Tổ chức The Gifted Battlefield

Nhiệm kỳ 2023-2024

DỰ ÁN CHICKEN MINDS KỲ THI THỬ TUYỂN SINH LỚP 10 THPT CHUYÊN

BAN CHUYÊN MÔN TIẾNG ANH NĂM HỌC 2024 – 2025

ĐỀ THI THỬ ĐỢT 2

Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH (chuyên) SỐ PHÁCH

Thời gian: 150 phút (không kể thời gian giao đề)
Ngày thi: 28/4/2024
Đề thi gồm có 11 trang

• Thí sinh làm bài vào Phiếu trả lời (Answer sheet).
• Chỉ những câu trả lời được ghi tại Phiếu trả lời (Answer sheet) mới được chấm điểm.
• Thí sinh KHÔNG được sử dụng tài liệu, kể cả từ điển.
• Giám thị KHÔNG giải thích gì thêm.

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
• Do not open this question paper until you are told to do so.
• Write your name, date and place of birth, exam room number and candidate number on your answer sheet.
• Read the instructions for each part of the paper carefully. Answer all the questions. Only answers that follow the instructions
will be counted for marking.
• Read the instructions on the answer sheet. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your
answer sheet. Use a pen, not a pencil.
• You must complete the answer sheet within the time limit.
• At the end of the test, hand in both this question paper and your answer sheet.

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES

There are 3 sections and 100 questions in this paper.
• Section I: Reading consists of 5 parts and questions 1 – 35.
o Each question carries one point.
• Section II: Use of English consists of 4 parts and questions 36 – 90.
o Questions 36 – 55 carry half a point each.
o Questions 56 – 85 carry one point each.
o Questions 86 – 90 carry up to one point each.
• Section III: Key word transformation consists of questions 91 – 100.
o Each question carries up to two points.

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I. READING (35 points)

Part 1. For questions 1-7, read the text below and write the letter A, B, C or D in the corresponding numbered boxes provided
on your answer sheet to indicate the answer that best fits each gap. (7 points)

‘A mystical experience’: millions watch total solar eclipse sweep across North America
The (1) ________ spectacle of a total solar eclipse swept across North America on Monday afternoon, giving tens of
millions of people in Mexico, the US and Canada a once-in-a-(2) ________ chance to catch (3) ________ of a rare and dazzling
celestial show.
Almost 32 million people were in the path of totality as the moon’s shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border at lunchtime
and (4) ________ 15 states over the next hour and a half, (5) ________ many, especially in the south and midwest, were denied
a clear view by low clouds and rain.
Those who did get to gain first-hand experience of it were treated to a remarkable and surprisingly emotional display that
isn’t to be seen in the US until 2044. Cities were (6) ________ into sudden darkness, chilled by a (7) ________ drop in temperature,
and felt the stillness of twilight in the middle of the day.

1. A. ethereal B. eccentric C. quaint D. suspicious

2. A. lifespan B. lifetime C. million D. generation
3. A. glimpses B. glances C. sight D. eyes
4. A. moved B. wandered C. bobbed D. traversed
5. A. despite B. inasmuch as C. although D. however
6. A. blackened B. plunged C. shadowed D. darkened
7. A. duplicitous B. calamitous C. precipitous D. circuitous

Part 2. For questions 8-15, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (8 points)
The invention of the printing press and its effects
A. Like any other invention, the printing press came along and had an impact when the right conditions existed at the right time
and place. In this case, that was Europe in the mid 1400s. Like many or most inventions, the printing press was not the result
of just one man's ingenious insight into all the problems involved in creating the printing press. Rather, printing was a
combination of several different inventions and innovations: block printing, rag paper, oil based ink, interchangeable metal type,
and the squeeze press.

B. If one process started the chain reaction of events that led to the invention of the printing press, it was the rise of towns in
Western Europe that sparked trade with the world beyond all the way to China. That trade exposed Europeans to three things
important for the invention of the printing press: rag paper, block printing, and, oddly enough, the Black Death.

C. For centuries the Chinese had been making rag paper, which was made from a pulp of water and discarded rags that was then
pressed into sheets of paper. When the Arabs met the Chinese at the battle of the Talas River in 751 A.D., they captured several
people skilled in making such paper. The technology spread gradually across the Muslim world, up through Spain and into
Western Europe by the late 1200s. The squeeze press used in pressing the pulp into sheets of paper would also lend itself to
pressing print evenly onto paper.

