Rewrite the sentence:
Nobody in the class is as tall as Mike.

 

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The ability to be independent is something that not everyone possesses. (1)_______, you need to be independent in order to survive in the world. Learning to support yourself is (2) ________ for any success you ever hope to achieve. At the end of the day, you only have yourself to fall back on, so it is exceedingly important to be able to handle things on your own. It is all about being secure with who you are and what you believe in. It is extremely empowering knowing that you are (3)________control of your own life and your own choices. It is much more beneficial to listen to the voice inside yourself rather than the berating (4) ________of others. We rely on others far more than it is necessary. People put their happiness in the hands of a significant other, thinking this will bring them fulfillment. This is a fatal error too many people make these days. Do you always want to feel dependent on someone else? Of course not. Not only are you limiting yourself, you are more than likely becoming a burden to this person. We need to learn how to make decisions on our own. I understand asking your friends their opinion on a fashion decision, but do we really need to consult others on every minimal decision we have to make? Think of things (5)________ are in your best interest and choose that option

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations as people danced round stone circles. Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived. Early Christians took over the pagan solstice celebrations for Christmas and gave people Christian songs to sing instead of pagan ones. However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that the normal people couldn’t understand. This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy. The people in the plays sang songs or ‘canticles’ that told the story during the plays. Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in! The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries. The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs. They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or Minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. Before carol singing in public became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called ‘Waits’. These were bands of people led by important local leaders who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public. Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular. New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still popular today! One of the most popular types of Carols services are Carols by Candlelight services. At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight and it feels very Christmassy! Carols by Candlelight services are held in
countries all over the world.
2. The word “them” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______

Choose the best answer:
In the future, men and women_____ equal roles in society.

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 member countries.  It stabilizes the global economy in three ways. First, it monitors global conditions and identifies risks. Second, it advises its members on how to improve their economies. Third, it provides technical assistance and short-term loans to prevent financial crises. The IMF’s goal is to prevent these disasters by guiding its members. These countries are willing to give up some of their sovereign authority to achieve that aim.  The IMF has the rare ability to look into and review the economies of all its member countries. As a result, it has its finger on the pulse of the global economy better than any other organization. The IMF produces a wealth of analytical reports. It provides the World Economic Outlook, the Global Financial Stability Report, and the Fiscal Monitor each year. It also delves into regional and country-specific assessments. It uses this information to determine which countries need to improve their policies. Hence, the IMF can identify which countries threaten global stability. The member countries have agreed to listen to the IMF’s recommendations because they want to improve their economies and remove these threats.  Since the Mexican peso crisis of 1994–95 and the Asian crisis of 1997–98, the IMF has taken a more active role to help countries prevent financial crises. It develops standards that its members should follow. For example, members agree to provide adequate foreign exchange reserves in good times. That helps them increase spending to boost their economies during recessions. The IMF reports on members countries’ observance of these standards. It also issues member country reports that investors use to make well-informed decisions. That improves the functioning of financial markets. The IMF also encourages sustained growth and high living standards, which is the best way to reduce members’ vulnerability to crises.  The IMF provides loans to help its members tackle balance of payments problems, stabilize their economies, and restore sustainable growth. Because the Fund lends money, it’s often confused with the World Bank. The World Bank lends money to developing countries for specific projects that will fight poverty. Unlike the World Bank and other development agencies, the IMF does not finance projects. Traditionally, most IMF borrowers were developing countries. They had limited access to international capital markets due to their economic difficulties. An IMF loan signals that a country’s economic policies are on the right track. That reassures investors and acts as a catalyst for attracting funds from other sources. All that shifted in 2010 when the Eurozone crisis prompted the IMF to provide short-term loans to bail out Greece. That was within the IMF’s charter because it prevented a global economic crisis.  The role of the IMF has increased since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis. In fact, an IMF surveillance report warned about the economic crisis but was ignored. As a result, the IMF has been called upon more and more to provide global economic surveillance. It’s in the best position to do so because it requires members to subject their economic policies to IMF scrutiny. Member countries are also committed to pursuing policies that are conducive to reasonable price stability, and they agree to avoid manipulating exchange rates for unfair competitive advantage.
8. According to paragraph, which of the following is TRUE about the International Monetary Fund?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
While family relationships can bring support, joy, and other wonderful benefits into  our lives, these relationships can also bring stress, particularly when there’s unresolved conflict. Because it’s more difficult to let go of conflicted relationships with family than it would be if these relationships were mere friendships, unresolved conflicts with family members can be particularly painful.  We have certain expectations of trust and closeness toward family members, and it can be more than merely disappointing to realize that this may not be possible with all family members. Unresolved family conflicts bring additional stress at family gatherings in particular. Past unresolved conflicts can become the elephant in the room, felt by everyone, but not directly addressed in the situation. This can be stressful for everyone before and during the family gatherings, sometimes leaving a lasting sense of stress afterward as well. Without a heartfelt discussion, an apology or another form of resolution, the trust on both sides is compromised, and may not know what to expect from this person in the future. For example, that one time your mother-in-law criticized your cooking may come up in your mind every time she comes for a visit, and others may sense your tension. This leads many people to assume the worst when they interpret each other’s behavior in the present and future interactions rather than giving the benefit of the doubt as most of us do with people we trust. Also, references or reminders of past conflicts can sting and create new pain.  Once a conflict has gone on a while, even if both parties move on and remain polite, the feelings of pain and mistrust are usually lingering under the surface, and are difficult to resolve: bringing up old hurts in an effort to resolve them can often backfire, as the other party may feel attacked; avoiding the issue altogether but holding onto resentment can poison feelings in the present.  So what do you do at a family gathering when there’s someone there with whom you’ve had an unresolved conflict? Just be polite. Contrary to how many people feel, a family gathering is not the time to rehash old conflicts, as such conversations often get messy before they get resolved — if they get resolved. Again, be polite, redirect conversations that get into areas that may cause conflict, and try to avoid the person as much as you politely can. 
4. The word “compromised” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _______

