Read the text carefully and then choose the best answers to the questions below by circling the corresponding letter A, B, C, or D. 
 
In the early years of television, educational specialists believed that it would be very useful in teaching and learning. Many schools have bought television sets intending to use them effectively to improve the quality of education, but actually, they are rarely used properly in classrooms. Meanwhile, children spend the majority of their out-of-school hours watching TV and their typical school days proceed as if television did not exist.

There are some explanations for the failure of television to get the interest of the teachers. Firstly, the schools that purchased television sets have not set aside money for equipment repairs and maintenance, so these television sets are sooner and later out of work. Secondly, these schools have not found an effective way to train teachers to integrate television into their ongoing instructional programs. Lastly, most teachers do not regard the quality of television and its usefulness in the classroom.

Teachers at the schools work hard for at least twelve years to train their students to become good readers. However, according to recent statistics, teenagers seldom spend their free time reading books and newspapers but watching television instead.

According to the text, TV ________

Read the passage below then pick out ONE best option (A, B, C, or D) to complete each of the following sentences. (1.5 points)

    Sydney was founded as a British colony in 1788. Sydney was the first everlasting European settlement in Australia and today it is the country's largest city area, with about 4 million residents. Sydney is the seat of state government as the capital of New South Wales, Australia's most populous and economically important state. The city is an active cultural center with a varied economy based on service industries, tourism, manufacturing, and international commerce. Its port is one of the leading centers of intercontinental trade in the Asia-Pacific region. Sydney is located on Australia’s southeastern coast at Port Jackson, a large, sheltered, deep-water inlet of the Tasman Sea.

   Sydney is well-known for its Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is the centerpiece of the city’s places for live performances of ballet, opera, and classical music. The Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, and Sydney Dance companies regularly stage performances there. Moreover, the place often hosts internationally touring performances. Sydney also has many places for musical theater, drama, and popular music. The Sydney Theatre Company is one of many successful theatre companies in the city. Sydney is also home to the internationally praised Australian Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

   The cultural life of Sydney is exciting and varied, reflecting the multicultural nature of the city. Many festivals, parades, and outdoor concerts cheer up the city streets in the summer months. Annual events include the Sydney Festival in January and February, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in March, the Royal Easter Show in April, and the multicultural festival Carnivale in September and October. Sydney has also become world-renowned for its street parties and fireworks on New Year's Eve and Australia Day celebrated on Sydney's Founding date, January 26.

In the last paragraph, the word “annual” means……

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C, or D.

    Visit the Edinburgh Festival

Every year, thousands of people come to Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, to be part of the Edinburgh Festival. For three weeks every August and September the city is filled with actors and artists from all over the world. They come to Edinburgh for the biggest arts festival in Britain. During this time, the streets of the city are alive with music and dance from early in the morning untill late at night. You can even see artists painting pictures on the streets.

Tens of thousands of tourists come to the festival to see new films and plays and to hear music played by famous musicians. This year, you can see over five hundred performances with actors from more than forty countries.

The tickets for these performances are quite cheap, and it is usually easier to see your favourite star in Edinburgh than it is in London. So come to Edinburgh next summer!

 How long does the Edinburgh Festival last?

Visit the Edinburgh Festival

Every year, thousands of people come to Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, to be part of the Edinburgh Festival. For three weeks every August and September the city is filled with actors and artists from all over the world. They come to Edinburgh for the biggest arts festival in Britain. During this time, the streets of the city are alive with music and dance from early in the morning untill late at night. You can even see artists painting pictures on the streets.

Tens of thousands of tourists come to the festival to see new films and plays and to hear music played by famous musicians. This year, you can see over five hundred performances with actors from more than forty countries.

The tickets for these performances are quite cheap, and it is usually easier to see your favourite star in Edinburgh than it is in London. So come to Edinburgh next summer!

How many people come to attend the Edinburgh Festival every year?

Pick out ONE best option (A, B, C, or D) to fill in each numbered blank, completing the meaning of the passage. 

   Before the (25)……of newspapers, town criers would go through city streets ringing a bell. They shouted the latest news as they were walking.

   In Vietnam, people love reading newspapers and magazines. The Tuoi Tre is one of the (26)……newspapers and is widely read by young and old alike.

   Thanks to television people can get the latest information and enjoy interesting programs in an inexpensive and convenient way. Nowadays, viewers can watch a (27)……of local and international programs on different channels.

   The next stage in the development of television is interactive TV. Viewers are able to ask questions about the show (28)……their remote controls.

