Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct option for each of the blanks.

The telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, a Scotsman who became a US citizen. The word ‘telephone’ had been (61)_________ existence since the 1830s and had been (62)_______ to several inventions designed to produce sound.

Bell had become interested in the possibility of long-distance speech in his work with the deaf. He was twenty-eight and his assistant, Thomas Watson, was (64)______twenty-one when they achieved their great success on 10 March 1876. Despite their long and close association, Bell’s first communication by telephone was not “Tom, come here, I want you”, (65)_________ “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you”.

Filled with excitement, Bell and Watson demonstrated their invention to a US telegram company. The company wrote to Bell, (66)_______ that his invention was interesting. However, after giving it careful consideration, they had (67)________ to the conclusion that it had “no future”. Fortunately for Bell, others could see the possibilities. (68)_____ four years of its invention, the US had 60,000 telephones. In the next twenty years that figure increased to over 6 million.

Today, ninety-three percent of US homes have a phone, a (69)______ of phone ownership no other nation comes near to equal. Each US household makes or receives (70)______ average 3,516 calls per year, an astonishing statistic.

65________________

Read the following two passages and choose the correct answer for each of the questions.

To accomplish a three-dimensional or 3D effect in a movie, two steps are necessary. First, the movie needs to be shot in a special way. Then, the movie needs to be viewed in a special way.

To shoot a 3D movie, it is necessary to use two cameras at the same time. This is different from a regular movie, which is shot with only one camera. The two cameras are placed next to each other. The placement of the cameras imitates how two eyes each see one scene from a different perspective. The same picture is shot by each of the cameras at the same time, but each of the cameras films the scene from a different angle because of the position of the cameras.

When you go to the theater to view a 3D, you must wear special glasses to get the three-dimensional effect. [45A] Both pieces of film are projected simultaneously; when the pieces of film are projected at the same time, the special glasses then force each of your two eyes to see the film in a different way. [45B] Your left eye sees the film shot with the left camera, and your right eye sees the film shot with the right camera. [45C] If you try to watch the movie without the special glasses, it will seem like you have double vision. [45D]

Giải thích:
Tạm dịch: Chủ đề tốt nhất cho đoạn văn này là_____.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer for each of the blanks.
The big issue for plane-makers planning for the future is size, not speed. With the skies already full of air traffic, and with worse to (46)_________, the important questions for the designers are how many passengers they can fit into the new super-planes and who will be (47)_________to build them first. Imagine yourself ten years from now in a packed airport departure lounge. Eight hundred passengers are waiting with you for their first flight on one of a remarkable range of super-planes, and the check-in time (48)__________ have been as much as four hours before take-off to allow for the extra people. Impossible? Far from it. Designs for these planes are already (49)_________ on a computer at the world’s top aircraft manufacturers, waiting to be turned (50)_________ reality. The airlines badly need the new jets to (51)________ with future increases in passenger (52)________ . A billion passengers a year are currently carried by air, but that figure is (53)___________ to double by the year 2020. The only practical of avoiding making the skies even busier is to build much bigger planes. The race to build the new jets is the hottest contest in the airliner business. Manufacturers are working (55)______ with the major airlines to produce designs that will please airlines and passengers alike.

47_____________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct option for each of the blanks.
Every year, the village of Pettineo celebrates its unique arts festival. For a few days each summer, artists from all over Europe (36)_______ at this village near the north coast of Sicily to (37)________ the creative atmosphere. During their stay, the artists get (38)_______ with the local people to paint a one-kilometer long picture that runs the (39)_____ of the high street. (40)________ the painting is done, each visiting artist joins a local family for a big lunch and, (41)_________ the meal, the family receives the (42)_______ of the painting that the artist has painted. As a result, (43)______ few villagers are rich, almost every home has at least one painting by a well-known European artist. Visitors to the village are eagerly (44)_______into homes to see these paintings. The festival was the (45)_______ of Antonio Presti, a local businessman who (46)______ it up four years ago. Since then, Pettineo has (47)__________ a sort of domestic art museum in (48)________ any visitor can ring a doorbell, go into a house and (49)___________ a painting. In addition to this exhibition of paintings in people’s homes, for those who have time to spare, there is an opportunity to (50)______through the display of huge sculptures in the village square.

