National Exam for the Gifted in English

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA

ĐỀ THI CHÍNH THỨC

LỚP 12 THPT NĂM 2012
Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian thi: 180 phút
Ngày thi: 11/1/2012

_______________________________________________________________________________________
I. LISTENING (50/200 points)
Part 1: Listen to Mike Williams of BBC's One Planet and Professor Frank Kelly talking about environment issues and supply the blanks with the missing Information. You can write your answers in the form of NOTES.
Questions 1 – 2
This week, a UK parliamentary committee said
1. that failure to meet European air quality standards is costing the nation up to US$ ........... a year due to poor health,
2. and that it can ....................................................................................................... - in some by years.
Questions 3 – 7
3. Mike and Professor Frank Kelly are standing ......................................................... King’s College.
4. According to Prof. Kelly, the air is influenced by ................................ from the transport sectors.
5. The Prof. estimates that ....................................................................... is probably fueled by diesel.
6. The Prof. explains that pollution is almost invisible partly because the particles are ...................
7. According to the Prof., pollution in the UK in the past century was mainly caused by ...............
Questions 8 - 10
8. The Prof. compares the pollution in Beijing to that in London during ...........................................
9. He says that pollution in Beijing at present is chiefly caused by .....................................................
10. World Health Organization's statistics show that ............................................. are killed by urban outdoor air pollution each year.

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Part 2: Listen to a Welfare Officer speaking to newly-enrolled students about facilities at her college, Parklands, and supply the blanks with the missing information.
PARKLANDS COLLEGE SPORTS CLUBS
Sport
Foot ball
Hockey
Badminton
Basketball and volleyball When
(11) ....................................
Thursday this year
Tuesday to Friday

Costs
£15
£18
£10

Equipment provided
No
Yes
No

Monday

(12) ....................................

(13) .....................................

14. The drama group is admired for the .......................................................................... of their work.
15. The College provides a ........................................................................ for students with problems.
Part 3: Listen to a woman talking about Canada and supply the missing information or answer the questions that follow. You do not need to write full sentences.
16. The nickname "the land of the midnight sun" is given to ............................................................... .
17. The original people in the northern part of Canada are also known as part of “..........................“.
18. The province of British Columbia in the far west of Canada is well-known for mild climate, .....
............................................................................................................ seacoast, and beautiful forests.
19. How did the first people arrive in Canada from Asia?
By crossing .............................................................................................................................................
20. Where did the first Europeans who arrived in eastern Canada mainly come from?
................................................................................................................................................................
II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (20/200 points)
Part 1: Choose the correct answer (A, B, C, or D) to each of the following questions and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
21. His __________ of the safety regulations really has resulted in a number of minor accidents.
A. disregard

B. unfamiliarity

C. carelessness

D. inattention

22. He seemed very quiet, but it would be a mistake to __________ his intelligence.
A. devalue

B. depreciate

C. undermine

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D. minimize

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23. Those naughty boys went on making terrible noise in the park even though they had been
__________ by the annoyed constable.
A. turned into

B. taken after

C. ticked off

D. dropped off

24. Alex was __________ enough on becoming a professional sportsman and he didn't want to listen to anyone else's advice.
A. certain

B. eager

C. definite

D. intent

25. "Don't look so worried! You should take the boss's remarks with a __________ of salt."
A. teaspoon

B. pinch

C. grain

D. dose

26. After a fall in profits, the Company decided to __________ the hotel business.
A. back up from

B. pull out of

C. take out of

D. make off with

27. "If you are at a(n) __________ end, you could help me in the garden."
A. open

B. free

C. loose

D. empty

28. It is understood that his closest adviser will __________ as president.
A. take over

B. get by

C. take up

D. come about

29. We need to send a representative we can __________.
A. find out

B. count on

C. catch on

D. stand for

30. The project manager __________ animatedly as he spoke about his experiences in the jungle.
A. advanced
21.
26.

B. looked
22.
27.

C. noticed
23.
28.

D. gestured

24.
29.

25.
30.

