12 Aug 2022 PRACTICE TEST 21 – ESC 20

A. LISTENING (50 points):

Part 1: Listen and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER
Belluci’s Restaurant
Sam’s suggestions Tomato bread with herbs
Would go best with Lasagna: (2) __________with____________
(1) ______________________
Greek salad
Other side dishes that Sam mentions:
CUSTOMER DETAILS
Booking made on: 5th August
Date when customers will be at the restaurant: (3) ______________________
Time: 7:00 pm
Number of people: (4) ______________________
Email address: (5) ___________@___________.com
Customer phone number: 014453336451
Part 2: Choose the option which fits best to what you hear.
1. The speaker’s job requires
A. a great deal of walking
B. extensive travel
C. clean water
2. Why is this story being told?
A. to promote Charity-Water
B. for entertainment purposes
C. to encourage Helen
3. When villagers heard of the charity workers’ arrival, they
A. had a party
B. were suspicious
C. took no notice
4. Helen is feeling

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A. ecstatic about her new life
B. curious about the charity workers
C. nostalgic about her old life
5. What did the speaker notice about Helen?
A. that she had bathed recently
B. the care that she took with her appearance
C. that she was wearing a green uniform
Part 3: True (T) or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.

1. A powerful earthquake jolted New Zealand after a midnight.

2. Earthquakes in New Zealand are massive.

3. Christchurch is home to 340,000 people.

4. The highest tsunami waves in New Zealand were eight-feet tall.

5. There are numerous volcanic and earthquake activities in Pacific Ocean's Ring of

Part 4: NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.

The objective of parkour is to get over such obstacles as trees, (1) ____________ and
walls.
Kate says that parkour combines cross- country running with (2) ____________.
In order to join a parkour club, it is necessary to have a good (3) ____________ and to
be fit.
Kate says that (4) ____________ is a problem for her in some situations.
When she is in town, Kate looks at (5) ____________ and courtyards as possible places
to do parkour.
Parkour enthusiasts do not generally (6) ____________ with people when they are told
to stop.
Kate and a professor are studying different techniques of (7) ____________ that are
used in parkour.
If Kate teaches parkour in the college, there could be a problem with (8)
____________.
Kate has been in Los Angeles doing parkour for an advertisement for a (9)
____________.

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A company that makes (10) ____________ may provide Kate’s club with funding.
B. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (50 points)
Part 1. Choose the best option A, B, C, or D

1. According to the _____ of the contract, tenants must give six months’ notice if they
intend to live.

A. laws B. rules C. terms D. details

2. No one could contemplate fame these days without knowing beforehand of its _____.
a. laisez-faire B. outburst C. insight D. downside

3. Books taken from the short _____ section are due to be returned the next day.

A. borrowing B. credit C. loan D. return

4. She was so undisciplined and disobedient that, as the manager, I just had to put my
_____ down.

A. stamp B. shoe C. fist D. foot

5. When Wilson’s company was hit by the recession, he decided to take early _____.

A. redundancy B. retirement C. resignation D. redeployment

6. I am sure your husband-to-be will lend you a _____ ear when you explain the
situation to him.

A. merciful B. compassionate C. pitiful D. sympathetic

7. The whereabouts of the exiled president remains a _____ guarded secret.

A. highly B. closely C. deeply D. entirely

8. It’s a shame to fall out so badly with your own _____.

A. heart to heart B. flesh and blood C. heart and soul D. skin and bone

9. Life’s very easy for you. You were born with a _____ spoon in your mouth.

A. silver B. golden C. bronze D. diamond

10. There has been a lot of _____ surrounding the government’s proposed scheme.

A. controversy B. consent C. conformity D. consequence

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11. You can’t bury your head _____ and hope that this problem goes away, you know.

A. in the mud B. in the pool C. in the sand D. in the water

12. Fiona’s offered to help you. Don’t ask why – never look a gift _____ in the mouth.

A. horse B. cow C. deer D. dog

13. Sandra’s unpleasant _____ suggested that she knew about Amanda’s terrible secret.

A. grimace B. smirk C. wince D. snort

14. Few people can do creative work unless they are in the right _____ of mind.
A. frame B. trend C. attitude D. tendency

15. He was arrested for trying to pass _____ notes at the bank.

A. camouflaged B. fake C. counterfeit D. fraudulent

16. This fabric has the _____ of silk but it’s very cheap.

A. stroke B. substance C. friction D. texture

17. I threw some biscuit _____ on the ground and a whole load of pigeons swooped
down and started eating them.

A. grains B. specks C. flakes D. crumbs

18. The insects looked and tasted so horrible, I _____ with disgust as I tried to force
them down.

A. gloated B. grinned C. grimaced D. chuckled

19. Going down white-water rapids in a canoe must be extremely _____! Does your
heart start beating really fast?

A. trivial B. mundane C. sedentary D. exhilarating

20. Was it always an _____ of yours to play for France?

A. urge B. adoration C. anticipation D. aspiration

Part 2. Read the passage below which contains 10 mistakes.

