SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỀ THI CHỌN ĐỘI TUYỂN DỰ THI HSG QUỐC GIA

NAM ĐỊNH Năm học: 2023 - 2024

Môn: Tiếng Anh - Đề thi số 02
Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút.
ĐỀ CHÍNH THỨC
(Đề thi gồm: 16 trang)

Điểm bài thi Họ, tên và chữ ký 2 giám khảo SỐ PHÁCH

Bằng số: ............................. Giám khảo 1: ..................................

Bằng chữ: ........................... Giám khảo 2: ..................................

I.LISTENING (5.0 points)

HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
 Bài nghe gồm 4 phần, mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 10 giây, mở đầu và kết
thúc mỗi phần nghe có tín hiệu.
 Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có tín hiệu nhạc. Thí sinh có 02 phút để hoàn chỉnh bài trước tín
hiệu nhạc kết thúc bài nghe.
 Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh bằng tiếng Anh đã có trong bài nghe.

Part 1: For questions 1-5, listen to a recording and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
taken from the recording in the space provided.
1. What can Omega 3 and 6 in the brain counteract?
______________________________________________
2. What can be produced and maintained with the help of food rich in omegas?
______________________________________________
3. What is contained in amino acids that facilitates communication between neurons?
______________________________________________
4. What is the effect of chemical messengers such as dopamine?
______________________________________________
5. What can be removed as a result of greater intake of fruits and vegetables?
______________________________________________

Part 2: For questions 6–10, you will hear an interview with the presenter of a popular radio
series about food and cooking. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to
what you hear. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
6. What has made ―Just a taste‖ so popular?
A. it gives advice about how to cook traditional dishes.
B. it features interviews with professional chefs.
C. it presents food and cooking in a more personal light.
D. it takes a humorous approach.
7. The presenter of the programme believes that smells ______
A. will one day be made available to listeners.
B. can never be part of a radio cookery programme.
C. are more important than sounds in the kitchen.
D. cannot be successfully imagined by listeners.

Page 1 of 16 pages
8. What makes describing a dish particularly difficult?
A. There are too many ingredients to describe.
B. Listeners are mainly interested in what they should be aiming for.
C. Each stage of the cooking process needs to be described.
D. There is a lack of appropriate vocabulary.
9. The presenter of the series mentions Iceland because ______
A. it has a particularly unusual cuisine.
B. fish-based dishes are particularly popular there.
C. it has turned natural features to its advantage.
D. it produces large quantities of fruit and vegetables.
10. The spices asafoetida and turmeric are used in South India cooking ______
A. mainly for their taste.
B. mainly for their therapeutic properties.
C. by filtering them into the food.
D. merely during festive occasions.
Your answers:
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Part 3: For questions 11-15, listen to a piece of news about volcanoes. Decide whether the
following statements are TRUE (T), FALSE (F) or NOT GIVEN (NG). Write the answers in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. Volcano, be it onshore or underwater, invariably lies along the boundaries between tectonic
plates.
12. The Pacific Ocean contains more volcanoes than any other ocean.
13. Stratovolcanoes are the most prevalent among all types of volcanoes.
14. Solitary volcanoes underwater are categorized as mid-ocean ridges.
15. The heat of the Earth‘s core, along with that from the Sun, turns some rock into magma.
Your answers:
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Part 4: For questions 16 – 25, listen to a piece of news and complete the following sentences.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS taken from the recording in each gap.
Jewel is a massive shopping mall whose completion relies on (16) _________________________
The Rain Vortex in the middle of Terminal 3 utilizes recycled rainwater as a (17)
_________________________ for light performance at night.
Almost all trees in the (18) _________________________ in the Jewel are real.
The strategic position of Singapore renders it a (19) _________________________ linking two parts
of Asia.
Qatar‘s less draconian (20) _________________________ enabled its International Airport to snag
the Skytrax award from Changi during the COVID-19 pandemics.
The (21) _________________________ of Terminal 5 is expected to keep Changi streets ahead of
other Asian airports in international flight traffic.
Changi Airport is a significant (22) _________________________, contributing over a tenth of the
country's GDP.
Changi airport embodies the (23) _________________________ associated with Singapore and its
flagship airline.
Opulent Asian airports offering first-class (24) _________________________ have successfully put
(25) _________________________ counterparts in North America in the shade.

Page 2 of 16 pages
Your answers

16. 21.

17. 22.

18. 23.

19. 24.

20. 25.

