Read the following passage and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

          Glass is a remarkable substance made from simplest raw materials. It can be colored or colorless, monochrome or polychrome, transparent, translucent or opaque. It is lightweight impermeable to liquids, readily cleaned and reused, durable yet fragile, and often very beautiful. Glass can be decorated in multiple ways and its optical properties are exceptional. In all its myriad forms-as table ware, containers, in architecture and design-glass represents a major achievement in the history of technological developments.

          Since the Bronze Age about 3,000 B.C, glass has been used for making various kinds of objects. It was first made from a mixture of silica, line and an alkali such as soda or potash, and these remained the basic ingredients of glass until the development of lead glass in the seventeenth century. When heated, the mixture becomes soft, and malleable and can be formed by various techniques into a vast array of shapes and sizes. The homogeneous mass is thus formed by melting then cooling to create glass, but in contrast to most materials formed in this way (metals, for instance), glass lacks the crystalline structure normally associated with solids, and instead retains the random molecular structure of a liquid. In effect, as molten glass cools, it progressively stiffens until rigid, but does so without setting up a network of interlocking crystals customarily associated with that process. This is why glass shatters so easily when dealt a blow, why glass deteriorates over time, especially when exposed to moisture, and why glassware must be slowly reheated and uniformly cooled after manufacture to release internal stresses induced by uneven cooling.

Another unusual feature of glass is the manner in which its viscosity changes as it turns from a cold substance into a hot, ductile liquid. Unlike metals that flow or “freeze” at specific temperatures, glass progressively softens as the temperature rises, going through varying stages of malleability until it flows like a thick syrup. Each stage of malleability allows the glass to be manipulated into various forms, by different techniques, and if suddenly cooled the object retains the stage achieved at that point. Glass is thus amenable to a greater number of heat-forming techniques than most other materials.

What must be done to release the internal stresses that build up in glass products during manufacture?

A. The glass must be cooled quickly

B. The glass must be reheated and evenly cooled

C. The glass must be kept moist until cooled

D. The glass must be shaped to its desired form immediately

Mark the letter A, B, C, D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

His dreamlike villa in the new residential quarter is the envy of his friends

A. something that everybody looks for 

B. something that everybody dreams of

C. something that nobody wants 

D. something that nobody can afford

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 following questions.

Long before they can actually speak, babies pay special attention to the speech they hear around them. Within the first month of their lives, babies' responses to the sound of the human voice will be different from their responses to other sorts of auditory stimuli. They will stop crying when they hear a person talking, but not if they hear a bell or the sound of a rattle. At first, the sounds that an infant notices might be only those words that receive the heaviest emphasis and that often occur at the ends of utterances. By the time they are six or seven weeks old, babies can detect the difference between syllables pronounced with rising and falling inflections. Very soon, these differences in adult stress and intonation can influence babies' emotional states and behavior. Long before they develop actual language comprehension, babies can sense when an adult is playful or angry, attempting to initiate or terminate new behavior, and so on, merely on the basis of  cues such as the rate, volume, and melody of adult speech.

Adults make it as easy as they can for babies to pick up a language by exaggerating such cues. One researcher observed babies and their mothers in six diverse cultures and found that, in all six languages, the mothers used simplified syntax, short utterances and nonsense sounds, and transformed certain sounds into baby talk. Other investigators have noted that when mothers talk to babies who are only a few months old, they exaggerate the pitch, loudness, and intensity of their words. They also exaggerate their facial expressions, hold vowels longer, and emphasize certain words.

More significant for language development than their response to general intonation is observation that tiny babies can make relatively fine distinctions between speech sounds. In other words, babies enter the world with the ability to make precisely those perceptual discriminations that are necessary if they are to acquire aural language.

Babies obviously derive pleasure from sound input, too: even as young as nine months they will listen to songs or stories, although the words themselves are beyond their understanding. For babies, language is a sensory-motor delight rather than the route to prosaic meaning that it often is for adults

What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. The differences between a baby's and an adult's ability to comprehend language

B. How babies perceive and respond to the human voice in their earliest stages of language development

C. The response of babies to sounds other than the human voice

D. How babies differentiate between the sound of the human voice and other sounds

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 from 45 to 54

THE DANGERS OF DIETING

Thanks to our modern lifestyle, with more and more time spent sitting down in front of computers than ever before, the (43)____ of overweight people is at a new high. As people frantically search for a solution (44)____ this problem, they often try some of the popular fad diets being offered. Many people see fad diets (45)____ harmless ways of losing weight, and they are grateful to have them.Unfortunately, not only don’t fad diets usually (46)____ the trick, they can actually be dangerous for your health.

Although permanent weight loss is the (47)___, few are able to achieve it. Experts estimate that 95 percent of dieters return to their starting weight, or even (48)____ weight. While the reckless use of fad diets can bring some (49)____ result, long-term results are very rare. (50)____, people who are fed up with the difficulties of changing their eating habits often turn to fad diets. (51)____ being moderate, fad diets involve extreme dietary changes. They advises eating only one type of food, or they prohibit other types of foods entirely. This results in a situation (52)______ a person’s body doesn’t get all the vitamins and other things that it needs to stay healthy.