   The Internet has (29)……developed and become part of our everyday life. People find the Internet useful. People use the Internet for many purposes. Some access the Internet to look for information, some surf the web for entertainment, and (30)……rely on the Internet as a means of education.

   The mass media plays an important (31)……in collecting and passing on information. The information may be local, national, or international. It can cover a wide range of topics, from news and weather to entertainment. News stories contain information about politics, the economy, and such international affairs (32)……wars or natural disasters.

29__________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer to each question. Write your answers in the space provided. 

Of all the weather events that occur around the world, lighting is the single most powerful and most frequent. Lightning strikes somewhere around the Earth 100 times each second. A typical lightning strike carries enough electricity to power a small town. In less than a second, a lightning strike heats the surrounding air to temperatures several times hotter than the surface of the sun. Obviously, lightning strikes are powerful. But how do they work?

A lightning strike is the last of the complex chain of events that happen inside a cloud. This chain of events starts when warm air rises in the clouds and cold airdrops. As the cold air and warm air pass each other, they carry millions of tiny drops of water and ice. When these passing water drops hit each other, they create electricity. Just like the batteries in your MP3 player, this electricity has a positive and a negative side. In the cloud, the negative side is at the bottom, and the positive side is at the top of the cloud. This makes the cloud electrically unbalanced. When the imbalance becomes too great, a streak of lightning forms, reconnecting the positive and negative parts of the cloud.

Lightning has two basic forms: cloud to cloud lightning and cloud to ground lightning. Cloud to cloud lightning occurs inside a cloud and never touches the ground. Sometimes called heat lightning, cloud to cloud lightning is most common in the late afternoon and evening, when temperatures begin to fall and there is more movement between hot and cold air inside a cloud. Cloud to ground lightning is far more dangerous. Cloud to ground lightning usually occurs during a thunderstorm. Many people think that cloud-to-ground lightning will hit the latest available object, but this is not always true. Cloud to ground lightning is very unpredictable and can even hit objects very low to the ground.

The word “strikes” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Read the following passage and write 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.

            A lot of people have hobbies, but who spends 8 hours a day (01)___________ a hobby? Meet Shi-tung Chuang. He plays online (02)___________ games eight hours a day! Shi-tung is a college student at DeLin (03)___________. He does well in school, so his parents do not (04) ___________ that he spends so much time on the computer. Does he have time (05)___________ friends? “Sure, I do.”, he says. “All my friends have the same (06)___________, so we play (07)___________ online. Sometimes we even see each other in (08)___________ life.”

“Many online players spend too much time on their games.”, says Stephen Kline of Simon Fraser University in Canada, and this can (09)___________ to family fights. Some players are (10) ___________. “I’m not addicted,” says Shi-tung, “although it’s a bit hard to stop. It’s crazy and so much fun to play. I want to succeed! I want to win!”.

Câu 03_______

Read the passage below and decide which option (A, B, C, or D) best fits each space. 

In 1853, Levi Strauss (21)_ to San Francisco from New York. His brothers ran a business there selling pillows, blankets, and clothes and Levis went to help them. He worked (22) and, over the next twenty years, he expanded the business.

One day in 1872, Levi got a letter from Jacob Davis who made men's clothes. In the letter Jacob (23) Levis about a difficult customer. He kept on tearing the pockets of his trousers. Jacob had found an answer – he had added some metal to the corners of the pockets. Levi recognized a business opportunity, (24) _ the two men started working together. They decided to make some trousers out of denim, a material which was suitable for working clothes. The first pair of denim blue jeans (25) _ produced in 1873. Today people all around the world wear Levi jeans every day.

23_________

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Circle A, B, C, or D to indicate your answers.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel, a Swedish inventor, and philanthropist bequeathed most of his vast fortune in trust as a fund from which annual prizes could be awarded to individuals and organizations who had achieved the greatest benefit to humanity in a particular year. Originally, there were six classifications for outstanding contributions designated in Nobel’s will, including chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and international peace.

The prizes are administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm. In 1969, a prize for economics endowed by the Central Bank of Sweden was added. Candidates for the prizes must be nominated in writing a qualified authority in the field of competitions. Recipients in physics, chemistry, and economics are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; and physiology or medicine by the Caroline Institute; in literature by the Swedish Academy; and in peace by the Norwegian Nobel Committee appointed by Norway’s parliament. The prizes are usually in Stockholm on December 10, with the King of Sweden officiating, an appropriate tribute to Alfred Nobel on the anniversary of his death. Each one includes a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award of about one million dollars.

