SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TỈNH VĨNH PHÚC KỲ THI CHỌN ĐỘI TUYỂN HỌC SINH GIỎI

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN VĨNH PHÚC NĂM HỌC 2021 – 2022

Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH

SỐ PHÁCH
Thời gian: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi thứ nhất:
Đề thi có 12 trang

• Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển.

• Giám thị không giải thích gì thêm.
____________________________________________________________

I. LISTENING (50 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 nhạc hiệu. Thí sinh có 02 phút để hoàn chỉnh bài trước nhạc hiệu kết thúc
bài nghe.
• Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh đã có trong bài nghe.

Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a news report about the approval of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and
decide whether the statements are True (T) or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes provided.
1. The Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine was quickly examined and approved after trials with a special process.
2. 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine will be gradually delivered to the UK until 2021.
3. The Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine cannot be stored for more than 5 days using normal refrigeration.
4. After all elderly care home residents and staff have been vaccinated, the NHS will be first in line.
5. Beside the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, two other vaccines will be approved in the coming weeks.
Your answers:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Part 2. For questions 6-10, listen to a talk about tsunamis and briefly answer the following questions.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO words and/or a number for each answer.
6. What are said to be the most common cause of tsunamis?

___________________________________

7. What is the height a tsunami wave can reach when it comes close to the shore?

___________________________________

8. What does a tsunami do to everything in its path?

___________________________________

9. What was the death toll in the deadly tsunami in 2011?

___________________________________

10. Given prompt warnings, where can people go before a tsunami reaches?

___________________________________

Page 1 of 12 pages
Part 3. For questions 11–15, listen to two people, Olivia Wilde and Michael Asimwe, discussing the African
tour company they work for and choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D which fits best according to what
you hear. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
11. Olivia suggests that her African tour company is different because
A. its tour packages cover more of the continent.
B. it provides tour packages that are relatively inexpensive.
C. it caters exclusively to the luxury holiday market.
D. it has a wider variety of tour itineraries.
12. Basic Joy Adventures tour packages
A. include only tented accommodation.
B. do not offer private rooms included in the cost.
C. do not include stops in large towns.
D. do not provide cooking or cleaning facilities.
13. Joy Adventures tour guides
A. are required to carry out multiple roles.
B. are assigned one specific task on each trip.
C. always work alone or in pairs.
D. operate on a ratio of one or two guides per client.
14. Joy Adventures tours
A. take advantage of cheap local products.
B. employ locals to keep costs down.
C. use imported foods only if necessary.
D. give financial donations to local communities.
15. Michael uses the example of the company's vehicles to show
A. that special equipment is necessary for travel in Africa.
B. how the company's no-frills philosophy works in practice.
C. that rival tours are less safe and reliable.
D. the company's strong commitment to customer experience.
Your answers:
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a presenter talking about WeWalk, a company that is developing the
‘smart cane’, and complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording
in each blank.

- The presenter finds it astonishing that for those who are (16) _________________________, a stick is essentially
the typical (17) ___________________________ .
- To help revolutionize how the cane is used and turn it into a far more (18) __________________________, the
founders of WeWalk, who works at YGA –a Turkish (19) __________________________ – have been creating
(20) ______________________________.
- WeWalk’s device, which can be attached to cane handles, allows users to navigate the app via a
(21)_________________________ and gives them (22) ________________________ upon detecting obstacles.
- Other organizations also have access to WeWalk’s unified (23) ________________________________ to
develop their own applications with the same goal.
- The change brought about by WeWalk is more about making society less (24) ___________________________
and promoting equality through a shift in mindset than it is about (25) _____________________________.

