1

SỞ GD&ĐT THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN

LAM SƠN

(Đề thi gồm 17 trang)

KỲ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN

KHU VỰC DUYÊN HẢI VÀ ĐỒNG BẰNG BẮC BỘ

LẦN THỨ XV, NĂM 2024

ĐỀ THI MÔN: TIẾNG ANH 11

Thời gian: 180 phút (Không kể thời gian phát đề)

Ngày thi: /7/2024

I. LISTENING (50 POINTS)

HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU

•

Bài nghe gồm 4 phần; mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mỗi lần cách nhau 10 giây; mở đầu và

kết thúc mỗi phần nghe có tín hiệu.

•

Mở đầu và kết thúc bài nghe có nhạc hiệu. Thí sinh có 2 phút để hoàn chỉnh bài trước

nhạc hiệu kết thúc bài nghe.

•

Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh đã có trong bài nghe.

Part 1. For questions 1-5, you will hear two academics called John Farrendale and Lois

Granger, taking part in a discussion on the subject of attitudes to work. Choose the answer

A, B, C or D which fits best according to what you hear. Write your answers in the

corresponding boxes provided. (10 pts)

1. Lois agrees with John's point that __________

A. most people dread the prospect of unemployment.

B. the psychological effects of unemployment can be overstated.

C. some people are better equipped to deal with unemployment than others.

D. problems arise when unemployment coincides with other traumatic events.

2. Lois agrees with the listener who suggested that __________

A. work is only one aspect of a fulfilling life.

B. voluntary work may be more rewarding than paid work.

C. not everybody can expect a high level of job satisfaction.

D. people should prepare for redundancy as they would for retirement.

3. What is John's attitude towards people who see work as a “means to an end”?

A. He doubts their level of commitment to the job.

B. He accepts that they have made a valid choice.

C. He fears it will lead to difficulties for them later.

D. He feels they may be missing out on something important.

4. When asked about so-called 'slackers' at work, John points out that __________

A. they accept the notion that work is a necessary evil.

B. people often jump to unfair conclusions about them.

C. their views are unacceptable in a free labour market.

ĐỀ ĐỀ XUẤT

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D. such an attitude has become increasingly unacceptable.

5. Lois quotes the psychologist Freud in order to __________

A. show how intellectual ideas have shifted over time.

B. provide a contrast to the ideas of Bertrand Russell.

C. question the idea that a desire to work is a natural thing.

D. lend weight to John's ideas about increased social mobility.

Part 2: For questions 6 – 10, listen to a radio programme and decide whether the following

statements are True (T), False (F), or Not Given (NG) according to what you here. Write your

answers on the answer sheet.

6. NBA games can take place on holidays including Thanksgiving day and Christmas Eve.

7. The decision to cancel NBA games on election day was unprecedented.

8. The pandemic in 2020 adversely affected the career of NBA players.

9. The NBA has taken steps to get involved in voter turnout before.

10. On the day before Election Day, almost all the league’s teams will play to promote civic

engagement.

Part 3: For question 11-15, listen to a talk about memory and answer the questions with NO

MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in the space provided.

(10 pts)

11. How was Dr. Federik Sullivan’s memory at first?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

12. Beside a computer, what can help you improve your memory?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

13.Beside prolonging life what has a full and active memory been proved to be able to do?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

14.According to Sullivan, how is the human brain?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

15.What is the function of long-term memory?

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Part 4. For questions 16-25, you are going to listen to a piece of news on South China Sea.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording for each blank. Write

your answers on the answer sheet.

A man-made island, Fiery Cross didn’t exist two years ago, yet there’s now 10,000 foot air strip,

an (16)________________________, a missile defense system, and about 200 troops there. Six

others have also been built.

Since 2014, huge Chinese ships collected around remote reefs in the Spratly Islands, rapidly

pumping (17)_______________________ up onto the reef. They were building islands.

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This

body

of

water

is

not

only

rich

in

natural

resources,

but

30%

of

the

(18)_________________________also flows through here to the booming population centers

and economic markets of Southeast Asia as well.

Now 5 countries have laid their claims on this water, most basing their claim on the UN Law of

Seas, which says a country’s territorial waters extend 200 miles off their shore, an area called the

(19)_________________________ or EEZ.