D. The Black Death, which itself spread to Western Europe thanks to expanded trade routes, also greatly catalysed the invention
of the printing press. First of all, the survivors of the Black Death inherited the property of those who did not survive, so that
even peasants found themselves a good deal richer. Since the textile industry was the most developed industry in Western
Europe at that time, people spent their new money largely on new clothes. However, clothes wear out, leaving rags. As a result,
fourteenth century Europe had plenty of rags to make into rag paper, which was much cheaper than the parchment (sheepskin)
and vellum (calfskin) used to make books until then.

E. But the Black Death had also killed off many of the monks who copied the books, since the crowded conditions in the monasteries
had contributed to an unusually high mortality rate. One result of this was that the cost of copying books rose drastically while
the cost of paper was dropping. Many people considered this unacceptable and looked for a better way to copy books. Thus the
Black Death and rag paper combined to create both lots of cheap paper plus an incentive for the invention of the printing press.

F. Block printing, carved on porcelain, had existed for centuries before making its way to Europe. Some experiments with
interchangeable copper type had been carried out in Korea. However, Chinese printing did not advance beyond that, possibly
because the Chinese writing system used thousands of characters. For centuries after its introduction into Europe, block printing

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still found little use. What people needed was a movable type made of a durable material such as metal. And here again, the
revival of towns and trade played a major role, since it stimulated a mining boom, especially in Germany, along with better
techniques for working metals, including soft metals such as gold and copper. It was a goldsmith from Mainz, Germany, Johannes
Gutenberg, who created a durable and interchangeable metal type that allowed him to print many different pages, using the
same letters over and over again in different combinations. It was also Gutenberg who combined all these disparate elements
of movable type, rag paper, the squeeze press, and oil based inks to invent the first printing press in 1451.

G. The printing press had dramatic effects on European civilisation. Its immediate effect was that it spread information quickly and
accurately. This helped create a wider literate reading public. However, its importance lay not just in how it spread information
and opinions, but also in what sorts of information and opinions it was spreading. More and more books of a secular nature were
printed, with especially profound results in science. Scientists working on the same problem in different parts of Europe especially
benefited, since they could print the results of their work and share it accurately with a large number of other scientists. They
in turn could take that accurately reproduced information, work with it and advance knowledge and understanding further.
Importantly, the printing press also took book copying out of the hands of the Church and made it much harder for the Church
to control or censor what was being written.

H. Some people go as far as to say that the printing press is the most important invention between the invention of writing itself
and the computer. Although it is impossible to justify that statement to everyone's satisfaction, one can safely say that the
printing press has been one of the most powerful inventions of the modern era. It has advanced and spread knowledge and
moulded public opinion in a way that nothing before the advent of television and radio in the twentieth century could rival.

For questions 8-12, choose the correct heading for sections C-G from the list of headings (i-x) provided. Write the correct
number i-x in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet.

i. A motivation for developing the printing press

ii. Large numbers of deaths throughout society
iii. The reason for an abundance of source material
8. Section C
iv. The influence of China
9. Section D
v. How the quality and quantity of information available changed
10. Section E
vi. Why people learnt to read
11. Section F
vii. The technology travels
12. Section G
viii. How trade encouraged invention
ix. The disadvantages of different type faces
x. Putting it all together

For questions 13-15, read the following diagram and fill in each blank with NO MORE THAN ONE WORD taken from the
passage. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet.

helped to squash the pulp into

(14) ________

Rag paper – produced from

A (13) ________ press
the pulp of rags and water

enabled the production of

(15) ________ printed paper

Part 3. For questions 16-22, read an extract from a textbook and write A, B, C or D in the corresponding numbered boxes
provided on your answer sheet to indicate the answer which fits best according to the text. (7 points)
BROADCASTING: THE SOCIAL SHAPING OF A TECHNOLOGY
'Broadcasting' originally meant sowing seeds broadly, by hand. It is, in other words, not only an agricultural metaphor, it
is also one of optimistic modernism. It is about planned growth in the widest possible circles, the production, if the conditions are