Page 2 of 12 pages
II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (20 points)
Part 1. For questions 26-40, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each of the following questions.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
26. The authorities come under blistering attacks from the media due to having ______ falling financial enterprises.
A. cropped up B. propped up C. bottomed out D. brought out
27. You can find a lot of job advertisements under the ______ vacant in the newspaper.
A. circumstance B. case C. situations D. scenarios
28. You will only be entitled to a 50% discount on English books ______ of a valid student ID card.
A. under mitigating circumstances B. on production
C. on offer D. under consideration
29. Construction plans are understood to be ______ , so we’d better move to another location soon.
A. aplenty B. anew C. afield D. afoot
30. Josh was pleasantly surprised to know that his mother and fiancé were getting along ________.
A. famously B. reputedly C. renownedly D. respectably
31. Her husband coming home late every night, Susan started to ______ a suspicion against him.
A. plant B. treat C. sow D. entertain
32. On contracting the Corona virus, patients usually experience various symptoms, including diarrhoea, coughing,
and cold ______ .
A. probabilities B. possibilities C. extremities D. polarities
33. Like other developed countries, Britain finds itself confronted by an ageing population, the implications of which
can ______ all Britons.
A. amount to B. ooze through C. brick in D. impinge on
34. Due to the Covid pandemic, the company had no choice but to ______ the services of two thousand
employees.
A. dispense with B. disabuse C. discourse on D. dismount
35. Since the kids were all bed-ridden due to the influenza, they have lost appetite, ______ meals at best.
A. whipping up B. picking at C. tucking in D. packing away
36. Rather than dismiss the case, the judge found himself in favour of Tom and ______ damages as a result.
A. rewarded B. granted C. bestowed D. awarded
37. Without further ado, the legion made a(n) ______ on the capital of the Eastern region.
A. unprovoked attack B. pre-emptive strike
C. all-out offensive D. massive charge
38. At long last, the plenary meeting was ______.
A. brought to a close C. called to a halt
C. brought to a halt D. called to a close
39. The dish will taste better if you prepare it with a ______ of butter.
A. stroke B. knob C. dash D. gamut
40. They decided to quit the rat race and moved to some English thatched house ______.
A. to get a kick of out it B. to get out of hand
C. in the back of beyond D. in the doldrums
Your answers:
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

Part 2. For questions 41-45, write the correct form of each bracketed word in each sentence in the
numbered space provided in the column on the right.
Your answers:
41. In Scotland, prisoners can have their own rooms and fridges with (BAR) 41. __________________
windows, allowing them to fully enjoy mesmeric views of the ocean.
42. Unlike others that migrate south, this particular species of bird chooses to 42. __________________
(WINTER), spending all the winter months in Britain.
43. Following the miscarriage, Taylor remained traumatised over her (BEAR) twins 43. __________________
for more than four years.
44. To our utter amazement, they are a (LOVE) couple who never seem to balk at 44. __________________
public displays of affection.
45. A handful of Vietnamese celebrities have recently faced public outcries after 45. __________________
rumors about their (APPROPRIATE) of charitable fund.

Page 3 of 12 pages
III. READING (50 points)
Part 1. For questions 46-55, read the text below and think of one word that fits each gap. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
CHILD LABOUR IN THE SPORTS INDUSTRY
In 1996, a leading sports manufacturer in the West was accused of using child labour in underdeveloped
countries to produce sports equipment and clothing. The whole issue became (46)______ knowledge when Life
magazine carried an article about child labour in Pakistan, (47)______ a 12-year-old boy surrounded by pieces of
a soccer ball that he had to stitch together for the grand sum of 60 cents. At another factory, children were being
beaten and paid even (48)______ – only 20 cents an hour.
Within weeks of the publication, activists were (49)______ into action all over the USA and Canada, although
the protests had little effect in Pakistan, where poverty-stricken parents are used to sending their children out to
work. In fact, the exploitation of children had been going on for years before the story actually made the
(50)______.
In (51)______ of their actions, the sports company maintained that they did not open (52)______ factories
abroad, but used existing local companies to make the products. Thus, they were able to avoid taking (53)______
responsibility for the exploitation of children. Some human-rights organizations claim the responsibility lies with
(54)______. As long as we continue to buy these products, children will be exploited. Their solution is to
(55)______ such sports companies and refuse to buy the shirts, shoes and equipment carrying their fashionable
logo.
Your answers:
46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