Countries

have

exclusive

rights

to

all

the

resources

and

trade

in

their

EEZ.

It’s

their

(20)_________________________. Any area that isn’t in an EEZ is regarded as international

waters meaning every country shares it.

Every country in the South China Sea region uses this 200-miles EEZ threshold to determine its

claims, except China which argued they have a historical claim to the South China Sea dating

back to (21)_______________________ in the 15

th

century.

Following World War II, China claimed the South China Sea by drawing this imprecise line on

the map that (22)_______________________ of the South China Sea, which it named the nine-

dash-line.

The Spratly Islands is a (23)_________________________ cluster of islands currently claimed

by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

It’s hard to (24)_________________________ on an uninhabited piles of sand, so countries have

built buildings and even stuck several people there.

China believes all the Spratly Island belongs to them. (25)________________________ on these

new artificial islands show China’s great ambition to rule the region.

II. LEXICO – GRAMMAR (30 POINTS)

Part 1. For questions 26 – 45, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D to each of the following

questions. Write your answers on the answer sheet. (20 points)

26. The president was eventually _______ by a military coup.

A. disbarred

B. supplanted

C. deposed

D. subverted

27. Poor Mary, all her colleagues teased her; she was the ______ of all their jokes.

A. hubbub

B. butt

C. bulk

D. brunt

28. We do not have a secretary _______, but we do have a student who comes in to do a bit of

filing.

A. as such

B. the least bit

C. whatsoever

D. little more

29. Derek had no experience of white-water canoeing, so it was extremely _______ of him to try

and shoot the rapids.

A. treacherous

B. intrepid

C. perilous

D. foolhardy

30. He wanted to know whose car I had borrowed _______ .

A. yesterday evening

B. the last evening

C. last night

D. the previous night

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31. Minister of Interior has recently disclosed why the nation’s passport administration was still

______ with fraud, racketeering and delay.

A. thick

B. fraught

C. imbued

D. brimming

32. When a show is popular, everyone is content but if its popularity ______. It is likely to be

scrapped.

A. subsides

B. dims

C. fades

D. weakens

33. Artists have been ______ by people who stream music without paying.

A. short-dated

B. short-changed

C. short-circuited

D. short-handed

34. People could donate money to non-governmental organisations that feed Palestinians or

channel as medical aid to people who have suffered from the ________ of war.

A. blows

B. hardships

C. calamities

D. adversities

35. Owning and living in a freestanding house is still a goal of young adults, _______ earlier

generations.

A. as did

B. as it was of

C. like that of

D. so have

36. The new regime determined to _______ compulsory military service.

A. strike into

B. phase out

C. end up

D. check off

37. The government needs to _____ businesses that have been trying to evade the tax.

A. put the screws on

B. get into gear

C. put one over on

D. wipe off the map

38. Being a _____ entrepreneur, you will have to make a special effort for people to take you

seriously.

A. successful

B. budding

C. blossoming

D. flowering

39. What I like about this amusement park is that there is _____ parking space right outside it.

A. copious

B. ample

C. expanded

D. manifold

40. Last weekend, _____ nothing to watch on TV, we played chess together.

A. there being

B. there having

C. having had

D. being

Part 2. For questions 46 – 55, supply the correct form of the word given in capital letters at

the end of each sentence. Write your answers on the answer sheet. (10 points)

46. About

$200

million

in

taxes

weren’t

paid

because

of

________________

income.

(REPORT)

47. It is vital that we _________________ this realm if we ever want to get anything done

effective in securing it. (MYSTERY)

48. The state must ensure the independence and _____________________ of the justice system.

(PART)

49. That she always gets nervous and ____________________ in interviews cuts the likelihood

of her getting a well-paid job. (TONGUE)

50. Halloween has been grossly ____________________ over the last years. (COMMODITY)

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51. Delays in implementation deadlines have, however, produced a ________________ response

from campaigners. (WARM)

52. Under the old system many women amass secret savings _________________ to their

husbands. (KNOW)

53. The organization works in many ________________ and poverty-stricken countries. (WAR)

54. She was basking in the ________________ of love. (GLOW)

55. The attacks in the past left her with such a deep sense of __________________ that she could

no longer step out of her safe zones. (VICTIM)

III. READING (60 points)

Part 1. For questions 56-65, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable

word and write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes on the answer sheet. (15

points)

In a robotics lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , the torso of a robot

grabs a box and holds it out to a roboticist as he cleans up the lab . We may consider it 56.

