16 Practice Tests for the gifted students with key Compiler: Ngo Minh (158 pages)

PRACTICE TEST 6 

I. LISTENING 

Part 1: You will hear a part of the lecture about early history of cinema. Complete the sentences  below .Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER for each answer.

1. Rival cameras were claimed to than the Cinematographe. 2. In Russia, on one occasion, the Cinematographe was suspected of being a . 3. Early filming in Russia led to the creation of a new approach to . 4. One problem for historians is not knowing whether early equipment  

as it was claimed. 

5. Marey encountered difficulties achieving the of strips of photographic paper. 

6. The structure of the comic strip influenced the _ . 7. Documentaries used _ shots before fiction films did. 8. The popularity of films led to increased numbers of shots. 9. When filming , the screen might be divided. 10. As films became more complex, became an important part of film-making. 

Part 2: You will hear part of an interview with a woman who describes her experience during an  earthquake. Listen and give short phrases or sentences to answer the questions 11-15 below. 11. What did Julie think at first when her car went out of control? 

………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12. What frightened her most about the incident? 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13. How long did the actual earthquake last for? 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14. How did Julie presume about the size of the earthquakes right after she experienced the quake? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15. Did she get over the shock after the incident? 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 

Part 3: Listen to a customer speaking to telephone support. Answer the questions by choosing either  “True”, “False”. 

16. Jackie was surprised that David had problems placing his order. 

17. David needs to order the software for his office. 

18. Jackie gives him the 25% discount even though he's not ordering online. 

19. Jackie tells David that the free microphones are usually not very good quality. 20. David buys both versions of the software. 

Part 4: You will hear part of a radio interview with an economist. For questions 21-25, choose the  answer (A, B, C or D), which fits best according to what you hear. 

21. According to the Fawcet Society, . 

A. women would need to work into their eighties to earn as much money as men B. Good qualifications aren‘t necessarily rewarded with high wages 

C. women will never earn as much as men D. more women have degrees than men 22. What is said about careers advice in schools? 

A. It has been improved but it is still inadequate. 

B. It is now quite good for girls but boys are being neglected. 

C. There is no advice for girls that are ambitious. 

D. Girls are always encouraged not to be ambitious. 

23. According to Jim, . 

A. women are to blame for not insisting on higher wages

B. new government policies have solved most of the problems 

C. There is nothing more the government can do 

D. women shouldn‘t necessarily be encouraged to change their choice of career 24. A London School of Economics report showed that . 

A. women who worked part-time found it difficult to get a full-time job later on B. after having children, women find it harder to earn as much money as men 

C. women find it hard to find a job after having children 

D. most women want a full-time job after having a child 

25. Jim seems to believe that . 

A. women should stay at home and look after their children 

B. women now earn as much money as men in the workplace 

C. women have been disadvantaged by outdated work ethics 

D. having children will soon be an advantage for working women 

II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR 

Part 1: Choose the best answer. 

1. The whereabouts of the exiled president remains a guarded secret. 

A. highly B. closely C. deeply D. entirely 2. We should all when advertisers attempt to use unfair practices. 

A. make a stand B. make a comeback C. make amends D. make a deal 3. It took him a long time to come to with his redundancy. 

A. rules B. words C. terms D. steps 4. I remember the first time I met Sue. We immediately, and we have been friends ever since. A. struck it off B. struck it up C. hit it off D. hit on it 5. The company cannot accept for injuries resulting from improper use of rental equipment. A. validity B. liability C. compensation D. privilege 6. Her parents always tried to a sense of integrity and decency in her. 

A. infuse B. instill C. inlay D. inset 7. Jack never cheats or tricks anybody when he plays. He always goes by the . A. book B. instructions C. principles D. method 8. Recent defeats have _ his confidence in himself as a player. 

A. undermined B. disable C. impeded D. hampered 9. People turned out in to watch the parade on the Independence Day. 

A. volume B. mass C. force D. bulk 10. Not being able to find my phone number is a pretty excuse for not contacting me. A. fragile B. frail C. faint D. feeble 

Part 2: Complete each space in the text with a word formed from the word in capitals. There is an example at the beginning (0). 

