HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF END-OF-TERM TEST

TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION Semester 1 - School year 2020-2021

Subject: Upper-Intermediate Reading
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Code: READ330235
SECTION: LANGUAGE SKILLS Date: January 18th, 2021
Invigilator 1 Invigilator 2 Duration: 60 minutes
The test consists of 11 pages.
No materials whatsoever are allowed.

Marks and Signatures

Marker 1 Marker 2
Student’s name:...................................................
Student ID:..........................................................
Ordinal number: ................ Room: ....................

ANSWER SHEET
PLEASE WRITE YOUR ANSWER ON THIS ANSWER SHEET.
READING 1 READING 2 READING 3
1 14 27
2 15 28
3 16 29
4 17 30
5 18 31
6 19 32
7 20 33
8 21 34
9 22 35
10 23 36
11 24 37
12 25 38
13 26 39
40

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THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

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READING 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1 – 12 which are based on the text below.
Memory
1 Think of a glass of water. The image pops into your mind from your memory. But, how does it do
this? This is a question that we are only now just starting to be answered.
2 We used to think our memories were stored in the brain like books on shelves, and what we
needed to do was search the shelves to find the correct memory. But now, neuroscientists know that
this is not how memory works – it is a far more complex process, and one that they are only just
beginning to understand.
3 The problem is that our memory has many different elements – the shape and color, the feeling
and weight, the function, even the word and the sound of the word, and so on. Each of these
memories is dealt with in a different part of the brain. So, how do we access them all together almost
instantly? This is the difficulty for scientists due to the complexity of the brain and the difficulty of
obtaining direct access to it, and it will take a great deal more research before the memory is fully
understood.
4 We do know, however, that to create a memory, first we must encode information. The initial
step is biological – we use our senses to register the elements of a glass, for example. This only
happens if we are paying attention – there are far too many sensory inputs for us to store, so only the
ones which we notice are encoded. The information is analyzed in the hippocampus and frontal
cortex of the brain, an electrical and chemical process involving synapses (of which we each have
around 100 trillion) and neurotransmitters. The entire process results in complex, web-like
connections between different areas of the brain. The memory is encoded, ready to be stored either in
short or long-term memory.
5 Short-term memory only lasts about twenty to thirty seconds, and is limited to around seven
items. To transfer this to long-term memory, the information must be encountered and used again
repeatedly. The capacity for long-term memory is essentially unlimited.
6 The final step is retrieval or remembering. If this does not happen, there are probably two reasons.
One is that the memory was not actually encoded in the first place – in other words, you did not really
have a memory to retrieve. You may have been distracted by what was happening around you. If you
were not paying attention to where you put your car keys, for example, you may not be able to
retrieve the memory … or the keys. The second reason could be inefficient retrieval – the cues you
need to bring back the memory do not match the object. This type of problem tends to increase with
age, although this is not inevitable, given suitable stimulation.

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Questions 1 – 6
Complete each sentence 1–5 with the correct ending from a-i.
1. In the past, we compared memory to…
2. Each of our memories has many different…
3. Researching memory is difficult because of the problem of accessing…
4. In order to encode information we need to pay attention to…
5. Once memory is created, it can be stored in the short or…
6. To move into the long-term memory, the information needs to be used…
a. … a water glass.
b. … it.
c. … parts to it.
d. … the short-term memory.
e. … long-term memory.
f. … a library.
g. … easy to understand.
h. … many times.
i. … the brain.

Questions 7 – 13
Are the following statements TRUE, FALSE, or NOT GIVEN in the reading? Write your answers
in the answer sheet.
7. Scientists have a very clear understanding of how we recall information.
8. Neuroscientists consider the memory process to be less complex than the way a library is
organized.
9. Many scientists are trying to understand how we access all parts of a memory together and
instantaneously.
10. The first part of making a memory is a biological process.
11. When making memories, the hippocampus does more work than the frontal cortex.
12. One of the reasons we cannot recall a memory is that there is too much information for the brain
to deal with.
13. The older you are, the better your memory is.

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READING 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14 - 26 which are based on the reading passage
below.
The Impact of the Potato
Jeff Chapman relates the story of history the most important vegetable

A. The potato was first cultivated in South America between three and seven thousand years ago,
though scientists believe they may have grown wild in the region as long as 13,000 years ago. The
genetic patterns of potato distribution indicate that the potato probably originated in the mountainous
west-central region of the continent.

