----- PHẦN ĐỀ VÀ BÀI LÀM CỦA THÍ SINH -----

Điểm bài thi Mã phách

Giám khảo thứ nhất Giám khảo thứ hai
(Ký, ghi rõ họ tên) (Ký, ghi rõ họ tên)
Bằng số Bằng chữ

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Ghi chú: Học sinh làm bài trên đề thi này. Đề thi gồm có 18 trang, kể cả trang phách.

Section I. LISTENING (5pts) 0.2/each

* There are 4 parts for listening. You will listen to each part TWICE before moving on to the
next one. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.

Part 1: For questions 1-5, listen to part of a lecture about the ancient African city of Great
Zimbabwe. Answer each of the following questions with NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS
AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording.
1. What may the name Zimbabwe mean?
________________________________________
2. When is construction thought to have started?
________________________________________
3. What was probably held back by the relatively poor soil?
________________________________________
4. What is no longer believed to be the reason for founding the city here?
________________________________________
5. What role did the city have that made it rich?
________________________________________
6. What was in short supply that, together with the overusing of local resources, probably
contributed to the city’s decline?
________________________________________
Part 2: For questions 7-11, listen to an interview with a young artist called Lynda
Buckland, who is talking about her life and work. Decide whether each of the following
statements is True (T) or False (F).
7. Lynda says that she chooses to draw river scenes because she likes their feeling of
dynamic activity.
8. Lynda wishes she’d had more training in abstract art.
9. According to Lynda, she produces her final drawings immediately after seeing the scenes
which inspire her.

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10. The disadvantage of Lynda’s previous workspace was that it was in an inconvenient
location.
11. Lynda says that the drawings on show in her forthcoming exhibition took longer to
produce than some of her earlier work.
Your answers:

7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Part 3: For questions 12-16, listen to part of a radio interview in which a writer called Peter
Dell is talking about the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D)
which fits best according to what you hear.

12. What always happens to Peter each time he arrives at the bridge?
A. He perceives things more lucidly.
B. He experiences a sense of loss.
C. He is reassured by something he looks at.
D. He feels a keen sense of danger.
13. What does Peter become aware of as he walks across the bridge?
A. how vulnerable people on it are
B. how symbolic the bridge is
C. how intrusive the traffic is
D. how important the river is now
14. What surprised Peter about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge?
A. It was once the longest bridge in the world.
B. Workmen died while they were working on it.
C. It was built from an innovative kind of stone.
D. The weight of the building was supported by timber.
15. According to Peter, how do most pedestrians today react to the Brooklyn Bridge?
A. They think it compares favorably with the skyscrapers.
B. They believe it is one of the most beautiful locations in New York.
C. They experience the excitement of seeing something unusual.
D. They feel almost as if they are walking on air.
16. According to Peter, what special quality does the bridge have today?
A. It is sheltered from the worst of the winter weather.
B. It is possible to experience brief moments of silence there.
C. It makes you feel as though you are never alone.
D. Its height above the river makes you feel superior.
Part 4: For questions 17-25, listen to a talk about the connection between blood group and
diet. Complete each of the following sentences with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS
AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording.

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 According to the presenter, the notion that fatty meat could be good for us is considered
(17) ________________.
 People with blood type O can eat red meat apart from (18) ________________.
 Animal products do not make those with blood type A feel (19) ________________.
 The connection between blood group and bad health is a (20) _______________one.
 Bacteria in the bloodstream, for example, will be destroyed by (21) _____________.
 Antigens are (22) ______________ which distinguish one kind of blood cell from another.
 Lectins are often mistakenly (23) __________ as antigens because they are very much
alike.
 The diet of humans 100,000 years ago was completely lacking in (24) ___________.
 The last blood type to evolve was type AB, in about (25) _________________.