Find mistake:
It often takes me about fifteen minutes to go to work from here by foot.

Choose the best answer:
The reporter is talking about the ____________ for the fire.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Every summer, when the results of university entrance exam come out, many newspaper stories are published about students who are top-scorers across the country. Most portray students as hard-working, studious, smart and, generally, from low-income families. They are often considered heroes or heroines by their families, communes, villages and communities. And they symbolise the efforts made to lift them, and their relatives, out of poverty. The students are often too poor to attend any extra-classes, which make their achievements more illustrious and more newsworthy. While everyone should applaud the students for their admirable efforts, putting too much emphasis on success generates some difficult questions. If other students look up to them as models, of course it’s great. However, in a way, it contributes to society’s attitude that getting into university is the only way to succeed. For those who fail, their lives are over. It should be noted that about 1.3 million high school students take part in the annual university entrance exams and only about 300,000 of them pass. What’s about the hundreds of thousands who fail? Should we demand more stories about those who fail the exam but succeed in life or about those who quit university education at some level and do something else unconventional? “I personally think that it’s not about you scoring top in an entrance exam or get even into Harvard. It’s about what you do for the rest of your life,” said Tran Nguyen Le Van, 29. He is the founder of a website, vexere.com, that passengers can use to book bus tickets online and receive tickets via SMS. His business also arranges online tickets via mobile phones and email. Van dropped out of his MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona in the United States. His story has caught the attention of many newspapers and he believes more coverage should be given to the youngsters who can be role-models in the start-up community. Getting into university, even with honours, is just the beginning. "We applaud them and their efforts and obviously that can give them motivation to do better in life. However, success requires more than just scores," Van said. Van once told a newspaper that his inspiration also came from among the world’s most famous drop-outs, such as Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook or Bill Gates who also dropped out of Harvard University. Alarming statistics about unemployment continues to plague us. As many as 162,000 people with some kind of degree cannot find work, according to Labour Ministry’s statistics this month. An emphasis on getting into university does not inspire students who want to try alternative options. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training is still pondering on how to reform our exam system, which emphasises theories, but offers little to develop critical thinking or practice. Vu Thi Phuong Anh, former head of the Centre for Education Testing and Quality Assessment at Viet Nam National University in HCM City said the media should also monitor student successes after graduation. She agreed there were many success stories about young people, but added that it was imbalanced if students taking unconventional paths were not also encouraged. Viet Nam is, more than ever, in desperate need of those who think outside the box. Time for us to recognise talent, no matter where it comes from or how.
3. The word “unconventional” in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by ____________