B. Early Spanish chroniclers who misused the Indian word batata (sweet potato) as the name for the
potato noted the importance of the tuber to the Incan Empire. The Incas had learned to preserve the
potato for storage by dehydrating and mashing potatoes into a substance called Chuchu could be
stored in a room for up to 10 years, providing excellent insurance against possible crop failures. As
well as using the food as a staple crop, the Incas thought potatoes made childbirth easier and used it
to treat injuries.

C. The Spanish conquistadors first encountered the potato when they arrived in Peru in 1532 in
search of gold, and noted Inca miners eating chuchu. At the time the Spaniards failed to realize that
the potato represented a far more important treasure than either silver or gold, but they did gradually
begin to use potatoes as basic rations aboard their ships. After the arrival of the potato in Spain in
1570，a few Spanish farmers began to cultivate them on a small scale, mostly as food for livestock.

D. Throughout Europe, potatoes were regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear. Generally
considered to be unfit for human consumption, they were used only as animal fodder and sustenance
for the starving. In northern Europe, potatoes were primarily grown in botanical gardens as an exotic
novelty. Even peasants refused to eat from a plant that produced ugly, misshapen tubers and that had
come from a heathen civilization. Some felt that the potato plant’s resemblance to plants in the
nightshade family hinted that it was the creation of witches or devils.

E. In meat-loving England, farmers and urban workers regarded potatoes with extreme distaste. In
1662, the Royal Society recommended the cultivation of the tuber to the English government and the
nation, but this recommendation had little impact. Potatoes did not become a staple until, during the
food shortages associated with the Revolutionary Wars, the English government began to officially
encourage potato cultivation. In 1795, the Board of Agriculture issued a pamphlet entitled “Hints
Respecting the Culture and Use of Potatoes”; this was followed shortly by pro-potato editorials and
potato recipes in The Times. Gradually, the lower classes began to follow the lead of the upper
classes.

F. A similar pattern emerged across the English Channel in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
While the potato slowly gained ground in eastern France (where it was often the only crop remaining
after marauding soldiers plundered wheat fields and vineyards), it did not achieve widespread
acceptance until the late 1700s. The peasants remained suspicious, in spite of a 1771 paper from the
Faculté de Paris testifying that the potato was not harmful but beneficial. The people began to
overcome their distaste when the plant received the royal seal of approval: Louis XVI began to sport
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a potato flower in his buttonhole, and Marie-Antoinette wore the purple potato blossom in her hair.

G. Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the potato’s potential to help feed his nation and lower the price
of bread, but faced the challenge of overcoming the people’s prejudice against the plant. When he
issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the town of
Kolberg replied: “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what
use are they to us?” Trying a less direct approach to encourage his subjects to begin planting
potatoes, Frederick used a bit of reverse psychology: he planted a royal field of potato plants and
stationed a heavy guard to protect this field from thieves. Nearby peasants naturally assumed that
anything worth guarding was worth stealing, and so snuck into the field and snatched the plants for
their home gardens. Of course, this was entirely in line with Frederick’s wishes.

H. Historians debate whether the potato was primarily a cause or an effect of the huge population
boom in industrial-era England and Wales. Prior to 1800，the English diet had consisted primarily of
meat, supplemented by bread, butter and cheese. Few vegetables were consumed, most vegetables
being regarded as nutritionally worthless and potentially harmful. This view began to change
gradually in the late 1700s. The Industrial Revolution was drawing an ever increasing percentage of
the populace into crowded cities, where only the richest could afford homes with ovens or coal
storage rooms, and people were working 12-16 hour days which left them with little time or energy to
prepare food. High yielding, easily prepared potato crops were the obvious solution to England’s
food problems.

I. Whereas most of their neighbors regarded the potato with suspicion and had to be persuaded to use
it by the upper classes, the Irish peasantry embraced the tuber more passionately than anyone since
the Incas. The potato was well suited to the Irish the soil and climate, and its high yield suited the
most important concern of most Irish farmers: to feed their families.