Section II. LEXICO- GRAMMAR (2 pts) 0.1/each

Part 1: For questions 26-40, choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the following
questions and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
26. Naylor was one of those men who ___________ to the challenge of danger.
A. raise B. rise C. ride D. arise
27. He was ___________ to point out the mistakes in her work.
A. fast B. hasty C. quick D. rapid
28. He’s a bit timid and hasn’t yet _____ the courage to apply for the job.
A. put on B. get off C. plucked up D. carried through
29. The question of peace settlement is likely to figure ________________ in the talks.
A. prominently B. prolifically C. proportionately D. properly
30. In these times of high unemployment, everyone thought my giving up my job
was________ madness.
A. sheer B. steep C. high D. deep
31. The project will be kept__________ until the new manager comes.
A. in order B. off and on C. on ice D. off the peck
32. Unconditional acceptance was the principle _________ his core philosophy.
A. snagging B. underpinning C. conspiring D. limping
33. The thieves took ___________ when they heard a police car approaching.
A. retreat B. flight C. escape D. getaway
34. By the ___________ of it, the economy will improve over the next few months.
A. face B. impression C. evidence D. look
35. Like more and more women, she believes marriage would ___________ her style.
A. restrict B. impede C. obstruct D. cramp
36. The wedding party ________ over, she is washing off all her make-up.
A. is B. has been C. being D. is being
37. Serena is still _____________ ignorant of the fact that she is about to be made redundant.

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 A. decorously B. blissfully C. jubilantly D. ecstatically
38. Everyone can tell Jackie is Rose’s daughter. She’s the ______ image of her mother.
A. spitting B. hailing C. drizzling D. boiling
39. The outcome was a ___________ circle whereby women's work, perceived as low status,
was poorly rewarded and therefore regarded as unimportant.
A. relentless B. vicious C. brutal D. merciless
40. She seems to be angry with the whole world. She’s got a chip __________.
A. on her shoulder B. in her bonnet C. under her hat D. between the ears

Part 2: For questions 41-45, write the correct FORM of each bracketed word in the
numbered space provided.
41. Britain’s nuclear power program began with a lie: it was a _______ for the nuclear weapon
program. SCREEN
42. She worked _________ to help homeless people and disabled children. STINT
43. The doctor prescribed _________ drugs to reduce the old mans arthritis. FLAME
44. If this theory is correct, then it is _________ that we will be able to cure all diseases in the
foreseeable future. VISION
45. There is an ____ of menace and barely suppressed violent that gives the picture of
symbolic edge. CURRENT
Section III: READING (5 pts) 0.1/each
Part 1: For question 46-55, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each
gap. Use only ONE word in each gap. Write your answer in the corresponding number box.
(0) has been done as an example.
A recent government report highlights the (46) ____________ to which credit card debt is
spiraling. (47) ______________ is apportioned solely to the credit card companies, who, the
report claims, will go to any (48) ____________ to attract new customers. Additionally,
according to the report, they are responsible for encouraging existing customers to borrow
more by raising their monthly limit. Certainly a recent advertising campaign (49)
____________ a major credit card company – which has since been withdrawn – seems to
bear these findings (50) __________.
(51) ______________, while the responsibility of the credit card companies is not
inconsiderable, it is, in my opinion, unfair to lay all the blame on their (52) ____________.
The majority of credit card users are able to make their repayments on time (53)
____________ difficulty. There will always be a minority of people in our society (54)
___________ are financially irresponsible. If they (55) ___________ up huge debts, is it really
the credit card company’s fault?

