SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO KỲ THI LẬP ĐỘI TUYỂN

BẮC KẠN DỰ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA

THPT NĂM HỌC 2022-2023
ĐỀ CHÍNH THỨC
(Đề thi gồm có 16 trang) MÔN: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút, không kể thời gian giao đề

Điểm toàn bài thi Họ tên, chữ ký Số phách (do Chủ tịch
HĐ chấm thi ghi)
Bằng số Bằng chữ Giám khảo số 1:

Giám khảo số 2:

Thí sinh làm bài trực tiếp trên tờ đề thi

I. LISTENING (5,0 points)

HƯỚNG DẪN PHẦN THI NGHE HIỂU
- Bài nghe gồm 4 phần, mỗi phần được nghe 2 lần, mở đầu và kết thúc mỗi phần đều có tín hiệu.
- Mọi hướng dẫn cho thí sinh được ghi trong mỗi phần tương ứng của bài nghe.
Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to a talk about private education and decide whether these
statements are True (T), or False (F). Write your answers in the corresponding numbered
boxes provided.
1. Enrollment in private primary schools has registered greater increase compared with
that in private secondary schools over the last 15 years.
2. The demand for private schools stems from profound socio-economic changes.
3. Private education hasn’t helped to solve illiteracy among poor kids in Pakistan.
4. Inclusivity is one noticeable factor that many private schools lack.
5. High levels of tuition fee in the private sector are understandable considering the
quality of education that private schools offer.
Your answer
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Part 2. For questions 6-10, listen to a report on a popular series and answer the questions.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS or NUMBERS taken from the recording for each
answer in the corresponding space provided.
6. On what reviewing platform does Squid Game earn a perfect critics’ score of 100 percent?
____________________________________________________
7. How can the series, to a lesser extent, be characterized as being?
____________________________________________________
8. What have Korean cultural exports achieved in the US?
____________________________________________________
9. What facilitated the storytelling of the series, which was both unique and captivating?
____________________________________________________
10. Beside being a source of extreme gruesomeness, what function does the series serve?
____________________________________________________
Page 1 of 16 pages
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to part of a programme in which Amanda and Peter,
two founders of a fruit juice company called Topfruit, talk about their business and
choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.

11. What opinion is expressed about the way Topfruit was set up?
A. It is surprising that it worked out so smoothly.
B. Working with friends certainly saved time and energy.
C. Having a single founder would have made the launch simpler.
D. Since the founders had such similar views it was hard to allocate roles.
12. What is the positive culture of the company mainly attributed to?
A. guaranteed salary increases
B. the nature of the product that is being sold
C. strict adherence to staff monitoring procedures
D. certain criteria in the recruitment process
13. How do both founders feel about running their company now?
A. They are fed up with dealing with daily problems.
B. They feel anxious about whether its success will continue.
C. They enjoy the challenges they face in their work.
D. They feel pleased that they have acquired a good grasp of business.
14. When describing past mistakes in staffing, Amanda reveals
A. her belief that good qualifications are the key factor.
B. her acceptance that it is vital to admit failures early on.
C. her trust that improvements can be made to the process.
D. her fear that senior appointments are impossible to get right.
15. What gives Topfruit an advantage over its larger competitors?
A. The emphasis on ingredients which fit market trends.
B. The product research based on scientific models.
C. The clarity of the labelling.
D. The extremely sophisticated advertising.
Your answer
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a talk about recent technological breakthroughs and
supply the blanks with the missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS
AND/ OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer in the space provided.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES OF 2021
Aerospace technologies
- While the aerospace industry is anticipated to make continual improvements, aerospace
innovations might be developed at a (16) _____________________________
- (17) _____________________________ has been proven to be an excellent solution for
producing components.
5G networks
- Improvements offered by the fifth-generation cellular network technology will give
businesses access to (18) _____________________________and better bandwidth, which
are increasingly critical to business operations.
- While Qualcomm will make a big push to bring 5G to more affordable phones, top mobile
firms have already been (19) _____________________________5G phones.
- The global 5G services market size is estimated to reach $41.48 billion by 2020 and
expand at a compound annual growth rate of (20) _____________________________from
2021 to 2027.

