BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA THPT

ĐỀ THI THỬ NĂM 2019

Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH SỐ PHÁCH

Thời gian thi: 180 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi: 22/12/2018
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 nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 05 giây, imở đầu và kết thúc bài 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 điều 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 lecture on crocodiles and decide whether the following statements are true
(T), false (F) or not given (NG). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
1. People’s hatred for crocodiles in North Africa accounts for the non-existence of crocodile mentions in
iiiiiliterature
2. Crocodiles tend to live in a group of about 20.
3. A highly wet and hot environment is ideal for crocodiles to live.
4. In an attempt to escape the extreme heat, crocodiles find it best to have a subterranean shelter.
5. North Africa’s geographical changes were the sole key to the changes in crocodile population there.
Your answers
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Part 2. For questions 6-10, listen to a piece of speech from the UN on the conflict in Congo and answer the
following questions in the form of NOTES. Write your answers in the space provided.

6. Whose death is the main origin for the fight between the FARDC and the Kamuina Nsapu militia?
6. ____________________________________________
7. According to several sources, which side was the first to attack the other side?
7. ____________________________________________
8. What was the militia fighters carrying at the moment of the attack?
8. ____________________________________________
9. Besides national law, what should FARDC soldiers also conform to?
9. ____________________________________________

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10. What does the UN condemn about the militia in addition to its attack on state symbols and institutions?
10. ___________________________________________

Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to an interview with a sports writer about football referees and choose the
answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes.
11. Martin says that referees become concerned if ______.
A. they are no longer chosen for important matches
B. they cease to cause strong reactions
C. they feel that other referees do not regard them highly
D. they attract a lot of attention from strangers
12. Martin says that referees think they gain the respect of players by ______.
A. resorting to strict discipline when it is necessary
B. adopting different approaches with different players
C. showing that they do not care what players think of them
D. treating players with a certain amount of tolerance
13. According to Martin, it would be wrong to believe that referees ______.
A. are not passionately interested in football
B. do not feel that they are performing a duty
C. are largely motivated by their own vanity
D. are poorly paid for their efforts
14. What does Martin say about the system for assessing referees?
A. It causes some referees to be indecisive.
B. It requires referees not to be sensitive people.
C. It enables poor referees to be identified quickly.
D. It leads to inconsistencies in referees’ decisions.
15. Martin says that a referee should deal with the bad behaviour of players by _____.
A. informing them that they cannot influence his decisions
B. admitting to them when he has made a mistake under pressure
C. deciding rapidly what a player’s real intention was
D. treating the worst offences with the greatest severity
Your answers
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a piece of news on youth unemployment and fill in the missing information
with NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS and/or A NUMBER. Write your answers in the space provided.
According to a(n) (16) _____________________________________, about one-third of people aged between 15
and 29 are jobless and not in school.
(17) ____________________________________ are what is needed on a monthly basis in order to stabilize youth
unemployment rate compared to today level.
(18) ____________________________________ is the first and foremost rationale for young people’s difficulties
in finding a job today.
Young workers’ occupations tend to be (19) _____________, _____________ and ______________.
The above reason also accounts for senior staff’s greater motivation to (20) _______________________.
Some people have gone even further by putting (21) __________________________________ down to higher
levels of education.

