TRƯỜNG ĐH SƯ PHẠM TP.

HCM ĐỀ THI KẾT THÚC HỌC PHẦN

KHOA TIẾNG ANH Tên HP: Đọc - Viết 2

Mã HP: ENGL1407 Số tín chỉ: 3

Học kỳ: 2 Năm học: 2020-2021
(Đề thi gồm có 9 trang) Ngày thi: 23/09/2021
Thời gian làm bài: 90’
Họ và tên:………………………………
Lưu ý:
- Thí sinh được sử dụng tài liệu khi làm bài thi.
- Cán bộ coi thi không giải thích gì thêm.

SECTION ONE READING (50 points)

Part 1

Read Passage 1.

Decide if the following statements are True (T), False (F) or Not Given (NG)
according to the passage.

1 Neither artist is known by their birth name. 1. ______

2 Rauschenberg first achieved artistic fame in his home town. 2. ______
3 Paris was the best place for Modern artists in the 1950s. 3. ______
4 Neither artist believed in distinguishing between high and low art. 4. ______
5 Art critics were shocked by Rauschenberg's use of everyday objects in 5. ______
his work.

Answer the questions which follow. Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D.

6. In what way are the artists' backgrounds similar?

A Their mothers were the most important influence on them.
B They were born in America to families with ancestry in Europe.
C Their families pushed them to go to Art School.
D Their families moved to New York.
7. The purpose of paragraph D is ...
A to illustrate Warhol's love of fame.
B to highlight the differences between Warhol and Rauschenberg.
C to suggest Warhol's work was better than Rauschenberg's.
D to give an overview of Warhol's early ground-breaking work.
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 8. What is the main idea of paragraph E?
A Both artists worked outside of traditional artistic genres.
B Warhol's work influenced rock music.
C Both artists engaged in performance art.
D The Exploding Plastic Inevitable is a well-known piece of work.
Passage 1
A. The term 'Modern Art' refers to art from the period 1860s to 1970s and encompasses the
work of such well-known names as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso.
Modern Art represents the discarding of the artistic traditions of the past in favour of a spirit
of experimentation. It conceptualised the functions of art in new ways and introduced
different ideas about the nature of materials. Two artists who had a huge impact on modern
art in the twentieth century were Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Arguably, they
both had an important influence on art as we know it today, but whereas Warhol became a
household name, Rauschenberg is remembered only by those in the artistic community.
B. Milton Ernest Rauschenberg, who later became known as Robert Rauschenberg, was born
in Port Arthur, Texas in 1925, while Andrew Warhola - Andy Warhol - was born in 1928 in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both were of European heritage, born to working class families. In
Rauschenberg's case, his childhood environment was hardly inspiring - a blue-collar town
that has been described as a 'cultural wasteland with no art'. His father had no understanding
of art and gave him no encouragement. His mother, on the other hand, supported her son as
much as she could. For much of his life, Rauschenberg had been waiting for the opportunity
to leave his hot sticky industrial home town and he did so in 1944, moving to California. Like
Rauschenberg, Warhol was close to his mother. A sickly child, he spent a lot of time at home
with her. Though he was missing a lot of school, he was developing his artistic skills and
tastes, so it was actually an important period of his life. He eventually enrolled in the
Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, where he took his first steps into the art world. Eventually,
