KÌ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI THPT CẤP TỈNH VÀ CHỌN

ĐỘI TUYỂN THI HỌC SINH GIỎI CẤP QUỐC GIA

NĂM HỌC 2017 - 2018

MÔN THI : TIẾNG ANH

Thời gian : 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
(Đề thi gồm có 15 trang) Ngày thi : 24 / 9 / 2017

Chữ ký Chữ ký Tổng điểm Tổng điểm Số phách

Giám khảo 1 Giám khảo 2 (Bằng số) (Bằng chữ)

Số thứ tự

Điểm từng phần:

I. ………………. Hướng dẫn thi Nghe hiểu:

II. ………………  Thí sinh có 3 phút để nghiên cứu các câu hỏi.
 Bài nghe gồm 3 phần , mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần.
III. ………………
 Bắt đầu mỗi phần đều có thông báo (bằng tiếng Anh)
IV. ………………  Bắt đầu và kết thúc phần thi nghe là đoạn nhạc.

Cộng: ………….….....

I. LISTENING (5 points)

Part 1: Questions 1-9

You will hear a guide speaking to tourists who are visiting some Roman remains. For questions 1-9, fill
in the missing information. You will hear the recording twice.
TOUR OF ROMAN REMAINS
pm – Visit to Roman (1) _WALL_______________________
Romans came to the area in AD (2) _79 ___________________
Built forts in region to (3) _ ESTABLISH THEIR POSITION_(IN THE WHOLE REGION)
______________________
In 1201, people began to search for (4) _TREASURE ________________________
In the early 19th century, excavators made some (5) EXCITING DISCOVERIES
_________________________
Since 1934, archaeological digs have taken place once (6) __A YEAR _____________________
First half of the museum shows the (7) ___HISTORY OF THE SITE/ THE SITE HISTORY
____________________

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Second half of museums shows different aspects of (8) ____LIFE IN THE
TOWN_______________________
On site: Watch out for loose stones and (9) DANGEROUS WALLS/__KEEP THE CHILDREN OFF
THE WALLS_________________________
Part 2: Questions 10-18
You will hear part of a lecture on the subject of jelly fish. For questions 10 to 18, complete the
sentences with a word or short phrase. You will hear the recording twice.
______________________________________________________________

In appearance, the jellyfish is described as resembling two (10) __UPSIDE DOWN

DISHES________________________
Because of their composition, jellyfish are largely without (11) _ENEMIES/ PREDATORS
________________________
Very few adult jellyfish are alive in (12) __THE_WINTER __TIME____________________________
as they rarely survive for more than one year.
Tidal movements and the effects of (13) _THE WIND(S) (ON THE SEA) determine where jellyfish
can go in the sea.
Both jellyfish and people tend to end up in the sheltered bays where (14) _ SANDY BEACHES
__BEACHES OF SAND
are formed.
The body of a box jellyfish can be as large as a (15) __HUMAN’S HEAD
Box jellyfish are not easy to see in water which is both (16) (QUITE)_SHALLOW
_________________________
and sunlit.
After being stung by a jellyfish, victims should avoid doing anything which makes their
(17) HEART RATE __________________________ increase.
In the dark, the (18) ____INTERNAL ORGANS ______________________ of the blue-colored moon
jellyfish
appear to be glowing.

Part 3: Questions 19-25

You will hear part of an interview with Norman Cowley, a well-known novelist and biographer. For
questions 19 – 25, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D. You will hear the recording twice.
19. How does Norman Cowley feel about his first novel?
A. proud of the directness of the writing
B. pleased by the way the characters interacted
C. worried by the over-refined style he used then
D. said that he could never write anything like that again
20. What was Norman Cowley’s reaction to one very bad review of his second novel?
A. He was surprised as he thought this book was well written.

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 B. He thought the detailed criticisms of the book were unjustified.
C. He thought the review was written in a clever and amusing style.
D. He did not regard the critic as well qualified to judge his work.
21. What value does Norman Cowley see in book reviews now?
A. They encourage writers to try new subjects.
B. They motivate less committed writers.
C. They give young writers long-term guidance.
D. They are part of a necessary selection process.