II. LEXICO AND GRAMMAR (3.0 pts)

Part 1: Choose the answer A, B, C, or D that best completes each of the following sentences.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
1. You get seasick but you‘re going to travel by boat – you‘re a glutton for ______!
A. estrangement B. management C. amazement D. punishment
2. I don‘t know if he would be right for the job; he‘s a bit of an unknown ______.
A. ability B. capacity C. quantity D. identity
3. The police ______ tough penalties for people driving without a license.
A. fork out B. deal out C. stick out D. bail out
4. Some TV channels are ______ their programmes in an attempt to increase their audience ratings.
A. dumbing down B. turning down C. boiling down D. playing down
5. Ancient healing recipes have been researched as a means of identifying potential curing ______
of flowers and plants.
A. properties B. abilities C. capacities D. opportunities
6. You could see that she was hurt - she wears her heart ______!
A. on her head B. on her pocket C. on her sleeve D. on her face
7. Dance can take many forms: whether it comes as a (n) ______ release of energy and emotion, or
within a skillful display of choreography after much rehearsal.
A. assertive B. impulsive C. attentive D. expressive
8. Go on, you can do it. It‘s not exactly ______, is it?
A. rocket science B. airship science C. balloon science D. missile science
9. We tried to negotiate a lower price but they didn‘t ______ an inch.
A. retreat B. budge C. backtrack D. leave
10. I expected to negotiate with the sales manager, but the chairman turned up - now he's a(n)
______ of a different color.
A. eagle B. horse C. hawk D. wolf
11. The offer sounds good, but keep your ______ open until you're sure it's the best choice.
A. options B. decisions C. selections D. conclusions
12. Tony has always loved olives, but for me it was an ______.
A. acquired taste B. increasing liking C. achieved taste D. improving liking
13. In the performance, the dancers wore embroidered caps fridged with cowrie shells which ______
like bells when they moved.
A. clattered B. clunked C. tittled D. tinkled
14. If there is another acident like that in the building, I am sure that the occupants will ______.
A. clap eyes B. lock horns C. take pains D. play possums
15. It didn‘t take much to ______ the old animosity lurking beneath the surface of their relationship.
A. resuscitate B. rekindle C. restore D. regain
16. We should remain realistic in our goals and expectations and not allow ourselves to be ______
into a life of materialism.
A. brainwashed B. instituted C. quarantined D. enlightened

Page 3 of 16 pages
17. At the end of the speech he seemed to be moving into the ______ of fantasy.
A. phases B. stands C. courses D. realms
18. The union negotiators are ______ a more generous pay settlement.
A. holding out for B. looking out for C. pushing out for D. spelling out for
19. This player seems to be able to constantly punch above his ______!
A. height B. depth C. weight D. reach
20. They need to borrow money in ______ of running their own business.
A. accordance B. pursuance C. assurance D. insurance
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Part 2: Write the correct form of each bracketed word in the in the space provided.
1. Sally has just given birth yesterday so she is currently on _______________________
(MOTHER) leave.
2. The mayor and the city council are anxious to avoid getting _______________________
(TANGLE) in the controversy.
3. The school imposes a very _______________________ (REGIME) lifestyle on its students and
somehow deprives them of creativity.
4. The government‘s policy to soothe the anger among people was _______________________
(CHRONOLOGY). It should have happened earlier.
5. I was surprised when I saw her modest apartment - I'd have expected a lawyer to have something
a little more _______________________ (MARKET).
6. Mordecai and Rigby held a(n) _______________________ (ROAR) party last night and
somehow their boss was unaware of it.
7. The Prime Minister warned the people of his country that they must be ready for any
_______________________ (EVENT) even the possibility of war.
8. Many doctors prescribe aspirin to _______________________ (STALL) second heart attacks.
9. She hopes to _______________________ (LAY) her success as a model into an acting career.
10. The ambassador was typically _______________________ (COMMIT) when asked whether
further sanctions would be introduced, trying to conceal his opinion on the matter.

