KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN

KHU VỰC DUYÊN HẢI VÀ ĐỒNG BẰNG BẮC BỘ

LẦN THỨ XIV, NĂM 2023

ĐỀ THI MÔN: TIẾNG ANH - LỚP 10

Thời gian: 180 phút (Không kể thời gian giao đề)
Đề thi gồm 12 Ngày thi: ...../7/2023
trang
SECTION A: LISTENING (50 points)
HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
 Bài nghe gồm 4 phần; mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 05 giây; mở đầu và kết
thúc mỗi phần nghe có tín hiệu. Thí sinh có 20 giây để đọc mỗi phần câu hỏi.
 Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có tín hiệu nhạc. Thí sinh có 03 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. A new business owner enquires about courses. Listen to the conversation and complete
each gap with no more than THREE words/number. (10 points)

West Bay Hotel – details of job

(Example) • Newspaper advert for temporary staff
• Vacancies for (1) ______
• Two shifts
• Can choose your (2) ______ (must be the same each week)
• Pay: £5.50 per hour, including a (3) ______
• A (4) ______ is provided in the hotel
• Total weekly pay: £231
• Dress: (5) ______ and dark trousers (not supplied); a jacket (supplied)
• Starting date: 28th June
• Call Jane Urwin (Service Manager) before mid-day tomorrow (Tel: 832009)
She’ll require a reference
Part 2: Listen to a lecture about the artist Franz Marc. Write Yes or No in the answer box. (10
pts)
Yes if the statement agrees with the information in the passage
No if the statement contradicts the information in the passage
6. A few years ago in London, some paintings by Franz Marc were sold at record prices.
7. Almost all of Marc’s paintings feature a purple and blue horse standing in a landscape of primary
colors.
8. In The Fate of the Animals Marc seems to offer a warning of the impending Great War.
9. The art group The Blue Rider were aiming to capture the purity of style often found in paintings
by children.
10. Marc’s life ended tragically in the war in 1960 when he was killed by a grenade in France.
Your answer:
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3. Listen to a piece of news and fill in the gaps using no more than FOUR WORDS OR
NUMBER for each blank. (20 pts)
Recently in the Great Pyramids, a 100-feet long space, which is called a (1) ____________, has been
discovered lately. According to “The Nature”, this is a significant discovery to archaeology because
since the 1800s, there has been no other significant discovery like this (2) ______________ .
However, whether this can help to unravel the ancient mysteries is (3) ______________. There is no
proof that a/an 4) ______________ or burial chamber can be found from this space. There may be
more others like this in the pyramid and this discovery is expected to help the researchers find out
how it was built. To identify this space, not allowed to (5) ______________ or use cameras, they
had to take use of some appliances to track (6) ______________ inside the structure. That’s not the
only way the modern technology is helping archaeologists.
Adam Low, an archaeologist, admitted to being a man with (7) _______________ the tomb of a
Pharaoh, Seti I. It can be learnt from the tomb how ancient people have different thoughts, different
values and (8) _____________. He can read the way they thought through the (9) ______________
on the walls. With the help of technology, a dialogue crossing time can be built and become one of
the most exciting moment. “The Hall of Beauties” is, in fact, only a (10) ________________ built in
a museum in Switzerland.
SECTION B. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (60 points)
Part 1: Choose the answer that best completes each sentence. (20 pts)
1. I’ve heard that argument before and quite frankly it just doesn’t ...................!
A. face the music B. hit the roof C. carry weight D. hold water
2. Tim: “You are so lucky to be going abroad for a whole semester!”
Janet: “ ..................... I’ll miss my friends and family.”
A. That is B. On account that C. All the same D. But despite
3. Unsalted butter is best for this recipe, but ............... that , margarine will do.
A. except B. failing C. for all of D. given
4. In spite of working their fingers to the ................, all the staff were made redundant.
A. nail B. edge C. flesh D. bone
5. Instead of defending traditional values, the church frequently seems _______ and irresolute.