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In some countries, (22) ________________________________ pose greater obstacles to youth’s job seeking
process whereas in other countries, it is the reverse prospect.
Youth unemployment can have a devastating impact on the global economy because by paying taxes, they (23)
_______________________________ but do not rely much on them.
(24) ______________________________ will come as no surprise if scarcity of young employees occurs.
(25) ______________________________ and circular flow of profits have been suggested as some plausible
remedies for youth unemployment crisis.
II. LEXICO – GRAMMAR (20 points)
Part 1. For questions 26-37, choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) to each of the following questions. Write
your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
26. She expressed her apologies to her parents for what she said although at that moment, she was just dropping
a ______.
A. banger B. clanger C. slammer D. pamper
27. In his speech, the President is striving to ______ the urgent importance of environmental protection.
A. hammer home B. drum beat C. sling shot D. grip tight
28. Influence ______ is now considered one of the most severe crimes in China and those associated with this
may even receive life sentence or death penalty.
A. sailing B. sharing C. peddling D. fleeing
29. Vietnamese government is solving the ______ crisis in its governing regime by checking extra carefully
potential employees’ family background and preventing family members from working in the same office.
A. collusion B. thuggery C. nepotism D. swoon
30. Extra precaution is really useful for Facebook users since Facebook ______ lots of misinformation.
A. fills up B. groans with C. mingles up D. swoops off
31. The encouraging news enabled the troops to go on with ______ hope.
A. recurrent B. renovated C. repaired D. renewed
32. Unless you packed your trousers more carefully, they will get ______.
A. creased B. folded C. spoilt D. wrinkled
33. The hovercraft has always suffered from the fact that it is neither ______.
A. fish nor fowl B. belts nor braces C. cat nor dog D. fist nor fringe
34. ______, creative interests are put to one side as we struggle with academic subjects.
A. Often happening with young people B. As often happens with young people
C. Often does it happen to young people D. Often happening to young people
35. With the existing strike and public vandalism, French President are caught up between two _____ whether to
stick to his original policies or to surrender to strikers’ demands.
A. horns B. doors C. ruts D. stools
36. Vietnamese have been entirely taken by storm with the ______ rise of Vietnamese football in 2018.
A. sought-after B. unlooked-for C. top-heavy D. open-jaw
37. In politics or business, when you have ______, you must be careful with it and not use it wastefully.
A. a bush in your heart B. a hole off your mind C. a card on your hand D. an ace up your sleeve
Your answers
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.
32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.
Part 2. For questions 38-45, fill in each blank with the correct form of the bracketed words in the space provided
in the column on the right.
A particular Harriet Sherman excoriated the National Gallery of Art in Washington for its Your answers
(38) ______ (HAND) of tickets to the much-ballyhooed “Van Gogh’s Van Goghs” exhibit.
200,000 free tickets were snatched up by homeless (39) ______ (OPPORTUNITY), who 38. ___________
then scalped those tickets at $85 a piece to less hardy connoisseurs. Yet, Sherman’s
bedfellows are far from (40) ______ (BEAT). Art, despite its religious and magical origins, 39. ___________
very soon became a commercial venture. From bourgeois patrons funding art they barely

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understood in order to share their protegee’s prestige, to museum curators stage- 40. ___________
managing the cult of artists in order to enhance the market value of museum (41)
_______ (HOLD), entrepreneurs have found validation and profit in big-name art. 41. ___________
This trend toward (42) ______ (COMMODITY) of high-brow art took an ominous, if
predictable, turn in the 1980s during the Japanese “bubble economy.” At a time when 42. ___________
Japanese share prices more than doubled, individual tycoons and industrial giants alike
invested record amounts in some of the West’s greatest (43) ______ (PIECE). Ryoei Saito, 43. ___________
for example, purchased Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet for a (44) ______ (RECORD)
$82.5 million. Later learning that he owed the Japanese government $24 million in taxes, 44. ___________
Saito remarked that he would have the paining cremated with him to spare his heirs the
(45) ______ (HEIR) tax. This statement, which he later dismissed as a joke, alarmed and 45. ___________
enraged many.

III. READING (50 points)

Part 1. For questions 46-56, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable words. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
HERBS AND SPICES
There is nothing (46) ______ in the use of herbs and spices. They have enriched human life for
thousands of years, providing (47) ______ comfort and luxury. They have flavored our food, cured our
ailments and (48) ______ us with sweet scents. They have also played their part in our folklore and
magic. It would be a very different world (49) ______ them.
Nobody really knows who first used herbs and spices, or for what (50) ______. All their properties were
known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians as well as those (51) ______ in early Biblical times. The
knowledge that they employed, and that we still use today, must have been based on the trial and (52)
______ of early human, who was originally (53) ______ to the plants because of their tantalizing aroma.
He gradually discovered their individual effects on his food and well-being and our use of them comes
from those early experiments. For centuries herbs and spices were appreciated to the (54) ______ but in
modern times the arrival of the convenience foods and new medicines of the twentieth century almost
made us forget them. But (55) ______ that has been so much loved and valued will never be completely
neglected. The knowledge has been (56) ______ alive and in our present-day search for all things
natural, herbs and spices have come into their own again.
Your answers
46. 47. 48. 49.

