TEST

I. Tìm lỗi sai:

Part 1: Read the passage below which contains 10 mistakes. Identify the
mistakes and write the corrections in the corresponding numbered boxes.

Line 1 All tournament chess games are played with a chess clock – that is two clocks attached
2 together. When one player does his move, he presses a button which stops his clock and
3 starts his opponent clock. Whoever fails to keep up the time limit, no matter what the
4 position on the board, loses the game.
5 Weekend tournaments with a fast time limit and long sessions of play of up to twelve hours
6 a day are very strenuous and result from fatigue and time troubles. The play is quite sharp.
7 Active, attacking chess is the order of the day and it is difficult to maintain a sustained,
8 precise defense against such play. A score of the game must be kept as play goes on. Each
9 move is written down on a score sheet, it has to be handed to the tournament officials in the
10 end of each round. The sorely thought in everybody’s head is to win. Talent and youth –
11 that’s what is needed for success at chess, with the emphasis on youth. Some approach the
12 board with a slow, purposeless manner without giving you a second glance – you simply
13 don’t count. They seem to imply that the outcome is a foregone conclusion for them; you
14 only have to accept them with good grace.

Part 2: Identify 10 errors in the following passage and correct them:

Line Though called by sweet-sound names like Firinga or Katrina, tropical

cyclones are huge rotating storms 200 to 2,000 kilometres wide with winds
that blow at speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour. Weather
professionals know themselves as tropical cyclones, but they called
5 hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea, typhoons in the Pacific Ocean, and cyclones
in the Indian Ocean. They occur in both the northern and southern
hemispheres. Large ones have destroyed cities and killed hundred of
thousands of people.
Tropical cyclones begin over water that is warmer than 27 degrees Celcius
10 (80 degress Fahrenheit) slightly north or south of the earth’s equator. Warm,
humid air is full of water vapor moves upward. The earth’s rotation causes
the growing storm to start to rotate around its center (called the eye). At a
certain height, the water vapor condenses, changing to liquid and releasing
heat. The heat draws more air and water vapor upward, creating a cycle as air
15 and water vapor rises and liquid water falls. If the cycle speeds up until
winds reach 118 kilometres per hour, the storm qualifies as a tropicl cyclone.
Most deaths in tropical cyclones are caused by storm surge. This is a rise in
sea level, sometimes seven meters or more, caused by the storm pushing at
the ocean’s surface. Storm surge was to blame for the flooding of New
20 Orleans in 2005. The storm surge of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar
pushed seawater nearly four meters depth some 40 kilometres inland,
resulting in many deaths.
It has never been easy to forecast a tropical cyclone accurately. The goal is to
know when and where the next tropical cyclone will form. “And we can’t
25 really do that yet”, says David Nolan, a weather research from the University
of Miami. The direction and strength of tropical cyclones are also difficult to
predict, even with computer assistance. In fact, long-term forecasts are poor,
small differences about the combination of weather factors lead to very
different storms. More accurate forecasting could help people decide to
evacuate when a storm is on the way.

II. Summary:

As skeptical moderns, we often have trouble accepting drawings or paintings as

historical records, but we tend to believe in photographs the way that we
believe in mirrors; we simply accept them as the truth. Alexander Gardner’s
photograph Trossel’s House, Battle – Field of Gettysburg, July, 1863 might
therefore be viewed as evidence rather than commentary. Unlike some of
Gardner’s other sketches, this picture includes no perfectly positioned rifles, no
artistically angled river, no well – posed men in uniform – indeed, no people at
all. The photograph’s composition could barely be more prosaic, the horizon
slashes the picture in half, and the subject, a white colonial – style house, sits
smack in the center. Yet this straightforward, almost innocent perpective sets
the viewer up for the photograph’s stealthy horror. At first glance, the
photograph appears to be a portrait of a house, perhaps even a poor portrait of a
house; in a book of war, one might flip right by it to the gory pictures before
and after. But the terror in this photograph lies in its delayed shock, the gut –
wrenching surprise when the light on the house leads the eye to the light on the
fence and the viewer notices that the backyard fence is broken, and then the
backyard is a mess, littered with – what are those? – horses, dead horses, twelve
 dead horses. What must have happened to topple twelve nine-hundred-pound
horses, and where are the people who rode them?Crushed underneath? The
viewer doesn’t know, because Gardner’s picture doesn’t tell us. All we see is a
house, a broken fence, twelve dead horses, and an empty sky.