Example: out => outsider 

The job of being a journalist may look to an (0) (OUT) like it is a (1) (CARE) carefree  existence but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Covering stories on such (2) (WEIGH)  weighty issues as social (3) (DEPRIVE) deprivation, juvenile delinquency, teenage rebellion and people suffering from (4) (TERMINATE) interminable illness requires a journalist to be sympathetic enough to effectively communicate other people's suffering while maintaining their 

(5) (JOURNAL) journalistic detachment. This latter skill is especially important when reporting on such a controversial matter as (6) (SOLUTION) solvent abuse. A journalist must, from

the (7) (SET) setting put aside any preconceived notions about the topic and the people he

may encounter. He must clear from his mind any memories that in his younger days he was, or was not quite (8) (PART)parting certain recreational drugs himself, in (9) (READY)  readiness for each interview he has to conduct. This is vital if he is going to  avoid 

(10) (LOOK) overlooking some crucial point that will make his report more insightful and more memorable than all the others on that topic. 

Part 3: The passage below has 10 errors. Write their correct forms. 

Until recently, we have confined ourselves for our own solar system in the search for life, partly because we have not had evidence for the existence of other solar systems. Furthermore, our telescopes have not been powerful enough to detect planets. But not long ago, a technique was developed that could ascertain reliably whether stars have planets orbiting it. Basically, this technique relies upon our ability to detect with some degree of precision how much light a star is giving. If this change for a brief period, it is probably because a large object – a planet – is passing in front of it. At first, the technique could only establish the existence of a very large planet with an elliptical orbit that brought it in close proximity to the star. This was one of the limits of the technique: life could not exist on such large planets. Furthermore, the orbit of the planet would preclude the possibility of other, smaller planets orbiting the same star. Therefore, that particular planetary system could be effectively ruled out in terms of the search for life. 

However, astronomers using an Anglo-American telescope in New South Wales now believe they have pinpointed a planetary system which resembles to our own. For the first time, they identified a large planet, twice the size of Jupiter, orbiting a star like the sun, at much the same distance from its parent star as Jupiter is to the sun. And this is the vital point about their discovery: there is at last a theoretical possibility that smaller planets could be orbiting inside the orbit of this planet. 

Part 4: Fill in the gaps in the following sentences with suitable prepositions and/ or particles. There  is an example at the beginning (0). 

1. She was completely snowed…...........with work right after taking up the managerial post Example: 0 - under 

2. He is charged with having conned people…into..............illegal dealings. 

3. We need to see to it that any of the difficulties can be ironed…out....and dealt with. 4. I am of the view that Susan is……in………….a great storyline for her novel; she dashed out of her  room looking extremely excited. 

5. Protests from Chinese intellectuals are muted, but security around the area is beefed…up.........with additional police patrols. 

6. We have managed to muddle…through....although it‘s been a bit of a strain for the past few years. 

III. READING 

Part 1: For questions 1- 10, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits  each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). 

Example: 

0 A. measure B. consider C. regard D. notice BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 

People have been debating the principles of beauty for thousands of years, but it still seems impossible to (0) it objectively. German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1) whether something can possess an objective property that makes it beautiful. He concluded that although everyone accepts that beauty exists, no one has ever agreed on the precise criteria by which beauty may be (2) .

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote of a scale called the ‗golden proportion‘, according to which the width of the face should be two-thirds of its length, preferably (3) by a nose no longer than the distance between the eyes. 

Symmetry has been proved to be attractive to the human (4) , so a face may seem beautiful because of the (5) between its two sides. Babies spend more time looking at symmetrical faces than asymmetrical ones and symmetry is also (6) as more attractive by adults looking at photos. So although there seems to be no (7) agreement or even national consensus on what (8) beauty, there is at least some agreement that facial symmetry is an important (9) . 

In the meantime, if you look at your partner and regard them as beautiful, you can congratulate yourself (10) the thought that people generally end up with a partner of a comparable level of attractiveness as themselves. 