Part 2. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
THE FUTURE OF CITIES
Professor of Urban Planning Sarah Holmes looks at the challenges of urban living
The World Health Organisation has produced a report predicting that 9.8 billion of us will be living on this
planet by 2050. Of that number, 72% will be living in urban areas - a higher proportion than ever before. Presented
with this information, governments have a duty to consider how best to meet the needs of city residents, and not
just for the short-term. Certain problems associated with urban living have been highlighted by research company
Richmond-Carver in its latest global survey. At the top of the list of survey respondents' concerns is the fact that
competition amongst tenants for rental properties has driven the median price up - so much so people need to
hold down two or more jobs to meet all their expenses. Another issue the survey highlighted is the difficulty
commuters face. Overcrowding means that seats are often not available on long journeys, but more significant is
that schedules are unreliable. Many studies have shown the effect that has on a country's productivity.
Interestingly, certain problems seem more common in some cities than others: respondents from increasingly
crowded European cities, including Manchester and Barcelona, commented on how their quality of life was affected
by loud machinery, other people's music and car alarms. Something the survey failed to ask about was the value
people placed on having access to nature in urban neighbourhoods. However, some countries are already moving
forward. Singapore is a prime example; its rooftop gardens make the city a far more desirable place to live. It is
the Singaporean government that is behind this push for sustainable living.
Perhaps some clearer government direction would benefit other cities. Take New York City, a place where
I frequently meet up with other researchers in my field. Luckily for me, I am driven from the airport to the research
centre, so do not need to navigate the freeways and constant congestion. Admittedly my experience of the urban
lifestyle here is limited to the hotels I stay in, and the blocks within a three-kilometre walk. But whenever I leave
my room in search of an outlet providing fruit or anything with nutritional value, none can be found. It seems
ridiculous that this should be the case. New York has made great advances in redeveloping its museums and arts
centres, but authorities must recognise that people's basic needs must be met first.
Sometimes these basic needs are misunderstood. In some urban areas, new residential developments
are provided with security features such as massive metal fences and multiple gates in the belief that these will
make residents safer. There is little evidence such steps make a difference in this way, but we do know they make
residents feel reluctant to go outside and walk around their neighbourhood. Instead they are more likely to remain
inactive indoors. Grassy areas inside fenced developments are hardly used by householders or tenants either. All
this adds up to a feeling of being cut off from others.
So where are planners and developers going wrong? Inviting a group of locals to attend a consultation
event is the conventional method for discovering what a community might want. The issue here is that it often
attracts the same few voices with the same few wishes. But the internet now makes it possible for others to
contribute. A community website can be a place where local people propose ideas for making their neighbourhood
a better place to live. Developers that pay attention to these ideas can get a clearer picture of the things residents
actually want and reduce the risk of throwing away money on things they don't.
An example of a project that truly meets the needs of residents is Container City- a development in
London's Docklands area. Constructed from metal containers once used to transport cargo on ships, it is a five-
storey architectural masterpiece. The containers have been turned into sunny work studios, and despite their

Page 4 of 12 pages
limited size, some come with a bed, shower and kitchen unit. Smart planning and skilful construction mean they
take up very little room. Furniture and fittings are made from recycled products. Other countries have their own
versions of Container City - Amsterdam and Copenhagen have created container dormitories to house students -
but the Docklands site shows how work and living areas can effectively be combined. The units are ideal for young
entrepreneurs hoping to establish a business while keeping costs down.
Successful development is taking place in many urban areas around the world, and city planners have a
duty to see for themselves the transforming effect this can have on residents' lives. There is no better way to do
this than to visit these places in person. These might be neighbourhoods constructed for the first time, or
developers might have transformed what was already there. In either case, the idea of cars determining urban
planning, and indeed the whole concept of private car ownership, is now outdated and must be abandoned.
Instead, the layout of an area under development must make it easier for people to meet up in pedestrianized
zones and community spaces. At the heart of the development should be a cultural area, providing venues for art,
music and street theatre. Such activities bring communities together, and do far more for positive relations than a
new mall or shopping precinct. For this reason, these kinds of performance spaces should be prioritised. Finally,
planners and developers must be obliged to create, within the same neighbourhood, different types of homes for
wealthy professionals, for families, for the elderly and for young people just starting out. This kind of mix is essential
to ensure people can buy a home in an area convenient for work, and for a community to stay alive.