Part 2: Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
VALIUM
In the 1960s, Valium was launched around the world as the new miracle pill. It was
prescribed for dozens of ailments, including stress, panic attacks, back pain, insomnia and
calming patients before and after surgery. Four decades later, many are questioning why the
drug is still so popular, given that doctors and drug addiction workers believe Valium, and
drugs like it, create more health problems than they solve.
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 Valium-a Latin word meaning "strong and well"-was developed in the early 1960s in the
United States (US) by Dr. Leo Sternbach, a Polish chemist working for pharmaceutical giant
Hoffman-LaRoche. Approved for use in 1963, Valium quickly became a favourite among
mental health professionals and general practitioners. Valium was the most prescribed drug in
the US between 1969 and 1982. At the peak of Valium use in the 1970s, Hoffman LaRoche's
parent company, the Roche Group, was selling about two billion Valium pills a year, earning
the company $US 600 million a year. Valium quickly became a household name, the drug of
choice for millions of people, from the rich and famous to the stressed executive and the
frustrated housewife.
These days Valium is still a popular choice. From 2002-2003, 50% of prescriptions for
diazepams (the generic name for Valium) in Australia were for Valium. Almost two million
scripts were issued for diazepam in 2002, costing consumers and governments more than $13
million.
Diazepams belong to a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which include
tranquillizers to ease anxiety and hypnotics to treat insomnia. Valium and other
benzodiazepines were marketed as fast acting, non-addictive and as having no side effects.
Initially benzodiazepines were considered to be quite safe, especially compared to other drugs
on the market. For example, barbiturates were also very toxic and a small overdose would be
fatal.
One of the great advantages of benzodiazepines over their predecessors was that even if
the patient took many tablets, they would get very sick and go off to sleep, but they wouldn't
die. It seemed too good to be true. And of course it was.
Some doctors began to observe alarming facts about benzodiazepines which weren't well
known during the 1960s and the 1970s, and which are still true today. They were addictive,
even in small doses; they could be safely prescribed for only a very short period; and the body
adapted to the drug within a week, which usually led the user to take higher dosages or an
increased number of tablets.
In addition to this, what wasn't well known until the early 1980s is that a much larger
group of people had become dependent on these benzodiazepines, including Valium, by taking
the normal dose. Although they were only taking 2 mg three times a day, doctors observed that
within a week they were becoming dependent. Moreover, they were becoming very ill if that
dose was reduced or withdrawn.
Because the withdrawal from benzodiazepines is brutal, doctors continue to prescribe the
medication for fear of the patient's health during withdrawal. Doctors believe that there is no
point in refusing to prescribe the drug until the patient is prepared to stop. Valium has a long
half-life, which means that it takes 30-plus hours for the body to get rid of half of the daily
dose. As a result, withdrawals from Valium are just as difficult as withdrawals from other
drugs, including alcohol. Patients who are withdrawing can have fits for five or six days after
they have stopped taking Valium, which is one of the big Asks. It usually takes the body five
to seven days to detoxify from alcohol and less than a month for heroin compared to
withdrawal from Valium which can take up to six months.
Many doctors believe that Valium gives people false hope and argue that while many
patients feel better when they initially begin taking the drug, the feelings are short-lived. In the
case of benzodiazepines they should only be taken as part of an overall examination of the
patient's lifestyle.
Guidelines have been developed to support the appropriate use by doctors and patients of
Valium and other benzodiazepines. Doctors need to talk about what is causing the stress and

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 suggest possible alternative treatment options. The flip side of the coin is that consumers need
to take ownership of the medicines that they are taking. They should talk to their doctor about
the impact the medication has on their health. This also helps doctors to help manage their
patient's health. The emergence of concerns over the use of Valium, originally hailed as the
wonder drug of its day, is a warning for us all to be cautious about the newer drugs. What it all
boils down to is that doctors and patients need to monitor the use of all medicines-this includes
prescription medicine as well as over-the-counter medications.

For questions 56-60, decide whether the following statements are True (T), False (F) or Not
Given (NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
56. Valium is of greater risk to users than their original illness.　　　　　　 ________
57. Valium sales caused business in the Roche Group to peak in the 1970s.　 ________
58. Valium became popular because it seemed to suit a wide range of people. ________
59. Valium is part of the group of drugs called diazepams.　　　　　　　 ________
60. A Valium overdose is not fatal.　 　　　　　　　　 ________

For questions 61-66, complete the summary with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS taken
from the passage. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Initially, doctors believed that Valium was a comparatively safe drug for a number of
reasons: it worked quickly, patients could take it but give it up easily and it didn't produce any
(61) ______________.
However, about thirty years ago some disturbing facts became apparent. Doctors found
that Valium was (62) ____________ in the short term and users needed to increase the dosage
in order to get the same effect. They also found that even users who took a (63)____________
dose became addicted very quickly. In addition to this, one of the most worrying concerns
about Valium use was that it was extremely difficult for users to give up the drug because it
had a long half-life. Doctors are now aware that patients who take Valium merely receive a
short-lived feeling of (64) ____________.
Therefore, guidelines have been developed to make sure that it is used only when it is
(65) ___________. More caution needs to be exercised. Doctors need to talk about patients'
stress levels and advise them of (66) ____________. Finally, patients need to be more aware
of the medications they take.

Part 3: In the article below, seven paragraphs have been removed. Read the passage and
choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph you
do not need to use. Write one letter (A-H) in the corresponding numbered box.
THE FOOTBALL CLUB CHAIRMAN
Bryan Richardson greeted me warmly, and ushered me into his modest office, somewhat larger
than the others along the corridor, but without pretensions of any kind. He returned to his desk,
which had two phones and a mobile on it, and a lot of apparently unsorted papers, offered me a
chair, and said it was nice to see me again. I rather doubt he remembered me at all, but it had the
effect of making me feel a little less anxious.