III. READING (6.0 pts)

Part 1: Read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. Write
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
The Bridge
Our group fell silent at the base of a narrow steel ladder that rose vertically through the maze
of girders at the south-east end of Australia's Sydney Harbour Bridge. We needn't have worried
about the first part of the climb. Up to this (1) ___ our guided tour had been little more than a stroll
but now our task was to face the ladder. It must have been at least fifty feet high. There were
handrails and our safety belts would be tethered to a cable to (2) ___ a fall but the water couldn't
have been less than 250 feet below us and the (3) ___ of climbing was daunting.
What lay at the top was stepping out on to the exposed upper arch of the bridge, with blue sky all
round and the water almost 262 feet below. We ought to have found this out before embarking on
what now seemed a singularly (4) ___ mission!
My own (5) ___ was extreme, but, on this sparkling morning, I saw no option but to climb to
the summit of one of the world's best-loved icons - a miracle of engineering recognized by people
everywhere. As I climbed the tension (6) ___ out of me; I was driven by an exhilarating feeling of
conquest. At the top, I dropped my (7) ___ to the vast pool of the harbour below. It might just as well
have been a mill pond from this height. We stood on a small viewing deck in the warm sunshine, (8)
___ with excitement and arms raised as our guide took a celebratory photograph.
Page 4 of 16 pages
1. A position B period C point D place
2. A hold B halt C reduce D break
3. A perspective B proposal C probability D prospect
4. A negligent B reckless C careless D unthinking
5. A acrophobia B claustrophobia C agoraphobia D arachnophobia
6. A exuded B drained C leaked D came
7. A glare B glimpse C gaze D glance
8. A flushed B burned C drenched D flamed
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7. 8.

Part 2: Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE
word in each space. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
Movie theaters started closing down after the first few years of popular television. The movie
industry had come up (1) _______ strong competition, and had to make changes to keep their
heads above (2) _______. In the 1950s, numerous experiments with widescreens and stereophonic
sound systems were executed to improve the cinema experience. Technology was changing, and in
time these advances had a knock-on (3) _______ on the whole movie industry. Ultimately,
independent production became common, (4) _______ the studios acting as distributors only, and
new kinds of movies (5) _______ particularly at teenagers and other niche markets emerged. The
move away from glamorous celebrity image that began in the 1960s also gathered (6) _______ in
the 70s. A change was to come with the release of Jaws, which unexpectedly grossed over $100
million by getting a PG rating and (7) _______ to all demographics. With Jaws' far-reaching success
moviemakers were now encouraged to target the widest (8) _______ audience. The result of this
shift in style was a series of lucrative movies given over to spectacle. Star Wars cracked the $200
million barrier and E.T. earned over $300 million. While many of these movies gave (9) _______ to
criticism regarding the triumph of special effects over any kind of human endeavor, the net effect
was to draw the audiences back into movie theaters. A great number of movies, including (10)
________ without spectacular elements, succeeded during this period.
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Part 3: Read the passage and do the tasks that follow.