47____________

Read the following two passages and choose the correct answer for each question.

In 1723 there arrived in Philadelphia a penniless young man, eager for work and knowledge. As the years passed, this man, Benjamin Franklin, contributed greatly to his city and his country. He became a printer and a publisher and a learned man in many subjects. He also helped to speed learning by establishing a public library and by founding the American Philosophical Society, which is an important academy of great scholars to this day.

Franklin initiated many improvements in the city of Philadelphia, making it one of the world’s first cities to have paved and lighted streets as well as a police force and a fire fighting company. He also made many practical inventions such as the Franklin stove, which was a very efficient heater, and the light rod the protected buildings in electric storms. His scientific work with electricity earned Franklin world fame.

Franklin played an important role in the early history of the United States. He took part in the drawing up of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He was the first ambassador to France, and he helped negotiate the treaty of 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War.

As an active member and as president of the Abolitionist Society, Franklin devoted the last years of his life to the movement to end slavery.

Which of the following is NOT true?

Read the following passage and choose the item (A, B, C, or D) that best answers each of the questions about it

A shuttle is a vehicle that travels back and forth frequently. A space shuttle is a vehicle that travels into space and back again. It can be used again and again. On April 12, 1981, the United States launched the first space shuttle, Columbia. At 7.00 a.m., the engines were fired. The booster rockets and the Space Shuttle lifted off into the air. Two minutes later, the booster rockets and the Space Shuttle separated. Parachutes took the rockets safely down into the Pacific Ocean, where ships were waiting to pick them up. Columbia continued to climb on an orbit of 170 miles above the earth. The Space Shuttle circled the earth 36 times. During this time, the astronauts tested the equipment on the Shuttle. They also opened and closed the large cargo doors. Two days later, they fired the Shuttles engines. This slowed down the Shuttle. John Young, a top pilot, took the controls of Columbia. He entered the earth’s atmosphere and headed toward California. Then he made a perfect landing at Edwards Air Force base.

Since then, Columbia has traveled into space more than seven times. The second Shuttle, Challenger, is also operating. “NASA” is building two more space Shuttles. It is planning over 60 more Shuttle flights. Some will launch Satellites through the cargo doors. Some will try to manufacture drugs and chemicals in space. One will carry a large telescope into orbit which will send pictures back to earth. It is possible that some day in the future, Space Shuttles will carry passengers to the moon.

John Young was ____

Choose one option to fill each of the numbered gaps in the following passage.

Fish farming is only one of the many (31)_______ experiments man has begun in the endless battle to feed himself. It is not as easy as it (32)_______. One doesn’t simply find a pond, stock it with fish, and wait for them to (33)______. I knew one amateur who did just this. He (34)________ on his pond as a fishing hole for his friends. One morning he awoke to find its surface (35)__________ with dead fish. They had died quite naturally – (36)_______ suffocation. Commercially (37)______ freshwater fish need just that – and plenty of it. A good stream feeding the pond is one way to (38)_____________ that fish will stay healthy. (39)____ does it supply life-giving oxygen, it also helps to clear away the fish’s own (40)_______ matter. With the oceans being overfished in recent decades, fish farming may soon take over there too.

32____________-

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

Researchers don’t think there’s any question that the discovery of a gene that appears to be linked to many types of cancer is really exciting and the best news for the public in a long time. The gene is involved in a high percentage of human cancers and its discovery might eventually lead to the development of a new anti-cancer treatment.

In normal cells, this gene, named MTS1, acts as a brake during the cell division process. But the researchers have found that the cell is missing in about half of the tumor cells they studied, allowing uncontrolled division of cells to take place and the resulting spread of cancer.

This discovery could be exploited in two ways, either by supplying the missing gene through gene therapy or by copying its function in a drug. Of course, this is not the first gene to be found that can suppress tumors; it’s the eleventh or twelfth. However, because of its seemingly wider presence, or absence, the knowledge of its existence could lead to a cure for some types of cancer.