III. Reading:

Part 1: Read the text below and choose the best answer to each questions.

Ancient people probably assembled the massive sandstone horseshoe at

Stonehenge more than 4,600 years ago, while the smaller bluestones were imported
from Wales later, a new study suggests.

The conclusion, detailed in the December issue of the journal Antiquity, challenges
earlier timelines that proposed the smaller stones were raised first.

“The sequence proposed for the site is really the wrong way around”, said study
co-author Timothy Darvill, an archeologist at Bournemouth University in England.
“The original idea that it starts small and gets bigger is wrong. It starts big and
stays big. The new scheme puts the big stones at the center at the site as the first
stage”.

The new timeline, which relies on statistical methods to tighten the dates when the
stones were put into place, overturns the notion that ancient societies spent
hundreds of years building each area of Stonehenge. Instead, a few generations
likely built each of the major elements of the site, said Robert Ixer, a researcher
who discovered the origin of the bluestones, but who was not involved in the
study.

“It’s a very timely paper and a very important paper”, Ixer said. “A lot of us have
got to go back and rethink when the stones arrived”.

The Wiltshire, England, site of Stonehenge is one of the world’s most enduring
mysteries. No one knows why prehistoric people built the enigmatic megaliths,
although researchers over the years have argued the site was originally a sun
calendar, a symbol of unity, or a burial monument.

Though only some of the stones remain, at the center of the site once sat an oval of
bluestones, or igneous rockes (those formed from magma) that turn a bluish hue
when wet or freshly cut. Surrounding the bluestones are five giant sandstone
megaliths called trilithons, or two vertical standing slabs capped by a horizontal
stone, arranged in the shape of a horseshoe.

Around the horseshoe, ancient builders erected a circular ring of bluestones. The
sandstone boulders, or sarsens, can weigh up to 40 tons (36,287 kilograms), while
the much smaller bluestones weigh a mere 4 tons (3,628 kg).

Past researchers believed the bluestone oval and circle were erected earlier than the
massive sandstone horseshoe. But when Darvill and his colleagues began
excavations at the site in 2008, they found the previous chronology didn’t add up.
The team estimated the age of new artifacts from the site, such as an antler bone
pick stuck within the stones.

Combining the new information with dating from past excavations, the team
created a new timeline for Stonehenge’s construction.

Like past researchers, the team believes that ancient people first used the site 5,000
years ago, when they dug a circular ditch and mound, or henge, about 361 feet
(110 meters) in diameter.

But the new analysis suggests around 2600 B.C the Neolithic people built the giant
sandstone horseshoe, drawing the stone from nearby quarries. Only then did
builders arrange the much smaller bluestones, which were probably imported from
Wales. Those bluestones were then rearranged at various positions throughout the
site over the next millennium, Darvill said.

“They sort out the local stuff first, and then they bring in the stones from Wales to
add to the complexity of the structure”, David told LiveScience.

The new dating allows the archeologists to tie the structure to specific people who
lived in the area at the time, Darvill said. The builders of the larger sandstone
structures were pig farmers found only in the British Isles. In contrast, the
bluestone builders would’ve been the Beaker people, sheep and cow herders who
lived throughout Europe and are known for the distinctive, bell-shape pottery they
left behind.
The new timeline “connects everything together”, it gives us a good sequence of
events outside, and it gives us a set of cultural associations with the different stages
of construction”, Darvill said.