Gesture
A. Gesture is any action that sends a visual signal to an onlooker. To become a gesture, an act has
to be seen by someone else and has to communicate some pieces of information to them. It can do
this either because the gesturer deliberately sets out to send a signal or it can do it only incidentally.
The hand-wave is a Primary Gesture, because it has no other existence or function. Therefore, to
make it a gesture, first, it should be clear and unambiguous. Others would be able to understand it
instantly when it is shown to them. Nor may any component of a gesture, its force, its direction and
amplitude of movement, be altered: otherwise, confusion or misunderstanding may occur.
B. Most people tend to limit their use of the term ―gesture‖ to the primary form the hand-wave type—
but this misses an important point. What matters with gesturing is not what signals we think we are
sending out, but what signals are being received. The observers of our acts will make no distinction
between our intentional primary gestures and our unintentional, incidental ones. This is why it is
preferable to use the term ―gesture‖ in its wider meaning as an ―observed action‖. This can be
compared to the ring of a telephone. The speed, tone and intensity of a telephone remain the same
for any phone call. Even the length of time before being told that the number you are dialing is not
answering, unless the caller hangs up, is the same.
Page 5 of 16 pages
C. Some gestures people use are universal. The shoulder shrug is a case in point. The shrug is
done by bringing the shoulders up, drawing the head in, and turning the palms upwards so as to
reveal that nothing is hidden. The shoulder shrug can also demonstrate submission or that what is
being said isn‘t understood. Another example is that an angry person usually expresses his rage by
waving his clenched fist rapidly and forcefully. Surprisingly, you may find that people of different
cultures will do the same when they are offended. That is to say, a commonly accepted gesture is
shared by them. But if the way the hand is clenched changes, or the amplitude of force and the
direction the fist is waved alters, the gesture no longer means the same.
D. So, is gesture born with us or is it developed as we grow up? Recent research found that gesture
is more like a spontaneous reaction when we face certain situations. And we just do that
automatically. When people talk, they almost always gesture with their hands. This expressive
movement can be coaxed into a choreographic form if observed carefully. People can practice
spontaneous gesture by forming pairs, then observing and questioning each other. They then show
the group what they have collected from their partners. It is fun to surprise a group using this
technique. Because spontaneous gestures are often unconscious, people will sometimes be
surprised to have their gestures mirrored back to them, saying ―Did I really do that?‖
E. The attention of research was also drawn to cultural themes. Researchers discovered that if a
person has a good set of teeth, he or she would be prone to have a bigger smile than he or she
should when good things happen. And if a person possesses a bad set of teeth, he or she would
tend to have his or her mouth shut when being teased. And people‘s reaction to the same joke also
varies: some laugh out loud while others titter. However, this does not cause confusion and it helps
to develop our ―behavioural‖, which is an important aspect of our identity. It was referred to as a
Gesture Variant, which indicates that individuals‘ gesture production is a complex process, in which
speakers‘ internal and external factors and interactions could play a role in multi-modal
communication.
F. During the research, an interesting phenomenon soon caught researchers‘ attention. A hand
purse gesture, which is formed by straightening the fingers and thumb of one hand and bringing
them together so the tips touch, pointing upwards and shaping like a cone, carries different
meanings in different countries. In Malta, it means heavy sarcasm: ―you may seem good, but you
are really bad.‖; in Tunisia, it is against recklessness, saying ―slow down‖; in Italy, it means ―What‘s
the matter?‖ or ―What are you trying to say?‖; in France, it means ―I am afraid‖. However, this
gesture has no clear meaning in American culture. And of course, the way the gesture is conducted
is similar in different countries.
G. But what will happen if the gestures of different countries confront each other? The situation is
further complicated by the fact that some gestures mean totally different things in different countries.
To take one example, in Saudi Arabia, stupidity can be signalled by touching the lower eyelid with
the tip of the forefinger. But this same gesture, in various other countries, can mean disbelief,
approval, agreement, mistrust, scepticism, alertness, secrecy, craftiness, danger, or criminality. So
people are faced with two basic problems where certain gestures are concerned: either one
meaning may be signalled by different actions, or several meanings may be signalled by the same
action, as we move from culture to culture. The only solution is to approach each culture with an
open mind and learn their gestures as one would learn their vocabulary. These all require
considerable skill and training and belong in a totally different world from the familiar gestures we
employ in everyday life.
Questions 1-7
The passage has seven paragraphs, A-G. Choose the correct heading for paragraph A-G and from
the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-x, in boxes 1-7.
List of Headings
i The subconscious nature of gestures
ii The example of regional differences
iii The key factors of gestures
Page 6 of 16 pages
iv Sending out important signals
v How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
vi Performance in a specific setting
vii Recent research of Gesture Variant
viii Comparison to an everyday-use object
ix How will conflict be handled
x Individual deviation of cultural norms

1 Paragraph A 2 Paragraph B 3 Paragraph C 4 Paragraph D

5 Paragraph E 6 Paragraph F 7 Paragraph G
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Questions 8-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage. 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
8. A gesture is a form of communication in which imperceptible bodily actions communicate
particular messages.
9. Gestures can be likened to the unchanging sound of the ringing.
10. Angry people are often in the same age range or group.
11. A Gesture Variant can still be understood by the members of the same culture.
12. In Malta, the gesture ―Hand Purse‖ should be treated with caution.
13. The main aim of the writer in writing this passage is to clarify the origin of gesture-based
communication.
Your answers:
8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Part 4: In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed from the passage.
Choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. Write your answers in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
If these bones could talk ...
To a palaeoanthropologist, the past is an open book, but one that fails to tell the whole story. The
covers are missing. The first chapters may never be found. There are hardly any pages, and most
are so smeared and crumpled, so foxed and faded, that the text could mean almost anything. The
cast of characters is confusing and narrative thread anybody's guess. Is it a detective story, a
cliffhanger, or a romance? Can there be a happy ending?
1. ______
Homo floresiensis was the mysterious survivor unearthed from a cave on the island of Flores in
Indonesia: a pygmy descendant, perhaps, of Homo erectus, perhaps even connected to an earlier
human species, but with this special feature: the bones were only 18,000 years old. So Homo
sapiens, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalis and Homo floresiensis must have all shared the planet
at the same time, tantalisingly recently: within the last 100,000 years perhaps. Now only Homo
sapiens survives.
2. ______
Stringer, 57, is head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. One of
palaeoanthropology's big players, he has spent his career in pursuit of Homo neanderthalis and is
also one of the great proselytisers of the Out-of-Africa theory, the one that says the human story
begins on just one continent. Homo floresiensis, however, astonished him.
3. ______
Page 7 of 16 pages
'Nature is constantly experimenting. I think a lot of people thought that humans were somehow
different; that we had this all embracing culture and this unifying adaptation, which meant that
human evolution progressed in a somewhat different way, because of our technology and the way
we probably vainly think we are partly controlling the world now. So people project backwards and
think that humans are somehow special. The evidence shows us that our evolution was as complex
and as undirected, I suppose, as that of any other species we have studied.'
4. ______
Modern humans probably popped up within the last 200,000 years, but the things that make modern
humans so distinctive in the fossil record - symbolic art, pottery and jewellery - bloomed only about
50,000 years ago. Nobody in the world of palaeoanthropology considers modern humanity to be the
flower of creation, either. A temporary bloom, maybe.
5. ______
Genetic evidence suggests humans may have come close to extinction a number of times in the
past. Modern humans shared the Middle East with Homo neanderthalis 120,000 years ago, and as
Cro-Magnons became the sole tenants of Europe 30,000 years ago, a terrain held successfully by
the Neanderthals for more than 100,000 years. Did they compete? Did they co-exist? Did they trade,
or cohabit?
6. ______
'I still tend to the view that the primary message would have been: different. They would have had a
different body language, a completely different way of communication; they would have had different
behaviours.'
7. ______
He and his co-author Peter Andrews - a former head of human origins at the Natural History
Museum, and an expert on the early part of the human story - tried to tell the story of human
evolution not just through time, but through its context, Stringer says: how you set about excavating
a site, what a piece of tooth or jaw can tell you about ancient human behaviour. In that, the title of
the book means what it says: complete.