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
In the 1960s, it took pop and rock groups one or two days to record other their songs. Nowadays, it can take months and months. Many rock groups begin by recording only one instrument, for example, the voice. Then they record (1)________ instruments – electric piano, synthesizer, guitars, drums and so on. Next, they might use a computer to add special effects. Finally, they ‘mix’ all the instruments until they get the sound that they want. This means that a CD or cassette will always sound very different from a (2) ______ concert. Music engineers have developed a new computer programme that will change the future of music. A computer can analyze a singer’s voice. Then if you give the computer the (3)_________ and music of a song, the computer can ‘sing’ it in that voice. This means that a singer only needs to record one song and the computer can then sing other songs in the singer’s own voice. Singers can sing new songs many years after they have died. Most of us listen to music for pleasure, but for the record companies, music is a product, the same as soap powder. (4)___________ a record company finds a new group (or ‘band’), they first try to develop the band’s ‘profile’. They will try to create an ‘image’ for the band that they think will attract young people. Instead of allowing the band’s full artistic freedom, they will often (5)_______ the band what they should wear, what they should say and how they should sing and play. In recent year, many rock groups have started their own record companies because they say that the big companies are too commercial

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Electronic devices are becoming increasingly common in educational environments. The term most commonly used for such devices is “educational technology”. This is not actually a new idea, as the rewritable wax tablets, often with lined surfaces to guide novice writers used in antiquity or the blackboard itself are both instances of technological innovations to support pedagogy. There are many different ways in which electronic devices are used in education. For example, students in STEM (science, technology, engineering medicine) fields have been making extensive use of sophisticated calculators for many years (the abacus and slide rule were non-electronic predecessors to calculators). In humanities as well as sciences, students use computers or equivalent devices to do research and write papers. In all fields, courses are now likely to have websites, and many instructors use course management software such as Blackboard, to post information for students, record grades, set up online discussions, and check for plagiarism. In lecture classes, many instructors project slides or notes on a screen and may even upload lecture notes so that students can review them. Some courses are hybrid, meaning that they have a strong online component, or offered entirely online. Many courses taught in conventional lecture halls are streamed online, and may use devices such as clickers to become more interactive. Any device (including tablets or cell phones) that instructors incorporate into a learning environment functions as educational technology.  
1. According to the passage, the term “educational technology” refers to ____

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
By the end of the third millennium, people will all have access to basic utilities like  electricity and the internet. As a type of civilization, the overall energy consumption of everyone in the 30th century will be at a level of around 4×10²⁶ watts. In other words, the  energy utilization in a world full of working class consumers will be comparable to the luminosity of our parent star. So, the people of the future will inevitably need to fully harness the output of the Sun through the use of a vast array of satellite mega-structures that encircle the celestial body and capture the radiation it emits.  In requiring everyone to work together, the inclusive attitude of the future will cause everyone to grow much closer to one another, improving interpersonal relationships in neighborhoods the world over. By the year 3000, the whole of humanity will become a sort of poly-amorous society of mono-ethnic global citizens, living in a complex egalitarian intercontinental cooperative. Everyone will be part of multicultural communities within communities. Companies and credit unions will even be owned by their employees. People will all be very conscientious. Everyone will support the global economy, as well as ecology, of the world.  Humans will inhabit artificial urban jungles filled with buildings and sidewalks, while the other animals will inhabit natural rural jungles filled with wilderness and trails. Friends will walk through the crowded streets of the mega-cities of the future holding hands with one another. Public displays of affection will be customary among everyone. Casual bisexual encounters will be the norm. Everyone will care about everyone else. People will all accept each other, and help each other out, more and more as time goes on. The point is that eventually, everyone will finally get along. Humanity will progress to a point of collective compatibility as everyone sufficiently integrates and assimilates. From now until the year 3000, the several thousand languages currently spoken will reduce down to only about a hundred. More importantly, the nation-state members of the UN will all use the same form of electronic currency. As the countries of the world unify more and more, the metric system will become the universal standard of measurement. Things will become increasingly more common among everyone. This will bring everyone closer and closer together, each step of the way. In the end, cultural memes will all eventually just blend together in the great melting pot that is the world.  People will also change physically, along with mentally, too though. For instance, there will be an increase in both height and longevity, among people in general. In the year 3000 people will be about six feet tall, and live to be 120 years old, on average. They will experience a slight reduction in the size of their mouths, too. Improvements in nutritional science will revolutionize the world of medicine and alter the course of human evolution. Everyone will be genetically screened as an embryo to weed out defects and correct mistakes in their personal genome. 8th scale transhuman cyborgs will even go so far as to have 7 th  scale robotic integrations, with microscopic machines making them better. This will be terribly important because there will be very little diversity in the gene pool of the superhumans of the future, who are all bred to be what is considered ideal.
3. According to paragraph 2, how can the attitude of the future affect the world? 

