(C1+) Test 20 K
(C1+) Test 20 K
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 1
SKILL: LEXICO-GRAMMAR (30 PTS)
TASK 1. Choose the correct answer to complete the sentence
26. ………… my dad, I would never have started playing tennis in the first place.
A. Were it for B. Were it to be for C. Had it not been for D. Were it not for
27. We ………… as well try to sell this old sofa before throwing it out.
A. could B. should C. might D. can
28. I’d rather you ………… anything for tonight, but I suppose it’s too late to change things now.
A. not arrange B. don’t arrange C. didn’t arrange D. hadn’t arranged
29. I feel ………… to inform the committee that a number of members are very unhappy with.
A. my duty B. this my duty C. it my duty D. that my duty
30. ………… I’d like to help you out , I’m afraid I just haven’t got any spare money at the moment.
A. Even B. Despite C. Much as D. Try as
31. The company’s announced it’s ………… over 1,000 workers.
A. lay off B. set off D. switch off D. kill off
32. You’ll regret it if you don’t ………… your important data.
A. do up B. back up C. key in D. test out
33. I didn’t ………… to be a millionaire- I just wanted to run a successful business.
A. crop up B. wind down C. set out D. tide over
34. My fingers are tired. I’ve been ………… at this keyboard for hours.
A. slaving away B. breaking away C. plodding away D. hammering away
35. So ………… what you are saying is that I am being made redundant.
A. in effect B. in good faith C. in that D. in between
36. We have it ………… that they’re thinking of closing the local office.
A. on good authority B. authority on C. in authority D. with authority
37. Since it was a minor offence, Derek was sent to ………… prison.
A. an open B. an easy C. a soft D. a weak
38. Don’t worry- the documents are safely ………… lock and key at my place.
A. in B. on C. under D. within
39. Ian’s really under his boss’s ………… and isn’t allowed to make any decisions himself.
A. finger B. hand C. thumb D. eye
40. Our neighbour is a bit strange, but ………… and let live, I always say.
A. take B. come C. do D. live
41. This is the third time he’s been caught- they are really going to throw the ………… at him this time.
A. book B. rod C. row D. pen
42. I’ve spent the whole morning vacuuming the inside of the car. It’s now clean as a ………… .
A. dust B. cucumber C. whistle D. lab
43. You have to go through a number of ………… stages before you become an expert.
A. medium B. average C. moderate D. intermediate
44. The couple were finally ………… by the landlord after not paying rent for six month.
A. demolished B. rejected C.evicted D. evacuated
45. He’s extremely ………… ; he turns up every day at nine o’clock on the dot.
A. punctual B. temporary C. long-standing D. subsequent
TASK 2. Provide the correct form of words in brakets.
46. The Mekong Delta region was at the (FRONT) of climate change adaptation in Viet Nam.
47. The degradation had been caused by a range of factors including lack of sediment, and the land use in the coastal zone
pressing the dike (SEA).
48. The inadequate water management and overexploitation of groundwater resulted in land (SUBSIDE).
49. Also known as IT security, (SECURE) measures are designed to combat threats against networked systems and applications.
50. The international supporters have committed to supporting Viet Nam in strengthening the coastal zones of the Mekong Delta
and the (RESILE) of its inhabitants.
51. The environmental ministry is writing more detailed instructions under this law to (ACTUAL) and monitor waste classification.
52. Waste classification in each family is undoubtedly needed and a (DO).
53. KOICA is trying to solve the environmental problems through cooperation with various partners including academia, (START)
and private businesses.
54. The amendment to the law against domestic violence has been discussed at the group stage, and deputies have been
(BRAIN) acts that can be included.
55. No matter how heavy or light it is, domestic violence leaves (REPAIR) mental scars.
SKILL: READING (60 PTS)
TASK 1. Fill in the gap with ONE suitable word. (15 PTS)
What do Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon have in common? They were all left-handed! Beginning early in
history, southpaws were feared, neglected, and punished because use of the left hand was considered 56. ……………… . In fact,
the Latin word for “left” is “sinister.” Due to this 57. ……………… against the left, left-handed people were forced to switch hands.
This change caused many problems for lefties in school, which resulted in frustration, bad behavior, and high drop-out rates.
