They all start_______.the same place no matter they are rich or poor.

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

MY HOME TOWN

I was born in Newcastle, a city in the North East of England. Newcastle is on the bank of the River Tyne. It is a quite big city of about 200,000 inhabit­ants. There is a cathedral and a university. There are five bridges over the River Tyne, which link Newcastle to the next town, Gateshead, where there is one of the biggest shopping centres in the world, the Metro Centre.

A few years ago, the main industries were shipbuilding and coal mining, but now the chemical and soap industries are important.

I moved from Newcastle ten years ago but I often return. I miss the people, who are so warm and friendly, and I miss the wild, beautiful countryside near the city, where there are so many hills and streams.

Newcastle is ………………………………………………

 Read the following passage and choose the best answers.

  New York – The “ Big Apple”

Our arrival in New York was spectacular. It’s skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty make a (1)_______sight. New York has a (2) _______of over seven million and it is probably the world’s most famous city. The inhabitants of the “Big Apple” come from many (3) ______ countries. There are more nationalities in New York (4) _________in any other places on the earth. It is also has (5) _______ tourists than any other city except London, especially in the summer. (6) _______come from all (7) _________the world and have a wonderful time. There are so many (8) ________for them to get enthusiastic about – whether it’s some of the (9) _______museums in the world or the (10) _______little streets of Greenwich Village.

for them to get enthusiastic about – whether it’s some of the (9) _______museums in the world or the 

They are really friends to one another ............one school roof.

READING COMPREHENSION
Finish-born botanist William Nylander taught at the University of Helsinki for a number of years and later moved to Paris, where he lived until his death at the end of the nineteenth century. During the second half of the last century, he became a prominent figure in the field of lichenology. Botanists from all over the world sent samples to his laboratory to be analyzed and classified. It can be said without exaggeration that four of five lichens bear his name.
He was the first to realize the importance of using chemical reagents in the taxonomy of lichens. He selected the most common reagents used by the chemists of his time. Lichenologists all over the world still use these reagents, including tincture of iodine and hypochlorite in their laboratories. During the first half of the nineteenth century, a Japanese named Abahima added only one chemical product- Phenol diamines. Nylander was also responsible for discovering that the atmosphere of big cities hindered the lichens’ development and cause them to disappear. Now they are used to detect atmospheric pollution. Nevertheless, he considered lichens to be simple plants and vehemently opposed the widely accepted modern theories that lichens are compound species formed by two discordant elements: algae and fungi.

According to the nineteenth-century theories, which elements from the composition of lichens?

READING COMPREHENSION
Finish-born botanist William Nylander taught at the University of Helsinki for a number of years and later moved to Paris, where he lived until his death at the end of the nineteenth century. During the second half of the last century, he became a prominent figure in the field of lichenology. Botanists from all over the world sent samples to his laboratory to be analyzed and classified. It can be said without exaggeration that four of five lichens bear his name.
He was the first to realize the importance of using chemical reagents in the taxonomy of lichens. He selected the most common reagents used by the chemists of his time. Lichenologists all over the world still use these reagents, including tincture of iodine and hypochlorite in their laboratories. During the first half of the nineteenth century, a Japanese named Abahima added only one chemical product- Phenol diamines. Nylander was also responsible for discovering that the atmosphere of big cities hindered the lichens’ development and cause them to disappear. Now they are used to detect atmospheric pollution. Nevertheless, he considered lichens to be simple plants and vehemently opposed the widely accepted modern theories that lichens are compound species formed by two discordant elements: algae and fungi.

 Which of the following is not true?

Read the following passage and decide which options A, B, C, D best fits each space.  
Jack London (1876 – 1916) is an American writer whose work combined powerful realism and humanitarian sentiment. He was (0) ........ in San Francisco. After finishing grammar (1) ..........., Jack London worked at various jobs and in 1897 and 1898 he participated (2)........... the Alaska Gold Rush. Upon his return to the San Francisco area, he began to (19) ............ about his experiences. A collection of his short stories, The Son of the Golf, was (3) ............ in 1900. Jack’s colourful life, during which he wrote more than 50 books and which included enormous popular successes as an (4) .........., ended in his suicide at the (5) ........... of 40. Many of his stories including his masterpiece The Call of the Wild deal with the reversion of a civilized creature to the primitive state. Jack London’s style – brutal, vivid and exciting – (5) ........... him enormously popular outside the United States; His (7) ........ were translated into many languages. Jack’s important works include People of the Abyss about the poor in London; the Sea Wolf, a novel based on the author’s experiences on a seal hunting ship; John Barleycorn , an autobiographical novel about Jack’s struggle (8)............. alcoholism

Read the following passage then choose the best option.

