READING PAPER 5

Time permitted: 60 minutes

Number of questions: 40
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Directions:In this section you will read FOUR different passages. Each one is followed by 10
questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C or D, to each
question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that
corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions following a
passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.
You have 60 minutes to answer all the questions, including the time to transfer your answers to
the answer sheet.

PASSAGE 1 – Questions 1-10

Eddy is warm, charming and friendly. He laughs a lot. He seems at first like an average kindly
grandfather. But 15 years ago, a virus attacked his brain and destroyed the part where
memories are made. He can remember his childhood and being a sailor in the Navy, but cannot
remember anything since 1960. As far as he knows, petrol is cheap and the moon landing
never happened.

Since his illness, the only people he knows are the ones in the room with him. On a typical
morning, he will get up and have breakfast, then go back to bed to listen to the radio. Often he
will forget that he has eaten, so will get up and have breakfast again and return to bed.
Sometimes he’ll have breakfast a third time.

Without a memory, he is trapped in the present, between a past he can’t remember and a future
he can’t imagine. He lives a quiet life and doesn’t even know that he has a memory problem.
‘He’s happy all the time,’ says his daughter Carol, who lives nearby. I guess it’s because he
doesn’t have any stress in his life.

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For Anna, in contrast, the past is always there. ‘My memory flows like a movie’, she says. She
remembers who called her on the phone at 12.34 on Sunday August 3, 1986. She remembers
that on March 28 1992, she had lunch with her father at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She
remembers what they ate, every word of the conversation. She remembers great world events
and shopping trips. She remembers the weather. Every day is there, every detail.

Anna believes it is something that happens to her naturally, but it is not an ability she
welcomes. ‘I remember the good things, which is nice. But I also remember the bad things,
every bad choice. Ten years later, I still get angry with myself for making the wrong decisions.
I don’t forgive myself for a lot of things. I would love for just five minutes to be a simple
person and not have all this stuff in my head. Most people call it a gift. But I call it a burden.’
Scientists are unsure why Anna’s memory is so extraordinary, but both of these cases
demonstrate the importance of memory. Eddy's case shows us how essential memory is for us
to function; but Anna's shows that if our memories are to function properly, we also need to be
able to forget.

1. The best title for this article would be …

A. Memory Loss.
B. Memory Wonders.
C. Unexplained Memory Mysteries.
D. The importance of memory
2. The aim of the text is to …
A. arouse sympathy.
B. describe an experiment
C. interest and inform.
D. describe some scientific progress.
3. Anna and Eddy are similar in that they …
A. both work in the same area.
B. are both extreme examples.
C. come from the same state.

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D. all have a cheerful life.
4. Eddy appears to be …
A. cheerful
B. anxious
C. shy
D. strained
5. Eddy’s condition was caused by …
A. a childhood illness.
B. an accident when he was in the Navy.
C. an unhappy childhood
D. an infection in later life.
6. In the mornings, Eddy is often unable to remember …
A. whether he has eaten.
B. how to use the radio.
C. how to make breakfast.
D. Both A and C
7. Carol says that her father …
A. does not have a real problem.
B. is worried about the future.
C. seems to be quite content.
D. is unhappy when he knows his problems.
8. For Anna, August 3rd 1986 and March 28th 1992 …
A. were special anniversaries.
B. marked the start of two important periods.
C. were ordinary days. ( BÌNH THƯỜNG)
D. were the days she went shopping with her friends.
9. According to the text, Anna’s memory …
A.is only visual.
B. is the result of years of training.
C. is a gift for her.
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D. is unusually accurate. chính xác bất bình thường
10. Anna says that her memory is …
A. difficult to live with.
B. an extraordinary gift.
C. simple to understand.
D. helpful for her

PASSAGE 2 – Questions 11-20

The Earth is known as the Blue Planet because of its color when viewed from space by our
astronauts. We enjoy sunny days when the sky is blue but it seems to be a “mystery” why the
sky and atmosphere appear blue. But it’s really a matter of how the human eye works and how
light interacts with air molecules in the atmosphere. Remember that humans can see visible
light, those wavelengths between 400 nanometers and 700 nanometers. Visible light is divided
into colors also by wavelength and this is called the color spectrum. The blue range that
includes violet has the shortest wavelengths of any visible light.

