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

If there is a building which symbolizes a country, such as the Eiffel Tower for France and the Sydney Opera House for Australia, then it has to be the Taj Mahal for India.

It was set up by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1653 in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. From the time they got married, they wouldn’t be separated. She followed him to wars, advised him on affairs of state, and was loved by his people for her good work. But she died in 1631 during her childbirth. The emperor was heartbroken and had the Taj Mahal built as a sign of his love.

It took more than 20 years for the Taj Mahal to be built. Workers were brought in, not only from all over India but from central Asia too. A total of 20,000 people worked on the building.

In 1657, Shah Jahan fell ill, and in 1658 his son, Aurangzeb imprisoned his father and seized power. Shah Jahan stayed in prison until he died in 1666. He was finally buried there with his wife, who he could never forget.

The Taj Mahal is worth more than a single visit. As it is built with white marble stones, its character changes in different lights. It looks more beautiful at sunrise and sunset. At sunset, for example, the color of the Taj Mahal changes from white to yellow, then to pink. As the moon rises, it turns silvery-white. To show respect to the Taj Mahal, tourists are asked to take off their shoes during their visit.

Why did Emperor Shah Jahan build the Taj Mahal?

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.

If there is some food that you cannot eat, ___________.

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.

68_____________

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

"London is the capital of the United Kingdom and the home of its queen, Elizabeth II. It’s also the largest city in Europe. About 7 million people call London home.
LONDON LANDMARKS
Millions of people visit London every year from all (1) _______ the world. If you travel there, you’ll find many (2) _______ things to see and do.
During August and September, you can visit Buckingham (3) _______. That’s where the queen lives most of the year. It has about 600 (4) _______, but you’ll see only state rooms where the queen entertains guests. In the morning, a colorful ceremony (5) _______ “changing of the guard” takes place in the palace courtyard. One group of palace guards (6) _______ off duty, and another troop arrives to replace them.
You can (7) _______ the Tower of London, a historic fortress that was once a royal palace. It was also used as a (8) _______ for hundreds of years. Two of the wives of King Henry VIII—Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard—were put (9) _______ death here. The Crown Jewels are a popular attraction at the Tower. This (10) _______ of jeweled crowns, swords, scepters, and other royal objects is only used on (11) _______ occasions, such as the crowning of a new ruler.
Be (12) _______ to visit Westminster Abbey, one of Britain’s famous (13) _______. The nation’s kings and queens are crowned here. Many rulers and famous citizens are (14) _______ here.
There are also monuments to political figures and poets.
The (15) _______ of Parliament are along the Thames River, near Westminster Abbey. This is where the government meets. Look (16) _______ to see the clock tower with Big Ben, London’s famous (17) _______ that rings every hour. You can get on a boat (18) _______ for a ride on the Thames.
Other places you might want to see are Scotland Yard, Madame Tussaud’s, (19) _______ the British Museum. You can find out about London’s famous criminals in the (20) _______ Museum at Scotland Yard, the home of London’s Metropolitan Police. At Madame Tussaud’s, you’ll see eerily(21) _______, life-size wax figures of pop idols and historic figures. A great thing to see at the British Museum is the collection of mummies, tomb (22) _______, and gold jewelry from ancient Egypt. The museum’s Egyptian collection is (23) _______ of the largest in the world.
For a good (24) _______ of London, take a ride in the London Eye. This enormous wheel takes you 443 feet (135 meters) above the London skyline. Unlike a traditional Ferris wheel, the (25) _______ carries its passengers in enclosed compartments."

9. Two of the wives of King Henry VIII—Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard—were put (9) _______ death here. 

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.

According to the writer, the problem that the Vietnamese language is facing is__________ 

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

The system of USA education starts with twelve years of primary and secondary school education which the Americans have to follow. A secondary school (“high school“) diploma or certificate is a compulsory requirement for the student to be able to enter college, university, vocational, secretarial, or other professional and technical schools. American children who are around six years of age normally begin their learning at a primary school. It takes from five to six years to complete primary schooling. After finishing primary schooling, students will have to enter a secondary school where they may spend 6 or 7-year durations consisting of either two three-year programs, or a three-year and a four-year program. Schools at this level are known as Middle School or Junior High School and High or Senior High School Completion of this stage is called Twelfth Grade. International students are advised to find out which level of education in their country corresponding to the twelfth grade in the US.A.