1. The new study described in this article suggests which sequence of events
for the building of Stonehenge?
A. The bluestones were arranged in the horseshoe configuration and then
accented with the larger stones.
B. Ancient people first arranged the small bluestone configuration and later
ringed it with large, imported granit slabs.
C. The sandstone hoseshoe was developed first, thousands of years ago, and
the smaller bluestones were imported later from Wales.
D. All the stones were brought in at the same time and slowly arranged over
centuries.
2. Which type of methodology does the new study rely on to discern
Stonehenge timeline?
A. Mineralogy C. Carbon dating
B. Statistical analysis D. DNA analysis
3. According to the article, a sarsen could weigh how much?
A. 38 tons B. 42 tons C. 56 tons D. 41 tons
4. Until the study that is discussed in the article, what was the accepted
sequence of Stonehenge’s construction?
A. Bluestone horseshoe, then sandstone oval.
B. Bluestone diamond, then sandstone square.
C. Bluestone square, then sandstone circle.
D. Bluestone oval, then sandstone horseshoe.
5. None of the following were known artifacts in constructing the new
stonehenge timeline EXCEPT
A. Arrowheads of the nearby civillizations.
B. Skeletons of ancient peoples.
C. An antler bone wedged between stones.
D. Stone eroded clearly enough to be dated.
6. It is agreed between old and new studies that Stonehenge was first used by
civillizations?
A. 5,000 years ago C. 7,000 years ago
 B. 6,000 years ago D. 8,000 years ago
7. The later bluestones, believed to be imported from Wales
A. were originally arranged to outline the horseshoe shape of the sandstone
boulders.
B. were arranged over the course of a millennium.
C. were actually recovered from local quarries.
D. were settle in their pattern within a year.
8. According to Darvill, what effect did the bluestones have upon Stonehenge?
A. They allowed the dimensions of Stonehenge to be more aesthetically
pleasing.
B. They provided an added complexity to the structure by using foreign
material.
C. They represented strong cultural ties with the Welsh culture.
D. They were symbols of conquest of foreign lands.
9. According to Daville, what is the most important piece of knowledge
obtained from this new timeline?
A. That sandstone and bluestone were both native to the region.
B. That Stonehenge became the model for future Scottish architecture.
C. That the original peoples who built Stonehenge were wealthy enough to
acquire rare stones.
D. That the original builders of Stonehenge were different types of animal
herders.
10.What is the conclusion that Darville draws in the quote in the final
paragraph?
A. Stonehenge remains an inspiration for modern artists and architects.
B. The mysteries of Stonehenge are entirely clarified by the new research
and timeline.
C. Previous timeline for Stonehenge may have given us a flawed
interpretation of the civilizations and materials they had access to at the
time.
D. Stonehenge was really a foreign project, made from materials outside of
the country, and influenced by civilizations other than those who lived
locally.
Part 2: Read the text and do the following questions.
The Columbian Exchange
A. Millions of years ago, continental drift carried the Old World and New
World apart, splitting North and South America from Eurasia and Africa.
That seperation lasted so long that it fostered divergent evolution; for
instance, the development of rattlesnakes on one side of the Atlantic and of
vipers on the other. After 1492, human voyagers in part reversed this
tendency. Their artificial re-establishment of connections through the
commingling of Old and New World plants, animals, and bacteria,
commonly known as the Columbian Exchange, is one of the more
spectacular and significant ecological events of the past millenium.
B. When Europeans first touched the shores of the Americas, Old World crops
such as wheat, barley, rice, and turnips had not travelled west across the
Atlantic, and New World crops such as maize, white potatoes, sweet
potatoes, and manioc had not travelled east to Europe. In the Americas, there
were no horses, cattle, sheep, or goats, and animals of Old World origin.
Except for the Ilama, alpaca, dog, a few fowl, and guinea pig, the New
World had no equivalents to the domesticated animals asscociated with the
Old World’s dense populations of humans and such associated creatures as
chickens, cattle, black rats, and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Among these
germs were those that carried smallpox, measles, chickenpox, influenza,
malaria, and yellow fever.
C. As might be expected, the Europeans who settled on the east coast of the
United States cultivated crops like wheat and apples, which they had brought
with them. European weeds, which the colonists did not cultivate, and, in
fact, preferred to uproot, also fared well in the New World. John Josselyn, an
Englishman and amateur naturalist who visited New England twice in the
seventeenth century, left us a list, “Of Such Plants as Have Sprung Up since
the English Planted and Kept Catlle in New England”, which included couch
grass, dandelion, shepherd’s purse, groundsel, sow thistle, and chickweed.
One of these, a plantain (Plantago major), was named “Englishman’s Foot”
by the Amerindians of New england and Virginia who believed that it would
grow only where the English “have trodden, and was never known before
the English came into this country”. Thus, as they intentionally sowed Old
World crop seeds, the European settlers were unintentionally contaminating
