motor-drives and come back with a hard,
sharp picture of a sporting hero. It is perfectly possible for a photographer to do more; the best can use their craft to
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convey the pleasure and pain of sport. The great English writer Dr Johnson once said that the point of art was to
teach us how to better enjoy life, or how to endure it better. But on the whole, it is better not to use the term “art” to
people in newspapers. They tend to shy away from it like frightened racehorses. The point here is that sports
journalists tend not to go beyond the ordinary because of a kind of conspiracy of ordinariness between its
practitioners.
Eamonn McCabe is one of the photographers to have cracked this conspiracy. He has worked for many years at
the Observer newspaper, taking the kind of sports pictures that would have given a fit of horrors to a man too much
a slave to news values; but in an immensely fruitful association much of his finest work has been used will take a
man who came 71st if it is a picture that means something.
A touch of art has infiltrated sports journalism; frightening thought. People in sports journalism talk about “an
Eamonn McCabe shot” even when McCabe did not take the picture. They are talking about a style, a vision, a way
of looking at sport. Take his famous picture of a boxer’s hands as an example, if you wrote “Eamonn McCabe” all
over it in letter of fire, it would not make its provenance any more obvious. No one else would have bothered to take
the photograph, or even if they had, they would not have got it quite like that.
While decrying the tyrany of news values – McCabe has had people say “We can’t use this brilliant picture of
that footballer getting tackled as he was about to score, because he was on the winning side. We could only have
used it if they had lost.” – McCabe has known many occasions when the hard news photograph really was the only
thing that could be run. There are times when boxers’ hands, or bald goal keepers, or tennis players eyeballing each
other – all famous pictures by McCabe – are an irrelevance, and a newspaper photographer must simply record
events. If he can use his talents to make the event more real, more understandable, that is a great bonus. But he
must, above all, get the picture.
McCabe’s record of getting picture for the major and unexpected events is impressive. Indeed, there are moods
in which he will pride himself more on the big story pictures than on his genuinely innovative photography. He
takes his own vision, his ability to take “Eamonn shots” for granted. After all, it is innate. But the skills of getting a
major news shot has also been acquired; a matter of good timing; good luck, and good professional habits. He was,
for example, the only working photographer to get a picture of the Cambridge University crew sinking in the 1978
Boat Race.
McCabe, of course, being the man he is, will tell you that he has been lucky with the number of major news
photographs he has got. But as the old adage goes, the more you practise, the luckier you get. There is more than
coincidence, and there is more than experience, behind McCabe’s luck. It is something to do with his attitudes
towards whatever it is he is photographing. He becomes emotionally bound up in the event, and has an intuitive
understanding of what is happening and, crucially, what will happen next. That is why, time and again, pictures
happen for him, the timing of the comedy is perfect and the people seem inevitably to form into patterns for him.
62. What comments does the writer make about sports journalists in the first paragraph?
A. They are too set in their ways to be able to change.
B. They believe in doing the minimum amount of work.
C. They are limited in the work-related ambitions.
D. The content of their work is of little concern to them.
63. The writer implies that the attitude of sports journalists__________.
A. is calculated to frustrate the efforts of their bosses.
B. leads to work that is not all that it could be.
C. can be explained by the lack of respect for their profession.
D. makes them lose sight of what they have been instructed to do.
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64. What point does the write make about mediocrity in the 3rd and 4th paragraph __________.
A. Even the best newspapers are affected by it.
B. Too many sports journalists aspire to.
C. Certain photographers are desperate to avoid being tagged with it.
D. Even great journalists can occasionally succumb to it.
65. What point does the writer make about McCabe in the 5th paragraph?
A. His name is synonymous with a particular type of sports programme.
B. He is reticent about putting his name on his pictures.
C. He always improves upon similar photos by other journalists.
D. People credit him with photographs he did not take.
66. The writer uses the example of the player getting tackled to illustrate __________
A. a practical disadvantage of McCabe’s artistic methods.
B. the importance of not showing bias to photograph a less abstract subject.
C. an unsuccessful attempt by McCabe to photograph a less abstract subject.
D. the desire of some editors to avoid material with a misleading message.
67. In the final paragraph, what impression do we get of the writer’s attitude towards McCabe __________.
A. He admires McCabe for his relentless attention to detail.
B. He attributes McCabe’s success to good fortune.
C. He respects McCabe for his involvement in his word.
D. He values McCabe’s independence of spirit.
Your answers:
62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67.