67.

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 ‘I want to talk to you about an idea I have,’ I said. ‘I have supported this club since the
1970s, and I’m starting to get frustrated by watching so much and knowing so little.’ He gazed at
me with a degree of interest mixed with incomprehension. ‘What I mean,’ I added, ‘is that every
football fan is dying to know what it is really like, what’s actually going on, yet all we get to see
is what happens on the field.’

68.

And I didn’t wish to be fobbed off. ‘They all make it worse, not better. They all purvey gossip
and rumors, and most of what they say turns out to be either uninteresting or incorrect. Your
average supporter ends up in the dark most of the time.’

69.

‘Now that,’ I said, ‘is just the sort of thing I want to know about. I’d like to write a book about
the club this coming season, to know about the deals, the comings and goings, all the factors
involved, to get to know how a Premiership football club actually works.’ As I said this, I feared
that it was a futile request, but I’d drawn a little hope from the fact that he had just been so open,
as if he had already decided to consider the project. ‘I want to know about buying and selling
players, how the finances work, to go down to the training ground, travel with the team, talk to
the players and the manager.’

70.

So I continued with it. ‘Let me tell you a little about myself’. He leaned back to make himself
comfortable, sensing that this might take a while. ‘By training I’m an academic. I came here from
America in the 1960s, got a doctorate in English at Oxford, then taught in the English
Department at Warwick University for fifteen years. Now I run my own business, dealing in rare
books and manuscripts in London, and do some freelance writing. But I’m not a journalist.’

71.

I was starting to babble now, and as I spoke I was aware of how foolish all this must be sounding
to him. At one point he put his hands quietly on his lap, under the desk and I had the distinct, if
paranoid, impression that he was ringing some sort of hidden alarm, and that three orange-shirted
stewards would shortly come in and escort me from the ground (By Order of the Chairman).

72.

‘But a book is certainly a good idea.’ he said. ‘Let me think it over and I’ll get back to you.’ He
stood up and we shook hands. ‘I’ll be in touch.’ he said. And a few weeks later, in mid-August,
he was. ‘There’s great story here,’ he said. ‘Go ahead and do it next season. I’ll introduce you to
the people up here at the club. Go everywhere, talk to everybody, you’ll find it fascinating.’ I was
surprised, and delighted, but tried not to gush. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘It’s very open-minded of
you.’

73.

‘Yes, sure,’ he said. ‘But I mean something more than that, something more complicated.’
‘What’s that?’ I asked. He smiled. ‘You’ll see.’
The missing paragraphs:

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A The disappointment must have registered on my face, because he quickly added: ‘I came to
all this relatively late in my career, and it’s a fascinating business. I find it more so all the
time, and I don’t have any doubt that people would be interested to read an account of it.’
B ‘We’ve got nothing to hide,’ he said, ‘but you’ll be surprised by what you learn. It’s an
amazingly emotional business.’ ‘It must be,’ I said, ‘the supporters can see that. So many
of the games are like an emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes the whole season is.’
C He nodded gently. ‘Good,’ he said firmly. ‘That’s part of the point,’ I went on. ‘I want to
write about the club from the point of view of the supporters, a sort of fan’s eye view.
Getting behind the scenes is every fan’s dream - whether it’s here or somewhere else. I’ve
never written anything like this, although I have written a couple of books. And I am
trained, as an academic, in habits of analysis, in trying to figure out how things work. And
I’m a supporter of the club, so I don’t think there is anything to fear.’
D As I was speaking, the mobile phone rang, and he answered it with an apologetic shrug. A
brief and cryptic one-sided conversation ensued, with obscure references to hotels and
phone numbers. When he hung up, he explained: ‘We’re trying to sign a full-back. Good
player. But there are three agents involved, and two continental sides want to sign him, so
we’ve got him hidden in a hotel. If we can keep them away from him for another couple of
days, he’ll sign.’
E He considered this for a moment. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘there is the Club Call line, the match-day
programmes, and the articles in the local and national papers. There’s lots of information
about.’ He sounded like a politician trying to claim for his party the moral authority of
open government, while at the same time giving nothing away.
F ‘Not at all. It’s funny you should ask,’ he said, ‘because you’re the second person this week
who has come in with a request to write a book about the club. And we’ve just been
approached by the BBC with a proposal to do a six-part documentary about the club. ‘Are
you going to let them do it?’ I asked. ‘I don’t think,’ he said wryly, ‘that a six-part series on
what a nice club Coventry City is would make good television.’
G ‘So, what can I do for you?’ He made it sound as if he were interested. Poised and well
dressed, though without foppishness, he had that indefinable polish that one often observes
in people of wealth or celebrity. By polish I do not mean good manners, though that
frequently accompanies it, but something more tangible: a kind of glow, as if the rich and
famous applied some mysterious ointment (available only to themselves) every morning,
and then buffed their faces to a healthy sheen.
H There, I’d done it. The worst that he could do was to tell me to get lost. Part of me, to tell
the truth, would have been just a little relieved. But he didn’t do anything. He sat quite still,
listening, letting me make my pitch.