American fields with weed seeds. More importantly, they were stripping and
burning forests, exposing the native minor flora to direct sunlight, and the
 hooves and teeth of Old World livestock. The native flora could not tolerate
the stress. The imported weeds could, because they had lived with large
numbers of grazing animals for thousands of years.
D. Cattle and horses were brought ashore in the early 1600s and found
hospitable climate and terrain in North America. Horse arrived in Virgina as
early as 1620 and in Massachusetts in 1629. Many wandered free with little
more evidence of their connection to humanity than collars with a hook at
the bottom to catch on fences as they tried to leap over them to get at crops.
Fences were not for keeping livestock in, but for keeping livestock out.
E. Native American resistance to the Europeans was ineffective.indigenous
people suffered from brutality, alcoholism, the killing and driving off of
game, and the expropriation of farmland, but all these together are
insufficient to explain the degree of their defeat. The crucial factor was not
people, plants, or animals, but germs. Smallpox was the worst and the most
spectacular of the infectious diseases mowing down the Native Americans.
The first recorded pandemic of that disease in British North America
detonated among the Algonquin of Massachusetts in the early 1630s.
William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation wrote that the victims “fell down
so generally of this disease as they were in the end not able to help one
another, no, not to make a fire nor fetch a little water to drink, nor any to
bury the dead”. The missionaries and the traders who ventured into the
American interior told the same appalling story about smallpox and the
indigenes. In 1738 alone, the epidemic destroyed half the Cherokee, in 1759
nearly half the Catawbas, in the first years of the next century, two thirds of
the Omahas and perhaps half the entire population between the Missouri
River and New Mexico; in 1837-38 nearly every last one of the Mandans
and perhaps half the people of the high plains.
F. The export of America’s native animals has not revolutionised Old World
agriculture or ecosystems as the introduction of European animals to the
New World did. America’s grey squirrels and muskrats and a few others
have established themselves east of the Atlantic and west of the Pacific, but
that has not made much of a difference. Some of America’s domesticated
animals are raised in the Old World, but turkeys have not displaced chickens
and geese, and guinea pigs proved useful in laboratories, but have not
usurped rabbits in the butcher shops.
G. The New World’s great contribution to the Old is in crop plants. Maize,
white potatoes, sweet potatoes, various squashes, chiles, and manioc have
become essentials in the diets of hundreds of millions of Europeans,
Africans, and Asians. Their influence on Old World peoples, like that of
wheat and rice on New World peoples, goes far to explain the global
population explosion of the past three centuries. The Columbian Exhchange
has been an indispensable factor in that demographic explosion.
H. All this had nothing to do with superiority or inferiority of biosystems in any
absolute sense. It has to do with environmental contrasts. Amerindians were
accustomed to living in one particular kind of environment, Europeans and
Africans in another. When the Old World peoples came to America, they
brought with them all their plants, animals, and germs, creating a kind of
environment to which they were already adapted, and so they increased in
number. Amerindians had not adapted to European germs, and so initially
their numbers plunged. That decline has reversed in our time as Amerindian
populations have adapted to the Old World’s environmental influence, but
the demographic triumph of the invaders, which was the most spectacular
feature of the Old World’s invasion of the New, still stands.
Question 1 – 8:
Reading Passage has eight paragraphs A – H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
1. A description of an imported species that is named after the English
colonists.
2. The reason why both the New World and Old World experienced
population growth.
3. The formation of new continents explained.
4. The reason why the indigenous population declined.
5. An overall description of the species lacked in the Old World and New
World.
6. A description of some animal species being ineffective in affecting the
Old World.
7. An overall explaination of the success of the Old World species invasion.
8. An account of European animals taking roots in the New World.
Question 9 – 12:
 Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading
Passage? 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
9. European settlers built fences to keep their cattle and horses inside.
10. The indigenous people had been brutally killed by the European
colonists.
11. America’s domesticated animals, such as turkey, became popular in the
Old World.
12.Crop exchange between the two worlds played a major role in world
population.
Question 13 – 14:
Answer the questions below using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
from the passage for each answer.
13. Who reported the same story of European diseases among the indigenes
from the American interior?
14. What is the still existing feature of the Old World’s invasion of the
New?
Part 3: Read the following passage and circle the best answer to each of the
following questions.
PARENTHOOD
Paul watched the television above the bar. An army of turtles waddled up a beach,