___________ work , but Aaron Edsinger says it takes intelligence for this robot named Domo to

lend a 57. ___________ hand with household chores. "Our big goal is to have the robot adapt to

the world instead of having the world adapt to the robot” he says. This is key, he says, because

robots 58. ___________ artificial intelligence can currently perform very complex tasks, like

assembling an automobile; but they must be taught beforehand exactly what to do. “A lot of the

really advanced robotics that you see particularly coming out of Japan right now, these robots

are very 59. ___________.” says Edsinger. “The actions they are going to take are sort of figured

out beforehand. You 60. ___________ play, and it sort of does the same thing over and over

again.”

Edsinger has been getting Domo to work in 61. ___________ settings, exposing the robot

the objects it hasn’t seen before. “62. ___________ is going to be critical as soon as we want

robots to come out of the car factory and into our homes, into our daily lives, because we can’t

63. ___________ it with everything it needs to know.” says Edsinger. For example, he says,

household robots must be able to 64. ___________ the countless objects within our home. “A

car factory can be very well understood and predicted 65. ___________ of time. Your kitchen

and all your dishes in the kitchen sink are much harder for a robot to understand” he says.

Source: Adapted from CAE Reading Tests by Evan Virginia, p 112

Part 2. For questions 66-75, read the passage below and choose the answer A, B, C or D that

fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corrresponding numbered boxes

provided on the answer sheet. (10 points)

History of the Chickenpox Vaccine

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Chickenpox is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the Varicella zoster virus;

sufferers develop a fleeting itchy rash that can spread throughout the body. The disease can last

for up to 14 days and can occur in both children and adults, though the young are particularly

vulnerable. Individuals infected with chickenpox can expect to experience a high but tolerable

level of discomfort and a fever as the disease works its way through the system. The ailment

was once considered to be a “rite of passage” by parents in the U.S. and thought to provide

children with greater and improved immunity to other forms of sickness later in life. This

view, however, was altered after additional research by scientists demonstrated unexpected

dangers associated with the virus. Over time, the fruits of this research have transformed attitudes

toward the disease and the utility of seeking preemptive measures against it.

A vaccine against chickenpox was originally invented by Michiaki Takahashi, a Japanese

doctor and research scientist, in the mid-1960s. Dr. Takahashi began his work to isolate and grow

the virus in 1965 and in 1972 began clinical trials with a live but weakened form of the virus that

caused the human body to create antibodies. Japan and several other countries began widespread

chickenpox vaccination programs in 1974. However, it took over 20 years for the chickenpox

vaccine to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), finally earning the U.S.

government’s seal of approval for widespread use in 1995. Yet even though the chickenpox

vaccine was available and recommended by the FDA, parents did not immediately choose to

vaccinate their children against this disease. Mothers and fathers typically cited the notion that

chickenpox did not constitute a serious enough disease against which a person needed to be

vaccinated.

Strong belief in that view eroded when scientists discovered the link between Varicella

zoster, the virus that causes chickenpox, and shingles, a far more serious, harmful, and longer-

lasting disease in older adults that impacts the nervous system. They reached the conclusion that

Varicella zoster remains dormant inside the body, making it significantly more likely for someone

to develop shingles. As a result, the medical community in the toefl.magoosh.com 7 U.S.

encouraged the development, adoption, and use of a vaccine against chickenpox to the public.

Although the appearance of chickenpox and shingles within one person can be many years

apart—generally many decades—the increased risk in developing shingles as a younger adult

(30-40 years old rather than 60-70 years old) proved to be enough to convince the medical

community that immunization should be preferred to the traditional alternative.