22. Norman Cowley thinks that if a writer uses people he knows well in a book,
A. those characters will be very realistic.
B. it will become rather tedious to write.
C. readers will find the dialogue very natural.
D. the writer will have to alter them in some way.
23. Norman Cowley believes that some modern novels
A. are too much violent.
B. contain too much fantasy.
C. don’t analyze the characters sufficiently.
D. don’t describe the setting adequately.
24. What does Norman Cowley see as the main thing a novel should give the reader?
A. psychological theories
B. a new angle on life
C. a thrilling story
D. beautiful language
25. What does Norman Cowley like about writing a biography?
A. basing a narrative on actual events
B. getting to know a famous person very well
C. deciding how to describe a complex personality
D. making the subject known to a wider audience
II. LEXICO AND GRAMMAR (4 points)
Part 1: Choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the following questions and write your
answers (A, B, C, D) in the corresponding numbered boxes:
1. The text doesn’t give you the answer explicitly – you have to _________ it from the evidence.
A. convert B. reckon C. grasp D. deduce
2. When I realized that I’d left my homework at home, I quickly ________ back to get it.
A. crept B. dashed C. crawled D. drifted
3. My uncle pulled a few _________ and got me a job in the company where he works.
A. ropes B. strings C. threads D. chords
4. I always clean the flat before my mum comes around, but she always finds at least one ________ of
dust and says it’s filthy.
A. scrap B. gust C. speck D. blade
5. The insects looked and tasted so horrible, I __________ with disgust as I tried to force them down.
A. gloated B. grinned C. grimaced D. chuckled

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6. Alistair is a very impulsive person. He often makes extremely important decisions __________ ,
without consulting anyone, and then regrets them later.
A. on the spur of the moment C. in the nick of time
B. in the nick of the moment D. on the spur of time
7. We don’t know what’s going to happen, so let’s not start counting our chickens before they’re
____________ .
A. hatched B. born C. scratched D. brooded

8. The boss knows that some employees are making personal phone calls during working hours, but he
prefers to __________ it.
A. make a flat view of C. take a broad look at
B. take a blind look at D. turn a blind eye to
9. When the burglar was away on holiday, somebody broke into his flat and stole everything. It was a
case of ________ .
A. poet’s justice B. divine justice C. poetic justice D. poetic licence
10. His statement about _________ no truth in the allegations was difficult to believe.
A. there had been B. there was C. there having D. there being
11. He left about two hours early, ___________ caught in a traffic jam.
A. least he should be B. less he be C. though he be D. lest he be
12. People would use a lot less power if they bought household goods that were energy _________ .
A. effective B. efficient C. economical D. ecology
13. The popular press often contains a lot more __________ than hard facts.
A. speculation B. realism C. influence D. tolerance
14. It’s one of the worst books that I’ve ever read. Its only redeeming ________ is that it’s quite short.
A. aspect B. feature C. element D. factor
Your answers

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Part 2: For questions 15-20, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the corresponding
numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning.
Pop Musicals

18. 19. 20. Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, a man whose (0) __________ (COMPOSE), electric rock
based works, helped (15) _ revitalize

_______ (VITAL) British and American musical theatre in the late 20th century. As a student at Oxford
University, a (16) _ partnership

_________ (PARTNER) was founded between Webber and Timothy Rice to put on dramatic
productions. Their first notable successful venture was ‘Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat’, a pop oratorio for children that earned world-wide acclaim. It was followed by the rock

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 opera, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, an extremely popular, though (17) _controverSIAL________
(CONTROVERSY) work that blended classical forms to tell the story of Jesus’ life. This show ran
longer than any other similar show in British (18) _ theatrical

_______ (THEATRE) history. Lloyd Webber’s last artistic collaboration with Rice was on ‘Evita’.
‘Cats’ was his next major production, in which he set to music verses from a children’s book by T.S.
Eliot. With two (19) _ lyricists

________ (LYRIC) Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe, he then composed a hugely successful version
of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. Lloyd Webber’s best works were flashy spectacles that featured vivid
melodies and forceful and dramatic staging. He was able to blend such varied and (20) ________
(SIMILAR) genres as rock and roll, English music-hall song, and operatic forms into music that had a
wide mass appeal.