Example: Line 1: industrial  industry

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Although the music industrial developed over several decades, popular music drew
ethnomusicologists’ attention by the 90s because a standardizing effective began to
develop. The corporate nature surrounding popular music streamlined it into a
framework that focused on slight deviations from the accepted norm, create what
Adorno calls “pseudo-individualism”; what the public would perceive as unique or
organic would musically comply with standard, established music conventions. Thus, a
duality emerged from this standardization, an industry-driven manipulation of the
public’s tastes to give people what they want while simultaneous guiding them to it. In
the case of rock music, while the genre may have grown out of politicized forces and
other form of meaningful motivation, the corporate influence over popular music
became integral to its identity that directing public taste became increasingly
easier. Technological development allowed for easy dispersion of western music,
causing the dominance of western music into rural and urbanized areas across the globe.
However, because popular music assumes so a corporatized role and therefore remains
subject to a large degree of standardized, ambiguity exists whether the music reflects
actual cultural values or those only of the corporate sector seeking economic profit.
Because popular music developed such a dependent relationship to media and the
corporations surrounding it, where record sales and profit indirectly shaped musical
decisions, the superstar person became an important element of popular music. From
the fame and economical success surrounding such superstars, subcultures continued to
arise, such as the rock and punk movements, only perpetuated by the corporate machine
that also shaped the musical aspect of popular music.
Part 3. Complete each sentence with one suitable particle or preposition.
1. It’s not fair. You’re always picking _____ me.
2. You look very guilty. What have you been getting _____ _____?
3. My parents are not interrupted in modern music. They are _____ the times.
4. At that time they were poor, and they went _____ a difficult time.
5. He gained ascendancy _____ all his main rivals.
6. We have to go _____ our work right now, or we won’t finish it on time.
7. The two trains came _____ ten metres of collision.
8. The skyscraper stands out _____ the blue sky.

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9. I got _____ the Arts Faculty at the University of London to study history.
10. As the detective stories become popular once again, the publishing house decides to
bring _____ a new edition of Christie’s work.
Part 4. Write the correct form of the words given in the brackets.
BECOMING A PARENT
Very little in our lives prepares us for __PARENTHOOD___ (1. parent).
Suddenly, your life is turned upside down and all sorts of __UNFAMILIAR___ (2.
familiar) demands are replaced on you. How we ourselves were treated by our parents
in our __YOUTH___ (3. young) can have an __APPRECIABLE___ (4. appreciate)
effect on who we become as parents. Our own __OBSERAVTION___ (5. observe) of
how our parents responded to us creates a model of parenting that is _INTIMATELY
=> Một cách thân mật, một cách thân thiết (adverb) (6. intimate) connected to
the kind of parents we become. It’s not uncommon for people to show the same child-
rearing _CHARACTERISTICS____ (7. character) as their own parents. If your father
was an __UNSYMPATHETIC___ (8. sympathy) figure who always seemed too busy
to care about how you felt, then there’s a chance you will repeat the same behavior. If
your mother was utterly _SELFLESS____ (9. self) in her devotion to her children,
there’s a chance that you too will be equally giving and do all that is _HUMANLY____
(10. human) possible for your offspring.
C. READING (60 points)
Part 1. Read the following passage and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D)
Promoting children’s self-esteem seems to be one of the aims of modern childcare and
education. It goes (1) _______ with a culture in which children are (2) _______ for the
most minor achievements. While this promotion of self-esteem is, rightly, a reaction
against (3) _______ times when children weren’t praised enough, it also seems to be (4)
_______ a fear of how failure will affect children: a fear that if they don’t succeed at a
task, they will somehow be damaged.
However, the opposite may well be true. Many scientists spend years experiencing (5)
_______ failure in the lab until they make a breakthrough. They know that ultimately
this process advances scientific knowledge. (6) _______, children need to experience