Maybe that is why lefties were 58. ……………… as unintelligent, an idea that could not be further from the truth.
Researchers studying the brain have found differences in the left side and right side of the brain. Researchers believe that people
who use more of the left side of their brain tend to be more 59. ……………… . They also tend to use language better and solve
problems faster. However, one study also showed that left-brain people tend to have 60. ……………… memories.
So, which side of the brain do lefties use? Actually, both. Right-handed people use the left side of the brain more, whereas left-
handed people use both sides of the brain almost 61. ……………… . The part connecting the two halves of the brain is usually larger
in left-handed people. Therefore, information can pass more 62. ……………… from one side of the brain to the other. The
left hemisphere of the brain controls speech, language, writing, logic, mathematics, and science. The right hemisphere controls
music, art, creativity, perception, and emotion. Since lefties use both sides, they are often both creative and scientific.
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 2
Approximately ten percent of the world is left-handed, and the 63. ……………… of left-handed males to left-handed females is two
to one. Thankfully, parents and teachers no longer 64. ……………… left-handedness as a problem to be cured. It may actually
contribute to a child’s excellence! If allowed to learn and develop in their own way, lefties will 65. ……………… in school. Perhaps
one of these lefties might turn out to be the next Einstein or da Vinci.
TASK 2. Read the passage and answer the questions followed. (13 PTS)
The Phantom Hand
This illusion is extraordinarily complelling the first time you encounter it.
There is a very striking illusion in which you can feel a rubber hand being touched as if it were your own. To find out for yourself,
ask a friend to sit across from you at a small table. Set up a vertical partition on the table, rest your right hand behind it where you
cannot see it, and place a plastic right hand in view. Ask your assistant to repeatedly tap and stroke your concealed right hand in
a random sequence. Tap, tap, tap, stroke, tap, stroke, stroke. At the same time, while you watch, they must also tap and stroke
the visible plastic dummy at exactly the same time in the same way. If your friend continues the procedure for about twenty or
thirty seconds, something quite strange will happen: you will have an uncanny feeling that you are actually being stroke on the
fake hand. The sensations you feel will seem to emerge directly form the plastic.
Why does this happen? Matthew Botinick and Jonathan Cohen, at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellion University,
who reported the so-called rubber hand illusion in 1998, have suggested that the similarity in appearance fools the brain into
mistaking the false hand for your real hand. They believe this illusion is strong enough to overcome the discrepancy between the
position of your real hand that you can feel and the site of the plastic hand you can see.
But that is not the whole story. William Hirstein and Kathleen Carrie Armel of the University of California discovered a further twist:
the object your helper touches does not even need to resemble your hand. The same effect is produced if they tap and stroke the
table. Try the same experiment, but this time gets your acquaintance to rub and tap the surface in front of you while making
matching movements on your real, concealed hand. You will eventually start feeling touch sensations emerge from the wood
surface.
This illusion is extraordinarily compelling the first time you encounter it. But how can scientists be certain that the subject really
believes that they are feeling sensations through the table? Kathleen Carrie Armel again and Vilayanur S Ramachandran learned
that, once the illusion has developed, if you “threaten” the table by aiming a blow at it, the person winces and even starts
sweating. This reaction was demonstrated objectively by measuring a sudden decrease in electrical skin resistance caused by
perspiration. It is as if the table becomes incorporated into a person’s own body image so that it is linked to emotional centres in
the brain; the subject perceives a threat to the table as a threat to themselves.
This may all sound like a magic trick, but it does have practical applications. In fact, the experiments were inspired by work with
patients who had phantom limbs. After a person loses an arm from injury, they may continue to sense its presence vividly. Often,
the phantom seems to be frozen in a painfully awkward position. To overcome this, a patient was asked to imagine putting their
phantom arm behind a mirror. By then putting their intact arm on the reflective side, they created the visual illusion of having
restored the missing arm. If the patient now moved the intact arm, its reflection- and thus the phantom- was seen to move.
Remarkably, it was felt to move as well, sometimes relieving the painful cramp.