Choose the best answer:
Cuc Phuong national park is one of the most famous national _________ in Vietnam.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Previously, people often only considered second-hand smoke as a welfare issue, focusing on the smell and the irritation that tobacco smoke causes to eyes, nose and throat. But now the weight of evidence for much more serious risks to health from second-hand smoke has grown too great to ignore. Tobacco smoke contains around 4,000 chemicals, including arsenic, benzene, formaldehyde and ammonia. Around 60 of these chemicals are known or suspected to cause cancer. Many of the toxic chemicals are actually more concentrated in the smoke that’s given off by the burning tip of a cigarette (sidestream smoke). Around 85 per cent of the smoke in a room where people are smoking is the more toxic sidestream smoke. By breathing in it in the atmosphere, the non-smoker is exposed to many of the same health risks as the smoker. The best known risk to smokers, lung cancer, is also more common in people regularly exposed to second-hand smoke. The Government’s Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (SCOTH) reported in 1998 that exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer in non-smokers by 20-30 per cent. Even though they inhale only 1% of the smoke, non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke may suffer 25 per cent of the increased risk of heart disease associated with active smoking (one recent study suggests it might be as much as 50 per cent). Just 30 minutes of breathing second-hand smoke can reduce the coronary blood supply of a non-smoker to the same level as that of a smoker. A study in New Zealand found that exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of stroke by 82 per cent in non-smokers. This is a serious concern, as stroke is such a common condition. Moreover, around 3.4 million people in the UK have asthma and for most of these, tobacco smoke is a trigger for an asthma attack. For someone with asthma, just one hour of exposure to second-hand smoke can cause a 20 per cent deterioration in lung function. During pregnancy, breathing in second-hand smoke increases the risk of having a baby with a low birth weight. Small babies are at much greater risk of infections and other health problems. A recent review of international research on the immediate health impact of smokefree workplace legislation found rapid and dramatic improvements. Air quality, respiratory health and levels of heart attacks and heart disease all improved substantially within months of the legislation being introduced.
2. Sidestream smoke

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The Internet has truly transformed how students do their homework. (1)______ homework today still means spending time in the library, it’s for a different reason. Rather than using books for research, students today are (2)______ to the Internet to download enormous amounts of data available online. In the past, students were limited to their school’s (3)______ of books. In many cases, they got to the school library and found out that someone had already taken the books they needed. Nowadays, such inconvenience can be avoided since the Internet never runs out of information. Students, however, do have to (4)______ sure that the information they find online is true. Teachers have also benefited from the homework which is done on the Internet. They do not need to carry students’ papers around with them any more. This is because online (5)______ allow students to electronically upload their homework for their teachers to read and mark. Of course, this also means that students can no longer use the excuse that the dog ate their homework!

Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
The era of “smart cities”, controlled by an ecosystem of sensors, cameras and  algorithms, is fast approaching. In China, state media claim 500 are under construction. In Canada, Alphabet has plans for turning parts of Toronto into a timber-framed tech town as a prototype. Incremental steps are also making cities smarter. Last week, Transport for London announced plans to track Tube passengers through WiFi to monitor congestion. In the US, fast-food drive-throughs will trial number plates scanners to make ordering faster. Individually these services can improve daily life. Integrating them will create something more powerful than the sum of its parts.  Though convenience and safety are the end goals, serious questions about how city authorities will both store and share vast bodies of data must be answered. The fact that surveillance is built into key transport infrastructure will also make it increasingly difficult to avoid without disrupting daily life. The smart city risks creating a panopticon in the name of an easier and better life. The risks of anonymity disappearing will be increased by the use of different data sets, making it more likely that identifiable characteristics may appear. Closely linked to this is the question of data storage and sharing. The treasure trove of personal information will be a tempting target for hackers. This information might also be used by law enforcement, feeding into the existing dangers of mass surveillance and profiling, as is already the case in China.  These concerns have long been levelled at social media and internet-enabled home appliances. Smart city surveillance can be even more insidious. Users can avoid Facebook or hardware such as Alexa. Avoiding basic infrastructure will be near impossible without seriously affecting day-to-day life. TfL has put up signs warning customers of the WiFi tracking, yet the only choice is between tracking and having no signal. Reports on the facial recognition at airports in America suggest that avoiding being automatically scanned will be tough as well. As these systems become more closely enmeshed, avoiding snooping will become increasingly tricky.  The inevitable rise of smart cities is not inherently negative. Harnessing the power of technology and data can potentially help urban environments adapt to challenges such as climate change and overcrowding. Politicians, programmers and academics must work to ensure that does not come at the cost of all-seeing, 24-hour surveillance. 
3. The word “them” in paragraph 1 refers to _____

Choose the best answer:
City/ children/ have/ more/ interesting life/ country ones.

Find synonym:
Despite being a kid, Tuan always helps his mother do the chores every day.

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Japan’s Mount Fuji will become a World Heritage Site in June. The United Nations (U.N.) decided on April the 30th to give the famous mountain UNESCO World Heritage (1)__________. The U.N. team (2)__________ made the decision said Fuji was very important to Japanese religion and art. They also said that the 3,776-meter-high volcano was important outside of Japan too. Fuji-san (as Japanese people call it) has been a mountain for more than 1,000 years. Priests say that when you climb it, you move from the “everyday world” at the bottom, to the “world of gods, Buddha and death” at the top. They believe people can (3)________ their sins by climbing to the top and coming back down again. (4)_________, Mount Fuji is a major tourist destination. It is very popular with hikers, who want to see the rising sun from its peak. More than 318,000 hikers visited the mountain last summer, with up to 15,000 people climbing each day. Local residents are now worried the World Heritage status will mean more visitors. That means there will be more litter and environmental problems. The local government may ask people to pay to climb the mountain to help preserve its (5) __________. Governor Shomei Yokouchi said: “It’s likely we’ll ask mountain climbers to help financially with keeping the mountain clean.” Another idea being talked about is to limit the daily number of hikers allowed to the top

Choose the best answer:
It is the first of Viet Nam’s nine national parks _________ established

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
Who talks more - men or women? Most people believe that women talk more. However, linguist Deborah Tannen, who has the studied the communication style of men and women, says that this is a stereotype. According to Tannen, women are more verbal - talk more - in private situations, where they use conversation as the “glue’ to hold relationships together. But, she says, men talk more in public situations, where they use conversation to exchange information and gain status. Tannen points out that we can see these difference even in children. Little girls often play with one ‘best friend’ and their play includes a lot of conversation. Little boys often play games in groups, their play usually involves more doing than talking. In school, girls are often better at verbal skills, while boys are often better at mathematics.
A recent study at Emory University helps to shed light on the roots of this difference. Researchers studied conversation between children aged 3-6 and their parents. They found evidence that parents talk very differently to their sons than they do to their daughters. The startling conclusion was that parents use more language with their girls. Specifically, when parents talk with their daughters, they use more descriptive language and more details. There is also far more talk about emotions, especially with daughters than with sons.

Which of the following phrases best explains the meaning of the word “verbal”?