SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO KỲ THI CHỌN ĐỘI TUYỂN HỌC SINH GIỎI QUỐC GIA

THÀNH PHỐ ĐÀ NẴNG NĂM HỌC 2019 -2020

Môn : TIẾNG ANH

Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút (không kể thời gian phát đề)
ĐỀ CHÍNH THỨC VÒNG 1
Ngày thi: 19/9/2019. Đề thi có 10 trang. Học sinh làm bài trên đề thi.

Giám khảo 1 Giám khảo 2 Điểm bằng số Điểm bằng chữ Mã phách

SECTION A: VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURES (55 pts)

I. Select the best option (A, B, C or D) for each sentence. Write your answers in the box
provided for Answers. (20 pts)
1. The woman didn’t show even a ______ of emotion when the court found her guilty.
A. gleam B. wink C. flicker D. flash
2. He seems like a decent bloke and I've got no axe to ______ with him. 
A. sharpen B. polish C. grind D. grin
3. They cast ______ to see who was to fulfil the task.
A. lots B. draws C. chances D. doubts
4. I hadn't worked in an office for several years, so it took me a while to get back into the ______ of it.
A. curve B. swing C. hang D. whirl
5. Like many children of his age, the boy is prone to throwing a(n) ______.
A. tantrum B. mood C. temper D. outburst
6. When the missing money was noticed, the boss chose to disappear rather than face the ______.
A. wall B. song C. dance D. music
7. It remains to be seen if the President will ______ the political storm caused by his remarks.
A. surmount B. override C. acclimate D. weather
8. If you are looking for Sheila, she is in the corner of the library with her head ______ in her books.
A. covered B. entombed C. buried D. drowned
9. With only one hit song, it is obvious that the young pop star is going to be just another flash in the ______.
A. pot B. pan C. teacup D. saucer
10. The Minister wished it to be known that he had left the cabinet of his own ______.
A. volition B. restraint C. willingness D. infusion
11. I always get ______ in my stomach before visiting the dentist.
A. worms B. crabs C. butterflies D. hedgehogs
12. Advances in special effects have brought a new ______ of life to the film industry.
A. surge B. lease C. time D. flash
13. I’m hoping that this work experience will stand me in good ______ in my future career.
A. stead B. grounding C. precedent D. footing
14. The passengers were told to ______ themselves for a crash landing.
A. brace B. fortify C. bind D. bolster
15. My uncle pulled a few ______ and got me a job in the company where he works.
A. ropes B. wires C. chords D. strings
16. I’m afraid you’ve caught me on the ______. I wasn’t expecting you until this afternoon.
A. stove B. grapevine C. spot D. hop
17. Tony said he knew the song really well, but the name of the band that had recorded it ______ him. 
A. failed B. evaded C. escaped D. deluded
18. Sam was born in the country and had a deep ______ with nature.
A. credence B. affinity C. guile D. stature
19. I had to get through a lot of ______ tape, but I finally got the documents I needed.
A. red B. blue C. black D. yellow
20. Look, are you sure your parents won’t mind me spending another day or so here? I don’t want to
______ my welcome!
A. outlive B. outstay C. outdo D. outweigh
Answers

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 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

II. Use one verb in box A and one particle in box B to complete each of the following
sentences. Use the correct form of the verb. Write your answers in the box provided for
Answers. (10 pts)
A B

usher take while wind turn with out in up on

do fork look lay put away into over down off

1. I was __________ __________ for the school football team.

2. We’re going to have to __________ __________ a lot of money next year to have the house repaired.
3. Only one man tried to help us; the rest just __________ __________ in silence.
4. We had to wait two hours for the next train, so we went for a walk to __________ __________ the
time.
5. In this business we __________ __________ no less than a million pounds a year.
6. You could __________ __________ a haircut, Morris. You’re starting to look like a superannuated
hippie.
7. His friends became jealous when his career started take off
8. Let’s hope that the new year will __________ __________ a period of prosperity for everyone.
9. My parents __________ __________  me for wasting so much money on my last summer holiday.
10. If he keeps doing stuff like that he's going to __________ __________  in prison!
Answers

