ĐỀ THI HSG TIENG ANH 12

SECTION A: GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY (40 POINTS)

I. Choose the word or phrase (A, B, C or D) which best completes each sentence. (20points)

1. He_________ his son of the dangers of driving too fast in his new car

A. warned B. remembered C. threatened D. concerned

2. The child was_________ by a lorry on the safety crossing in the main street.

A. knocked out B. run across C. run out D. knocked down

3. The independent arbitrator managed to_________ the confrontation between the union and the employers.

A. refuse B. confuse C. refute D. defuse

4. When I heard the footsteps behind me I was_________ that I would be attacked.

A. horrified B. terror-struck C. terrorized D. terrified

5. His illness made him_________ of concentration.

A. incompetent B. unable C. incapable D. powerless

6. Medieval travelers’ tales of fantastic creatures were often fascinating but not always________.

A. credible B. creditable C. credulous D. imaginable

7. An almost________ line of traffic was moving at a snail’s pace through the town.

A. continuous B. constant C. continual D. stopping

8. Somebody ran in front of the car as I was driving. Fortunately I________ just in time.

A. could stop B. could have stopped C. managed to stop D. must be able to stop

9. You are being thoroughly________ in refusing to allow this ceremony to take place.

A. unrequited B. unrepresentative C. unreliable D. unreasonable

10 The sudden resignation of the financial director put the company in a very_________position.

A. weak B. unsteady C. vulnerable D. collapsed

11. David: Would you like fish or meat? Mary: I_________ fish, please.

A. would rather B. would prefer C. suppose D. believe

12. Many teenagers show signs of anxiety and_________ when being asked about their future.

A. depress B. depression C. depressed D. depressing

13. . A part – time job gives me the freedom to_________ my own interests.

A. pursue B. chase C. seek D. catch

14. The new road currently under_________ will solve the traffic problems in the town.

A. design B. progress C. construction D. work

15. - Daisy: “What a lovely house you have!” - Mary: “_______________.”

A. Lovely, I think so B. Thank you. Hope you will drop in

C. Of course not, it’s not costly D. No problem

16. We were shocked to hear the news of your ________.

A. having fired B. being fired C. having been fired D. to have been fired

17. _______ as taste is really a composite sense made up of both taste and smell.

A. That we refer to B. What we refer to

C. To which we refer D. What do we refer to

18. They are happily married although, of course, they argue _______.

A. most times B. from day to day

C. every now and then D. on the occasion

19. I don’t know French, but I’ll ________.

A. get Tom to translate it B. have it translate

C. have Tom to translate it D. make it translate

20. Doctors advise people who are deficient __________ vitamin C to eat more fruit and vegetables.

A. from B. of C. in D. for

II. Use the word in capitals at the end of these sentences to form a word that fits in the blank space. (10
points)

1. The main goals of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are to promote peace and________ in the
region.
STABLE

2. The security of the earth can be threatened by________ groups.

TERROR

3. I don’t care if you had had too much to drink. Your behaviour last night was______.
DEFEND

4. Her son is always mischievous and________ which annoys her very much.
OBEY

5. The Americans are much more concerned than the Indians and the Chinese with physical________ when
choosing a wife or a husband.
ATTRACT

6. You can never be sure what my sister is going to do. She is so________.
PREDICT

7. He is completely________. Not only is he lazy but he is dishonest too.

EMPLOY

8. His boss told him off because he had behaved________ RESPONSIBLE

9. He won the discus event at the Olympic Games but was later________ when a medical check proved that
he had been taking drugs.
QUALIFY

10. The trouble with Mr. Brown is that he’s so________. One minute he goes mad when you come late; the
next he says nothing. You never know where you are!
CONSIST

III. Find one mistake in each sentence below by choosing the letter A, B, C or D. (10 pts)?

1. Jill mustn’t have arrived yet, otherwise she would have phoned me
A B C D
2. Not many people realize that apples have been cultivating for over 3,000 years
A B C D
3. The building manager is having all the windows and doors replace on the second and third floor as well as
in the restaurant A B
C D

