Bai so 1
PART ONE: VOCABULARY REVIEW
   Choose the word, or phrase that best completes each unfinished sentence below or that has the same meaning
   as the meaning of the word or phrase in bold. (2 points)
      1                 The new building is a hydrid space suitable for both work and play.
                   A.   beautiful
                   B.   Different
                   C.   mixed-use
      2                 The building’s design is not specialized, So it can easily be adapted to
                        different purposes.
                   A.   made for a particular use
                   B.   Unusual
                   C.   Finished
      3                 City officials intentionally created a place where people could sit and
                        work during their lunch hour in order to create a sense of community.
                   A. deliberately
                   B. Then
                   C. accidentally
      4               A good public space should be safe, neutral, and informal.
                   A. brightly colored
                   B. open for all people
                   C. open only for some people
      5               The city needs to spend more money downtown because many older
                      buildings are in decline.
                   A. getting worse
                   B. being offered for sale
                   C. being used
      6               A community is stronger when people care about each other and form
                      bonds.
                   A. make connections
                   B. work together
                   C. play musical instruments
      7               Customers in many coffee shops never talk to other people there, so they
                      feel isolated.
                   A. Private
                   B. intelligent
                   C. alone
      8               In good public places, people can mingle, getting to know new people if
                      they want.
                   A. sit together
                   B. mix and chat
                  C. make noise
       9             If possible, architects should design places so that visitors encounter a
                     welcoming atmosphere in any public space.
                  A. meet with
                  B. hope for
                  C. appreciate
    10               New public places pop up all the time in growing cities.
                  A. Fail
                  B. get larger
                  C. appear suddenly
PART TWO: READING SKILLS
I. Read the text below in which a word is missing in some of the sentences. Select the best answer from
the four answer choices given to complete the text. Then write the letter A, B, C or D in the answer
box provided. (10x2 = 2 points)
What do you do well? What do you enjoy doing? Your answers to these two questions will
help you identify your (1) ……..…. An employer will consider you seriously for a (2)
……..… when you can show them that you know who you are, what you can offer and
which you have studied. Sometimes it is difficult to know what your weaknesses are. (3)
……..… not everyone is equally good at everything. You may need to improve yourself and
so (4) ……..… courses in that field could turn a weakness into strength. You will need to (5)
……..… some time on your self-assessment. Your honesty and the desire for self-
improvement will lead to (6) ……..… in getting the right job. Explore the following seven
areas to start to get to know yourself: your aptitude, your skills, your personality, the level of
responsibility you feel comfortable with, your interests and your needs. (7) ……..… yourself
if you have any special talents and if you need to consider your physical health when
choosing a job. Be as honest and realistic as you can, and ask for other people's (8) ……..…
if necessary. Make a list of these things. It is usually a good idea to talk about your aptitudes
with teachers, family and friends. If you are considering a career that (9) ……..… a special
talent, such as art, acrobatics, mathematics or music, discuss your aptitudes with an expert in
that area and discover how they (10) ……..… the needs of the occupation.
   1                 Blank 1
                  A. Strengths
                  B. qualifications
                  C. Abilities
     D. Skills
 2      Blank 2
     A. Spot
     B. Location
     C. Position
     D. Region
 3      Blank 3
     A. Clearly
     B. immediately
     C. Suddenly
     D. accidentally
 4      Blank 4
     A. Taking
     B. Meeting
     C. Making
     D. Needing
 5      Blank 5
     A. Take
     B. Spend
     C. Use
     D. Lose
 6      Blank 6
     A. Interest
     B. Trophy
     C. Pride
     D. Success
 7      Blank 7
     A. Ask
     B. Wonder
     C. Tell
     D. Request
 8      Blank 8
     A. Opinions
     B. Expertise
     C. advantages
     D. professions
 9      Blank 9
     A. Leads
     B. Requires
     C. Has
     D. Urges
10      Blank 10
     A. Get
     B. Make
     C. Fit
     D. See
II. Read the passage and, for each question, choose the one best answer - A, B, C or D - based on what is
stated in or on what can be inferred from the passage and write the letter A, B, C or D in the answer box
provided. ( 10 x 0.2 = 2 points )
               Rainforests circle the globe for twenty degrees of latitude on both sides of the equator.
       In that relatively narrow band of the planet, more than half of all the species of plants and
       animals in the world make their home. Several hundred different varieties of trees may grow in
       a single acre, and just one of those trees may be the habitat for more than ten thousand kinds of
       spiders, ants, and other insects. More species of amphibians, birds, insects, mammals, and
       reptiles live in rainforests than anywhere else on earth.