After completing the twelfth grade, students are admitted to college or university for higher education. Study at a college or university leading to a Bachelor’s Degree is known as “undergraduate” education. Study beyond the Bachelor’s Degree is known as “graduate” school or “postgraduate” education. Advanced or graduate degrees include law, medicine, M.B.A. (Master), and Ph.D.(doctorate), etc.

The USA has the highest number of educational institutions providing higher education than any other country. There are more than 3800 colleges and universities imparting degree programs. The size of the US. higher educational institutions vary greatly, too, from colleges that enroll fewer than 1,000 students to large universities that enroll more than 50,000 students.

According to the text, which statement below is TRUE?

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

"Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone __________ (1) 1849. In 1871, he filed a caveat (an announcement of an invention) for his design of a talking telegraph. Due to hardships, Meucci could not renew his caveat. His role in the invention of the telephone was overlooked until the United States House of Representatives __________ (2) a Resolution on June 11, 2002, honoring Meucci's contributions and work. You can read the resolution (107th Congress, H Res 269) on Congress.gov."

1. Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone __________ (1) 1849.

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.

One of the changes in climate by urbanization is _____ .

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

The meanings of the terms science and technology have changed significantly from one generation to another. More similarities than differences, however, can be found between the terms.

Both science and technology imply a thinking process, both are concerned with causal relationships in the material world, and both employ an experimental methodology that results in empirical demonstrations that can be verified by repetition. Science, at least in theory, is less concerned with the practicality of its results and more concerned with the development of general laws, but in practice science and technology are inextricably involved with each other.

The varying interplay of the two can be observed in the historical development of such practitioners as chemists, engineers, physicists, astronomers, carpenters, potters, and many other specialists. Differing educational requirements, social status, vocabulary, methodology, and types of rewards, as well as institutional objectives and professional goals, contribute to such distinctions as can be made between the activities of scientists and technologists; but throughout history the practitioners of “pure” science have made many practical as well as theoretical contributions.

The varying _________ of the two can be observed in the historical development of many practitioners.

The varying _________ of the two can be observed in the historical development of many practitioners.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions

The meanings of the terms science and technology have changed significantly from one generation to another. More similarities than differences, however, can be found between the terms.

Both science and technology imply a thinking process, both are concerned with causal relationships in the material world, and both employ an experimental methodology that results in empirical demonstrations that can be verified by repetition. Science, at least in theory, is less concerned with the practicality of its results and more concerned with the development of general laws, but in practice science and technology are inextricably involved with each other.

The varying interplay of the two can be observed in the historical development of such practitioners as chemists, engineers, physicists, astronomers, carpenters, potters, and many other specialists. Differing educational requirements, social status, vocabulary, methodology, and types of rewards, as well as institutional objectives and professional goals, contribute to such distinctions as can be made between the activities of scientists and technologists; but throughout history the practitioners of “pure” science have made many practical as well as theoretical contributions.

The varying _________ of the two can be observed in the historical development of many practitioners.

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to complete the passage below

"There is a lot of controversy surrounding the invention __________ (1) the telephone. There have been court cases, books, and articles generated about the subject. Of course, Alexander Graham Bell is the father of the telephone. After all it was his design that was first __________ (2), however, he was not the first inventor to come up __________ (3) the idea of a telephone."

2.  After all it was his design that was first __________ (2), 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each question.

What Is It Like Being a Teenager in Britain?

School

British teenagers spend most of their time at school. Students in Britain can leave school at sixteen (grade 11). This is also the age when most students take their first important exams, the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). Most teens take between 5-10 subjects, which means a lot of studying. They are spending more time on homework than teenagers ever before. Forget watching TV, teenagers in Britain now spend 2-3 hours on homework after school.

School uniform

Visit almost any school in Britain and the first thing you’ll notice is the school uniform. Although school uniform has its advantages, when they are 15 or 16 most teenagers are tired of wearing it. When there is more than one school in a town, school uniforms can highlight differences between schools. In London, there are many cases of bullying and fighting between pupils from different schools.

Clothes and looks

In Britain, some teens judge you by the shirt or trainers you are wearing. 40% of British teenagers believe it’s important to wear designer labels. If you want to follow the crowd, you need to wear trendy labels. Teenage feet in Britain wear fashionable trainers and the more expensive, the better.