Another reason that the chickenpox vaccine was not immediately accepted and used by

parents in the U.S. centered on observations made by scientists that the vaccine simply did not

last long enough and did not confer a lifetime of immunity. In other words, scientists considered

the benefits of the vaccine to be temporary when given to young children. They also feared that

it increased the odds that a person could become infected with chickenpox later as a young adult,

when the rash is more painful and prevalent and can last up to three or four weeks. Hence,

allowing young children to develop chickenpox rather than take a vaccine against it was believed

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to be the “lesser of two evils.” This idea changed over time as booster shots of the vaccine

elongated immunity and countered the perceived limits on the strength of the vaccine itself.

Today, use of the chickenpox vaccine is common throughout the world. Pediatricians

suggest

an

initial

vaccination

shot

after

a

child

turns

one

year

old,

with

booster

shots

recommended after the child turns eight. The vaccine is estimated to be up to 90% effective and

has reduced worldwide cases of chickenpox infection to 400,000 cases per year from over

4,000,000 cases before vaccination became widespread. ■ (A) In light of such statistics, most

doctors insist that the potential risks of developing shingles outweigh the benefits of avoiding

rare complications associated with inoculations. ■ (B) Of course, many parents continue to think

of the disease as an innocuous ailment, refusing to take preemptive steps against it. ■ (C) As

increasing numbers of students are vaccinated and the virus becomes increasingly rarer, however,

even this trend among parents has failed to halt the decline of chickenpox among the most

vulnerable populations. ■ (D)

66. According to paragraph 1, which of the following is true of the chickenpox virus?

A. It leads to a potentially deadly disease in adults.

B. It is associated with a possibly permanent rash.

C. It is easily transmittable by an infected individual.

D. It has been virtually eradicated in the modern world.

67. Which of the following best expresses the essential information in the bold sentence?

Incorrect

answer

choices

change

the

meaning

in

important

ways

or

leave

out

essential

information.

A. U.S. parents believed that having chickenpox benefited their children.

B. U.S. parents believed that chickenpox led to immunity against most sickness.

C. U.S. parents wanted to make sure that their children developed chickenpox.

D. U.S. parents did not think that other vaccinations were needed after chickenpox.

68. Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 2 about the clinical trials for the

chickenpox vaccine?

A. They took longer than expected.

B. They cost a lot of money to complete.

C. They took a long time to finish.

D. They were ultimately successful.

69. The word notion in the passage is closest in meaning to ______

A. history

B. findings

C. fact

D. belief

70. According to paragraph 3, all of the following is true about the chickenpox virus EXCEPT

______

A. It causes two distinct yet related ailments.

B. People did not view it as a serious public health threat.

C. It tended to quickly become dormant and remain inoperative over time.

D. Vaccination against it would help prevent the onset of shingles.

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71. The author uses booster shots as an example of ______.

A. a scientifically approved medicine to eliminate chickenpox

B. a preferred method of chickenpox rash and fever treatment

C. a way to increase the effectiveness of the chickenpox vaccine

D. a strategy for parents to avoid vaccinating their child altogether

72. The word countered in the passage is closest in meaning to ______.

A. affirmed

B. refuted

C. attacked

D. defied

73. According to paragraph 4, many parents did not choose the chickenpox vaccine because

______

A. they believed that the virus was weak and not especially harmful.

B. they thought that scientists did not have enough data to reach a conclusion.

C. they were unsure about the utility of the vaccine given its expected duration.

D. they were convinced it was potentially very toxic, particularly for older children.

74. According to paragraph 5, which of the following was true of the rates of chickenpox before

the chickenpox vaccine became widely used?

A. it was 10 times higher

B. it was consistently rising

C. it declined over time

D. it fluctuated over several decades

75. Look at the four squares [▪] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the

passage.

Meanwhile, some continue to remain unconvinced, citing a supposed potential of the

vaccine to do harm.

Where would the sentence fit best?

(A) Option A

(B) Option B

(C) Option C

(D) Option D

Part 3. For questions 76-88, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (13 points)

A. Since moving pictures were invented a century ago, a new way of distributing entertainment

to consumers has emerged about once every generation. Each such innovation has changed the

industry irreversibly; each has been accompanied by a period of fear mixed with exhilaration.

The arrival of digital technology, which translates music, pictures and text into the zeros and

ones of computer language, marks one of those periods.