Page 2 of 16 pages
Edge computing
- Deploying edge computing is a trend shared by virtually all industries as it optimizes
network efficiency.
- Edge computing solutions range from traditional rugged (21) ______________________
to high performance edges.
- The edge analytics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 30% over the
period 2016-2021
Extended reality
- Extended reality technologies will help people avoid dangerous situations in which a viral
(22) _____________________________may be inherent.
- The virtual reality market is forecast to reach $57 billion by 2021.
Human augmentation
- This technology revolutionizes the way humans will function and open endless
possibilities to enhance physical health such as (23) _____________________________
for throat or bionic human joints.
- The human augmentation market is estimated to grow at a significant rate between 2020
and 2026.
Artificial intelligence
- This technology has already established itself as one of the most (24) _________________
nowadays.
- More complex machine learning (25) _____________________________ will be
developed to design efficient solutions to real-life problems.
- Worldwide spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence systems is forecast to reach
$57.6 billion in 2021.
III. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (2.0 points)
Part 1. For questions 26-40, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D to each of the following
questions. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
26. It was difficult to __________his handwriting, which was little more than a scrawl.
A. discern B. decode C. decipher D. describe
27. I offered to do the job, but soon found that I was _________, as it was more difficult than I
had thought.
A. pushing up daisies B. knocking on wood
C. off their hands D. in over my head
28. They decided that his story was at best ___________and at worst a downright lie.
A. untrue B. exasperated C. exaggerated D. fallible
29. He has amassed many sports __________ as he is a good all-round sportsman.
A. trophies B. competitions C. rewards D. tournaments
30. The teacher ____________ the boy’s mobile phone until after school, as he was using it
during lessons.
A. commissioned B. collected C. confiscated D. conceded
31. We have a full___________ for this meeting, so any other business should be put off until
next week.
A. timetable B. quota C. house D. agenda
32. He was ___________when I met him: homeless and begging in the streets.
A. devout B. destitute C. despicable D. dormant
33. The NGO relies on ___________ to enable it to carry out its work.
A. promotions B. donations C. reassurances D. pigments
34. The operation itself went smoothly, but _____________ arose, and the patient died shortly
afterwards.
A. injuries B. disease C. distortions D. complications
35. The celebrity temporarily lost her _____________ when someone threw a tomato at her.
A. composure B. confusion C. discretion D. dissolve

Page 3 of 16 pages
36. When we got to the island, we realized that the water was not safe to drink and that
we________ have brought water purification tablets.
A. would B. must C. could D. should
37. Aboriginal traditional art relays tribal or religious customs. Drawings and paintings ________
food, display items available for trading and map the sacred paths of ancestral beings.
A. describe B. portray C. depict D. delineate
38. Mary ___________ her gaze in embarrassment, realizing she’d been staring at the two men
sitting opposite.
A. avoided B. cancelled C. concealed D. averted
39. Accident investigators were unable to recover the aircraft’s black box data recorder. Thus, the
exact cause of the crash ________ unknown.
A. keeps B. continues C. remains D. maintains
40. Don’t be friends with bad boys. People think that birds of a feather________ together.
A. flock B. fetch C. fly D. gather

Your answer
26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.
34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

Part 2. For questions 41-45, write the correct form of each bracketed word in each sentence in
the numbered space provided in the column on the right.
Your answers:
41. The way that advertisers and marketers play on people’s 41.__________________
insecurities is thoroughly ______________. (MANIPULATE)
42. People come here because they are drawn to the ______________ 42.__________________
of the place. (TRANQUIL)
43. It seems there is less damage to the environment in 43.__________________
______________ populated areas. (SPARSE)
44. Climate scientists are concerned about the ______________ 44.__________________
weather we have been experiencing. (PRECEDENT)
45. Surely it’s ______________ for the company to claim its product 45.__________________
has health benefits when it doesn’t. (FRAUD)

III. READING (6,0 points)

Part 1. For questions 46-55, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable
word. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Vital supply routes
From the moment the first shot rang (46) _______________ signalling the beginning of
hostilities in what would become infamous as one of the world's deadliest wars, the all-important
supply route stretching across the Atlantic from North America to the UK was
(47) _______________ threat. Eventually managing to gain (48) _______________ over the
entire European coastline, from the tip of Norway to the Pyrenees, the invaders spared no effort to
sever the British lifeline (49) _______________ and for all. The North Atlantic sea lanes proved
to be a grim battleground. Navigation was fraught (50) _______________ peril and sailors
perished not only from enemy guns, (51) _______________ from exposure and accidents in the
unforgiving cold of the Atlantic winter. (52) _______________ was there sufficient support or
protection to prevent the heavy (53) _______________ of life. Too few sea-going vessels, an
inadequate number of maritime patrol aircraft, as well as a severe lack of training for troops