The missing paragraphs:

A. It's humbling, Stringer says. ‗We shouldn't see ourselves as the summit of the perfection of
whatever evolution is trying to achieve. We seem to be very successful at the moment in terms of
our numbers but, looking at it on a geological timescale, how successful will we look in 50,000 years,
which is a very short time, geologically speaking?'
B. 'Neanderthals were certainly human and evolved as us in their own way, but they were different.
They had several hundred thousand years of evolving their own anatomy and behaviour. But when
these people met in Europe would they have seen each other as people? Or as someone different?'
he says.
C. What stories could these bones tell? And who could have dreamed, before their discovery that
some tree-climbing, pygmy-elephant-hunting human candidate could have survived on a tropical
island while Homo sapiens moved into the Fertile Crescent, preparing to invent agriculture,
civilisation and global terrorism?
D. He thinks the Neanderthals perished at a moment of maximum stress in the stop-go, hot-cold
pattern of climate during the last ice age. Though they left their mark in the Pyrenees, they never got
to Britain at all. But then the human occupation of Britain itself is a bit of a riddle. There is evidence
of it, most of it indirect, of little pulses of human occupation, and then a gap of 100,000 years when
no humans appeared to have visited Britain at all. Modern humans finally moved in and stayed only
12,000 years ago.
E. These people were capable of making tools and butchering large beasts like rhinos. They may
not have killed these beasts themselves - they were, after all, dangerous animals - but even if they
were just scavenging, it must have taken some degree of cooperation and organisation to have
driven off the lions or wolves, and secured the carcass for themselves.
Page 8 of 16 pages
F. There is a story-so-far, but that potted version of events is forever being revised, and nobody
knows that better than Chris Stringer, one of the authors of a book published today called The
Complete World of Human Evolution. Complete? Stringer spent eight years on the text. Then, late
last year, he had to sit down in one night and compose an entirely new chapter to incorporate the
discovery of Homo floresiensis, also known as the Hobbit.
G. Here is the orthodoxy, pieced together over a century or more by Darwin's disciples: primate
creatures with a capacity for walking upright emerged perhaps twenty million years ago. From these
emerged the ancestors of all gorillas, all chimpanzees and all humans. There is no line of evolution:
think, instead, of foliage, and the surviving humans and two species of chimpanzees are just nearby
buds at the ends of twigs dose together on the tree of life.
H. 'Until that turned up, we had no idea that ancient humans had ever reached as far as Flores. We
certainly had no idea that there was a completely new kind of human - or is it even human? That is
still being argued about – living there, and the fact that it was still around there when modern people
passed through the region. Each of those is astonishing and that shows how little we knew about
human evolution in that part of the world. We are building up the pieces of a huge, complex jigsaw,
and we still have a lot of spaces to fill in,' he says.
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Part 5: Read an extract from an article and choose the option that fits best according to the
text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Discontinuity in developmental psychology
Key to any question concerning developmental psychology is the issue of continuity versus
discontinuity. The former views development as a continuous process throughout the entire lifespan
of an individual, while the latter considers it to be classified into predefined stages during which key
skills and traits suddenly become manifest. Though the discontinuity theory typically includes
indicators of an approximate age range for movement between each stage of a model, this is not, in
fact, influenced by age but by developmental markers. These developmental markers are
reached through the acquisition of new information or skills, taken from existent knowledge
and driven by new experiences.
No study of discontinuous developmental psychology is complete without consideration of
Piaget, whose systematic theory of cognitive developmental stages in children comprises four
stages of intellectual growth, throughout which a child constructs a mental map of the world. This
grows slowly more complex through the acquisition of schemata, which are the building blocks of
intelligent behavior. A schema is a term for a ―unit‖ of knowledge or a behavior script for a specific
occasion – the accepted formula for a social interaction, for example. While a child‘s direct
experience corresponds to their known schemata, an equilibrium is maintained wherein they have all
the information they require to deal with the situations they are exposed to. A schema is, however, a
flexible learning tool; additional knowledge which conforms to or complements known information
can be accommodated into existing schemata and, when new knowledge or experience contradicts
or conflicts with that which is already known, schemata are revised or rewritten to take into account
this new information.
Piaget‘s model characterizes the first (approximately) two years of life as a slow
comprehension of action-reaction, based on (or limited by) basic perception and reflex movements.
During this initial stage, an infant learns, for example, to use motor skills to create a reaction – e.g.
grasping – and forms a rudimentary understanding of goals or intention. A key schema for this stage
is known as object permanence – the comprehension of the existence of a world outside of the self.
Simply explained, when an object disappears from immediate view, a child who possesses this
schema is aware that the object does not cease to exist, but remains in existence outside their field
of vision.