both artists gravitated towards New York, which, by the early 1950s had taken over from
Paris as the centre of the Avant Garde*.
C. Artistically, what the two have in common is the willingness to innovate, take chances and
be different from everything that had gone before. Both were a new type of artist who
embraced and drew inspiration from popular culture. Both rejected the orthodoxical views of
'high' and 'low' art. To their minds, anything could be art. Rauschenberg produced paintings
and sculptures and even combined them to produce mixed media, working with a variety of
less conventional materials including silk, metal and glass. It has been said that 'the whole
world was his canvas'. He was the ultimate scavenger, prepared to use anything he could find
in his artworks, even going so far as to incorporate such disparate objects as socks,
bedspreads and car parts into his work. His 1953 piece entitled Automobile Tire Print was
conceptual art as never seen before and would ensure him a place in the art history books.
D. Warhol's work was equally innovative, drawing from the world around him, but somewhat
different in approach. He rose to fame with his iconic Campbell's Soup Con series, which
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even today is seen as one of the most definitive images of the Pop Art movement. The simple
red and white depictions of an everyday item have been hanging in kitchens and cafes around
the world since the 1960s. It's a similar story for his iconic series of movie star portraits -
including such popular culture figures as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Elizabeth
Taylor. Like Rauschenberg, he didn't limit himself to just one medium. In 1964 he produced
his first exhibition of sculpture, which consisted of hundreds of imitation supermarket
product boxes, most famously Brillo and Heinz. It was an exhibition which confounded
critics and helped cement his credentials as an artist challenging the status quo.
E. Not content with subverting the conventional art forms of painting and sculpture, both
Rauschenberg and Warhol experimented beyond them. Rauschenberg collaborated with
musicians, costume designers, dancers and even scientists, never ceasing to expand the
possibilities of what art could be. He has been described as 'the wind blowing through the art
world, pollinating everything'. Warhol, too, dabbled in other fields, including rock music and
film, and engaged in Performance Art, with his multimedia show The Exploding Plastic
Inevitable becoming one of the works he is best remembered for. This show pioneered many
lighting innovations which rock musicians have been using in their shows since the 1960s.
F. Both Rauschenberg and Warhol were extremely prolific, the former's career spanning six
decades, whilst the latter is a household name whose work has been adopted by several
generations. What differentiates them is that Warhol courted publicity. He wrote books and
co-founded a magazine, Interview, which reported on film, fashion and popular culture. He
socialised with celebrities and had several TV shows, which helped spread his fame. In
contrast, Rauschenberg didn't seek the limelight. His name is not widely known outside the
art world, but that does not diminish his influence upon it. Given that Warhol's work is
immensely reproducible and commercial, brightly coloured and attractive to buyers, it is easy
to see why Rauschenberg's productions with salvaged garbage and street signs would lack the
same popular appeal. However, this great innovator still deserves to be remembered for his
unique contribution to Modern Art.