Part 2: Write the correct FORM of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided In the column on the right. (0) has been done as an example.
During the mid-19th century, (0)__________ (ARCHITECT) became
(31)__________ (INSTITUTION) as a profession requiring formal preparation and subject to codes of performance. During this period, connoisseurship – full academic training in the history of architecture and its aesthetics – was the designer’s most important (32)__________ (QUALITY). In every Western country, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris was accepted as the model for architectural education. Architecture was easily separated from engineering, which had pragmatic rather than aesthetic goals. Yet, today the profession delivers not only aesthetic guidance but also a (33)__________ (BEWILDER) array of technical services requiring many (34)__________ (SPECIAL) contributors. The architect strives to maintain the position of generalist, one who can take the long view while orchestrating the resolution of complex
(35)__________ (RELATE) issues.
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0. architecture
31. . ..........................

32. ...........................

33. ...........................
34. ...........................

35. ...........................

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Part 3: The passage below contains 5 mistakes. Underline the mistakes and write their correct forms in the space provided in the column on the right. (0) has been done as an example.
Adult education takes different form in different places at different times, reflecting 0. form  the different social functions given to adult learning, and the different groups with forms

accessible to opportunities. In ancient Greece, Athenian society was organized to 36. . ....................... enable a small class of people to pursue learning as the central vocation of their adult lives. However, adult learning was not then seen to be universally useful. In

Denmark, adult education was central to the generate of a poor agrarian economy, 37. ........................ inspired in the 19th century by the Danish poet and educator N. F. S. Grundtvig, and

built on the development of and support for active and participative democracy. That 38. ........................ commitment for popular participation and social justice remains central to adult

education in the Nordic countries. In Britain, "adult education" has often been taken 39. ........................ to mean part-time studies that do not lead to certifying; in the United States, it is

seen as a generic, all-inclusive term. However, in more than half of the world, it is 40. ........................ synonymous with adult literacy, with programmes of reading and writing for people with no initial school.
III. READING (50/200 points)
Part 1: Fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word and write your answers in the corresponding boxes provided below the passage.
Studies about how students use their time might shed (41) __________ on whether they face increased academic and financial pressures compared with earlier eras. (42) __________ on data about how students are spending time, academic or financial pressures don't seem to be greater now than a generation ago.
The data show that full-time students in all types of colleges study much less now than they (43 __________ a generation ago – a full 10 hours a week less. Students are also receiving significantly higher grades. So it appears that academic pressures are, in fact, considerably lower than they (44) __________ to be.
The time-use data don't suggest that students feel greater financial pressures,
(45)__________.When the time savings and lower opportunity costs are factored (46) __________, college appears less expensive for most students than it was in the 1960s. And though there are now more full-time students working for pay while in college, they study less even when paid work choices are held constant.
In other (47) __________, full-time students do not appear to be studying less in order to work more. They appear to be studying less and spending the extra time on leisure activities or
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fun. It seems hard to imagine that students feeling increased financial (48) __________ would respond by taking more leisure.
Based on how students are spending their time, then, it doesn't look (49) __________ though academic or financial pressures are greater now than a generation ago. The time-use data don't speak directly (50) __________ social pressures, and it may well be that these have become more intense lately.
41.
46.

42.
47.

43.
48.

44.
49.

45.
50.