Your answers : 0. compositions

15. 16. 17.

18. 19. 20.

III. READING (4 points)

Part 1: For questions 1- 6, read the text below and decide which answer best fits each gap.
NOTHING BUT STYLE
Style is now more important than substance or at least more important than skills; that is the message of
a report (1) ________ last month in Britain that questions the (2) ________ employees project and how
it compares to the one a would-be employer wants to promote. It is now more important to employers
that their employees (3) ________ the lifestyle being sold by the restaurant, café or shop in which they
work, than have technical skills. The idea that workers personify a company has long been an (4)
_________ part of management-level jobs, but this concept has (5) _______to jobs such as shop
assistants and waiters. Employers now rely more on appearance and accept than on qualifications. So is
getting a job all a (6) _________ of style? At many coffee houses and restaurant chains, the answer
would seem to be yes. Part 1 reading
1. A. taken out B. caught out C. worked out D. brought out
2. A. impression B. image C. picture D. notion
3. A. reflect B. expose C. feature D. flaunt
4. A. exceptional B. accepted C. expressed D. observed
5. A. soaked down B. dripped down C. filtered down D. leaked down
6. A. business B. subject C. concern D. matter

Your answers here

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1 2 3 4 5 6

Part 2: For questions 7- 14, fill in each of the numbered blanks with ONE suitable word.
Arranged marriages
The usual western idea of marriage is that you meet someone, fall in love, and then decide to marry
each other. For those born (7) __INTO_______ some cultures, however, marriage may have quite a
different (8) _ meaning
_______. In an arranged marriage, it is the parents who choose the partner and it’s possible for the
young person getting married not to meet their future bride or groom in (9) _ person/ ADVANCE
_______ until the day of the wedding. In deed, a young person might be (10) _ promised
________ to another as a child, many years before the wedding day.
Amongst communities that practice arranged marriage, it’s not unusual for a generation (11)
_____GAP____ to open up between parents and children, with many young people refusing to accept
an arrange marriage. However, if the parents treat each other with (12) __RESPECT_______ and
recognize that they are both of equal (13) _VALUE_________ , there doesn’t seem to be any real (14)
___BARRIER/ PROBLEM______ to having a happy married life.

Part 3 : For questions 15-21. Read the following newspaper article about an expedition and choose
the best answers (A, B, C or D). Write your answers (A, B, C, D) in the corresponding numbered
boxes:

An awfully big adventure

The Taklamakan Desert in western China is one of the last unexplored places on earth. It is also one of
the most dangerous. Charles Blackmore crossed it, and lived to tell the tale.

There are very few big adventures left and very
few heroes. Children’s stories used to specialize
in them – courageous explorers with sunburnt,
leathery skin and eyes narrowed by straining to
see into far horizons on their journeys into the
unknown. These days you no longer find such
people in fiction, let alone in real life. Or so I
thought until I met Charles Blackmore.
Blackmore’s great adventure consisted of
leading an expedition across one of the last
unexplored places on earth, the Taklamakan
Desert in western China. Its name means “once
entered you never come out”, but local people
call it the Desert of Death. He recalled the
dangers and exhilaration of that amazing trek,
in the calm atmosphere of his family home.
The team he led was composed of four Britons
(one of them the party’s medical officer), an
American photographer, four Chinese (all
experts on the area), 30 camels and six camel
handlers. It later turned out that the camel
handlers had never worked with camels before,
but were long-distance lorry drivers: a
misunderstanding that could have cost everyone
their lives and certainly jeopardized the
expedition’s success. This mixed bunch set out
to cross 1,200 kilometers of the world’s least
hospitable desert and Charles Blackmore has
written a mesmerizing account of their journey.
At the time, he was about to leave the Army
after 14 happy years. He launched the
expedition for fun, to fill a gap in his life, to
prove something. “I had always assumed I’d
spend my whole life in the Army. I had been
offered promotion but suddenly I felt I wanted
to see who Charles Blackmore really was,
outside all that. It was a tremendous gamble.
Tina, my life, was very worried that I wouldn’t
come back as nobody had ever done that route;
we went into it blind. In the event, it took 59