Part 2

Read Passage 2.

You are going to read a magazine article that examines the transition from student to
employee. Decide if the information in the statements 9-14 is True (T), False (F) or Not
Given (NG) according to the article.

9. Several graduates are unprepared for the challenges of today's workplace. _______
10. Students’ performance in school is mainly responsible for their difficulty adjusting to
life on the job. _______
11. Although life in the workplace can be uncertain, graduates do not experience
difficulties in the workplace. _______
12. According to the article, being able to solve problems and contribute to a team are
essential in today’s workplace. _______
13. A large number of graduates overcame the problem discussed in the article

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 successfully. _______
14. The last paragraph suggests solutions to the problem discussed in the article. ______

Passage 2
1
It is a chilly January morning on the campus of San Jose State University, and the
start of a new term. Twenty-two-year-old Ryan Adams is walking with some friends to their
first class. Ryan is beginning his final semester as a college student; at the end of May, he
will graduate with a degree in finance. Even though graduation is a few months away, Ryan
is already working on a resumé and plans to start applying for jobs in April. He is both
excited and a little nervous about making the transition from student to full-time employee.
“l' m hoping to have a job by the summer," he explains. “You know, it’ll be good to finally
get out into the working world. On the other hand, it'll be the first real job I've ever had and
that's a little scary.”
2
By the time Ryan graduates, he will have spent four years in college and a total of
sixteen years of his life in school. Like many students, Ryan believes that the time and money
spent on his education will pay off: he will eventually be able to get a good job and do well in
the field he has chosen. And yet, in spite of all of the years spent in school preparing to enter
the workplace, many recent graduates say that they struggle with the transition from
classroom to career world and have difficulty adjusting to life on the job.
3
Writer and editor Joseph Lewis, who blogs for the website WorkAwesome.com,
suggests one reason why this is the case. Lewis believes that most of our school
experiences – from childhood through university – are fairly predictable, while life in the
working world is far more ambiguous. In school, for example, the pattern stays more or
less the same from year to year. All students have to take a fixed number of classes each
year and in those classes they have to do certain things to succeed: study assigned
material, do homework, and take and pass tests. In the workplace, however, constant
change is the norm, and one has to adapt quickly. A project you are working on this
month might suddenly change next month – or next week – and it's often hard to
anticipate what you'll be doing six to twelve months from now. Life in the workplace can
be uncertain in other ways as well. Lewis notes that in school, for example, you advance
each year to the next grade "and that change carries with it a sense of progress, a sense
of... growth and importance." In the workplace, however, "you have no idea when you
might be promoted; it depends on the economy, on your coworkers, on your boss or
clients, or a hundred other things you can't control."
4
Another problem that graduates entering the workforce encounter is that they are
unprepared to think analytically. In school, many students - including those in college -
spend a lot of time memorizing facts and repeating what they “learned” on tests. But in the
workplace, notes the Career Services Network at Michigan State University, employees "are
often expected to think critically and make decisions about their work, not just follow a
supervisor's instructions." An employee who is facing a problem at work, for example, needs
to be able to identify different solutions, select the best course of action and explain his
choice to others. Less time needs to be spent in school on testing, says one recent report, and
more on helping students to analyze and interpret information, solve problems, and
communicate their ideas effectively - skills that will prepare them to succeed in today's
workplace.
5
Finally, many recent graduates say that one of the biggest difficulties they face is
adjusting to teamwork on the job. In some ways, school does prepare one for the
collaborative nature of the workplace. Learners sit in classes every day with many other
4
students. They must listen to others' opinions, participate at times in group discussions,
and learn how to get along outside the classroom. Nevertheless, in school, a student
normally works independently to complete most tasks (tests, homework, and projects) and
receives a grade according to how well he or she has done. In the workplace, however,
employees must regularly interact with others and are often dependent on their coworkers
for their success. In other words, if an employee has to work with others to complete a
given project, that employee's success not only depends on his hard work and expertise,
but also on how well his colleagues perform. Knowing how to participate effectively in
teamwork - and deal with problems when they arise - is extremely important, and yet, it is
also something many students don't get enough practice with in a school setting.
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How can we better prepare young adults for the workplace? Recent graduates, looking
back on their educational experience, have some advice. Many think that all students should
be required to do an internship while they are in school. Volunteering part-time at a company,
hospital, or government organization, for example, can help one gain experience and learn
skills needed to succeed in the real world. Other graduates believe that teachers should
include more teamwork as part of class activities; such tasks would familiarize students with
the demands of collaborating with colleagues in the workplace. Still others feel there should
be more focus on developing writing and public speaking skills - abilities many employees
must regularly use on the job. Pairing this kind of practical work experience with classroom
instruction, say the graduates, will help prepare students for the realities of the workplace and
make the transition from school to career world less stressful.

Part 3

Read Passage 3, and choose the correct answer A, B, C or D for questions (15-20)
15. What do people who take part in the Matariki have in common?

A. They are descendants of the people who first arrived in New Zealand.
B. They are recent immigrants to New Zealand.
C. They are from Europe.
D. They are interested in a craft.

16. Which best explains the main idea of paragraph 2?

A. The possibility of the Matariki replacing traditional holidays

B. The decline and later revival of the celebration of Matariki
C. The disappearance of festivities associated with the Matariki in 1940s
D. The call for Matariki to be brought back as a cultural event

17. Which of the following is the main idea in paragraph 3?

A. Different ancient legends of other cultures about the origin of the seven stars
B. The creation myth of the origin of the seven stars in New Zealand
C. The traditional celebrations are hold by Māori communities to celebrate the Matar
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 D. Various legends in New Zealand about how the Matariki was created.

18. The Matariki was important to Māori communities because _______________

A. it served as a navigational tool.

B. the Māori were great sailors.
C. it gave them good chance of spotting the tail of the Milky Way.
D. it was a cultural event.