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right, of a rich harvest. The metaphor presupposes a bucket of seeds at the centre of the activity, i.e. the existence of centralised
resources intended and suited for spreading – and reproduction. The question to be looked into is why a new technology that
transmitted words and pictures electronically was organised in a way that made this agricultural metaphor seem adequate.
Since television as a technology is related to various two-way forms of communication, such as the telegraph and the
telephone, it is all the more striking that, from its very early days, it was envisaged as a centralised 'mass' medium. However,
transmission to private homes from some centralised unit was simply in keeping with both socio-economic structures and the
dominant ways of life in modern and modernising societies. Attempts or experiments with other forms of organisation in the long
run remained just that – attempts and experiments. Two little-known, distinct alternatives deserve mentioning since they highlight
what television might have been – in a different social context.
Experiments with two-way television as a possible replacement for the ordinary telephone were followed up, so to speak,
by radio amateurs in Britain in the early 1930s. Various popular science journals, such as Radio News, had detailed articles about
how to construct television transmitters and receivers and, throughout the 1930s, experimenting amateurs were active in many parts
of the country. But Big Business, represented by the British Radio Manufacturers Association, in 1938 agreed upon standards for
television equipment and channel regulations which drove the grass-roots activists out. And so there passed, at least in Britain, the
historical 'moment' for a counter-cultural development of television as a widely diffused, grass-roots, egalitarian form of
communication.
Broadcasting in some form was, however, tied not only to strong economic interests, but also to the deep structures of
modern societies. In spite of the activities of TV amateurs, television was also primarily a medium for theatrical exhibition in the
USA in the early 1930s, and as such often thought to be a potential competitor of the film industry. In fact, television was throughout
the 1930s predominantly watched in public settings also outside of the USA. For example, in Britain, public viewing of television
was the way in which most early audiences actually experienced the medium and this was even more the case in Germany. While
the vision of grass-roots or amateur, two-way television was quite obviously doomed to a very marginal position at the very best,
television systems largely based on collective public reception were in fact operating in several countries in the 1930s and may,
with the benefit of hindsight, be seen as having presented more of a threat to the domestication of the medium. But it was a threat
that was not to materialise.
Manufacturers saw the possibilities for mass sales of domestic sets as soon as the price could be reduced, and given the
division and relation between the public and private domains fundamental to modernity, centralised broadcasting to a dispersed
domestic audience was clearly the most adequate organisation of the medium. As working-class people achieved improved standards
of living and entered 'consumer' society from about the 1920s onwards, the dreams of the home as a fully equipped centre for
entertainment and diverse cultural experiences became realisable for the majority of inhabitants of Western nation-states. And all
of this is now also happening on a global scale.
There is a clear relationship between the basic processes of social modernisation and the dominant structures of
broadcasting. While social and economic modernisation meant increasing centralisation and concentration of capital and political
power, the break-up of traditional communities produced new ways of life. Mobility was both social and geographical, and both
forms implied that individuals and households were, both literally and metaphorically, 'on the move' in ways that left them relatively
isolated compared to people in much more stable early communities. Centralised broadcasting was both an answer to the need felt
by central government to reach all citizens with important information efficiently, and a highly useful instrument in the production
of the harmonising, stabilising 'imagined community' of the nation-state.
The pervasiveness of these structured processes and interests rendered broadcasting the 'naturally' victorious organisation
of both radio and television. What is left out here is the more positive view of broadcasting as a social form suitable also for
democracy. In the formation of broadcasting policies between the World Wars, the interest in broadcasting as a means of securing
equal access to resources necessary for conscious, informed and autonomous participation in political, social and cultural life played
a very important role in many countries. Of course television is changing, and there is the risk that the very term broadcasting
becomes outmoded or at least inadequate. In which case, this metaphor will be seen only as referring to a particular organisation of
audio-visual technology during a certain centralised phase of social modernisation.
16. In the metaphor explored by the writer in the first paragraph, what does the “ bucket of seeds” (line 3) represent?
A. planned growth (line 2, paragraph 1) B. a rich harvest (line 3, paragraph 1)
C. the center of the activity (line 3, paragraph 1) D. centralized resources (line 3, paragraph 1)