1. put out  2. fork up  3. looked on  4. while away  5. turn over 
6. do with  7. taking off  8. usher in  9. laid on  10. wind up 
III. Use the right form of the word given in brackets to complete each sentence. Write your
answers in the box provided for Answers. (10 pts)
1. War is one of the greatest impediments to human progress. (IMPEDE)
2. Having an accident without insurance can be ruinously expensive. (RUIN)
3. Female employees complained of being marginalised by management. (MARGIN)
4. There is a(n) unrivaled collection of Egyptian relics at the British Museum in London. (RIVAL)
5. Some people claim that the herb has therapeutic value for treating pain. (THERAPY)
6. The business is ____________ as it can no longer meet the repayments on its debt. (SOLVE)
7. Various ____________ measures can be used for securing the criminal investigation, the trial and
enforcement of a sentence. (COERCE)
8. We’re working to reduce a number of ____________ in school funding. (EQUITABLE)
9. The attacker stood waiting in the alleyway for his ____________ victim. (SUSPECT)
10. Trees help to prevent desertification as well as providing shade and firewood. (DESERT)
Answers

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

IV. Think of one word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences. Write your
answers in the box provided for Answers. (5 pts)
1. - These riots should be a wake-up _______  for the government.
- Many young men answered the _______ to arms and signed up as soon as war was declared.
- We managed to get out of the car before it caught fire, but we had a very close _______.
2. - You’d be _______ off if you put some money aside every month.
- The guidelines for the office’s policy on _______  practice are displayed in the folder.
- Come on! You need to put your _______ foot forward if you want to make it to the summit!
3. - As he listened, his face went _______ with shock.
- What the government intends to do to solve the problem is still a _______ area.
- Her life seems _______ and pointless without her children around.
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4. - The union leader promised to _______ his ground with regards to the proposed job cuts.
- The locals made a _______ against the plans for a new by-pass through the country park.
- We should _______ ready to do what is necessary to guarantee the peace.
5. - I seem to have lost the ________ with all my personal records on it.
- Today is the deadline for self-employed people to ________ their tax returns.
- We walked in single ________ along the path.
Answers

  call  better  grey  Stand file

V. There are TEN mistakes in the passage below. FIND, UNDERLINE and CORRECT them.
Write the corrections on the corresponding lines in the box for Answers. (10 pts)

Answers

Men and women are often considered being completely at

odd with each other, in terms of their attitudes and behaviour.
0. being  to be
__________  __________
Not so when they are in love, new research was discovered.
__________  __________
As far as their hormone levels are concerned, when men and
__________  __________
women are in love, they are more similar to each other
__________  __________
than at any another time.
__________  __________
It has long been known that love can play havoc at
__________  __________
hormone levels. For example the hormone cortisol, which is
__________  __________
known for its calm effect on the body, dips dramatically when
__________  __________
one person is attracted to another, putting the love-struck
__________  __________
onto a par with sufferers of obsessive compulsive disorder.
__________  __________
But a new study has found that the hormone testosterone,
__________  __________
commonly associated with male aggression, also falls when he
__________  __________
is in love. In women, it's quite the opposite. Testosterone
__________  __________
levels, which tend to be lower among females, rise towards
__________  __________
that of the male.
__________  __________
Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa, Italy, takes
__________  __________
this down to nature attempted to eliminate the differences
__________  __________
between the sexes. By doing so, they can concentrate fully
__________  __________
on reproduction.
__________  __________
This suggestion seems to be supported by the fact that
__________  __________
both couples in a long- term relationship nor participants in
__________  __________
the study who were single at the time of the experiment
__________  __________
exhibited such changes.
__________  __________

SECTION B: READING COMPREHENSION (45 pts)

I. Write ONE word in each gap to complete the following passage. Write your answers in the
box provided for Answers. (10 pts)

(1) ________ now and then we hear someone claiming to be psychic or to experience
precognitive dreams or to have premonitions about imminent misfortunes. Sometimes, we meet people
who have participated in spiritualistic seances where they have witnessed miraculous parapsychological
occurrences or listened to mediums (2) ________ their pessimistic prophecies about the future or even
using their second (3) ________ for reviving past memories.