cumbersome helmets dragged through the fine sand to deposit a clutch of smooth,
white eggs in the dunes. He saw the wriggling reptilian babies emerge sticky from
the broken shells and repeat the journey in reverse, thousands of tiny helmets
trundling inexorably over the moonlit dunes towards the breakers. Those who
escaped being flipped over on their backs and pecked to death by wading birds
were finally swallowed up in the surf. There was no pleasure involved in this
reptilian cycle of birth and death. The turtles survived purely because there were so
many of them, and the oceans were so vast, that one or two were bound to slip
through unnoticed.
He wondered why they bothered, and presumed it could only be because they had
no choice. Their genes forced them ever onwards – life would not be denied.
Previous generations had imposed their will upon their distant descendants, and the
descendants wearily obeyed. If, by chance, a turtle was born in whom this instinct
towards multiplication was misformed or absent, a turtle whose instincts directed
them not towards reproduction but towards reflection on the purpose of
reproduction, say, or towards how long it could stay underwater on one breath,
then this instinct would die with the turtle. The turtles were condemned to multiply
purely by the breeding success of their own ancestors. There was no escape for
them. Multiplication, once set in motion, was unstoppable.
At the present moment, the balance of his own inclinations titled more towards
sleep, the cessation of thought, hibernation, vegetation. Had he been one of those
tiny helmets, he would, at that moment, have flipped over belly – up in the sand
and simply awaited the releasing beak. Parenthood had taken him by surprise. The
books, the articles, the classes, had not prepared him for the intensity of it all. Snap
decisions to be made, everybody looking to him for the answers, and no way of
knowing if he had made the correct guess, no way of finding his way back to the
main track if he took a wrong turning. Last night he had been half a couple. He had
lived with others all his life. It was easy – you had rows, you had resentments, but
if they became too frequent or too boring, or if the compensations ceased to be
adequate, you just left, and tried again with someone else until you found someone
you could put up with. He could not remember how it had all changed. Perhaps it
had been the doors of youth and liberty creaking shut behind him, or the demands
that were suddenly being made of him, the faces turning towards him when a
decision was required. Or perhaps it was just the steaming concoction of his
emotions, his hormones, his thoughts slopping around his veins with the coffee and
nicotine. Whatever it was, something had obliged him to seek out a tranquil place
in order to restore some order to his metabolism.
Then there was the feeling that he had been duped – the one feeling that he hadn’t
been warned of – when he saw mother and baby together and realized that the
reason why everyone made such a big deal of fatherhood these days was simply
because it was such an implausible state. Mothers and babies were the world.
Fathers were optional extras, accessories. If some strange virus colonized the Y-
chromosome and poisoned all the men, the world would carry on. It would not be a
very exciting world perhaps, rather bland and predictable, but women would find
some way to reproduce, and within a generation or two it would be difficult to
believe that there had ever been men at all. They would appear in the
encyclopaedias somewhere between dinosaurs and Romans. Future, generations of
little girls would try, in vain, to understand what it had been that men had done,
how they had contributed. What use had they been? He had suddenly seen his role
exposed as that of a footnote. The books had warned him of this feeling, of
jealousy of irrelevance and superfluity. They had said it was natural, that he would
get over it. What they had not said was that it was natural because it was so
manifestly, poignantly true, or that he would get over it only by stopping thinking
about it. Fathers deceived themselves. Mothers and babies held it all together. The
men came and went, interchangeably, causing trouble and bringing presents to
make up for it.
He turned his attention to the television. The tiny helmets he had watched clawing
their way down towards the surf had become parents themselves now. You could
tell they were the same turtles, because the scientists had painted fluorescent
hieroglyphics on their shells. They returned to the beach on which they had
hatched, and the credits rolled.
1. What did Paul notice about the turtles in the first paragraph?
A. Their reluctance to return to the sea
B. Their behaviour with their young
C. The effort they made to survive
D. The tiny proportion of young who survived
2. What does the word “inexorably” in bold in paragraph 1 mean?
A. unstoppably B. inexplicably C. inevitably D. inadvisably
3. Paul assumed that if a turtle did not wish to reproduce,
A. It would be punished by other turtles.
B. It would end up doing so anyway.
C. This attitude would not spread to other turtles.
D. This would not come as a surprise.
4. His thoughts turned towards going to sleep because
A. He knew that he was unlikely to get much in the near future.
B. He had been left mentally exhausted by becoming a parent.
C. He had become weary of his actions being criticized.
D. He felt that was what many of the turtles probably wanted to do.
5. What does the word “resentment” in bold in paragraph 3 mean?