What is the purpose of this passage?

Choose the correct option for each of the gaps to finish the passage.

A very important world problem it may be the most important of all the great world problems which face us at present – is the rapidly increasing pressure of population (41) _______ the land. The important thing is not so (42)_____ the actual population of the world at present, but its rate of increase. It works (43)_____ to be about 1.6 percent annual net increase. In numbers, it means something (44)_________ forty-five to fifty million additional people every year. Take Australia. There are about 18 million people in Australia. So it takes the world less than three months to (45)____________ itself a population which populates that vast (46)________ Speaking of birth rate, look at the second hand of your watch. Every second, three babies are born somewhere in the world. You cannot (47)__________ quickly enough to keep up with the birth rate. This enormous increase of population (48)_____ immense problems. In about 20 years, (49)________ something terrible happens there will be as many as a billion people on the surface of the earth!

50_____________

Choose the correct option for each of the gaps to finish the passage.

A very important world problem it may be the most important of all the great world problems which face us at present – is the rapidly increasing pressure of population (41) _______ the land. The important thing is not so (42)_____ the actual population of the world at present, but its rate of increase. It works (43)_____ to be about 1.6 percent annual net increase. In numbers, it means something (44)_________ forty-five to fifty million additional people every year. Take Australia. There are about 18 million people in Australia. So it takes the world less than three months to (45)____________ itself a population which populates that vast (46)________ Speaking of birth rate, look at the second hand of your watch. Every second, three babies are born somewhere in the world. You cannot (47)__________ quickly enough to keep up with the birth rate. This enormous increase of population (48)_____ immense problems. In about 20 years, (49)________ something terrible happens there will be as many as a billion people on the surface of the earth!

So this is a problem which you are going to (50)_____in your lifetime.

43__________

Read the passage and do the exercises that follow by choosing the corresponding letter (A, B, C, or D) of the correct answers.

Cigarettes contain toxic substances like tar and nicotine. That is why we often hear people telling us that smoking is harmful to our bodies. Smoking weakens our lungs as well as other parts of our body. We will not be as active as before and will need more effort to move about.

Smoking affects our environment too. When we puff, we pollute the environment with smoke. This makes our surroundings unpleasant and unclean. Since Smoking does not do any good to us, we should always say no to cigarettes. We should advise our loved ones to take sweets instead whenever they feel like taking a toxic puff.

Smoking is harmful to us because…………………………..

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer for each of the blanks.
In the modem world, there is a wealth of leisure activities to choose from. Entertainment industries (46)______ for your leisure time. You can watch TV, listen to music, go to an art gallery or concert or, of course, read a book. Sometimes it seems that reading is (47)_________ because, even if you’re a fast reader, it can take a (48)_____ amount of time to finish a novel, for example. But in the modem world, time is something that can be in short supply. Book publishers haven’t been (49)________ to realize this and are now selling a product which needn’t (50)________ as much of your time but still tells you an excellent story. The new product is the audiobook – cassette recordings of shortened novels, often read by well-known personalities or the authors themselves. Audiobooks are (51)_____ new but people are becoming more aware of them and sales are increasing all the time. One of the attractions of audiobooks is that they’re (52)______ listening to the radio, only better. You can listen to what you want when you want, and you won’t even miss anything. Much of their appeal (53)_________ in their flexibility. They allow you to do other things while you’re listening, such as driving or (54)________ the housework. For some people, audiobooks can be a much more enjoyable way of (55)_______ knowledge than reading.

51____________

Read the passage below and choose the best answer to each question.