 Computerization has changed high school education in many ways. In the early 1980s, only 20% of high school teachers in the US used computers. However, since then high schools in the US have computerized rapidly. In 1987, schools acquired about 1.5 million computers with 95% of the schools having at least one computer. At school, teachers can use a computer to bring texts, sound, and pictures into a classroom. With a computer, they can readily attract and retain students’ attention. Computers can also speed up the teaching process and make difficult-to-explain ideas straightforward. This means that teachers can spend more time answering students’ questions and catering to other needs. Computer software can shorten the learning process by illustrating real-world applications of abstract theories.

According to the passage, which sentence is not true?

Read the following passage and decide which options A, B, C, D best fits each space.  
Jack London (1876 – 1916) is an American writer whose work combined powerful realism and humanitarian sentiment. He was (0) ........ in San Francisco. After finishing grammar (1) ..........., Jack London worked at various jobs and in 1897 and 1898 he participated (2)........... the Alaska Gold Rush. Upon his return to the San Francisco area, he began to (19) ............ about his experiences. A collection of his short stories, The Son of the Golf, was (3) ............ in 1900. Jack’s colourful life, during which he wrote more than 50 books and which included enormous popular successes as an (4) .........., ended in his suicide at the (5) ........... of 40. Many of his stories including his masterpiece The Call of the Wild deal with the reversion of a civilized creature to the primitive state. Jack London’s style – brutal, vivid and exciting – (5) ........... him enormously popular outside the United States; His (7) ........ were translated into many languages. Jack’s important works include People of the Abyss about the poor in London; the Sea Wolf, a novel based on the author’s experiences on a seal hunting ship; John Barleycorn , an autobiographical novel about Jack’s struggle (8)............. alcoholism

Read the text and then choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D for each space.

No More Classes
The use of computers has meant students can study language programs (1) __ their own speed when and for how long they want and no need to worry about the teacher having a favorite or doing (2)__ another boring lesson. What’s more, in the virtual classrooms of the future the student will (3) __ on their headset, and be transported into an imaginary school, choose their class, take the books they need off the shelf, and (4) __ conversations with other computerized students. They might (5) __ choose to pay a visit to the supermarket or the train station, the bank or the restaurant. At the (6) __ of a button, they would be transported to (7) __ realistic settings where they could practice their English, maybe getting a hand from a virtual English companion. All this perhaps, at the computer, from the comfort of their home: no (8) __ to catch the bus to college, or a plane to England. Exciting? Certainly, and an interesting alternative to traditional classroom lessons. But would it ever (9) ___ the classroom? Hopefully not. Surely the need to relate to real people talking about real issues and generally learning a little more about others will always lead language learners to (10) __ at least a little of their time with real people.

4________

Read the following passage and decide which options A, B, c, or D best fits each space.

Have you ever stopped (1) …………….  why do people give each (2)……………. eggs at Easter? – The Christian festival of Easter celebrates the return of Christ from the dead, but the festival is actually named (3)……………………  the goddess of the sun, Eostre, whose name is taken from the East where she (4)………. In very ancient times, Easter was a celebration that winter was (5)  …….. and that a new life was about to begin. The rabbit,(6)………. to the number of young it produces, is the symbol of life. In some parts of the world, the rabbit leaves large (7) ………………  of eggs (another symbol of new life) in the garden, and children have to find as many as they can. This is very (8)……….. Christmas, when Santa Claus leaves, presents for individual children. At Easter, children have to be independent and (9)…………after themselves. In this (10)…………… the hunt for Easter eggs presents the need for young people to go out into the world and make their own fortune.

5.....................

Our arrival in New York was spectacular. It’s skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty make a _______sight.

You are going to read an extract from a writer’s journal. For Questions 1-8, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D.

Six months ago I made a rash promise. The leader of the youth club in our village rang me in March saying, “We’re thinking of running a children’s playscheme for a day in October half-term. Would you be prepared to help?” My response was “Sure, why not?” In truth, I was a little flattered to be asked, even though working as a care assistant with old people hardly qualified me for the role. Still, I duly put the date in my diary and of course, I forgot all about it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but time has a habit of speeding along faster than a police car chasing a robber and, before I knew it, the day was dawning.

I arrived at the youth center that morning feeling full of trepidation. There was a gang of 12 helpers including me and each pair had been allocated a particular age group. Mine was the 10 to 11-year-olds. Even with the planning meeting I had attended the week before, I worried about whether I was up to the task. Why hadn’t I read through the copious lesson plans we were given beforehand? And wasn’t the average 10-year-old more interested in the latest Play Station game than making things with paper and glue?