When light interacts with any kind of molecules, its energy can be absorbed, reflected or
scattered. Light is scattered when it hits gasses in the atmosphere. The amount of light that is
scattered is related to the size of the particle compared to the wavelength of the light falling on
the particle. Since blue and violet have the shortest wavelength they are scattered the most by
molecules of gasses in the atmosphere. Because of this scattering there is more of the blue
wavelength in the atmosphere than any other. The human eye has cones dedicated to receiving
blue wavelength, so we see the sky as blue without noticing the traces of purple.

Another “mystery” of nature is how rainbows are formed. Rainbows are seen only after it rains
and the atmosphere contains water droplets. Sunlight enters the water droplets, is bent by the
droplet and is reflected out of the droplet. The different colors are bent by an amount related to
their wavelength so the result is a spectrum like that produced by a prism.

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A rainbow always appears as the same kind of arc in the sky. The red part of the rainbow is
always at 42° to the line of the horizon and the blue-violet part of the rainbow is always at 40°
with the other colors of the spectrum in between. These angles are related to the wavelength of
each color. Most people have never noticed that the sun is always behind them when they face
a rainbow.

11. When Earth is viewed from space, it appears

A. red
B. yellow
C. blue
D. green
12. What colors have the shortest wavelengths?
A. Shades of blue and purple
B. Shades of green
C. Shades of red
D. Shades of orange
13. Visible light …( ánh sáng nhìn thấy )
A. can be seen by the human eye
B. is in the range 400 to 700 nanometers
C. is the source of the color spectrum
D. All of the above
14. The sky appears blue because light interacts with
A. water droplets in the atmosphere
B. molecules of glasses in the atmosphere ( phân tử khí trong khí quyển )
C. the parts of outer space that humans see
D. All of the above
15. A rainbow produces the color spectrum similar to a
A. microscope
B. telescope
C. prism

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D. All of the above
16. When someone sees a rainbow,
A. the arc is always the same for every rainbow
B. the sun is behind them
C. Both a. and b. above
D. None of the above
17. The word “visible” is closest in meaning to …
A. can see
B. can imagine
C. can guess
D. can do
18. The word “scattered” is closest in meaning to …
A. broke
B. spilled
C. spreaded
D. thrown out
19. The word “bent” is closest in meaning to …
A. curved
B. straight
C. shrink
D. folded
20. What is the purpose of the writer when writing this reading passage?
A. To explain a magic phenomenon on the sky
B. To explain what colors can be seen on the sky
C. To explain how colors of the rainbow are made up
D. To explain why people just see blue on the sky

PASSAGE 3 – Questions 21-30

UNDERGROUND MICROORGANISM

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Microorganisms, or microbes, are organisms that are too small to be seen by the human eye.
Microbes can be fungi, bacteria, archaea, or protists, but not viruses and prions, which are
commonly categorized as non-living. They are usually single-celled, or unicellular. However,
there are exceptions, as some multicellular varieties are microscopic and some unicellular
protists are visible.

Microbes can live almost anywhere on Earth where there is water. Although incredibly small,
they play an important role in keeping the planet running, carrying out 90% of the Earth’s
biochemical reactions. Without them, life on Earth would be destroyed. The microbes are
probably the first forms of life to develop on Earth.

Microbes that live and prosper underground in high temperatures are called “thermopiles.” Dr.
Bang, a microbiology professor, said that since scientists are aware that microbes existed
underground, they know that the introduction of outside people, materials, and animals would
have interacted with those otherwise inaccessible microbes. This interaction may have caused
an evolutionary metamorphosis that went unnoticed by the world.

Scientists are identifying factors that establish why microbes survive deep underground in
some places but not others. High temperatures make it certain that nothing can live too far
underground. However, the availability of water, pressure, the porosity of the adjacent rock,
and the flow of chemical nutrients may limit where microbes that savor harsh conditions can
exist. Temperature is the primary factor in controlling how deep they can live. A lack of water
and nutrients excludes subsurface life in arid regions. On the contrary, they may be more
abundant deep in mid ocean ridges and salt deposits where nutrients and water flow more
generously.

Rock deep underground may have scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals, but life can still
survive. For example, in the early 1990’s, researchers found microbes living in rock 500 meters
below the surface. More recently they have delved much deeper, nearly 3 km below ground.
Tests for microbial residents and a new species of bacteria were conducted by scientists.
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Unfortunately, these tests cause pollution from the lubricating fluids that drillers pump into the
hole. Tests on these fluids revealed a great quantity of aerobic microbes which require oxygen
to survive.