Questions 56-60
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.
Survey on problems facing city dwellers
The World Health Organisation has recently published data concerning (56) _______________ in cities. This data
should indicate to governments that they must think about ways to improve the lives of residents. According to a
Richmond-Carver survey, the worst problem facing many city dwellers was (57) _______________. The survey
also indicated that in some cities, poor (58) _______________ can impact dramatically on the economy. Another
issue seems to be (59) _______________, although this is more often mentioned by survey participants in
European countries. Questions on people's views on the need for (60) _______________ were unfortunately
omitted from the survey, but countries like Singapore already seem to be making progress in this respect.

A noise pollution B recycling facilities C green areas

D employment opportunities E population growth F affordable housing
G antisocial behavior H public transport

Your answers:
56. 57. 58. 59. 60.

Questions 61-64
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
61. When staying in New York, the writer is frustrated by the fact that
A healthy food cannot easily be obtained. B bad road design causes daily traffic problems.
C certain venues cannot be reached by foot. D visitors are all directed to the same kinds of place.
62. What point does the writer make about the use of security features?
A It greatly reduces levels of criminal activity. B It helps create a sense of community.
C It discourages people from taking exercise. D It creates unnecessary fear among residents.
63. According to the writer, the problem with some planners and developers is that they
A distrust the use of certain technologies for communication.
B create buildings using traditional construction methods.
C tend to put profits before the needs of residents.
D rely on the opinions of a narrow range of people.
64. What is the writer doing in the fifth paragraph?
A explaining which construction materials are most sustainable
B emphasising the importance of clever design in small spaces
C comparing reasons for choosing to live in an unusual building
D proposing which specific urban locations should be developed

Your answers:
61. 62. 63. 64.

Questions 65-68
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the reading passage?
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

Page 5 of 12 pages
65. City planners should travel to urban areas that are good models of development.
66. It is easier to plan an entirely new neighbourhood than redevelop an existing one.
67. In future, planners must think about the needs of car drivers as they design urban areas.
68. Cultural venues need to take second place to retail opportunities when developing a neighbourhood.
Your answers:
65. 66. 67. 68.

Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 69-75, read the passage
choose from the paragraphs A–H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you
do not need to use. Write your answers in the numbered boxes provided.
JOURNEY TO THE SUBCONTINENT
I recently spent a month in India. I travelled with a childhood friend of Indian origin, and her father, who had grown
up in India. When the call came one afternoon, announcing their intention of returning to India after 30 years and
inviting me to join them, I didn't hesitate for a second; I'd been waiting half my life for this opportunity.
69
Having spent a good part of my teenage years in the bosoms of the Indian families of my two best friends, I had
an image of that ancient land which differed greatly from theirs. To me, India was not a tragic place, but an exotic,
magical, mysterious one, rife with quirky and vengeful gods, beautiful princess-like women, and pleasingly
unfamiliar traditions.
70
The initial shock quickly wore off and it soon became clear that the reality of India conformed to neither of my pre-
trip mages of it, but was rather a rich, startling, challenging blend of the two. It did not disappoint, but it is a land of
great extremes.
71
But the wonders are equally incredible: ubiquitous outdoor markets overflow with produce the likes of which you've
never seen; sweet, delicate flavours hide in hideous fruits; restaurants abound with an endless variety of delicious
savoury dishes; the scent of herbs and flowers fills the air; women of all shapes and sizes are resplendent in jewel-
toned saris; fabrics of all the colours of the rainbow hang outside shops; scary, grimacing faces adorn coconuts
and ward off evil spirits; enormous temples with intricate decorations are carved out of living rock ... the list of the
overwhelming goes on and on.
72
Of course, this is part of what makes for a great trip - the learning which comes from exciting and challenging
experiences, acquiring new information and making observations about what you've seen. But this type of learning
forms only one part of what you discover when you're on a trip. Inevitably, travellers have to process data regarding
other matters as well, such as about one's companions or, worse, oneself.
73
Her father, however, was an unexpected delight. Evidently a childhood of trips with my own short-tempered father
had given me the impression that travel made fathers cranky and hard to please, which was clearly not the case.
My friend's dad's gentle patience and tolerance soon quashed my apprehensions and greatly enhanced our trip.
74
And so it was. Just as the driver hadn't seen the great grey beast which towered above us as we'd almost driven
off the road to pass it, so things which had shocked and astounded me early in the trip had no real effect on me
by the end of it. The begging and starving children barely turned my head, the stench of the city streets no longer
made me retch, the sight of skeletal animals didn't move me to tears any more.
75
Countless times since my return, I have been asked whether I would ever go back to India and, of course, I would.
But I know that it would be like reading an extraordinary novel; you can read it again, but the exhilaration you
experience as the plot unfolds and the characters evolve and develop can never be repeated in quite the same
way.