Part 2.
Questions 51 – 55: Read the following passage and choose the most suitable sentence from A to G on the list for each gap from 51 to 55. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. There are two extra sentences which you do not need to use.
(51) __________. Creative genius is, in fact, latent within many of us, without our realizing it. But how far do we need to travel to find the path to creativity? For many people, it is a long way. In our everyday lives, we have to perform many acts out of habit to survive, like door opening, shaving, getting dressed, walking to work, and so on. If this were not the case, we would, in all probability, become mentally unhinged. So strongly ingrained are our habits, though this varies from person to person, that, sometimes, when a conscious effort is made to be creative, automatic response takes over. We may try, for example, to walk to work following a different route, but end up on o ur usual path. By then, it is too late to go back and change o ur minds.
Another day, perhaps. This applies to all other areas of our lives. When we are solving problems, for example, we may seek different answers, but, often as not, find ourselves walking along the same well-trodden paths.
So, for many people, their actions and behavior are set in immovable blocks, their minds clogged with the cholesterol of habitual actions, preventing them from operating freely, and thereby stifling creation. (52) __________ - t he obsessive desire to give order to the world is a case in point. Witness people's attitude to time, social customs and the panoply of rules and regulations by which the human mind is now circumscribed.
The groundwork for keeping creative ability in check begins at school. School, later university and work teach us to regulate our lives, imposing a continuous process of restrictions, which is increasing exponentially with the advancement of technology. Is it surprising then that creative ability appears to be so rare? It is trapped in the prison that we have erected. Yet, even here in this hostile environment, the foundations for creativity are being laid, because setting off on the creative path is also partly about using rules and regulations. (53) __________.
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The truly creative mind is often seen as totally free and unfettered. But a better image is of a mind, which can be free when it wants, and one that recognizes that rules and regulations are parameters, or barriers, to be raised and dropped again at will. An example of how the human mind can be trained to be creative might help here. People's minds are just like tense muscles that need to be freed up and the potential unlocked. One strategy is to erect artificial barriers or hurdles in solving a problem. As a form of stimulation, the participants in the task can be forbidden to use particular solutions or to follow certain lines of thought to solve a problem. In this way, they are obliged to explore unfamiliar territory, which may lead to some startling discoveries. (54) __________. There is also an element of fear involved, however subliminal, as deviating from the safety of one's own thought patterns is very much akin to madness. But, open
Pandora's box, and a whole new world unfolds before your very eyes.
(55) __________. Parameters act as containers for ideas, and thus help the mind to fix on them. When the mind is thinking laterally, and two ideas from different areas of the brain come or are brought together, they form a new idea, just like atoms floating around and then forming a molecule. Once the idea has been formed, it needs to be contained or it will fly away, so fleeting is its passage. The mind needs to hold it in place for a time so that it can recognize it or call on it again. And then, the parameters can act as channels along which the ideas can flow, develop, and expand. When the mind has brought the idea to fruition by thinking it through to its final conclusion, the parameters can be brought down and the idea allowed to float off and come in contact with other ideas.
A. Such limitations are needed so that once they are learnt, they can be broken
B. Unfortunately, the difficulty in this exercise, and with creation itself, is convincing people that creation is possible, shrouded as it is in so much myth and legend
C. Unfortunately, mankind's very struggle for survival has become a tyranny
D. Creativity brings people success and wealth
E. It is a myth that creative people are born with their talents: gifts from God or nature.
F. Lifting barriers into place also plays a major part in helping the mind to control ideas rather than letting them collide at random
F. People's habits are formed to prevent creativity
Questions 56 - 60: Choose the best answer (A, B, C, or D) to each of the following questions and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
56. Which of the following could best serve as the title for the passage?
A. Creative People and Their Success

C. The Creation Myth

B. Habit - An Obstacle to Creativity

D. Ways to Improve Creativity

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57. According to the author, creativity is __________.
A. a gift from God or nature

C. difficult for many people to achieve

B. an automatic response

D. a well-trodden path

58. According to the author, __________.
A. the human race's fight to live is creating tyrannies
B. the human brain is blocked with cholesterol
C. the human race is now circumscribed by talents
D. the human race's fight to survive stifles creativity
59. Technology advancement __________.
A. holds creativity

C. produces hostile environment

B. improves creativity

D. is a tyranny

60. According to the author, creativity __________.
A. gains popularity

C. forms obsessive desire

B. creates good habits

D. becomes a rare commodity

Questions 61 - 65: Do the statements below agree with the Information In the reading passage?
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
Y

if the statement agrees with the information in the passage,

N

if the statement contradicts the information in the passage, or

NG

if there is no information about the statement in the passage.

61. Rules and regulations are examples of parameters.
62. The truly creative mind is associated with the need for free speech.
63. One problem with creativity is that people think it is impossible.
64. Creativity is not affected by habits.
65. Parameters help the mind by holding ideas and helping them to develop.
51.
56.
61.

52.
57.
62.

53.
58.
63.

54.
59.
64.

55.
60.
65.