What do most teenagers in Britain prefer to wear?

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.

Which sentence is NOT true?

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.

Why is Urie Bronfenbrenner quoted in paragraph 2?

Read the passage and choose the correct answer:

A computer is an electronic device capable of manipulating number and symbols, first taking input, processing it, storing and giving out output under a control of set instructions which is known as a program. A general purpose computer requires the following hardware components: memory, storage device (hard disk drive), input device (keyboard, mouse etc.), output device (screen, printer etc.) and central processing unit (CPU). Many other components are involved in addition to the listed components to work together efficiently.

The CPU is can be expanded into three main parts: The ALU (Arithmetic and Logic Unit), The Bus interface Unit, and The Control Bus. The clock is an electronic circuit that gives regular pulses to the CPU. Faster clock speeds mean more pulses to the CPU and the instructions are stepped through faster. The memory chip contains millions of separate memory stores and each of these locations has a unique number. This is known as memory address. The CPU stores data at any of these addresses and fetch the content back when required.

RAM stands for Random Access Memory. These chips store the instructions for running the operating system and any computer application. This memory also stores all the data that is being worked on. RAM is a volatile memory which means that it only stores data while the computer remains switched on. When switched off, it loses all the stored data. ROM (Read Only Memory) on the other hand is a chip with program instructions permanently burned into it. The content is not lost even if the machine is switched off.

There a five main parts in the CPU.

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 word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

The Southeast Asian Games owes its origins to the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games or SEAP which was first (23) _____________ in Thailand in 1959. At the first time only six countries (24) _____________ in the games. Laung Sukhumnaioradit, the then Vice-President of the Thailand Olympic Committee. Proposed that a regional sports (25) _____________ would help promote cooperation, understanding, and relations among countries in the Southeast Asian region. At the 8th SEAP Games in 1975, the SEAP Federation considered the inclusion of Indonesia and the Philippines. The two countries were formally (26) _____________in 1977, the same year when SEAP Federation changed its (27) _____________ to Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF), and the games were known as the Southeast Asian Games. Brunei was admitted at the 10th SEA Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, and East Timor at the 22nd SEA Games in Hanoi Vietnam.

24._____________

Choose the best answer: 
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi offers an insight into the 54 different (1)_________ groups of Vietnam in an effort to preserve cultural heritage and promotesocio-cultural (2)________ within the country.

The museum has over 15,000 artefacts (3)________ photographs and othermulti-media such as audiotapes. Its indoor exhibition space can be (4)________ viaa virtual tour (5)________ includes the Viet, Muong, Tho, Chut, Tay, Thai, Ka Dai,H’Mong-Dao, Tang, San Dui, Ngai, Mon-Khmer, Nam-Dao, Cham, Hoa and Khmerethnic groups. There are priceless antiques on (6)_________ alongside everydayobjects such as pipes, baskets and knives.

The outdoor area presents a range of traditional (7)________ including a laystilt house and a Viet house. The museum is suitable for children, and all documents and display signs (8)______ have been translated into French and English.Có những đồ cổ vô giá được trưng bày cùng với (6) đồ vật hàng ngày như ống, giỏ và dao.

Read the passage then choose the best answer:
Music influences people in different ways or the same person differently at different times.
Music may seem to influence people differently. That is because people can react differently to the
music. We are able to apply a choosing process to the music we hear. If someone hates jazz, then a
jazz piece with a positive effect will probably not make him feel good. A happy song might appear
to make an angry person angrier, yet it is not the music itself that is creating the anger; rather it is the
positive effect of the music. The angry person does not want to accept the song's happy feeling: it
points out his already existing anger, and makes that anger come to the surface. When a piece of
music is played and we are listening to it, our body, mind, and feelings are being affected. The
musicians of ancient cultures such as China, India, Turkey and Greece understood the effects of
music. In fact, Pathagoras, in ancient Greece, introduced a whole science that concerned them.
Because the musicians of these ancient cultures understood these effects, they created music that was
positive, uplifting, and beneficial. Once the effects of music are better understood, the next step is to
gain a better understanding of the music around us, and what effect it is actually having.
1.The text is about_____.

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

The word “CONFINED” is closest in meaning to_______ .