Part 4: Read the following article and answer the questions. Write A, B, C, or D in the
corresponding numbered box.
THE ORIGINS OF CETACEANS
It should be obvious that cetaceans-whales, porpoises, and dolphins-are
mammals. They breathe through lungs, not through gills, and give birth to live
young. Their streamlined bodies, the absence of hind legs, and the presence of a
fluke and blowhole cannot disguise their affinities with land dwelling mammals.
However, unlike the cases of sea otters and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses,
whose limbs are functional both on land and at sea), it is not easy to envision what
the first whales looked like. Extinct but already fully marine cetaceans are known
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from the fossil record. How was the gap between a walking mammal and a swimming
whale bridged? Missing until recently were fossils clearly intermediate, or
transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans.
  Very exciting discoveries have finally allowed scientists to reconstruct the
most likely origins of cetaceans. In 1979, a team looking for fossils in northern
Pakistan found what proved to be the oldest fossil whale. The fossil was officially
named Pakicetus  in honor of the country where the discovery was
made. Pakicetus  was found embedded in rocks formed from river deposits that were
52 million years old. The river that formed these deposits was actually not far from
an ancient ocean known as the Tethys Sea.
  The fossil consists of a complete skull of an archaeocyte, an extinct group of
ancestors of modern cetaceans. Although limited to a skull, the  Pakicetus  fossil
provides precious details on the origins of cetaceans. The skull is cetacean-like but
its jawbones lack the enlarged space that is filled with fat or oil and used for
receiving underwater sound in modern whales. Pakicetus  probably detected sound
through the ear opening as in land mammals. The skull also lacks a blowhole,
another cetacean adaptation for diving. Other features, however, show experts
that Pakicetus  is a transitional form between a group of extinct flesh-eating
mammals, the mesonychids, and cetaceans. It has been suggested that  Pakicetus  fed
on fish in shallow water and was not yet adapted for life in the open ocean. It
probably bred and gave birth on land.
  Another major discovery was made in Egypt in 1989. Several skeletons of
another early whale, Basilosaurus,  were found in sediments left by the Tethys Sea
and now exposed in the Sahara desert. This whale lived around 40 million years ago,
12 million years after Pakicetus.  Many incomplete skeletons were found but they
included, for the first time in an archaeocyte, a complete hind leg that features a foot
with three tiny toes. Such legs would have been far too small to have supported the
50-foot-long Basilosaurus  on land. Basilosaurus  was undoubtedly a fully marine
whale with possibly nonfunctional, or vestigial, hind legs.
  An even more exciting find was reported in 1994, also from Pakistan. The now
extinct whale Ambulocetus natans  ("the walking whale that swam") lived in the
Tethys Sea 49 million years ago. It lived around 3 million years after  Pakicetus  but 9
million before Basilosaurus.  The fossil luckily includes a good portion of the hind
legs. The legs were strong and ended in long feet very much like those of a modern
pinniped. The legs were certainly functional both on land and at sea. The whale
retained a tail and lacked a fluke, the major means of locomotion in modern
cetaceans.The structure of the backbone shows, however, that  Ambulocetus  swam
like modern whales by moving the rear portion of its body up and down, even
though a fluke was missing. The large hind legs were used for propulsion in water.
On land, where it probably bred and gave birth,  Ambulocetus  may have moved
around very much like a modern sea lion. It was undoubtedly a whale that linked life
on land with life at sea
 74. In paragraph 1, what does the author say about the presence of a blowhole in
cetaceans?
A. It clearly indicates that cetaceans are mammals.
B. It cannot conceal the fact that cetaceans are mammals.
C. It is the main difference between cetaceans and land-dwelling mammals.

