Đề ôn thi HSG tiếng Anh (số 1)

Đề ôn thi HSGQG, 304 môn tiếng Anh Cung cấp kiến thức và kỹ năng cho học sinh chuẩn bị tham gia thi các kì HSG, bao gồm các phần lexico and gramma, multiple choice, reading, writing... Phần reading có format, nội dung của TOEFL và CPE Đề thi lấy từ kho ôn thi của học sinh chuyên

TEST 1

A LISTENING

Part 1 For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about five 5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now What does the speaker say about each of the issues? Choose five answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-J, in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

A Love is intensified by the factor of obscurity in the first meeting

B Egocentric people will be most happy when using social media to share their stories

C One’s ability to control himself is weakened when he or she is stimulated by rewards

D Knowing each other well in real life makes it easier to become close partners

E Whenever a phone buzzes, one is hardwired to make a subconscious response and loses concentration on the present work

F This phenomenon is characterized by occasional auditory hallucinations

G A small phone buzz cannot interrupt your work if you concentrate enough to neglect it

H Levels of a kind of neurotransmitter are expected to increase as a response to a rewarding stimulus

I White matter in some brain regions that guide one’s consciousness can be triggered by instant gratification

J Distractions become very subtle when one divides his focus on different activities

Five psychological tendencies:

1 Cannot log off

2 Multi-tasking

3 Phantom vibration syndrome

4 Deriving happiness from being the centre of attention

5 More successful partnerships

Your answers

Part 2 For questions 6-10, listen to a report on a natural disaster and answer the questions Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the corresponding numbered boxes provided

6 What weather conditions was Orange Beach struggling with?

7 What did a Category 2 hurricane turn into after one night?

8 What was the state of the boat docks after being hit by bloated waters?

9 How did strong winds damage a church in Alabama?

10 What weather conditions could be expected in many regions in the South East?

Your answers

Part 3 For questions 11-15, listen to an interview in which two academics, Julia Ford and Stuart Cameron, discuss human memory, 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 provided.

11 Julia and Stuart both think that concerns about the reliability of shared memories are A over-emphasised in some studies B reasonable in some situations

C underestimated by some psychologists D unfounded in legal contexts

12 What surprised Stuart about how older couples remembered information?

A the marked difference in the success of their approach

B the few signs of personal disagreement

C the great variety in the memories recalled

D the evidence of the use of similar processes

13 Julia and Stuart agree that the least effective sharing of memories occurred when one person

A ignored the knowledge of the other person

B tried to control the direction of the conversation

C knew a lot more about the topic than the other person

D contradicted information given by the other person

14 Julia contrasts humans with animals in order to

A illustrate human social independence

B suggest humans abuse their privileges

C emphasise the carelessness of some humans

D explain how humans are vulnerable

15 When talking about the nature of change in human memory, Julia and Stuart reveal

A their respect for art history

B their insistence on scientific evidence

C their interest in cultural explanations

D their differences regarding philosophical claims

Your answers

Part 4 For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about a special plant called bladderwort and supply the blanks with the missing information Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.

BLADDERWORT

16 The unsurpassable speed of bladderworts derives from their exclusive and intricate

17 Bladderwort is second to _ for the title "euphemism of the year."

18 This genus of carnivorous plants can be found in anywhere with shallow water or

19 The external glamour of bladderworts lies in their

20 are inevitable for bladderworts to capture their targets swiftly

21 The jargon "hair trigger" well explains how this plant can catch its preys with a

22 The bladder is known to be , and this characteristic facilitates the operation of the trap

23 One type of glands produces to decompose the prey while the other is responsible for pumping water

24 Scientists seem to have difficulty in distinguishing microorganisms from preys

25 A certain category of bladderwort, which can be nurtured by humans, is described as by the speaker

B LEXICO

1 The Forbidden Forest, which borders the edges of the Hogwarts School, is a dark and _ forest thick with mysterious creatures and lurking dangers

2 Because he started writing his term paper far too late, he is now behind the _ ball

3 Don’t you think an employee with _ like Henry will soon be promoted?

A a song in his heart B a fire in his belly

C kindred spirit D a soul of discretion

4 My daughter is a very confident girl and likes to express herself in public, unlike her brother, who

is a _

5 He is just a little child, please keep your _ on and be patient with him

6 Next time if you happen to arrive somewhere in my _ of the woods, do come round and have

a meal with us

7 Although the _ route I showed you is longer, it will actually take you a shorter time as you can avoid traffic jams during the rush hour

8 Although the famous singer dismissed the allegations as _ and innuendo, police investigation has shown the opposite

9 Students, when you arrive at the theatre, remember that you must sit according to the seating _ I showed you yesterday and whoever doesn’t follow will be disciplined!

