HỘI ĐỒNG THI THPT CHUYÊN AMBROSIA KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA THPT

NĂM 2020

SỐ PHÁCH
ĐỀ THI THỬ
Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian thi: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi: 22/12/2019
Đề thi có X trang
 Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển
 Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm
____________________________________________________________
I. LISTENING (50 points)
HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
 Bài nghe gồm 4 phần; mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 10 giây; mở đầu và kết thúc mỗi phần
nghe có tín hiệu.
 Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có nhạc hiệu. Thí sinh có 02 phút để hoàn chỉnh bài trước nhạc hiệu kết thúc bài
nghe.
 Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh đã có trong bài nghe.

Part 1. (10pts) For questions 1-5, listen to part of a conversation between a woman and an official at the
Land Transport Information Service at Toronto Airport and answer the questions. Write NO MORE
THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer.
1. How far is Milton from the airport?
_________________________________________________________________
2. In terms of public transport, what’s the fastest way to reach Milton?
_________________________________________________________________
3. Where will the Greyhound bus go from the airport?
_________________________________________________________________
4. The airport shuttle is described as what kind of service?
_________________________________________________________________
5. What must the woman do if she wants to travel by Airport Shuttle?
_________________________________________________________________

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Part 2. (10pts) For questions 6-10, , listen to a news report about China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
and match each number (6-10) in A with one corresponding letter (A-I) in B.
A B
A. has been looking to replicate the ambitious plan of another country
B. is bolstering cargo haulage and overseas transportation
6. China C. has failed owing to dishonesty and incompetence
7. Africa D. has scaled back its plan financially
8. Sri Lanka E. is sustaining growth based on another country’s budget
9. Myanmar F. has ballooning diplomatic debt on a 99-year lease
10. Japan G. has a passenger service that is raking up losses
H. has been financing infrastructure projects worldwide
I. is suffering from underinvestment and domestic economic struggles

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Part 3. (10pts) For questions 11-15, listen to part of an interview 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.
11. Alicia and Jeremy agree that rivalries between scientists __________.
A. May impede progress in some areas.
B. Create a valuable impetus for researchers.
C. Are the direct cause of certain dishonest practices.
D. Should be respected by those advocating co-operation.
12. Alicia and Jeremy disagree about the extent to which supporters of open science
A. Have to provide alternative sources of funding for researchers.
B. Can ensure that the contribution of individuals is recognised.
C. Might benefit from the way blogs and forums operate.
D. Should consider the needs of commercial sponsors.
13. Jeremy’s interest in open science arose from
A. Participation in an online discussion.
B. Listening to Alicia talk on the subject.
C. Conducting experiments in his own name.
D. Research done whilst studying at the university.
14. How does Alicia feel about the contribution of amateur scientists?
A. She thinks they can reveal weaknesses in existing theories.
B. She believes they cast new light on the research process.
C. She would like them to be less isolated from each other.
D. She actively encourages them to ask for advice online.
15. Why does Jeremy mention the Polymath project?
A. To show how amateur scientists approach the process of research.
B. To explain how open science generates enthusiasm and co-operation.
C. To illustrate Alicia’s point about how effective online collaboration can be.
D. To give an example of a professional seeking the help of non-professionals.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

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Part 4. (20pts) For questions 16-25, listen to a recording about X and complete the following sentences.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording in each blank.
 A ____________________ (16) of factors was key to the Monterey Bay Aquarium team’s approach to
the successful confinement of white sharks over an extended time period.
 To cater for the sharks, which are ____________________ (17), a tailor-made tank was constructed.
 The Monterey Bay team had to find sharks that belong to a certain ____________________ (18) so
that it would be easier to transport, keep and feed them.
 After supervising its feeding behaviour after the initial capture, the team would start to move the
shark to the aquarium in a ____________________ (19) transport tank, which was equipped with a
host of equipment that provided it with ____________________ (20).
 Though relatively successful, the Monterey Bay team’s work affected the sharks. They have been
observed to develop ____________________ (21), fail and ____________________ (22) as a result of
continual collisions with the walls and sides of the tanks.
 What makes it difficult for ____________________ (23) like white sharks to live in the confined space
of tanks is that they are used to moving freely in the open ocean. Realising this problem, the
Monterey Bay team released its sixth white shark after more than 50 days, only to find out that it
died soon after, as its ____________________ (24) informed.
 Having accomplished its goal and considering the fact that it is extremely ____________________
(25), the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s program of capturing white sharks was stopped. However, it
was by no means the last attempt to keep a white shark in captivity.