A. far-fetched B. strong-willed C. weak-kneed D. long-awaited
6. The more expensive carpet is a good choice _______ it will last longer.
A. by means of B. due to C. in that D. in view of
7. She got a bit hot _______ the collar when a colleague started criticizing her work.
A. under B. on C. beyond D. from
8. Employees of the company are forbidden to ________ information about the secret formula.
A. betray B. divulge C. portray D. unveil
9. Jack _______and can usually let us know what the boss’s mood is.
A. turns a blind eye B. plays it by ear
C. keeps his ear to the ground D. is all ears
10. It sounds like you let people take advantage of you_____________, you need to learn to be more
assertive.
A. Otherwise B. If only C. What if D. If so
11. It was a hot summer day and ice cream salesmen were doing a ________trade.
A. busy B. lucrative C. bustling D. roaring
12. My mother had to take private pupils in order to ___________ her salary as a teacher.
A. augment B. expand C. complete D. inflate
13. I found the last scene extremely ……… and particularly well-directed.
A. pathetic B. sympathetic C. pitiful D. moving
14. Lauren is often labelled easy-going as she tends to appear mild and relaxed rather than tense and
___________
A. sullen B. likeable C. humorous D. excitable
15. The two boys really …………… it off from the moment they met.
A. hit B. struck C. made D. put
16. I picked up these ___________from the travel agents today. They have a great offer on cruises to
Turkey for the end of April!
A. leaflets B. manifestoes C. brochures D. programmes
17. I had a strong ___________ that a disaster would occur, and it did.
A. premonition B. prediction C. forethought D. anticipation
18. Because of the dominance of retail chain-stores, most shopping centers show the same bland
_______ and no imagination.
A. similarity B. likeness C. equality D. uniformity
19. She wears the most _______ color combinations you could ever imagine.
A. hiding B. hideout C. hidebound D. hideous
20. It would help _______ me, if you could go to the Post Office for me.
A. totally B. absolutely C. enormously D. largely
Part 2. Give the correct form of the word in the brackets. (10 pts)
1. The building looks a bit _________ from the outside but it’s quite traditional inside. (FUTURE)
2. She was charged with being disorderly and ____________. (INTOXICANT)
3. The damage caused by the terrible storm two days ago was___________ by the government. The
real figures go up every minute. (ESTIMATE)
4. They exchanged ___________ for a few minutes before saying goodbye. (PLEASANT)
5. There is a decline in the __________ of cigarette smoking among young men. (PREVAIL)
6. Many teachers expressed serious __________ about the new tests. (GIVE)
7. The new policy only serves to __________ the inadequacy of help for the homeless. (ACCENT)
8. The unresponsive audience made the lecturer somewhat ________ .What a shame. (HEART)
9. They paid little attention to the _______ of the pieces. (FRAGMENT)
10. Chrissy tossed the junk mail in the bin and in doing so, she _______ made a joke of the lives of
people she would. (WIT)
Part 3. Complete each of the following sentences with a suitable preposition or particle (10 pts)
1. His fame is now _______ the wane.
2. If you want tickets to the game, you’ll have to be quick _______ the mark.
3. In matters pertaining ________ the soul, woman does not differ from man.
4. She played ________ the fact that I’d enjoyed studying Shakespeare at school and suggested that
I audition for a part.
5. It was a good offer, but he would need time to mull it ________ .
6. The Vietnamese national team has clocked _______ 8 gold medals in the Martial arts events.
7. If the school reins _______its expenditure on research and development, the quality, as a whole,
will be affected.
8. It’s generally agreed that the primary responsibility for the child’s education should rest_______
the family.
9. During the violent storm, the little boats strained _______ their anchors at the mercy of the
breaking waves.
10. Students are demanding equal rights for men and women, and several newspapers have taken
_______ their cause.
III. READING (60 points)
Part 1: Read the following passage and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap.
Write your answers in corresponding numbered boxes. (15 pts)