1. A. argued B. decided C. suggested D. questioned 2. A. judged B. appreciated C. awarded D. viewed 3. A. accompanied B. escorted C. joined D. coupled 4. A. appearance B. sight C. eye D. vision 5. A. equality B. reflection C. opposition D. similarity 6. A. voted B. rated C. selected D. valued 7. A. world B. global C. community D. universal 8. A. constitutes B. contains C. involves D. comprises 9. A. reason B. fad C. role D. factor 10. A. with B. on C. for D. in 

Part 2: Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). Example (0): a 

MEMORY LAPSE OR DEMENTIA? 

It‘s (0) horribly disconcerting experience - groping to (1) remember your best friend‘s name, forgetting an arrangement that you made only yesterday or realising that your PIN number has vanished into a memory black hole. These ‗senior moments‘ affect us all at times, but when do brief memory lapses or moments of confusion become something you (2) start to worry about? The fear that you might, literally, be losing your mind, is one that can be very real, (3) 

 especially if you‘ve seen a parent or relative develop Alzheimer‘s. Dementia affects around 750,000 people in the UK, and although there are 100 different forms of it, Alzheimer‘s is the most common. This disease destroys brain cells and as the structure and chemistry of the brain become increasingly damaged, the person‘s ability to remember, understand and communicate gradually declines. It‘s a particularly cruel disease because it (4) robs us of the memories that make us who we are, define our experience and provide us with the (5) means to communicate with other people. Although lots of us experience memory problems at some time, in most (6) cases these have nothing to do with dementia. It's important to put the risk (7) into _ 

perspective. The reality is that, although it does happen, dementia is unusual under the age of 65. For the majority of people memory lapses will be nothing (8) more than occasional blips. It is important to realise that your memory slows down a bit (9) as you age, but this is a very gradual decline, quite different from the more dramatic deterioration that happens with Alzheimer‘s. The most common early sign of a problem is forgetting recently learned information. (10) _ a;yhough 

 it‘s normal to forget appointments and telephone numbers occasionally, people with early dementia tend to forget more frequently and they also forget the same information again later. Part 3: You are going to read an extract from a book on society and culture. For questions 1-5, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

MASS CULTURE 

In recent decades, the development and spread of new information technologies such as satellite television have engendered many debates about the consequences of their use. One of the first writers to see the possibilities of these changes was the American writer Marshall McLuhan, who argued in the 1960‘s that communications technology would have two effects: first, it would create a global village where everyone and everything were accessible to the television camera and secondly, that it would become the case that ―the medium is the message‖, that is, how the message is transmitted would outgrow in importance what the message is. 

Other theorists have gone further in arguing that the explosion of, and increasing dependence on, information technology have brought about profound changes in the way society is organised. Some, for example believe that we can now describe a ―post-modern society‖, characterised partly by an information-based international division of labour that allows increasing freedom of movement. At the cultural level, distinctions between ―high‖ and ―low‖ culture have disappeared as new technology transmits across class boundaries, while stylistically, form has become more important than substance, and the ubiquity of television means that everything is seen in television codes. McLuhan‘s global television-led culture is now with us. 

The accuracy of such a description, however, has been questioned. At one level, many people are reluctant to accept any argument that technology can lead to social and economic changes, arguing instead that the relationship is exactly the other way round. In other words, they are critical of any tendency to technological determinism. Furthermore, evidence can be cited that queries the notion that information technology has spread evenly throughout the world or even throughout Britain. This has been described as the uneven development of the information economy. Many areas of Great Britain, for example, are not yet equipped with the on-line communications systems necessary to receive technologies such as cable and interactive television, and the take-up of these technologies varies according to socio-economic factors. We are still a long way from the full-scale and comprehensive implementation of the information super-highway. 

What does seem to be the case, however, is that the stereotypical image of the nuclear family sitting together in the front room cheerfully choosing their evening‘s viewing from a limited range of television station is disappearing. This is partly due to the increased number of set per household as well as the rapid growth in the number of channels, a development mirrored by the niche marketing of magazines to a multiplicity of interest groups. The amount of time spent watching television per head has stabilised in recent years to around 27 hours a week. Women watch on average four more hours of television per week than men and all statistics show a relationship between social class and viewing. 

