SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI LỚP 12 - VÒNG 1

LONG AN Ngày thi: 06/10/2011

Môn thi: Tiếng Anh Bảng A
Đề chính thức
Thời gian: 180 phút (Phần A & B)

LƯU Ý: THÍ SINH LÀM BÀI TRÊN GIẤY THI, KHÔNG LÀM BÀI TRÊN ĐỀ THI

NÀY

A. LISTENING: (20 marks)

You will hear a short conversation. Each question in this part has four answer choices.
Choose the correct answer(s). Write your answer(s) on your answer sheet.
1. What does the World Bank do? (Choose 1 answer)
(A) It saves seeds from plants all over the world.
(B) It gives money to the United Nations.
(C) It gives money, low interest loans, and interest-free credit to poor countries.
(D) It is part of the United Nations.
2. How does the professor explain that not everyone is rich? (Choose 2 answers)
(A) She compares how much money people in poor countries and rich countries make.
(B) She tells a story of poor people in Bolivia.
(C) She gives the example of how many children in poor countries cannot go to
school.
(D) She defines wealth.
3. What is the talk mainly about? (Choose 1 answer)
(A) Parts of the World Bank
(B) The history of the World Bank
(C) What the World Bank does
(D) How the World Bank has changed
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 4. What reason is given for giving extra money to the poorest countries in 2002?
(Choose 1 answer)
(A) To start new farms
(B) To build schools
(C) To recycle water
(D) To help fight the illness AIDS

B. READING & WRITING: (80 marks)

I. Read the passage and answer the questions that follow. (15 marks)

Steve grew up in a children’s home in Scotland. Every week, the staff took a
proportion of the children’s pocket money to pay for holidays. Little Steve developed a
daring strategy to hang on to what little money he had. He laughs about it now. “I used to
swallow all my coins. That got them really furious, so they’d put me in a room on my
own as a punishment. After a few minutes in there, I’d hit myself on the chest and cough
the money back up.”
Since then, Steve has turned into Steve Starr, a professional regurgitator who does up
to four shows a day, and can demand fees of $500-$2,000 a show.
Everything Steve swallows comes back dry, except for the goldfish. They swim about
in his stomach in the water that he swallows for them first. After ten minutes they resume
their normal lives in a goldfish bowl. “They never die”, says Steve.
Medical experts might have a few worries about Steve. The sight and sound of him
swallowing and bringing back a snooker ball sometimes causes even normally calm
people to panic. He also smokes a cigarette, retains the smoke in his stomach, then
swallows some butane gas and mixes the two. Next he swallows some washing-up liquid,
blows a huge bubble, brings up the smoke and gas inside the bubble, cuts the bubble off,
gets someone to set light to it, and bang!

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 Physically, Steve doesn’t believe he is any different from the rest of the human race,
who use their stomachs simply to digest food. “It’s all done by muscle control”, he says.
“I imagine a little pair of hands in there doing everything, controlled by my brain. I’m
sure I could teach anyone to do what I do”.

1. Why was Steve punished in the children’s home?

2. What does the sentence “Steve grew up in a children’s home” tell you about
Steve’s early childhood?
3. What does the sentence “They’d put me in a room on my own as a punishment”
tell you about the children’s home?
4. Why does the bubble go bang when someone sets light to it?
5. What, according to Steve, is the secret of his skill?

II. Read the following passage and then choose the best answer (A, B, C or D) to complete
each of the numbered blanks. (15 marks)
THE LANGUAGE OF TEARS
The ability to weep is a uniquely human form of emotional response. Some scientists
have suggested that human tears are evidence of an aquatic past – but this does not seem
very likely. We cry from the moment we enter this (1) _________ for a number of reasons.
Helpless babies cry to (2) _________ their parents that they are ill, hungry or uncomfortable.
As they (3) _________ they will also cry just to attract parental attention and will often stop
when they get it.
The idea that (4) _________ a good cry can do you (5) _________ is a very old one and
now it has scientific (6) _________ since recent research into tears has shown that they (7)
_________ a natural painkiller called enkaphalin. By (8) _________ sorrow and pain this
chemical helps you to feel better. Weeping can increase the quantities of enkaphalin you (9)
_________.
Unfortunately, in our society we impose restrictions upon this naturally (10) _________
activity. Because some people still regard it as a (11) _________ of weakness in men, boys
in particular are admonished when they cry. This kind of repression can only increase stress,
both emotionally and physically.
Tears of emotion also help the body (12) _________ itself of toxic chemical (13)
_________, for there is more protein in them than in tears resulting from cold winds or other

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 irritants. Crying comforts, calms and can be very enjoyable – (14) _________ the popularity
of the highly emotional films which are commonly (15) _________ “weepies”. It seems that
people enjoy crying together almost as much as laughing together.
1. A. world B. place C. earth D. space
2. A. communicate B. persuade C. inform D. demonstrate
3. A. evolve B. change C. develop D. alter
4. A. doing B. making C. getting D. having
5. A. better B. fine C. good D. well
6. A. validity B. truth C. reality D. reason
7. A. contain B. retain C. hold D. keep
8. A. struggling B. fighting C. opposing D. striking
9. A. construct B. achieve C. provide D. produce
10.A. curing B. treating C. healing D. improving
11.A. hint B. symbol C. feature D. sign
12.A. release B. rid C. loosen D. expel
13.A. rubbish B. waste C. leftovers D. remains
14.A. consider B. remark C. distinguish D. regard
15.A. named B. entitled C. subtitled D. called