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17. In the second paragraph, the writer believes that the development of television
A. was reflective of other social trends. B. was similar to the results of previous experiments.
C. was overshadowed by other technologies. D. was hindered by socioeconomic constraints.
18. The writer regards the experiments conducted by radio amateurs in the 1930s as
A. attempts to establish a more effective means of communication than the telephone.
B. investigations into the commercial potential of television technology.
C. a breakthrough in the development of new types of television transmitters.
D. a missed opportunity to use television technology in a different way.
19. The writer contends that public viewings of TV in the 1930s
A. encountered vehement opposition from the film industry.
B. might have provided an alternative to the way broadcasting developed.
C. were limited to small audiences outside the USA.
D. paled in comparison with the experiments involving two-way television.
20. Transmission to people’s home became a dominant feature of television because
A. television audiences were seen as potential consumers of advertised goods.
B. it became possible to manufacture televisions on a domestic scale.
C. it was an effective way of delivering the programme schedules that people wanted.
D. changes in society had created a demand for this.
21. In the sixth paragraph, the writer says that the authorities saw broadcasting as a means of
A. accelerating the process of modernisation. B. counteracting social upheaval.
C. controlling the information that people received. D. expanding their sphere of political influence.
22. In the final paragraph, what does the writer say he has omitted from his earlier analysis?
A. The resources needed to operate a broadcasting service. B. The capacity of broadcasting to empower individuals.
C. The factors that motivate people in the broadcasting industry. D. The strength of the hidden agendas behind broadcasting.

Part 4. In the passage below, six sentences have been removed. For questions 23-28, read the passage and choose from
the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap. There are TWO extra sentences which you do not need to use. Write the
correct letter A-H in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet. (6 points)

The corporation cashing in on America’s drought

One of the biggest battles over Colorado River water is being staged in one of the US West’s smallest rural enclaves.

Tucked into the bends of the lower Colorado River, Cibola, Arizona, is a community of about 200 people. Maybe 300, if you
count the weekenders who come to boat and hunt. (23) ________

Nearly a decade ago, Greenstone Resource Partners LLC, a private company backed by global investors, bought almost 500
acres of agricultural land here in Cibola. (24) ________ More than 2,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River once used to
irrigate farmland is now flowing, through a canal system, to the taps of homes more than 200 miles away.

An investigation into the unprecedented water transfer, and how it took shape, reveals that Greenstone strategically
purchased land and influence to advance the deal. (25) ________

Experts expect that such transfers will become more common as thirsty towns across the west seek increasingly scarce
water. The climate crisis and chronic overuse have sapped the Colorado River watershed, leaving cities and farmers alike to contend
with shortages. (26) ________

As US states negotiate how they will divvy up the river’s dwindling supplies, officials challenging the Greenstone transfer in
court fear it will open the floodgates to many more private water sales, allowing investors to profit from scarcity. (27) ________

“Here we are in the middle of a drought and trying to preserve the Colorado River, and we’re allowing water to be transferred
off of the river,” said Regina Cobb, a former Republican state representative who has tried to limit transfers. “And in the process,
we’re picking winners and losers.”

In February, a federal judge ruled that the Cibola-Queen Creek transfer was done without proper environmental review,
ordering the federal Bureau of Reclamation to complete a more thorough evaluation. (28) ________

Meanwhile, Greenstone – which appears to be the first water brokerage firm to sell rights to the Colorado River – could help
chart the course of how the resource can be bought and sold in the west.

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Missing sentences:
A. “With ongoing shortages on the river, driven by climate change, Colorado River water is going to become very valuable at this
stage,” said Rhett Larson, a professor of water law at Arizona State University.

B. The US Department of Justice, due to represent the bureau in the legal proceeding, declined to comment on whether the bureau
would be appealing the decision.

C. In a first-of-its-kind deal, the company recently sold the water rights tied to the land to the town of Queen Creek, a suburb of
Phoenix, for a $14m gross profit.

D. Dusty shrublands run into sleepy residential streets, which run into neat fields of cotton and alfalfa.

E. The company was able to do so by exploiting the arcane water policies governing the Colorado River.

F. The process of selling and transferring the water, however, can be bureaucratic and complicated; in most cases, a company like
Greenstone would have to first convince fellow landowners in their local irrigation district to allow the sale then secure approvals
from the state department of water resources and the US Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency managing water in the
West.

G. The purchases have alarmed local residents, who worry that water speculators scavenging agricultural land for valuable water
rights will leave rural communities like Cibola in the dust.

H. Amid a deepening drought and declines in the river’s reservoirs, Greenstone and firms like it have been discreetly acquiring
thousands of acres of farmland.