Part 4: Read the passage and do the tasks that follow.
Video game research
Although video games were first developed for adults, they are no longer exclusively reserved for the
grown-ups in the home. In 2006, Rideout and Hamel reported that as many as 29 percent of preschool children
(children between two and six years old) in the United States had played console video games, and 18 percent had
played hand-held ones. Given young children’s insatiable eagerness to learn, coupled with the fact that they are
clearly surrounded by these media, we predict that preschoolers will both continue and increasingly begin to adopt
video games for personal enjoyment. Although the majority of gaming equipment is still designed for a much older
target audience, once a game system enters the household it is potentially available for all family members,
including the youngest. Portable systems have done a particularly good job of penetrating the younger market.
Research in the video game market is typically done at two stages: some time close to the end of the product
cycle, in order to get feedback from consumers, so that a marketing strategy can be deve1oped; and at the very end
of the product cycle to ‘fix bugs’ in the game. While both of those types of research are important, and may be
appropriate for dealing with adult consumers, neither of them aids in designing better games, especially when it
comes to designing for an audience that may have particular needs, such as preschoolers or senior citizens. Instead,
exploratory and formative research has to be undertaken in order to truly understand those audiences, their abilities,
their perspective, and their needs. In the spring of 2007, our preschool-game production team at Nickelodeon had a
hunch that the Nintendo DS – with its new features, such as the microphone, small size and portability, and its
relatively low price point was a ripe gaming platform for preschoolers. There were a few games on the market at the
time which had characters that appealed to the younger set, but our game producers did not think that the game
mechanics or design were appropriate for preschoolers. What exactly preschoolers could do with the system,
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however, was a bit of a mystery. So we set about doing a study to answer the query: What could we expect
preschoolers to be capable of in the context of hand-held game play, and how might the child development literature
inform us as we proceeded with the creation of a new outlet for this age group?
Our context in this case was the United States, although the games that resulted were also released in other
regions, due to the broad international reach of the characters. In order to design the best possible DS product for a
preschool audience we were fully committed to the ideals of a ‘user-centered approach’, which assumes that users
will be at least considered, but ideally consulted during the development process. After all, when it comes to
introducing a new interactive product to the child market, and particularly such a young age group within it, we
believe it is crucial to assess the range of physical and cognitive abilities associated with their specific
developmental stage.
Revelle and Medoff (2002) review some of the basic reasons why home entertainment systems, computers,
and other electronic gaming devices, are often difficult for preschoolers to use. In addition to their still developing
motor skills (which make manipulating a controller with small buttons difficult), many of the major stumbling
blocks are cognitive. Though preschoolers are learning to think symbolically, and understand that pictures can stand
for real-life objects, the vast majority are still unable to read and write. Thus, using text-based menu selections is not
viable. Mapping is yet another obstacle since preschoolers may be unable to understand that there is a direct link
between how the controller is used and the activities that appear before them on screen. Though this aspect is
changing, in traditional mapping systems real life movements do not usually translate into game-based activity.