Parapsychology or extra-sensory perception (4) ________ includes such phenomena as

spychokinesis, clairvoyance and out-of-body experiences is fiercely disparaged by its opponents finding no
scrap of evidence for the reliability of performances (5) ________ foreseeing future events or passing
messages without any use of sensory means, (6) ________, by telepathy. Nevertheless, the acquisition of
information by use of nonsensory channels can sometimes be of great advantage to those who aspire at
solving the most enigmatic questions like the mysterious cases of crime or missing individuals. Although
officially the police deny (7) ________ recourse to parapsychology, they do benefit from its vast potential

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whenever any clear evidence is diminishing. The psychics are then employed with the hope that their
original practices will (8) ________ new light on many cases.

(9) ________ the growing interest in extrasensory perception and its possible applications,
conventional scientists disregard it (10) ________ highly uncertain.

Answers

1. every  2. casting   3.   4.   5. in 

6.   7.   8. shed  9. With   10. as 

II. For each gap, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which best fits the context. Write
your answers in the box provided for Answers. (10 pts)
A solution to (1) ________ desires and expectations perhaps lies in the recognition that wealth
does not involve having many things. lt involves having what we long for. Wealth is not an absolute. lt is
relative to desire. Every time we seek something we cannot afford, we grow poorer, whatever our
resources. And every time we feel satisfied with what we have, we can be (2) ________ as rich, however
little we may actually own. There are two ways to make people richer: to give them more money or to
(3)________ their desires. Modern societies have succeeded spectacularly at the first option but, by
continuously inflaming appetites, they have at the same time helped to negate a share of their most
impressive achievements.
The most effective way to feel wealthy may not be to try to make more money. lt can be to
(4)________ ourselves - practically and emotionally - from anyone we both consider to be our equal and
who has become richer than us. Rather than trying to become bigger fish, we should concentrate our
energies on (5)________ around us smaller companions next to whom our own size will not (6)________
us. ln so far as advanced societies provide us with historically elevated incomes, they appear to make us
richer. But, in truth, the net effect of these societies may be to (7) _______ us because, by fostering
unlimited expectations, they keep open a permanent gap between what we want and what we can afford,
who we are and who we might be, The (8) _______ we have paid for expecting to be so much more than
our ancestors is the permanent feeling that we are far from being all we might be. We should be careful
what we read in the papers and what programmes we watch. No matter what the media (9) _______ at
us, we must remain realistic in our goals and expectations and not allow ourselves to be (10)________
into a life of materialism.

1. A. coiling B. curving C. spiraling D. revolving

2. A. counted B. added C. thought D. accounted
3. A. refer B. reassure C. recline D. restrain
4. A. dispute B. vary C. single D. distance
5. A. gathering B. heaping C. loading D. distributing
6. A. brood B. fret C. trouble D. console
7. A. redeem B. impoverish C. enrich D. augment
8. A. fee B. price C. fund D. charge
9. A. sends B. delivers C. exploits D. throws
10. A. liberated B. quarantined C. brainwashed D. investigated

Answers

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

III. You are going to read an article which discusses whether machines could ever have
human qualities. Seven paragraphs have been removed from the article. 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 your answers in the box provided for Answers. (7 pts)

One of the high points in Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein is when the tragic creature cobbled
together from cadavers comes face to face with its human creator Victor Frankenstein, the real monster of
the story.

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 1.

This heart-wrenching declaration exposes a paradox about the hapless creature. Frankenstein built his
creation from spare parts, so in one sense it is just a machine. Yet the creature instinctively understands
himself as human, something more than a machine.

2.

Nearly two centuries later the same question has surfaced again. And today the question is being asked
not of some fictional creature but of machines in various states of creation that promise to have human-
like senses and to be conscious, at least in some form. Theologians and computer scientists are starting to
wonder if any of these machines might ever be said to have a soul. If so, would such a soul be like a
human being’s, or something altogether different?

3.

Between these two poles stretches a continuum of opinion. For example, Jennifer Cobb, a theologian and
author of a forthcoming book on theology and cyberspace, says that today’s computers are about as alive
as viruses – but “along with a little bit alive comes a little bit of soul,” she says. “If the day comes when
computation becomes so complex as to express emotions, then they will have quite a bit more soul. It’s
an infinite resource with infinite potential.”

