Choose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

One of the greatest advances in modern technology has been the (61)__________ of computers. They are already (62)______ used in industry and in universities and the time may come when it will be common for (63)________ people to use them as well. Computers are capable of doing extremely complicated work in all (64)_________ of learning. They can (65)______ the most complex mathematical problem and put thousands of unrelated facts (66)______ order. Because they work accurately and at high speeds they (67)______ research workers years of hard work. (68)____ is a mistake to believe that these machines could “think”. There is no (69)_____ that human beings will be controlled by machines. Though computers are capable of (70)______ from their mistakes and improving on their performance, they need detailed (71)_______ from human beings in order to be able to operate. They can never, as it were, (72)________ independent lives or rule the world by making decisions of their (73)___________. Computers are the most efficient (74)____ man has ever had and there is no limit to the ways they can be used to (75)_____ our lives.

61___________

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the questions that follow, (1 pts)

Television’s contribution to family life in the United States has been an equivocal one. For while it has, indeed, kept the members of the family from dispersing, it has not served to bring them together. By dominating the time families spend together, it destroys the special quality that distinguishes one family from another, a quality that depends to a great extent on what a family does, what special rituals, games, recurrent jokes, familiar songs, and shared activities it accumulates.

“Like the sorcerer of old,” writes Urie Bronfenbrenner, “the television set casts its magic spell, freezing speech and action, turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces – although there is danger there – as in the behavior it prevents: the talks, games, the family festivities, and arguments through which much of the child’s learning takes place and through which character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people.”

Of course, families today still do special things together at times: go camping in the summer, go to the zoo on a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions. But the ordinary daily life together is diminished – that sitting around at the dinner table, that spontaneous taking up of activity, those little games invented by children on the spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the chatting, the quarreling, all the things that form the fabric of a family, that define childhood.

Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television programs and bedtime, and the parents have their peaceful dinner together. But surely the needs of adults are being better met than the needs of children, who are effectively shunted away and rendered untroublesome.

If the family does not accumulate its backlog of shared experiences, shared everyday experiences that occur and recur and change and develop, then it is not likely to survive as anything other than a caretaking institution.

Which of the following best represents the author’s argument in the passage?

Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer

Hanoi, estimated population 3,083,800 (2004), is the capital of Vietnam. The city is located on the right bank of the Red River, 1,760 km north of Ho Chi Minh City. Through history, Hanoi was known by many names, such as Thang Long, Dong Do, Dong Quan, Bac Ha. In 1831 the Nguyen Dynasty renamed it Hanoi. Hanoi experiences the typical climate of northern Vietnam, where summers are hot and humid, and winters are cold and dry. The summer months from May to September receive the majority of rainfall in the year. The winter months from November to March are relatively dry, although spring then often brings light rains. The minimum winter temperature in Hanoi rarely goes lower than 6-7°C and summer can get as hot as 38-40°C. Hanoi experiences four full seasons in a year. Hanoi is often said to be the cultural center of Vietnam, where every dynasty has left behind their imprint. Even though some relics have not survived through wars and time, the city still has many interesting cultural and historic monuments for visitors and residents alike. Some of the prominent places are Ho Chi Minh mausoleum; Van Mieu, site of the oldest university in Vietnam; One Pillar Pagoda, and Flag Tower of Hanoi.

Hanoi is also the home of a number of museums, including Vietnamese National History Museum, the Revolution Museum and National Museum of Fine Arts. West Lake (Ho Tay) is a popular place for recreation, with small boats for hire.

Hanoi has many universities, colleges and institutes. Because many of the national universities are located in Hanoi, students from other provinces wishing to enter university often travel to Hanoi for the annual entrant examination. Such events often take place in June and July, when a large number of students and their families converge on the city a few weeks before and after the exam dates.

Trade is another strong sector of the city. The economic structure algo undergo important shifts, with tourism, finance and banking now playing an increasingly important role.

Which sentence is true?

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the question. 

In the early days of the United States, postal charges were paid by the recipient, and charges varied with the distance carried. In 1825, the United States Congress permitted local postmasters to give letters to mail carriers for home delivery, but these carriers received no government salary and their entire compensation depended on what they were paid by the recipients of individual letters.