A. Anger B. suspicion C. jealousy D. confusion

6. What did he feel he had been forced to do since last night?
 A. Accept that he was not really cut out for living with other people.
B. Find a way of making himself feel better physically.
C. Identify precisely what had caused his life to change so radically.
D. Remind himself of how he had felt prior to this.
7. In what way did he feel that he had been duped?
A. He had accepted his role to be one that different from that of most men.
B. He had not been informed about how women changed when they became
mothers.
C. He had not been told the truth by women about how they really regarded
men.
D. He had thought fatherhood was treated as a major subject because fathers
were important.
8. He felt that the books had failed to warn him that his feeling of irrelevance
A. Would not fade away naturally.
B. Would not be shared by others.
C. Would be replaced by worse feelings.
D. Would reduce him to inactivity.
9. What does the word “duped” in bold in paragraph 4 mean?
A. Shocked B. fascinated C. cheated D. appealed
10. What is implied about events on the television programme?
A. They made him more depressed than he would otherwise have been.
B. They made him feel that turtles were better off than humans.
C. They reflected his own lack of joy at becoming a father.
D. They gave him a chance to escape from his own thoughts.
Part 4: Read the following passage and choose the best answer.
COMMUNICATING WITH THE FUTURE
In the 1980s the United States Department of Energy was looking for suitable sites
to bury radioactive waste material generated by its nuclear energy programs. The
government was considering burying the dangerous wastes in deep underground
chambers in remote desert areas. The problem, however, was that nuclear waste
remains highly radioactive for thousands of years. The commission entrusted with
tackling the problem of waste disposal was aware that the dangers posed by
radioactive emissions must be communicated to our descendants of at least 10,000
years hence. So the task became one of finding a way to tell future societies about
the risk posed by these deadly deposits.
Of course, human society in the distant future may be well aware of the hazards of
radiation. Technological advances may one day provide the solutions to this
dilemma. But the belief in constant technological advancement is based on our
perceptions of advances made throughout history and prehistory. We cannot be
sure that society won’t have slipped backward into an age of barbarism due to any
of several catastrophic events, whether the result of nature such as the onset of a
new ice age or perhaps mankind’s failure to solve the scourges of war and
pollution. In the event of global catastrophe, it is quite possible that humans of the
distant future will be on the far side of a broken link of communication and
technological understanding.
The problem then becomes how to inform our descendants that they must avoid
areas of potential radioactive seepage given that they may not understand any
currently existing language and may have no historical or cultural memory. So, any
message indicated to future reception and decipherment must be as universally
understandable as possible.
It was soon realized by the specialists assigned the task of devising the
communication system that material in which the message was written might not
physically endure the great lengths of time demanded. The second law of
thermodynamics shows that all material disintergrates over time. Even computers
that might carry the message cannot be expected to endure long enough. Besides,
electricity supplies might not be available in 300 generations. Other media storage
methods were considered and rejected for similar reasons.
The task force under the linguist Thomas Sebeok finally agreed that no foolproof
way would be found to send a message across so many generations and have it
survive physically and be decipherable by a people with few cultural similarities to
us. Given this restriction, Sebeok suggested the only possible solution was the
formation of a committee of guardians of knowledge. Its task would be to dedicate
itself to maintaining and passing the knowledge of the whereabouts and dangers of
the nuclear waste deposits. This so-called atomic priesthood would be entrusted
with keeping knowledge of this tradition alive through millenia and developing the
tradition into a kind of mythical taboo forbidding people to tamper in a way with
the nuclear waste sites. Only the initated atomic priesthood of experts would have
the scientific knowledge to fully understand the danger. Those outside the
preiesthood would be kept away by a combination of rituals and legends designed
to warn off intruders.
This proposal has been criticized because of the possibility of a break in continuity