Page 4 of 16 pages
contributed to the ever-growing death toll. From 1939 to 1945, for half a (54) _______________
long hardship-filled years, the military trident made up of the RCN, the Canadian Merchant Navy
and the RCAF was (55) __________________ central importance in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Your answer:
46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

Part 2. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Biodiversity – What is it exactly?
It seems biodiversity has become a buzzword beloved of politicians, conservationists,
protesters and scientists alike. But what exactly is it? The Convention on Biological Diversity, an
international agreement to conserve and share the planet's biological riches, provides a good
working definition: biodiversity comprises every form of life, from the smallest microbe to the
largest animal or plant, the genes that give them their specific characteristics and the ecosystems
of which they are a part.
In October, the World Conservation Union (also known as the IUCN) published its
updated Red List of Threatened Species, a roll call of 11,167 creatures facing extinction - 121
more than when the list was last published in 2000. But the new figures almost certainly
underestimate the crisis. Some 1.2 million species of animal and 270,000 species of plant have
been classified, but the well-being of only a fraction has been assessed. The resources are simply
not available. The RJCN reports that 5714 plants are threatened, for example, but admits that only
4 per cent of known plants have been assessed. And, of course, there are thousands of species that
we have yet to discover. Many of these could also be facing extinction.
It is important to develop a picture of the diversity of life on Earth now, so that
comparisons can be made in the future and trends identified. But it isn't necessary to observe
every single type of organism in an area to get a snapshot of the health of the ecosystem. In many
habitats there are species that are particularly susceptible to shifting conditions, and these can be
used as indicator species.
In the media, it is usually large, charismatic animals such as panda, elephants, tigers and
whales that get all the attention when loss of biodiversity is discussed. However, animals or plants
far lower down the food chain are often the ones vital for preserving habitats – in the process
saving the skins of those more glamorous species. These are known as keystone species.
By studying the complex feeding relationships within habitats, species can be identified
that have a particularly important impact on the environment. For example, the members of the fig
family are the staple food for hundreds of different species in many different countries, so
important that scientists sometimes call figs "jungle burgers". A whole range of animals, from tiny
insects to birds and large mammals, feed on everything from the tree’s bark and leaves to its
flowers and fruits. Many fig species have very specific pollinators. There are several dozen
species of fig trees in Costa Rica, and a different type of wasp has evolved to pollinate each one.
Chris Lyle of the Natural History Museum in London - who is also involved in the Global
Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity - points out that if fig trees are
affected by global warming, pollution, disease or any other catastrophe, the loss of biodiversity
will be enormous.
Similarly, sea otters play a major role in the survival of giant kelp forests along the coasts
of California and Alaska. These "marine rainforests" provide a home for a wide range of other
species. The kelp itself is the main food of purple and red sea urchins and in turn the urchins are
eaten by predators, particularly sea otters. They detach an urchin from the seabed then float to the
surface and lie on their backs with the urchin shell on their tummy, smashing it open with a stone
before eating the contents. Urchins that are not eaten tend to spend their time in rock crevices to
avoid the predators. This allows the kelp to grow - and it can grow many centimeters in a day. As
the forests form, bits of kelp break off and fall to the bottom to provide food for the urchins in
their crevices. The sea otters thrive hunting for sea urchins in the kelp, and many other fish and