          Unfortunately, half of the world’s rainforests have already been destroyed, and at the current
       rate, another 25 percent will be lost by the year 2000. Scientists estimate that as many as fifty
       million acres are destroyed annually. In other words, every sixty seconds, one hundred acres of
       rainforests is being cleared. By the time you finish reading this passage, two hundred acres will
       have been destroyed! When this happens, constant rains erode the former forest floor, the thin
       layer of soil no longer supports plant life, and the ecology of the region is altered forever.
       Thousands of species of plants and animals are condemned to extinction and, since we aren’t
       able to predict the ramifications of this loss to a delicate global ecology, we don’t know what
       we may be doing to the future of the human species as well.
      1                      What is the point of view that the author expresses in this passage?
                        A.   The author believes that the extinction of species is a natural process.
                        B.   The author believes that the rainforest will survive.
                        C.   The author believes that he can predict the future of global ecology.
                        D.   The author believes that preserving the rainforest is important to the
                             global ecology
      2                      The underlined word “relatively” in paragraph 1 could best be replaced
                             by _____________.
                        A.   comparatively
                        B.   temporarily
                        C.   typically
                        D.   extremely
      3                      According to the passage, more than half of all the species of plants
                             and animals _________________.
                        A.   live in a forty-degree band of latitude
     B. live in twenty rainforests
     C. live in several hundred different varieties of trees
     D. live in areas where the rainforest has been cleared
4       What is the meaning of the underlined word “just” in paragraph 1?
     A. Fairly
     B. Only
     C. correctly
     D. precisely
5       How many of the world’s rainforests were projected to be destroyed in
        2000 ?
     A. All of them.
     B. One-quarter of them.
     C. Three-quarters of them
     D. Half of them.
6       What is the current rate of destruction?
     A. One acre per minute
     B. One hundred acres per minute
     C. One acre per second
     D. Two hundred acres per hour
7       The underlined word “this” in paragraph 2 refers to _____________.
     A. the destruction of the acres
     B. the reading of the passage
     C. the erosion of the forest floor
     D. the constant rains
8       The underlined word “constant” in paragraph 2 could best be replaced
        by which of the following?
     A. natural
     B. useless
     C. continual
     D. Dirty
9       The underlined word “altered” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to
        _____________.
     A. invaded
     B. terminated
     C. harmed
     D. changed
10      What will NOT happen if the rainforest continues to be cleared?
     A. The rainforest will grow, but at a much slower rate.
     B. The land will be eroded by the rains.
     C. Many species of plants and animals that depend on the rainforests will
        become extinct.
     D. The future of the human species may be changed.
III. Read this reading and do what you are required. (10 x 0.4 = 4 points)
                                       LOST FOR WORDS
                          Many minority languages are on the danger list
 A      In the Native American Navajo nation, which sprawls across four states in the American
      south-west, the native language is dying. Most of its speakers are middle-aged or elderly.
      Although many students take classes in Navajo, the schools are run in English. Street signs,
      supermarket goods and even their own newspaper are all in English. Not surprisingly, linguists
      doubt that any native speakers of Navajo will remain in a hundred years’ time.
 B      Navajo is far from alone. Half the world’s 6,800 languages are likely to vanish within two
      generations – that’s one language lost every ten days. Never before has the planet’s linguistic
      diversity shrunk at such a pace. ‘At the moment, we are heading for about three or four
      languages dominating the world,’ says Mark Pagel, and evolutionary biologist at the University
      of Reading. ‘It’s a mass extinction, and whether we will ever rebound from the loss is difficult
      to know.’
 C      Isolation breeds linguistic diversity; as a result, the world is peppered with languages spoken
      by only a few people. Only 250 languages have more than a million speakers, and at least
      3,000 have fewer than 2,500. It is not necessarily these small languages that are about to
      disappear. Navajo is considered endangered despite having 150,000 speakers. What makes a
      language endangered is not just the number of speakers, but how old they are. If it is spoken by
      children it is relatively safe. The critically endangered languages are those that are only spoken
      by the elderly, according to Michael Krauss, director of the Alassk Native Language Center, in
      Fairbanks.
 D     Why do people reject the language of their parents? It begins with a crisis of confidence when
      a small community finds itself alongside a larger, wealthier society, says Nicholas Ostler, of
      Britain’s Foundation for Endangered Languages, in Bath. ‘People lose faith in their culture,’ he
      says. ‘When the next generation reaches their teens, they might not want to be induced into the
      old traditions.’
 E      The change is not always voluntary. Quite often, governments try to kill off a minority
      language by banning its use in public or discouraging its use in schools, all to promote national
      unity. The former US policy of running Indian reservation schools in English, for example,
      effectively put languages such as Navajo on the danger list. But Salikoko Mufwene, who chairs
      the Linguistics department at the University of Chicago, argues that the deadliest weapon is not
      government policy but economic globalization. ‘Native Americans have not lost pride in their
      language, but they have had to adapt to socio-economic pressures,’ he says. ‘They cannot
      refuse to speak English if most commercial activity is in English.’ But are languages worth
      saving? At the very least, there is a loss of data for the study of languages and their evolution,
      which relies on comparisons between languages, both living and dead. When an unwritten and
      unrecorded language disappears, it is lost to science.