The war on drugs in the United States is a (n) (1) ______ battle that has, as of recent times, reached
(2) ______ levels. In every city and state across the nation, law enforcement officials are working
around the (3) ______ to eradicate the illegal use, possession and (4) ______ of controlled
substances at all levels of society. The increasing devotion of resources and efforts to the battle has
achieved mixed results.
A growing amount of money is being devoted to the (5) ______ of the war on drugs as time
progresses. At last count, 19. 2 billion dollars was being spent annually on the ongoing struggle, (6)
______ of pay for law enforcement officials, education, treatment and other uses. This staggering
amount translates into a stunning 609 dollars per second.
Results are being achieved. An arrest for drug-related offenses occurs every 20 seconds, and
648 people are put in prison every day on drug-related charges. These numbers illustrate the
prevailing tactic used by the U. S. government in the war against drug-going after the people
supporting the industry. By removing both the suppliers and purchasers of illegal drugs, it is hoped
that the industry will collapse by itself, through the (7) ______ of supply and demand.
Aside from directly arresting those individuals responsible for the selling and purchasing of
illegal drugs, the United States has also (8) ______ on a campaign to take away the tools by which
the drugs are used, primarily in the form of needles. To this end, there has been a recent federal ban
on needle exchanges intended to restrict access to the tools necessary for the use of some illegal
drugs.
This program has drawn harsh criticism, however, as it has resulted in the use reuse of
unsanitary needles, possibly contributing to the number of AIDS infections in drug users who would
otherwise have avoided infection by using (9) ______ needles that could have been provided, but for
the federal ban. According to a study conducted by the AIDS Prevention Studies Center of the
University of California at San Francisco, 4, 000 new infections of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
could be avoided per year if the federal ban on needle exchanges was (10) ______. This translates
into more than 10 new cases of HIV avoided per day, a figure that causes one to pause and consider
whether the war on drugs is being fought in the best manner possible.