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failure to learn and grow. If children have been praised for everything they’ve done,
regardless of how good it is, then failure in adult life will be all the more painful.
Life is full of (7) _______ and there is no point in trying to protect children from the
disappointments that (8) _______ them. Parents and educators shouldn’t be afraid of
picking up on children’s mistakes, as long as they also praise them when they do well.
After all, the heroes children try to (9) _______ the pop stars and footballers, have all
reached the top (10) _______ruthless competition. Like them, children need to learn
how to cope with failure and turn it to their advantage.
1. A. cap in hand B. hand in hand C. to show D. without saying
2. A. enthusiastically B. devotedly C. immensely D. thoroughly
3. A. grimmer B. more unrelenting C. more unsparing D. sterner
4. A. consequent upon B. owing to C. culminated in D. resulted from
5. A. concurrent B. consequent C. consecutive D. continual
6. A. All the same B. By the same token C. In like manner D. In similar fashion
7. A. flies in the ointmentB. obstacle courses
C. spanners in the works D. stumbling blocks
8. A. put great store by B. lie in wait for C. hold in store for D. wait up for
9. A. duplicate B. emulate C. replicate D. stimulate
10. A. in the face of B. in the teeth of C. irrespective of D. without regard to
Your answer:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Part 2. Read the following text and fill in the blank with ONE suitable word.
The majority of lottery winners change their lives (1) _______ little, and continue on
their settled way happy ever after. A couple of years ago, a Mr. David won a million.
He had been struggling to (2) _______ a success of his dry cleaning shop for the past 12
months. He accepted his cheque in a small ceremony (3) _______ the premises at 2.30,
and by three o’clock he had reopened for business. The reaction of Mr. Pasquale
Consalvo who won $30 million in the New York state lottery was very (4) _______.He
was unhappy not to be able to fulfill his desire to go to work as (5) _______ on the day

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he won. He also said that if the money made him (6) _______ he would give it back. In
fact, the chances of his life being made a misery by his new-found wealth are almost (7)
_______ slim though not quite as the sixty million-to-one odds he beat to take a jackpot
(8) _______ had remained unclaimed through six previous draws. Gambling small
amounts (9) _______ the lottery is a harmless if futile hobby. (10) _______, gambling
can become an addition, increasingly so as the activity becomes socially acceptable.
Part 3. Read the following passage and circle the best answer.
The first scientific attempt at coaxing moisture from a cloud was in 1946, when
scientist Vincent Schaefer dropped 3 pounds of dry ice from an airplane into a cloud
and, to his delight, produced snow. The success of the experiment was modest, but it
spawned optimism among farmers and ranchers around the country. It seemed to them
that science had finally triumphed over weather.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Although there were many cloud-
seeding operations, during the late 1940s and the 1950s, no one could say whether they
had any effect on precipitation. Cloud seeding, or weather modification as it came to be
called, was dearly more complicated than had been thought. It was not until the early
1970s that enough experiments had been done to understand the processes involved.
What these studies indicated was that only certain types of clouds are amenable to
seeding. One of the most responsive is the winter orographic cloud, formed when air
currents encounter a mountain slope and rise. If the temperature in such a cloud is right,
seeding can increase snow yield by 10 to 20 percent.
There are two major methods of weather modification. In one method, silver iodide
is burned in propane-fired ground generators. The smoke rises into the clouds where the
tiny silver-iodide particles act as nuclei for the formation of ice crystals. The alternate
system uses airplanes to deliver dry-ice pellets. Dry ice does not provide ice-forming
nuclei. Instead, it lowers the temperature near the water droplets in the clouds so that
they freeze instantly—a process called spontaneous nucleation. Seeding from aircraft is
more efficient but also more expensive.
About 75 percent of all weather modification in the United States takes place in the
Western states. With the population of the West growing rapidly, few regions of the
world require more water. About 85 percent of the waters in the rivers of the West