This is not to say that diversity and choice have necessarily been achieved. It remains the case that satellite television caters for mass-appeal interests such as music, sport, news, children‘s programmes and American films and light entertainment, ignoring many disadvantaged social groups. New media technologies have not empowered people in the sense that there are increased numbers of community based television networks. In Britain, it is no less valid today to describe a mass culture based on a centrally directed mass media. 

Doubts have also been raised about the ability of satellite stations to succeed in creating a global television culture. Rupert Murdoch is widely known to own substantial parts of the global media industry. A few years ago, he added a controlling share of StarTV to his collection, meaning that he gained access to 2.5 billion people in 50 countries, or forty percent of the world‘s television sets, in a region stretching from Jordan to Japan. Capturing the market in India, however, and hooking the population onto hit talk shows and American mega-series such as Baywatch and LA Law, has not been as straightforward as first imagined. Cultural differences are complicated in a nation of 18 official

languages and further compounded when you consider the staggering figure of 1, 700 dialects. Hindi films transmitted by the state broadcasting network still rank a coveted first in the ratings table. Murdoch‘s response to this realisation was to immediately buy into a local TV station as well. Indian culture, for the present at least, remains resistant to western broadcasting and highlights that the creation of a global mass culture will not be solely induced by technology. 

1. According to the writer, Marshall McLuhan envisaged a world where _. 

A. everyone would use a TV camera B. TV would lessen the impact of information C. less serious content would be shown on TV 

D. TV would create greater understanding between peoples 

2. The word ―ubiquity‖ is closest in meaning to _ . 

A. ambivalence B. pervasiveness C. diversity D. receptivity 3. Theorists describing society as ―post-modern‖ claim information technology has . A. meant more people doing identical jobs around the world 

B. enabled ―high‖ and ―low‖ culture to share a common audience 

C. benefited artistic creativity 

D. resulted in other technologies challenging the dominance of TV 

4. Why does the author mention ―cable and interactive television‖ in paragraph 3? A. to give examples of modern technologies 

B. to identify factors affecting the popularity of television 

C. to show the difference among regional cultures 

D. to explain why the development of economy in Britain is uneven 

5. The writer raises doubts about ―technological determinism‖ because it . A. argues that cultural change determines economic change 

B. has exaggerated the importance of the Internet 

C. underestimates people‘s resistance to change 

D. assumes technology will impact on everyone in a similar way 

6. TV viewing within household has changed because  

A. viewing habits are more stable than in the past 

B. different family members will watch TV at different times 

C. TV stations can now target specific audiences 

D. typical nuclear family are less common 

7. The spread of TV culture through an increasing number of networks has . A. limited centralised control of the media B. been of little benefit to minorities C. enabled local community television to emerge D. increased diversity in mass culture 8. The popularity of films in Hindi in India . 

A. has caused TV companies to change strategy 

B. indicates less cultural and language diversity in India than people imagine 

C. resulted from screening programmes unpopular in their home markets 

D. is a result of the state TV monopoly 

9. The phrase ―buy into‖ in paragraph 6 is closest meaning to . 

A. depend on B. criticise C. believe in D. conceal 10. The writer general view of ―technology‖ is that it . 

A. has the power to drive social change B. can liberate the economically disadvantaged C. hasn‘t really changed our cultural habits D. is not the most important factor in cultural change 

Part 4: The reading passage below has 7 paragraphs A-G. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below. Paragraph A and B are taken as examples.

List of Headings 

i. The advantage of an intuitive approach to personality assessment 

ii. Overall theories of personality assessment rather than valuable guidance 

iii. The consequences of poor personality assessment 

iv. Differing views on the importance of personality assessment 

v. Success and failure in establishing an approach to personality assessment vi. Everyone makes personality assessments 

vii. Acknowledgement of the need for improvement in personality assessment viii. Little progress towards a widely applicable approach to personality assessment ix. The need for personality assessments to be well-judged 

x. The need for a different kind of research into personality assessment 

Question 1-5 

Paragraph A - vi 

Paragraph B - ix 

1. Paragraph C iii 

2. Paragraph D vii 

3. Paragraph E ii 

4. Paragraph F viii 

5. Paragraph G v 

A Our daily lives are largely made up of contacts with other people, during which we are constantly making judgments of their personalities and accommodating our behaviour to them in accordance with these judgments. A casual meeting of neighbours on the street, an employer giving instructions to an employee, a mother telling her children how to behave, a journey in a train where strangers eye one another without exchanging a word - all these involve mutual interpretations of personal qualities. 