Missing Paragraphs:
A. And so off I went, despite the ominous warnings and concerns of those around me, armed with a guidebook,
some Hindi cassettes and several volumes of history and literature under my belt. As I took in the smell of
burning rubbish and the sight of row upon row of sleeping bodies on the pavements oh the drive into Bombay
from the airport, I wondered whether I would leave India as enamoured with it as I had been when I arrived.
B. If it sounds like every minute in India is one in which you are tempted, tantalized, stimulated and challenged,
it is because that is the truth. It requires every ounce of energy and attention to receive the sensory stimuli
which constantly bombard you - the honking horns, thronging crowds, careering rickshaws, suffocating smog,
reeking gutters. And although making sense of it all is a round-the-clock proposition, the prospect of blinking
and missing one split second of it is equally daunting, because everything somehow seems like something
that can't be missed.

Page 6 of 12 pages
C. But there were still other lessons to be learnt. Once, driving along a narrow, bumpy highway in a rickety old
jeep, we passed a man riding an elephant. I was amazed: was this simply a means of transport in rural India?
'What was that man doing with the elephant?' I asked the driver. 'What elephant?' was his reply. This brings
me to the alarming thing I found out about myself, or perhaps about human beings, in general: the truth of
Dostoevsky's famous adage, 'man is a scoundrel; he can get used to anything.'
D. My friends and relatives expressed dismay at my decision to go to India, especially as news of political
instability and border skirmishes hit the headlines. Efforts to convince me not to go reached a peak as the list
of inoculations needed to guard against a dazzling array of diseases grew ever longer. My worried parents
headed the team of opponents - unsurprisingly, given their press-inspired vision of India as an impoverished
nation ravaged by internal conflict.
E. I can't say I found out anything unpalatable or even surprising about my friend. We've been fellow travellers
on a couple of trips and on the road of life for a long time now, and she was just the cautiously game and solid
person I've always known her to be.
F. One of the most insightful travel writers of this century wrote that to see poverty in India is to see merely what's
obvious, and both this and its implications are equally true. There is blinding, indescribable poverty: people
live in the streets, picking food from the piles of rubbish, drinking water from the shallow, muddy rivers. Naked
children with distended stomachs beg relentlessly, disturbingly, while mothers wash shabby clothes outside
tin huts, scrubbing them against the dirt road, hanging them to dry on the overflowing rubbish bins. Diseases
long-forgotten in the West cripple young and old alike, despite desperate door-to-door vaccination schemes.
G. And elephants weren't the only animals we had seen on the streets, either. Cows were everywhere and, though
they seemed peaceful, they could be vicious for no apparent reason; I'd been head-butted by two cows for
nothing more than walking by them. Camels were also common in some parts, though they didn't meander in
and out of shapes and lie down to rest in the middle of the street.
H. I suppose this tendency to become accustomed to the truly appalling is both a stroke of luck for the human
race, as well as being its downfall. In the context of India and the rest of the developing world, it is quite a
worrying talent, for there are rather a lot of upsetting things to get used to, and succeeding in this must be the
best way of ensuring that things there never change. On the other hand, it may be easier that way.
Your answers:
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Part 4. For questions 76-85, read the following passage and choose the answer A, B, C or D which fits best
according to the passage. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
HOW TO REBUILD YOUR OWN BRAIN
It’s not the kind of thing you would ever forget. When Barbara Arrowsmith-Young started school in Canada
in the early 1950s, her teacher told her mother – in her presence – that she would never be able to learn. Having
helped over 4,000 children overcome exactly the same diagnosis, now she can laugh at it. But she didn’t at the
time. Today Arrowsmith-Young holds a master’s degree in psychology and has published a groundbreaking book
called The Woman Who Changed Her Brain. But until she was in her mid-twenties, she was desperate, tormented
and often depressed. She didn’t know what was wrong.
On the one hand, she was brilliant with near-total auditory and visual memory. ‘I could memorise whole
books.’ On the other hand, she was a dolt. ‘I didn’t understand anything’, she says. ‘Meaning just never crystallised.
Everything was fragmented, disconnected.’
In exams, she sometimes got 100 percent but whenever the task involved reasoning and interpretation she
would fail dismally. ‘The teachers didn’t understand,’ she says. ‘They thought I wasn’t trying and I was often
punished.’ To help her, her mother devised a series of flash cards with numbers and letters and, after much hard
work, she achieved literacy and numeracy of a sort, even getting into university, where she disguised her learning
disabilities by working twenty hours a day: ‘I used to hide when the security guards came to close the library at
night, then come back out and carry on.’
The breakthrough came when she was twenty-six. A fellow student gave her a book by a Russian
neuropsychologist. The book contained his research on the writings of a highly intelligent Russian soldier, who
had been shot in the brain during a battle and recorded in great detail his subsequent disabilities.
For the first time, Arrowsmith-Young says, ‘I recognised somebody describing exactly what I experienced.
The injured man’s expressions were the same: living life in a fog. His difficulties were the same: he couldn’t tell the
time from a clock, he couldn’t tell the difference between the sentences The boy chases the dog and The dog
chases the boy. I began to see that maybe an area of my brain wasn’t working.’
The bullet had lodged in a part of the Russian’s brain where information from sight, sound, language and
touch is synthesised, analysed and made sense of. Arrowsmith-Young began to realise that, in all probability, this
was the region of her own brain that had been malfunctioning since she was born.
The realization led her to continue her reading, this time with the work of Mark Rosenzweig, an American
researcher who found that laboratory rats given a rich and stimulating environment developed larger brains.