of the original message. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that any warning or
sanction passed on for millenia would be obeyed, nor that it could survive with its
original meaning intact. To counterbalance this possibility, Sebeok’s group
proposed a “relay system” in which information is passed on over relatively short
periods of time, just three generations ahead. The message then to be renewed and
redesigned if necessary for the following three generations and so on over the
required time span. In this way information could be relayed into the future and
avoid the possibility of physical degradation.
A second defect is more difficult to dismiss, however. This is the problem of social
exclusiveness brought about through possession of vital knowledge. Critics point
out that the atomic priesthood could use its secret knowledge to control those who
are scientifically ignorant. The establishment of such an association of insiders
holding powerful knowledge not available except in mythic form to nonmembers
would be a dangerous precedent for future social developments.
1. The word “chambers” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. partitions B. openings C. cavities D. fissures
2. What problem faced the commission assigned to deal with the burial of
nuclear waste?
A. How to reduce the radioactive life of nuclear waste materials.
B. How to form a committee that could adequately express various nuclear
risks.
C. How to notify future generations of the risks of nuclear contamination.
D. How to choose burial sites so as to minimize dangers to people.
3. In paragraph 2, the author explains the possible circumstances of future
societies
A. To warm about the possible natural catastrophe
B. To question the value of advances
C. To highlight humankind’s inability to resolve problems.
D. To demonstrate the reason nuclear hazards must be communicated.
4. The word “scourges” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. Pressures B. afflictions C. worries D. annoyances
5. In paragraph 4, the author mentions the second law of thermodynamics
A. To support the view that nuclear waste will disperse with time
B. To show that knowledge can be sustained over millenia
 C. To give the basic scientific reason behind the breakdown of material
objects
D. To contrast the potential life span of knowledge with that of material
objects.
6. The word “its” in the passage refers to
A. Knowledge B. committee C. solution D. guardians
7. In paragraph 5, why is the proposed committee of guardians referred to as
the “atomic priesthood”?
A. Because they would be an exclusive group with knowledge about nuclear
waste sites.
B. Because they would use rituals and legends to maintain their
exclusiveness.
C. Because they would be an exclusive religious order.
D. Because they would develop mythic taboos surrounding their traditions.
8. According to the author, why did the task force under Sebeok propose a
relay system for passing on information?
A. To show that Sebeok’s idead created more problems than they solved.
B. To support the belief that breaks in communication are inevitable over
time.
C. To contrast Sebeok’s ideas with those proposed by his main critics.
D. To compensate for the fact that meaning will not stable over long periods
of time.
9. According to paragraph 7, the second defect of the atomic priesthood
proposal is that it could lead to
A. The nonmembers turning knowledge into dangerous mythical forms
B. The possible misuse of exclusive knowledge
C. The establisment of a scientifically ignorant society
D. The priesthood’s criticism of points concerning vital knowledge.
10.All of the following are mentioned in the passage as difficulties in devising a
communication system with the future EXCEPT
A. The failure to maintain communication link
B. The loss of knowledge about today’s civilization
C. The inability of materials to endure over time
D. The exclusiveness of priesthood
Part 5: Read the text below and choose the best answer to each question.
It is estimated that over 99 percent of all species that ever existed have become
extinct. What causes extinction? When a species is no longer adapted to a changed
environment, it may perish. The exact causes of a species’ death vary from
situation to situation. Rapid ecological change may render an environment hostile
to a species. For example, temperatures may change and a species may not be able
to adapt. Food Resources may be affected by environmental changes, which will
then cause problems for a species requiring these resources. Other species may
become better adapted to an environment, resulting in competition and, ultimately,
in the death of a species.
The fossil record reveals that extinction has occurred throughout the history of
Earth. Recent analyses have also revealed that on some occasions many species
became extinct at the same time – a mass extinction. One of the best – known