4. Having live here for seven years, my friend is used to speaking English with all her classmates.
A B C D

5. If only we knew all this information about the market many weeks ago
A B C D

6. Peter apologized me for not working hard for the final exam.

A B C D

7. John had so interesting and creative plans that everyone wanted to work with him.

A B C D

8. Species become extinct or endangered for the number of reasons, but the primary cause
A B C
is the destruction of habitat by human activities .
D
9. Were she be invite to their wedding nniversary, she would be very happy .
A B C D
10. Not until the end of prehistoric times that did the first wheeled vehicles appear.
A B C D

SECTION B: READING (40 POINTS)

I. Read the text below and fill in each blank with ONE suitable word. (10 pts)

TSUNAMI IN JAPAN

Japan's most powerful earthquake since records began has struck the north-east coast,triggering a massive
tsunami. Cars, ships and buildings were (1)________ away by a wall ofwater after the 8.9 - magnitude tremor,
which struck about 400 kms (250 miles) north-east ofTokyo. A state of emergency has been declared at a
nuclear power plant, (2)________pressure has exceeded normal levels. Officials say more than 10,000 people
are dead and about 5,000 (3)________, but it is feared the final death toll will be (4)________ higher. Inone
ward alone in Sendai, a port city in Miyagi prefecture, 200 to 300 bodies were found.“The quake has been the
fifth-largest in the world (5)________ 1900 and nearly 8,000(6)________ stronger than the one which
devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month”, said scientists. Thousands of people (7)________ near the
Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate. Japanese nuclear officials said that
pressureinside a boiling water reactor at the plant was running much higher than normal after the cooling
system failed. Officials said they might need to deliberately (8)________ some radioactive steam to relieve
pressure, but that there would be no health risk. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier said the US
Air Force had flown emergency coolant to the site. But US officials later said (9)________ coolant had been
handed over because the Japanese had decided to handle the situation (10)________.The UN's nuclear agency
said four nuclear power plants had been shut down safely.

1._____________ 2._____________ 3._____________ 4._____________

5.____________ 6._____________ 7._____________ 8._____________

9._____________ 10.____________

II. Read the passage and choose the best option for each of the following blanks. (10 pts)

Women nowadays have more (1)________ than those in the past. For example, ourgreat grandmothers were
not allowed to go to school or to work to earn their own living.(2)________, they had to depend on their
husbands financially. Modern women, on thecontrary, can get good education, have their own careers, and
(3)________ their interests.They can even take good positions in politics if they are competent (4)________ it.
However,women living in our modern society have their (5)________ too. Today women work harderthan
their great grandmothers so that they can gain the (6)________ between working lifeand family life. Many
people predict that by 2032, most (7)________ positions at work willbe taken by women. Then, it is possible
that women will have more (8)________ life because, (9)________ in a very modern society, the women can’t
(10)________ their role inthe family.

1. A. advances B. advantages C. benefits D. conveniences

2. A. Therefore B. However C. As a result D. Although

3. A. pursue B. support C. promote D. stimulate

4. A. to B. at C. with D. of

5. A. obstacles B. disputes C. profits D. problems

6. A. equality B. stables C. balance D. steadiness

7. A. senior B. junior C. inferior D. superior

8. A. sheltered B. healthy C. strenuous D. active

9. A. though B. even C. ever D. never

10. A. perform B. adopt C. fulfill D. neglect

III. Read the following passage and choose the option that indicates the correct answer to each of the
following questions.(10 pts)

Over the past 600 years, English has grown from a language of few speakers to become the dominant language
of international communication. English as we know it today emerged around 1350, after having
incorporated many elements of French that were introduced following the Norman invasion of 1066. Until
the 1600s, English was, for the most part, spoken only in England and had not extended even as far as Wales,
Scotland, or Ireland. However, during the course of the next two centuries, English began to spread around the
globe as a result of exploration, trade (including slave trade), colonization, and missionary work. That small
enslaves of English speakers became established and grew in various parts of the world. As these
communities proliferated, English gradually became the primary language of international business,
banking, and diplomacy. Currently, more than 80 percent of the information stored on computer systems
worldwide is in English. Two thirds of the world‟s science writing is in English, and English is the main
language of technology, advertising, media, international airports, and air traffic controllers. Today there are
700 million English users in the world, and over half of these are nonnative speakers, constituting the largest
number of nonnative users of any language in the world.

1. What is the main topic of the passage?

A. The number of non-native users of English.

B. The French influence on the English language.

C. The expansion of English as an international language.

D. The use of English for science and technology.

2. English began to be used beyond England approximately.............................

A. in 1066 B. around 1350 C. before 1600 D. after 1600

3. According to the passage, all of the following contributed to the spread of English around the world
EXCEPT .....................................