Page 5 of 16 pages
invertebrates live among the fronds. The problems start when the sea otter population declines. As
large predators they are vulnerable - their numbers are relatively small so disease or human
hunters can wipe them out. The result is that the sea urchin population grows unchecked and they
roam the sea floor eating young kelp fronds. This tends to keep the kelp very short and stops
forests developing, which has a huge impact on biodiversity.
Conversely, keystone species can also make dangerous alien species: they can wreak
havoc if they end up in the wrong ecosystem. The cactus moth, whose caterpillar is a voracious
eater of prickly pear was introduced to Australia to control the rampant cacti. It was so successful
that someone thought it would be a good idea to introduce it to Caribbean islands that had the
same problem. It solved the cactus menace, but unfortunately some of the moths have now
reached the US mainland - borne on winds and in tourists' luggage - where they are devastating
the native cactus populations of Florida.
Organizations like the Convention on Biological Diversity work with groups such as the
UN and with governments and scientists to raise awareness and fund research. A number of major
international meetings - including the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg this year - have set targets for governments around the world to slow the loss of
biodiversity. And the CITES meeting in Santiago last month added several more names to its list
of endangered species for which trade is controlled. Of course, these agreements will prove of
limited value if some countries refuse to implement them.
There is cause for optimism, however. There seems to be a growing understanding of the
need for sustainable agriculture and sustainable tourism to conserve biodiversity. Problems such
as illegal logging are being tackled through sustainable forestry programmes, with the emphasis
on minimizing the use of rainforest hardwoods in the developed world and on rigorous replanting
of whatever trees are harvested. CITES is playing its part by controlling trade in wood from
endangered tree species. In the same way, sustainable farming techniques that minimize
environmental damage and avoid monoculture.
Action at a national level often means investing in public education and awareness.
Getting people like you and me involved can be very effective. Australia and many European
countries are becoming increasingly efficient at recycling much of their domestic waste, for
example, preserving natural resources and reducing the use of fossil fuels. This in turn has a direct
effect on biodiversity by minimizing pollution, and an indirect effect by reducing the amount of
greenhouse gases emitted from incinerators and landfill sites. Preserving ecosystems intact for
future generations to enjoy is obviously important, but biodiversity is not some kind of optional
extra. Variety may be "the spice of life", but biological variety is also our life-support system.

Questions 56-62
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage above?
In numbered boxes 56-62, write:
TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

56. The term "biodiversity" consists of living creatures and environment that they live in.
57. There are species that have not been researched because it's unnecessary to study all
creatures.
58. It is not necessary to investigate all creatures in a certain place.
59. The press more often than not focuses on animals well-known.
60. There is a successful case that cactus moth plays a positive role in the US.
61. Usage of hardwoods is forbidden in some European countries.
62. Agriculture experts advise farmers to plant single crops in the field in terms of
sustainable farming.
Your answer:
56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62.

Page 6 of 16 pages
Questions 63-68
Summary
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage above, using NO MORE
THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in numbered boxes 63-68.

Because of the ignorance brought by media, people tend to neglect significant creatures called
(63)__________________. Every creature has diet connections with others, such as
(64)__________________ which provide a majority of foods for other species. In some states of
America, decline in number of sea otters lead to the boom of (65)__________________. An
impressing case is that imported (66)__________________ successfully tackles the plant cacti in
(67)__________________. However, the operation is needed for the government to increase their
financial support in (68)__________________.
Your answer:
63. 64. 65.
66. 67. 68.

Part 3. In the article below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 69-75, read
the article and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra
paragraph which you do not need to use. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered
boxes provided.
Gangs: the new tribes
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” a class of fresh-faced 12-year-olds were asked
upon commencing secondary school. Their new English teacher - Mrs. Marcus - asked this
question every year and it seemed to fire the imagination of every child. Usually there was a
smattering of professions, vocations and trades, along with some interesting surprises. This lot did
not disappoint.
69.
It turns out they were a highly varied lot: doctor, nurse, lawyer, judge, electrician, archeologist,
businesswoman, vet, police officer, hairdresser, actor, shop assistance. There were trouble
containing their enthusiasm, with some throwing out more than one idea. A few had non-specific
ambitions, “I don’t know. I want to travel,” and “I just want to go to university.” All of them had
opinions, some stronger than others, but opinions nonetheless.
70.
I’m particularly interested in the differences between that generation and the current one. "Hopes
and dreams," she replies immediately. "Whether your classmates achieved those things or not is
irrelevant. The important thing is you had ideas about your future; you had aspirations. When I
have asked that question in recent years, instead of setting their sights on becoming a scientist, a
lawyer or an artist, the best some children could think of was going on the dole, being famous, or
being the boss of a gang," she says.
71.
It is a vicious circle that becomes increasingly difficult to break. It was crucial for my peers and I
that we knew people who worked and we could make decisions about our ambitions based on
some knowledge. We had the benefit of seeing our parents, relatives and neighbors going to work,
returning from work, talking about their jobs, or their time at university. These experiences
informed our ideas, ambitions and, let’s face it, our expectations, too. We wouldn’t have dreamt
of the alternative. After all, work and study were our means to get ahead and make our way in life.
72.