II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (20 points)

Part 1. (15pts) For questions 26-40, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each of the following
questions. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
26. If we are doing this together, you should not let me hang out to _________ like that.
A. shrivel B. wither C. dry D. starve
27. The employer ran ________ over his employees when he thought they were slacking off.
A. criticism B. aspersions C. threadbare D. roughshod
28. If you have any misgivings about our services, please do not hesitate to _______ a complaint to our
director.
A. submit B. accede C. file D. propose
29. According to professor Sachs, the foreign aid will allow people in developing country to break out
of the poverty trap, therefore creating a _______ cycle.
A. vicious B. perpetual C. inexorable D. virtuous
30. The grant will enable the lab to _______ its research room with state-of-the-art equipment.
A. furnish B. dispense C. inundate D. juxtapose
31. Don’t mention the breakup to him. You will only add insult to ________.
A. wound B. fracture C. inflammation D. injury
32. Remember not to sneeze or cough at the wedding. _________, excuse yourself.
A. For necessary B. In due course C. If need be D. In retrospect
33. She _________ ignorance of the stolen purse but I think she was lying
A. professed B. maintained C.claimed D. asserted

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 34. The organization had to ___________ its emergency fund in response to the unexpected catastrophe.
A. set aside B. fall upon C. take up D. dip into
35. Professor Easterly has always been a(n) ___________ advocate of free market.
A. sordid B. strident C. irate D. terse
36. I was very bored so I _________ work and went home early.
A. sagged off B. knocked out C. dozed in D. dropped off
37. All of the plants now raised on farms have been developed from plants _______ wild.
A. once they grew B. once grew C. that once grew D. being grown
38. The regulations here are so ________ that even the manager had to comply with.
A. hard and fast B. thick and thin C. spick and span D. chalk and cheese
39. The college cannot ________ any behavior that involves illicit drugs.
A. persevere B. condone C. appropriate D. revile
40. The solid evidence _________ the young man from all the charges levelled against him.
A. sullied B. annexed C. embroiled D. exonerated
Your answers:
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

Part 2. (5pts) For questions 41-45, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space
provided in the column on the right. 0 has been done as an example.
Your answers:
Man has put himself at the center of the (0. UNITE) _________ as the only 0. universe
real subject, the only true thinking being, while woman is an object to be
admired, feared, used, simply looked at, or ignored. From this (41. CENTRE) 41. __________
________ view of things, women have no (42. SUBJECT) ________ of their 42. __________
own. What counts as universal, therefore, is entirely a male affair. (43. 43. __________
FEMALE) ________ critics have pointed out, for example, that a field defined
with the universal-sounding name “American literature” has actual been
comprised of “American literature written by men.” In support of the idea that
females are formed by patriarchal society into “women,” Juliet Mitchell argued
in 1966 that there was much more to the myth of woman than an abstraction or
a culture of misunderstanding. Instead, Mitchell explored how the story of
patriarchy is literally “written” into such (44. ECONOMY) ________ structures 44. __________
as the control over women’s reproductive functions. Anthropologist Gayle
Rubin used the phrase “transforming moral law into natural law” to describe
the strategy of taking what is really just your own point of view and claiming
that it has (45. CHALLENGE) ________ biological support. 45. __________

Your answers:
41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

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III. READING (50 points)
Part 1. (10pts) For questions 46-55, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Louisiana is suing the state of California over its decision to ban the import and sale of alligator
products, saying the ban will hurt an important Louisiana (46) ___________ and ultimately could hurt the
state's wetlands. In a lawsuit that was (47) ___________ last Thursday, Louisiana said the economy
surrounding alligators has played a key role in bringing back the American alligator population and is an
important factor in protecting wetlands and other species (48) __________ alligators that depend on the
wetlands. According to The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, California banned alligator skins
and meats in the 1970s but repeatedly issued exceptions that (49) ___________ sales. This time, however,
California's legislature did not pass another exemption.
Louisiana said in its lawsuit that because most of California's coastal habitat is (50) ___________ owned,
the state does not have direct control over how it is managed. It is also argued that if California's ban goes
into (51) __________, “landowners will be forced to greatly (52) ___________ or cease their erosion control
efforts because they will be unable to economically sustain those efforts, resulting in irreparable harm to
their property as well as harm to Louisiana’s environmental interests in wetland (53) ___________."
According to the lawsuit, California's large economy often means that their product standards become
(54) ___________ standards, so California's alligator ban will have effects in other states. Louisiana says the
upcoming ban is already having effects up and down the supply (55) ___________ with the price of
alligator hides decreasing, and alligator farmers reducing their investments.