19. The Matariki gives _____________ a great chance to come together.

A. old people who first settled

B. young members of the local tribe
C. different generations of people
D. immigrants who have recently arrived

20. What does the final paragraph mainly discusses?

A. the Matariki’s influence on customs of Māori communities

B. the impact of Matariki on farming customs
C. Māori arts such as carving and weaving practices during Matariki celebrations
D. the importance of the Matariki as a navigational tool in the past

Passage 3
1
Over the cliffs at Mission Bay in Auckland, New Zealand, an incredible number of
kites give extra colour to the cold blue sky. It is no coincidence that so many people have
gathered here to fly them; they have come together to celebrate the arrival of the Matariki, the
group of seven stars that appear in mid-winter. Many of the kite fliers are Māori, descendants
of the people who first arrived in New Zealand in the 13th century, but others have European
ancestors, or are recent immigrants to this country. What all of them have in common is that
they are keen to take part in the celebration, and a key part of this is the designing and
making of a kite. The Māori used to make them out of pampas grass, flax and the bark of the
mulberry tree, and would often decorate them with shells or feathers. Nowadays, although it
is easy enough to make a modern plastic kite, people prefer to follow their customs and use
traditional methods and materials.
2
Before the Europeans began to arrive and settle in New Zealand, festivities associated
with the Matariki were popular amongst all Māori tribes. They gradually began to disappear,
eventually coming to an end with the last traditional festival held in the 1940s. It wasn’t until
the beginning of the 21st century that people began calling in large numbers for Matariki to
be brought back as a cultural event. In 2000, around 500 people attended a community
gathering and public firework display in Hastings, New Zealand, to mark the return of
Matariki. This year, over 20,000 people are expected to participate in the same event. And
around the rest of New Zealand, other similar events are co-ordinated.

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3
Māori have several stories about the origins of the Matariki. One is connected to their
creation myth, in which the god of the weather and winds threw his eyes into the heavens,
where they became the seven stars. In another version, the god of the forests, Tāne Mahuta,
became jealous of a very bright star which everyone admired. He angrily threw the star to
destroy it but instead it broke up into seven smaller stars. In a third myth, the main star is a
mother and the six smaller ones are her daughters. Regardless of the origins, Māori
communities have traditionally celebrated in similar ways.
4
Although Māori living in New Zealand recognise January 1st as the official start of
the year, it is the appearance of the Matariki which traditionally marks the beginning of the
Māori New Year. Of course, people living in different parts of the world will be able to see
the cluster of seven stars at different times of year. However, for New Zealanders hoping to
see the Matariki, they should keep an eye out from the second week of June. If they look
towards the north-east horizon, slightly to the west of where the sun rises, they should have a
good chance of spotting it in the tail of the Milky Way. Of course, it is best to get up an hour
before dawn, so the stars are bright enough to be easily noticed. A pair of binoculars can
come in handy, too.
5
Like the first people to settle in Tonga, Samoa, Niue, the Cook Islands, Hawaii and
Tahiti, the Māori were great sailors. All these Polynesian peoples were able to travel long
distances over water by observing the position of the stars. The seven stars that made up the
Matariki were especially useful due to the fact that they changed position during the year,
showing a clear direction for the huge traditional canoes to follow. It’s easy to see the
common ancestry of the people of Polynesia when you look at the names for the Matariki in
the different countries: it is Matali’l in Samoa, Makali’l in Hawaii, and Mataliki in Tonga, for
example.
6
Nowadays, as in the past, Matariki celebrations provide an excellent opportunity for
communities to unite. It is a time when people reflect on the experiences of the year which
has just passed, give thanks for the good things they have received from the land and the sea,
and look forward to the year ahead. It is also the perfect time for older members of the
extended family or local tribe to share their knowledge with the young. They may teach them
traditional songs or stories, demonstrate old ways of fishing or catching eels, or show them
how to prepare hangi (food which is cooked on heated stones in a hole in the ground). For
many Māori children, this contact and experience gives them a strong sense of cultural
identity and belonging.
7
While Māori arts such as carving and weaving were practised during Matariki
celebrations in the past, the arrival of the seven stars had another significant role. Māori
decided when to plant their crops according to how easily the stars could be seen. If they
were clear and bright, Māori believed that the growing season would be a productive one, and
they would plant their crops in September. But if they appeared to be out-of-focus and closer
together than usual, they knew that the winter was going to be an extremely cold one. This
meant they wouldn’t start planting until October. But Matariki also occurred at harvest time,
so there was plenty of food to share around between family members and visitors. This kind
of feasting is still very much part of the modern celebrations.