Page 7 of 16 pages
This lies at the very core of a gang’s appeal. The aimlessness of some youths’ experience is
replaced by the rigid system of rules, rituals, and codes of behavior that members follow, and
which gives them a purpose and adds much-needed structure to their lives. In many cases, the
gang becomes a surrogate family, providing security, camaraderie and a sense of belonging. These
powerful inducements exert a strange power over vulnerable teenagers.
73.
I ask Margaret what it is that can drive such a change. "I’ve known many young boys who have
turned over a new leaf," she says. "The key is intervention at the grassroots level. Community
programmes that keep kids off the streets and involve them in pro-social activities are great
deterrents. Strong after-school programmes that meet children’s needs for supervision are also
successful in reducing attraction to gang-related activities. These cost money, though, and
authorities are often not willing to spend," she explains, "and sadly, some kids fall through the
cracks."
74.
What chance for rehabilitation do they have, I wonder, when they cling to their gangs even in
these circumstances? Admittedly, the need for survival plays a role since those in prison rely on
their fellow gang members for protection. After all, prison is no picnic and is possibly more
dangerous an environment than the outside world. But even in here, there is hope.
75.
"You can’t make anyone succeed, but you can help them to see that success in life is possible
outside of the narrow confines of the gang," says Margaret. "If we give young people
opportunities to bring about a change in their circumstances, they can build a happy future." Let’s
hope that the next time Margaret asks "the question", there will be some scientists, entrepreneurs
and plumbers in the group.

Missing Paragraphs:
A. Success, however, can be measured in a myriad of ways, and for those without traditional role
models, gang culture becomes increasingly alluring as a way to make something of themselves.
“They're not inherently bad kids,” says Marcus, “they just have no direction and no one to look up
to. Were they to attach value to work and education, their whole outlook on life would change and
they wouldn’t need what gang membership provides. ”
B. Though there is no conclusive evidence, many critics of popular media believe exposure to
violent films and song lyrics, particularly rap music, has a negative influence; glamorizing gang
life and encouraging at-risk youths to join gangs or to participate in gang-related crime as a means
of gaining a sense of belonging and empowerment.
C. Those who do join a gang inevitably end up in a downward spiral, losing any moral
foundation they had and hurtling headlong into a life of violence and crime. And yet, even when
they are placed in juvenile detention centres, or worse - in adult prisons - some maintain their
allegiance to the gang and look upon their membership as a badge of honour; a mark of success,
not failure.
D. Thick and fast came the replies. “Teacher,” said a bespectacled girl in the front row. Mrs.
Marcus smiled to herself. The prospective teachers always sat as close as possible to the board,
eager and serious. “Football player!” shouted a tall lad from the back, raising his arms in victory
as though he’d just scored a winning goal against Argentina at the World Cup. Mrs. Marcus knew
he'd be a live wire in class. “Prime minister,” said another, garnering a round of applause as well
as ridicule from his classmates.
E. How has it come to this? A recent report has found that children in some areas of the country
have so little contact with working people that the concept of employment is almost foreign. They
live in the so-called “welfare ghettos” where more than half of the working-age population

Page 8 of 16 pages
depends on out-of-work benefits. In many families, unemployment is intergenerational with
grandparents and parents living on the dole.
F. Thankfully, in many cases the lure is temporary. It becomes nothing more than a phase that
plays to their fantasies of rebellion and desire for high drama, in part fueled by pop culture
through music and films that glamorise thug life. In time, these wannabe gangsters find other
interests and reject the values of the gang.
G. Fast forward twenty years and Mrs. Margaret Marcus is now teaching at an inner-city school
in a large metropolis. Hoping to get some insight from this forty-year veteran of the education
system, I'm interviewing her about the challenges faced by young people today. “So you became a
journalist instead of a teacher, ” she says with a twinkle in her eye. Yes, I was that child in the
specs long ago. Before getting down to business, we reminisce for a few moments about my
classmates.
H. There are many organisations that are working positively with young people in gangs, both
inside and outside of detention, and helping them through some very difficult times in their lives.
With this help they can stop their slide into crime and violence, and make the tough transition of
evolving into productive, responsible and law abiding members of society.
Your answers:
69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Part 4. For questions 76-85, read an extract from a journal and choose the answer A, B, C or D
which you think fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes provided.
SUPER HUMANS
Sit down with an anthropologist to talk about the nature of humans, and you are likely to
hear this pearl of wisdom: "Well, you have to remember that 99 percent of human history was
spent on the open savanna in small bands of hunter-gatherers." It's a classic scientific cliché, and
it's true. Indeed, those millions of ancestral years produced many of our hallmark traits - upright
walking and big brains, for instance. Of course, those useful evolutionary innovations come at a
price: aching backs from our bipedal stance and existential despair from our large, self-
contemplative cerebral cortex.
Compounding the challenges of those trade-offs, the world we have invented is
dramatically different from the one to which our bodies and minds are adapted. Have your dinner
delivered to you instead of chasing it down on foot; log in to Facebook to interact with your
nearest and dearest instead of spending most of the day with them. But this is where the utility of
the anthropologist's cliché for explaining the human condition ends.
The reason for this mismatch between the setting we evolved to live in and the situations
we encounter in our modern era derives from another defining characteristic of our kind, arguably
the most important one: our impulse to push beyond the limitations evolution imposed on us by
developing tools to make us faster, smarter and longer-lived. Science is one such tool - an
invention that requires us to break out of our Stone Age seeing-is-believing mindset so that we
can clearly see the next hurdle we have to overcome, be it a pandemic flu or climate change. You
could call it the ultimate expression of humanity's singular drive to aspire to be better than we are.
To understand how natural selection moulded us into the unique primates we have
become, let us return to the ancestral savanna. There the sun was hotter and nutritious plant foods
were scarcer. In response, our predecessors lost their hair and their molars dwindled as they
abandoned a tough vegetarian diet for one focused in part on meat from grassland grazers.
Meanwhile, the selective demands of food scarcities sculpted our distant forebears into having a
body that was extremely thrifty and good at storing calories. Now, having inherited that same
metabolism, we hunt and gather burgers as diabetes becomes a worldwide scourge. Or consider
how our immune systems evolved in a world where one hardly ever encountered someone
carrying a novel pathogen. Today, if you sneeze near someone in an airport, your rhinovirus could
be set free 12 time zones away by the next day.