46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

51. 52. 53. 54. 55.
Part 2. (11pts) Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow

Motor Car
A

There are now over 700 million motor vehicles in the world - and the number is rising by more than 40
million each year. The average distance driven by car users is growing too - from 8 km a day per person in
western Europe in 1965 to 25 km a day in 1995. This dependence on motor vehicles has given rise to major
problems, including environmental pollution, depletion of oil resources, traffic congestion and safety.

While emissions from new cars are far less harmful than they used to be, city streets and motorways are
becoming more crowded than ever, often with older trucks, buses and taxis, which emit excessive levels of
smoke and fumes. This concentration of vehicles makes air quality in urban areas unpleasant and
sometimes dangerous to breathe. Even Moscow has joined the list of capitals afflicted by congestion and
traffic fumes. In Mexico City, vehicle pollution is a major health hazard.

Until a hundred years ago, most journeys were in the 20 km range, the distance conveniently accessible by
horse. Heavy freight could only be carried by water or rail. The invention of the motor vehicle brought
personal mobility to the masses and made rapid freight delivery possible over a much wider area. Today
about 90 per cent of inland freight in the United Kingdom is carried by road. Clearly the world cannot
revert to the horse-drawn wagon. Can it avoid being locked into congested and polluting ways of
transporting people and goods?

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D

In Europe most cities are still designed for the old modes of transport. Adaptation to the motor car has
involved adding ring roads, one-way systems and parking lots. In the United States, more land is assigned
to car use than to housing. Urban sprawl means that life without a car is next to impossible. Mass use of
motor vehicles has also killed or injured millions of people. Other social effects have been blamed on the
car such as alienation and aggressive human behaviour.

A 1993 study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that car transport is seven
times as costly as rail travel in terms of the external social costs it entails such as congestion, accidents,
pollution, loss of cropland and natural habitats, depletion of oil resources, and so on. Yet cars easily
surpass trains or buses as a flexible and convenient mode of personal transport. It is unrealistic to expect
people to give up private cars in favour of mass transit.

Technical solutions can reduce the pollution problem and increase the fuel efficiency of engines. But fuel
consumption and exhaust emissions depend on which cars are preferred by customers and how they are
driven. Many people buy larger cars than they need for daily purposes or waste fuel by driving
aggressively. Besides, global car use is increasing at a faster rate than the improvement in emissions and
fuel efficiency which technology is now making possible.

One solution that has been put forward is the long-term solution of designing cities and neighbourhoods so
that car journeys are not necessary - all essential services being located within walking distance or easily
accessible by public transport. Not only would this save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions, it would
also enhance the quality of community life, putting the emphasis on people instead of cars. Good local
government is already bringing this about in some places. But few democratic communities are blessed
with the vision - and the capital - to make such profound changes in modern lifestyles.

A more likely scenario seems to be a combination of mass transit systems for travel into and around cities,
with small 'low emission' cars for urban use and larger hybrid or lean burn cars for use elsewhere.
Electronically tolled highways might be used to ensure that drivers pay charges geared to actual road use.
Better integration of transport systems is also highly desirable - and made more feasible by modern
computers. But these are solutions for countries which can afford them. In most developing countries, old
cars and old technologies continue to predominate.

For questions 56-61, decide which of the eight paragraphs in the passage concentrates on the following
information. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

56. a comparison of past and present transportation methods

57. how driving habits contribute to road problems

58. the relative merits of cars and public transport

59. the writer's own prediction of future solutions

60. the increasing use of motor vehicles

61. the impact of the car on city development

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56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.

For questions 62-66, decide whether the following statements agree with the information in the passage
(Y), contradict the information in the passage (N), or not mentioned in the passage (NG). Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

62. Transport by horse would be a useful alternative to motor vehicles.

63. Nowadays freight is not carried by water in the United Kingdom.

64. Most European cities were not designed for motor vehicles.

65. People's choice of car and attitude to driving is a factor in the pollution problem.

66. Redesigning cities would be a short-term solution.

62. 63. 64. 65. 66.