B Success in many vocations largely depends on skill in sizing up people. It is important not only to such professionals as the clinical psychologist, the psychiatrist or the social worker, but also to the doctor or lawyer in dealing with their clients, the businessman trying to outwit his rivals, the salesman with potential customers, the teacher with his pupils, not to speak of the pupils judging their teacher. Social life, indeed, would be impossible if we did not, to some extent, understand, and react to the motives and qualities of those we meet; and clearly we are sufficiently accurate for most practical purposes, although we also recognize that misinterpretations easily arise particularly on the part of others who judge us! 

C Errors can often be corrected as we go along. But whenever we are pinned down to a definite decision about a person, which cannot easily be revised through his 'feed-back', the inadequacies of our judgments become apparent. The hostess who wrongly thinks that the Smiths and the Joneses will get on well together can do little to retrieve the success of her party. A school or a business may be saddled for years with an undesirable member of staff, because the selection committee which interviewed him for a quarter of an hour misjudged his personality. 

D Just because the process is so familiar and taken for granted, it has aroused little scientific curiosity until recently. Dramatists, writers and artists throughout the centuries have excelled in the portrayal of character, but have seldom stopped to ask how they, or we, get to know people, or how accurate is our knowledge. However, the popularity of such unscientific systems as Lavater‘s physiognomy in the eighteenth century, Gall's phrenology in the nineteenth, and of handwriting interpretations by graphologists, or palm-readings by gipsies, show that people are aware of weaknesses in their

judgments and desirous of better methods of diagnosis. It is natural that they should turn to psychology for help, in the belief that psychologists are specialists in ‗human nature‘. 

E This belief is hardly justified: for the primary aim of psychology had been to establish the general laws and principles underlying behaviour and thinking, rather than to apply these to concrete problems of the individual person. A great many professional psychologists still regard it as their main function to study the nature of learning, perception and motivation in the abstracted or average human being, or in lower organisms, and consider it premature to put so young a science to practical uses. They would disclaim the possession of any superior skill in judging their fellow-men. Indeed, being more aware of the difficulties than is the non-psychologist, they may be more reluctant to commit themselves to definite predictions or decisions about other people. Nevertheless, to an increasing extent psychologists are moving into educational, occupational, clinical and other applied fields, where they are called upon to use their expertise for such purposes as fitting the education or job to the child or adult, and the person to the job. Thus a considerable proportion of their activities consists of personality assessment. 

F The success of psychologists in personality assessment has been limited, in comparison with what they have achieved in the fields of abilities and training, with the result that most people continue to rely on unscientific methods of assessment. In recent times there has been a tremendous amount of work on personality tests, and on carefully controlled experimental studies of personality. Investigations of personality by Freudian and other 'depth' psychologists have an even longer history. And yet psychology seems to be no nearer to providing society with practicable techniques which are sufficiently reliable and accurate to win general acceptance. The soundness of the methods of psychologists in the field of personality assessment and the value of their work are under constant fire from other psychologists, and it is far from easy to prove their worth. 

G The growth of psychology has probably helped responsible members of society to become more aware of the difficulties of assessment. But it is not much use telling employers, educationists and judges how inaccurately they diagnose the personalities with which they have to deal unless psychologists are sure that they can provide something better. Even when university psychologists themselves appoint a new member of staff, they almost always resort to the traditional techniques of assessing the candidates through interviews, past records, and testimonials, and probably make at least as many bad appointments as other employers do. However, a large amount of experimental development of better methods has been carried out since 1940 by groups of psychologists in the Armed Services and in the Civil Service, and by such organizations as the (British) National Institute of Industrial Psychology and the American Institute of Research. 