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 As regards behavior, our abilities abound. We can follow extraordinarily complex
scenarios of social interaction and figure out if a social contract has been violated. And we are
peerless when it comes to facial recognition: we even have an area of the cortex in the fusiform
gyrus that specializes in this activity.
The selective advantages of evolving a highly social brain are obvious. It paved the way
for us to finetune our capabilities for reading one another's mental states, to excel at social
manipulation and to deceive and attract mates and supporters. Among Americans, the extent of
social intelligence in youth is a better predictor of adult success in the occupational world than are
academic scores. Indeed, when it comes to social intelligence in primates, humans reign supreme.
The social brain hypothesis of primate evolution is built on the fact that across primate species the
percentage of the brain devoted to the neocortex correlates with the average size of the social
group of that species. This correlation is more dramatic in humans than in any other primate
species.
The fact that we have created this world proves a point - namely, that it is in our nature to
be unconstrained by our nature. Science is one of the strangest, newest domains where we
challenge our hominid limits. It also tests our sense of what is the norm, what counts as better than
well and it challenges our sense of who we are. Thanks to science, human life expectancy keeps
extending, our average height increases, our intelligence test scores improve and we eventually
break every world record. But when it comes to humans becoming, on average, smarter, taller and
better at athletics, there is a problem: Who cares about the average? As individuals, we want to be
better than other individuals. Our brain is invidious, comparative and more interested in contrasts,
a state that begins with sensory systems that do not normally tell us about the quality of a stimulus
but instead about the quality relative to the stimuli around it.

76. According to the writer, the anthropological cliché to explain the nature of mankind
A. needs some slight modifications. B. requires little analysis.
C. should be considered paradoxical. D. is limited in scope.
77. Humankind will only be able to use science to progress if
A. ethical considerations are ignored.
B. we discard an outdated approach to acquiring knowledge.
C. our drive to eliminate barriers continues.
D. the philosophy we adopt can be widely understood.
78. Our ancient ancestors lived in a world where
A. the necessity to hunt for food led to good health.
B. it was vitally important to have a balanced diet.
C. isolation allowed them to develop immunity from disease.
D. their restricted movement protected them from illness.
79. The word peerless in paragraph 5 in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. friendless B. unsurpassed C. uncompetitive D. flawless
80. Having a highly social brain
A. allows us to create groups with more members.
B. prevents us from being misunderstood.
C. causes us to be more devious.
D. helps us to read other people's minds.
81. The way we tend to think
A. forces us to overlook our shortcomings.
B. has enhanced our understanding of sense perception.
C. distorts our perception of the notion of average.
D. makes us less likely to be concerned with absolutes.
82. The word invidious in paragraph 7 in the passage mostly means
A. prejudiced B. preordained C. unfathomable D. attitudinal
83. Which of the following square brackets [A], [B], [C], or [D] best indicates where in the
paragraph the sentence "We are no strangers to going out of bounds." can be inserted?