50. 51. 52. 53.

54. 55. 56.

Part 2. For questions 57-70, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT HISTORY
Though few modern readers are familiar with LP Hartley’s novel The Go-Between, many will know the
novel’s often quoted opening line: ‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ In
Hartley’s novel, published in 1953, the remark indicates the distance that separates an elderly narrator
from the dramatic events of his youth. But the phrase has since been gleefully adopted by historians
hoping to dramatise the gulf between present and bygone ages. This remoteness makes the past both
alluring and incomprehensible. It is the natural hurdle all historians must overcome to shed lights on
earlier times. Since the days of Herodotus, the father of history who lived 2500 years ago, it has had
them scrambling for new ways to acquaint today’s audiences with yesterday’s events.
Amid the current mass of works of popular historical non-fiction, the question of how to bring history to
life seems more pressing than ever. The historian Ian Mortimer takes a literal approach: if the past is a
foreign country, then a foreigner’s guidebook might help. His book The Time Traveller’s Guide to
Medieval England is exactly that, offering ‘an investigation into the sensations of being alive in different
times’. The resulting portrait of the era is as lively and entertaining as it is informative. Yet it is worth
considering his claims about his own approach. ‘In traditional history, what we can say about the past is

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dictated by the selection and interpretation of evidence.’ It would be foolish, however, to suppose that
Mortimer’s own text has not relied on precisely this kind of selection. Mortimer presents events as if they
were unfolding, putting the facts in the present tense. Yet the illusion of first-hand historical experience is
shattered the moment we are thrown 50 years backwards or forwards in order to provide context.
Mortimer’s refusal to commit to a temporal point of view undermines the immediacy he attempts to
convey.
Unlike Mortimer, Philip Matyszak, author of Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day, does not claim to tread
new historiographical ground. His aim is to inform and amuse, and in this he succeeds. The light-hearted
approach pays off, though it occasionally descends into juvenile and anachronistic humour: Oedipus is
referred to as ‘he of the complex’. This raises the question of what readership the book is really aimed at.
Also, the problem with time-travellers’ guides is that they often say more about the people who wrote
them than about the people they describe. Mortimer’s avowal that ‘climate change is another factor
affecting the landscape’ in 14th-century England reflects concerns more modern that medieval. While
Matyszak’s assertion that ‘it is a common misconception among visitors that the Acropolis is the
Parthenon’ sounds more like a complaint about the ignorance of today’s tourists.
‘Understanding the past is a matter of experience as well as knowledge,’ Mortimer declares. This may
well be the manifesto for those who, not satisfied with virtual tours of history, take history into their own
hands. Historical re-enactors – yes, those individuals whose idea of fun is to dress up and stage mock
battles – provide the most literal interpretation of history as experience. Humorist Tim Moore set out to
explore this world in his book I Believe in Yesterday. In Berne, Switzerland, he suffers in the name of
‘utter authenticity’ during the restaged siege of Grandson, circa 1474. In the US he endures a stint of
‘relentless and uncompromising immersion with re-enactment’s seasoned elite,’ revisiting 1864’s battle
of Red River during the American Civil War.
Moore’s quest for ‘my inner ancient’ is fuelled by his anxieties about our modern inability to deploy the
skills that came naturally to our ancestors. More often, he finds, it is a ‘refreshingly simple impulse to get
away from it all’ that gets people into period attire. Many civil war re-enactors seek redress: ‘History is
written by the winners but re-enactment gives the losers a belated chance to scribble in the margins.’ For
others it’s ‘a simple and truly heart-warming quest for gregarious community’.
Perhaps re-enactment is the closest we can get to Mortimer’s ideal of what history should be: ‘A striving
to make spiritual, emotional poetic, dramatic and inspirational connections with our forebears’.
Interestingly, Mortimer quotes the poet WH Auden, who remarked that to understand your own country it
helps to have lived in at least two others. Perhaps the same applies to historical eras. The central
question, for popular historians and historical re-enactors alike, is not how to animate the past but how to
make it cast light on us today.
For questions 57-62, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the
text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
57. For the writer, a well-known quote from a novel ______.
A. explains the strange attitude of some historians
B. has been somewhat misinterpreted by historians
C. epitomises what historians have always tried to do
D. indicates the problems in trying to popularise history
58. The writer refers to being ‘thrown 50 years backwards or forwards’ as an example of Mortimer
______.
A. doing what he claims he is not doing
B. choosing to ignore certain evidence
C. sticking closely to historical fact
D. succeeding in doing something different
59. In the fourth paragraph, the writer implies that ______.
A. Matyszak’s defence of his book is rather overstating the case
B. Matyszak and Mortimer have more in common than they acknowledge
C. Matyszak’s own opinions could have been more to the fore in the book
D. Matyszak’s book may actually have little appeal for those interested in history
60. With regard to historical re-enactors, the writer shares with author Tim Moore ______.
A. a desire to see at first hand what motivates them
B. a sense of scepticism about what they are doing
C. doubts about the historical authenticity of their actions
D. concerns that the battles they choose are given undue prominence