A geyser is the result of underground water under the combined conditions of high temperatures and increased pressure beneath the surface of the earth. Since temperature rises approximately one degree F for every sixty feet under the earth’s surface, and pressure increases with depth, water that seeps down in cracks and fissures until it reaches very hot rocks in the earth’s interior becomes heated to a temperature in excess of 290 degrees F. Because of the greater pressure, it shoots out of the surface in the form of steam and hot water. The result is a geyser.
For the most part, geysers are located in three regions of the world: New Zealand, Iceland, and the Yellowstone National Park area of the United States. The most famous geyser in the world is Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park. Old Faithful erupts almost every hour, rising to a height of 125 to 170 feet and expelling more than ten thousand gallons during each eruption.

A geyser is____________ .

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

Atmospheric pressure can support a column of water up to 10 meters high. But plants can move water much higher, the sequoia tree can pump water to its very top, more than 100 meters above the ground. Until the end of the nineteenth century, the movement of water in trees and other tall plants was a mystery. Some botanists hypothesized that the living cells of plants in which all the cells are killed can still move water to appreciable heights. Other explanations for the movement of water in plants have been based on root pressure, a push on the water from the roots at the bottom of the plant. But root pressure is not nearly great enough to push water to the tops of tall trees. Furthermore, the conifers, which are among the tallest trees, have unusually low root pressures.

If water is not pumped to the top of a tall tree, and if it is not pushed to the top of a tall tree, then we may ask: “How does it get there?” According to the currently accepted cohesion-tension theory, water is pulled there. The pull on a rising column of water in a plant results from the evaporation of water at the top of the plant. As water is lost from the surface of the leaves, a negative pressure, or tension, is created. The evaporated water is replaced by water moving from inside the plant in unbroken columns that extend from the top of a plant to its roots. The same forces that create surface tension in any sample of water are responsible for the maintenance of these unbroken columns of water. When water is confined in tubes of a very small bore, the forces of cohesion (the attraction between water molecules) are so great that the strength of a column of water compares with the strength of a steel wire of the same diameter. This cohesive strength permits columns of water to be pulled to great heights without being broken.

The underlined word “there” in the second paragraph refers to_________ 

Choose the correct word A, B or C for each gap to complete the following passage

Yesterday, Carlos went (6) ……………… La Tomatina. The festival is held on were the last Wednesday of August every year in Būnol, Spain. (7) ……………… were thousands of people there. In the morning, many people tried (8) ……………… up the pole to get the ham. At 11 a.m, they (9) ……………… a jet from the water cannons and the chaos began. Bags of tomatoes from trucks were (10) ……………… to the crowds, and they began throwing tomatoes at one another.

(9) ...............

Chọn đáp án thích hợp nhất (A, B, C hoặc D) để điền vào chỗ trống trong đoạn văn sau: 
            The most effective way of learning a language is by living in the country...(46).., but parents should think carefully before they send their children abroad. ..(47.)..some organizations arrange visits for children as young as ten, the majority of them won’t be ready…(48)...away from home and deal with cultural differences…(49)... they are in their teens. Even then they will need a basic knowledge of the language and some experience of foreign travel before they go. Exchange visits are a good way for teenagers to improve their language …(50).. . It is a good idea for them to exchange correspondence before the visits. ..(.51.)..families should not ….(52).. any obligation to provide an extensive programme of entertainment. It is more important to make the guest feel...(53)... Travel can ...(54)… the mind, and exchange visits give young people an experience of a different way of life ..(55)… a different language.

55________

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct option for each of the blanks.

The telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, a Scotsman who became a US citizen. The word ‘telephone’ had been (61)_________ existence since the 1830s and had been (62)_______ to several inventions designed to produce sound.

Bell had become interested in the possibility of long-distance speech in his work with the deaf. He was twenty-eight and his assistant, Thomas Watson, was (64)______twenty-one when they achieved their great success on 10 March 1876. Despite their long and close association, Bell’s first communication by telephone was not “Tom, come here, I want you”, (65)_________ “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you”.

Filled with excitement, Bell and Watson demonstrated their invention to a US telegram company. The company wrote to Bell, (66)_______ that his invention was interesting. However, after giving it careful consideration, they had (67)________ to the conclusion that it had “no future”. Fortunately for Bell, others could see the possibilities. (68)_____ four years of its invention, the US had 60,000 telephones. In the next twenty years that figure increased to over 6 million.