Beyond a practical application, these illusions also demonstrate some important principles underlying perception. Firstly,
perception is based largely on marching up sensory inputs. As you feel your hand being tapped and stroked and see the table or
dummy hand being touched in the same way, your brain asks itself, “What is the likelihood that what I see and what I feel could be
identical simply by chance? Nil. Therefore, the other person must be touching me.” Secondly, this mechanism seems to be based
on automatic processes that our intellect cannot override. The brain makes these judgments about the senses automatically; they
do not involve conscious thought. Even a lifetime of experience that an inanimate object is not part of your body is abandoned in
light of the perception that it is.
All of us go through life making certain assumptions about our existence. “My name has always been Joe” someone might think. “
I was born in San Diego” and so on. All such beliefs can be called into question at one time or another for various reasons. One
premise that seems to be beyond question is that you are anchored in your body. Yet given a few seconds of the right kind of
stimulation, even this obvious fact is temporarily forsaken, as a table or a plastic hand seem to become a part of you.
Question 66 - 69: Match statements 11-14 with the correct team A, B or C.
A. Botvinick and Cohen
B. Hirsteiri and Armel
C. Armel and Ramachandran
66. The illusion does not depend on the “phantom” looking like a real hand.
67. The brain can disregard spatial information.
68. If the fake hand is threatened, the subject will show signs of fear.
69. A hand-shaped object is required for the illusion.
Question 70 - 72: Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D in answer to these questions.
70. How do researchers explain the fact that subjects respond physically when someone threatens to hit the table in front of
them?
A. The table becomes an integral part of the image subjects have of themselves.
B. It is a reflex action triggered by the movement of the other person’s hand.
C. An electrical connection is established between the subject and the table.
D. Over time, the subject comes to believe that the table is one of these possessions.
71. What does the phantom hand experiment show us about the nature of human perception?
A. It is based on conscious thought processes.
B. It is primarily an unconscious process.
C. It is closely related to intellectual ability.
D. It relies only on sensory information.
72. Which of these statements best summarizes the wider implications of the experiments described in the text?
A. The experiments are valuable in treating patients who have lost limbs.
B. The experiments cast doubt on a fundamental human assumption.
C. The experiments show humans to be less intelligent than was once thought.
D. Human beings arrive at the truth by analysing the evidence of their senses.
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 3
Questions 73 – 78: Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
It is a recognized phenomenon that patients who have been injured and lost 73. ……………… sometimes continue to have feelings,
like pain or 74. ……………… , in these parts of their body. In order to assist patients like this, doctors can use a 75. ………………
placed vertically on a flat surface. The patient imagines that he is putting his phantom arm behind the mirror and his 76.
……………… arm in front. When the patient moves the latter, the 77. ……………… also moves, giving the patient the illusion that his
non-existent arm is moving. In some cases, this illusory movement may succeed in 78. ……………… the patient’s discomfort.
TASK 3. You are going to read an extract from an autobiography. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose
from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap 24-30. There is one extra paragraph wich you do not need to use. (7
PTS)
The Hammond Organ
It’s September 1995 and I’m on my way home to Austin, Texas from Bankok. Breaking the journey in Los Angeles, I spot an ad for
an organ in the classifieds. It’s a 1954 Hammond B2. I can’t resist this little gem, so I buy it-sight unseen- and arrange to have it
collected, crated and trucked to Texas.
79. ……………
Ever since I heard Green Onions by Booker T and the MG’s on the radio, the sound of a Hammond organ has moved me. Although
ta the time I didn’t know exactly what Booker T. was playing, I knew I wanted to make that noise. I didn’t even know how to play
an organ, but the way it swirled and swam and it your ears off, I knew somehow I had to have one. So I did my research in the
music shops, and found out that the coolest-sounding organs were all Hammonds, bu that the L100, while it still had that special
sound, was lighter and cheaper than the other models. Not that any of them were cheap, which didn’t mch matter, because I had
no money.
80. ……………
But when I called them up, they were very helpful. There was no drawback. The only thing I could not do was move it, once they’d
set it up. That wasn’t going to be a problem. The problem would be explaining the arrival of this beautiful monster to Mum and
Dad. But I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. I wasn’t really thinking at all, apart from wondering-when could it be delivered?