In another test, scientists added a range of tracers to the drilling fluids. By checking rock
samples of these man-made chemicals, they could recognize which pieces had been polluted by
the drilling fluids. Finally, they measured the rock samples. The polluted type had rather large
pores that allowed drilling fluid to enter the rock. Those not polluted had barred any microbes
from penetrating the rock. If bacteria could not get in the rock, they also could not leave. The
tight-spaced mineral grains served as cages, trapping any original bacteria for millions of years.
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The organisms survive on a diet of petroleum and other organic compounds. However,
because these food sources are so diluted, the microorganisms do not receive enough nutrients
to grow, reproduce, or even spread throughout the rock formation. The deepest hole will
introduce really high temperatures, where a lot of different biophil bacteria and water seepage
reside.

Scientists recently discovered microbes living within igneous formations. These microbes are
unique, relying on hydrogen, water, and carbon dioxide. Until this discovery, it was thought
that products of the Earth’s interior, and other organisms to some extent, depend on the sun’s
energy. Scientists in Sweden have since found a similar community of microbes deep in granite
formation. These findings are of great importance because granite is one of the most abundant
rocks on the continent, suggesting that these organisms are quite prevalent. Rough calculations
propose that bacteria and archaea may go as deep as 4km below the continental crust and 7km
into the oceanic crust. It has been calculated that the weight of all subterranean microbes could
equal that of life above the surface.

Questions and concerns are driving investigators to explore new environments like South
African gold mines. Tests on the mines reveal that bacteria survives even as deep as 3.5km.
Microbes living in high temperatures might have the potential to produce antibiotics which can
be temperature tolerant. Life underground may also help solve toxic waste problems and
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improve methods for cleaning wastewater. The most practical application is its effect on the
ethanol industry, as it can make the production process more efficient.

21. According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true of microorganisms?

A. They break down organic matter and produce fungi, bacteria or archaea.
B. They can be both harmful and beneficial to human health and the environment.
C. They are usually unicellular organisms that can only be seen under a microscope.
D. They are multicellular species to be seen with the naked eye.
22. The word “exceptions” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. omissions
B. sanctions
C. liabilities
D. eliminations
23. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about microbes on Earth?
A. All environments are well suited for the proliferation of the microbes.
B. For several billion years, there were only microbes on earth.
C. All living organisms on Earth carry out the same biochemical reactions.
D. It is quite clear that without microbes life on earth could not exist.
24. According to Dr. Bang, underground microbes would have interacted with
A. people, animals, and materials on the outer surface.
B. many different species of microbes in soil.
C. people, animals, and materials on the interior
D. outside features that were previously inaccessible.
25. The word “they” in the passage refers to
A. animals
B. microorganisms
C. nutrients
D. chemicals
26. According to paragraph 4, what is the primary factor in determining where microbes
can reside?

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A. brightness
B. temperature
C. lack of water
D. food
27. The word “revealed” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. supported
B. infected
C. measured
D. unveiled ( tiết lộ)
28. The word “tolerant” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. vulnerable
B. resistant
C. susceptible
D. radiant
29. According to paragraph 8, what has been calculated about the subterranean
microbes?
A. They may have the potential to evolve into life.
B. They may weigh the same as all life on the surface.
C. There is no way they could exist under that pressure.
D. They probably consume similar food as other microbes.
30. In paragraph 9, the author used “South African gold mines” as an example of?
A. how microbes are able to adopt countless strategies for surviving in extreme environments.
B. the cause of how bacteria can survive at such extreme depths.
C. bacteria being unable to survive more than 7km deep.
D. microbes surviving up to a depth of 3.5km

PASSAGE 4 – Questions 31-40

ROMAN AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE
The Roman advanced unique principles of architecture in many ways, constructing buildings
and monuments involving both engineering and architectural skill. The arch was applied to
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various works of utility, making it a universal feature in civil buildings. Examples of this
include the Pantheon, and the Temple of Peace, both of which extended the principles of the
arch to their logical limits. Both these edifices indicated the progress of the Romans toward the
invention of a design that was distinctively their own.

The first Roman architects were priests because the religious leaders wanted a place to worship.
Romans learned most of their architectural techniques from the Greeks and the Etruscans.
Arches were used for their great support capabilities and their power to glorify. The idea of
extending the arch led to the development of the dome. Cement was added to the arch
construction, allowing the Romans to expand buildings. The Coliseum, for example, was built
using the arch system and concrete. The other primary use of the arch was to build aqueducts,
which carried water from the hills to big tanks in the cities. They held pipes lined with cement
on the top of the arches which carried the water.