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61. What does Tim Moore say is the appeal of historical re-enactment for some?
A. imagining that they are famous historical figures
B. the possibility of proving something to themselves
C. investigating what life would be like if history could be changed
D. the chance to pretend that they’re influencing historical outcomes
62. The writer concludes that history as Mortimer, Matyszak and the historical re-enactors see it ______.
A. has more in common with literary writing
B. is a new development that will have a limited life
C. can help us learn things about modern society
D. may well be the way forward for historians in general
Your answers
57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62.

For questions 63-70, complete the following passage. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
for each answer. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.

A renowned quote that considered history (63) ______ has now been the motto for historians in their
investigations, attempting to create a(n) (64) ______ impression for history. This goal of familiarizing
people with the past has been the ultimate desire since the days of Herodotus, the father of history. In
the process of achieving this objective, Ian Mortimer is taken as an example of those who utilize (65)
______. His book, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England, the resultant product of that, is (66)
______, ______ yet ______. However, Mortimer’s book has received criticism because in mentioning
the background, it has inadvertently erased the feelings that readers are going through (67) ______. This
failure to connect with the real physical world considerably diminishes the (68) ______ of the book. On
the contrary, the methodology of Philip Matyszak is a(n) (69) ______, which aims to provide informative
knowledge and humor for the audience and he succeeds with this. However, following this methodology
makes the targeted (70) ______ quite questionable and may often reflect more of modern reality rather
than the past.
Your answers
63. 64. 65. 66.

67. 68. 69. 70.