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 Part 4

Read Passage 4.

A. Stephen Kaplan, psychologist

B. Richard Fuller, ecologist
C. scientists at the Santa Fe Institute
D. Frances Kuo, researcher
E. Mark Berman, a psychologist from the University of Michigan
Match the people (A-E) to their main viewpoint (21-25) given in the text.
21. For parks to be truly relaxing, there should be a wide variety of plants.
22. Walking through a city has more negative effects than walking among trees.
23. People who live in cities may be more creative than people who do not.
24. Cities stimulate human minds more than the minds can naturally cope with.
25. Looking at a view of nature improves attention and the ability to deal with problems.
According to the text, are the sentences true (T), false (F), or not given (NG)?

26. The majority of people around the world live happily in cities.
27. Researchers from different disciplines are interested in the effects of cities on people.
28. One researcher found that our self-control is weaker in cities.
29. Self-control and the ability to pay attention are controlled by different parts of the brain.
30. People are more likely to have violent arguments in the street than at home.

Passage 4
Is city living good for us?
1
For the first time ever, more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities.
For most of human history, the global population has predominantly consisted of rural
dwellers—even as relatively recently as 1900, it was a mere 13%. The human brain,
therefore, has adapted over millennia to the requirements of living in a natural environment.
Cities are not our natural habitat, and this has led scientists working in a variety of fields to
question the effects that city life has on us.

2
Mark Berman is one such researcher. A psychologist at the University of Michigan,
he has measured the effect on the brain of walking through a city. He believes that the mind
has limits, which are being exceeded when we are in an urban environment. This appears to
be partly a result of the millions of stimuli we receive in a city—lights flashing, signs,
unfamiliar faces—that we process while we automatically watch out for hazards and threats,
of which there are far more than in nature. Stephen Kaplan, another psychologist, has studied
the relative effect on groups of students of walking through a busy city and through trees. He
found that the city walkers tested shortly afterwards scored lower on memory and attention
tests and were in a relatively bad mood compared with the tree-walking group. He also
found, surprisingly, that even looking at photographs of city life had a similar negative effect.
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Another researcher, Frances Kuo, found that just looking out of a window at a view of trees
and flowers resulted in significant improvements in attention and the handling of challenges
and problems by the women she tested. Another effect that interests her is how our self-
control is lowered in a city environment. Resisting temptation is more difficult because the
same area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, controls both our directed attention, which is on
full alert in a city, and our self-control. Because a city naturally provides a lot of temptations,
with sales displays for products ranging from cookies to new computer models, this aspect of
the brain function is a boon for salespeople, but a problem for people trying to cut down on
shopping or eating.
3
Emotional control is yet another area of concern in cities. Kuo’s studies indicate
there are higher levels of domestic violence in apartments that do not have views of flowers
and trees. This is unsurprising, because it has long been thought that parks in cities have a
tranquilizing effect amidst the whirlwind of city life. Richard Fuller, an ecologist, found that
to maximize this effect, the trees and plants in a park should be as diverse as possible rather
than only one or two types.
4
There is some hope for city-dwellers, however. Research by scientists at the Santa
Fe Institute have shown that people who live in urban areas may be more innovative, a result
that explains why so many artists and thinkers have been attracted to city life. From Picasso to
Einstein, creative people have traditionally thrived in cities. It is possible that the
unpredictability, the chance encounters, and the social interactions, although they are attention
distracting, are also triggers for creativity.

SECTION TWO WRITING (50 points)

Write on ONE of the following topics. Write about 300 words. At the head of your paragraph
put the number of the topic you have chosen.

1. Describe a popular outdoor public space.

2. Explain steps for planning a family vacation.
3. Recommend what present to buy for a 19-year-old student.
4. Do you think that parents should restrict how much time a teenager spends on
cellphone each day?

– THE END –