4.

Artificial intelligence researchers are already dabbling with emotional machines, and computers that could
become conscious of their surroundings and of themselves. One of the most ambitious of these projects is
Cog, a talking robot designed in human form that will be capable of exploring the world through sight,
sound and touch. The project team hopes that Cog will be able to discover the world the way a human
baby does, and will thus come to understand things as a child does.

5.

Yet how would we tell if a computer developed a soul? It might not be enough for a computer to look,
behave and think like a human. It might also involve a more complex definition, such as the possession of
a sense of moral responsibility, or sense of self. Of course, a sense of moral responsibility could be
programmed into a computer. But what if a silicon-based being were to develop a morality of its own – its
own conscience? What would that be like?

6.

Alternatively, a computer could be “cloned” so many examples of the same “being” could exist. What
would that do to the machine’s conception of itself and others? We just don’t know what ethics would be
like for a computer – we barely know how to imagine such a thing.

7.

But this is not necessarily so. From Shelley’s nineteenth-century monster to today’s real-life robots,
complex entities have a habit of taking on a life of their own.

A. It could be different from the human variety. Take death, for example. A computer with a back-up
tape might not see death as a big deal. Think about how different life would be if we had back-up
tapes.

B. The story raised the issue of whether or not something manufactured would have a soul – that
mysterious entity which is the very essence of humanness, the thing that links us irrevocably to
God.

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 C. For Philip Clayton, a theologian and philosopher, such an idea goes against the grain of much
religious thinking. But he agrees that, in the future, as machines become more like humans, the
distinction between them could become blurred. “On what grounds would we withhold souls from
computers when they inhabit humanoid robotic bodies, accept visual input, give output with
human voices and function comfortably in many social contexts?” he asks.

D. Stories such as Frankenstein suggest that the things we humans create are often much more than
the sum of their parts. Many people imagine that if we built something, we would know all about
it.

E. If it lives up to expectations, it will express emotions. Eventually, they argue, it’s surely going to
be able to say, “I’m afraid,” or “I’m bored,” and mean it. And if it does say such things – and
mean them – then is it so far-fetched to wonder if it would have a soul?

F. Constant rejection has finally led it to commit murder. Yet when it first became conscious it was
not evil. “Believe me,” it says in anguish, “I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and
humanity.”

G. It is interesting that we are happy to consider the Frankenstein creation in terms of what its
thoughts are or the fact that it has self-will. But this is fiction. Whether or not a machine is
conscious, and whether we can prove it, is a fascinating philosophical exercise, nothing more,
nothing less.

H. Opinions tend to fall between two extremes. Many people want to draw an unbreakable divide
between humans and machines, insisting that however smart a computer might become it could
never have a soul. On the other hand, some artificial intelligence researchers insist that humans
are just complex machines, so why wouldn’t a silicon-based machine also have a soul? For these
scientists, a soul would be simply an emergent property of a very complex system.

Answers

1. F  2. B  3. H  4.C  5.E  6.A  7.G 

IV. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. Write your answer in the box
provided for Answers. (13 pts)
SAVING THE SOIL
More than a third of the Earth’s top layer is at risk. Is there hope for our planet’s most precious resource?