Part 3. (7pts) In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 67-73, read the
passage and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which
you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

Visiting Uluru
One day in 1874, an explorer, Ernest Giles, struggled up a small hill and was confronted with a sight such
as he could never have dreamed of finding . Before him, impossibly imposing, stood the most singular
monolith on earth, the great red rock now known as Uluru. Hastening to report the find, he was informed
that a man named William Gosse had chanced upon it a few days ahead of him and had already named it
Ayers Rock after the South Australia governor.
67
So you are aware, as you drive to the park entrance, that you have driven 1,300 miles to look at something
you have seen portrayed a thousand times already. In consequence, your mood as you approach this
famous monolith is restrained, unexpectant - pessimistic even. And then you see it, and you are instantly
transfixed. There, in the middle of a memorable and imposing emptiness, stands an eminence of
exceptional nobility and grandeur, 1,150 feet high, a mile and a half long, five and a half miles around.
68
It’s not that Uluru is bigger than you had supposed or more perfectly formed or in any way different from
the impression you had created in your mind, but the very opposite. It is exactly what you expected it to
be. You know this rock. You know it in a way that has nothing to do with calendars and the covers of
souvenir books.
69
It is a motion too much faint to be understood or interpreted, but somehow you sense that this large,
brooding, hypnotic presence has an importance to you at the species level - perhaps even at a sort of
tadpole level - and that in some way your visit here is more than happenstance.
70

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I’m suggesting nothing here, but I will say that if you were an intergalactic traveler who had broken down
in our solar system, the obvious directions to rescuers would be: ‘Go to the third planet and fly around till
you see the big red rock. You can’t miss it.’ If ever on earth they dig up a 150,000-year-old rocket ship from
the Galaxy Zog, this is where it will be. I’m not saying I expect it to happen; not saying that at all. I’m just
observing that if I were looking for an ancient starship, this is where I would start digging.
71
You realize that you could spend quite a lot of time - possibly a worryingly large amount of time; possibly
a sell-your-house-and-move-here-to-live-in-a-tent amount of time - just looking at the rock, gazing at it
from many angles, never tiring of it. You can see yourself hanging out with much younger visitors and
telling them: ‘And the amazing thing is every day it’s different, you know what I’m saying? It’s never the
same rock twice. That’s right, my friend - you put your finger on it there. It’s awesome. It’s an awesome
thing.’
72
Instead, we stopped at the visitors’ centre for a cup of coffee and to look at the displays, which were all to
do with interpretations of the Dreamtime - the Aborigines’ traditional conception of how the earth was
formed and operates. There was nothing instructive in a historical or geological sense, which was
disappointing because I was curious to know what Uluru is doing there. How do you get the biggest rock
in existence onto the middle of an empty plain?
73
Afterwards we had one last drive around the rock before heading back to the lonely highway. We had been
at the site for barely two hours, obviously not nearly enough time, but I realized as I turned around in my
seat to watch it shrinking into the background behind us that there never could be enough, and I felt
moderately comforted by that thought.
The missing paragraphs:
A. It is less red than photographs have led you to expect but in every other way more arresting than you
could ever have supposed. I have discussed this since with many people, nearly all of whom agreed that
they approached Uluru with a kind of fatigue, and were left amazed in a way they could not adequately
explain.
B. By the time you finally get there you are already a little sick of it. You can’t go a day in Australia without
seeing it four or five or six times - on postcards, on travel posters, on the cover of picture books - and as
you get nearer, the frequency of exposure increases.
C. Climbing up takes several hours and much exertion. Even when it’s not too hot, lots of people get in
trouble. Just the day before a Canadian had had to be rescued off a ledge from which he could not get
either up or down. Fortunately, they close it to climbers when the weather is really warm, as it was this
day.
D. It is grounded in something much more elemental. In some odd way that you don’t understand and
can’t begin to articulate you feel an acquaintance with it - a familiarity on an unfamiliar level. Somewhere
in the deep sediment of your being some long-dormant fragment of memory has twitched or stirred.
E. In fact, it is almost 300 miles across a largely featureless tract. Uluru’s glory is that it stands alone in a
boundless emptiness, but it does mean that you have to really want to see it; it’s not something you’re
going to pass on the way to the beach.