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comes from melted snow. As one expert put it, the water problems of the future may
make the energy problems of the 70s seem like child’s play to solve. That’s why the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, along with state governments, municipal water districts,
and private interests such as ski areas and agricultural cooperatives, is putting increased
effort into cloud-seeding efforts. Without consistent and heavy snowfalls in the Rockies
and Sierras, the West would literally dry up. The most intensive efforts to produce
precipitation was during the West’s disastrous snow drought of 1976-77. It is
impossible to judge the efficiency of weather modification based on one crash program,
but most experts think that such hurry-up programs are not very effective.
1. What is the main subject of the passage?
A. The scientific contributions of Vincent Schaefer
B. Developments in methods of increasing precipitation
C. The process by which snow crystals form
D. The effects of cloud seeding
2. The word spawned in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _____.
A. intensified B. reduced C. preceded D. created
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage about the term weather
modification?
A. It is not as old as the term cloud seeding.
B. It has been in use since at least 1946.
C. It refers to only one type of cloud seeding.
D. It was first used by Vincent Schaefer.
4. According to the passage, winter orographic clouds are formed _____.
A.on relatively warm winter days
B. over large bodies of water
C. during intense snow storms
D. when air currents rise over mountains
5. To which of the following does the word they in paragraph 3 refer?
A.Water droplets B. Clouds C. Ice-forming nuclei D. Airplanes
6. When clouds are seeded from the ground, what actually causes ice crystals to form?
A.Propane B. Silver-iodide smoke

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 C. Dry-ice pellets D. Nuclear radiation
7. Clouds would most likely be seeded from airplanes when _____.
A. it is important to save money
B. the process of spontaneous nucleation cannot be employed
C. the production of precipitation must be efficient
D. temperatures are lower than usual
8. What does the author imply about the energy problems of the 1970s?
A. They were caused by a lack of water.
B. They took attention away from water problems.
C. They may not be as critical as water problems will be in the future.
D. They were thought to be minor at the time but turned out to be serious.
9. The author mentions agricultural cooperatives (paragraph 4) as an example of _____.
A. state government agencies
B. private interests
C. organizations that compete with ski areas for water
D. municipal water districts
10. It can be inferred from, the passage that the weather-modification project of 1976-77
was _____.

A. put together quickly B. a complete failure

C. not necessary D. easy to evaluate
Part 4. Read the following text and do the tasks that follow.

A. The modern world is increasingly populated by quasi-intelligent gizmos whose

presence we barely notice but whose creeping ubiquity has removed much human
drudgery. Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms. Our banking is done
at automated teller terminals that thank us with rote politeness for the transaction. Our
subway trains are controlled by tireless robot-drivers. Our mine shafts are dug by
automated moles, and our nuclear accidents-such as those at Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl-are cleaned up by robotic muckers fit to withstand radiation.

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Such is the scope of uses envisioned by Karel Capek, the Czech playwright who coined
the term 'robot' in 1920 (the word 'robota' means 'forced labor' in Czech). As progress
accelerates, the experimental becomes the exploitable at record pace.

B. Other innovations promise to extend the abilities of human operators. Thanks to the
incessant miniaturization of electronics and micromechanics, there are already robot
systems that can perform some kinds of brain and bone surgery with sub millimeter
accuracy-far greater precision than highly skilled physicians can achieve with their
hands alone. At the same time, techniques of long-distance control will keep people
even farther from hazard. In 1994 a ten- foot-tall NASA robotic explorer called Dante,
with video-camera eyes and with spiderlike legs, scrambled over the menacing rim of
an Alaskan volcano while technicians 2,000 miles away in California watched the scene
by satellite and controlled Dante's descent.

C. But if robots are to reach the next stage of labour-saving utility, they will have to
operate with less human supervision and be able to make at least a few decisions for
themselves-goals that pose a formidable challenge, 'while we know how to tell a robot
to handle a specific error,' says one expert, we can't yet give a robot enough common
sense to reliably interact with a dynamic world.' Indeed the quest for true artificial
intelligence (AI) has produced very mixed results. Despite a spasm of initial optimism
in the 1960s and 1970s, when it appeared that transistor circuits and microprocessors
might be able to perform in the same way as the human brain by the 21 st century,
researchers lately have extended their forecasts by decades if not centuries.

D. What they found, in attempting to model thought, is that the human brain's roughly
one hundred billion neurons are much more talented-and human perception far more
complicated-than previously imagined. They have built robots that can recognize the
misalignment of a machine panel by a fraction of a millimeter in a controlled factory
environment. But the human mind can glimpse a rapidly changing scene and
immediately disregard the 98 per cent that is irrelevant, instantaneously focusing on the
woodchuck at the side of a winding forest road or the single suspicious face in a
tumultuous crowd. The most advanced computer systems on Earth can't approach that
kind of ability, and neuroscientists still don't know quite how we do it.