A. More than a third of the world’s soil is endangered, according to a recent UN report. If we don’t slow
the decline, all farmable soil could be gone in 60 years. Since soil grows 95% of our food, and sustains
human life in other more surprising ways, that is a huge problem.
B. Peter Groffman, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York, points out that, soil
scientists have been warning about the degradation of the world’s soil for decades. At the same time, our
understanding of its importance to humans has grown. A single gram of healthy soil might contain 100
million bacteria, as well as other microorganisms such as viruses and fungi, living amid decomposing
plants and various minerals.
That means soils do not just grow our food, but are the source of nearly all our existing antibiotics,
and could be our best hope in the fight against antibiotic-resistance bacteria. Soil is also an ally against
climate change: as microorganisms within soil digest dead animals and plants, they lock in their carbon
content, holding three times the amount of carbon as does the entire atmosphere. Soil also store water,
preventing flood damage: in the UK, damage to buildings, roads and bridges from floods caused by soil
degradation costs £233 million every year.
C. If the soil loses its ability to perform these functions, the human race could be in big trouble. The
danger is not that the soil will disappear completely, but that the microorganisms that give it its special
properties will be lost. And once this has happened, it may take the soil thousands of years to recover.
Agriculture is by far the biggest problem. In the wild, when plants grow, they remove nutrients from
the soil, but then when the plants die and decay these nutrients are returned directly to the soil. Humans
tend not to return unused parts of harvested crops directly to the soil to enrich it, meaning that the soil
gradually becomes less fertile. In the past we developed strategies to get around the problem, such as
regularly verifying the types of crops grown, or leaving fields uncultivated for a season.
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D. But these practices became inconvenient as populations grew and agriculture had to be run on more
commercial lines. A solution came in the early 20 th century with the Haber-Bosch process for manufacturing
ammonium nitrate. Farmers have been putting this synthetic fertilizer on their fields ever since.
But over the past few decades, it has become clear this wasn’t such a bright idea. Chemical fertilisers
can release polluting nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and excess is often washed away with the rain,
releasing nitrogen into rivers. More recently, we have found that indiscriminate use of fertilisers hurts the
soil itself, turning it acidic and salty, and degrading the soil they are supposed to nourish.
E. One of the people looking for a solution to this problem is Pius Floris, who started out running a tree-
care business in the Netherlands, and now advises some of the world’s top soil scientists. He came to
realise that the best way to ensure his trees flourished was to take care of the soil, and has developed a
cocktail of beneficial bacteria, fungi and humus to do this. Researchers at the University of Valladolid in
Spain recently used this cocktail on soils destroyed by years of fertiliser overuse. When they applied
Floris’s mix to the desert-like test plots, a good crop of plants emerged. They were not just healthy at the
surface, but had roots strong enough to pierce dirt as hard as rock. The few plants that grew in the
control plots, fed with traditional fertilisers, were small and weak.
F. However, measures like this are not enough to solve the global soil degradation problem. To assess our
options on a global scale we first need an accurate picture of what types of soils are out there, and the
problems they face. That’s not easy. For one thing, there is no agreed international system for classifying
soil. In an attempt to unify the different approaches, the UN has created the Global Soil Map project.
Researchers from nine countries are working together to create a map linked to a database that can be
fed measurements from field surveys, drone surveys, satellite imagery, lab analyses and so on to provide
real-time data on the state of the soil. Within the next four years, they aim to have mapped soils
worldwide to a depth of 100 metres, with the results freely accessible to all.
G. But this is only a first step. We need ways of presenting the problem that bring it home to
governments and the wide public, says Pamela Chasek at the International Institute for Sustainable
Development, in Winnipeg, Canada. “Most scientists don’t speak language that policy- makers can
understand, and vice versa.” Chasek and her colleagues have proposed a goal of “zero net land
degradation”. Like the idea of carbon neutrality, it is an easily understood target that can help shape
expectations and encourage action.
For soils on the brink, that may be too late. Several researchers are agitating for the immediate
creation of protected zones for endangered soils. One difficulty here is defining what these areas should
conserve: areas where the greatest soil diversity is present? Or areas of unspoilt soils that could act as a
future benchmark of quality?
Whatever we do, if we want our soils to survive, we need to take action now.

For questions 1-4, complete the summary below. Write ONE WORD ONLY from the passage
for each answer.
WHY SOIL DEGRADATION COULD BE A DISASTER FOR HUMANS
Healthy soil contains a large variety of bacteria and other microorganisms, as well as plant
remains and (1) ____mineral_____. It provides us with food and also with antibiotics, and its function
in storing (2)___carbons______ has a significant effect on the climate. In addition, it prevents damage to
property and infrastructure because it holds (3) __water_______.
If these microorganisms are lost, soil may lose its special properties. The main factor contributing to
soil degradation is the (4) ___agriculture______ carried out by humans.