Page 7 of 12 pages
Rosenzweig concluded that the brain continues developing rather than being fixed at birth: a concept known as
‘neuroplasticity’. Arrowsmith-Young decided that if rats could grow bigger and better brains, so could she.
She started devising exercises for herself to develop the parts of her brain that weren’t functioning. She
drew 100 two-handed clockfaces on cards and wrote the time each told on the back. Then she started trying to tell
the time from each. She did this eight to ten hours a day, gradually becoming faster and more accurate.
‘I was experiencing mental exhaustion like I had never known,’ she says, ‘so I figured something was
happening. After three or four months of this, it really felt like something had fundamentally changed in my brain.
I watched an edition of a news programme and I got it. I read pages from ten books and understood every single
one. It was like stepping from darkness into light.’
Encouraged by the progress she had made, Arrowsmith-Young developed more exercises, for different
parts of her brain, and found they worked, too. Now almost thirty, she was finally beginning to function normally.
Her approach was revolutionary. ‘At that time,’ she says, ‘all the work around learning disabilities involved
compensating for what learners couldn’t do. It all started from the premise that they were unchangeable.’
Faced with little receptivity for her ideas, Arrowsmith-Young decided to found her own school in Toronto in
1980; she now has thirty-five such schools. Thousands of children dismissed as impossible to teach, have attended
Arrowsmith schools and gone on to academic and professional success.
‘So many wrong diagnoses get made,’ says Arrowsmith-Young. ‘So many children get written off, so many
people take wrong decisions and end up in lives and careers they did not choose for themselves but were chosen
for them by cognitive limitations that can be identified and strengthened. There is hope for these people.'
76. What do we learn about Barbara Arrowsmith-Young in the first paragraph?
A. She has learned over the years how to help her own child.
B. When she was a child, it was thought that she would grow out of her problems.
C. Her particular problem went undiagnosed until she was a young woman.
D. She believes that children need to be told if they are likely to find school difficult.
77. How did her problem manifest itself?
A. She could understand the meaning of difficult words. B. She found it hard to remember anything.
C. She had amazing eyesight. D. She could seem quite stupid at times.
78. The word “dismally” in third passage is closest in meaning to ______.
A. marginally B. significantly C. dreadfully D. regrettably
79. Her teachers at school
A. thought she was just being lazy.
B. set exams that were too difficult.
C. helped her with special lessons.
D. said that she would be unable to pass university entrance exams.
80. When Barbara was twenty-six years old, she
A. was studying neuropsychology in Russia.
B. discovered that she was not the only person in the world with her problem.
C. started to write a book about her disabilities.
D. wrote to a Russian soldier who had the same problems that she had.
81. What do we learn about the Russian soldier?
A. His language skills were those of a young child.
B. He knew that his injury had caused damage to his sight.
C. He believed that brain damage might be the cause of his problem.
D. His interpretation of his problem was slightly different from Barbara’s.
82. According to Mark Rosenzweig,
A. rats have much larger brains than people think.
B. neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to keep on growing.
C. Barbara would not be able to do anything to improve her brain.
D. the brain requires regular and frequent stimulation to function normally.
83. Barbara’s attempt at improving her brain
A. resulted in her giving up from extreme tiredness.
B. made her feel as if her personality was changing.
C. included spending a long time focusing on speed tests.
D. failed to help her make connections she had always found difficult.
84. What do we learn about the traditional attitude towards people with learning disabilities?
A. It was impossible to improve the performance of the brain.
B. People were taught how to live with the problem.
C. Brain exercises have always been a part of dealing with learning disabilities.
D. They would never be able to function in a modern society.
85. Barbara Arrowsmith-Young
A. has taught thousands of children to pass exams.
B. says that every child is able to improve their brains as she did.
C. says if learning disabilities are not diagnosed quickly enough, people cannot find work.
D. says that children’s problems are often not correctly recognised.

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Your answers:
76. 77. 78. 79. 80.
81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