Page 9 of 16 pages
 Such discontinuous models indicate that the qualitative differences between young children
of varying age groups are great, defined by a marked disparity in skill level and cognitive function.
[A] The second stage of Piaget‘s model ends when a child acquires the ability to understand outside
perspectives – realizing, for example, that other people have feelings that may differ from their own.
[B] The child then enters the last two stages, which document the eventual transition into
adolescence. [C] Though given rough age parameters, since the stages are determined by acquired
schemata (such as the aforementioned object permanence), some children may postpone transition
to some stages or remain temporarily static, becoming stuck in a certain stage for longer than the
averages indicated by the model. [D] Overall though, these general stages are considered universal
and unaffected by cultural or environmental factors – the contrast between learned and innate
knowledge and ability is fodder for separate theories.
Within discontinuous models, certain times are often highlighted as periods of increased
neural activity, when the brain is more active in forming connections and is able to develop specific
skills at a faster rate. It has been proposed, for example, that the first five years of a child‘s life are
more crucial to developing language skills than later years. As repetitive use of skills maintains
neural pathways, increased stimuli and continuous practice of any skills developed during these
times are often considered imperative – and studies with brain-imaging technology have indicated
differences in the neural connections of children who received different levels of stimulation during
these periods. This does not suggest, however, that the acquisition of any skill is exclusive to its
prime period, merely that it may be more difficult or time-consuming at a later time – as in the case
of learning a second language during adolescence. This is where discontinuity theory varies from
continuity theory – the latter suggests the gradual development of a skill over the course of a
lifetime, with no period being genetically established a more crucial than the next to specific
development.
1. Which of the following sentences best expresses the information given the sentence
highlighted in paragraph 1? The correct answer will not change the meaning of the original
sentence or omit important information.
A. Developmental markers are reached when a combination of new experiences and existent
knowledge lead to new information and skills.
B. From their existent knowledge, children are able to take the skills they need to handle new
experiences and reach developmental markers.
C. New experiences are only possible once children have acquired the skills and information needed
to reach each developmental marker.
D. At each developmental marker, existent knowledge is taken from new experiences, and new skills
are acquired.
2. According to paragraph 2, which of the following is true of schemata?
A. They create new information which contradicts current knowledge.
B. They develop through experience and interaction.
C. They expose children to new learning situations.
D. They cannot be easily adapted to include new knowledge.
3. Which of the following best expresses the meaning of the term motor skills?
A. deliberate intent B. controlled movement C. natural instinct D. physical development
4. Which of the following can be inferred about children prior to the acquisition of the object
permanence schema?
A. Their field of vision is limited compared to that of older, further developed children.
B. They cannot comprehend the existence of what they cannot see at a given instant.
C. They do not understand how an action is connected to the reaction it causes.
D. They instantly forget they have seen something when it is removed from sight.