“Tomorrow”, “Okey”. And that was it. The next morning at about 10am there was a knock at the door and two men in white coats
were standing on the doorstep. After I’d signed papers and promised not to move it, we pushed the dining table and chairs back
against the wall.
81. ……………
It was all polished and shiny and made our dinning room suite look quite tatty. They showed me how to start it up and we shooked
hands. It couldn’t have been simpler. “ See you in two weeks then.” “Yes, Okey, bye” slamd. “Aarrgh!” I screamed and ran upstairs
to get the record player from the bedroom, set it up on top of the bookcase, plonked Green Onions on the turntable and cranked
it up! Yes, yes, yes, nothing could stop me now. I had lost my mind and I’d never find it again.
82. ……………
The next thing to master was the Leslie cabinet. This was where the sound came out. The Leslie is a combined amplifier and
speaker cabinet, but it has two speakers which point up and down. The sound travels through revolving rotors, which throws the
music out in waves. It’s what makes the sound of every Hammond bit and swim in your ears. You can regulate the speed it rotates
and it’s very powerful.
83. ……………
When Dad came whistling his way up the path after work, I went to the door to head him off. “Hello Dad”. “ What’s up?” “ Nothing
much . Well, I’ve got something to tell you’. “yes” “Er, Dad, you’ll never guess what I’ve got” “ What have you got?” “ A Hammond
organ”.
84. ……………
He was down the hall and peering round the door suspiciously before I could stop him. “Blimey” he said. “Well, I am blowed.
Where’s the dining room table gone?” he was in the doorway, trying to squeeze past the monster organ and the Leslie. “It’s great,
isn’t it?” “ Well, it is big… how are we going to eat with this thing in here, and why didn’t you ask me or your mum?” “Sorry, but it’ll
only be here for a couple of weeks, listen to this,” I played the first part of Green Onions on it. “Not bad, eh?” “I dunno” he was
thinking. “ Here, don’t day a word, let me break it to your mum.”
85. ……………
I bought it on the “never, never”. Dad co-signed the hire purchase forms for me because I was under age.
Missing paragraphs
A. This meant that there was now enough room. Very carefully, they wheeled in a brand new Hammond organ and matching
bench with the Playing Guide and connecting cables tucked inside the lid, and a band new Leslie 147 speaker cabinet, which
filled up the entire room. My face must have been a picture. This was great!
B. I found all that out by fiddling around with it for hours that day until I got some results. Basically, I just taught myself. The
wonderful thing about the Hammond is it sounds good without too much effort. It’s not like the bagpipes or the violin, where
even after a lot of work it can still sound bad.
C. However, I never had any ambition as a kid to play the piano, let alone the organ. It was all my mum’s fault. She’d had a dream
of playing the piano since she was a kid, but growing up in the little town of Montrath in the centre of Ireland, as one of 11
kids, there was hardly money for shoes let alone piano lessons. And as she hadn’t been able to afford them when she was
young, I was going to get them whether I wanted them or not.
D. “What’s a Hammond organ?” “It’s free. I’ve got it for two weeks, then they’ll come and take it away and no charge
whatsoever”. “Where is it then?” “ It’s in the back room, it’s fantastic and it’s not costing a penny.”
E. Then, thumbing through the back pages of the Melody Maker, I noticed an ad for Boosey and Hawkes, in Regent Street, who
were offering to let me: “Try a Hammond Organ in your own home on two weeks’ free approval”. “Yeah, right,” I thought. “Pull
the other one” I tried to figure out what the catch could be, because I couldn’t believe they’d let me get my sweaty hands on a
genuine Hammond without money changing hands or at least making a promise to buy.
F. Somehow I knew that meant it was going to be all right. The men in white coats came to take it away two weeks later and my
new mahogany Hammond organ and matching Leslie cabinet arrived the following week.
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 4
G. Sometimes, a smell can trigger a memory so strong and true it unravels years in an instant, like the smell of oil paint, which
takes me straight back to my art school days. So, as they unbolt the container, even before I get to see how beautiful the
instrument is, the combination of furniture polish and Hammond oil wafts up my nose and I get a flashback to 1964, when I
caught that odd mixture for the first time.