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days to cross from west to east, and the desert
was very kind to us.”
Anyone reading his extraordinary account of
that crossing will wonder at the use of the word
“kind”. The team suffered unspeakable
hardships: dysentery; extremes of temperature;
severe thirst and dehydration; the loss part of
their precious water supply. “But”, Blackmore
explains, “when we were at the limits of our
own endurance and the camels had gone
without water for seven days, we managed to
find some. We didn’t experience the
Taklamakan’s legendary sandstorms. And we
never hit the raw, biting desert cold that would
have totally immobilized us. That’s not to say
that we weren’t fighting against hurdles the
whole time. The fine sand got into everything,
especially blisters and wounds. The high dunes
were torture to climb, for us and for the heavily
laden camels, which often rolled over onto us.
“What drove me on more than anything else
was the need to survive. We had no
contingency plan. Neither our budget nor time
allowed one. No aircraft ever flew over us.
Once we got into the sandhills we were
completely on our own.
“I knew I had the mental stamina for the trip
but I was very scared of my physical ability to
do it. I remember day one – we sat at the edge
of the desert and it was such an inferno that you
couldn’t breathe. I thought, “We’ve got to do it
15C 16A 17C 18B 19C 20A 21D
15. Meeting Charles Blackmore changed the writer’s opinion about ___________ .
A. the content of children’s fiction
B. the nature of desert exploration
C. the existence of traditional heroes
D. the activities of explorers
16. When the expedition members set off, some of the group __________ .
A. posed an unexpected risk
B. disagreed with each other
C. were doubt about the success
D. went on ahead of the others
17. Blackmore had decided to set up the expedition because _________ .
A. he was certain he could complete it
B. he wanted to write a book
C. his aims in life had changed
now!” At the moment I was a very scared
man.”
If it was like that at the beginning, how did they
feel towards the end” “When you’ve walked for
1,000 kilometers you’re not going to duck out.
You’ve endured so much; you’ve got so much
behind you. We were very thin, but very
muscular and sinewy despite our physical
exhaustion. My body was well-toned and my
legs were like pistons. I could walk over
anything.”
Midway through the book, Blackmore went on
to describe lying in the desert gazing up at a full
moon, thinking of his family. How conscious
was he of the ordeal it must have been for
them? “Inside me there’s someone trying to
find peace with himself. When I have doubts
about myself now, I go back to the image of the
desert and think, well, we managed to pull that
together. As a personal achievement, I feel
prouder of that expedition that of anything else
I’ve done. Yet in terms of a lifetime’s
achievement, I think of my family and the
happiness we share – against the yardstick, the
desert does not measure up, does not compare.”
Has Charles Blackmore found peace? “I yearn
for the challenge – for the open spaces – the
resolve of it all. We were buoyed up by the
sense of purpose. I find it difficult now to be
part of the uniformity of modern life.”
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 D. his self-confidence was low
18. Which of the following best describes the team’s experience of the desert?
A. They were not able to have enough rest.
B. It presented continual difficulties.
C. They sometimes could not make any progress at all.
D. It was worse than they had expected.
19. Which of the following did Blackmore experience during the trip?
A. frustration at the lack of funding
B. regret about the lack of planning
C. realization that they would receive no help
D. fear that he would let his companions down
20. According to Blackmore, what enabled him to finish the expedition?
A. his strength of will
B. his physical preparation
C. his closeness to his family
D. his understanding of desert

21. How does Blackmore feel now that the expedition is over?
A. tired but pleased to be home
B. regretful about his family’s distress
C. unsure of his ability to repeat it
D. unsettled by the experience

Write your answers here

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Part 4: Questions 22-26 are based on the reading passage below.