In 1847 the United States Post Office Department adopted the idea of a postage stamp, which of course simplified the payment for postal service but caused grumbling by those who did not like to prepay. Besides, the stamp covered only delivery to the post office and did not include carrying it to a private address. In Philadelphia, for example, with a population of 150,000, people still had to go to the post office to get their mail. The confusion and congestion of individual citizens looking for their letters were itself enough to discourage the use of the mail. It is no wonder that during the years of these cumbersome arrangements, private letter-carrying, and express businesses developed. Although their activities were only simi-legal, they thrived and actually advertised that between Boston and Philadelphia there were a half-day speedier than the government mail. The government postal service lost volume to private competition and was not able to handle efficiently even the business it had. 

Finally, in 1863, Congress provided that the mail carriers who delivered the mail from the post offices to private addresses should receive a government salary and that there should be no extra charge for that delivery. But this delivery service was at first confined to cities, and free home delivery became a mark of urbanism. As late as 1887, a town had to have 10,000 people to be eligible for free home delivery. In 1890, of the 75 million people in the United States, fewer than 20 million had mail delivered free to their doors. The rest, nearly three-quarters of the population, still received no mail unless they went to their post office

All of the following statements are true of the American postal service in the second half of the 19th century EXCEPT_______

Read the passage and choose the correct answer to each question.

Today, walking around Ha Noi or Ho Chi Minh City, you can easily see the image of a Vietnamese kid eating KFC-styled chicken, drinking Coca Cola and watching Disney Channel. On Vietnamese channels premiere a lot of Korean, Chinese, American films. English songs appear in iPods or MP3 players of many teenagers. All shows the tremendous effects of globalization on Vietnamese life, especially Vietnamese culture.

Globalization does bring convenience and comfort to Vietnamese people. Now we can enjoy goods and services with high quality and competitive prices as many foreign companies join our market. Advances in communication help eradicate geographic borders among countries and therefore connect our world. Especially, globalization shortens the long-standing distance among different cultures. For example, right here in Viet Nam, we can watch the latest movies made in Hollywood; we can read famous books written by authors from the US, UK, EU, Japan, China… We can see the appearance of restaurants serving Thai, Italian, Japanese, American, Latin American food in big cities. Moreover, globalization is a fast and useful way to present Vietnamese culture to the whole world.

However, that does not mean globalization does no harm to the culture of our country. One of the most concerning problems caused by globalization is the dominance of foreign culture in Vietnamese life. Simply put, people lose their traditional values and begin to identify with the culture of dominant nations. Perhaps, the most apparent and serious effect is language. Our Vietnamese language is facing “severe competition” from other languages, especially English.

What might be the writer’s attitude in the passage?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Today, in many parts of the world, it is customary for people to shake hands upon meeting as gesture of goodwill. Originally, however, the practice of shaking hands had a more practical purpose.

Shaking hands originated in medieval times. In those days, when a man came on a stranger, he would often automatically reach for his sword with his right hand, in case he had to use the weapon to defend himself. Sometimes, both parties found themselves circling around each other, weapons in hand, until it was mutually agreed that the weapons could be laid aside. Then, the two parties extended their right hands to show they had no weapons and clasped them. This was the beginning of the handshake.

The custom of shaking hands is not a universal one. In the Orient, people have, for centuries, clasped their own hands in front of them upon meeting to show that they held no weapons. In France, a custom developed in which people who met would kiss each other on both cheeks. The natives of some South-sea islands greet by rubbing noses.

According to the passage,the practice of shaking hands ________________.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Have you ever had a dream about traveling to another planet in our solar system? If you have, there It an actual program that is happening right now, and it hopes to send people to Mars in 2023. Known as the Mars One Mission, it will send a crew of four people on a one-way mission to colonize Mars. Those chosen people will have to be ready to say goodbye to the earth forever, as there will not be a return trip.

The people chosen, will have to learn to do many different things. First of all, they will be living the rest of their lives with just a handful of other people, so they all must have personalities that allow them to get along. Second, the living quarters that they will have won’t be very spacious, so they will have to deal with that condition as well. If they feel homesick, they will only be able to communicate with people back on the earth via e-mail and videos and audio sent back and forth. However, there won’t be any real-time communication. Even at the speed of light, communication between the earth and Mars takes about 20 minutes.