Part 3. For questions 71-82, choose from the paragraph (A-G) which contains each of the following
statements. Write your answers in the column on the right.
UN CLIMATE TALKS – DO WE MOVE FORWARD NOW?
A.
Delegates this year lacked the drama, excitement and eventual breakthrough that marked the Paris
agreement of 2015, but this year’s UN climate talks produced important steps forward in putting the
landmark accord into practice. After last-minute wrangling over wording, late on Saturday night delegates
in Poland finally agreed a text that contains most of the “rulebook” needed to guide countries’
implementation of the Paris goals. These include complex technical issues such as how countries should
measure and report on their greenhouse gas emissions, and account for progress on meeting their
commitments on curbing carbon, with an agreement to work on setting new targets for financial
assistance to poor countries. Resolving these should mean countries can move ahead with meeting their
targets. “This is a good agreement,” the European commissioner Miguel Cañete told the Guardian. “We
have more to do but we can move forward now.”
B.
Nicholas Stern, author of the seminal review of the economics of climate change, said: “This has been
another summit of tough negotiations, but it has ultimately succeeded in its crucial primary task of
agreeing the so-called rulebook for the Paris agreement.” One important issue that could not be resolved
was over carbon markets, and how countries can gain credits for their efforts to cut emissions and their
carbon sinks, such as forests, which absorb carbon dioxide. After Brazil, which hopes to benefit from its
huge rainforest cover, insisted on wording that critics said would allow for double counting of credits and
undermine the integrity of the system, this issue was postponed until next year. While the conference
broadly succeeded within its narrow technical remit, however, key questions on tackling climate change
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were ignored or put off. Foremost among these is the inadequacy of countries’ current national targets
for curbing greenhouse gases. With current targets, the world is likely to face 3C or more of warming,
which scientists warn would bring disaster.
C.
Paul Bledsoe, a former climate adviser to President Bill Clinton, said: “Gaining a strong regime of
accounting for emissions is an essential step on getting a handle on global emissions, and a major
achievement. But the biggest breakthroughs on emissions cuts must be done at the head of state level
over the next several years, not in a few days by ministerial negotiators.” The conference also failed to
take account of the warnings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global body of the
world’s leading climate scientists, which only two months ago presented a bleak picture of the damage
that would be done if global temperature rises reached or exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The panel said that the result would be heatwaves, droughts, floods, the die-off of coral reefs, and the
decline of agricultural productivity in large swathes of the world. The Paris agreement binds countries to
avoid a 2C temperature rise, with an aspiration to limit warming to no more than 1.5C. Time is running
out: the IPCC’s findings imply that there is about a decade left to set the world on a new track.
D.
This year was the fourth hottest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and
extreme weather – such as the heatwave in the UK, wildfires in Europe and the US, floods in India and
storms in south-east Asia – affected every continent. Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of
Greenpeace, said: “A year of climate disasters and a dire warning from the world’s top scientists should
have led to so much more. Instead, governments let the people down again as they ignored the science
and the plight of the vulnerable. Adopting a set of rules for climate action is not nearly enough; without
immediate action, even the strongest rules will not get us anywhere.” The two-week conference, known
as COP24, in Poland’s coal-fuelled heartland started with Sir David Attenborough warning of the
collapse of civilisation if untrammelled climate change were allowed to take hold. “Right now, we are
facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change,”
the veteran broadcaster and naturalist told delegates. “If we don’t take action, the collapse of our
civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
E.
There were encouraging signs of shifting geopolitics at the talks. China and the EU were able to settle
differences on how to account for and verify greenhouse gas emissions, and the EU and a handful of
other rich countries joined with scores of developing nations in promising to focus on the 1.5C limit in
setting their future emissions-cutting targets. But while the conference ended in a show of unity, with the
Polish minister in charge leaping from the podium table into the audience in glee as it finally closed 30
hours after the deadline, the talks also displayed new rift lines. Brazil, under its incoming president, Jair
Bolsonaro, who is hostile to the Paris agreement and skeptical of climate science, held up agreement for
nearly a day by insisting on a change to the rules on carbon credits that critics say would undermine the
system. That decision has been put off to next year, but the stance of Brazil under Bolsonaro – he also
withdrew Brazil’s offer to host next year’s conference – troubles many other countries. Brazil previously
acted as a power broker between developed and developing nations, and without that role future talks
may be more acrimonious.
F.
The US also showed how Donald Trump’s presidency is changing its role, when it joined with Russia,
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to prevent the conference from fully embracing the IPCC’s findings. In previous
years, while Saudi Arabia has played an obstructive and delaying role behind closed doors, it has rarely
been willing to take a public stance against agreement, and Russia has remained largely quiet since
allowing for the adoption of the Kyoto protocol in 2004. Australia, which has played a shifting role in the
talks under successive governments, also joined with US supporters in a celebration of coal. It seems
that Trump’s hostility to climate science is emboldening other countries to take a more aggressive role in
fighting progress. David Waskow, of the World Resources Institute, told the Guardian: “The US’s new
stance is giving these countries more space for what they want to do.”
G.
Despite the progress made at this year’s talks, some believe that the UN process will always be too slow
to measure up to the scale and urgency of the problems, and new ways should be found to take action
independently. Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development,
said: “In the climate emergency we’re now in, slow success is no success. The rulebook is decades too
late. It should be clear that the UN consensus process can never produce the muscular agreement we

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need to meet the emergency.” He advocates sectoral agreements for heavy industries such as steel,
aluminum and cement that would require companies in those industries to reduce their emissions,
removing any competitive disadvantage to businesses in being first-movers in cutting carbon.
Which paragraph contains the following pieces of information?
The negative effects of climate crisis on farmers 71. ______
A feature meaning a competitive edge for a country 72. ______
Light at the end of the tunnel 73. ______
The content of an important framework 74. ______
Worldwide real examples of the detrimental impacts of climate change 75. ______
A paradox coated with optimistic appearance 76. ______
Critical attitudes towards laid-back course of actions 77. ______
The amount of remaining time for meeting an objective 78. ______
A cause for bolder acts from other countries 79. ______
Assistance for business pioneers in carbon reduction 80. ______
Addressing pecuniary disadvantages 81. ______
A disappointing deed for the public 82. ______