1. A. escalating B. decreasing C. downhill D. ceasing

2. A. comparable B. previous C. unprecedented D. achievable
3. A. watch B. clock C. time D. tide
4. A.
contribution B. attribution C. distribution D. substitution
5. A. founding B. funding C. commerce D. trading
6. A. consisting B. being consisted C. was consisted D. were consisted
7. A. elimination B. illumination C. deterioration D. escalation
8. A. joined B. participated C. embarked D. engaged
9. A. saturated B. fertile C. sterile D. barren
10. A. lifted B. raised C. aroused D. risen

Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Part 2: Fill each blank with ONE suitable word. (15 pts)
In most art museums, the paintings on the wall just look flat, (1) ______ sometimes visitors come
across an image that appears to be three-dimensional. The artist has cleverly used colors, lines, and
shading to give the painting some depth, making it more (2) ______. The artistic technique of
creating three-dimensional images of something on a flat surface is called trompe l'oeil, a French
phrase meaning tricking the eye. Today, some artists are adapting the idea of tricking the eye to make
things become invisible. A new (3) ______ for this is camouflage art. In nature, there are major
benefits to using camouflage to blend (4) ______ with the surroundings. Becoming invisible, or at
(5) ______ being harder to see on the ground or in a tree allows insects and animals to hide from
things that might eat them. It also allows them to get close (6) ______ to surprise other insects or
smaller animals that they want to catch and eat. Artists are not hiding or preparing to attack. ( 7)
______, they are using the idea of camouflage to make urban spaces look nicer or to make statements
with their art. Sometimes they just do it (8) ______ fun. Artists can make these things more
interesting and in some cases make them (9) ______ visible. In many urban areas, large buildings
have been painted with amazing murals that trick our eyes. Thus, ordinary brick walls are
transformed into interesting (10) ______ of art. Temporary walls put up to keep people out of a
construction site can be painted like the finished building to camouflage the site.
Your answers
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 3: Read the text and do the following tasks. (15 pts)
THE ROBOTS ARE COMING - OR ARE THEY?
What is the current state of play in Artificial Intelligence?
A. Can robots advance so far that they become the ultimate threat to our existence? Some
scientists say no, and dismiss the very idea of Artificial Intelligence. The human brain, they
argue, is the most complicated system ever created, and any machine designed to reproduce
human thought is bound to fail. Physicist Roger Penrose of Oxford University and others
believe that machines are physically incapable of human thought. Colin McGinn of Rutgers
University backs this up when he says that Artificial Intelligence is like sheep trying to do
complicated psychoanalysis. They just don't have the conceptual equipment they need in their
limited brains'.
B. Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is different from most technologies in that scientists still
understand very little about how intelligence works. Physicists have a good understanding of
Newtonian mechanics and the quantum theory of atoms and molecules, whereas the basic
laws of intelligence remain a mystery. But a sizeable number of mathematicians and
computer scientists, who are specialists in the area, are optimistic about the possibilities. To
them it is only a matter of time before a thinking machine walks out of the laboratory. Over
the years, various problems have impeded all efforts to create robots. To attack these
difficulties, researchers tried to use the 'top-down approach', using a computer in an attempt
to program all the essential rules onto a single disc. By inserting this into a machine, it would
then become self-aware and attain human-like intelligence.
C. In the 1950s and 1960s great progress was made, but the shortcomings of these prototype
robots soon became clear. They were huge and took hours to navigate across a room.
Meanwhile, a fruit fly, with a brain containing only a fraction of the computing power, can
effortlessly navigate in three dimensions. Our brains, like the fruit fly's, unconsciously
recognise what we see by performing countless calculations. This unconscious awareness of
patterns is exactly what computers are missing. The second problem is robots' lack of
common sense. Humans know that water is wet and that mothers are older than their
daughters. But there is no mathematics that can express these truths. Children learn the
intuitive laws of biology and physics by interacting with the real world. Robots know only
what has been programmed into them.
D. Because of the limitations of the top-down approach to Artificial Intelligence, attempts have
been made to use a 'bottom-up' approach instead - that is, to try to imitate evolution and the
way a baby learns. Rodney Brooks was the director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence
laboratory, famous for its lumbering 'topdown' walking robots. He changed the course of
research when he explored the unorthodox idea of tiny 'insectoid' robots that learned to walk
by bumping into things instead of computing mathematically the precise position of their feet.
Today many of the descendants of Brooks' insectoid robots are on Mars gathering data for
NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration), running across the dusty
landscape of the planet. For all their successes in mimicking the behaviour of insects,
however, robots using neural networks have performed miserably when their programmers
have tried to duplicate in them the behaviour of higher organisms such as mammals. MIT's
Marvin Minsky summarises the problems of AI: 'The history of AI is sort of funny because
the first real accomplishments were beautiful things, like a machine that could do well in a
maths course. But then we started to try to make machines that could answer questions about
simple children's stories. There's no machine today that can do that.'
E. There are people who believe that eventually there will be a combination between the top-
down and bottom-up, which may provide the key to Artificial Intelligence. As adults, we
blend the two approaches. It has been suggested that our emotions represent the quality that
most distinguishes us as human, that it is impossible for machines ever to have emotions.
Computer expert Hans Moravec thinks that in the future robots will be programmed with
emotions such as fear to protect themselves so that they can signal to humans when their
batteries are running low, for example. Emotions are vital in decision-making. People who
have suffered a certain kind of brain injury lose the ability to experience emotions and
become unable to make decisions. Without emotions to guide them, they debate endlessly
over their options. Moravec points out that as robots become more intelligent and are able to
make choices, they could likewise become paralysed with indecision. To aid them, robots of
the future might need to have emotions hardwired into their brains.
F. There is no universal consensus as to whether machines can be conscious, or even, in human
terms, what consciousness means. Minsky suggests the thinking process in our brain is not
localised but spread out, with different centres competing with one another at any given time.
Consciousness may then be viewed as a sequence of thoughts and images issuing from these
different, smaller 'minds', each one competing for our attention. Robots might eventually
attain a 'silicon consciousness', Robots, in fact, might one day embody an architecture for
thinking and processing information that is different from ours - but also indistinguishable. If
 that happens, the question of whether they really 'understand' becomes largely irrelevant. A
robot that has perfect mastery of syntax, for all practical purposes, understands what is being
said.
Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-F.
1. an insect that proves the superiority of natural intelligence over Artificial Intelligence
2. robots being able to benefit from their mistakes
3. many researchers not being put off believing that Artificial Intelligence will eventually be
developed
4. the possibility of creating Artificial Intelligence being doubted by some academics
5. no generally accepted agreement of what our brains do
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
When will we have a thinking machine?
Despite some advances, the early robots had certain (6) ______. They were given the information
they needed on a (7) ______. This was known as the 'top-down' approach and enabled them to do
certain tasks but they were unable to recognise (8) ______. Nor did they have any intuition or ability
to make decisions based on experience. Rodney Brooks tried a different (9) ______. Robots similar
to those invented by Brooks are to be found on (10) ______where they are collecting information.
Your answers
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Part 4. Read the following passage and choose the best answer A, B, C or D .