Whether the Mars One Mission will happen is the big question that a lot of people are asking. There is an enormous skepticism in the science community, and Wired magazine gave the mission a miserable score of two out of ten on its probability scale. However, for those who dream to go to Mars, at least they can say there is a possibility that it could happen.

What will NOT happen to the people who go on the Mars One Mission?

Read the following passage carefully, and then select the best option A, B, C or D to complete it:

"Technology, general term for the processes by (1) _______ human beings fashion tools and machines to increase (2) _______ control and understanding of the material (3) _______. The term is derived from the Greek words tekhnē, which refers to an art or craft, and logia, (4) _______ an area of study; thus, technology means, literally, the study, or science, of crafting. Many historians of science argue not only that technology is an essential condition of advanced, industrial civilization (5) _______ also that the rate of technological change has developed its (6) _______ momentum in recent centuries. Innovations now (7) _______ to appear at a rate that increases geometrically, (8) _______ respect to geographical limits or political systems. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural (9) _______, frequently with unexpected social consequences. Thus technology can be conceived as both a creative and a destructive (10) _______."

9. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural (9) _______, frequently with unexpected social consequences.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the sentences

The books ___________ have been read by the students should be put on the shelf.

Read the following passage carefully, and then select the best option A, B, C or D to complete it:

"Technology, general term for the processes by (1) _______ human beings fashion tools and machines to increase (2) _______ control and understanding of the material (3) _______. The term is derived from the Greek words tekhnē, which refers to an art or craft, and logia, (4) _______ an area of study; thus, technology means, literally, the study, or science, of crafting. Many historians of science argue not only that technology is an essential condition of advanced, industrial civilization (5) _______ also that the rate of technological change has developed its (6) _______ momentum in recent centuries. Innovations now (7) _______ to appear at a rate that increases geometrically, (8) _______ respect to geographical limits or political systems. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural (9) _______, frequently with unexpected social consequences. Thus technology can be conceived as both a creative and a destructive (10) _______."

7. Innovations now (7) _______ to appear at a rate that increases geometrically,

Sydney _________ (1) one of the world's greatest cities. It is the cultural and financial heart of Australia. It is ___________ (2) for Sydney Opera House. It is located on Bennelong Point ___________ (3) Sydney Harbor. The opera house was completed in 1973 after 16 years of construction. A Danish architect named Jørn Utzon ____________ (4) the landmark. It was a very __________ (5) to create the building. The top of the opera house looks like sails from a boat or large shells.

(3).........................

Read the following passage carefully, and then select the best option A, B, C or D to complete it:

"Technology, general term for the processes by (1) _______ human beings fashion tools and machines to increase (2) _______ control and understanding of the material (3) _______. The term is derived from the Greek words tekhnē, which refers to an art or craft, and logia, (4) _______ an area of study; thus, technology means, literally, the study, or science, of crafting. Many historians of science argue not only that technology is an essential condition of advanced, industrial civilization (5) _______ also that the rate of technological change has developed its (6) _______ momentum in recent centuries. Innovations now (7) _______ to appear at a rate that increases geometrically, (8) _______ respect to geographical limits or political systems. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural (9) _______, frequently with unexpected social consequences. Thus technology can be conceived as both a creative and a destructive (10) _______."

8. (8) _______ respect to geographical limits or political systems.

Read the following passage and answer the questions.

Healthy foods are good for you! They help your body grow. They also give you the energy to work and play.

How do you know which foods to eat? Follow the food pyramid. Use it to make good choices.

Grains: The grains group gives you energy. Make sure at least half the grains you eat are whole grains. Eat brown rice, oatmeal, and popcorn. Try whole-wheat bread instead of white bread.

Vegetables: Color your plate with all kinds of veggies. They help your heart, eyes, skin, and teeth. Experts say to eat a rainbow of colors. Each color helps the body in a different way. Munch on carrots, corn, and broccoli.

Meat and Beans: The meat and bean group is high in protein. That helps build strong muscles. Eat fish, chicken, lima beans, and nuts.

Fruits: Fruits are nature’s treats. They are sweet and tasty. They help your heart, eyes, skin, and teeth too. Eat a variety of colors. Try an apple or a banana. You can also mix pieces of different fruits to make a salad.