Questions 6-10: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in the reading passage? In the boxes 6-10, write 

YES If the statement agrees with the views of the writer 

NO If the statement contradicts the views of the writer 

NOT GIVEN If it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 

6. People often feel that they have been wrongly assessed. y 

7. Unscientific systems of personality assessment have been of some use. ng 

8. People make false assumptions about the expertise of psychologists. y 

9. It is likely that some psychologists are no better than anyone else at assessing personality y 10. Research since 1940 has been based on acceptance of previous theories. n 

IV. WRITING 

Part 1: Summary

Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should be about 100 words long. You MUST NOT copy the original. 

The sea turtles, especially the leatherbacks, are undoubtedly one of nature‘s most amazing creatures. They roam the warm seas of the world throughout their life and come ashore only to lay eggs. Malaysia with its long sandy shorelines has been destined as one of their breeding grounds. Unfortunately, the number of leatherback turtles landing on the beaches has been declining over the years. According to the WWF estimates, about 2000 leatherbacks arrived on Malaysian beaches in 1970. In 1989, only between 30 and 60 leatherbacks were found. The drastic drop within such a short span is certainly a great cause for concern. Where have they gone to? Are they avoiding the beaches of Malaysia? Whatever it is, if no concerted effort is taken to check the decline now they may become an extinct species soon, that is, if no concerted effort is taken to check the decline now. The belief that the declining landings of turtles in Malaysia is the result of increasing landings in other parts of the world is a fallacy. This is because the scenario is the same in other countries known to have been visited by the turtles. What has caused the species to dwindle at such a rapid rate? There are many reasons but an obvious one is none other than man's greed. As we know, turtles are killed for their meat. In the days before refrigeration, turtles had been a source of fresh food for the sailing ships. Today, turtle soup is a favourite dish among the Asians. Their shells have become coveted items fir decorations and jewelry. Their eggs which are meant to be hatched into young turtles, are instead harvested and eaten. When deep sea fishing nets inadvertently trap the turtles, fishermen often kill the turtles instead of cutting their nets to release them. Pollution in the sea has also reduced the number of turtles. Many are choked to death by the plastic bags that they mistake for jelly fish. It appears that the turtles are no longer safe in the sea where they spend most of their lives. 

Neither are they safe when the females come ashore to lay eggs. In fact this is the time when they are particularly vulnerable as their movements are slow on land. The nesting places for these turtles have also been greatly reduced. As more and more beaches are taken over for tourism with the construction of hotels, chalets and condominiums, the breeding grounds are reduced in the process. The intrusion of tourists into these places make it difficult for the turtles to lay their eggs. Unfortunately these ideal places are few to come by now. Too much development has taken place even along the coastline in most countries. Perhaps all is not lost yet. Sincere efforts are being taken to check the decline. In Malaysia, it is heartening to note that concrete steps have been taken to protect the turtles that come ashore to lay eggs. The indiscriminate collection of turtle eggs on the beaches is no more allowed. Turtle sanctuaries have been set up in Rantau Abang in Terengganu. The eggs collected by designated officials are sent to hatcheries in the sanctuaries. In this way, the loss of eggs and the rate of mortality among the baby turtles are reduced. In other words, more baby turtles are now able to return to sea and grow into adulthood. 

In an effort to discourage the public from eating turtle eggs, a Turtle Enactment Act has been introduced to prohibit the sale of leatherback eggs. The WWF has also launched the ‗Save the Turtle Campaign‘ to create awareness among the public to help save the endangered species. In this way, the consumption of turtle eggs and turtle meat will be discouraged. Let us hope that it is not too late to save these fascinating creatures from becoming extinct. 

Part 2: Graph description 

The graph below shows the proportion of the population aged 65 and over between 1940 and 2040 in three different countries. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main feature and make comparisons where relevant.

Practice tests for the national examination for the  

Compiler: Ngô Minh  

gifted 

Châu 

Part 3: Essay writing 

It is widely known that Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training has been changing the education curriculum with a view to reducing the heavy learning load for students. According to this plan, besides learning fewer subjects, students at upper-secondary level will have freedom to choose the subjects they want to study. 

Write an essay of 350 words to express your opinions about this issue.