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F. It turns out that Uluru is what is known as a bornhardt: a hunk of weather-resistant rock left standing
when all else around it has worn away; but nowhere else on earth has one hunk of rock been left in such
dramatic and solitary spendour or assumed such a pleasing smooth symmetry.
G. I’m not saying that any of this is so. I’m just saying that this is how you feel. The other thought that
strikes you - that struck me anyway - is that Uluru is not merely a splendid and mighty monolith, but also
an extremely distinctive one.
H. Quite apart from that initial shock of indefinable recognition, there is also the fact that Uluru is totally
arresting. You cannot and don’t want to stop looking at it. As you draw closer, it becomes even more
interesting. It is less regular than you had imagined. There are more curves and more irregularities than are
evident from even a couple of hundred yards away.
Your answers:
67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73.

Part 4. (10pts) For questions 74-83, rean an article on microplastics and choose the answer A, B, C or D
which you think fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes
provided.

War On Microplastics
Amid increasingly dire reports on climate change and political upheaval, this year a new menace came to
dominate the news cycle: microplastic pollution. Scientists revealed that it’s blowing in the air and swirling
in the seas and tainting our food and water, with as yet unknown effects on human health.

Microplastic pollution isn’t particularly new to science—researchers have been monitoring the problem for
decades. But new technologies and techniques are making it easier to test environments for tiny pieces of
plastic, say Deonie Allen and Steve Allen, environmental scientists (and spouses) studying such pollution
at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Thanks to these new tools, it’s now apparent that
microplastics are absolutely everywhere.

There’s also been a mass migration of scientists from other fields into microplastic research in recent years,
says Scripps Institution of Oceanography oceanographer Jennifer Brandon, because microplastic pollution
is tainting virtually every corner of Earth. She has a friend who researches bird parasites, for example, but
is now helping expose the plastic menace. “The more and more birds she cut open, the more and more
plastic she found, especially in the sick birds that were then more likely to develop a parasite,” Brandon
adds. “And so then she became a plastic scientist by default.”

The core problem with plastic is that it’s highly durable, and when it does break down, it just breaks into
ever smaller pieces that persist in an ecosystem. The smaller researchers can go, the better they understand
how the size might affect the way a microplastic distributes itself in a given environment. A particularly
troubling revelation: baby fish are mistaking microplastic for prey, according to findings published last
month. What’s not known is how the size of the particle affects the health of the fish.

Likewise, the size of microplastics raises big questions for human health as well. Most of the particles we
eat and drink pass through our bodies, research shows. But it’s not clear yet whether really tiny particles
might be working their way through the walls of our guts, or passing through the blood-brain barrier, a
sort of protective border that keeps toxins in our blood from reaching the brain. “It's becoming more

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obvious that we really need to be looking in the nano realm, because that's where it becomes more
dangerous,” Steve Allen says.

Size also influences how microplastics circulate. You’d assume a plastic fiber would be blown around in the
air more readily than a chunkier fragment, but there just isn’t much data to prove it. And might different
types of plastic, like polystyrene and polyethylene, swirl in water and blow in the winds differently?
Thanks to better technology for collecting and testing samples, researchers are hoping to soon find the
answers to these questions.

One particularly promising technology that likely will arrive in 2020 is a sensor that gulps up ocean water
and automatically counts microplastic particles. Right now, Brandon reports, researchers must filter the
water and count particles, which takes hundreds of work hours. With the sensor, she says, “you would be
able to just instantly have the amount anywhere in the ocean, which would give us a much more accurate
picture of what's really out there.”

What’s already clear from groundbreaking research this year is that the oceans are thoroughly tainted with
microplastics. In a study published in June, researchers showed that microplastics are swirling throughout
the famous Monterey Bay, oftentimes in concentrations greater than you’d find in the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch. In September, yet another study found microplastics in sediment samples off Southern California
dating back decades. In the lab, researchers showed how the chemicals leaching from microplastics might
be inhibiting the growth of oxygen-making bacteria that fill the seas.