Over the course of our study, we gained many insights into how preschoolers interact with various
platforms, including the DS. For instance, all instructions for preschoolers need to be in voiceover, and include
visual representations, and this has been one of the most difficult areas for us to negotiate with respect to game
design on the DS. Because the game cartridges have very limited memory capacity, particularly in comparison to
console or computer games, the ability to capture large amounts of voiceover data via sound files or visual
representations of instructions becomes limited. Text instructions take up minimal memory, so they are preferable
from a technological perspective. Figuring out ways to maximize sound and graphics files, while retaining the clear
visual and verbal cues that we know are critical for our youngest players, is a constant give and take. Another of our
findings indicated that preschoolers may use either a stylus, or their fingers, or both although they are not very
accurate with either. One of the very interesting aspects of the DS is that the interface, which is designed to respond
to stylus interactions, can also effectively be used with the tip of the finger. This is particularly noteworthy in the
context of preschoolers for two reasons. Firstly, as they have trouble with fine motor skills and their hand-eye
coordination is still in development, they are less exact with their stylus movements; and secondly, their fingers are
so small that they mimic the stylus very effectively, and therefore by using their fingers they can often be more
accurate in their game interactions.
For questions 68-72, do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the reading passage?
Write
YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
68. Video game use amongst preschool children is higher in the US than in other countries. NOT GIVEN
69. The proportion of preschool children using video games is likely to rise. YES
70. Parents in the US who own gaming equipment generally allow their children to play with it. NOT GIVEN
71. The type of research which manufacturers usually do is aimed at improving game design. NO
72. Both old and young games consumers require research which is specifically targeted. YES
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For questions 73-77, complete the summary using the list of words/phrases, A-I, below.
Problems for preschool users of video games
Preschool children find many electronic games difficult, because neither their motor skills nor their
73.____C______are sufficiently developed. Certain types of control are hard for these children to manipulate: for
example, 74.______E____can be more effective than styluses. Also, although they already have the ability to relate
75._____F_____to real-world objects, preschool children are largely unable to understand the connection between
their own 76._____A_____and the movements they can see on the screen. Finally, very few preschool children can
understand 77._____I_____.

A. actions B. buttons C. cognitive skills

D. concentration E. fingers F. pictures
G. sounds H. spoken instructions I. written menus
For questions 78-79, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.
78. The study carried out by Nickelodeon _________
A. was based on children living in various parts of the world.
B. focused on the kinds of game content which interests preschoolers.
C. investigated the specific characteristics of the target market.
D. led to products which appealed mainly to the US consumers.
79. Which problem do the writers highlight concerning games instructions for young children?
A. Spoken instructions take up a lot of the available memory.
B. Written instructions have to be expressed very simply.
C. The children do not follow instructions consistently.
D. The video images distract attention from the instructions.
Your answers:
68. 69. 70. 71.
72. 73. 74. 75.
76. 77. 78. 79.
Part 5: Read the text. Six paragraphs have been removed. Choose from the paragraphs A- H the one which
fits each gap (80-85). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
How the internet is altering your mind
Like most newspapers’ content, what you are about to read was written using a computer connected to the
internet. Obviously, this had no end of benefits, mostly pertaining to the relative ease of my research and the
simplicity of contacting the people whose thoughts and opinions you are about to read.
80._____G_____
It often feels as if all this frantic activity creates a constant state of twitchy anxiety. Moreover, having read a
hotly controversial book about the effect of digital media on the human mind, I may have very good reason to feel
scared. Its thesis is simple enough: not only that the modern world's relentless informational overload is killing our
capacity for reflection, contemplation and patience but that our online habits are also altering the very structure of
our brains.
81.____B______
The writer then argues that the internet’s ‘cacophony of stimuli and ‘crazy quilt’ of information have given
rise to ‘cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning’ - in contrast to the age of the book,
when intelligent humans were encouraged to be contemplative and imaginative.
82._____A_____
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 Dr Small, the director of the Memory and Ageing Research Centre at the University of California, Los
Angeles, is a specialist in the effects on the brain of the ageing process. 'Even an old brain can be quite malleable
and responsive to what's going on with technology,’ he tells me.
83.____D______
When I ask him how I might stop the internet's more malign effects on my own brain, he sounds slightly
more optimistic than Carr: ‘Try to balance online time with offline time: he tells me. ‘What’s happening is, we’re
losing the circadian rhythms we’re used to; you go to work, you come home, you spend time talking with your
kids.’