10 The search for _ between the two sides has appeared to be in vain as none of the two companies was willing to compromise

A moot point B the third way C middle ground D a safe passage

11 Marriage, though not the social imperative it once was, still stands for a major rite of _ into adult life

12 Though it is still controversial regarding the character of the young actor, most people can’t deny he is worthy of his _ success

A wildfire B phenomenal C aspiring D influential

13 The bullet, luckily, just _ his shoulder, thanks to which his life

14 Those openly _ their wealth show nothing but a shallow mind and a contemptible dignity of themselves

A eliciting B flaunting C reviling D exerting

15 I understand and would totally support you if you want to _ of this toxic relationship

Word form

1 Her toes are severely _ from years of pursuing a career in professional ballet (SHAPE)

2 Teaching in mountainous areas is full of hardship but it is _ to see the determination of the students (HEART)

3 Mulan is a(n) _ adaptation of the 1998 Walt Disney Animation Studios film of the same name, starring Liu Yifei in the title role (LIVE)

4 The haughty employee _ his hand when asking for a pay rise and was eventually given the sack (PLAY)

5 Firefighters are working 12-hour shifts in extreme heat to battle devastating _ in the northern forests (FIRE)

C READING

Part 1 For questions 1-13, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.

Cars that can drive themselves

A The idea of the self-driving car dates back to before the Second World War Visitors to General Motors' 'Futurama' at the 1939 World Fair in New York were shown a vision of the future in 1960,

in which radio-controlled automobiles would zip along perfectly safe highways In the 1950s, General Motors and the Radio Corporation of America began experimenting with such a system, digging radio-transmitting cables into roads at a cost of around $100,000 per mile

B The system worked In 1958, a Chevrolet impala made it round a special course 'without the driver's hands on the steering wheel' but it joined the list of other expensive automated dreams The first real breakthroughs for self-driving cars took place in the late 1980s, in the £800m Eureka Promethesus Project, led by Ernst Dickmanns of the Bundeswehr University Munich, a pioneer of computer vision Using just four black and white cameras, Dickmanns's cars managed two road trips

of more than 1,000 kilometres through Europe in 1994 and 1995, driving without human intervention 95% of the time Automated cars have made huge leaps and bounds in recent years Starting in 2004, Darpa, the high-tech research wing of the US military, ran a series of competitions for driverless vehicles The winning team was hired by Google, and for years the technology company ran a fleet of automated cars around the highways of California So far the cars have clocked up 200,000 miles and have been involved in one minor human-caused accident Google is not on its own Other car manufacturers also have some kind of automated car in the works, with research and testing also going on in the UK and Germany

C Most driverless cars share the same 'Velodyne' laser system on their roofs 64 spinning lasers provide a constant, 3D view of the environment 40 metres around the car, while radars on the bumpers and a rear-view camera also feed in information The data is sorted by algorithms that distinguish between cars, pedestrians, plastic bags and cats, and tell the car what to do Automated cars are programmed to be model drivers: they stop when pedestrians step onto the road; they give way when they should; they stay out of other cars' blindspots and nudge forward when other cars should be letting them through

D Across the world, 1.2 million people are killed or injured on the roads each year with human error to blame 90% of the time 'It's amazing to me that we let humans drive cars,' says Eric Schmidt, the executive director of Google Paul Newman, a robotics engineer at Oxford University, says it is only a matter of time before we hand over the wheel 'It's crazy to imagine that in ten to twenty years we'll still have to sit behind a wheel, concentrating hard, not falling asleep and not running over people' , he says Computer-controlled cars offer the benefits of safety, fuel efficiency and speed Roads full of automated cars, all communicating with one another, will see vehicles going bumper-to-bumper at 70mph, eliminating traffic jams

E In spite of the encouraging pace of development, however, enormous hurdles still remain, notably how to engineer human common sense 'Imagine a situation where a box falls onto the road

in front of you,' says John Leonard, a mechanical engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'The system needs to make a split-second decision to either go straight through it or to swerve left or right - which might have worse consequences than just going forward' Other challenges include recognising the weaknesses of automated cars: how do their sensors respond to glare, poor weather, or damage?

