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

Package holidays, covering a two weeks’ stay in an attractive location are increasingly popular because they offer an inclusive price with few extras. Once you get to the airport, it is up to the tour operator to see that you get safely to your destination. Excursions, local entertainment, swimming, sunbathing, skiing – you name it – it’s all laid on for you. There is, in fact, no reason for you to bother anything yourselves. You make friends and have a good time, but there is very little chance that you will get to know the local people. This is even less likely on a coach tour when you spend almost your entire time traveling. Of course, there are carefully scheduled stops for you to visit historic buildings and monuments, but you will probably be allowed only a brief stay overnight in some famous city, with a polite reminder to be up and breakfasted early for the coach the next morning. You may visit the beautiful, the historic, the ancient, but time is always at your elbow. There is also the added disadvantage of being obliged to spend your holiday with a group of people you have never met before, may not like, and have no reasonable excuse for getting away from. As against this, it can be argued that for many people, particularly the lonely or elderly, the feeling of belonging to a group, although for a short period on holiday, is a bonus. They can sit safely back in their seat and watch the world go by.

In spite of its disadvantages, spending a holiday with a group is good particularly for_________.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each of the following questions by circling its corresponding letter A, B, C, or D. 

Most people agreed that pop music (1) _____________ in the United States in the 1950s and that it developed from black American music. Since its advent, it was especially (2) _____________ young people. In many countries, they liked listening to it and dancing to it (3) _____________ it was exciting and it was a way of rebelling against their parents’ generation. Many parents strongly (4) _____________ of it. They disliked the way many pop stars looked and acted. They thought the music was rubbish (5) _____________ the group couldn’t sing or play their instruments properly. They said that pop music wouldn’t last for long.

Today, attitudes are different. Many of today’s parents are people (6) _____________ loved the music when they were young and still do. As a result of this, pop music is no longer for the young. (7) _____________ addition, some of the stars (8) _____________ careers began a long time ago and who are now middle-aged are just as popular today as they were then. Their original fans still like them, perhaps, because they (9) _____________ them of when they were young. At the same time, new generations of young people buy their records and go to their concerts. So pop music was not just a brief fashion. All these years (10) _____________, it is more popular than ever.

4.__________

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.

The highlighted word “exploited” in the passage is similar in meaning to________.

Choose the best option for each numbered blank.

All five senses are important to us, but the two most important senses are (51)_____ the sense of sight and the sense of hearing. Blind and deaf people must(52)_____ life difficult because they are unable to do (53)______ that the rest of us can do naturally. People who (54)______ their sense of taste can not enjoy food as (55)_____ as they used to, whilst (56)______ who have no sense of smell can not realize, for example, when gas is (57)_______ or when food has gone (58)________.In addition to our physical senses, (59)______ is a great help in life to have a sense of humor, especially when things go wrong, and to have (60)_______ sense, something which can not be learned from books.

54____________

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 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.

In what was Franklin active during the last years of his life?

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.

33_____________

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.

Old Faithful is located in____________ 

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

For temporary relief of nasal congestion and to make breathing easier in head colds and hay fever. In most cases, the weaker solutions are fully satisfactory and are preferred, namely 1/8% for infants, 1/4% for children and 1/2% for adults. Keep tightly closed.

What is the main purpose of this passage?

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.

70_____________

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.

37_____________

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

How many times have you used electricity today? Here are a few of the electrical appliances you may have switched on: the light, the radio, the stove, the toaster, the refrigerator, the television, the washing machine.

For all these wonderful things and many more, you owe a "thank you" to an English scientist named Michael Faraday, who is known as the Pioneer of the Electrical Age.

Of course, Faraday was not the first to discover electricity. The early Greeks learned they could get electrical spark by rubbing a piece of amber from certain pine trees. The Greek name for amber was ‘electron’, from which we get the word ‘electricity.

In 1752 the American inventor Benjamin Franklin performed his famous kite­flying experiment and discovered that lightning is electricity.

In 1800 an Italian scientist named Volta invented the first electric battery, which produced a continuous flow of electricity.

But the man who put electricity to work was Michael Faraday. He showed the world how to make electricity run a motor. Then he showed us how to make a motor produce electricity. His experiments were the beginning of the Electrical Age.