Great Migrations
Animal migration, however it is defined, is far more than just the movement of animals. It can loosely
be described as travel that takes place at regular intervals – often in an annual cycle – that may involve
many members of a species, and is rewarded only after a long journey. It suggests inherited instinct.
The biologist Hugh Dingle has identified five characteristics that apply, in varying degrees and
combinations, to all migrations. They are prolonged movements that carry animals outside familiar
habitats; they tend to be linear, not zigzaggy; they involve special behaviours concerning preparation
(such as overfeeding) and arrival; they demand special allocations of energy. And one more: migrating
animals maintain an intense attractiveness to the greater mission, which keeps them undistracted by
temptations and undeterred challenges that would turn other animals aside.
An arctic tern, on its 20,000 km flight from the extreme south of South America to the Arctic circle,
will take no notice of a nice smelly herring offered from a bird-watcher’s boat along the way. While
local gulls will dive voraciously for such handouts, the tern flies on. Why? The arctic tern resists
distraction because it is driven at that moment by an instinctive sense of something we humans find
admirable: larger purpose. In other words, it is determined to reach its destination. The bird senses that
it can eat, rest and mate later. Right now it is totally focused on the journey; its undivided intent is
arrival. Reaching some gravely coastline in the Arctic, upon which other arctic terns have converged,

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will serve its larger purpose as shaped by evolution: finding a place, a time, and a set of circumstances
in which it can successfully hatch and rear offspring.
But migration is a complex issue, and biologists define it differently, depending in part on what sorts of
animals they study. Joel Berger, of the University of Montana, who works on the American pronghorn
and other large terrestrial mammals, prefers what he calls a simple, practical definition suited to his
beasts: ‘movements from a seasonal home area away to another home area and back again”. Generally
the reason for such seasonal back-and-forth movement is to seek resources that aren’t available within
a single area year-round.
But daily vertical movements by zooplankton in the ocean – upward by night to seek food, downward
by day to escape predators – can also be considered migration. So can the movement of aphids when,
having depleted the young leaves on one food plant, their offspring then fly onward to a different host
plant, with no-one aphid ever returning to where it started.
Dingle is an evolutionary biologist who studies insects. His definition is more intricate than Berger’s,
citing those five features that distinguish migration from other forms of movement. They allow for the
fact that, for example, aphids will become sensitive to blue light (from the sky) when it’s time for
takeoff on their big journey, and sensitive to yellow light (reflected from tender young leaves) when
it’s appropriate to land. Birds will fatten themselves with heavy feeding in advance of a long
migrational flight. The value of his definition, Dingle argues, is that it focuses attention on what the
phenomenon of the aphids, and therefore helps guide researchers towards understanding how evolution
has produced them all.
Human behaviours, however, is having a detrimental impact on animal migration. The pronghorn,
which resembles an antelope, though they are unrelated, is the fastest land mammal of the New World.
One population, which spends the summer in the mountainous Grand Teton National Park of the
western USA, follows a narrow route from its summer range in the mountains, across a river, and down
onto the plains. Here they wait out the frozen months, feeding mainly on sagebrush blown clear of
snow. These pronghorn are notable for the invariance of their migration route and the severity of its
constriction at three bottlenecks. If they can’t pass through each of the three during their spring
migration, they can’t reach their bounty of summer grazing; if they can’t pass through again in autumn,
escaping south onto those windblown plains, they are likely to die trying to overwinter in the deep
snow. Pronghorn, dependent on distance vision and speed to keep safe from predators, traverse high,
open shoulders of land, where they can see and run. At one of the bottlenecks, forested hills rise to
form a V, leaving a corridor of open ground only about 150 meters wide, filled with private homes.
Increasing development is leading toward a crisis for pronghorn, threatening to choke off their
passageway.
Conversation scientists, along with some biologists and land managers within the USA’s National Park
Service and other agencies, are now working to preserve migrational behaviours, not just species and
habitats. A National Forest has recognized the path of the pronghorn, much of which passes across its
land, as a protected migration corridor. But neither the Forest Service nor the Park Service can control
what happens on private land at a bottleneck. And with certain other migrating species, the challenge is
complicated further – by vastly greater distances traversed, more jurisdictions, more borders, more
dangers along the way. We will require wisdom and resoluteness to ensure that migrating species can
continue their journeying a while longer.
Questions 22 -26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage.
In the boxes 22-26 write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
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NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
22 Local gulls and migrating arctic terns behave in the same way when offered food. F 9DOAN 2,
CAU 1)
23 Experts’ definitions of migration tend to vary according to their area of study. T DOAN 3
24 Very few experts agree that the movement of aphids can be considered migration. NG DOAN 4
25 Aphids’ journeys are affected by changes in the light that they perceive. T (DOAN 5 )
26 Dingle’s aim is to distinguish between the migratory behaviours of different species.F DOAN 5
Write your answers here