A. the slave trade B. the Norman invasion C. missionaries. D. colonization

4. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. Most of the information stored on computer systems is in English.

B. Only one thirds of the world‟s science writing is in languages other than English.

C. English is the only language used in technology, and advertising.

D. International airports and air controllers use mostly English.

5. According to the passage, approximately how many non-native users of English are there in the world today?

A. A quarter million B. Half a million C. 350 million D. 700 million.

Sustainable architecture - lessons from the ant

Termite mounds were the inspiration for an innovative design in sustainable living

Africa owes its termite mounds a lot. Trees and shrubs take root in them. Prospectors mine them, looking for
specks of gold carried up by termites from hundreds of metres below. And of course, they are a special treat to
aardvarks and other insectivores.

Now, Africa is paying an offbeat tribute to these towers of mud. The extraordinary Eastgate Building in
Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city, is said to be the only one in the world to use the same cooling and heating
principles as the termite mound.
Termites in Zimbabwe build gigantic mounds inside which they farm a fungus that is their primary food
source. This must be kept at exactly 30.5°C, while the temperatures on the African veld outside can range
from 1.5°C at night- only just above freezing - to a baking hot 40°C during the day. The termites achieve this
remarkable feat by building a system of vents in the mound. Those at the base lead down into chambers cooled
by wet mud carried up from water tables far below, and others lead up through a flue to the peak of the mound.
By constantly opening and closing these heating and cooling vents over the course of the day the termites
succeed in keeping the temperature constant in spite of the wide fluctuations outside.

Architect Mick Pearce used precisely the same strategy when designing the Eastgate Building, which has no
air conditioning and virtually no heating. The building - the country's largest commercial and shopping
complex - uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size. These efficiencies translated
directly to the bottom line: the Eastgate's owners saved $3.5 million on a $36 million building because an
air-conditioning plant didn't have to be imported. These savings were also passed on to tenants: rents are 20%
lower than in a new building next door.

The complex is actually two buildings linked by bridges across a shady, glass-roofed atrium open to the
breezes. Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and
from there into each office through baseboard vents. As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents
and finally exits through forty-eight brick chimneys.

To keep the harsh, high veld sun from heating the interior, no more than 25% of the outside is glass, and all
the windows are screened by cement arches that jut out more than a metre.

During summer's cool nights, big fans flush air through the building seven times an hour to chill the hollow
floors. By day, smaller fans blow two changes of air an hour through the building, to circulate the air which
has been in contact with the cool floors. For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents.

This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little humidity and
rapid temperature swings - days as warm as 31°C commonly drop to 14°C at night. 'You couldn't do this in
New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters,' Pearce said. But then his eyes lit
up at the challenge. 'Perhaps you could store the summer's heat in water somehow .... '

The engineering firm of Ove Arup & Partners, which worked with him on the design, monitors daily
temperatures outside, under the floors and at knee, desk and ceiling level. Ove Arup's graphs show that the
temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23°C and 25°C, with the exception of the annual hot
spell just before the summer rains in October, and three days in November, when a janitor accidentally
switched off the fans at night. The atrium, which funnels the winds through, can be much cooler. And the air is
fresh - far more so than in air-conditioned buildings, where up to 30% of the air is recycled.

Pearce, disdaining smooth glass skins as 'igloos in the Sahara', calls his building, with its exposed girders and
pipes, 'spiky'. The design of the entrances is based on the porcupine-quill headdresses of the local Shona tribe.
Elevators are designed to look like the mineshaft cages used in Zimbabwe's diamond mines. The shape of the
fan covers, and the stone used in their construction, are echoes of Great Zimbabwe, the ruins that give the
country its name.

Standing on a roof catwalk, peering down inside at people as small as termites below, Pearce said he hoped
plants would grow wild in the atrium and pigeons and bats would move into it, like that termite fungus, further
extending the whole 'organic machine' metaphor. The architecture, he says, is a regionalised style that
responds to the biosphere, to the ancient traditional stone architecture of Zimbabwe's past, and to local human
resources.

Choose the correct answer, A, B, C or D.