Part 5. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 29-35, read the passage and choose
from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra paragraph which you do not need to use. Write
the correct letter A-H in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet. (7 points)

How JWST revolutionized astronomy in 2022

The far-seeing observatory has served up revelations from the most distant reaches of the Universe to a moon orbiting Saturn.

The crowd in the auditorium began murmuring, then gasping, as Emma Curtis-Lake put her slides up on the screen. “Amazing!”
someone blurted out. Curtis-Lake, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, was showing off some of the first results
on distant galaxies from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

It was not the last time astronomers started chattering in excitement this week as they gazed at the telescope's initial discoveries,
at a symposium held at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland.

29

JWST launched on 25 December 2021 as the most expensive, most delayed and most complicated space observatory ever built.
Astronomers held their breath as the US$10-billion machine went through a complex six-month engineering deployment in deep
space, during which hundreds of potential failures could have seriously damaged it. But it works — and spectacularly so. “I feel
really lucky to be alive as a scientist to work with this amazing telescope,” says Laura Kreidberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck
Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

30

Many early galaxies spotted by JWST are brighter, more diverse and better formed than astronomers had anticipated. “It seems
like the early Universe was a very profound galaxy-maker,” says Steven Finkelstein, an astronomer at the University of Texas at
Austin.

31

In closer regions of the cosmos, JWST is yielding results on star formation and evolution, thanks to its sharp resolution and infrared
vision. “Compared to what we can see with Hubble, the amount of details that you see in the Universe, it’s completely mind-
blowing,” says Lamiya Mowla, an astronomer at the University of Toronto in Canada. Thanks to the telescope's keen vision, she
and her colleagues were able to spot bright ‘sparkles’ around a galaxy that they dubbed the Sparkler; the sparkles turned out to

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be some of the oldest star clusters ever discovered. Other studies have unveiled details such as the hearts of galaxies where
monster black holes lurk.

32

JWST has even made its first planet discovery: a rocky Earth-sized planet that orbits a nearby cool star, Kevin Stevenson at the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, told the meeting.

33

Yet all these discoveries are but a taste of what JWST could ultimately do to change astronomy. “It’s premature to really have a
full picture of its ultimate impact,” says Klaus Pontoppidan, JWST project scientist at STScI. Researchers have just begun to
recognize JWST’s powers, such as its ability to probe details in the spectra of light from astronomical objects.

34

Amid all the good news, there are still glitches. Primary among them is a lack of funding to support scientists working on JWST
data, says López-Morales. “We can do the science, we have the skills, we are developing the tools, we are going to make
groundbreaking discoveries but on a very thin budget,” she says. “Which is not ideal right now.”

35

But overall the telescope is opening up completely new realms of astronomy, says Rowe-Gurney: “It’s the thing that’s going to
answer all the questions that my PhD was trying to find.”

Missing paragraphs:
A. Some of these initial findings are being revised as data calibrations improve, and many of the early claims about distant
galaxies await confirmation by spectroscopic studies of the galaxies’ light. But astronomers including Curtis-Lake announced
on 9 December that they have already nailed spectroscopic confirmation of two galaxies that are farther away than any ever
previously confirmed.

B. López-Morales chairs a committee that represents astronomers who use JWST, and their to-do list is long. It includes
surveying scientists about whether all of the telescope’s data should be freely available as soon as it is collected — a move
that many say would disadvantage early-career scientists and those at smaller institutions who do not have the resources to
pounce on and analyse JWST data right away. Telescope operators are also working on a way to get its data to flow more
efficiently to Earth through communication dishes, and to fly it in a physical orientation that reduces the risk of micro-
meteoroids smashing into and damaging its primary mirror.

C. First out of the floodgate, in July, came a rush of preprints on the early evolution of galaxies. The expansion of the Universe
has stretched distant galaxies’ light to infrared, the wavelengths that JWST captures. That allows the telescope to observe
faraway galaxies — including several so distant that they appear as they did just 350 million to 400 million years after the Big
Bang, which happened 13.8 billion years ago.

D. The telescope has also proved its worth for studying objects in Earth's celestial neighbourhood. At the symposium,
astronomer Geronimo Villanueva at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, showed new images of
Saturn's moon Enceladus. Scientists knew that Enceladus has a buried ocean whose water sometimes squirts out of fractures
in its icy crust, but JWST revealed that the water plume envelops the entire moon and well beyond. Separately, engineers
have also figured out a way to get JWST to track rapidly moving objects, such as Solar System planets, much better than
expected. That led to new studies such as observations of the DART spacecraft’s deliberate crash into an asteroid in
September, says Naomi Rowe-Gurney, an astronomer also at Goddard.