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 D. It cannot yield clues about the origins of cetaceans.
 75. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about early sea otters?
A. It is not difficult to imagine what they looked like.
B. There were great numbers of them.
C. They lived in the sea only.
D. They did not leave many fossil remains.
  76. Pakicetus and modern cetaceans have similar ___________.
A. hearing structures B. adaptations for diving
C. skull shapes D. breeding locations
 77. The word it  in the passage refers to __________.
A. Pakicetus B. fish C. life D. ocean
  78. The hind leg of Basilosaurus was a significant find because it showed that
Basilosaurus___________.
A. lived later than Ambulocetus natans
B. lived at the same time as Pakicetus
C. was able to swim well
D. could not have walked on land
79. It can be inferred that Basilosaurus bred and gave birth in which of the following
locations?
A. on land B. both on land and at sea
C. in shallow water D. in a marine environment
 80. Why does the author use the word luckily in mentioning that the Ambulocetus natans
fossil included hind legs?
A. Fossil legs of early whales are a rare find.
B. The legs provided important information about the evolution of cetaceans.
C. The discovery allowed scientists to reconstruct a complete skeleton of the whale.
D. Until that time, only the front legs of early whales had been discovered.
 

81. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted
sentence in the passage?
A. Even though Ambulocetus swam by moving its body up and down, it did not have a
backbone.
B. The backbone of Ambulocetus, which allowed it to swim, provides evidence of its
missing fluke.
C. Although Ambulocetus had no fluke, its backbone structure shows that it swam like
modern whales.

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 D. By moving the rear parts of their bodies up and down, modern whales swim in a
different way from the way Ambulocetus swam.
 82. The word propulsion in the passage is closest in meaning to____________.
A. staying afloat B. changing direction
C. decreasing weight D. moving forward
83. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the
paragraph the sentence “This is a question that has puzzled scientists for ages.” can be
inserted?
Extinct but already fully marine cetaceans are known from the fossil record. [A] How was the
gap between a walking mammal and a swimming whale bridged? [B] Missing until recently
were fossils clearly intermediate, or transitional, between land mammals and cetaceans.
[C] Very exciting discoveries have finally allowed scientists to reconstruct the most likely
origins of cetaceans. [D] In 1979, a team looking for fossils in northern Pakistan found what
proved to be the oldest fossil whale.
A.  [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]

Part 5: You are going to read an essay about travel writing. Read and choose from the sections
A-E. The sections may be chosen more than once. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes provided.
A Great travel writing is infused with a sense of wonder. A phenomenon that cannot be
conclusively defined, it remains best comprehended by its effects. A great narrative of
travel is the product of a writer for whom the given subject is but a convenient focus -
a chance to draw upon a personal vision that exists before and after any number of its
expressions. Unfortunately, a sense of wonder cannot be taught or learnt. Rather it is
something like a musical sense - if not quite a matter of absolute pitch, then a
disposition, something in the genes as different from judgment as the incidence of
brown eyes or blue. When it's there, its presence is indisputable; when it's absent, it's
not likely to be grieved over.
B Some years ago, I spent a few days in Beirut - one of them on an excursion to Baalbek
to see the great temple of the sun associated with its ancient name, Heliopolis. The trip
was made in a minibus full of strangers with a Lebanese driver. When our visit to the
gigantic ruins was over, we squeezed back into our seats in a stunned silence that
seemed the only appropriate response to such awesome magnificence. This spell lasted
for many miles, broken, finally, by the muffled syllables with which each of us tried to
describe the indescribable. The last to open her mouth was an American who finally
uttered the immortal words: "What I want to know," she said, "is how our tour
company finds these places."
C In order for the sense of wonder to express itself, it must, professionally speaking, call
upon the spirit of investigation. Whereas wonder is a receptive state which simply
widens or contracts in response to stimuli, the spirit of investigation is active, charged
with curiosity, avid to know how and why things come to be, how they work, to what
they may be compared, how they fit into any scheme that may render them
comprehensible. It is a spirit concerned with something that can be translated, first for
love and then for as much cold cash as may be extracted from the editors of glossy
journals. Functioning at its best, the spirit of investigation relates the observer to the
observed and makes the exotic familiar.