1 Why do termite mounds have a system of vents?

 A to allow the termites to escape from predators B to enable the termites to produce food

C to allow the termites to work efficiently D to enable the termites to survive at night

2 Why was Eastgate cheaper to build than a conventional building?

A Very few materials were imported. B Its energy consumption was so low.

C Its tenants contributed to the costs. D No air conditioners were needed.

3 Why would a building like Eastgate not work efficiently in New York?

A Temperature change occurs seasonally rather than daily.

B Pollution affects the storage of heat in the atmosphere.

C Summer and winter temperatures are too extreme.

D Levels of humidity affect cloud coverage.

4 What does Ove Arup's data suggest about Eastgate's temperature control system?

A It allows a relatively wide range of temperatures. B The only problems are due to human error.

C It functions well for most of the year. D The temperature in the atrium may fall too low.

5 Pearce believes that his building would be improved by

A becoming more of a habitat for wildlife. B even closer links with the history of Zimbabwe.

C giving people more space to interact with nature. D better protection from harmful organisms.

The accidental rainforest

According to ecological theory, rainforests are supposed to develop slowly over millions of years. But now
ecologists are being forced to reconsider their ideas

When Peter Osbeck, a Swedish priest, stopped off at the mid-Atlantic island of Ascension in 1752 on his way
home from China, he wrote of 'a heap of ruinous rocks' with a bare, white mountain in the middle. All it
boasted was a couple of dozen species of plant, most of them ferns and some of them unique to the island.

And so it might have remained. But in 1843 British plant collector Joseph Hooker made a brief call on his
return from Antarctica. Surveying the bare earth, he concluded that the island had suffered some natural
calamity that had denuded it of vegetation and triggered a decline in rainfall that was turning the place into a
desert. The British Navy, which by then maintained a garrison on the island, was keen to improve the place
and asked Hooker's advice. He suggested an ambitious scheme for planting trees and shrubs that would revive
rainfall and stimulate a wider ecological recovery. And, perhaps lacking anything else to do, the sailors set to
with a will.

In 1845, a naval transport ship from Argentina delivered a batch of seedlings. In the following years, more
than 200 species of plant arrived from South Africa. From England came 700 packets of seeds, including those
of two species that especially liked the place: bamboo and prickly pear. With sailors planting several thousand
trees a year, the bare white mountain was soon cloaked in green and renamed Green Mountain, and by the
early twentieth century the mountain's slopes were covered with a variety of trees and shrubs from all over the
world.

Modern ecologists throw up their hands in horror at what they see as Hooker's environmental anarchy. The
exotic species wrecked the indigenous ecosystem, squeezing out the island's endemic plants. In fact, Hooker
knew well enough what might happen. However, he saw greater benefit in improving rainfall and encouraging
more prolific vegetation on the island.

But there is a much deeper issue here than the relative benefits of sparse endemic species versus luxuriant
imported ones. And as botanist David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK pointed out
after a recent visit to the island, it goes to the heart of some of the most dearly held tenets of ecology.
Conservationists' understandable concern for the fate of Ascension's handful of unique species has, he says,
blinded them to something quite astonishing - the fact that the introduced species have been a roaring success.

Today's Green Mountain, says Wilkinson, is 'a fully functioning man-made tropical cloud forest' that has
grown from scratch from a ragbag of species collected more or less at random from all over the planet. But
how could it have happened? Conventional ecological theory says that complex ecosystems such as cloud
forests can emerge only through evolutionary processes in which each organism develops in concert with
others to fill particular niches. Plants co-evolve with their pollinators and seed dispersers, while microbes in
the soil evolve to deal with the leaf litter.

But that's not what happened on Green Mountain. And the experience suggests that perhaps natural rainforests
are constructed far more by chance than by evolution. Species, say some ecologists, don't so much evolve to
create ecosystems as make the best of what they have. 'The Green Mountain system is a man-made system that
has produced a tropical rainforest without any co-evolution between its constituent species,' says Wilkinson.

Not everyone agrees. Alan Gray, an ecologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, argues that the
surviving endemic species on Green Mountain, though small in number, may still form the framework of the
new ecosystem. The new arrivals may just be an adornment, with little structural importance for the ecosystem.

But to Wilkinson this sounds like clutching at straws. And the idea of the instant formation of rainforests
sounds increasingly plausible as research reveals that supposedly pristine tropical rainforests from the Amazon
to south-east Asia may in places be little more than the overgrown gardens of past rainforest civilisations.