 F     Language is also intimately bound up with culture, so it may be difficult to preserve one
      without the other. ‘If a person shifts from Navajo to English, they lose something,’ Mufwene
      says. ‘Moreover, the loss of diversity may also deprive us of different ways of looking at the
         world,’ says Pagel. There is mounting evidence that learning a language produces
         physiological changes in the brain. ‘Your brain and mine are different from the brain of
         someone who speaks French, for instance,’ Pagel says, and this could affect our thoughts and
         perceptions. ‘The patterns and connections we make among various concepts may be
         structured by the linguistic habits of our community.’
 G         So despite linguists’ best efforts, many languages will disappear over the next century. But a
         growing interest in cultural identity may prevent the direct predictions from coming true. ‘The
         key to fostering diversity is for people to learn their ancestral tongue, as well as the dominant
         language,’ says Doug Whalen, founder and president of the Endangered Language Fund in
         New Haven, Connecticut. ‘Most of these languages will not survive without a large degree of
         bilingualism,’ he says. In New Zealand, classes for children have slowed the erosion of Maori
         and rekindled interest in the language. A similar approach in Hawaii has produced about 8,000
         new speakers of Polynesian languages in the past few years. In California, ‘apprentice’
         programmes have provided life support to several indigenous languages. Volunteer
         ‘apprentices’ pair up with one of the last living speakers of a Native American tongue to learn
         a traditional skill such as basket weaving, with instruction exclusively in the endangered
         language. After about 300 hours of training they are generally sufficiently fluent to transmit the
         language to the next generation. But Mufwene says that preventing a language dying out is not
         the same as giving it new life by using it every day. ‘Preserving a language is more like
         preserving fruits in a jar,’ he says.
 H         However, preservation can bring a language back from the dead. There are examples of
         languages that have survived in written form and then been revived by later generations. But a
         written form is essential for this, so the mere possibility of revival has led many speakers of
         endangered languages to develop systems of writing where none existed before.
Questions 1–5
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1–5 on your answer sheet.
There are currently approximately 6,800 languages in the world. This great variety of languages came
about largely as a result of geographical 1 ………………………………. . But in today’s world,
factors such as government initiatives and 2 ………..…………… ……………………….…... are
contributing to a huge decrease in the number of languages. One factor which may help to ensure that
some endangered languages do not die out completely is people’s increasing appreciation of their 3
…….………………..…… ……………………. . This has been encouraged through programmes of
language classes for children and through ‘apprentice’ schemes, in which the endangered language is
used as the medium of instruction to teach people a 4 …………………………………… . Some
speakers of endangered languages have even produced writing systems in order to help secure the
survival of their 5 ……………………………….. .
Questions 1-5
     1                 Blank 1
                    A. Isolation
                    B. prediction
                    C. Variation
                 D. preservation
   2                Blank 2
                 A. economic globalization
                 B. linguistic diversity
                 C. large degree of bilingualism
                 D. physiological changes in the brain
   3                Blank 3
                 A. linguistic diversity
                 B. native language
                 C. cultural identity
                 D. traditional skill
   4                Blank 4
                 A. cultural identity
                 B. traditional skill
                 C. native language
                 D. linguistic diversity
   5                Blank 5
                 A. dominant language
                 B. linguistic diversity
                 C. government policy
                 D. mother tongue
Questions 6–10
       6                 Who says/ believes/ thinks that endangered languages cannot be saved
                         unless people learn to speak more than one language?
                    A.   Michael Krauss
                    B.   Mark Pagel
                    C.   Doug Whalen
                    D.   Salikoko Mufwene
       7                  Who says/ believes/ thinks that saving languages from extinction is
                         not in itself a satisfactory goal?
                    A.   Salikoko Mufwene
                    B.   Michael Krauss
                    C.   Mark Pagel
                    D.   Doug Whalen
       8                 Who says/ believes/ thinks that the way we think may be determined
                         by our language?
                    A. Michael Krauss
                    B. Salikoko Mufwene
                    C. Mark Pagel
                    D. Doug Whalen
       9               Who says/ believes/ thinks that young people often reject the
                       established way of life in their community?
                    A. Nicholas Ostler
                    B. Salikoko Mufwene
     C. Mark Pagel
     D. Doug Whalen
10      Who says/ believes/ thinks that a change of language may mean a loss
        of traditional culture ?
     A. Doug Whalen
     B. Salikoko Mufwene
     C. Mark Pagel
     D. Michael Krauss