Today, ninety-three percent of US homes have a phone, a (69)______ of phone ownership no other nation comes near to equal. Each US household makes or receives (70)______ average 3,516 calls per year, an astonishing statistic.

61______________-

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct option for each of the blanks.
Every year, the village of Pettineo celebrates its unique arts festival. For a few days each summer, artists from all over Europe (36)_______ at this village near the north coast of Sicily to (37)________ the creative atmosphere. During their stay, the artists get (38)_______ with the local people to paint a one-kilometer long picture that runs the (39)_____ of the high street. (40)________ the painting is done, each visiting artist joins a local family for a big lunch and, (41)_________ the meal, the family receives the (42)_______ of the painting that the artist has painted. As a result, (43)______ few villagers are rich, almost every home has at least one painting by a well-known European artist. Visitors to the village are eagerly (44)_______into homes to see these paintings. The festival was the (45)_______ of Antonio Presti, a local businessman who (46)______ it up four years ago. Since then, Pettineo has (47)__________ a sort of domestic art museum in (48)________ any visitor can ring a doorbell, go into a house and (49)___________ a painting. In addition to this exhibition of paintings in people’s homes, for those who have time to spare, there is an opportunity to (50)______through the display of huge sculptures in the village square.

44___________

Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions
A new study published in the journal Science shows definitive evidence of organic matter on the surface of Mars. The data was collected by NASA's nuclear-powered rover Curiosity. It confirms earlier findings that Mars, the Red Planet once contained carbon-based compounds. These compounds – also called organic molecules – are essential ingredients for life as scientists understand it.
The organic molecules were found in Mars's Gale Crater, a large area that may have been a watery lake over three billion years ago. The rover encountered traces of the molecule in rocks extracted from the area. The rocks also contain sulfur, which scientists speculate helped preserve the organics even when the rocks were exposed to the harsh radiation on the surface of the planet.
Scientists are quick to state that the presence of these organic molecules is not sufficient evidence for ancient life on Mars, as the molecules could have been formed by non-living processes. But it's still one of the most astonishing discoveries, which could lead to future revelations. Especially when one considers the other startling find that Curiosity uncovered around five years ago.

What may have been in Mars's Gale Crater?

Choose the word or phrase (A, B, C, or D) that best fits the blank space in the following passage (1.5 pts)

The Director

L&P Transport Company

79B Nguyen Hue Boulevard

Ho Chi Minh City

I’m writing about the shortstop that your trucks (13) ______ around my house on their way to the north. When the trucks of your company have a short (14) ______ there, the drivers have left lots of garbage on the ground after their refreshment. When the trucks leave the place, the ground is (15) _________ of trash and a few minutes later there is a bad smell and flies all over the place. I myself, (16) ______ the people living around here, would urge that your company should tell your drivers to clean up all the trash on the ground before leaving. (17) _________ you do something about it and soon, we will have to report this to the local authority.

I am looking forward to hearing from you and (18) ______ positive response from your company.

Read the passage below and choose the best answer to each question.

A gold rush is the rapid relocation of large numbers of people to an area where gold has been discovered. Gold rushes capture the imagination and participation of many people because of the magical lure of gold and the potential for overnight affluence. The greatest gold rush in the United States history was the California Gold Rush of 1849.

The rush first began in 1848 when a carpenter named James Marshall discovered gold on the property of John A. Stutter in the Sacramento Valley. Hired to build a sawmill on the banks of the American River, Marshall had hardly begun work when he started finding nugget after nugget of gold. News of the discovery at Stutter’s mill spread quickly, and soon thousands of persons were laying claims in the area. These people, called “forty-niners”, rushed in from all over the world. In just two years, the population of California increased from about 26,000 to 380,000. Consequently, California was officially admitted to the union as a state, in September of 1850. The free-spending style of the successful miners helped to turn communities such as Sacramento and San Francisco into prosperous towns. Those who were not so lucky became farmers and ranchers in the Central Valley of California.

According to the passage, people join gold rushes because_________ .