F However, no matter how good, their guidance systems are, self-driven cars will still have accidents In which case, who will be responsible - the car manufacturer, the software developer or the human driver - for failing to override the computer at the critical moment? But will the cars even have people on board? One of the attractions, surely, will be in ordering them to come and pick us up: in which case will it be empty car A, or car B with driver, which is to blame for a driving mistake? In whatever form they emerge, automated cars will require the greatest overhaul of the law

of the roads since the rise of the automobile in the first half of the 20th century

G It seems unlikely, at least for the time being, that drivers will hand over their car keys A lot of people actually like to drive and hate being passengers More likely we will see a continuation of the gradual automation of cars that have been under way for two decades, during which automatic lane-keeping, cruise control and parking aids have been gratefully taken up A new Volvo, for example, now maintains safe distances in heavy traffic without human intervention, and Nissan is working on software that anticipates a driver's next move, adjusting the car ahead of time Piece by piece, radars, lasers, car to car communication, and the warning of dangers ahead will be added as well, slowly easing the wheel out of our hands

Questions 1-7

The reading passage has seven paragraphs A-G Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below Write the correct numbers i-x in boxes 1-7

List of headings

i The legal implications of automated driving

ii The limitations of the automated car

iii Towards a partial public acceptance of automated cars

iv The long dream of the automated car

v The downward trend in the demand for automated cars

vi The definition of an automated car

vii The current financial cost of developing automated car technology

viii The rationale behind the concept of the automated car

ix Common technological features of automated cars

x Remarkable success of automated cars on the road

Your answers

Question 8-13

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

In boxes 8-13, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information.

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

8 Google’s driverless cars have recorded no technical hitches since their deployment

9 It is claimed that human drivers inevitably cede their role to automated cars

10 The technology could allow cars to drive with a greater degree of safety when they are closer together

11 Common sense reasoning would be a nice-to-have for self-driving cars but is not truly required

12 The limited capacity to cope with emergencies is a major setback of autonomous cars

13 The upgrade of driverless cars would guarantee no car crashes occurring in the future

Your answers.

Part 2 For questions 14-23, read an extract from an article and choose the answer A, B, C or

D that fits best according to the text Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

Teenage brains

Journalist Martin Baines talks to neuroscientist Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore about the development of the brain during adolescence

Until I read Inventing Ourselves by Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, I'd always assumed that what

we think of as teenage behaviour is largely an invention of contemporary western society I hadn't imagined, for example, that 15-year-olds in the Kalahari Desert also complain about having to get

up early — but they do It was for people like me — there are lots of us — that Blakemore wrote

her book explaining the science of everything from why teenagers can't get out of bed in the

morning to why they sometimes appear to be irresponsible narcissists `We demonise teenagers

more than any other section of society,' she told me 'And it's not right They're going through an essential stage of their development Most adults don't realise this.'

This is arguably inevitable Blakemore says that until 20 years ago, it was assumed that teenage behaviour was largely down to hormonal changes in puberty and that children's brains were more or

less fully developed The findings of brain scans and psychological experiments have now revealed that the reality is very different, however In fact, the brain continues to change all through the teenage years and well into adulthood, and important neurodevelopmental processes enable it to be moulded by the environment So adolescence is a critical period of neurological change, much of which is responsible for adolescent behaviour

Blakemore quotes from a teenager's diary dated 20 July 1969: 'I went to arts centre (by myself!) in yellow cords and blouse Ian was there but didn't speak to me Got a rhyme put in my handbag from someone who's apparently got a crush on me It's Nicholas, I think UGH Man landed on the moon.' This may look like amazing — even jaw-dropping — self-absorption But Blakemore says it's essential neurological development, because the biological function of adolescence, today and in the past, is the creation of a sense of self Teens achieve this through creating new allegiances, independent of their parents — which is why their friendships suddenly become extremely important What is known on social media as FOMO — fear of missing out — may look like an

irrational sense of priorities if it means skipping revision to attend a run-of-the-mill get-together,

but at that age, nothing matters more than peer approval

Blakemore designed an experiment to explore this Adolescents were asked to play an online ball game, with what they believed to be two other players of their own age In fact, the game was with a computer programmed to ignore the human participants; these found themselves watching the ball being passed between two players on the screen who chose not to include them She repeated the experiment with adults, and found that, while the game lowered the mood and increased the anxiety levels of all participants, the effect was dramatically greater for the teenagers