Part 5. The passage below consists of five paragraphs marked A, B, C, D, and E. For questions 86-95, read
the passage and do the task that follows. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes
provided.
A.
Well, although you wouldn’t think it to glance at them, snow crystals are rather intricate. For that reason, the answer
is by no means clear-cut. For instance, scientists remain unsure as to how temperature and humidity affect growth.
Indeed, moving somewhat tangentially for a moment, nor are they yet certain of the wider climactic effect flakes
have. For example, they know that clouds of snow crystals reflect sunlight during the day, producing a cooling
affect; although at night they sort of blanket the planet, absorbing the heat it gives off, doing the reverse. So
whether such clouds contribute to global warming or not is up for debate on account of these competing effects.
B.
As for snow crystals themselves, they undergo various stages of formation before they become fully developed
snowflakes. In the developmental stages, they are more simple structures, then they later branch out and
become complex. To start with, they resemble fairly plain and uniform six-sided prisms that are hard to distinguish
from one another. Such underdeveloped crystals do often fall to the ground prematurely as precipitation. In this
case, the probability of close likeness amongst different ones is quite high in relative terms. So, hypothetically, it’s
quite possible to find two more or less the same, but, in practice, this would be like looking for a needle in a haystack
– two, actually, so good luck trying to prove it.
C.
However, snowfall is typically comprised of crystals at a more advanced stage of development – true snowflakes,
if you will – and here the odds change considerably with the likelihood of very close resem-blance dramatically
reduced. This is because the ways in which fully developed crystals can arrange themselves are almost infinite.
Once crystals have branched out to form large flakes, then, the chances of finding identical twins are, therefore,
extremely remote.
D.
Another problem with this question is how you define ‘alike’. After all, to the naked eye, most flakes look more or
less indistinguishable, irrespective of size or shape. Indeed, even under a microscope, more simple crystal
formations are strikingly similar to one another, though the unique characteristics of fully formed snowflakes will
be revealed. However, an understanding of the science of physics confirms the extreme rarity of identical twins
even amongst superficially similar flakes. In other words, at a molecular level, likeness is a near impossibility, so
the more closely we examine a flake and the more strictly we define the notion of likeness, the less probable it
becomes to ever identify two crystals which are truly alike.
E.
It is, in a way, somewhat reassuring, though, that something as seemingly simple as a snowflake which is in
actuality incredibly complex, can still be uniformly beautiful in another purer, more innocent sense. For, once the
flakes have made landfall and begun to amass, snow is, to a degree, just snow, and it takes on that kind of magical,
fairy-tale quality that only it can evoke in so many people, but particularly the young, who have less need to worry
about the logistical implications of it amassing in ever greater quantities, and, indeed, who usually welcome the
closure of facilities, particularly academic ones, that is normally commensurate with such accumulations. For it is
the way of the universe as a whole, is it not? Order springs from chaos, beauty is born from the most unlikely,
disordered and chance set of circum- stances. Indeed, as a self-proclaimed glass-half-full person, I like to think
that we, human beings, are not all that dissimilar to snowflakes, actually. After all, each one of us is, on some level,