Arches were also built in homage to the achievements of emperors. Rome contains arches for
Constantine, Titus, and many more, and all were decorated with sculptured pictures. Roman
architecture was about creating a beautiful structure. It attempted to serve a function and be
beautiful. For example, the Notre Dame and the Pantheon were both clearly designed to create
beauty. Roman architecture emphasized symmetry and weight, which involved the use of load-
bearing masonry. Detail was of immense importance, and perfection came from a meticulous
and firm use of symmetrical geometries, as well as the precise implementation of proportion.
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Modern buildings, since the 19th century, started to use a functional approach to design. Iron,
steel, and glass enabled architects to enclose vast spaces of department stores, or market halls.
Modern architecture was being inspired by abstract paintings and sculptures, and architects
began to consider space and light in their designs.

Modern architecture emphasized dynamic composition, movement, and thinness by using

materials such as iron and glass. Buildings were constructed using frame and cladding
techniques, where a steel frame was erected and glass panes were inserted to complete the
building. All loads were transferred down using the frame of the buildings. Although load-
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bearing materials such as brick appear to be used, virtually all of them are made of
concrete and steel, with a thin layer of brick applied to the exterior to hide the true nature
of the structure underneath.

The Louvre in Paris is an example of a building that has been modernized architecturally. The
original style of museum has been updated to include glass and steel. Originally, the entrance to
the museum attempted to create a beautiful environment in which the objects of value could be
put on view. However, the new entrance attempts to bring the inside to the outside and plays
with the idea of not separating the two.

There are many distinguishing features between old and modern architecture. Classical
buildings, it seems, are built for longevity, as most have withstood the ages. Ancient builders
used stone, mud-brick, and, eventually, wood and concrete in their buildings. Now,
architectures are incorporating style and function into modern designs. Although they are not
built to withstand the ages, some are works of admiration and intricate details.

40A The production of steel, iron, concrete and aluminum has greatly extended the scale of
designs that can be successfully built. 40B Today, lightweight materials allow designers to
cover distances far beyond, without the use of any arches. In this day and age, functionality is
important when designing a building as rooms are planned to maximize the use of space.
However, in ancient times, space was not a problem. 40C Aesthetics were much more
important than function. Modern and classical architecture refer to specific movements in their
respective times. Both, however, share an attitude of perfectionism. 40D

31. The word “logical” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. rational
B. justifiable
C. incorrect
D. extreme
32. Why does the author mention “the development of the dome” in the passage?

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A. To demonstrate the method used to create the Coliseum in Rome.
B. To show how the Roman arches developed into that style.
C. To explain how the design of aqueducts followed the typical Roman style.
D. To give an example of practical use of concrete and construction.
33. The word “they” in the passage refers to
A. the hills
B. the cities
C. the water
D. the aqueducts
34. According to paragraph 4, what characterized modern architecture?
A. domes and arches
B. light and open spaces
C. close and dark spaces
D. symmetry and precision
35. According to paragraph 5, which of the following describes the purpose of a steel
frame?
A. To bear the weight of the building
B. To appear more attractive than stone
C. To hide the load bearing frame of wood
D. To ensure that glass architecture does not break
36. Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the highlighted
sentence? Incorrect answer choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out
essential information.
A. Steel is a very unattractive material and is usually never used in the construction of
buildings.
B. Concrete is a popular building material because it can be shaped and formed in any way to
suit the pleasure of our eyes and that’s why it is most commonly used.
C. Steal is the main type of material to support the load of a building, but it is hidden for
cosmetic reasons.
D. Brick is much stronger than concrete, so it is commonly used.
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37. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 7 about modern buildings?
A. They did not combine function with style for many years.
B. They have always sought to embody the flourishing cultural and social life of the city.
C. It is always important to improve and become one step bigger.
D. The duration of time in construction is more critical today than it was in the past.
38. The word “functionality” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. usefulness
B. practicality
C. resourcefulness
D. design
39. According to the passage, how is the consideration of space different between modern
and ancient architecture?
A. Modern architecture can expand to any size.
B. Ancient architecture had to make use of all available space.
C. Modern land costs mean that all space must be used well.
D. Ancient architecture out of its artistic significance first.
40. Looking at four spaces that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the
passage.
Previously, arches were one of the only methods of spanning large distances and, for this
reason, they were used extensively.
Where would the sentence best fit?
A. 40A
B. 40B
C. 40C
D. 40D

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