Milk: Have milk and foods made with milk? Those foods are high in calcium. Calcium builds strong bones. Foods made with milk can be high in fat. Try low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese.

Oils: Your body needs only a little oil to keep it healthy. Some foods that have oils are nuts, tuna fish, and salad dressing.

If your bones are weak, what should you eat or drink more of?

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

If you are invited to an American friend’s home for dinner, remember these general rules for polite behavior. First of all, arrive approximately on time but not early. Americans expect promptness. It will be all right to be 10 or 15 minutes late but not 45 minutes late. Dinner might be overcooked and ruined by then. When you are invited to someone’s home for a meal, it is polite to bring a small gift. Flowers or candy are always appropriate. If you have an attractive thing made in your native country, your host or hostess will certainly enjoy receiving that gift. What will you do if you are served some food that you cannot eat or you do not like? Do not make a fuss about it. Simply eat what you can and hope that no one notices it. Be sure to compliment the cook on the food that you are enjoying. Do not leave immediately after dinner, but do not overstay your welcome, either. The next day, call or write a thank-you note to say how much you enjoyed the evening.

The next day, ___________.

Read the passage and choose the correct answer to each question.

There is growing evidence that urbanization has a sharp impact on climate, causing changes that can wreak havoc on precipitation patterns that supply the precious resource of water. The heavy amounts of heat and pollution rising from cities both delay and stimulate the fall of precipitation, depriving some areas of rain while drenching others.

Cities are on average one to ten degrees warmer than the surrounding undeveloped areas. Cities also produce large amounts of pollutants called aerosols, gaseous suspensions of dust particles, or byproducts from the burning of fossil fuels. Both heat and pollutants change the dynamics of clouds. When hoisted up in the sky, the microscopic particles act as multiple surfaces on which the moisture in clouds can condense as tiny droplets. This can prevent or delay the formation of larger raindrops that fall more easily from the sky, or it can cause the rain to fall in another location.

In California, pollution blows eastward and causes a precipitation shortage of around one trillion gallons a year across the Sierra Nevada mountain range. By contrast, in very humid cities, such as Houston, heat and pollutants seem to invigorate summer storm activity by allowing clouds to build higher and fuller before releasing torrential rains.

In cities, the rain patterns have been altered because of _____.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Every year students in many countries learn English. Some of these students are young children. Others are teenagers. Many are adults. Some learn at school. Others study by themselves. A few learn English just by hearing the language in films, on television, in the office, or among their friends. But not many are lucky enough to do that. Most people must work hard on their lessons to learn another language.

Many boys and girls learn English at school because it is one of their subjects. They study their language, mathematics, and English. In England, America, or Australia, many boys and girls study their language, which is English, and another language, perhaps French, German or Spanish.

Many adults learn English because it is useful for their work. Teenagers often learn English for their higher studies because some of their books are in English at college or university. Other people learn English because they want to read newspapers or magazines in English

Many adults learn English because __________.

Choose the word or phrase (a, b, c or d) that best fits the blank space in the following passage.

One of the greatest advances in modern technology has been the (61)__________ of computers. They are already (62)______ used in industry and in universities and the time may come when it will be common for (63)________ people to use them as well. Computers are capable of doing extremely complicated work in all (64)_________ of learning. They can (65)______ the most complex mathematical problem and put thousands of unrelated facts (66)______ order. Because they work accurately and at high speeds they (67)______ research workers years of hard work. (68)____ is a mistake to believe that these machines could “think”. There is no (69)_____ that human beings will be controlled by machines. Though computers are capable of (70)______ from their mistakes and improving on their performance, they need detailed (71)_______ from human beings in order to be able to operate. They can never, as it were, (72)________ independent lives or rule the world by making decisions of their (73)___________. Computers are the most efficient (74)____ man has ever had and there is no limit to the ways they can be used to (75)_____ our lives.