B. This may sound familiar, because the digital revolution, and the explosion of choice that

would go with it, has been heralded for some time. In 1992, John Malone, chief executive of

TCI, an American cable giant, welcomed the '500-channel universe'. Digital television was about

to deliver everything except pizzas to people's living rooms. When the entertainment companies

tried out the technology, it worked fine - but not at a price that people were prepared to pay.

C. Those 500 channels eventually arrived but via the Internet and the PC rather than through

television. The digital revolution was starting to affect the entertainment business in unexpected

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ways. Eventually it will change every aspect of it, from the way cartoons are made to the way

films are screened to the way people buy music. That much is clear. What nobody is sure of is

how it will affect the economics of the business.

D. New technologies always contain within them both threats and opportunities. They have the

potential both to make the companies in the business a great deal richer, and to sweep them away.

Old companies always fear new technology. Hollywood was hostile to television, television

terrified by the VCR. Go back far enough, points out Hal Varian, an economist at the University

of California at Berkeley, and you find publishers complaining that 'circulating libraries' would

cannibalise their sales. Yet whenever a new technology has come in, it has made more money

for existing entertainment companies. The proliferation of the means of distribution results,

gratifyingly, in the proliferation of dollars, pounds, pesetas and the rest to pay for it.

E. All the same, there is something in the old companies' fears. New technologies may not

threaten their lives, but they usually change their role. Once television became widespread, film

and radio stopped being the staple form of entertainment. Cable television has undermined the

power of the broadcasters. And as power has shifted the movie studios, the radio companies and

the television broadcasters have been swallowed up. These days, the grand old names of

entertainment have more resonance than power. Paramount is part of Viacom, a cable company;

Universal, part of Seagram, a drinks-and-entertainment company; MGM, once the roaring lion

of Hollywood, has been reduced to a whisper because it is not part of one of the giants. And

RCA, once the most important broadcasting company in the world, is now a recording label

belonging to Bertelsmann, a large German entertainment company.

F. Part of the reason why incumbents got pushed aside was that they did not see what was

coming. But they also faced a tighter regulatory environment than the present one. In America,

laws preventing television broadcasters from owning programme companies were repealed

earlier this decade, allowing the creation of vertically integrated businesses. Greater freedom,

combined with a sense of history, prompted the smarter companies in the entertainment business

to re-invent themselves. They saw what happened to those of their predecessors who were stuck

with one form of distribution.

So, these days, the powers in the entertainment business are no longer movie studios, or television

broadcasters, or publishers; all those businesses have become part of bigger businesses still,

companies that can both create content and distribute it in a range of different ways.

G. Out of all this, seven huge entertainment companies have emerged - Time Warner, Walt

Disney, Bertelsmann, Viacom, News Corp, Seagram and Sony. They cover pretty well every bit

of the entertainment business except pornography. Three are American, one is Australian, one

Canadian, one German and one Japanese. 'What you are seeing', says Christopher Dixon,

managing director of media research at PaineWebber, a stockbroker, 'is the creation of a global

oligopoly.

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It happened to the oil and automotive businesses earlier this century; now it is happening to the

entertainment business.' It remains to be seen whether the latest technology will weaken those

great companies, or make them stronger than ever.

Source: IELTS Practice Test Plus 1 - Test 2 - Passage 2, pp 62-65

Questions 76-83

The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-G.

Which paragraph mentions the following?

Write the appropriate letters (A-G) in boxes 76-83 on your answer sheet.

NB Some of the paragraphs will be used more than once.

76. the contrasting effects that new technology can have on existing business

77. the fact that a total transformation is going to take place in the future in the delivery of all

forms of entertainment

78. the confused feelings that people are known to have experienced in response to technological

innovation

79. the fact that some companies have learnt from the mistakes of others

80. the high cost to the consumer of new ways of distributing entertainment

81. uncertainty regarding the financial impact of wider media access

82. the fact that some companies were the victims of strict government policy

83. the fact that the digital revolution could undermine the giant entertainment companies

Questions 84-87

The writer refers to various individuals and companies in the reading passage.

Match the people or companies (A-E) with the points made in Questions 84-87 about the

introduction of new technology.

Write the appropriate letter (A-E) in boxes 84-87 on your answer sheet.