H. Now I had to figure out how to play the beast and get the same as that. Carefully listening to sustained notes on the record, I
pushed and pulled the drawer bars in and out until I got the same sound. Then if I played the part right, the sound would
change- just like the record.
TASK 4. Read the passage and answer the questions (15 PTS)
THE TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION
By the close of the eighteenth century, the outlines of a world economy were clearly visible. Centered in Western Europe, it
included Russia, India, the East Indies, the Middle East, northern and western Africa, and the Americas. Trade had increased
greatly and shipping had grown in volume and speed, connecting the markets of the world more closely than ever before. The
world market, however, was confined to the coasts and along rivers, and its effects were rarely felt a hundred miles inland . The
expansion of economic activity into the interior, and its spread throughout China, Japan, Oceania, and Africa, was a major
development of the nineteenth century. It was largely accomplished through a revolution in transportation, particularly the
development of the steamship, canals, and railroads.
Since the fifteenth century, the wooden sailing ship had been the main instrument of European economic and political expansion.
Sailing ships constantly grew in carrying capacity and speed with improvements in design, and they were built of easily available
materials. The age of sailing ships reached its zenith in the middle of the nineteenth century, the era of the great ocean-plying
clippers that carried the majority of international trade.
Before 1850, the bulk of internal trade was carried by water. In Western Europe, there had been several attempts to supplement
the excellent river network with canals. However, it was the demands of the Industrial Revolution, particularly the need to
transport huge quantities of coal, that stimulated large scale canal building in the years 1760, 1850, first in Britain and then in
Western Europe and the United States. The introduction of steamboats gave an additional impetus to river navigation and canal
construction. The steamship rose in stature in the 1870s, when technical progress reduced the amount of coal the steam engine
consumed. Technical innovation, along with the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, enabled the steamship to surpass the
sailing ship as the chief instrument of international trade.
Methods of land transport continued to be slow, uncertain, and expensive until the boom in railroad construction at mid century.
In 1840 there were 5.500 miles of rail track throughout the world; just twenty years later, there were 66,000 miles. Of these, 50
percent were in North America and 47 percent were in Europe. The rail lines built during that period served populated areas
where considerable economic activity already existed, yet a global ideology of railroads gradually emerged: the belief that
railroads could populate and bring wealth to undeveloped regions.
In Britain and the United States, private companies built hundreds of uncoordinated rail projects, but in continental Europe railroad
construction became a concern of the state, which provided overall control and a large share of capital. Until 1914, the building of
railroads remained the most important reason for the export of capital as well as the main method of developing new territories.
British capital financed the majority of the railroads built in India, Canada, and Latin America. The U.S. transcontinental railroad
played a key role in populating and developing huge tracts of land in North America, as did the Trans-Siberian Railway in Asia.
In the course of the nineteenth century, around 9 million square miles of land were settled in North and South America and
Oceania. This was made possible by the decline in transportation costs, which greatly extended the area from which bulky
products such as grains and minerals could be marketed. The introduction of refrigeration on railcars and steamers in the 1870s
opened huge markets for meat, dairy products, and fruit in North America and Europe. The 1870s also saw the adoption of steel
rails, electric signals, compressed-air brakes, and other inventions that made railroads a leading source of technical innovation in
the nineteenth century,
In the world context, the rise of the railroad was inseparable from that of the steamship. The economic and geographic
consequences of these two innovations complemented one another. Both had the effect of increasing the size of markets as well
as the amount of economic activity worldwide.