E. Using the new JWST, astronomers have spotted two leading contenders for what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen.
Both surfaced in the scrum of preliminary results that were posted online as preprints in the weeks after the telescope’s
science operations began in July. After going through extensive scrutiny, including re-evaluation owing to updated
calibration of the telescope, the results are now some of the first JWST findings on the early Universe to be published in peer-
reviewed reports.

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F. In just its first few months of science operations, JWST has delivered stunning insights on heavenly bodies ranging from
planets in the Solar System to stars elsewhere in the cosmos. These discoveries have sharpened researchers’ eagerness to
take more advantage of the observatory’s capabilities. Scientists are now crafting new proposals for what the telescope
should do in its second year, even as they scramble for funding and debate whether the telescope's data should be fully
open-access.

G. Applications are now open for astronomers to pitch their ideas for observations during JWST’s second year of operations,
which starts in July. The next round could result in more ambitious or creative proposals to use the telescope now that
astronomers know what it is capable of, Pontoppidan says.

H. Another burst of JWST discoveries comes from studies of exoplanet atmospheres, which the telescope can scrutinize in
unprecedented detail. For instance, when scientists saw the first JWST data from the exoplanet WASP-39b, signals from a
range of compounds, such as water, leapt right out. “Just looking at it was like, all the answers were in front of us,” says
Mercedes López-Morales, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Now scientists are keenly anticipating data about other planets including the seven Earth-sized worlds that
orbit the star TRAPPIST-1. Early results on two of the TRAPPIST-1 planets, reported at the symposium, suggest that JWST is
more than capable of finding atmospheres there, though the observations will take more time to analyse.

II. USE OF ENGLISH (45 points)

Part 1. For questions 36-55, write the letter A, B, C or D in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer
sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions. (10 points)
36. My mom suggested _________ at Pizza Hut on Saturday.
A. us to eat out B. to us that we eat out C. us that we eat out D. to us our eating out
37. We should buy a little bit more milk – that will certainly save ________ again in the weekend.
A. us to shop B. that we shop C. that we will shop D. us shopping
38. The student’s essay, ________ from perfect, provides a very rigorous analysis of the events leading to Liz Truss’s resignation
as British prime minister.
A. when far B. while far C. far however D. whereas far
39. It has been observed that ________ years or so, the country’s property prices rise dramatically.
A. once every dozen B. every other dozen C. once every dozen of D. each other dozen
40. Art has always been a variously defined concept, but some items and activities in our environment _________ as somehow
more "art" than others.
A. stand out conspicuously B. stand out in a conspicuous way
C. stand out D. are conspicuous for how they stand out
41. The Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta, author of The Joy of Motherhood, moved to England in _________.
A. 1962, since which she has lived in North London B. 1962 and lived since then in North London
C. 1962, since then she has lived in North London D. 1962 and has lived since then in North London
42. My mathematics teacher was _________ anyone could have had. He took pains to ensure that all of us understood the lesson.
A. too patient a teacher that B. so patient a teacher as
C. such a patient teacher that D. as patient a teacher as
43. He looks like he’s on the verge of dying. _________ a doctor?
A. Hadn’t you better sending B. Hadn’t you better send
C. Hadn’t you better to send D. Wouldn’t you better to send
44. Given his lack of motivation, it’s possible that he’ll fail the statistics exam in July, ________ he’ll probably re-sit it next year.
A. at which point B. in which case C. by which time D. at which time
45. Joanna: Tell May that I’ll leave tomorrow.
Carl: I’m afraid she _________ at once.
A. had rather you’ll leave B. would rather you’ll leave C. would rather you left D. had rather you left
46. _________, creative interests are put to one side as we struggle with our academic subjects.
A. As often happens with young people B. Often happening with young people
C. Often does it happen to young people D. Often happening to young people
47. Mom: Hurry up, James! We’ll be late!
James: Wait for me! I’ll be there in the ________ of an eye.
A. sparkling B. twinkling C. bubbling D. sleeping