There is one kind of pain for which nobody has yet found a cure—the pain that comes from the
ending of a relationship. The relationship could be a marriage, a love affair, or a deep friendship, in
fact, any strong emotional tie between two people. Such a relationship may come to an abrupt but
premeditated end: or it may simply fade away slowly as people and circumstances change. You may
be the one to “break it off” , with a short note or a brief phone call. Or you may be on the receiving
end, like the soldier who dreads getting a “Dear john” letter from a girlfriend who has got tired of
waiting. But however it ended and whoever decided to end it, the pain is equally hard to bear. It is a
sort of death, and it requires the same period of mourning, the same time for grief.
Although there is no cure for grief, we cannot help looking for one, to ease the pain and to make us
forget our tears. We seek refuge in other relationships, we keep ourselves busy with work, we try to
immerse ourselves in our hobbies. Perhaps we start to drink more than we should to “drown our
sorrows,” or we follow the conventional advice and join a club or society. But these things only
relieve the symptoms of the illness; they cannot cure it. Moreover, we are always in a hurry to get rid
of our grief. It is as if we were ashamed of it. We feel that we should be able to “pull ourselves
together.” We try to convince ourselves, as we bite on the pillow, that we are much too old to be
crying. Some people bury their grief deep inside themselves, so that nobody will guess what they are
going through. Others seek relief by pouring their hearts out to their friends, or to anyone else who
can offer a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. But after a while, even our friends start to show their
impatience, and suggest with their reproachful glances that it is about time we stopped crying. They,
too, are in a hurry for the thing to be over.
It is not easy to explain why we adopt this attitude to emotional pain, when we would never expect
anyone to overcome physical pain simply by an effort of will power. Part of the answer must lie in
the nature of grief itself. When the love affair dies, you cannot believe that you will ever find another
person to replace the one who has gone so completely out of your life. Even after many, many
months, when you think that you have begun to learn to live without your lost love, something—a
familiar place, a piece of music, a whiff of perfume — will suddenly bring the bitter-sweet memories
flooding back. You choke back the tears and desperate, almost angry, feeling that you are no better
now than the day the affair ended.
And yet, grief is like an illness that must run its course. Memories do fade eventually, a healing skin
does start to grow over the wound, the intervals between sudden glimpses of the love you have lost
do get longer. Bit by bit, life resumes its normal flow. Such is the complexity of human nature that
we can even start to feel guilty as these things start to happen, as if it were an insult to our lost love
that we can begin to forget at all.
The important thing to admit about grief, then, is that it will take its time. By trying to convince
ourselves that it ought to be over sooner, we create an additional tension which can only make things
worse. People who have gone through the agony of a broken relationship and there are few who have
not -agree that time is the "GREAT HEALER". How much time is needed will vary from person to
person, but psychiatrist have “a rule of thumb”: grief will last as long as the original relationship
lasted .The sad thing is that ,when the breakdown occurs ,we can only stumble forward over the
stones beneath out feet. It is dark ahead, and you will feel painfully many times before we begin to
see the light as the end of the tunnel.
1. Relationships often come to an end because……………
A. the feeling of the people was not very deep.
B. people do not realize the pain they can cause.
C. people do not always stay the same.
D. very few people really know how to love.
2. One way to get over the broken relationship is to …………
A. write a “Dear john” letter. B. form new relationships
C. make a brief phone call D. try to forget the other person.
3. If you seek advice on what to do about a broken relationship, you will probably be told to ………..
A. pull yourself together (use your will power) B. keep busy at work
C. find someone else D. join a club
4. Often we are ashamed when we cry because …………..
A. we think it is a childish thing to do.
B. we do not expect our unhappiness to last so long.
C. we are worried about what others will think of us
D. only children and babies cry.
5. You tell your friends about your unhappiness because…………
A. you hope it will make you feel better
B. you want them to hear the story from you
C. you feel sure that they have had similar experiences
D. you want them to feel sorry for you
6. When your friends get tired of listening to you they will ………….
A. tell you to pull yourself together
B. try to avoid your company
C. show by their expressions that they have had enough
D. help you to get over your grief
7. We are upset by reminders of our lost love because they come so……………
A. rarely. B. rapidly. C. unexpectedly. D. occasionally.
8. Memories continue to upset you, and this makes you feel that…………
A. will never get over your grief B. have no will power
C. are utterly alone D. have made no progress at all
9. If we try to recover too quickly from grief we shall make ourselves………
A. nervous B. tense C. ill D. unpopular
10. Psychiatrists tell you that grief will last as long as the original relationship. This calculation is
……………..
A. the result of scientific research B. no more than a hopeful guess
C. generally true but with many exceptions D. based on a deep understanding of human nature
IV. WRITING (50 points)
Part 1: (20 points)
The chart shows the participation in social work by men and women of the country of
Fancy from 1992 to 2000
Write a report of about 150 words describing their contribution
Part 2: Write an essay of about 350 words to express your opinion on the following issue (30 pts)
Schools are no longer necessary because children can get so much information available
through the Internet, and they can study just as well at home.
What is your own opinion?
Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or
experience. You may continue your writing on the back page if you need more space