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[A] The fact that we have created this world proves a point - namely, that it is in our nature to be
unconstrained by our nature. [B] Science is one of the strangest, newest domains where we
challenge our hominid limits. It also tests our sense of what is the norm, what counts as better than
well and it challenges our sense of who we are. [C] Thanks to science, human life expectancy
keeps extending, our average height increases, our intelligence test scores improve and we
eventually break every world record. [D] But when it comes to humans becoming, on average
smarter, taller and better at athletics, there is a problem: Who cares about the average? As
individuals, we want to be better than other individuals. Our brain is invidious, comparative and
more interested in contrasts, a state that begins with sensory systems that do not normally tell us
about the quality of a stimulus but instead about the quality relative to the stimuli around it.
A. [A] B. [B] C. [C] D. [D]
84. It can be inferred from the passage that
A. there are no limits to human capabilities.
B. we will be able to adapt to harsh environments.
C. humankind's evolutionary path will not be smooth.
D. our knowledge of the past is crucial to our future.
85. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?
A. Social intelligence enables Americans to be both academically and professionally
successful.
B. Science helps prolong human life and improve human intelligence to break all world
records.
C. Our evolutionary limits can be exceeded and that's what sets us apart from other species.
D. A highly evolved social brain paved the way for humans to be able to read and distort
others' thinking.

Your answers:

76. 77. 78. 79. 80.

81. 82. 83. 84. 85.

Part 5. The extract below consists of six sections marked A, B, C, D, E and F. For questions 86-
95, read the extract and do the task that follows. Write your answers in the corresponding
numbered boxes provided.
Switch on your brain
A book seeks to explain how our minds work through the maze of consciousness ~ Eric Banks
Intuition pumps and other tools for thinking by Daniel c. Dennett
A.
You don't have to conduct a thought experiment to see why some philosophers want to write for
an audience cheerfully indifferent to the ways of the seminar room and the strictures of the
refereed journal. Beyond the fame and fortune, perhaps more important is the sense that if one's
work is worth doing at all, it ought to reach the widest possible audience. Some, I imagine, also
relish the bonus frisson of mixing it up in the rowdy rough-and-tumble of the public arena. If
you're like Daniel C. Dennett - one of whose many mantras is Gore Vidal's 'It is not enough to
succeed. Others must fail.' - what's the point of felling the philosopher's tree if there’s no one to
hear it? Since the publication of his book Consciousness Explained in 1991, Dennett has gladly
risen to the challenge, merrily taking on all comers, in works that play to a packed house most
philosophers could never dream of.
B.
For Dennett, the experience of communicating to a broad readership his brawny materialist
agenda has an ancillary and less obvious boon. Specialists, he writes, tend to under-explain to one
another the very terms of their discussions. These experts benefit from translating their respective
position down, as it were, so that they might be presented to 'curious non-experts', as Dennett puts