examples of mass extinction occurred 65 million years ago with the demise of
dinosaurs and many other forms of life. Perhaps the largest mass extinction was the
one that occurred 225 million years ago. When approximately 95 percent of all
specied died, mass extinctions can be caused by a relatively rapid change in the
environment and can be worsened by the close interrelationship of many species.
If, for example, something were to happen to destroy much of the plankton in the
oceans, then the oxygen content of Earth would drop, affection even organisms not
living in the oceans. Such a change would probably lead to a mass extinction.
One interesting and controversial, finding is that extinctions during the past 250
million years have tended to be more intense every 26 million years. This periodic
extinction might be due to intersection of the Earth’s orbit with a cloud of comets,
but this theory is purly speculative. Some researchers have also speculated that
extinction may often be random. That is, certain species may be eliminated and
others may survive for no particular reason. A species’ survival may have nothing
to do with its ability or inability to adapt. If so, some of revolutionary history may
reflect a sequence of essentially random events.
1. The word “it” in line 3 refers to
A. Environment B. species C. extinction D. 99 percent
2. The word “ultimately” in line 9 is closest in meaning to
A. Exceptionally B. dramatically C. eventually D. unfortunately
3. What does the author say in paragraph 1 regarding most species in Earth;s
history?
A. They have remained basically unchanged from their original forms.
 B. They have been able to adapt to ecological changes.
C. They have caused rapid change in the environment.
D. They are no longer in existence.
4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 1 as resulting from
rapid ecological change?
A. Temperature change C. Introduction of new species
B. Availability of food resources D. Competition among species
5. The word “demise” in line 14 is closest in meaning to
A. Change B. recovery C. help D. death
6. Why is “plankton” mentioned in line 19?
A. To demonstrate the interdependence of different species.
B. To emphasize the importance of food resouces in preventing mass
extinction.
C. To illustrate a comparison between organisms that live on the land and
those that live in the ocean.
D. To point out that certain species could never become extinct.
7. According to paragraph 2, evidence from fossils suggests that
A. Extinction of species has occurred from time to time throughout Earth’s
history.
B. Extinctions on Earth have generally been massive.
C. There has been only one mass extinction in Earth’s history.
D. Dinosaurs became extinct much earlier than scientists originally believed.
8. The word “finding” in line 22 is closest in meaning to
A. Published information C. ongoing experiment
B. Research method D. scientific discovery
9. Which of the following can be inferred from the theory of periodic
extinction mentioned in paragraph 3?
A. Many scientists could be expected to disagree with it.
B. Evidence to support the theory has recently been found.
C. The theory is no longer seriously considered.
D. Most scientists believe the theory to be accurate.
10. In paragraph 3, the author makes which of the following statements about a
species’ survival?
A. It reflects the interrelationship of many species.
B. It may depend on chance events.
 C. It does not vary greatly from species to species.
D. It is associated with astronomical conditions.
IV. Phrasal verb:
1. At least that’s what he thought until the press started trying to
up something about his past.
A. Push B. dig C. spade D. fork
2. The medicine takes an hour to .
A. bear with B. kick in C. make out D. get by
3. Jennifer the invitation to join us for dinner.
A. called on B. come out C. got out of D. passed on
4. Unanswered, the demands for nuclear deterrents have fears of
civil war.
A. flashed up B. prognosticated C. sidetracked D. stocked up
5. Both the favourite and second favourite pulled out. Naturally, we thought we
were a chance.
A. in with B. up for C. in for D. up with
6. I’m not sure if I’m doing it right, but I’ll try to ahead with it
anyway.
A. drive B. bang C. touch D. press
7. When his manager went on a business trip, Smith stepped into the
and chaired the meeting.
A. hole B. pool C. breach D. crack
8. As their bookshop wasn’t doing well, they decided to branch
and sell compact discs and cassettes as well.
A. out B. over C. down on D. out for
9. I’d been copped in my office all morning so I went out for a
walk and a spot of fresh air.
A. over B. by C. down D. up
10. The class went to see the performance of Macbeth because it in
well with the project they were doing on Scottish history.
A. crammed B. stood C. tied D. booked