III. Read the following text and then choose the best phrase or sentence, given below, to fill
each of the gaps. Write one letter (A-P) in each of the numbered gaps. Each phrase is only
used once. Some of the suggested answers do not fit at all. (15 marks)
Archaeologists in Iraq have discovered the world’s oldest “statue” – a stone,
standing four feet high, covered with plaster (1) __________ of a human being.
This “stone man” dating from 11,000 years ago, (2) __________ who were
emerging from the pre-agricultural Stone Age into the Neolithic world of early farming.
The statue, probably of religious significance, was located inside a prehistoric
house – one of the earliest sophisticated buildings (3) __________. Investigations have
shown that the house had (4) __________ with clay-coated, lime-plastered walls and
floor.
So far excavation have unearthed three buildings containing seven standing stones,
(5) __________ retain traces of lime plaster which once covered them.
However, (6) __________ shows evidence of having been shaped into the likeness
of a human being. It is 30 centuries older (7) __________ previously known oldest statue.
(8) __________that each building appears to have had at least one standing stone inside
it, and that one house actually had three.
The plaster-covered human shaped obelisk (9) __________ shoulders and the stumps
of arms and part of a neck. The “head”, however, (10) __________.

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 A. ever discovered by archaeologists
B. molded into the shape
C. to have been built
D. strangely carved
E. was fashioned by people
F. excavations have revealed
G. only one of these
H. neither of them
I. beautifully finished
J. than the remaining
K. has what appear to be
L. seems to have broken off
M. four of which
N. has been missing
O. it has been decided
P. than the world’s

IV. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word
in each space. (20 marks)
The worry about salt is that it may (1)__________ high blood pressure.
Chemically, salt (2) __________of sodium and chloride ions, both of (3)__________are
common in the human (4)__________and are important for many physiological and
biochemical (5) __________. We not only need salt, we eat salt, but too (6) __________
may still be bad for us. Although the idea of a (7)__________between salt and high blood
pressure (8) __________back to 2000 BC, there is still no scientific (9)__________as to
whether this so or not. One reason for this (10) __________to agree is that individual salt
intake (11) __________enormously from day to day, and so reliable measures of intake
are hard to come (12) __________.
Those who believe that salt does (13)__________to high blood pressure
(14)__________to the high incidence of high blood pressure in countries that eat a very
(15) __________diet. In Japan, for instance, where salted fish is an important part of the
diet, high blood pressure and (16)__________ complications are common, (17)
__________ among some Amazonian and African tribes, which have a low intake of salt,
they are almost (18) __________.
But (19)__________there is this neat relation between salt intake and the incidence
of high blood pressure between countries, it doesn’t seem to apply (20) __________those
countries themselves. Studies, for instance, of couples who have a similar salt intake
don’t show any consistency in how often they develop high blood pressure.

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V. There are ten mistakes in the following passage. Find and correct them. Follow the
example.
(15 marks)
Example: Line 1: 0. which  when

FAMILY HISTORY
In an age which technology is developed faster than ever before, many people are
being attracted by the idea of looking back into the past. One way they can make this is
by investigating their own family history. They can try to find out more about what their
families came from and what they did. This is now a fast-growing hobby, especially in
countries with a fairly short history, alike Australia and the United States.
It is one thing to spend some time going through a book on family history and to
take the decision to investigate your own family’s past. It is quite another to carry out the
research work successfully. It is easy to set about it in a disorganizing way and cause
yourself many problems that could have avoided with a little forward planning.
If your own family stories say you that you are connected with a famous character,
whether hero or criminal, not to let this idea take over your research. Just treat it as an
interesting possibility. A simple system for collecting and storing your information will
be adequate to start with; a more complex one may only get in your way. The most
important thing, though, is to get starting. Who knows what you might find?

----- THE END -----

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SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI LỚP 12 - VÒNG 1
LONG AN Ngày thi: 06/10/2011
Môn thi: Tiếng Anh Bảng A
Đề chính thức

HƯỚNG DẪN CHẤM THI

Tổng số điểm các phần của bài thi là 100. Sau khi chấm từng phần của bài làm, giám khảo
cộng và ghi tổng điểm trên hệ 100 vào khung điểm ghi bằng chữ, sau đó chia điểm này cho 20
để có điểm bài thi trên hệ 20. Ghi điểm bài thi trên hệ 20 không làm tròn số vào khung điểm ghi
bằng chữ.

C. LISTENING: (20 marks)

1. (C) (4 marks)
2. (A) (4 marks)
(C) (4 marks)
3. (C) (4 marks)
4. (D) (4 marks)

D. READING & WRITING: (80 marks)

II. Total: 15 marks (3 marks for each)

1. Because he would not let staff take away his pocket money for holiday – he
swallowed it instead.
2. Steve was possibly an orphan or his parents could not look after him.
3. It was probably run on strict, disciplinarian lines.
4. Because it contains butane gas.
5. The secret of his skill is muscle control.

III. Total: 15 marks (1 mark for each)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
A B C D C A A B D C D B B A D

III. Total: 15 marks (1.5 marks for each)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
B E A I M G P F K L

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IV. Total: 20 marks (1 mark for each)
1. cause
2. consists
3. which
4. body
5. processes
6. much
7. link/relationship/connection
8. goes/dates
9. agreement/consensus/evidence/proof
10.failure/inability
11. varies/differs/changes
12. by
13. lead/contribute
14. point
15. salty
16. its
17. whereas/while
18. unknown/non-existent
19. whereas/while
20.within

V. Total: 15 marks (1.5 marks for each)

- Find the mistake  0.75 mark
- Correct the mistake  0.75 mark
developed  developing
1. (attracted) by  (attracted) to
2. make  do
3. what  where
4. alike  like
5. disorganizing  disorganized
6. have avoided  have been avoided
7. say  tell
8. not to  don’t
9. starting  started

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