All too quickly the children began arriving. The look of relief on parents’ faces as they handed their offspring over to us was quite comical. A handful of the children were already members of the club but the other forty-five or so were from the local primary schools. Again I asked myself why I had elected to spend a day with all these ‘little monsters’, especially when I have two all of my own to contend with!

I needn’t have worried of course as it turned out to be a marvelous day. We watched entertaining DVD clips, learned ‘action’ songs, made clay pyramids, decorated biscuits, played memory games, and spent some time in quiet reflection. I say ‘we’ because I rediscovered my inner child and joined in all the activities.

The particular highlight for me was the final rendition of “He’s got the whole world in his hands” in the closing part of the day. The children knew the words and actions off by heart and sang so loudly it was almost enough to bring the roof down. It’s difficult to explain those moments; only that the body tingles with the pleasure of having witnessed something so magical.

Of course, there were also moments of great poignancy. I found it difficult to stop thinking of one little girl, who mentioned oh-so-casually that her mum was in the hospital and would be there for a long time. It’s easy for us adults to idealize childhood and forget that some children have their own burden of anxieties and concerns. When I got home utterly exhausted, still with modeling clay under my fingernails, I reflected on what a privilege it had been.

There was one disappointment for the children and that was that the playscheme was only running for a day, and not the whole week. As I said farewell to my group, one of the children turned and said “Can we do it again in the next holiday, Miss?” My response was, “Sure, why not?”

According to the writer, adults _______________.

Decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F).

Thailand, located in the Southeast of Asia, has a total area of 513,115 sq km. It is bordered by the countries Laos in the Northeast, Cambodia in the Southeast and Malaysia in the South. The total population is about 65.5 million in 2010. Bangkok, the most populous city, is the capital of Thailand. The country’s unit of currency is the Baht, which consists of 100 Satang.

The country enjoys a tropical monsoon climate, and there are differences between the weather in the North and the South. The Northern Thai have three seasons in a year, hot from March to May, rainy from June to October, and cool from November to February. The Southern Thai have only two seasons, rainy from April to November and hot from December to March.

The national language is Thai. English is also spoken and understood by many citizens, especially in Bangkok and other tourism areas. Although Thailand has no official religion, up to 96.4% people (2002) believe in Buddhism. Additionally, there are followers of some other religions such as Muslims, Hinduism and Christianity.

Thailand is contiguous to Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia.

Read the following passage and decide which options A, B, C, D best fits each space.  
Over the past 600 years, English has grown from a language of few speakers to become the dominant language of international communication. English as we know it today emerged around 1350, after having incorporated many elements of French that were introduced following the Norman invasion of 1066. Until the 1600s, English was, for the most part, spoken only in England and had not extended even as far as Wales, Scotland, or Ireland. However, during the course of the next two centuries, English began to spread around the globe as a result of exploration, trade (including slave trade), colonization, and missionary work. Thus, small enclaves of English speakers became established and grew in various parts of the world. As these communities proliferated, English gradually became the primary language of international business, banking, and diplomacy.
Currently, about 80 percent of the information stored on computer systems worldwide is in English. Two-thirds of the world’s science writing is in English, and English is the main language of technology, advertising, media, international airports, and air traffic controllers. Today there are more than 700 million English users in the world, and over half of these are nonnative speakers, constituting the largest number of nonnative users than any other language in the world.

What is the main topic of the passage?

Read the following passage and choose the best answer: 

       The locations of stars in the sky relative to one another do not appear to the naked eye to change, and as a result, stars are often considered to be fixed in position. Many unaware stargazers falsely assume that each star has its own permanent home in the nighttime sky.

        In reality, though, stars are always moving, but because of their tremendous distances between stars themselves and from stars to Earth, the changes are barely perceptible here. An example of a rather fast-moving star demonstrates why this misconception prevails; it takes approximately two hundred years for a rapid star-like Bernard’s star to move a distance in the sky equal to the diameter of the Earth’s moon. When apparently negligible movement of the stars is contrasted with the movement of the planets, the stars are seemingly unmoving.

The passage following this passage most probably discusses “…………….”

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

I’m fascinated (23) __________ traditional handicrafts. At weekends, I usually go to Bat Trang where I was born. It’s a (24) __________ village not far from Ha Noi center. My uncle and my aunt  still live in Bat Trang and they own a big workshop there. In fact, my grandparents (25) __________ that workshop and some years ago, my uncle and my aunt (26) __________ the business because my grandparents are very old. My grandfather is a well-known artisan in the village. Every time I go there, he teaches me how (27) __________ things from clay such as pots, vase and bowls.