Kỳ thi thử tuyển sinh lớp 10 THPT chuyên – Đợt 2 – Năm học 2024-2025
8
Môn thi: Tiếng Anh (chuyên) – Ngày làm bài thi: 28/4/2024
 Tổ chức The Gifted Battlefield
Nhiệm kỳ 2023-2024

48. Don't be scared to ________ your mind. We are more than willing to receive your constructive feedback to improve the quality
of our services.
A. talk B. speak C. give D. tell
49. Having received good marks for his midterms, he was as happy as the ________ is long.
A. week B. day C. night D. month
50. After their parents' death, she ________ to the occasion and became a mother figure to her younger brother.
A. stepped B. lifted C. rose D. surged
51. The backlog of work to do after my vacation is enormous. I have to ________ later than my co-workers to try to finish everything.
A. brush off B. walk off C. stave off D. knock off
52. The installation of CCTV across the city center will hopefully act as a strong ________ to anyone tempted to commit vandalism.
A. constraint B. restriction C. deterrent D. boundary
53. The media blew the story out of ________. Barely half of what was reported really happened.
A. scale B. proportion C. hand D. control
54. The extensive winds that have been ________ Florida will move away as the weekend draws to a close.
A. battering B. punching C. cracking D. thumping
55. Attempting to ________ memories from her childhood, Emily closed her eyes and immersed herself in the scent of the old family
recipe cooking in the kitchen.
A. draw up B. conjure up C. make up D. slip up

Part 2. For questions 56-65, read the text below and use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a
word that fits in the space in the same line. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your
answer sheet. (10 points)

News – By the People, For the People

The 21st century is witnessing a shift in the way news is reported and consumed, away from
established norms toward a more fluid social (56) ________ that thrives on the interactive use of assorted 56. ORGANIZE
media. It is no longer uncommon for people to get their news directly from internet news sites, which often
include video footage and reader commentary alongside conventional news articles. What is surprising,
however, is the growing (57) ________ of grassroots journalism, where amateur reporters using simple, 57. PREVALENT
inexpensive equipment write about and display photos of events they experience (58) ________. 58. HAND
Photos and (59) ________ accounts of important events by citizen journalists are often uploaded to 59. WITNESS
the Net before news crews and reporters can arrive at the scene. Sites like YouTube.com are (60) ________ 60. FRIEND
and allow millions of people access to (61) ________ videos within moments of a posting. Thousands of 61. HOME
news-based blogs crowd the Web with everything from social commentary to political satire.
The (62) ________ cellphone camera and personal computer have given Everyman a voice, and 62. UBIQUITY
the mainstream media seem to be taking notice. In an age when any news item can be cross-checked with
the simple click of a button, editorial desks are subject to even greater (63) ________ and newsrooms are 63. ACCOUNT
forced to respond to reader preferences in order to remain competitive in a (64) ________ market. Several 64. BURGEON
established news outlets have tried to harness the momentum generated by citizen journalists by hosting
interactive websites where members can upload (65) ________ news. This serves the double purpose of 65. MINUTE
providing the host with news tips, and linking readers to other articles within the site that have been written
by its own journalists.

Part 3. For questions 66-85, read the texts below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE word in
each space. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet. (20 points)
PASSAGE 1
The history of hot air balloons has (66) ________ a long way, dating back to 1783. The first hot air balloon to be launched
into the air was called 'Aerostat Reveillon’, with three animals as passengers. It wasn’t until two months later that the first (67)
________ attempt occurred, made by two French passengers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier.
With (68) ________ engine to supply power, the hot air balloon is completely at the (69) ________ of the wind to move in
any direction. As the weight of hot air is lighter than (70) ________ of cold air, the balloon manages to lift passengers off the ground.
However, due to the risk of burning things while providing heat, the hot air balloon soon fell out of (71) ________ after 150 years.