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5. In stating that some children may become temporarily static, the author means that some
children may _____.
A. achieve cognitive markers in a different order B. not acquire all the skills of a stage
C. change stages more quickly than expected D. remain at a certain stage for a longer period
6. According to paragraph 4, which of the following determines a child’s transition from one
stage to the next?
A. average ability within their age group B. ability to meet certain skill markers
C. length of time spent at each stage D. understanding of object permanence
7. Why does the author mention the use of brain-imaging technology?
A. to give scientific basis to what is otherwise theoretical
B. to show how different disciplines support each other
C. to indicate that neurological connections are permanent
D. to illustrate how technology laid the foundations for such studies
8. The author’s description of skill development during prime periods mentions that _____.
A. all such periods take place within the first five years of life
B. the brain forms neural connections more easily during these times
C. some skills can only be learned during these periods
D. without practice, new skills will be forgotten after such periods
9. The four squares [ ] in paragraph 4 indicate where the following sentence can be added to
the passage.
The age at which this is achieved varies between theories, but is generally placed
somewhere between the ages of four and seven.
Choose the square where the sentence best fits.
[A] [B] [C] [D]
10-12. The following sentence introduces a summary of the reading passage. Complete the
summary by selecting THREE of the answer choices below. Correct choices will express
essential ideas from the passage, while incorrect choices may express unmentioned,
contradictory or minor points.
This passage discusses discontinuous developmental stages in children, using Piaget’s model as an
example.
Answer choices
A. Discontinuous models are affected by environmental factors.
B. Overall development is broken up into separate, defined phases.
C. Schemata contain information for intelligent and social responses.
D. Stages are defined by the acquisition of key skills and perceptions.
E. Certain periods are more significant for the development of specific skills.
F. Ideally, all children should follow the age indications provided for each stage.
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10-12.

Part 6: You are going to read a passage. For questions 1-10, choose the section (A-E). The
sections may be chosen more than once. Write your answers in the numbered boxes.
Has technology robbed travel of its riches?
We asked five experts,
A. Jan Morris
I began travelling professionally just after the Second World War, and I travelled mostly in Europe,
where famous old cities lay ravaged. Travelling in this disordered region was not easy. Currencies
were hard to come by, visas were necessary almost everywhere, food was often scarce, trains were
grimy and unreliable and air travel was reserved largely for privileged officialdom. I‘m sorry to have
to say it, because those times were cruel indeed for many Europeans, but I greatly enjoyed my
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travelling then. The comfort and safety of modern transport means that while travel is a lot less
fraught than it used to be, it has lost some of its allure for me. Partly, I am almost ashamed to admit,
this is because everybody else does it too! Travelling abroad is nothing unusual, and even if we
haven‘t actually been to the forests of Borneo or the Amazon jungle, most of us have experienced
them via television or the internet.
B. Pico Iyer
The world is just as interesting - as unexpected, as unvisited, as diverse - as it ever was, even
though the nature of its sights and our experience of them have sometimes changed. I once spent
two weeks living in and around Los Angeles airport - that hub of modern travel and, although it
wasn‘t a peaceful holiday, it offered as curious and rich a glimpse into a new era of crossing cultures
as I could imagine. Places are like people for me and, as with people, the wise, rich, deeply rooted
places never seem to change too much, even though they might lose some hair or develop
wrinkles... Though the tides of history keep washing against a Havana or a Beirut, for instance, their
natural spiritedness or resilience or sense of style never seems greatly diminished. My motto as a
traveller has always been that old chestnut from the writings of Marcel Proust: ‗The real voyage of
discovery consists not in seeking new sights, but in seeing with new eyes‘.
C. Benedict Allen
Now, the world is open to us all. Grab your camera or smartphone and hike! So these couldn‘t be
better times for the average person - we may all share in the privilege. Is it exploration? Well, if it‘s
not advancing knowledge, no. Those who today flog to the Poles are not explorers, they are simply
athletes. Yet, exploration isn‘t entirely about assembling proven fact. Dr David Livingstone made
many discoveries in Africa but his biggest role was actually as communicator, giving nineteenth-
century Europeans a picture of the continent. Take Ed Stafford‘s recent walk along the length of the
Amazon. Not a greatly significant journey in itself, with two-thousand miles of it along what is
essentially a shipping lane. Yet the journey was saved from irrelevance and self-indulgence because
along the way he documented the Amazon for his time, which is our time.
D. Vicky Baker
Personally, I relish the fact that we can forge new contacts all around the world at the click of a
button and a quick email can result in the type of welcome usually reserved for a long lost friend. I
also relish the fact that we‘re less likely to lose touch with those whose paths we cross on the road
and that we get to explore places we wouldn‘t have stumbled across had we left it all to chance.
Does all this detract from the experience? I hardly think so. There‘s nothing to stop you following a
random tip you saw on an obscure blog and ending up who knows where. Sure, it‘s a far cry from
what came before, but one day these will be the current generation‘s ‗good old days‘. And if you
have the time and the money to go off into the back of beyond without so much as a guidebook let
alone a smartphone, if haphazard wandering is your thing, those days aren‘t over either.
E. Rolf Potts
Many of the older travellers I met when I first started vagabonding fifteen years ago - some of them
veterans of the 1970s hippy trail across Asia - argued that my travel experiences were tainted by
luxuries such as email and credit cards. These days I am myself tempted to look at younger
travellers and suggest that smartphones and micro-blogging are compromising their road
experiences. Any technology that makes travel easier is going to connect aspects of the travel
experience to the comforts and habits one might seek back home - and can make travel feel less
like travel. There are times when a far-flung post office encounter or directions scribbled onto a
scrap of paper can lead a person into the kind of experiences that make travel so surprising and
worthwhile. That means 21st-century travellers must be aware of when their gadgets are enhancing
new experiences, and when those gadgets are getting in the way.