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D By description, measurement, and statistics, the spirit of investigation allows the
writer's sense of wonder to go to work. The writer is thus able to unite subjective
thoughts with objective evidence, to connect the poetry with the prose and so nudge
travel writing away from its current status as a consumer report into a literary genre.
And since all travel writing is, inescapably, a form of autobiography, I'd like to cite a
few instances, a few fortunate moments when, indulging my own sense of wonder and
driven by the spirit of investigation, I tried to find a balance that would justify my
pretensions to a place somewhere in the vicinity of those writers whose chronicles of
travel experience I most admire.
E Of all the images that passed before my eyes in mid-childhood, two affected me like
summonses. One was a colored illustration on the cover of a geography book of the
young Christopher Columbus, the man who discovered the Americas, richly dressed in
velvet, gazing westward from a deepwater dock in Genoa. There, I thought, was a boy
no older than me who, just like me, had the whole world in his head and still looked
forward to another. The second was a painting of what seemed to me a celestial city.
Situated at the conjunction of a river and an ocean, it was the scene of dazzling energy
as flotillas of ships steamed in and out, railroad trains snaked across lacework bridges,
and airplanes with open cockpits soared above steeples and tall smokestacks. I knew at
first glance I had seen the city of my dreams. The fact that it would turn out to be New
London, Connecticut - industrial New London! - did nothing to diminish that first
impression. Whenever I'm in New London, and that is often, I simply paste my old
fantasy over its reality and go on my way.
Which section mentions the following?
how concrete detail may inspire creativity 84.______
an experience so overwhelming that it left people speechless 85. ______
the compelling nature of youthful impressions 86. ______
the way in which human beings attempt to understand the world around them 87. ______
the elusive quality of a human talent 88. ______
the writer’s sense of identification with another’s vision 89. ______
something that is unlikely to be missed when it does not exist 90. ______
by its nature travel writing cannot be impersonal 91. ______
the dual motivation behind the writer’s exploration of what he sees 92. ______
how a gifted travel writer may change the perception of his craft 93. ______
a contrast between two responses to the world 94. ______
a misinterpretation of the significance of an experience 95. ______

Section IV. WRITING (6pts)

Part 1:(1.5pts) Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your
summary should be between 100 and 120 words long.
It is characteristic of the human race that change is constantly deplored, and that ‘the good old
days’ are believed to have been far better than the present day. In the realm of children’s
games, the fixed idea is that children ‘don’t play games any more’, or don’t have the fun we
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contemporary schoolchildren, and equally self-righteous about their own childhoods. The
much re-iterated phrase is, ‘We used to make our own amusements.’ At the same time, they all
but prevent their children from making their own amusements by supplying them with
generous pocket-money and giving them expensive toys. Often it was lack of money that
caused children to play with home-made toys that cost nothing. Human nature being what it is,
a child would rather play with glamorous glass marbles than with cherry-stones picked up
from the gutter.
The changing fashions in children’s games are also to some extent affected by their seniors.
Children must have heroes to copy. The present-day heroes are footballers. Even the smallest
boys worship famous footballers, watching them on television, knowing every detail of their
careers, and having opinions about their prowess. Role models are of prime importance. From
this point of view, the revival of some street games as world sports has been an excellent thing,
although the romantically minded cannot help regretting a loss of informality and spontaneity.
Double-rope skipping, with two long ropes turned in opposite directions, benefited from the
advent of the first ‘Double Dutch Skip Rope Championship’ in New York, and the subsequent
forming of teams in other American cities and other countries. Competition has raised the
standard of double-skipping higher than it ever was before; and the age of the oldest
competing skippers has risen to about 16. These much-publicized stars have been copied by
the children on the sidewalks, and now if one asks them, ‘Can you do Double Dutch?’, the
answer is likely to be, ‘Of course’.
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Part 2: (1.5pts) The table below shows the worldwide market share of the mobile phone
market for manufacturers in the year 2005 and 2006.

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Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant.You should write about 150 words.

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Part 3: (3pts) Write an essay of 350 words on the following topic.
Advances in science and technology and other areas of society in the last 100 years have
transformed the way we live as well as postponing the day we die. There is no better time to be
alive than now.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? Give specific examples/evidence to
support your answer.

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(You may write overleaf if you need more space)
- THE END -

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