74. Which of the following is TRUE according to the second paragraph?

A. Microscopic problems only subsist in certain regions.

B. Entrepreneurs are pouring investment into technologies with a view to reducing microplastics.

C. New devices are being utilized to cut down on the amount of plastics.

D. The problem of microplastics has caught scientists’ attention for a long time.

75. The word “menace” is closest in meaning to

A. peril B. quandary C. element D. frisson

76. Fish is mention as an example of

A. potential deteriorating impact of microplastics on a species.

B. a species changing their habitat because of microplastics.

C. the most badly suffered species from microplastics.

D. how the ecosystem is adapting to the increase in microplastics.

77. The word “tainting” is closest in meaning to

A. Exacerbating B. Tarnishing C. Aggravating D. Evanescing

78. The size of plastic is in relation to

A. its spread across a particular environment.

B. some species’ unprecedented reaction.

C. how human is aware of the problem.

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 D. the amount of plastics human takes into their bodies.

79. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C] or [D] best indicates where in the paragraph below
the sentence “Big ones might clog their digestive systems, while very small ones might pass through gut
tissues and into organs.” can be inserted?

[A] The core problem with plastic is that it’s highly durable, and when it does break down, it just breaks
into ever smaller pieces that persist in an ecosystem. [B] The smaller researchers can go, the better they
understand how the size might affect the way a microplastic distributes itself in a given environment. [C] A
particularly troubling revelation: baby fish are mistaking microplastic for prey, according to findings
published last month. What’s not known is how the size of the particle affects the health of the fish. [D]

A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]

80. The development of the sensor in 2020 can directly result in

A. better understanding of the source of microplastics.

B. a decline in species.

C. a panoramic picture of microscopic distribution.

D. a joint effort of authorities to mitigate the problem.

81. Which of the following places have microplastics NOT shown great density?

A. Great Pacific Garbage Patch B. Monterey Bay

C. Glasgow D. Southern California

82. Which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree with?

A. Human is the most unlikely to suffer from microplastics.

B. Bacteria producing oxygen is more prone to be at risk of industrial chemical pollution rather than
microplastics.

C. Data have shown the tendency of wider distribution of plastic fibers compared to other non-
biodegradable products.

D. The entire ecosystem will fall prey to microplastics in near future.

83. Which of the following sentences best expresses the meaning of the underlined sentence in paragraph
6?

A. You would be deceived into thinking that a chunkier fragment of plastic would circulate less readily
in the air than a plastic fiber, but there is insufficient data to confirm this.

B. You would naturally think that a plastic fiber would be more easily blown around in the air than a
chunkier fragment, but data has proven that this is not the case.

C. You would suppose that a plastic fiber would circulate in the air more readily than a chunkier
fragment, but there is simply too little data to conclude that this is true.

D. You would deduce that a chunkier fragment of plastic does not circulate as readily as a plastic fiber,
but data is not accurate enough to verify this.

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74. 75. 76. 77. 78.
79. 80. 81. 82. 83.

Part 5. (12pts) The passage below consists of five paragraphs marked A, B, C, D and E. For questions 84-95,
read the passage and do the task that follows. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes
provided.