What does this passage mainly discuss?

Pick out ONE best option (A, B, C, or D) to fill in each numbered blank, completing the meaning of the passage. 

   Before the (25)……of newspapers, town criers would go through city streets ringing a bell. They shouted the latest news as they were walking.

   In Vietnam, people love reading newspapers and magazines. The Tuoi Tre is one of the (26)……newspapers and is widely read by young and old alike.

   Thanks to television people can get the latest information and enjoy interesting programs in an inexpensive and convenient way. Nowadays, viewers can watch a (27)……of local and international programs on different channels.

   The next stage in the development of television is interactive TV. Viewers are able to ask questions about the show (28)……their remote controls.

   The Internet has (29)……developed and become part of our everyday life. People find the Internet useful. People use the Internet for many purposes. Some access the Internet to look for information, some surf the web for entertainment, and (30)……rely on the Internet as a means of education.

   The mass media plays an important (31)……in collecting and passing on information. The information may be local, national, or international. It can cover a wide range of topics, from news and weather to entertainment. News stories contain information about politics, the economy, and such international affairs (32)……wars or natural disasters.

25________

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C, or D.

    Visit the Edinburgh Festival

Every year, thousands of people come to Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, to be part of the Edinburgh Festival. For three weeks every August and September the city is filled with actors and artists from all over the world. They come to Edinburgh for the biggest arts festival in Britain. During this time, the streets of the city are alive with music and dance from early in the morning untill late at night. You can even see artists painting pictures on the streets.

Tens of thousands of tourists come to the festival to see new films and plays and to hear music played by famous musicians. This year, you can see over five hundred performances with actors from more than forty countries.

The tickets for these performances are quite cheap, and it is usually easier to see your favourite star in Edinburgh than it is in London. So come to Edinburgh next summer!

How many people come to attend the Edinburgh Festival every year?

Read the passage below and decide which option (A, B, C, or D) best fits each space. 

In 1853, Levi Strauss (21)_ to San Francisco from New York. His brothers ran a business there selling pillows, blankets, and clothes and Levis went to help them. He worked (22) and, over the next twenty years, he expanded the business.

One day in 1872, Levi got a letter from Jacob Davis who made men's clothes. In the letter Jacob (23) Levis about a difficult customer. He kept on tearing the pockets of his trousers. Jacob had found an answer – he had added some metal to the corners of the pockets. Levi recognized a business opportunity, (24) _ the two men started working together. They decided to make some trousers out of denim, a material which was suitable for working clothes. The first pair of denim blue jeans (25) _ produced in 1873. Today people all around the world wear Levi jeans every day.

24.___________

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

Every nation and every country has its own customs and traditions. In Britain, traditions play a more important part in the life of the people than in other countries. Englishmen are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up.

It has been the law for about 300 years that all theaters are closed on Sundays. No letters are delivered, only a few Sunday papers are published.

To this day an English family prefers a house with a garden to a flat in a modern house with central heating. English people like gardens. Sometimes the garden in front of the house is a little square covered with cement painted green in imitation of grass and a box of flowers.

Holidays are especially rich in old traditions and are different in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England. Christmas is a great English national holiday, and in Scotland, it is not kept, except by clerks in banks, all shops and factories are working.

What are always closed on Sundays in Britain?

Choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D that best fits each space in the following passage from 23 to 32:

Malaysia (23)__________one of the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It consists (24)________ the Malay Peninsula and Sarawak and Sabah on the island Borneo. It is (25) ________into two regions, known as West Malaysia and East Malaysia. It has a tropical (26)________.

The (27)________of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is (28)________world’s biggest producer of palm oil, and it exports rubber, tin, and gas. In addition to Islam, the country’s official (29)__________, there are Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. Malaysian people speak Bahasa Malaysia as (30)_________mother tongue. It is the language of (31)______in all secondary schools. English, Chinese, and Tamil are also widely spoken in (32)_____country.

Question 25:___________

Choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D that best fits each space in the following passage from 23 to 32:

Malaysia (23)__________one of the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It consists (24)________the Malay Peninsula and Sarawak and Sabah on the island Borneo. It is (25) ________into two regions, known as West Malaysia and East Malaysia. It has a tropical (26)________.