In her book, Blakemore also discusses how the neurologically driven preoccupation with peer approval underlies adolescent risk-taking and acute self-consciousness, and how it determines adolescent sleep patterns It's fascinating, and I'm curious about the implications What could be done to accommodate the changes adolescents go through?

Blakemore suggests we might harness the power of peer pressure by getting adolescents to run educational campaigns — for example, on healthy eating She also mentions schools which have altered their start times to fit in with teenage sleep patterns, though she points out there may be practical issues about implementing this on a wider scale But generally, she's wary about putting forward concrete solutions This seems regrettable, but she insists she's a scientist rather than a consultant She doesn't even like to be asked for parenting advice, although she admits her work does inform her own parenting When she recently visited her teenage son's school, he asked her to pretend not to know him 'I could've been so offended by that But I thought: "That's absolutely normal."'

[■] One thing that makes Blakemore's empathy and affection for teenagers so striking is its rarity [■] But why does she think so many other adults feel differently? [■] She often thinks about why we

find it hilarious to 'take the mickey out of teenagers' [■] She points out that there are whole comedy shows mocking their behaviour She wonders if adults do it to cope with their rejection;

small children obey adults and want to be with them, but teenagers, through necessity, look for

independence, and the older generations feel hurt about this They resent adolescents' desire to

rebel and their sense of embarrassment when they're with parents 'Our way of dealing with these

changes is to sneer at them.'

14 What is the writer doing in the first paragraph?

A outlining how he feels about the way teenagers are generally perceived

B giving his reasons for writing a profile of Professor Blakemore

C pointing out international variations in teenage behaviour

D acknowledging his relative ignorance about teenagers

15 The writer suggests that the way teenage behaviour is commonly regarded is unsurprising because

A behavioural development is a complex subject

B significant progress in relevant areas of study is relatively recent

C people's outlook on life is partly determined by neurological factors

D differences between generations will always cause misunderstanding

16 What does the writer suggest is `jaw-dropping' about the teenager's diary entry?

A the strong desire for independence that comes across

B the similarity with what young people talk about today

C the negative comments about two acquaintances

D the focus on personal rather than wider events

17 The experiment described in the fourth paragraph was designed to provide evidence of

A how competitive teenagers tend to be

B how easily teenagers can be deceived

C how sensitive teenagers are to social exclusion

D how immersed teenagers can become in video games

18 In the sixth paragraph, the writer expresses

A disappointment at Blakemore's reluctance to advocate specific policies

B enthusiasm for the idea of giving teenagers more responsibility

C amusement at Blakemore's difficulties with her own children

D doubt regarding the feasibility of changing school hours

19 Which words in the final paragraph echo the phrase ‘take the mickey out of’?

A cope with

B feel hurt about

C resent

D sneer at

20 Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage

'Yes, I'm a champion of them,' she agrees.

Where would the sentence best fit?

A First square

B Second square

C Third square

D Fourth square

21 What does the word “It” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A teenage behaviour B book C invention D Kalahari Desert

22 The word ‘demonise’ in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:

23 The word ‘run-of-the-mill’ in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to:

A distinguished B ordinary C tedious D provocative

Your answers

14 15 16 17 18.

Part 3 You are going to read an extract from an article Seven paragraphs have been removed from the extract Choose from paragraphs A—H the one which fits each gap (24-30) There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use

My digital detox

Spending a weekend without access to communications technology was an eye-opener.

We were brushing through wet grass in the early morning when we saw it - a flash of white drifting behind a small patch of trees, backlit by the sun Crouching down next to Artley, our twenty-one-month-old son, my partner Will and I watched the unmistakable shape of a barn owl until it disappeared into the wood The look on Artley’s face was part of a brief moment of magic, the kind

of memory that we live for Ordinarily, my next thought would have been to pull out my phone, take

a photo or video and send a message Connecting is something I do unconsciously now, and sharing such moments has become second nature

24.