73___________

Choose the word (A, B, C, or D) that best fits the blank space in the following passage. (1,5 pts)

Britain will soon ban smoking in cars with children. Britain’s government wants (19)_____ the harm cigarette smoke does to children. New laws will cut the chances of children passive smoking. This is when someone breathes in the (20)_____ from other people’s cigarettes. Many studies say passive smoking can almost be as (21)_________ as actually smoking a cigarette. The British government says that it has looked at research pointing out that children who sit in smoke-filled cars have (22)______ problems. It is particularly bad in cars because there is so little space, so the car fills with smoke very quickly. (23)_______ agrees with the new law. Some lawmakers argue that it takes away the freedom for people to smoke in their cars. However, Britain’s health minister states that the health of children is more (24)______________ than the freedom to smoke.

24__________

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the questions that follow, (1 pts)

Television’s contribution to family life in the United States has been an equivocal one. For while it has, indeed, kept the members of the family from dispersing, it has not served to bring them together. By dominating the time families spend together, it destroys the special quality that distinguishes one family from another, a quality that depends to a great extent on what a family does, what special rituals, games, recurrent jokes, familiar songs, and shared activities it accumulates.

“Like the sorcerer of old,” writes Urie Bronfenbrenner, “the television set casts its magic spell, freezing speech and action, turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces – although there is danger there – as in the behavior it prevents: the talks, games, the family festivities, and arguments through which much of the child’s learning takes place and through which character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people.”

Of course, families today still do special things together at times: go camping in the summer, go to the zoo on a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions. But the ordinary daily life together is diminished – that sitting around at the dinner table, that spontaneous taking up of activity, those little games invented by children on the spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the chatting, the quarreling, all the things that form the fabric of a family, that define childhood.

Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television programs and bedtime, and the parents have their peaceful dinner together. But surely the needs of adults are being better met than the needs of children, who are effectively shunted away and rendered untroublesome.

If the family does not accumulate its backlog of shared experiences, shared everyday experiences that occur and recur and change and develop, then it is not likely to survive as anything other than a caretaking institution.

The thing that “form the fabric of a family” in paragraph 3 are______________ .

Choose the best answer: 
Many human activities over the last 200 years have been responsible (1)................polluting the air and damaging people’s health. Automobile engines and power plants burn combustible (2)............ like gasoline and coal and allow toxic gases and smoke to escape into the air. Some pollutants destroy the ozone layer, which is the thin blanket of gases that (3)............ Earth from the Sun’s dangerous ultraviolet rays. Other pollutants contribute to (4)..........hardlywarming by adding to the planet’s natural greenhouse effect. Still others create acid rain, a phenomenon that has disastrous (5)..........on lake and forest habitats. Air pollution is not limited to industrial areas. Depending on the direction of the wind and its force, air pollutants may (6).......... spread to other countries very far from the source of the pollution. Big cities like Los Angeles and Mexico City are*often covered by smog, a fog that occurs (7).............. air pollution. In 1952, the City of London, England, was enveloped by smog so thick that people on the streets had to feel their way around by (8)............the walls of buildings! 
6.

Read the passage and choose the best answers to the questions that follow, (1 pts)

Television’s contribution to family life in the United States has been an equivocal one. For while it has, indeed, kept the members of the family from dispersing, it has not served to bring them together. By dominating the time families spend together, it destroys the special quality that distinguishes one family from another, a quality that depends to a great extent on what a family does, what special rituals, games, recurrent jokes, familiar songs, and shared activities it accumulates.

“Like the sorcerer of old,” writes Urie Bronfenbrenner, “the television set casts its magic spell, freezing speech and action, turning the living into silent statues so long as the enchantment lasts. The primary danger of the television screen lies not so much in the behavior it produces – although there is danger there – as in the behavior it prevents: the talks, games, the family festivities, and arguments through which much of the child’s learning takes place and through which character is formed. Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people.”

Of course, families today still do special things together at times: go camping in the summer, go to the zoo on a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions. But the ordinary daily life together is diminished – that sitting around at the dinner table, that spontaneous taking up of activity, those little games invented by children on the spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the chatting, the quarreling, all the things that form the fabric of a family, that define childhood.

Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television programs and bedtime, and the parents have their peaceful dinner together. But surely the needs of adults are being better met than the needs of children, who are effectively shunted away and rendered untroublesome.

If the family does not accumulate its backlog of shared experiences, shared everyday experiences that occur and recur and change and develop, then it is not likely to survive as anything other than a caretaking institution.

According to the author, what distinguishes one family from another?