J. The most dramatic example of the potato’s potential to alter population patterns occurred in
Ireland, where the potato had become a staple by 1800. The Irish population doubled to eight million
between 1780 and 1841，this without any significant expansion of industry or reform of agricultural
techniques beyond the widespread cultivation of the potato. Though Irish landholding practices were
primitive in comparison with those of England, the potato’s high yields allowed even the poorest
farmers to produce more healthy food than they needed with scarcely any investment or hard labor.
Even children could easily plant, harvest and cook potatoes, which of course required no threshing,
curing or grinding. The abundance provided by potatoes greatly decreased infant mortality and
encouraged early marriage.

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Questions 14-18
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
14. The early Spanish called potato as the Incan name ‘Chuchu’.
15. The purposes of Spanish coming to Peru were to find out potatoes.
16. The Spanish believed that the potato has the same nutrients as other vegetables.
17. Peasants at that time did not like to eat potatoes because they were ugly.
18. The popularity of potatoes in the UK was due to food shortages during the war.
Questions 19-26
Complete the sentences below with NO MORE THAN ONE WORD from the passage 235 for each
answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.
19. In France, people started to overcome their disgusting about potatoes because the King put a
potato ................... in his button hole.
20. Frederick realized the potential of potato but he had to handle the ................... against potatoes
from ordinary people.
21. The King of Prussia adopted some ................... psychology to make people accept potatoes.
22. Before 1800，the English people preferred eating ................... with bread, butter and cheese.
23. The obvious way to deal with England food problems were high yielding potato ...................
24. The Irish ................... and climate suited potatoes well.
25. Between 1780 and 1841, based on the ................... of the potatoes, the Irish population doubled to
eight million.
26. The potato’s high yields help the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food almost
without ................... .

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READING 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27 - 40 which are based on the reading passage
below.
1. Left- or right-handed bathwater? This seems a silly question, but it was the subject of a serious
scientific investigation sponsored by the Daily Mail in 1965. The investigation showed that the
direction water swirls down the plug-hole vortex depends on which side of the Equator you are.
2. As for homo sapiens, between 5 and 30% of the population are estimated to be left-handed, with
more males than females,’ although .in one test, 95% of fetuses were found to suck their right thumb
in the womb. The general consensus of opinion is that left-handedness is determined by a dominant
right cerebral hemisphere controlling the left side of the body, and vice versa. Hereditary factors have
been ruled out. So too have earlier theories concerning the 262 need for soldiers to shield their hearts,
and the desirability of learning to use Stone Age tools and implements with the hand they were
designed for, as well as Plato’s idea that it all boiled down to which arm a baby was cradled with.
However, the almost universal human preference for dextrality, or right-handedness, remains a
mystery.
3. Prejudice against the left-hand dates back to ancient times and is so entwined with religious beliefs
and superstitions that it still exists today, in everyday speech. Sinister, the Latin for the left hand,
means ‘suggestive of evil’ in English, while the French gauche is awkward, or clumsy. Left itself
derives from Anglo Saxon left (weak and fragile). The nonjudgmental term southpaw, by contrast,
originates from the Chicago baseball stadium where pitchers faced west, so the pitching arm of a
lefthander is to the South.
4. Other negative terms include pen pushers, while a left-handed compliment is actually an insult.
Thomas Carlyle, who described right-handedness as the oldest institution in the world, introduced the
political concept of ‘left’ in his work on the French Revolution – in the 1789 Paris Assembly the
nobles sat on the right, opposite the radicals.
5. Associations with luck also go back to early history. The ancient Greek and Roman augurs foretold
the future of bird-flight. While the former faced North, with the propitious sunrise side to their right,
the latter, before changing later, when sinister took on its’ ominous meaning, looked southward, so
the left was for good omens.
6. Superstitions world-wide reflect this bias. In Morocco, as in many countries, an itchy left palm
means losing money, and a twitching left eyelid denotes the death of a relative or sorrow, whereas the
right side has felicitous indications. We throw salt over our left shoulder to thwart the demons
creeping up on us, but blessed with the right hand. One pours wine with this hand and passes it
around the table clockwise, the direction of the sun.
7. Our relatives, the primates, appear to be ambidextrous, or able to use both hands, although gorillas
have heavier left arms seemingly due to greater utilization. Aristotle observed that crabs and lobsters
had larger right claws. Rats are 80% dextral, yet polar bears are believed to be left-pawed. Flatfish
provide interesting data: in northern seas, plaice and sole have their eyes and color on the right side,
but tropical halibut are the other way round. If this is to do with light and sun rotation, it may explain
why Indian Ocean sole is reversed, but not why northern halibut are’ just as sinistral as their southern
cousins. In the plant kingdom, honeysuckle is a rare example of a left-handed climber that twines
anticlockwise, or widdershins!
8. Although we live in a more tolerant age, not so long ago in the UK youngsters were forced to use
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their right hand, ‘to learn the value of conformity’ (A. N. Palmer), often resulting in the stuttering
speech defects common in ‘switched sinistrals’ like George VI. In the 1950s the American
psychiatrist Abram Blau accused left-handed children of infantile perversity and a stubborn refusal to
accept dextrality.
9. Not all experts were so anti- sinistral, however. The 17th century Norfolk scholar Sir Thomas
Browne wrote of the prejudices against left-handedness but accepted that a small proportion of
people would always be so and saw no reason to prevent them. Apart from being considered difficult,
anti-social troublemakers, left-handers have also been thought to be artistic, creative and gifted.
10. Famous lefties include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Benjamin Franklin, Bill Clinton, Joan
of Arc, Lewis Carroll, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Jean Genet, Beethoven and many others.
11. Finally, in defense of all sinistral, if the left side of the body is really controlled by the right
hemisphere of the brain, then left-handers are the only people in their right minds!

Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.
27. The direction of water going down the plug-hole
A. is not related to where you are.
B. is independent of the side of the Equator you are on.
C. is linked to the side of the Equator you are on.
D. was first discovered by the Daily Mail in the 1950s.
28. In determining left-handedness, hereditary factors are generally considered
A. as important. B. as having no impact.
C. as being a major influence. D. as being the prime cause.
29. The reason why
A. almost everyone is right-handed is unknown.
B. some people are right-handed is ambiguous.
C. Plato worked out the mystery of left-handedness is not known.
D. many people are right-handed is now clear.
30. The word ‘southpaw’ is
A. an Anglo-Saxon term. B. not a negative term.
C. suggestive of evil. D. a negative term.
31. The left was connected with
A. being unclean by the Greeks. B. goodness by the French.
C. fortune and bird-flight by many cultures. D. good fortune in ancient Greece and Rome.

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Questions 32-35
Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
32. Who was the originator of the political concept of left?
33. What did the ancient Romans use to predict the future?
34. What does an itchy palm in the left hand mean?
35. In which direction is wine passed around the table?

Questions 36-39
Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G.
36. Gorillas, unlike other primates,
37. Fish color and eye position
38. Most plant climbers
39. In the past some experts

A. appear to have been against left-handedness.

B. are usually the same in both hemispheres.
C. are apparently not always dependent on the hemisphere.
D. seems to have difficulty using both hands.
E. looked at left-handedness with indifference.
F. tend to grow clockwise rather than anti-clockwise.
G. seem to use their left-hand more.

Question 40
Choose the correct letter A, B, C, D or E.
Which of the following is the most suitable title for Reading Passage?
A. Left-handedness and primates
B. A defense of right-handedness
C. A defense of left-handedness
D. Left-handedness and good luck
E. Left-handedness and bad luck

This is the end of the test.

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 Chuẩn đầu ra của học phần Nội dung
kiểm tra
[CĐR G1.3]: Phân biệt được các kỹ năng đọc hiểu tiếng Anh ở trình độ trên trung cấp và
Câu 1-40
các thể loại bài đọc khác nhau
[CĐR G1.4]: Phân biệt các dạng bài và các kỹ năng để làm bài thi IELTS ở
Câu 1-40
trình độ trên trung cấp .
[CĐR G2.1]: Vận dụng và kết nối kiến thức về khoa học xã hội nhân văn và khoa học tự Câu 1-40
nhiên để đọc hiểu các bài đọc khác
[CĐR G2.2]: Vận dụng các kĩ năng từ vựng vào việc đoán nghĩa của từ qua ngữ cảnh Câu 1-40

[CĐR G2.3]: Vận dụng các kỹ năng đọc ở trình độ trên trung cấp vào việc đọc hiểu các bài Câu 1-40
đọc

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