Kỳ thi thử tuyển sinh lớp 10 THPT chuyên – Đợt 2 – Năm học 2024-2025
9
Môn thi: Tiếng Anh (chuyên) – Ngày làm bài thi: 28/4/2024
 Tổ chức The Gifted Battlefield
Nhiệm kỳ 2023-2024

It's fascinating how the evolution of the hot air balloon has returned to its starting (72) ________. In the beginning, the first
balloonists (73) ________ materials onboard the balloon to generate heat to propel the envelope (74) ________ the air. However,
as helium models, which were considered risk-free, became popular, the previous approach went obsolete. It is (75) ________ within
the last 60 years that the hot air balloon has evoked interest.
PASSAGE 2
On a Friday afternoon in a huge open-plan (76) ________ in a customer call centre located in a windy business park, twenty
minutes from the nearest shop, (77) ________ is the subdued murmur of concerned customer (78) ________ representatives
handling confused, demanding, anxious customers. Their patience does not falter. It is hard, emotional labour for all 1,700
representatives and it goes on for eight-hour shifts with half an hour for lunch and two fifteen-minute breaks. It requires them to set
(79) ________ every aspect of their character except an obliging, cheerful, nothing-is-any-trouble manner. How do you motivate
someone to be that patient on (80) ________ is a very low starting salary? The answer is the brand: if your employees love the brand
they'll work much, much harder.
Brands in the past decade have (81) ________ from being solely about the relationship between producer and (82)
________ to becoming one of the most important tools to manage your workforce. The (83) ________ customers are as important
an audience for the brand as the external customers – you not only sell the brand to the (84) ________, you are also selling it to your
workforce, constantly. Here, desks are decorated with positive thinking slogans; the teams of twelve take all their breaks together
and social committees organise riotous evenings out. The goal is to turn every employee into a brand (85) ________, and what the
management want now from their workforce is passionate loyalty.

Part 4. For questions 86-90, identify the five errors in the following passage and correct them. Write your answers in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet. (5 points)

Line Passage

1 Some years ago, a book was published called The Romantic Story of Scent. On the jacket, it said that since it
2 was almost impossible to describe a fragrance in words, the readers had given the scents themselves. Eighteen labels
3 on the jacket flaps corresponded to the eighteen scents described – just scratch and sniff. Personally, I think the resultant
4 conflict of odours were likely to be unbearable.
5 It is very well saying that this sort of thing will be limited to cookery books, encyclopaedias of wild flowers and
6 the likes, but sooner or later some clown will commission a history of those hot dog stands that infest London, the stench
7 from which is detectable a hundred metres away.
8 I believe that some theatrical and film producers, in a misguided attempt to add realism to the work on offer,
9 have tried pumping the appropriate artificial smells into the auditorium, as called for by the story, only finding their plan
10 going badly awry. In one case, they had failed to devise any means of removing each smell from the place before the
11 next one was due, so that as the heroine was unwrapping an exquisite flower, the audience was still being regaled with
12 the fish that had been consumed in the previous scene.

III. KEY WORD TRANSFORMATION (20 points)

For questions 91-100, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word given
in brackets. Do not change the word given. You must use between THREE AND TEN WORDS, including the word given.
Write ONLY THE MISSING WORDS in the corresponding numbered boxes provided on your answer sheet.
91. The proposal is unlikely to meet with the managers' approval unless the cost is greatly reduced. (PROBABLY)
Without a reject the proposal.

92. The plan did not become a complete failure because he stressed the importance of safety. (INSISTENCE)
But completely.

93. The distinct possibility of a regional conflict has stoked fears of food shortages. (DISTINCTLY)
That fears of food shortages.

94. I have been told that you have been absent from school without my permission every day for the past two weeks. (BROUGHT)
It has truant every day for the past two weeks.

95. We must always remember that many technological breakthroughs are because of luck. (SIGHT)
On no account a large part in many technological breakthroughs.

Kỳ thi thử tuyển sinh lớp 10 THPT chuyên – Đợt 2 – Năm học 2024-2025
10
Môn thi: Tiếng Anh (chuyên) – Ngày làm bài thi: 28/4/2024
 Tổ chức The Gifted Battlefield
Nhiệm kỳ 2023-2024

96. If you ask me, reading self-help books is a waste of time. (POINT)
As far reading self-help books.

97. Although they are very funny, I always cry in romcoms. (FAIL)
However my eyes.

98. I felt really upset when I realized she had ignored me. (NOTICE)
On sank.

99. She doesn't know that he went to great lengths to be together with her forever. (EARTH)
Unbeknownst to be together with her forever.

100. Jane’s funny jokes always makes Tommy laugh uncontrollably. (ENDS)
So hysterics.

– THE END OF THE TEST –

Kỳ thi thử tuyển sinh lớp 10 THPT chuyên – Đợt 2 – Năm học 2024-2025
11
Môn thi: Tiếng Anh (chuyên) – Ngày làm bài thi: 28/4/2024