Điền vào ô số 51

A. initial 

B. initiative 

C. initiating

D. initiate

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.

    1.Not so long ago almost any student who successfully completed a university degree or diploma course could find a good career quite easily. Companies toured the academic institutions, competing with each other to recruit graduates. However, those days are gone, even in Hong Kong, and nowadays graduates often face strong competition in the search for jobs.
    2.Most careers organizations highlight three stages for graduates to follow in the process of securing a suitable career: recognizing abilities, matching these to available vacancies and presenting them well to prospective employers.
    3.Job seekers have to make a careful assessment of their own abilities. One area of assessment should be of their academic qualifications, which would include special skills within their subject area. Graduates should also consider their own personal values and attitudes, or the relative importance to themselves of such matters as money, security, leadership and caring for others. An honest assessment of personal interests and abilities such as creative or scientific skills, or skills acquired from work experience, should also be given careful thought.
    4.The second stage is to study the opportunities available for employment and to think about how the general employment situation is likely to develop in the future. To do this, graduates can study job vacancies and information in newspapers or they can visit a careers office, write to possible employers for information or contact friends or relatives who may already be involved in a particular profession. After studying all the various options, they should be in a position to make informed comparisons between various careers.
    5.Good personal presentation is essential in the search for a good career. Job application forms and letters should, of course, be filled in carefully and correctly, without grammar or spelling errors. Where additional information is asked for, job seekers should describe their abilities and work experience in more depth, with examples if possible. They should try to balance their own abilities with the employer's needs, explain why they are interested in a career with the particular company and try to show that they already know something about the company and its activities.
    6.When graduates are asked to attend for interview, they should prepare properly by finding out all they can about the prospective employer. Dressing suitably and arriving for the interview on time are also obviously important. Interviewees should try to give positive and helpful answers and should not be afraid to ask questions about anything they are unsure about. This is much better than pretending to understand a question and giving an unsuitable answer.
    7.There will always be good career opportunities for people with ability, skills and determination; the secret to securing a good job is to be one of them

In the paragraph 2, “them” refers to ______.

A. abilities

B. three stages

C. careers organizations

D. available vacancies

Read the following passage and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Comets are bodies that move around in space. They are something likes stars or small planets that move around the sun. Comets are surrounded by gases and the sun makes those gases look very bright. Dust can get caught in the gas around the comet and make the comet look like it has a tails.

Halley's Comet is the most famous comet, but we can't see it very often. In fact, it can only be seen from the Earth when it moves close the sun. This means that this beautiful comet only comes into our sky every 77 years or so. The last time Halley's Comet was invisible from the Earth was in 1991. Did you see it?

Halley's Comet was named after the English astronomer Edmond Halley. An astronomer studies the star and planets in the solar system. Edmond Halley was born in London, England, in 1656. He studies astronomy at Oxford University. In 1676, he left the university to study the astronomy of the Southern Hemisphere. He wrote a brook about the arrangement of the stars in the sky and the movement of the planets. He made the first accurate map of the stars we see in the sky. He also observed the moon and studied how the Moon affects the ocean tides. He helped find a way to measure distances in space. This measurement was used by other scientists to learn about the size of our solar system and the distances of many star and planets from the Earth.

Halley especially liked to study comets. He read about comets and observed them in the sky. He learned about the way they moved around the Sun — each comet follows a different path around the Sun and travels at its own speed. The path and speed of a body as it moves in space is called its orbit. Halley calculated the orbits of comets that he read about or saw himself. He found the orbits for twenty-four comets.

Halley also noticed that the paths of a comet seen in 1531 and of a comet seen in 1607 were identical to the path of a comet he had observed in 1682. He concluded that these three comets were, in fact, the same comet. Halley predicted that the comet would come again in 1758, and it did! This comet was named “Halley’s Comet” and can be seen from Earth. The first reports of this comet in history were made in 240 B.C. by Chinese astronomers, so we know that it has been orbiting the Sun to more than 2,000 years. Halley’s Comet is not the only comet in our sky, but it is the only one that appears regularly and can be predicted. It is also one of the brightest comets, and people can see it without a telescope.

Like comets, the Earth also travels around the Sun. Sometimes the orbit of t Earth passes through the path of Hailey’s Comet. Like comets, the Earth also travels around the Sun. Sometimes the orbit of the Earth passes through the path of Hailey’s Comet. When this When this happens, dust left behind from the comet falls to Earth. The dust burns and makes brilliant lights like falling stars in the sky. You can see this happen every year in May and October. Astronomers predict that Hailey’s Comet will enter our sky again in 2061. Who do you think will see it?

In 240 B.C._____

A. there were no comets in the sky

B. Chinese astronomers first observed Halley’s comet

C. Halley was born in London, England

D. Halley’s Comet did not appear in the sky

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

This boy is poorly-educated and doesn’t know how to behave properly.

A. ignorant 

B. uneducated        

C. knowledgeable  

D. rude