Question 23: .....................

Read the passage and choose the correct answer for each sentence below:

I'm Nguyen Viet Hung. I'm now five years old and I’ll tell you a story about my penpal . Last year I had a  most enjoyable experience when I met somebody I had been writing to for over nine years .When I was about fifteen my teacher of English asked if anyone wanted to have an English Pen pal. I had  known some English and as I was finding it rather difficult I thought this might help me. A few weeks later the teacher gave me the address of a boy who lived in Leeds. We began to write to each other straight away and usually exchanged letters about twice a month. We often wrote that we would like to meet but, unfortunately, this was never possible. However, last year I was sent on a two- week  course  in London by my firm. There was a great deal of work to do and I  did not have much time free but on the second weekend my friend came to see me. I wondered if we would really like each other when we met. Fortunately, there was absolutely nothing to worry about; we had been writing for so long that  it was like meeting an old friend. We had a meal together and spent the whole dy talking about our, shared interests. I hope we will be able to meet again soon.

Mr Hung wanted to have a penpal because ______________

Đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn phương án đúng (ứng với A, B, C hoặc D) cho mỗi chỗ trống.

When I first entered general practice I was living in a small community on the east coast of Lake Huron. People expected me to be (21) …….. of their last physician, and they were both disappointed and upset when this didn’t turn out to be the case. Although I had few (22) …….. companions, I was a young, unmarried, and attractive woman who had been through one of the best medical schools in the country, and I had reasonable regard for my own qualities. It was upsetting at first when professional (23) …….. was ignored and my patients insisted on second opinions for the most trivial of conditions, but things became even more difficult when people started to spread malicious (24) …….. about my private life.

However, I decided that I would not let myself be made (25) …….. even if there were enough reasons to make anyone feel (26) ……… I followed my father’s cure for a problem – plain old hard work. I got up early every morning, (27) …….. to my office, and followed my profession. This was in the ‘30s and the level of poverty was (28) ……… Children didn’t have enough to eat and mothers couldn’t feed them. Because I was sympathetic and able to give practical help in some cases, my surgery became a (29) …….. for women trying to escape from the threat of domestic violence and the trap of poverty and too many children. And ironically, as I (30) …….. the poorest people in the community, the middle class began to think that maybe I had something to offer and started to beat a path to my surgery door.

22___________

Read the following passage and decide which options A, B, C, D best fits each space.  
A Healthy Life?
(1) _____ health experts believe that children and young people today are more (2) _____ than they used to be. So why has this happened? One reason is bad eating habits. (3)_____ of young people don’t have a healthy diet. They eat too much fast food (4) ____ hamburgers and pizza and not enough fruit and vegetables. In the US. many children (5)_____ fast food regularly since they were very young. In fact, almost one-third of American children aged four to nineteen have been eating fast food (6) _____all the time. They also don’t (7)_______ exercise and spend too (8)______ of their time watching TV, surfing the Internet or playing computer games. So how can you change your habits if you have been following an unhealthy lifestyle for a long time? First, change your (9)________ and eat more fruit and vegetables. Next, find an activity you enjoy. Why not try something different like rock climbing, surfing or hiking? Many young people have found that (10) ______ fit and healthy can be a lot of fun

Read the following passage and decide which options A, B, C, D best fits each space.  
Jack London (1876 – 1916) is an American writer whose work combined powerful realism and humanitarian sentiment. He was (0) ........ in San Francisco. After finishing grammar (1) ..........., Jack London worked at various jobs and in 1897 and 1898 he participated (2)........... the Alaska Gold Rush. Upon his return to the San Francisco area, he began to (19) ............ about his experiences. A collection of his short stories, The Son of the Golf, was (3) ............ in 1900. Jack’s colourful life, during which hae wrote more than 50 books and which included enormous popular successes as an (4) .........., ended in his suicide at the (5) ........... of 40. Many of his stories including his masterpiece The Call of the Wild deal with the reversion of a civilized creature to the primitive state. Jack London’s style – brutal, vivid and exciting – (5) ........... him enormously popular outside the United States; His (7) ........ were translated into many languages. Jack’s important works include People of the Abyss about the poor in London; the Sea Wolf, a novel based on the author’s experiences on a seal hunting ship; John Barleycorn , an autobiographical novel about Jack’s struggle (8)............. alcoholism