Part 3.
Questions 66 - 73: Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, or D) to each . question. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
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This year witnesses a record number of high school students who obtained top grades in the final exams. Yet, employers complain that young people still lack the basic skills to succeed at work. The only explanation offered is that exams must be getting easier. But the real answer could lie in a study just published by Professor Robert Stenberg, an eminent psychologist at Yale
University in the USA and the world's leading expert on intelligence. His research reveals the existence of a totally new variety: practical intelligence.
Professor Stenberg's astonishing finding is that practical intelligence, which predicts success in real life, has an inverse relationship with academic intelligence. In other words, the more practically intelligent you are, the less likely you are to succeed at school or university.
Similarly, the more paper qualifications you hold and the higher grades, the less able you are to cope with problems of everyday life and the lower your score in practical intelligence.
Many people who are clearly successful in their place of work do badly in standard IQ
(academic intelligence) tests. Entrepreneurs and those who have built large businesses from scratch are frequently discovered to be high school or college drop-outs. IQ as a concept is more than 100 years old. It was supposed to explain why some people excelled at a wide variety of intellectual tasks. But IQ ran into trouble when it became apparent that some high scorers failed to achieve in real life what was predicted by their tests.
Emotional intelligence (EQ), which emerged a decade ago, was supposed to explain this deficit. It suggested that to succeed in real life, people needed both emotional as well as intellectual skills. EQ includes the abilities to motivate yourself and persist in the face of frustration; to control impulses and delay gratification; to regulate moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; and to understand and emphasize with others. While social or emotional intelligence was a useful concept in explaining many of real-world deficiencies of super-intelligent people, it did not go any further than the IQ test in measuring success in real life.
Again, some of the most successful people in the business world were obviously lacking in social charm. Not all real-life difficulties we face are solvable with just good social skills – and good social acumen in one situation may not translate to another. The crucial problem with academic and emotional intelligence scores is that they are both poor predictors of success in real life. For example, research has shown that IQ tests predict only between 4% and 25% of success in life, such as job performance.
Professor Stenberg's group at Yale began from a very different position to traditional researchers into intelligence. Instead of asking what intelligence was and investigating whether it predicted success in life, Professor Stenberg asked what distinguished people who were thriving from those that were not. Instead of measuring this form of intelligence with mathematical or verbal tests, practical intelligence is scored by answers to real-life dilemmas such as: "If you were
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traveling by car and got stranded on a motorway during a blizzard, what would you do?" An important contrast between these questions is that in academic tests there is usually only one answer, whereas in practical intelligence tests – as in real life – t here are several different solutions to the problem.
The Yale group found that most of the really useful knowledge which successful people have acquired is gained during everyday activities – but typically without conscious awareness.
Although successful people's behavior reflects the fact that they have this knowledge, high achievers are often unable to articulate or define what they know. This partly explains why practical intelligence has been so difficult to identify.
Professor Stenberg found that the best way to reach practical intelligence is to ask successful people to relate examples of crucial incidents at work where they solved problems demonstrating skills they had learned while doing their job. It would appear that one of the best ways of improving your practical intelligence is to observe master practitioners at work and, in particular, to focus on the skills they have acquired while doing their job. Oddly enough, this is the basis of traditional apprentice training. Historically, the junior doctor learnt by observing the consultant surgeon at work and the junior lawyer by assisting the senior barrister.
Another area where practical intelligence appears to resolve a previously unexplained paradox is that performance in academic tests usually declines after formal education ends. Yet, most older adults contend that their ability to solve practical problems increases over the years.
The key implication for organizations and companies is that practical intelligence may not be detectable by conventional auditing and performance measuring procedures. Training new or less capable employees to become more practically intelligent will involve learning from the genuinely practically intelligent rather than from training manuals or courses.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is in recruitment, as these new studies have shown that paper qualifications are unlikely to be helpful in predicting who will be best at solving your company's problems. Professor Stenberg's research suggests that we should start looking at companies in a completely different way – and see them as places where a huge number of problems are being solved all the time but where it may take new eyes to see the practical intelligence in action.
66. The word "eminent" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to “__________”.
A. informative but bookish