22 23 24 25 26

Questions 27 -30
Compete each sentence with the correct ending, A-G below. Write the correct letter, A-G in the boxes
27-30.
27 According to Dingle, migratory routes are likely to G
28 To prepare for migration, animals are likely to C
29 During migration, animals are unlikely to A
30 Arctic terns illustrate migrating animals’ ability to E

A be discouraged by difficulties.
B travel on open land where they can look out for predators.
C eat more than they need for immediate purposes.
D be repeated daily
E ignore distractions.
F be governed by the availability of water.
G follow a straight line.

Write your answers here

27 28 29 30
Questions 31 -34
Complete the summary below. Choose only ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in the given spaces.
The migration of pronghorns
DOAN 6
Pronghorns rely on their eyesight and (31) _SPEED______________ to avoid predators. One particular
population’s summer habitat is a national park, and their winter home is on the (32)

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__PLAINS___________, where they go to avoid the danger presented by the snow at that time of year.
However, their route between these two areas contains three (33) ___BOTTLENECKS ___________.
One problem is the construction of new homes in a narrow (34) _CORRIDOR_/
PASSAGEWAY______________ of land on the pronghorns’ route.

Part 5: You are going to read an extract from a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been
removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (35-40).
There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
_______________________________________________________________________________

The Magic Lute

For hundred years ago, the royal courts of Europe resounded to strains of the lute. Then the instrument
did a mysterious vanishing act. Arthur Robb is one of a small band of craftsmen bringing the
instrument back from the past.

Arthur Robb has been marching to a different
tune all his life. When the youth of Europe was
listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones,
he went to Paris and Amsterdam as part of a
classical choir. And then in swinging London,
he discovered even earlier music. It has all been
good training, though. Now in his fifties, he is
recognized as a leading expert in one of
contemporary music’s most fashionable
offshoots – the revival of interest in the
accident string instrument, the lute.
35 G
Yet lutes were once produced in astonishing
numbers. When the celebrated Italian lute maker
Laux Mahler died in 1552, an inventory of his
workshop revealed more than a thousand lutes in
various stages of construction. The instrument’s
disappearance was so dramatic, however, that very
few early examples survive.
36 A
What happened to all the others is a mystery.
Robb’s theory is that the lute was killed off by
the development of keyboard instruments like
pianoforte. But the end must have come
suddenly. Some of the last music for solo lute
was written by J.S. Bach. Within years of his
death in 1750, the instrument which had
dominated Europe’s musical repertoire for
centuries had all but vanished.
37 B
Digging into literature and odd manuscripts,
such as early musical scores, has allowed him
to discover how the music might have sounded,
whilst the examination of old paintings gives
clues as to the details of the instrument’s
design. The lute has certainly altered over time,
evolving from an elongated oval to a deep pear-
shape. The stringing and the sound produced
must also have changed as a result. “The lute is
like a time machine,” says Robb. “Its history
goes back into antiquity, possibly to ancient
Egypt.”
38 D
Lute music is considered rather quiet compared
with the volume of today’s orchestration. But
centuries ago, when music was being written
for the instrument, people’s ears were better
attuned to quieter sounds.
39 E
Despite his enthusiasm, his initial efforts did not
meet with immediate approval. A novice carpenter,
he practiced for a year, making wooden toys and
household items to improve his basic skills, before
joining and adult education class in musical
instrument making. After months of meticulous
work, he proudly offered a completed lute to a
music shop in Bristol.
40 C
Far from being discouraged, Robb set about
putting things to rights. Modern-day lute