For questions 5-8, complete each sentence with the correct ending A-F.
5. Nutrients contained in the unused parts of harvested crops ___C_________
6. Synthetic fertilisers produced with the Haber-Bosch process ______E______
7. Addition of a mixture developed by Pius Floris to the soil ______A______
8. The idea of zero net soil degradation _____D_______

A. may improve the number and quality of plants growing there.

B. may contain data from up to nine countries.
C. may not be put back into the soil.
D. may help governments to be more aware of soil-related issues.
E. may cause damage to different aspects of the environment.
F. may be better for use at a global level.

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The reading passage has seven sections, A-G. For questions 9-13, write the correct letter A-G
next to the information which the section contains. You may use any letter more than once.

9. a reference to one person’s motivation for a soil-improvement project _____G_______

10. an explanation of how soil stayed healthy before the development of farming _____C_______
11. examples of different ways of collecting information on soil degradation _____F_______
12. a suggestion for a way of keeping some types of soil safe in the near future ______G______
13. a reason why it is difficult to provide an overview of soil degradation ______F______

Answers

1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

V. You are going to read a newspaper article about young people and technology. Choose the
answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the box
provided for Answers. (5 pts)
YOUNG PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY
Danah Boyd is a specialist researcher looking at how young people use technology

If there's one cliché that really grates with Danah Boyd, who has made a career from studying the
way younger people use the web, it's that of the digital native. “There's nothing native about young
people's engagement with technology,” she says, adamantly. She has little time for the widely held
assumption that kids are innately more adept at coping with the web or negotiating the hurdles of digital
life. “Young people are learning about the social world around them,” she says. “Today that world has
computer-mediated communications. Thus, in order to learn about their social world, they're
learning about those things too. And they're leveraging that to work out the stuff that kids have always
worked out: peer sociality, status, etc.”
It's no surprise she takes exception, really: as one of the first digital anthropologists to dig into the
way people use social networking sites, Boyd has a track record of exposing the truths that underpin
many of our assumptions about the online world. Along the way, she's gained insights into the social web
- not just by conducting studies of how many kids were using social-networking sites, but by taking a
closer look at what was going on.
Lately, her work has been about explaining new ways of interpreting the behaviour we see online,
and understanding that the context of online activity is often more subtle than we first imagine. She
outlined some examples at a recent conference in San Francisco, including the case of a young man from
one of the poorest districts of Los Angeles who was applying to a prestigious American college. The
applicant said he wanted to escape the influence of gangs and violence, but the admissions officer was
appalled when he discovered that the boy's MySpace page was plastered with precisely the violent
language and gang imagery he claimed to abhor. Why was he lying about his motivations, asked the
university? “He wasn't,” says Boyd: in his world, showing the right images online was a key part of
surviving daily life.
Understanding what's happening online is especially pertinent while discussions rage about how
perceptions of privacy are shifting - particularly the idea that today's teenagers have a vastly different
approach to privacy from their predecessors. Instead, Boyd says, activities that strike adults as radically
new are often more easily understood from the perspective of teenagers. “Kids have always cared about
privacy, it's just that their notions of privacy look very different from adult notions,” she says. “Kids often
don't have the kind of privacy adults assume they do. Adults, by and large, think of the home as a very
private space. The thing is, for young people that's often not the case because they have little or no
control over who has access to it, or under what conditions. As a result, the online world can feel more
private because it feels like there's more control.”
This concept of control is central to Boyd's work, and it applies not only to debunking myths
about teenage behaviour, but also to similar ideas that have emerged about the rest of the web. Unlike
some prognosticators who preach unstoppable revolution, Boyd suggests that control remains, by and
large, in the same places it always did. “Technologists all go for the notion of ‘techno-utopia’, the web
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as great democratizer,” she says. “Sure, we've made creation and distribution more available to anyone,
but at the same time we've made those things irrelevant. Now the commodity isn't distribution, it's
attention- and guess what? We're not actually democratising the whole system - we're just shifting the
way in which we discriminate.”
It's a call to arms that most academic researchers would tend to sidestep, but then Boyd admits
to treading a fine line between academic and activist. After all, she adds, part of her purpose is to look at
the very questions that make us feel uncomfortable. “Part of it is that as a researcher, everybody's
obsessed with Twitter and Facebook, and we've got amateur research all over the place,” she says.
“Plenty of scholars are jumping in and looking at very specific things. The questions I continue to want to
ask are the things that are challenging to me: having to sit down and be forced to think about
uncomfortable social stuff, and it's really hard to get my head around it, which means it's exactly what I
should dive in and deal with.”