84.____F______
‘His argument privileges activities of the skimming and browsing kind. But if you look at research on kids
doing this, or exploring virtual worlds such as Second Life, the argument there is about immersion and
engagement.’
85._____C_____
This all sounds both comforting and convincing, until I return to The Shallows and read a particularly
sobering sentence: ‘We are welcoming the frenziedness into our souls.’ There’s something chilling about those
words and even twenty stupid minutes on YouTube and an impulse buy from Amazon cannot quite remove them
from my brain.
A. But here is the really important thing. Carr writes: 'If, knowing what we know today about the brain's
plasticity, you were to set out to invent a medium that would rewire our mental circuits as quickly and thoroughly as
possible, you would probably end up designing 'something that looks and works a lot like the internet.’
B. The Shallows is a book by Nicholas Carr. It is an elegantly written cry of anguish about what one admirer
calls ‘the uneducating of Homo sapiens’ and a rewiring of neural pathways and networks that may yet deprive the
human race of the talents that, ironically enough, drove our journey from caves to PC terminals.
C. ‘The point is, to play successfully, you have to pay an incredible amount of attention to what your team-
mates are doing, to the mechanics of the game. You can set up a thesis for The Depths, just as much as The
Shallows. And it seems to me that to say that some neural pathways are good and some are bad - well, how can you
possibly say that?’
D. ‘It’s a basic principle that the brain is very sensitive to any kind of stimulation. If you have repeated
stimuli, your neural circuits will be excited. But if you neglect other stimuli, other neural circuits will be weakened:
Carr argues that the on line world so taxes the parts of the brain that deal with fleeting and temporary stuff that deep
thinking becomes increasingly impossible. As he sees it: ‘Our ability to learn suffers and our understanding remains
shallow.’
E. Among the people with walk-on roles in The Shallows is Scott Karp, the editor of a renowned American
digital media blog called Publish2, whose reading habits are held up as proof of the fact that plenty of people's
brains have long since been rewired by their enthusiastic use of the internet.
F. I get a more convincing antidote to the Carr thesis from Professor Andrew Burn of the University of
London's Institute of Education. Equating the internet with distraction and shallowness, he tells me, is a
fundamental mistake, possibly bound up with Carr's age (he is fifty). ‘Is there anything in his book about online
roleplaying games?’
G. But then there is the downside. The tool I use to write can also double as many other things. Thus, while
writing this, I was entertained by no end of distractions. I watched YouTube videos, bought something on Amazon
and at downright stupid hours of the day - 6 a.m. or almost midnight - lance again checked my email on either my
phone or computer.
Your answers:
80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85.
Part 6: Read the text, identify which section A–D each of the following is mentioned. Write ONE letter A–E
in the corresponding numbered space provided. Each letter may be used more than once.
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In which section the writer __________
86. ___B_____mention a noise that made him feel slightly uneasy?
87. ____D____acknowledge the forethought of one of his hosts?
88. ____A____allude to the cleanliness of a section of the zoo?
89. ___C_____suggest that most visitors don’t see the animals at their best?
90. ____C____imply that the activity he attended would benefit from wider publicity?
91. ____D___admit to an initial reluctance to take up a suggestion?
92. ___A___give us an impression of the scale and extent of the whole site?
93. ____C____describe a physical sensation that more than lived up to expectations?
94. ____D___report on one way in which the well-being of the animals is ensured?
95. ____A__mention a thrilling encounter with one particular species?