Part 4. For questions 83-95, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Seven paragraphs have been removed from the passage. For questions 83-89, choose from paragraphs A-H the
one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your answers (A, B,
C or D) in the corresponding numbered boxes.
THE FUTURE MUSIC
Where will the music industry be in 20 years, 30 years, In the YouTube generation we live in, I walked out
50 years? Before I tell you my thoughts on the matter, onstage every night of my stadium tour last year
you should know that you are reading the opinion of knowing almost every fan had already seen the show
an enthusiastic optimist: one of the few living souls in online. To continue to show them something they had
the music industry who still believes that the music never seen before, I brought out dozens of special
industry is not dying, it is just coming alive. guest performers to sing their hits with me. My
83. _______ generation was raised being able to flip channels if we
In recent years, you have probably read the articles got bored, and we read the last page of the book
about major recording artists who have decided to when we got impatient. We want to be caught off
practically give their music away, for this promotion or guard, delighted, left in awe. I hope the next
that exclusive deal. My hope for the future, not just in generation's artists will continue to think of inventive
the music industry, but in every young girl I meet is ways of keeping their audiences on their toes, as
that they all realize their worth and ask for it. challenging as that might be.
84. _______ 87. _______
In mentioning album sales, I would like to point out A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when
that people are still buying albums, but now they are the casting for her recent movie came down to two
buying just a few of them. They are buying only the actresses, the casting director chose the actress with
ones that hit them like an arrow through the heart or more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in
have made them feel strong or allowed them to feel the music industry. For me, this dates back to 2005
like they really are not alone in feeling so alone. It is when I walked into my first record-label meetings,
not as easy today as it was 20 years ago to have a explaining to them that I had been communicating
multiplatinum-selling album, and as artists, that should directly with my fans on this new site called Myspace.
challenge and motivate us. In the future, artists will get record deals because
85. _______ they have fans - not the other way around.
However, some artists will be like finding "the one." 88. _______
We will cherish every album they put out until they This moment in music is so exciting because the

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retire and we will play their music for our children and creative avenues an artist can explore are limitless. In
grandchildren. As an artist, this is the dream bond we this moment in music, stepping out of your comfort
hope to establish with our fans. I think the future still zone is rewarded, and sonic evolution is not only
holds the possibility for this kind of bond, the one my accepted, it is celebrated. The only real risk is being
father has with the Beach Boys and the one my mother too afraid to take a risk at all.
has with Carly Simon. 89. _______
86. _______ And as for me? I will just be sitting back and growing
old, watching all of this happen or not happen, all the
while trying to maintain a life rooted in this same
optimism.
A. I predict that some things will never change. There will always be an increasing fixation on the private lives of
musicians, especially the younger ones. Artists who were at their commercial peak in the '70s, '80s and '90s tell
me, "It was never this crazy for us back then!" And I suspect I will be saying that same thing to younger artists
someday. There continues to be a bad girl and good girl, clean-cut and sexy debate, and for as long as those labels
exist, I just hope there will be contenders on both sides. Everyone needs someone to relate to.
B. I think forming a bond with fans in the future will come in the form of constantly providing them with the
element of surprise. No, I did not say "shock"; I said "surprise." I believe couples can stay in love for decades if
they just continue to surprise each other, so why can't this love affair exist between an artist and their fans?
C. Some artists suspect that those labels are holding out for big windfalls if and when their album either goes
public or gets bought, and fear that the proceeds - as well as the large advance payments the album sales make to
labels - will not be shared fairly with musicians, which can lead to fragile relationships and may produce lower-
quality album the next time.
D. Another theme I see fading into the gray is genre distinction. These days, nothing great you hear on the radio
seems to come from just one musical influence. The wild, unpredictable fun in making music today is that
anything goes. Pop sounds like hip hop; country sounds like rock; rock sounds like soul; and folk sounds like
country - and to me, that Is incredible progress. I want to make music that reflects all of my influences, and I think
that in the coming decades the idea of genres will become less of a career-defining path and more of an
organizational tool.
E. Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid
for. It is my opinion that music should not be free, and my prediction is that individual artists and their labels will
someday decide what an album's price point is. I hope they do not underestimate themselves or undervalue their
art.
F. There are a few things I have witnessed becoming obsolete in the past few years, the first being autographs. I
have not been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only
memento "kids these days" want is a selfie. It is part of the new currency, which seems to be "how many
followers you have on Instagram."
G. There are many people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an
economic entity. I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, based on
the amount of heart and soul an artist has bled into a body of work, and the financial value that artists and their
labels place on their music when it goes out into the marketplace. Piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk
the numbers of paid album sales drastically, and every artist has handled this blow differently.
H. There are always going to be those artists who break through on an emotional level and end up in people's
lives forever. The way I see it, fans view music the way they view their relationships. Some music is just for fun, a
passing fling (the ones they dance to at clubs and parties for a month while the song is a huge radio hit, that they
will soon forget they ever danced to). Some songs and albums represent seasons of our lives, like relationships
that we hold dear in our memories but had their time and place in the past.
Your answers
83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89.

