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

Parents whose children show a special interest in a particular sport have a difficult decision to (47)______ about their children‟s career. Should they allow their children to train to become top sportsmen and women? For many children it (48) ______starting very young and school work, going out with friends and other (49) ______ have to take second place. It‟s very difficult to explain to a young child why he or she has to train for five hours a day, even at the weekend, when (50) _______ of his or her friends are playing.

Another problem is of course money. In many countries money for training is (51) ______ from the government for the very best young sportsmen and women. If this help cannot be given, it means that it is the parents (52) ______ have to find the time and the money to support their child‟s development- and sports clothes, transport to competitions, special equipment etc. can all be very expensive.

Many parents are understandably (53) _______ that it is dangerous to start serious training in a sport at an early age. Some doctors agree that young (54) _______ may be damaged by training before they are properly developed. Professional trainers, however, believe that it is only by starting young that you can reach the top as a successful sports person. What is clear is that very (55) _______ people reach the top and both parents and children should be prepared for failure even after many years of training.

Điền vào ô 55

A. little

B. few 

C. a few 

D. many

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions

Thai Nguyen High School is a place in that I used to study when I was a child.

A. in that

B. to study

C. when

D. a child 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the phrase that is OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined ones.

Because Jack defaulted on his loan, the bank took him to court

A. failed to pay

B. paid in full

C. had a bad personality

D. was paid much money

Read the passages and circle the best option A, B, C, or D to complete the following questions or statements

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political scientist, historian, philosopher and politician, is most famous for a four-volume book he wrote called “Democracy in America”. He came to America in 1831 to study the American form of democracy and what it might mean to the rest of the world. After a visit of only nine months, he wrote a remarkable book which is regarded as a classic. De Tocqueville had unusual powers of observation. He described not only the democratic system of government and how it operated, but also its effect on how Americans think, feel, and act. Many scholars believe he had a deeper understanding of traditional American beliefs and values than anyone else who has written about the United States. What is so remarkable is that many of these traits which he observed nearly 200 years ago, are still visible and meaningful today. His observations are also important because the timing of his visit, the 1830s, was before America was industrialized. This was the era of the small farmer, the small businessman, and the settling of the western frontier. It was the period of history when the traditional values of the new country were newly established. In just a generation, some 40 years since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, the new form of government had already produced a society of people with unique values. He was, however, a neutral observer and saw both the good and bad sides of these qualities.

The first part of “Democracy in America” was written in 1831-32 and published in 1835. A highly positive and optimistic account of American government and society, the book was very well received. He attempted to get a glimpse of the essence of American society, all the while promoting his own philosophy: the equaling of the classes and the inevitable depth of aristocratic privilege. The rest of the book he labored on for four years, and in 1840 the second part was published. This was substantially more pessimistic than the first, warning of the dangers despotism and governmental centralization, and applying his ideas and criticisms more directly to France. As a result, it was not received as well as the first part, except in England where it was acclaimed highly.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. the English don‟t like the French

B. the book was most important because it was the first time that American values had been clearly documented

C. de Tocqueville was a slow writer 

D. de Tocqueville was primarily motivated by an interest in his own country 

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

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost nothing was written about the contribution of women during the colonial period and the early history of the newly formed United States. Lacking the right to vote and absent from the seats of power, women were not considered an important force in history. Anne Bradstreet wrote some significant poetry in the seventeenth century, Mercy Otis Warren produced the best contemporary history of the American Revolution, and Abigail Adams penned important letters showing she exercised great political influence over her husband, John, the second President of the United States. But little or no notice was taken of these contributions. During these centuries, women remained invisible in history books.

Throughout the nineteenth century, this lack of visibility continued, despite the efforts of female authors writing about women. These writers, like most of their male counterparts, were amateur historians. Their writings were celebratory in nature, and they were uncritical in their selection and use of sources.

During the nineteenth century, however, certain feminists showed a keen sense of history by keeping records of activities in which women were engaged. National, regional, and local women‟s organizations compiled accounts of their doings. Personal correspondence, newspaper clippings, and souvenirs were saved and stored. These sources form the core of the two greatest collections of women‟s history in the United States – one at the Elizabeth and Arthur Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and the other the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Such sources have provided valuable materials for later generations of historians.

Despite the gathering of more information about ordinary women during the nineteenth century, most of the writing about women conformed to the “great women” theory of history, just as much of mainstream American history concentrated on “great men”. To demonstrate that women were making significant contributions to American life, female authors singled out women leaders and wrote biographies, or else important women produced their autobiographies. Most of these leaders were involved in public life as reformers, activists working for women‟s right to vote, or authors, and were not representative at all of the great mass of ordinary women. The lives of ordinary people continued, generally, to be untold in the American histories being published.

The word “representative” in line 24 is closest in meaning to 

A. typical 

B. satisfied 

C. supportive 

D. distinctive

You can usually tell when your friends are happy or angry by the looks on their faces or by their actions. This is useful because reading their emotional expressions helps you to know how to respond to them. Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others. But does raising the eyebrows and rounding the mouth say the same thing in Minneapolis as it does in Madagascar? Much research on emotional expressions has centered on such questions.

According to Paul Ekman, the leading researcher in this area, people speak and understand substantially the same "facial language". Studies by Ekman's group have demonstrated that humans share a set of universal emotional expressions that testify to the common biological heritage of the human species. Smiles, for example, signal happiness and frowns indicate sadness on the faces of people in such far- flung places as Argentina, Japan, Spain, Hungary, Poland , Sumatra ,the United States, Vietnam, the jungles of New Guinea , and the Eskimo villages north of Artic Circle. Ekman and his colleagues claim that people everywhere can recognize at least seven basic emotions: sadness, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happiness, and surprise. There are, however, huge differences across cultures in both the context and intensity of emotional displays - the so called display rules. In many Asian cultures, for example, children are taught to control emotional responses - especially negative ones- while many American children are encouraged to express their feelings more openly. Regardless of culture, however, emotions usually show themselves, to some degree , in people's behavior. From their first days of life, babies produce facial expressions that communicate their feelings.

The ability to read facial expressions develops early, too. Very young children pay close attention to facial expressions, and by age five, they nearly equal adults in their skill at reading emotions on people's faces. This evidence all points to a biological underpinning for our abilities to express and interpret a basic set of human emotions. Moreover, as Charles Darwin pointed out over a century ago, some emotional expressions seem to appear across species boundaries. Cross - cultural psychologists tell us that certain emotional responses carry different meanings in different cultures. For example, what emotion do you suppose might be conveyed by sticking out your tongue? For Americans, this might indicate disgust, while in China it can signify surprise. Likewise, a grin on an American face may indicate joy, while on a Japanese face it may just as easily mean embarrassment. Clearly, culture influences emotional expressions.

The biggest difference lies in __________.

A. how intensive emotions are expressed

B. how often positive emotions are shown

C. how emotional responses are controlled

D. how long negative emotions are displayed