A night to remember
Our reporter spent a night camping out inside a zoo in Australia
A. Scanning the breakfast menu, I found myself swiftly losing my appetite: on offer were beetle larvae,
maggots and frozen mice. Fortunately, spending the night at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo needn’t involve sampling the
animals’ meals, though it does entail getting extremely close to all manner of creatures. The Roar and Snore
programme, curiously little known in Australia let alone overseas, allows you to spend a night camping in the heart
of the zoo, long after the crowds of day trippers have dispersed. And if your experience of zoos is creatures slumped
motionless in their enclosures, or skulking in their dens, then let me assure you that at dusk, the place comes alive
and echoes with the din of hundreds of creatures making their presence known. A ferryboat dropped me off at the
foot of the zoo, which sprawls across a steeply sloping swathe of bushland across the bay from the city. Guides,
Steve and Nikki, awaited with bright, enthusiastic smiles. Ten of us had signed up and, in no time at all, we were
busily erecting tents on a rectangle of grass outside the zoo’s education centre. An adjacent area of gum trees was
inhabited by kangaroos, wallabies and an alarmingly inquisitive emu – our first animal encounter.
B. After a quick briefing, we set off into the gathering gloom. Steve unlocked a huge metal gate that then
clanged ominously behind us. We were in, though not without some trepidation – what had we let ourselves in for?
It was just us, a handful of security staff and 2,000 furred and feathered inmates. A gibbon let out a haunting, liquid
whoop and wild possums frolicked noisily through the eucalyptus trees above us, their dark silhouettes framed
against a full moon. The skyscrapers of the city centre twinkled in the distance as a pair of zebras scuffled in a cloud
of dust; farther along, a giant Kodiak bear lumbered menacingly around a large, rock-strewn enclosure. An
awesome spectacle in the gloom, but the buzz that evoked was soon surpassed when a pair of snow leopards came
within a few feet of us as they paced around the rocky ledges of their cage.
C. Not all the animals at Taronga are behind bars. Semi-tame African guinea fowl nest in the gum trees and
a water buffalo let out a surprisingly cow-like moo, whilst a group of macaws screeched as we climbed back up to
the education centre. It gets chilly after dusk, but Steve had left nothing to chance and a warming barbecue was
already sizzling with sausages and chicken kebabs. Meanwhile, Nikki brought out some animals that are used to
being handled: first a diamond python called Little Spots and then a koala. Even the Australians in the group were
enthralled as Nikki showed us the pad of hardened skin that enables the species to sit for hours at a time in the crook
of a tree. As she explained, the gum trees they eat contain only four percent protein, so they have little energy to do
much else.
D. After a bitterly cold night under canvas, it was a relief to be woken at dawn for breakfast. As the sun rose
and bathed the zoo in a soft, orange light, we fed carrots to the zoo’s small herd of giraffes. One of them, Hope, is
blind, and sought out the carrots, with her long, slobbering blue tongue. ‘If you touch it, you’ll notice it feels rough,
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like a cat’s,’ said her keeper. As Hope wrapped hers around my outstretched finger, it felt more like sandpaper. As
the sun’s rays warmed our chilled bodies, we were taken on a behind-the scenes tour, down a corridor with doors
leading to each enclosure, and notices reminding keepers of the animals’ diet and welfare requirements. In a
scrubbed kitchen, the inmates’ food is prepared. Here another cheery keeper, Kristy, showed me the grey-coloured
gloop that is fed to small marsupials. ‘Have a taste,’ she said. I hesitated, then dipped in my finger. It was delicious,
like honey yoghurt. We were at the end of our visit and the zoo was again admitting the public. Within an hour it
seemed as though every four-year old in Sydney was careering around the place, letting out squeals of excitement –
a sharp contrast to the peaceful, privileged glimpse we’d been given.
Your answers:
86. 87. 88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95.
VI. WRITING (6.0 pts)
Part 1: Graph description (1.5 pts)
The graph below shows the demand for electricity in England during typical days in winter and summer. The
pie chart shows how electricity is used in an average English home.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where
relevant.
You should write at least 150 words.

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Part 2: Essay writing (3.0 pts)

Write an essay on the following topic.
As populations become more mobile, the idea of national borders between countries will disappear in
future. To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
You should write at least 350 words.
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_THE END_

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