The (27)________of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia is (28)________world’s biggest producer of palm oil, and it exports rubber, tin, and gas. In addition to Islam, the country’s official (29)__________, there are Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. Malaysian people speak Bahasa Malaysia as (30)_________mother tongue. It is the language of (31)______in all secondary schools. English, Chinese, and Tamil are also widely spoken in (32)_____country.

Question 24:____________

Read the following passage and write 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.

            A lot of people have hobbies, but who spends 8 hours a day (01)___________ a hobby? Meet Shi-tung Chuang. He plays online (02)___________ games eight hours a day! Shi-tung is a college student at DeLin (03)___________. He does well in school, so his parents do not (04) ___________ that he spends so much time on the computer. Does he have time (05)___________ friends? “Sure, I do.”, he says. “All my friends have the same (06)___________, so we play (07)___________ online. Sometimes we even see each other in (08)___________ life.”

“Many online players spend too much time on their games.”, says Stephen Kline of Simon Fraser University in Canada, and this can (09)___________ to family fights. Some players are (10) ___________. “I’m not addicted,” says Shi-tung, “although it’s a bit hard to stop. It’s crazy and so much fun to play. I want to succeed! I want to win!”.

Câu 06__________

Read the following passage and choose the correct answer to each of the following questions from 46 to 50.

On January 17, 1995, a powerful earthquake hit the city of Kobe, Japan. Many buildings burned or collapsed. Part of an expressway fell over. Train lines were damaged, so trains could not run, and supplies of electricity, gas, and water were cut off. Soon after the earthquake was over, people in Kobe began working together to save their city. Neighbors pulled each other out of collapsed buildings. Ordinary people put out fires even before the fire trucks arrived. Volunteers in Kobe organized themselves into teams. They worked out a system to send help to where it was needed. Some people brought food, water, clothes, and electric generators to different parts of the city. Other teams searched for belongings in damaged stores and homes. Some volunteers took care of the children who had lost their parents. Teams of volunteers from outside Japan helped, too. A rescue team with search dogs came from Switzerland. A group of doctors called Doctors Without Borders came from all over the world. A group called the International Rescue Corps also sent its members to help.

Today, Kobe has been rebuilt. But people there still remember the outpouring of support they received from all over the world back in 1995.

The doctors in Doctors Without Borders___________________.

Read the passage below and decide which options A, B, C, or D best fits each space:
Christmas is a biggest festival of the year (21)__________ Britain. Before Christmas, people send Christmas (22)__________ to their friends and family showing traditional Christmas symbols such as Santa Claus, angels, holly, and snowmen. Shops are decorated for Christmas from September and in the weeks before Christmas people do their Christmas (23)__________, buying Christmas presents for friends and family. A few days before Christmas, families decorate a Christmas tree, a fir tree (24)__________in lights and colorful decorations, in their home. Many people go to midnight mass in church on Christmas Eve. Young children believe that Santa Claus will bring them presents during the night and they usually wake up to find a stocking, a long sock filled with small presents, by (25)__________bed.

25.__________

Read, then choose the best answer by circling the corresponding letter A, B, C, or D. 

Radar is an electronic device that can “see” great distances (1) ……. fog, rain, snow, cloud, and darkness. It can find and (2) ……… locate missiles, aircraft, ships, cities, rainstorms, and mountains. Radar uses radio waves, (3) ……….. light waves, which the human eye uses in seeing. This makes it (4) …….. for radar to locate many kinds of objects at (5) …….. greater distances than the eye can see. Radar became an important military device during World War II. Today, networks of radar lookout stations guard the United States and Canada 24 hours a day against (6) ……. missiles and airplanes. Patrol planes and ships (7) …….. the oceans with radar for hostile ships and aircraft. Airports use radar to (8).…. planes safety to earth in fog or storms. Ships use it to steer clear of other (9) ……… or icebergs.  Radar helps weathermen warn of (10) ……. hurricanes or tornadoes.

1..................

They also had a fishing-line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water, two things which ______ their lives.

Circle A, B, C, or D  which best completes each blank in the following passage. 

The traffic light signal was invented by a railway signaling engineer. It was installed (36)_______the House of Parliament in 1868. It (37)_______like any railway signal of the time, and was operated by gas. However, it exploded and killed a policeman, and the accident (38)_______ further development until cars became common.

Modern traffic lights are an American invention. Red-green systems were installed in Cleveland in 1914. Three-color signals, (39)_______by hand from a tower in the middle of the street, were installed in New York in 1918. The first lights of this type to (40)_______in Britain were in London, on the junction between St. James street and Piccadilly in 1925.

40_________