For questions 90-95, write in the space provided in the column on the right
Y if the statement agrees with the writer
N if the statement contradicts the writer

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 NG if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
Your answers
The author feels despondent about the future music. 90. __________
The future music industry seems to be moribund to many people. 91. __________
Album sales have been diminishing due to the poor qualities of the albums. 92. __________
The author mentions her parents with the hope of improvements in album sales. 93. __________
Present generation is frequently fixated on what artists will do at their tours. 94. __________
The author is a singer. 95. __________

IV. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarise it. Your summary
should be about 120 and 140 words.
People make terrible decisions about the future. In fact, people are consistently bad at dealing with
uncertainty, underestimating some kinds of risk and overestimating others. Surely there must be a better
way than using intuition?
In the 1960s a young American research psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, became interested in people's
inability to make logical decisions. That launched him on a career to show just how irrationally people
behave in practice. When Kahneman and his colleagues first started work, the idea of applying
psychological insights to economics and business decisions was seen as rather bizarre. But today the
prospect is different and he is in demand by business organizations and international banking
companies. However, he says, there are plenty of institutions that still fail to understand the roots of their
poor decisions. He claims that, far from being random, these mistakes are systematic and predictable.
One common cause of problems in decision-making is over-optimism. Ask most people about the future,
and they will see too much blue sky ahead, even if past experience suggests otherwise. Surveys have
shown that people's forecasts of future stock market movements are far more optimistic than past long-
term returns would justify. The same goes for their hopes of ever-rising prices for their homes or doing
well in games of chance. Such optimism can be useful for managers or sportsmen, and sometimes turns
into a self-fulfilling prophecy. But most of the time it results in wasted effort and dashed hopes.
Kahneman's work points to three types of over-confidence. First, people tend to exaggerate their own
skill and prowess; in polls, far fewer than half the respondents admit to having below-average skills in,
say, driving. Second, they overestimate the amount of control they have over the future, forgetting about
luck and chalking up success solely to skill. And third, in competitive pursuits such as dealing on shares,
they forget that they have to judge their skills against those of the competition.
In addition, mistakes may arise due to stubbornness. No one likes to abandon a cherished belief, and
the earlier a decision has been taken, the harder it is to abandon it. Drug companies must decide early to
cancel a failing research project to avoid wasting money, but may find it difficult to admit they have made
a mistake. In the same way, analysts may have become wedded early to a single explanation that
coloured their perception. A fresh eye always helps.
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Part 2. The table below shows the number of accidents, the dead and the injured in Vietnam. The pie chart
shows the percentage of reasons for traffic accidents.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.

Year Accidents The dead The injured

2011 44,548 11,395 48,734
2012 36,376 9,838 38,060
2013 29,385 9,369 29,500
2014 25,322 8,996 24,417

Reasons forPolicies
traffic accidents
Other
7% 2%
Police
11%

Loss of Consciousness
Facilities 60%
22%

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Part 3. Write an essay of about 350 words on the following topic:
It is said that news media nowadays exerts greater and greater influence on daily lives. Do you
think this is a positive or negative development?
Present argumentation to highlight your opinion on this matter. Give specific reasons and examples to
support you position.
You may continue to write on the back page.

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