1. What point does Danah Boyd make about “computer-mediated communications” (paragraph 1)?
A. They set out to teach the young about social interaction.
B. They are an integral part of a young person’s social interaction.
C. They act as a barrier to wider social interaction amongst young people.
D. They take the place of other sorts of social interaction for young people.
2. In the second paragraph, what do we learn about Danah’s research into social networking sites?
A. It has largely sought to account for their rapid growth.
B. It has tended to question people’s attitudes towards them.
C. it has taken the form of in-depth studies into how they are designed.
D. It has begun to investigate whether they are as influential as people think.
3. What point does Danah’s example of the Los Angeles college applicant illustrate?
A. how easy it is to misinterpret an individual's online activity
B. how readily somebody’s online activity can be investigated
C. what their online activity can tell us about a person’s sincerity
D. how important it is to check the content of someone’s online activity
4. Danah uses the term “techno-utopia” (paragraph 5) to underline her view that
A. her research has resonance for a community of web users of all ages.
B. control of the web remains in much the same hands as before.
C. people have unrealistic expectations about the influence of the web.
D. the web has a largely positive effect on many people’s lives.
5. In the last paragraph, we are given the impression that Danah
A. feels that a lot of research about the web is lacking in sufficient detail.
B. is aware that some issues in her field cannot yet be researched fully.
C. regards herself as being more of a philosopher than a researcher.
D. is willing to take on research challenges others would avoid.

Answers

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

SECTION C: WRITING (40 pts)

I. Complete each of the following sentences in such a way that it is closest in meaning to the
one printed before it. Use the word given in brackets. Write your answer in the space provided.
(10 pts)
1. She just pretended to welcome him, then quickly left the waiting room. (MOTIONS)
She just went through the motions of welcoming him, then quickly left the waiting room.
2. Her promotion to Sales Manager made her parents extremely happy. (CLOUD)
Her parents wouldn’t had been on cloud nine if she did not have a promotion to Sales Manager.
3. Looking back, I really believe I did everything I could to stop her. (HINDSIGHT)
I can honestly say, with the benefit of hindsight I could not do anything more to stop her.
4. There have been rumours that he may become the next president. (LINE)
He _______________________________________________ the presidency.
5. Surely they can’t believe that this is one of Degas’ paintings! (ASCRIBED)
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 In _______________________________________________ Degas!
6. His latest film is not nearly as good as his earlier ones. (PATCH)
His latest film is not a patch on his earlier ones.
7. We shared the cost of the meal. (HALVES)
We paid in halves the cost of the meal.
8. Five actors were competing for the leading role in the play. (CONTENTION)
There were a bone of contention between five actors for the leading role in the play.
9. Inefficient treatment of customers creates a bad impression of the company. (REFLECTS)
Treating customers with a lack of efficient treatment reflects badly on the company.
10. The organizers planned everything as carefully as they could possibly have done. (UTMOST)
Everything was planned carefully to the utmost by the organizers.

II. Write an essay of about 300 words on the following topic. Write your answer in the space
provided. (30 pts)
“Success should be measured by the knowledge a person has, not by the material possessions he
or she has acquired.”
Do you agree with this idea? Give reasons and examples to support your opinion(s).

Success is probably the most desired feeling in our modern world. The definition of success varies from
people to people, but in general, people with high society level or have the riches would automatically be
regarded as successful individuals. Some people hold a belief that success should be estimated based on
the knowledge that a person possess, not on the personal wealth. From my perspective, I agree with this
statement and will give my reasons below.

Knowledge has a critical value in pursuing success. Having sought-after knowledge is very much like
having an unlimited source of money. We use our knowledge to make money by applying and utilizing
methods to create values. Companies hire their employees depend on the knowledge and value that we
can bring about, not on our bank balance. Humans have used their knowledge to create things that we
can’t imagine a few centuries back. Many of the most important inventions are from scientists and
inventors who use their knowledge to make the world a better place, those successes are so great that
they have gone down in history and will last for ever in human civilization
To be continued --- THE END ---

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