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makers have problems their craftsmen forebears the materials that are most readily available. He
could never have imagined. Worldwide concern has, however, gone on to make dozens of lutes,
about the use of rare timber, for example, has each finer than last, and repaired many more.
meant that he has had to adapt his methods to

A Those that do are now priceless museum pieces, and even these treasured relics have been
damaged or altered so much during their life that copying them doesn’t guarantee historical
accuracy.
B What’s more, no authentic plan of a genius fifteenth – or sixteenth-century lute has ever been
found, and so no-one knows what tools were used to make the instruments. Robb, alongside
fellow enthusiasts in Britain and the USA, has been spearheading the lute’s revival. This means
unearthing fragments of information from surrounding strata like archaeologists hunting a
fossil.
C In turning it down, they left him in no doubt as to the shortcomings of his creation. It was the
wrong shape, the wrong weight, the strings were too long to achieve the right pitch and the pegs
which tightened the strings were too bulky for comfort.
D But so little factual evidence remains, even from more recent times, that Robb has to think
himself back in time in order to begin to see how they should be made. Only by appreciating the
way people lived, how they behaved and the technology they used, can he begin to piece
together the complete picture.
E “Appreciating small nuances like that is vital to an appreciation of how the instrument might
have been played”, Robb says. As one of a small band of professional lute makers who keep in
touch via the Internet, Robb can share these impressions, as well as swapping problems and
possible solutions. No such forum existed when Robb began to construct his first lute 25 years
ago, however. He had to work things out on his own.
F Robb’s enquiries have, however, punctured one other popular myth – that of the lute player as a
wandering minstrel. Almost from its introduction into Europe, the lute was a wealthy person’s
instrument, the players attaining a status comparable to modern-day concert pianists.
G From a tiny attic workshop in the English countryside, Robb makes exquisite examples of this
forgotten instrument. Piecing together the few remaining clues to the instrument’s construction
and musical characteristics has demanded all his single-minded concentration.

IV. WRITING (5 points)

Part 1: Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the
word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three and eight words, including
the word given.
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1. The new teacher was so nervous that the class reacted mischievously.
drew
1, The new teacher’s MANNER drew mischievous reaction from _______________________ the
class.
2. My neighbor assumes that he can use my lawnmower whenever he likes.
granted
My neighbor TAKES IT FOR GRANTED THAT I WILL PERMIT/ ALLOW him to use my
lawnmower whenever he likes.

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3. Fewer people are buying fresh food since convenience foods have become available.
demand
Fresh food is is less in demand / BECAUSE OF/ due to the availability of convenience food of
convenience food.
4. The doctor’s advice was to wait and see what happened and the baby would be fine.
nature
The doctor said that we should let nature take its course and the baby would be fine.
5. It is quite obvious that we shall have to work faster in order to finish the project on time.
escaping
There is no WAY OF escaping FROM the fact that we shall have to work faster in order to finish the
project on time

Part 2: The pie chart below shows the main reasons why agricultural land becomes less
productive. The table shows how these causes affected three regions of the world during the
1990s.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where
relevant. Write your answer to the task in at least 150 words.

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Part 3: Write an essay about 250 words on the following topic.

Some people think that it is better to stick to one job, while others think when they swap jobs
they will have a better chance to gain more knowledge and money.
Which do you agree with and why? Discuss both sides and provide specific reasons and examples to
support your opinion.
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(NB: You may continue your writing on the back page if you need more space)
---HẾT---

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