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 from 43 to 50.

          Life originated in the early seas less than a billion years after the Earth was formed. Yet another three billion years were to pass before the first plants and animals appeared on the continents. Life’s transition from the sea to the land was perhaps as much of an evolutionary challenge as was the genesis of life.
          What forms of life were able to make such a drastic change in lifestyle? The traditional view of the first terrestrial organisms is based on mega fossils-relatively large specimens of essentially whole plants and animals. Vascular plants, related to modern seed plants and ferns, left the first comprehensive mega fossil record. Because of this, it has been commonly assumed that the sequence of terrestrialization reflected the evolution of modern terrestrial ecosystems. In this view, primitive vascular plants first colonized the margins of continental waters, followed by animals that feed on the plants, and lastly by animals that preyed on the plant-eaters. Moreover, the mega fossils suggest that terrestrial life appeared and diversified explosively near the boundary between the Silurian and the Devonian periods, a little more than 400 million years ago.
          Recently, however, paleontologists have been taking a closer look at the sediments below this Silurian-Devonian geological boundary. It turns out that some fossils can be extracted from these sediments by putting the rocks in an acid bath. The technique has uncovered new evidence form sediments that were deposited near the shores of the ancient oceans- plant microfossils and microscopic pieces of small animals. In many instances the specimens are less than one-tenth of a millimeter in diameter. Although they were entombed in the rocks for hundreds of millions of years, many of them fossils consist of the organic remains of the organism.
          These newly discovered fossils have not only revealed the existence of previously unknown organisms, but have also pushed back these dates for the invasion of land by multicellular organisms. Our views about the nature of the early plant and animal communities are now being revised. And with those revisions come new speculations about the first terrestrial life-forms

According to the passage, what happened about 400 million years ago?

A. Many terrestrial life-forms died out

B. New life-forms on land developed at a rapid rate

C. The mega fossils were destroyed by floods

D. Life began to develop in the ancient seas

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 31 to 35.

          When you read something in a foreign language, you frequently come across words you do not fully understand. Sometimes you (31) ______ the meaning in a dictionary and sometimes you guess. The strategy you adopt depends very much upon the degree of accuracy you require and the time at your disposal.
          If you are the sort of person who tends to turn to the dictionary frequently, it is (32) ______ remembering that every dictionary has its limitations. Each definition is only an approximation and one builds up an accurate picture of the meaning of a word only after meeting it in a (33) ______ of contexts. It is also important to recognize the special dangers of dictionaries that translate from English into your native language and vice versa. If you must use a dictionary, it is usually far safer to consult an English-English dictionary.
          In most exams you are not permitted to use a dictionary. (34) ______ you are allowed to use one, it is very time-consuming to look up words, and time in exams is usually limited. You are, therefore, forced to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. When you come across unknown words in an exam text, it is very easy to panic. However, if you develop efficient techniques for guessing the meaning, you will overcome a number of possible problems and help yourself to understand far more of the text than you at first thought likely.
          Two strategies which may help you guess the meaning of a word are: using contextual clues, both within the sentence and outside, and making use of clues (35) ______ from the formation of the word

Điền ô số 34

A. Even if

B. Provided

C. Although

D. In case

Mark the letter A, B, Cor D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions

The article analyzes the impact of the tax base ______ real estate prices and sales

A. in 

B. at 

C. on 

D. with 

Read the passage and choose the best answer.

A pilot cannot fly by sight alone. In many conditions, such as flying at night and landing in dense fog, a pilot must use radar, an alternative way of navigating. Since human eyes are not very good at determining speeds of approaching objects, radar can show a pilot how fast nearby planes are moving. The basic principle of radar is exemplified by what happens when one shouts in a cave. The echo of the sounds against the walls helps a person determine the size of the cave. With radar, however, the waves are radio waves instead of sound waves. Radio waves travel at the speed of light, about 300,000 kilometers in one second. A radar set sends out a short burst of radio waves. Then it receives the echoes produced when the waves bounce off objects. By determining the time it takes for the echoes to return to the radar set, a trained technician can determine the distance between the radar set and other objects. The word “radar”, in fact, gets its name from the term “radio detection and ranging”. “Ranging” is the term for detection of the distance between an object and the radar set. Besides being of critical importance to pilots, radar is essential for air traffic control, tracking ships at sea, and for tracking weather systems and storms. 

 The word “exemplified” in the passage can be replaced by _______.  