84. Historically, new forms of distributing entertainment have alarmed those well-established in

the business.

85. The merger of entertainment companies follows a pattern evident in other industries.

86. Major entertainment bodies that have remained independent have lost their influence.

87. News of the most recent technological development was published some years ago.

A. John Malone

B. Hal Valarian

C. MGM

D. Walt Disney

E. Christopher Dixon

Questions 88. Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 88 on your answer

sheet.

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88. Which of the following best summarises the writer’s views in the passage?

A. The public should cease resisting the introduction of new technology.

B. Digital technology will increase profits in the entertainment business.

C. Entertainment companies should adapt to technological innovation.

D. Technological change only benefits big entertainment companies.

Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 89-95, read

the passage and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra

paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered

boxes provided on the answer sheet. (7 points)

A permanent moon base - What will it take to build it?

The most powerful rocket ever built sits on a launchpad in Florida. Over an intercom, crowds of

onlookers listen to the countdown – “4, 3, 2…” – and then the bottom of the rocket begins to

rumble. The vibrations first travel through the soles of the watchers’ feet and then hit their bodies

like an ocean wave. Jets of steam and fire ricochet off the concrete, and suddenly the rocket is

blasting skyward. The astronauts within watch the countryside shrink below them as they begin

their journey to the moon.

89.

NASA’s plans could hardly be bigger. They feature astronauts on moon buggies and long-term

bases with power grids and mining operations. And with the first steps already being taken, this

is set to happen by roughly the end of the decade. All of which seems wildly ambitious – and

begs the question, what fresh technologies will such adventurous feats require?

90.

Then, in 2025, the third mission in the programme is set to see people land and walk on the moon

again, including the first woman to do so. “I think that seeing women, people of colour, the

next generation, walking on the moon can do a lot of the things that it did in the 1960s, can

inspire people to go into science and drive the technical state of the art,” says Lori Garver, a

former deputy administrator of NASA.

91.

Artemis IV, which may launch in the second half of the 2020s, will carry these components into

lunar orbit. Artemis V, the last mission NASA officially has planned (with no set date as yet),

will be the first to see humans drive a rover on the moon. It will also deliver a new refuelling

module to Gateway, built by the European Space Agency and partner companies.

92.

Astronauts staying on the moon will need a local supply of drinking water, as it is too heavy to

transport from Earth. What’s more, water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen, the first being

vital for breathing and the second for fuel to power the rockets that could potentially launch from

our lunar staging post to Mars and elsewhere.

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93.

Investigations are due to begin later this year, when a robotic lander called Nova-C – a

partnership between NASA and US aerospace firm Intuitive Machines – will try drilling almost

a metre into the lunar “soil” to extract and analyse the ice.

94.

“The samples will have to be kept extremely cold at all times, so those freezers need to

be able to be transported between all of our vehicles and stay cold,” says Erika Alvarez, part of

NASA’s Artemis team.

95.

Eventually, the plan is to construct a surface habitat called Artemis Base Camp so that astronauts

can remain on the moon’s surface for days or perhaps even weeks, collecting samples and data.

And though it might seem like a small step from spending a few hours on the surface to staying

for a few days, it requires a huge leap in technology.

Missing paragraphs:

A. From here, the plan is for things to change radically. For starters, NASA aims to put a space

station known as Gateway in lunar orbit. The idea is that this will allow a reusable lander to

shuttle between orbit and the surface, making trips to the moon’s surface cheaper and easier. The

agency has already contracted an aerospace company to build a place for astronauts to live and

a segment to provide power and propulsion.

B. But it is not just ice in the moon’s crust that scientists are interested in. China has recently

announced that samples of the moon returned to Earth in 2020 through its mission contain a

previously unknown mineral. This mineral contains phosphate, a key nutrient for plants, and

helium-3, which could potentially be used as a fuel.

C. The next step will come when humans return to the moon as part of Artemis III. A key element

of their mission will be to retrieve ice samples and bring them back to Earth, where they can be

more thoroughly analysed. That might sound simple – we have freezers, after all. But we will

need to invent a special kind of freezer.

D. This scene could be from six decades ago – or it could be from just a few years in the future.

The launches of the Artemis missions that the US hopes will soon return people to the moon will

look very similar to the Apollo launches of the 1960s. But that is where the similarities end.