86. Which sentence below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in paragraph 1? Incorrect choices
change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
A. International trade had to take place near oceans and rivers and did not extend to interior regions.
B. After several centuries of slow growth, the world economy was no longer confined by geography.
C. The effects of economic activity were felt everywhere, but especially along coasts and rivers.
D. World markets expanded rapidly, affecting people who lived hundreds of miles from the coast.
87. The word zenith in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to
A. final goal
B. slow period
C. natural limit
D. high point
88. What factor led to an increase in canal building?
A. Competition among the world powers
B. The need to move large quantities of coal
C. Improvements in the design of sailing ships
D. An increase in the export of capital
89. The word impetus in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to
A. push
B. style
C. shock
D. cost
90. Which of the following is given as a reason for the rise of the steamship over the sailing ship?
A. Wood for the construction of sailing ships became scarce.
B. The steamship could travel at faster speeds than the sailing ship.
C. Steamships were better than sailing ships at navigating canals.
D. Technical advances made the steamship require less coal.
91. According to the passage, what was a major result of railroad building in the nineteenth century?
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 5
A. The majority of wealth became concentrated in a few powerful nations.
B. Competition increased between private and state-owned companies.
C. There was an increase in the demand for an educated workforce.
D. Large parts of the world became populated and economically developed.
92. Why does the author mention refrigeration in paragraph 6?
A. To show how the steam engine contributed to refrigeration.
B. To illustrate the standard of living of North America and Europe.
C. To give an example of an innovation that expanded markets.
D. To argue that refrigeration was the most important invention of the time.
93. All of the following were effects of the transportation revolution EXCEPT
A. the spread of trade to new regions
B. innovations in technology
C. population decline in major cities
D. an increase in the size of world markets
94. It can be inferred from the passage that the author most likely believes which of the following about the transportation
revolution of the nineteenth century?
A. There will never again be so many developments in transportation in a single century.
B. Improvements in transportation had a direct impact on world economics.
C. The transportation revolution was part of a worldwide political revolution.
D. Technical innovations of that time led to similar inventions in the next century.
95. Look at the four places A, B, C and D, which indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where
would the sentence best fit?
Railroad construction required enormous amounts of capital and was financed in diverse ways.
[A] In Britain and the United States, private companies built hundreds of uncoordinated rail projects, but in continental Europe
railroad construction became a concern of the state, which provided overall control and a large share of capital. [B] Until 1914, the
building of railroads remained the most important reason for the export of capital as well as the main method of developing new
territories. [C] British capital financed the majority of the railroads built in India, Canada, and Latin America. [D] The US.
transcontinental railroad played a key role in populating and developing huge tracts of land in North America, as did the Trans-
Siberian Railway in Asia.
TASK 5. You are going to read an extract from an article about the Greek philosopher Socrates. For questions 41-50, choose from
the sections (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once.
In which section are the following mentioned?
96. relationships between people in Socrates’ time
97. the continuing importance of Socrates’ beliefs
98. the writer’s theory concerning what happened to Socrates
99. why little is known about Socrates as a man
100. how the witer set about getting information relevant to Socrates
101. the difference between common perceptions of Socrates and what he was really like
102. an aim that Socrate was critical of
103. the realization that finding out about Socrates was a difficult task
104. how well known Socrates was during his time
105. an issue that Socrates considered in great detail
Seeking Socrates
It may be more than 2,400 years since his death, but the Greek philosopher can still teach us a thing or two about leading “the
good life”. Bettany Hughes digs deeper.
A. Sharing breakfast with an award-winning author in an Edinburgh hotel a few years back, the conversation came round to
what I was writing next. “A book on Socrates” I mumbled through my muesli. “Socrates!” he exclaimed. “What a brilliant
doughnut subject. Really rich and succulent with a great hole in the middle where the central character should be” I felt my
smile fade because, of course, he was right. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, might be one of the most famous thinkers of all
time, but, as far as we know, he wrote not a single word down. Born in Athens in 469B.C, condemned to death by a
democratic Athenian court in 399B.C, Socrates philosophized freely for close on half a century. Then he was found guilty of
corrupting the young and of disrespecting the city’s traditional gods. His punishment? Lethal hemlock poison in a small prison
cell. We don’t have Socrates’ personal archive; and we don’t even know where he was buried. So, for many, he has come to
seem aloof and nebulous- a daunting intellectual figure-always just out of reach.
B. But that is a crying shame. Put simply, we think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did. His famous
aphorism, “the unexamined life is not worth living”, is a central tenet for modern times. His philosophies-24 centuries old- are
also remarkably relevant today. Socrates was acutely aware of the dangers of excess and overindulgence. He berated his
peers for a selfish pursuit of material gain. He questioned the value of going to fight under an ideological the value of going to
fight under an ideological banner of “democracy”. What is the point of city walls, warships and glittering statues, he asked, if
we are not happy? The pursuit of happiness is one of the political pillars of the West. We care entering what has been
describes as “an age of empathy”. So Socrates’forensic, practical investigation of how to lead “the good life” is more
illuminating, more necessary than ever.