A. “specified”

B. “resembled” 

C. “illustrated” 

D. “justified”

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 from 36 to 42

          Animals have an intuitive awareness of quantities. They know without analysis the difference between a number of objects and a smaller number. In his book “ The natural History of Selboure ” (1786 ) , the naturalist Gilbert White tells how he surreptitiously removed one egg a day from a plover‟s nest , and how the mother laid another egg each day to make up for the missing one . He noted that other species of birds ignore the absence of a single egg but abandon their nests if more than one egg has been removed. It has also been noted by naturalists that a certain type of wasp always provides five – never four, never six - caterpillars for each of their eggs so that their young have something to eat when the eggs hatch . Research has also shown that both mice and pigeons can be taught to distinguish between odd and even numbers of food pieces.
          These and similar accounts have led some people to infer that creatures other than humans can actually count. They also point to dogs that have been taught to respond to numerical questions with the correct number of barks, or to horses that seem to solve arithmetic problems by stomping their hooves the proper number of times.
          Animals respond to quantities only when they are connected to survival as a species – as in the case of the eggs – or survival as individuals - as in the case of food. There is no transfer to other situations or from concrete reality to the abstract notion of numbers. Animals can “count” only when the objects are present and only when the numbers involved are small – not more than seven or eight. In lab experiments, animals trained to “count” one kind of object were unable to count any other type. The objects, not the numbers, are what interest them. Animals admittedly remarkable achievements simply do not amount to evidence of counting, nor do they reveal more than innate instincts, refined by the genes of successive generations, or the results of clever, careful conditioning by trainers

The word “odd” refers to which of the following?

A. numbers such as 1, 3, 5 and so on

B. lucky numbers

C. numbers such as 2, 4, 6 and so on

D. unusual numbers

Fill in each numbered blank with one suitable word or phrase.

A thirteen-year-old does not spend as much money as his parents suspect - at least not (1) ………….the findings of recent survey, Money and Change. The survey (2) ……….. three hundred teenagers, 13-17 years old from (3) …………. Britain.

By the time they (4) ………… their teens, most children see their weekly allowance rise dramatically to an amazing national average of $5.14. Two thirds think they get (5) …………. money but most expect to have to do something to get it.

Although they have more cash, worry about debt is (6) ………….. among teenagers. Therefore, the majority of children make an effort to save for the future.

Greater access to cash (7) ……………. teenagers does not, however, mean that they are more irresponsible as a result. The economic recession seems to have encouraged cautious attitudes to money, even in the case of children at these ages. Instead of wasting what pocket (8) …………… they have on sweets or magazines, the teenagers who took (9) …………. in the survey seem to respond to the situation by saving more than half (10) …………. their cash.

Điền vào số 9

A. part

B. place

C. share 

D. piece

Read the following passage on transport, and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 1 to 7.

(1) The protozoans, minute, aquatic creatures each of which consists of a single cell of protoplasm, constitute a classification of the most primitive forms of animal life. They are fantastically diverse, but three major groups may be identified on the basis of their motility. The Mastigophora have one or more long tails, which they use to project themselves forward. The Ciliata, which use the same basic means for locomotion as the Mastigophora, have a larger number of short tails. The Sarcodina, which include amoebae, float or row themselves about on their crusted bodies.

(2) In addition to their form of movement, several other features discriminate among the three groups of protozoans. For example, at least two nuclei per cell have been identified in the Ciliata, usually a large nucleus that regulates growth but decomposes during reproduction, and a smaller one that contains the genetic code necessary to generate the large nucleus.

(3) Protozoans are considered animals because, unlike pigmented plants to which some protozoans are otherwise almost identical, they do not live on simple organic compounds. Their cell demonstrates all of the major characteristics of the cells of higher animals.

(4) Many species of protozoans collect into colonies, physically connected to each other and responding uniformly to outside stimulae. Current research into this phenomenon, along with investigations carried out with advanced microscopes may necessitate a redefinition of what constitutes protozoans, even calling into question the basic premise that they have only one cell. Nevertheless, with the current data available, almost 40,000 species of protozoans have been identified. No doubt, as the technology improves our methods of observation, better models of classification will be proposed.

What is protoplasm?

A. A class of protozoan

B. The substance that forms the cell of a protozoan

C. A primitive animal similar to a protozoan

D. An animal that developed from a protozoan

Read the following passage on transport, and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 1 to 8.

(1) It was the first photograph that I had ever seen, and it fascinated me. I can remember holding it at every angle in order to catch the flickering light from the oil lamp on the dresser. The man in the photograph was unsmiling, but his eyes were kind. I had never met him, but I felt that I knew him. One evening when I was looking at the photograph, as I always did before I went to sleep, I noticed a shadow across the man’s thin face. I moved the photograph so that the shadow lay perfectly around his hollow cheecks. How different he looked!

(2) That night I could not sleep, thinking about the letter that I would write. First, I would tell him that I was eleven years old, and that if he had a little girl my age, she could write to me instead of him. I knew that he was a very busy man. Then I would explain to him the real purpose of my letter. I would tell him how wonderful he looked with the shadow that I had seen across his photograph, and I would most carefully suggest that he grow whiskers.

(3) Four months later when I met him at the train station near my home in Westfield, New York, he was wearing a full beard. He was so much taller than I had imagined from my tiny photograph.

(4) “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I have no speech to make and no time to make it in. I appear before you that I may see you and that you may see me.” Then he picked me right up and kissed me on both cheeks. The whiskers scratched. “Do you think I look better, my little friend?” he asked me.

(5) My name is Grace Bedell, and the man in the photograph was Abraham Lincoln.

What did Grace Bedell do every night before she went to sleep?

A. She wrote letters.

B. She looked at the photograph.

C. She made shadow figures on the wall.

D. She read stories.