utterly unique, and yet, remove all the complexities of life and the over-analysis, and, on another, we are all
precisely the same; hopeful, flawed, loving, caring, jealous and imperfect; perfectly so. The sooner we understand
that, the better for both our species and the wider world we inhabit, snow-covered or otherwise.
In which extract … Your answers:
is a point of contention amongst scientists over the effects of something highlighted? 86. _________
does the writer give an insight into their personal outlook on life? 87. _________
is the difficulty in proving something likened to searching for an everyday object? 88. _________
does the writer examine the different ways likeness can be interpreted? 89. _________
does the writer hint at the inconveniences snowflakes can cause in everyday life? 90. _________

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 is the composition of young snow crystals differentiated in some detail? 91. _________
are the range of possible forms flakes can take defined as almost never-ending? 92. _________
does the writer first explain that two developed snowflakes can rarely be the same? 93. _________
does the writer suggest the closer something is inspected, the less likely an outcome is? 94. _________
does the writer suggest that simplification can have a positive impact on the world? 95. _________

IV. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary should be
between 100 and 120 words long.
During the first half of the 20th century, linguists who theorized about the human ability to speak did so from
the behaviorist perspective that prevailed at that time. They therefore held that language learning, like any other
kind of learning, could be explained by a succession of trials, errors, and rewards for success. In other words,
children learned their mother tongue by simple imitation, listening to and repeating what adults said.
This view became radically questioned, however, by the American linguist Noam Chomsky. For Chomsky,
acquiring language cannot be reduced to simply developing an inventory of responses to stimuli, because every
sentence that anyone produces can be a totally new combination of words. When we speak, we combine a finite
number of elements—the words of our language—to create an infinite number of larger structures—sentences. In
Chomsky’s view, the reason that children so easily master the complex operations of language is that they have
innate knowledge of certain principles that guide them in developing the grammar of their language. In other words,
Chomsky’s theory is that language learning is facilitated by a predisposition that our brains have for certain
structures of language.
But what language? For Chomsky’s theory to hold true, all of the languages in the world must share certain
structural properties. And indeed, Chomsky and other generative linguists like him have shown that the 5000 to
6000 languages in the world, despite their very different grammars, do share a set of syntactic rules and principles.
These linguists believe that this “universal grammar” is innate and is embedded somewhere in the neuronal
circuitry of the human brain. And that would be why children can select, from all the sentences that come to their
minds, only those that conform to a “deep structure” encoded in the brain’s circuits.

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Part 2. The charts below show consumption of energy in 2009 and 2010.
Describe the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where
relevant. You should write about 150 words.

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Part 3. Write an essay of 300-350 words on the following topic.
It is failure that gives you the proper perspective on success. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the
statement? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

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

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