C. Rather than being some kind of remote, tunic-clad beardy who wandered around classical columns, Socrates was a man of
the streets. The philosopher tore through Athens like a tornado, drinking, partying, sweating in the gym as hard as, if not
harder than the next man. For him, philosophy was essential to human life. His mission: to find the best way to live on earth.
As Cicero, the Roman author, perceptively put it: “Socrates brought philosophy down from the skies”. And so to try to put him
back on to the streets he loved and where his philosophy belonged, I have spent 10 years investigating the eastern
Mediterranean landscape to find clues of his life and the “Golden Age of Athens”. Using the latest archaeology, newly
discovered historical sources, and the accounts of his key followers, Plato and Xenophone, I have endeavoured to create a
Socrates-shaped space, in the glittering city of 500BC Athens- ready for the philosopher to inhabit.
D. The street jargon used to describe the Athens of Socrates’ day gives us a sense of its character. His hometown was known
as “sleek”, “oily”, “violet-crowned”, “busybody” Athens. Lead curse tablets left in drains, scribbled down by those in the
world’s first true democracy, show that however progressive fifth-century Athenians were, their radical political experiment-
allowing the demos (the people) to have kratos (power)- did not do away with personal rivalries and grudges. Far from it. In
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 6
fact, in the city where every full citizen was a potent politician, backbiting and cliquery came to take on epic proportions. By
the time of his death Socrates was caught up in this crossfire.
E. His life story is a reminder that the word “democracy” is not a magic wand. It does not automatically vaporize all ills. This was
Socrates’ beef, too- a society can only be good not because of the powerful words it bandies around, but thanks to the moral
backbone of each and every individual within it. But Athenians became greedy, they overreached themselves, and lived to
see their city walls torn down by their Spartan enemies, and their radical democracy democratically voted out of existence.
The city state needed someone to blame. High-profile, maddening, eccentric, freethinking, free-speaking Socrates was a
good target. Socrates seems to me to be democracy’s scapegoat. He was condemned because, in fragile times, anxious
political masses want certainties-not the eternal questions that Socrates asked of the world around him.
SKILL: WRITING (60 PTS)
TASK 1. Summarize the following passage in within about 100-120 words. (15 PTS)
Nanotechnology is a new field of applied science. It is an effort to create very tiny machines on a nano scale. A nano is a unit of
measurement which stands for ten to the negative power of nine. It is used to describe very small things.
One example of nanotechnology in modern use is the making of polymers. These are based on molecular structure. Another is the
design of computer chip layouts. These are based on surface science.
At the nano-size level, the properties of many materials change. For example, copper changes from opaque to clear. Solid gold
becomes liquid at room temperature. Insulators like silicon become conductors. All of these activities open up many potential
risks.
Due to their altered states, nano particles become more mobile. They are also more likely to react with other things. There are
four ways for nano particles to enter the human body. They can be inhaled, swallowed, absorbed through the skin, or injected.
Once these particles are in the body, they are highly mobile.
In fact, the way these particles react inside living things is still not fully understood. But scientists guess that these tiny objects
could easily overload defensive cells. This would weaken a body's defenses against diseases. Humans could easily lose control of
particles this size. This would lead to mass epidemics that would cause widespread disease and death.
Another concern about nanotechnology is of the environmental risks. One report details the possible disaster of the Earth being
covered in a gray, sticky substance. This terrible event is attributed to the unrestrained self-replication of microscopic robots.
These robots are called nanobots and are able to control themselves.
Therefore, scientists need to collect much more data before they are allowed to create and release nanobots. They should be
highly regulated by laws that only allow licensed scientists to do safe experiments.
TASK 2. Graph description. (15 PTS)
The bar chart below gives information about the percentage of the population living in urban areas in different parts of the world.
Summaries the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.
100
90
80
70
60
50 1950
2007
40
2050
30
20
10
0
Africa Asia Europe Latin America North America Oceania
Changes in percentage of population in urban areas
Compiled: Nguyễn Tuấn Hưng Tele: 0967 406 548 Social: facebook.com/hungnguyen24699 C1+ Test 7