“Apollo was awesome, but a lot of it was to just prove that we could do it,” says NASA’s Steve

Creech.

E. The moon’s water ice is far colder than the ice cubes in any freezer and it is distributed through

the lunar rock. Understanding how the ice behaves and how we can best make use of it is going

to be crucial, and it will require a host of new technologies.

F. Several studies have shown that shadowed, cold areas of the lunar surface – an area totalling

about 40,000 square kilometres – should contain water ice. Astronauts could harvest this to

produce oxygen to breathe and hydrogen fuel.

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G. Besides, the science carried out on these missions will be different too. The plan is for the

Artemis landings to be near the moon’s south pole, which is of particular interest because of its

abundant water ice.

H. The Artemis missions will largely be repeating feats managed during the space race. Artemis

I will pass 100 kilometres above the moon’s surface and orbit for several days, allowing the Orion

craft – the capsule intended to carry astronauts – to be tested in space. Artemis II will involve a

crewed fly-by of the moon.

Source:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2337346-nasa-is-planning-a-permanent-moon-

base-what-will-it-take-to-build-it/

Part 5. The passage below consists of five paragraphs (A-E). For questions 86-95, read the

passage and do the tasks that follow. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes

provided. (15 points)

Which writer...

96. suggests that places retain their essential identity despite the passage of time?

97. refers to a tendency for each generation of travellers to look down on the next?

98. expresses a personal feeling of nostalgia for some of the hardships in the past?

99. feels that travel can still be spontaneous and unpredictable in the age of the internet?

100. explains how even seemingly pointless journeys can have a worthwhile outcome?

101. questions the use of a term in relation to one type of traveller?

102. reveals a slight sense of guilt in an attitude towards the modern traveller?

103. offers a word of caution for those who want to get the most out of a trip?

104. insists that modern travellers can do without modern technology if they so desire?

105. mentions a valuable insight gained from a renown novelist?

Has technology robbed travel of its riches?

We asked five experts.

A. Jan Morris

I began travelling professionally just after the Second World War, and I travelled mostly in

Europe, where famous old cities lay ravaged. Travelling in this disordered region was not easy.

Currencies were hard to come by, visas were necessary almost everywhere, food was often

scarce, trains were grimy and unreliable and air travel was reserved largely for privileged

officialdom. I’m sorry to have to say it, because those times were cruel indeed for many

Europeans, but I greatly enjoyed my travelling then. The comfort and safety of modern transport

means that while travel is a lot less fraught than it used to be, it has lost some of its allure for me.

Partly, I am almost ashamed to admit, this is because everybody else does it too! Travelling

abroad is nothing unusual,and even if we haven’t actually been to the forests of Borneo or the

Amazon jungle, most of us have experienced them via television or the internet.

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B. Pico Iyer

The world is just as interesting — as unexpected, as unvisited, as diverse — as it ever was, even

though the nature of its sights and our experience of them have sometimes changed. I once spent

two weeks living in and around Los Angeles airport — that hub of modern travel — and, although

it wasn’t a peaceful holiday, it offered as curious and rich a glimpse into a new era of crossing

cultures as I could imagine. Places are like people for me and, as with people, the wise, rich,

deeply rooted places never seem to change too much, even though they might lose some hair or

develop wrinkles... Though the tides of history keep washing against a Havana or a Beirut, for

instance, their natural spiritedness or resilience or sense of style never seems greatly diminished.

My motto as a traveller has always been that old chestnut from the writings of Marcel Proust:

‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new sights, but in seeing with new eyes’.

C. Benedict Allen

Now, the world is open to us all. Grab your camera or smartphone and hike! So these couldn’t

be better times for the average person — we may all share in the privilege. Is it exploration?

Well, if it’s not advancing knowledge, no. Those who today flog to the Poles are not explorers,

they are simply athletes. Yet, exploration isn’t entirely about assembling proven fact. Dr. David

Livingstone made many discoveries in Africa but his biggest role was actually as communicator,

giving nineteenth-century Europeans a picture of the continent. Take Ed Stafford’s recent walk

along the length of the Amazon. Not a greatly significant journey in itself, with two-thousand

miles of it along what is essentially a shipping lane. Yet the journey was saved from irrelevance

and selfindulgence because along the way he documented the Amazon for his time, which is our

time.