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Which writer...
1. suggests that places retain their essential identity despite the passage of time?
2. refers to a tendency for each generation of travellers to look down on the next?
3. expresses a personal feeling of nostalgia for some of the hardships in the past?
4. feels that travel can still be spontaneous and unpredictable in the age of the internet?
5. explains how even seemingly pointless journeys can have a worthwhile outcome?
6. questions the use of a term in relation to one type of traveller?
7. reveals a slight sense of guilt in an attitude towards the modern traveller?
8. offers a word of caution for those who want to get the most out of a trip?
9. mentions valuable insights gained from observing other travellers?
10. insists that modern travellers can do without modern technology if they so desire?
Your answers
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

D. WRITING (6.0 pts)

Part 1: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. You MUST NOT
copy or rewrite the original. Your summary should be between 120 and 140 words long.
Screenwriting has changed. Nowadays, anyone can turn a hand to it, and it is considered
neither a pastime nor a vacation, but a potentially remunerative employment of one‘s time. And
indeed, it may well be. Those countless hundreds of thousands working away on their screenplay
ideas may have their dream come true - for the contemporary screenplay requires only the minutest
understanding of the rudiments on the part of the practitioner.
If a film is a drama, the screenwriter must be a dramatist of some ability; he or she must be
able to craft a progression of incidents which grabs and holds the attention of the audience. But films
have degenerated to their original operation as carnival amusement - they offer not drama, but
thrills. It does not require a dramatist to 'script' a film based on thrills. The requirements of such films
are not elaborate.
And today, the endless byzantine structure of the studio system - like any terminal
bureaucracy - rewards the bureaucratic virtue of adherence to the system. And the system begins
with the script reader. This is the entry-level position: bright young people, fresh from the hierarchy
of the university and the film school, begin here. They are given scripts and understand that they are
to endorse the predictable and reject the unusual. It must be a terrible job. Where once the
screenplay was written to appeal to the star or the director - to those who would make it into a film -
now it is written to appeal to the bored script reader.
Many screenplays contain this kind of statement: 'He comes into the room and we hate him,
we really hate him.‘ ‗We hate him.‘ No doubt, as 'he' is meant to be the villain. This enormity skips
the fact of the film altogether and refers directly to the emotions of the audience. Now, one might like
to be assured that the audience is going to hate the villain - it might make the melodrama more
effective - but it seems to me that the task of the screenwriter is to communicate to those who are
about to make the film why we 'hate him‘ and such can be done only through delineating what the
actor does and what the camera shoots.

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Part 2: Chart description

The chart below shows the result of a survey about people’s coffee and tea buying and
drinking habits in five Australian cities.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make
comparisons where relevant. You should write about 150 words.

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.Part3: Write an essay of about 350 words about the following topic.
Some singers and artists now express their artistic ideas in ways that may be considered rude, even
offensive to many people. Some say that this should be welcomed as natural progression in art and
should not be criticized.
Do you agree or disagree with this opinion?
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--THE END--

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