B. notorious

C. known far and wide

D. knowledgeable

67. Professor Stenberg's study showed that __________.
A. qualifications are a good indicator of success at work
B. education can help people cope with real-life problems
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C. intelligent people do not always do well at school
D. high grades can indicate a lack of practical intelligence
68. What does "deficit" in the fourth paragraph refer to?
A. People with high 10 scores could not score well in EO tests.
B. EQ tests were unable to predict success at work.
C. High 10 scores did not always lead to personal success.
D. People With high EQ scores could not cope with real life.
69. Professor Stenberg's research differed from previous studies because __________.
A. he used verbal testing instead of mathematics
B. he began by establishing a definition of intelligence
C. he analyzed whether intelligence could predict success in real life
D. he wanted to find out what was different about successful people
70. Part of the reason why practical intelligence has not been identified before Professor Stenberg's study is that __________.
A. the behavior of successful people has never been studied
B. successful people are too busy with their everyday lives
C. successful people cannot put their knowledge into words
D. successful people are unaware of their own abilities
71. In order to increase the practical intelligence of employees, companies need to __________.
A. adopt an apprentice system

C. devise better training manuals

B. organize special courses

D. carry out an audit on alt employees

72. Which statement is NOT true about Professor Stenberg?
A. He is a psychologist at Yale University.
B. One of his research areas is practical intelligence.
C. He uses mathematical and verbal tests to score practical intelligence.
D. His research was differently conducted compared to traditional researchers.
73. Which of the following could best be the title for the passage?
A. Practical Intelligence – A New Type of Intelligence
B. Practical Intelligence – An Effective Predictor of People's Success
C. Practical Intelligence – A New Foundation for IQ and EQ
D. Practical Intelligence – A Most Reliable Criterion for Recruitment
Questions 74 - 80: Name the following characteristics or notions as X for "Academic intelligence", Y for "Emotional intelligence" or Z for "Practical intelligence" and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.

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74. It refers to skills which are likely to improve with age.
75. It refers to people's social skills.
76. It includes paper qualifications.
77. It is the oldest of the three tests.
78. It was coined ten years ago.
79. It refers to the ability to stay calm in difficult situations.
80. It refers to intellectual skills.
IV. WRITING (60/200 points)
Part 1: Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it (in about 80 words).
You MUST NOT copy or re-write the original.
During the teenage years, many young people can at times be difficult to talk to. They often seem to dislike being questioned. They may seem unwilling to talk about their work in school. This is a normal development at this age, though it can be very hard for parents to understand. It is part of becoming independent, of teenagers trying to be adults while they are still growing up. Young people are usually more willing to talk if they believe that questions are asked out of real interest and not because people are trying to check up on them.
Parents should do their best to talk to their son or daughter about school, work and future plans but should not push them to talk if they do not want to. Parents should also watch for danger signs; some young people in trying to be adults may experiment with sex, drugs, alcohol, or smoking. Parents need to watch for any signs of unusual behavior which may be connected with these and get help if necessary.
Part 2: While work is getting scarcer and the pay lower in the state-run sector in the country of
Banananla, people still apply for work in this sector. Study the following chart, which groups people on the basis of their motives, and write a report describing the changes over the past 15 years. You should add a comment of your own relevant to the issue. Your writing should not exceed 200 words.

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Part 3: "Cooperation rather than competition should be encouraged among high-school students."
In about 400 words, write an essay to express your opinion on the proposal. Use reasons and examples to support your position. You may continue your writing on the back page if you need more space.
V. SPEAKING
You have 7 minutes to sketch out what you are going to say. You should prepare notes instead of full sentences and try to SPEAK as naturally as possible. Your talking time should not exceed 3 minutes. Good luck! Question # 01

You have successfully applied for a course of study at an American university.
You are preparing for the trip and the time you spend there. Get ready to talk to an audience about your plan.

Question # 02

"Private vehicles should be banned in crowded cities." Do you support the proposal? Get ready to talk to an audience on the proposal.

Question # 03

"The development of high-rise buildings should be banned in crowded
Hanoi." Do you support the proposal?

Question # 04

Which do you think is better: studying English abroad or studying it in your home country? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.

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Question # 05

In your opinion, when should sex education be introduced into secondary school curriculum? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.

Question # 06

Which would you like to choose: working at a private company or at a staterun company? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.

Question # 07

Overpopulation has become a matter of concern. What do you think are the causes for this problem? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.

Question # 08

In your opinion, how should endangered species be protected? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.

Question # 09

What is your opinion of women's roles in the modern society? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.

Question # 10

What is your opinion of the saying "Charity begins at borne"? Get ready to talk to an audience about this issue.
THE END

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