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it in Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking. They will be forced to think anew and
paradoxically think harder. The notion that a 'position' might get fine-tuned just as neatly in the
imagined company of a well-intentioned fast learner as it would among scholarly peers is
ingrained in Dennett's go-go style of doing philosophy and its winner-take-all stakes. As set out in
Intuition Pumps, his narrative approach, plain-talk prose and gotcha argument stoppers will prove
as roundly appealing to some as it will seem pandering to others.
C.
Part of Dennett's role in Intuition Pumps is to serve as a kind of design engineer. With the concept
of 'intuition pump', he repurposes the thought experiment - a form of argumentation of ancient and
venerable purpose in philosophy (and in other disciplines, especially physics) - in order to
transform its somewhat neutral-sounding disposition into a power tool, one that addresses a basic
question: Is it designed well enough to get the job done? First renamed 'intuition pumps' in The
Mind's I, the hybrid work Dennett coproduced with Douglas Hofstadter, these narrative devices
can condense a complex set of propositions and suppositions into an imaginable story that
summarises or illustrates a position. Hence their extreme popularity in the history of philosophy,
from Plato's cave to Parfit's amoeba. They can be positive or critical, launching a new idea or
yanking the rug from under someone else's pet position. Either way, such thought experiments are
designed to jolt the reader’s sense of intuition.
D.
But what is the difference between a good intuition pump and a flawed one? Searle's Chinese
Room, famously objected to by Dennett, has spawned scores of counter-thought experiments,
replicating itself in many variations; by the mid-90s, Steven Pinker commented that it had become
the source of at least a hundred papers. It has allowed articulations of positions from a vast
number of academic fields, from proponents of AI to linguists, and generated commentary on
semantics, consciousness and evolution. Sounds like a pretty fecund tool for thinking to me! But
for the budding philosophy student reading Intuition Pumps, Dennett reserves the right to select
the hammer and pick the gauge of nail. But what good is it to present this book as a collection of
helpful 'tools for thinking' when it turns out the only successful tools just happen to run on
precisely the same voltage as Dennett's own particular theories and propositions?
E.
Intuition Pumps is valuable in providing an overview of a body of recent work in the philosophy
of mind, but it also suffers from Dennett's penchant for cleverness which causes it to become
tiresome and tacky. He returns to a long-ago verbal conflict with Stepan Jay Gould to discuss
rhetorical sleights of hand, and even coins a new word to describe the tendency to advance straw-
man arguments and false dichotomies - 'Goulding'. How is that a better 'thinking tool'? He mocks
philosopher Ned Block and condescendingly takes the opportunity to chide Thomas Nagel for not
consulting 'the experts' on evolutionary biology. All this sour score-settling with Dennett's
philosophical peers is definitely less witty than I imagine he takes it to be. But in the spirit of
Dennett's tactic, I’d offer one historical vignette that characterizes his frequent summoning of an
army of scientists at his back, and call that future-perfect feint a Ledru-Rollin. That would be in
honour of the hectoring French propagandist of 1848 who famously bellowed, 'There go my
people. I must follow them, for I am their leader!'

In which section are the followings mentioned? Your answers

the idea that writing for the layperson means adopting new trains of thought 86. _______
the possibility that the author overestimates his ability to be amusing 87. _______
the lack of freedom associated with academic writing 88. _______
the author's reluctance to accept positions that do not comply with his own 89. _______
the author's predisposition to pour scorn on his colleagues 90. _______
the ability of a concept to dispel a philosopher's favorite theory 91. _______
the possibility that the author has made an unjustified criticism in his book 92. _______

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 the use of a term that brings about a change in the connotation of a particular 93. _______
concept
the author's belief that, when there is a disagreement, one point of view must 94. _______
prevail
a platform that is distinctly lacking in formality 95. _______

IV. WRITING (7.0 points)

Part 1. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary
should be between 100 and 120 words long.
The financial crisis of 2008 sent shockwaves throughout many countries in the Eurozone,
and indeed the world. One of the hardest hit nations was Greece. For many Greeks this meant
being catapulted onto the breadline or worse still, plunged below the line of poverty. For others,
the credit crunch prevented them from using credit cards as their debts mounted. While most
people despaired, many decided to take the bull by the horns.
When residents of the small town of Volos found themselves struggling to afford even
essential items in euros, what they did was to come up with an alternative currency: the TEM. As
a local ‘backup’ currency that people can earn by offering their services or goods to others, the
TEM system, which brings to mind the ancient bartering system, operates on an exchange basis.
Members of the TEM community gain credit by doing jobs for other people or selling them their
own produce. For example, by selling clothes in TEM at the market, a trader could get language
or computer lessons in return.
But it is not only at the local market that TEM is accepted. Even well-established local
shops in Volos will accept both TEM and euros. In some cases, payment can be made in part euro
and part TEM. Hard-up customers can, therefore, make more affordable purchases and store
owners can cover their costs. This is the reason the TEM is becoming more popular: it can be used
in tandem with the euro rather than as a replacement currency.
Such an exchange system is not unique to Volos. Elsewhere in Greece, other communities
and social networks have come up with a similar system using an alternative currency called
ovolos. This unofficial currency can be used on a national level and is not restricted to a specific
city or region. Its users claim that the ovolos has a major advantage over the euro. It is not
affected by inflation or downgrading in the way that the official currency is. Instead, the value of
the ovolos remains stable and is protected against devaluation.

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Part 2. The charts below show what the history and engineering graduates of a particular
university were doing six months after graduating. The figures cover a two-year period.
Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.

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Part 3. Write an essay of 350 words on the following topic:
There is a fact that leaders in an organisation are normally old people. However, there is a
tendency that the young are holding the key positions in many organisations in our society.
Some people think younger leaders would be better. Do you agree or disagree?

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 ____ THE END ____
Thí sinh không sử dụng tài liệu; Cán bộ coi thi không giải thích gì thêm.

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