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

At 11 a.m, they ……………… a jet from the water cannons and the chaos began.

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

What is the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome? Past research has suggested a link to the Epstein-Barr virus, but now many scientists are questioning that connection. New findings suggest that the Epstein-Barr virus is not a primary cause, but it may still trigger the illness. The symptoms may be due to a variety of things, rather than just one. Still, some researchers are sticking with the idea of the Epstein-Barr virus causing the illness. They say that it is premature to make such a judgment.
Chronic fatigue syndrome has been dubbed the “yuppie disease” by some since it is often diagnosed in professional women in their twenties and thirties. It may be the result of never recovering completely from illnesses such as the flu. Though the cause is not clear, the symptoms are. To be a fatigue sufferer, one must have the debilitating illness for more than six months and must exhibit at least eight of the eleven symptoms, including sore throat, mild fever, and muscular aches.

Why is this illness often called the “yuppie disease”?

Read the text and choose the correct answer for each question.

Andrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in the United States, and, in the process, became one of the wealthiest men in America. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the product and in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic decline when most of his competitors were reducing their investments.
Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work, but he also felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for the benefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to provide educational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves. “He who dies rich dies disgraced,” he often said.

Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear his name, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a library, a museum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He also founded a school of technology that is now part of Carnegie-Mellon University. Other philanthropic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to promote understanding between nations, the Carnegie Institute of Washington to provide a center for the arts.

Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie’s generosity. His contributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500 libraries in small communities throughout the country and formed the nucleus of the public library system that we all enjoy today.

The author mentions all of the following as recipients of philanthropic contributions by Carnegie EXCEPT__________.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 23 to 27.

After a tour in Cu Chi, we are moving to Mot Thoang Vietnam craft village (23) ___________ at Phu Binh Village, Ho Chi Minh City. Arriving at Mot Thoang Vietnam, we observe on-the-spot (24) ___________ craft persons weave tho cam (ethnic brocade fiber), (25) ___________ wooden logs into wonders and weave rattan into home appliances. Mot Thoang Vietnam can (26) ___________ your need to know what many of Vietnam’s traditional craft villages are like. The quarter of craft villages at Mot Thoang Vietnam is quiet, but not boring (27) ___________ craft persons chat amidst the clacking sound of wooden cudgels hitting a chisel caused by a sculptor or a loom used for weaving cloth.

Question 25_____________

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 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.

68____________

Read the passage and choose one correct answer: A, B, C, or D. 
A computer is a wonderful machine. It is the most important invention in our modern time. Computers have had a great effect on science, industry, business, machine, and education. Soon it will touch the lives of everyone, even people in distant villages. It is a revolutionary invention.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Imagine that you go and study English at a college where the local newspaper rarely has news about your hometown, but this does not bother you at all. You can sit comfortably in your room, turn on your personal computer, and search the news you want on the Internet. The screen is immediately filled with news from all over the world.

Computers can do all kinds of work. When someone buys something in a department store, a clerk puts information about the sale into a computer. During the night, the computer system works on the information from all the sales that day. In the morning, the manager can print out a report on everything that was sold and also on everything that must be reordered.

Computers are__________ in our modern time.

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

Upon the creation of the United States, one of the core concepts on which the hopes for the new democracy were pinned was the idea that its citizens would be enlightened individuals with clearly articulated rights and the opportunity for individual achievement and education. It was believed that in a free nation where the power belongs to the people, the commitment to education defines the progress of that democracy and is the catalyst for future progress. This core value has not only stood the test of time but has also grown in importance.

In this new Information Era and international economy, education is an increasingly vital commodity, a precursor of potential success, and a driving force of change. It is important to recognize, however, that we approach education today differently than in the past, partly because the kinds of jobs people had didn’t require the kind of basic education and specialized training that is often required in the workforce today. In the 1950s, for instance, only 20 percent of American jobs were classified as professional, 20 percent as skilled; and 60 percent as unskilled. Today, our world has changed. The proportion of unskilled jobs has fallen to 20 percent, while jobs now account for at least 60 percent of the workforce. Even more important, almost every job today increasingly requires a combination of academic knowledge and practical skills that require learning throughout a lifetime.

Which of the following titles would be best for the passage?

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.

51.________