That weekend, however, the three of us were, by our own choice, offline We were camping at a rural site calied Swallowtail Hill in southern England, which offers visitors the option of leaving all their electronic devices in the safe keeping of the owner for the duration of their stay - a kind of digital detox, you might say We had been inspired by William Powers' book Hamlet’s BlackBerry,

an imaginative and thoughtful work that explores reactions to new technologies throughout history and the lessons we should have learnt from them Blessed with two days of good weather and some delicious local food, I barely noticed I wasn’t online

25.

Take equal responsibility for our digital obsession - magnetically drawn, as I am, to any screen that can feed my addiction Nonetheless, any objections of mine to this specific vice are usually swiftly defended by an explanation of the importance of dealing with whatever it is now, though it never seems anything that couldn’t wait half an hour Suddenly, however, we had his full attention - well almost There was a moment when he was distracted by a buzzing sensation and automatically reached for his phone, before realising it was a bee

26.

By breaking away from my connected life, however, I came to appreciate just how much it had permeated my way of being So-called ‘early adopters', the heavy technology users who throw themselves at every new device and service, will admit to an uncontrollable impulse to check their email accounts or social networking sites Researchers have called this 'variable interval reinforcement schedule' Such people have in effect been drawn into digital message addiction because the most exciting rewards are unpredictable

27.

A study by the University of California concluded that such constant multi-tasking gradually erodes short-term memory It also discovered that interruptions to any task requiring concentration are a massive problem, as it takes us much longer to get back into them than it does to deal with the interruption itself

In other words, what was once exterior and faraway is now easily accessible and this carries a sense

of obligation or duty He sees the feeling that we should be reaching out, or be available to be reached out to as tied to the self-affirmation that the internet, and all that goes with it, provides us with

29.

One practical suggestion, for example, is to use paper as a more efficient way of organising our thoughts The theory of ‘embodied interaction' asserts that physical objects free our minds to think because our hands and fingers can do much of the work, unlike screens where our brains are constantly in demand

30.

As we left Swallowtail Hill, we seemed to have achieved that The real work was just starting, however, trying to put this and other ideas into regular practice in an attempt to balance work and home life Powers also talks about ‘vanishing family trick’, where a seemingly sociable family gradually dissolves away to screens in different corners of the house It's clearly a situation to be avoided Our digital detox had been something of a wake-up call And guess what? When the owner handed back our phones, we didn't have a missed call or message between us

The misssing paragraphs

A At home, those concerns about my digital addiction are most acute when I catch my son looking

at me while I'm checking a screen It's reinforcing how much more important the screen is than him,

as if I'm teaching him that obeying these machines is what he needs to do

B In truth, he wasn't at one in such lapses Without our hand-held devices, neither of us had much idea what the time was Then, I reached for mine when I wondered about local shopping facilities and whether it is normal to see a barn owl during the day And the magical moment when Artley was being read his bedtime story in front of an open fire, I've had to try and commit to my own fallible memory

C For those of us compelled to check email every few minutes, that finding accounts for those days which seem to pass so quickly with so little getting done And this is part of a wider trend 'The more we connect, the more our thoughts lean outward,’ Powers writes ‘There's a preoccupation with what’s going on “out there" in the bustling otherworld, rather than “in here" with yourself and those right around you.’

D Like me, he is a true believer in the value and potential of digital technologies He concludes, however, that we need to find the discipline to restore control by reintroducing a little disconnectedness

E More radical still is the idea of banning the internet at weekends on the grounds that being away from it on a regular basis allows us to grasp its utility and value more fully, Hopefully, it also brings about a shift to a slower, less restless way of thinking, where you can just be in one place, doing one particular thing, and enjoy it

F The meaningful and the mundane have thus merged into one, all dutifully and habitually recorded

- my enjoyment split between that technological impulse and the more delicate human need to be in the moment This is how we live these days

G What did strike me though was the change in Will’s behaviour If my worst habit is incessant messaging, his is allowing his phone to take precedence over everything else Country walks, dinner, bathing our son - no moment is safe from the seemingly irresistible ringing, vibrating, nagging phone, that demands - and wins - his attention when he should be enjoying the moment with us