Living in the Moon’s Shadow

More than forty years on, why the moon landings are still having an impact today
A
On December 19, 1972, a sonic boom above the South Pacific signaled the completion of the Apollo
program, as a tiny space capsule burst back through the blue sky. On board were the last three astronauts
to visit the moon. The space race has changed the course of human history more profoundly than anyone
could have predicted in 1961, when a new president challenged America to land a man on the moon and
return him safely to the Earth. No one present knew how to make it happen. But that wasn’t going to stop
them rising to President Kennedy’s dare.
B
As progress in human space flight sped up through the 1960s, Ph.D. intake at American universities,
particularly in the field of physiscs, increased almost threefold. Apollo was making America cleverer.
Within weeks of Kennedy’s speech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was asked to worked
out the small matter of helping astronauts make a soft landing on a moving target hurtling through space
250,000 miles from Earth. To assist them in this, a small, lightweight computer was proposed by MIT. In the
early ‘60s, computers often took up entire rooms. To miniaturize one enough to pack it into a modestly-
sized craft they’d need new technology, so they turned to a brand new arrival on the technology scene: the
integrated circuit.
C
Only a few companies were experimenting with these new micro-electronic components at the time; keen
to help them perfect the performance of these novel miniature circuits, NASA ordered one million of them.
The agency really only needed a few hundred, but, aware that they would be betting the lives of their
astronauts on them, they were keen to make sure the manufacturers could make them as reliable as
possible. Such a financial kickstart to a fledgling industry, coupled with another gift of Apollo - inspiration
- would prove to be powerful drivers for technological change in the decades that followed. Those
graduating across the world in the ‘70s and’80s had watched Apollo’s engineers dream the impossible and
then build it. As an act of human ingenuity, Apollo made them giddy, intoxicated on admiration and
inspiration. As William Bainbridge put it in his book ‘The Spaceflight Revolution’, Apollo was ‘a grand
attempt to reach beyond the world of mundane life and transcend the ordinary limits of human existence
through accomplishment of the miraculous - a story of engineers who tried to reach the heavens.’
D
Many of the people who have built the new tools of the Internet and the technological infrastructure that
underpins it cite Apollo as their motivator. Professor Sir Martin Sweeting founded the world-renowned
small satellite company SSTL, which revolutionized the industry. ‘Apollo started me on this whole
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pathway of getting involved in space,’ says Sweeting. ‘The idea of being able to participate in something as
exciting as a lunar landing, it stimulated an ambition, the dream of building my own satellite with my
friends.’ The idea of a small private enterprise launching a satellite was considered pretty crazy at the time,
he points out. ‘After building the first one, I had a lot of advice to go out and get a proper job. I’m sure that
without Apollo I would have followed a more conventional career.’
E
Former NASA flight director Glynn Lunney witnessed the trickle-down straight from Apollo to the rest of
us. ‘We were asking people to do things 10 or 20 years ahead of when they would otherwise have done
them. And they knew it. They stepped up to it and succeded. Today’s cell phones, wireless equipment,
tablet computers and so on are the result of the fact that the country did this high-tech thing made this
large portfolio of technologies available.’ Today’s population, over half of whom weren’t born when those
last astronauts returned from the moon, use these inventions to communicate with each other freely and
without a thought for geographical and cultural differences. The gifts of Apollo continue to ripple down
the decades, and still have the power to unite and inspire us.
In which paragraph is each of the following mentioned? Your answers:
a tribute to the ambitions of the space programme 84. __________
the accelerated development of technology 85. __________
a lack of encouragement to continue with a project 86. __________
various factors which made a task particularly challenging 87. __________
an individual example of the inspiring effects of Appollo 88. __________
an event marking the end of an era 89. __________
a spirited response to a seemingly impossible provocation 90. __________
the effects of the space programme on attitudes to sharing information 91. __________
a radical alteration of existing technology 92. __________
an influential combination of factors affecting the space programme 93. __________
a precaution taken to maximise the astronauts’ chances of survival 94. __________
a notion that was initially deemed ludicrous 95. __________

IV. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. (15pts) Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary should
be between 100 and 120 words long.
In science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that are related. A theory often
involves an imaginary model that helps scientists picture the way an event could be produced. A good
example of this is found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured as being made up of
many small particles that are in constant motion.
A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observation, helps to predict events that have not as yet
been observed. After a theory has been publicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory. If
observations confirm the scientists' predictions, the theory is supported. If observations do not confirm the
predictions, the scientists must search further. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may
have to be revised or rejected.

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 Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collecting information and performing
experiments. Facts by themselves are not science. As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said: "Science
is built with facts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannot be called science any
more than a pile of bricks can be called a house."
Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientists have learned about a
particular problem. After known facts have been gathered, the scientist comes to the part of the
investigation that requires considerable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated.
These possible solutions are called hypotheses.
In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends the scientist's thinking beyond the
known facts. The scientist plans experiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to test
hypotheses. For without hypotheses, further investigation lacks purpose and direction. When hypotheses
are confirmed, they are incorporated into theories.
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Part 2. (15pts) The table below shows the number of accidents, the dead and the injured in Ambroland. The
pie chart shows the percentage of reasons for traffic accidents.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.

Year Accidents The dead The injured

2011 44,548 11,395 48,734
2012 36,376 9,838 38,060
2013 29,385 9,369 29,500
2014 25,322 8,996 24,417

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 Reasons for traffic accidents
Other
Policies 2%
7%
Police
11%

Facilities
22%
Loss of
Consciousness
60%

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Part 3. (30pts) Write an essay of 350 words on the following topic
A growing trend nowadays is that criminals are increasingly being idolized by young people. What are the
causes and implications of this trend. Give specific example(s) to support your answer.
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(You may shoot for the moon or land among the stars if you need more space)

- THE END -

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