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E. Nonetheless, as information theorists, neuroscientists, and computer experts pool
their talents, they are finding ways to get some lifelike intelligence from robots. One
method renounces the linear, logical structure of conventional electronic circuits in
favour of the messy, ad hoc arrangement of a real brain's neurons. These 'neural
networks' do not have to be programmed. They can 'teach' themselves by a system of
feedback signals that reinforce electrical pathways that produced correct responses and,
conversely, wipe out connections that produced errors. Eventually the net wires itself
into a system that can pronounce certain words or distinguish certain shapes.

F. In other areas researchers are struggling to fashion a more natural relationship

between people and robots in the expectation that someday machines will take on some
tasks now done by humans in, say, nursing homes. This is particularly important in
Japan, where the percentage of elderly citizens is rapidly increasing. So experiments at
the Science University of Tokyo have created a 'face robot' -a life-size, soft plastic
model of a female head with a video camera imbedded in the left eye-as a prototype.
The researchers' goal is to create robots that people feel comfortable around. They are
concentrating on the face because they believe facial expressions are the most important
way to transfer emotional messages. We read those messages by interpreting
expressions to decide whether a person is happy, frightened, angry, or nervous. Thus the
Japanese robot is designed to detect emotions in the person it is 'looking at' by sensing
changes in the spatial arrangement of the person's eyes, nose, eyebrows, and mouth. It
compares those configurations with a database of standard facial expressions and
guesses the emotion. The robot then uses an ensemble of tiny pressure pads to adjust its
plastic face into an appropriate emotional response.

G. Other labs are taking a different approach, one that doesn’t try to mimic human
intelligence or emotions. Just as computer design has moved away from one central
mainframe in favour of myriad individual workstations- and single processors have
been replaced by arrays of smaller units that break a big problem into parts that are
solved simultaneously- many experts are now investigating whether swarms of semi-
smart robots can generate a collective intelligence that is greater than the sum of its
parts. That’s what beehives and ant colonies do, and several teams are betting that

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legions of mini-critters working together like an ant colony could be sent to explore the
climate of planets or to inspect pipes in dangerous industrial situations.

For questions 1-7, choose the correct heading for paragraphs A- G.

List of headings

i. Some success has resulted from observing how the brain functions.

ii. Are we expecting too much from one robot?

iii. Scientists are examining the humanistic possibilities.

iv. There are judgments that robots cannot make.

v. Has the power of robots become too great?

vi. Human skills have been heightened with the help of robotics.

vii. There are some things we prefer the brain to control.

viii. Robots have quietly infiltrated our lives.

ix. Original predictions have been revised.

x. Another approach meets the same result.

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For question 8-10, complete the summary below with words taken from the passage.
Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

The prototype of the Japanese “face robot” observes humans through a (8)
____________ which is planted in its head. It then refers to a (9) ____________ of
typical “looks” that the human face can have, to decide what emotion the person is
feeling. To respond to this expression, the robot alters its own expression using a
number of (10) ____________.

D. WRITING (40 points)

Part 1. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.

1. I don’t know why Fred made such an extraordinary decision. (prompted)

=> I don’t know _________________________________________ a decision.

2. Inefficient treatment of customers creates a bad impression of the company. (reflects)

=> Treating customers with a lack ______________________________________ the

company.

3. The organizers planned everything as carefully as they could possibly have done.
(utmost)

=> Everything was planned _______________________________________ by the

organizers.

4. Coming second didn’t make her feel any better because she only wanted to win.
(consolation)

=> Coming second _______________________________________ was all that

mattered to her.

5. I promised him that the situation would not be repeated in the future. (word)

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=> I ____________________________________ no repetition of the situation in the
future.

Part 2. Finish each of the following sentences.

1. The inhabitants were far worse-off twenty years ago than they are now.
=> The inhabitants are nowhere ________________________________.
2. The chairman’s leaving just before you’re due to arrive.
=> By the _________________________________________________
3. It was difficult to understand her colleagues’ open hostility towards her proposal.
=> That her colleagues ________________________________________
4. They only reimbursed us because we took legal advice.
=> We wouldn’t _____________________________________________
5. We’ve had lots of arguments with that particular harbor master before.
=> This isn’t ______________________________________________
Part 3. In many countries, an increase in crime has been blamed on violent images
on television and in computer and video games. To what extent do you agree or
disagree with this opinion? Write a paragraph (about 150-180 words) to clarify your
ideas.
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……………………………………………………………………………………………

-------------- HẾT --------------

(Thí sinh không được sử dụng tài liệu. Cán bộ coi thi không giải thích gì thêm)

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