The most surprising thing of all is that no ecologists have thought to conduct proper research into this human-
made rainforest ecosystem. A survey of the island's flora conducted six years ago by the University of
Edinburgh was concerned only with endemic species. They characterised everything else as a threat. And the
Ascension authorities are currently turning Green Mountain into a national park where introduced species, at
least the invasive ones, are earmarked for culling rather than conservation.

Conservationists have understandable concerns, Wilkinson says. At least four endemic species have gone
extinct on Ascension since the exotics started arriving. But in their urgency to protect endemics, ecologists are
missing out on the study of a great enigma.

'As you walk through the forest, you see lots of leaves that have had chunks taken out of them by various
insects. There are caterpillars and beetles around,' says Wilkinson. 'But where did they come from? Are they
endemic or alien? If alien, did they come with the plant on which they feed or discover it on arrival?' Such
questions go to the heart of how rainforests happen.

The Green Mountain forest holds many secrets. And the irony is that the most artificial rainforest in the world
could tell us more about rainforest ecology than any number of natural forests.

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 1-6 on your
answer sheet write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1 When Peter Osbeck visited Ascension, he found no inhabitants on the island.

2 The natural vegetation on the island contained some species which were found nowhere else.

3 Joseph Hooker assumed that human activity had caused the decline in the island's plant life.

4 British sailors on the island took part in a major tree planting project.

5 Hooker sent details of his planting scheme to a number of different countries.

6 The bamboo and prickly pear seeds sent from England were unsuitable for Ascension.

Complete each sentence with the correct ending A-G from the box below.

Write the correct letter A-G in boxes 7-10 on your answer sheet.

7 The reason for modern conservationists' concern over Hooker's tree planting programme is that

8 David Wilkinson says the creation of the rainforest in Ascension is important because it shows that

9 Wilkinson says the existence of Ascension's rainforest challenges the theory that

10 Alan Gray questions Wilkinson's theory, claiming that

A other rainforests may have originally been planted by man.

B many of the island's original species were threatened with destruction.

C the species in the original rainforest were more successful than the newer arrivals.

D rainforests can only develop through a process of slow and complex evolution.

E steps should be taken to prevent the destruction of the original ecosystem.

F randomly introduced species can coexist together.

G the introduced species may have less ecological significance than the original ones.

SECTION C: WRITING (20 POINTS)

I. Finish the second sentence in such a way that it means exactly the same as the sentence printed before it.
(10 pts)

1. I am sure it wasn’t Mrs. Brown you saw yesterday because she had gone abroad.
It can’t
2. Some scientists report that dolphins have a brain capacity larger than human beings’

Dolphins are
3. They think that someone started the fire on purpose

The fire is
4. After Louie had written his composition, he handed it to his teacher.
Having
5. If only I had studied hard enough to pass the final exam.
I regret
6. John speaks Chinese fluently because he used to live in China for ten years.
Had

7. "How beautiful is the dress you have just bought!" Peter said to Mary.
Peter
8. "You’re always making terrible mistakes," said the teacher.
The teacher

9. Sue is too slow to understand what you might say.

So

10. Although it was expected that he would stand for election, he didn’t.

Contrary to

II. Write a new sentence similar in meaning to the given one, using the word given in the brackets. Do not
alter the word in any way. (10 pts)

1. You looked tired. Why don’t you go to bed early tonight? (better)

You ___________________________________________you looked tired.

2. Zoe has a job which makes her feel very stressful. (less)

Zoe _____________________________________________ job.

3. Simon wants to be left alone because he’s upset. (rather)

Simon _________________________________________ he’s upset.

4. He’d rather eat with friends than eat alone.. ( prefers)

He ____________________________________________ alone.

5. He is too irresponsible to run the department. (charge)

He is __________________________________________

6. His arrival was completely unexpected. (took)

His arrival ______________________________________

7. If I help you now, don’t assume I’ll help you next time.(count)

If I help you now, ________________________________ next time.

8. He owes his life to that surgeon. (indebted)

He ____________________________________________________ life

9. Don’t pay any attention when she complains. (notice)

Don’t ___________________________________________________

10. A rejection of their offer would have been unwise. (accepted)

Not _____________________________________________________ unwise.