D. Vicky Baker

Personally, I relish the fact that we can forge new contacts all around the world at the click of a

button and a quick email can result in the type of welcome usually reserved for a long lost friend.

I also relish the fact that we’re less likely to lose touch with those whose paths we cross on the

road and that we get to explore places we wouldn’t have stumbled across had we left it all to

chance. Does all this detract from the experience? I hardly think so. There’s nothing to stop you

following a random tip you saw on an obscure blog and ending up who knows where. Sure, it’s

a far cry from what came before, but one day these will be the current generation’s ‘good old

days’. And if you have the time and the money to go off into the back of beyond without so much

as a guidebook let alone a smartphone, if haphazard wandering is your thing, those days aren’t

over either.

E. Rolf Potts

Many of the older travellers I met when I first started vagabonding fifteen years ago — some of

them veterans of the 1970s hippy trail across Asia — argued that my travel experiences were

tainted by luxuries such as email and credit cards. These days I am myself tempted to look at

younger travellers and suggest that smartphones and micro-blogging are compromising their road

experiences. Any technology that makes travel easier is going to connect aspects of the travel

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experience to the comforts and habits one might seek back home — and can make travel feel less

like travel. There are times when a far-flung post office encounter or directions scribbled onto a

scrap of paper can lead a person into the kind of experiences that make travel so surprising and

worthwhile. That means 21st-century travellers must be aware of when their gadgets are

enhancing new experiences, and when those gadgets are getting in the way.

Source: Expert Proficiency Coursebook, pp 88-89

D. WRITING (60 points)

Part 1. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary

should be about 140 words. You MUST NOT copy the original. (15 pts)

A forecast by STAT concluded that as many as 650,000 people will die over the next 10 years

from opioid overdoses — more than the entire city of Baltimore. The US risks losing the

equivalent of a whole American city in just one decade.

That would be on top of all the death that America has already seen in the course of the ongoing

opioid epidemic. In 2016, nearly 64,000 people died of drug overdoses in America — with

synthetic opioids (such as fentanyl), heroin, and common opioid painkillers (like Percocet and

OxyContin) topping other causes of overdose, according to new data from the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s a higher death toll than guns, car crashes, and

HIV/AIDS ever killed in one year in the US, and a higher death toll than all US military

casualties in the Vietnam and Iraq wars combined.

“But it’s much easier in America to get high than it is to get help.” In talking about this, Brandeis

University opioid policy expert Andrew Kolodny draws a comparison to New York City’s fight

against tobacco. In his telling, the city took a two-prong approach: It made tobacco less accessible

— by banning smoking in public spaces and raising taxes to make cigarettes much more

expensive. But it also made alternatives to tobacco more accessible — by opening a phone line

that people can use to get in touch with a clinic or obtain free nicotine patches or free nicotine

gum. It has seen its smoking rate steadily drop, from 21.5 percent in 2002 to 14.3 percent in

2015.

Essentially the opposite has happened with opioids. Over the past couple of decades, the health

care system, bolstered by pharmaceutical companies, flooded the US with opioid painkillers.

Then illicit drug traffickers followed suit, inundating the country with heroin and other illegally

produced opioids, particularly fentanyl, that people could use once they ran out of painkillers or

wanted something stronger. All of this made it very easy to obtain and misuse drugs.

Source: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/3/16079772/opioid-epidemic-drug-

overdoses

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Part 2.

The charts gives information about the percentage of children uninsured in low-income and poor

families by age, as well as the type of health insurance coverage among all children by family

income in 2010.

Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make

comparisons where relevant. (15 points)

Source:

Basic

Facts

About

Low-income

Children,

2010:

Children

Under

Age

18,

https://www.nccp.org/publication/under-18/

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Part 3. Essay writing (30 points)

Some scientists believe that in the future computers will be more intelligent than human beings.

While some see this as a positive development others worry about the negative consequences.

Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or

experience. You should write at least 250 words.

-------------- HẾT --------------

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Người ra đề:

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0915580085

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