Đề thi thử Anh Chuyên vào 10 Chuyên Sư Phạm năm 2024 - Lần 3

Choose the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress.

Choose the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress.

Choose the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress.

Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.

Modern society often frowns upon being alone. The prevailing belief is that anyone who is alone needs "rescuing", and anyone who is a loner by nature is a bizarre introvert. While it is generally agreed that the stronger an individual's social connections, the more effectively they function, time spent by oneself is 4.1alternativelynonethelessotherwiseregardless something that many people place great value on.

At this point, it is important to distinguish between being alone and being lonely. Being lonely is a negative state of mind, and it is highly unlikely that a lonely individual has deliberately chosen this state. It does not just refer to being physically alone or feeling anti-social, but to a sense of mental 4.2barrierdeductionhostilityisolation from others; this explains how people are able to feel lonely even when social events and gatherings seem to 4.3dominateintensifyovercrowdpreoccupy their day-to-day life.

Time spent alone, however, is usually 4.4resembledcharacterizedsymbolizedregarded by positive choice; it suggests that the individual has consciously decided to spend time on their own. Alone time can be used to step away from social pressures, examine the inner self and gain 4.5observationreflexesoutlookperspective. This, in turn, can help the mind to 4.6unravelunbalanceoverdodisable problems and find solutions, and can teach individuals to find contentment in their own companionship.

Peter: "Anna doesn't talk much, does she?"

Lionel: "No. She's _____shy."

The election results reflected people's growing _____ with the government.

Even though Kieran tried his best to _____ me into going fishing with him at the weekend, I refused.

The _____ of the situation was made evident when we spotted our professor walking angrily towards us.

Only in case of emergency _____ in order to provide a safe escape route from the rear of the building.

The Wellness Retreat offers a deluxe spa experience for anyone _____ from the frenetic pace of daily life.

Customers are tempted to break _____ with so many alluring products available online.

It's _____ whether Sam will be well enough to play in the championship on Sunday.

I have just bought Barbara _____ earrings for her birthday.

I'm glad I turned to Nora for advice; I really appreciated _____.

Choose the word which has the underlined part pronounced differently from the others.

Choose the word which has the underlined part pronounced differently from the others.

Complete each of the following sentences using the correct form of a phrasal verb from the box. There are THREE extra ones that you do not need to use.

Jason spent two hours 17.1 in his bedroom.

As soon as I get back from my holiday, I want to be 17.2 all developments.

Many people believe the government should 17.3 ox hunting.

Helping you cheat in the test 17.4 everything I believe in.

Pat 17.5 her son simply because he had dropped his cup of tea on the floor.

The passage below contains 6 errors. The first error is corrected as an example numbered (0). Find the other 5 errors, write and correct them.

Write the mistakes in the order they appeared in the text.

Example: 0. Line 1: walking -> walk

Line 18.1: 18.2 -> 18.3

Line 18.4: 18.5 -> 18.6

Line 18.7: 18.8 -> 18.9

Line 18.10: 18.11 -> 18.12

Line 18.13: 18.14 -> 18.15

Six paragraphs have been removed from the passage.

A. Arecibo wasn't the first time Drake pondered how to address an alien audience. In March 1972, a plaque he designed with legendary astronomer Carl Sagan was blasted into space on board the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. A few years later, Drake and Sagan would team up again on a much more ambitious project, attaching a gold-plated record full of music and photos onto the two Voyager probes.

B. If you're sending a message to extraterrestrials, what you want to send is what's special about us and our planet - what's unusual. Now that's not basic chemistry or mineralogy, it's pretty much the cultural stuff and the consequences of evolution.

C. Humans have debated the best ways to contact our interstellar neighbours for centuries. In 1820, German mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss proposed cutting an enormous right-angled triangle into the Siberian pine forest, creating a monument to the Pythagorean theorem big enough to see from outer space. Twenty years later, Austrian astronomer Joseph von Littrow expanded on that idea, suggesting the excavation of huge trenches in the Sahara desert, which would be filled with kerosene and set ablaze. Flaming triangles, circles and squares would be a beacon to our solar neighbours, at least until the fire went out.

D. Next comes the question of what the message should say. Drake says if he could do it again, he might convene an international committee of scientists, artists, politicians and religious figures to produce a holographic movie about life on Earth.

E. But what if we decided we wanted to send a message with intent, something that will say more about us than simply popular culture? What's the best way to send a message that will be received, understood and useful?

F. The mathematical approach has its critics. "You're not going to send the value of Pi", says Shostak. "If aliens sent us the value of Pi, wouldn't you be disappointed? You learned that in seventh grade. Instead, why not transmit everything we've got? I would just send the entire contents of Google's servers", says Shostak. "To begin with, you don't have to worry about the fact that they don't speak English, because there's a lot of redundancy, so they'll learn it. And every subject is in there..."

G. We could use the same radio frequencies as the Arecibo message, but why not do something a little more dramatic? The universe is pretty transparent to optical light; that's how we can see far away galaxies. If we used a bank of high-powered lasers, we could beam a high-bandwidth message across the cosmos.

Read the following passage. Choose from paragraphs (A-G) the one which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph that you do not need to use.

How to Talk to Aliens

On November 16, 1974, astronomer Frank Drake dedicated a new observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, by sending humankind's first deliberate communication to extraterrestrials.

The message, made up of 1,679 seemingly random zeros and ones, was shorter than the first four paragraphs of this article, but it still took three minutes to send. While the message began its voyage to the cosmosa 24,000-year trip to M-13, a cluster of stars in the constellation Hercules, to be exact - visiting dignitaries listened over a loudspeaker while each bit played as a short, high-pitched tone. Some participants later said it brought tears to their eyes.

19.1

To a large extent, modern technologies have made these suggestions irrelevant. Since the 1920s, human radio and TV broadcasts have spammed the galaxy and anyone listening has already gotten an earful. "In some sense, this is all academic, because we have been broadcasting to aliens for decades," says Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. "They're already watching re-runs of our TV shows!"

19.2

The Arecibo broadcast represented one approach. Those 1,679 zeros and ones carried hidden meaning for any intelligent species who noticed that 1,679 is the product of two prime numbers, 73 and 23. Arrange the message in 73 rows of 23 numbers, and you get a picture painted in bits. It was a novel approach, but the message was hidden, and it depended on aliens making leaps of logic in order to decipher it.

19.3

These efforts are notable because so few other attempts have been made to craft a message to alien civilisations. But as actual attempts at communication, the spacecrafts fall flat. They're too small to notice and move too slowly. Far better to use a broadcast signal, which we can target at a specific star, and which moves at the speed of light.

19.4

And we could do it with style. "One nice thing about light is that creatures develop eyes, and it would be possible to make optical radiation bright enough to see," says Paul Horowitz, a professor of physics at Harvard University. "That's an unmistakable signature. You look up, and there's a star, blinking in code, and the colour's changing, too."

19.5

Other researchers say that the best way to get an alien's attention is to send it a significant numeric pattern, perhaps prime numbers or the value of Pi. "Maybe the most fundamental way to initiate a message would be with mathematics", says Horowitz. "A lot of stuff will surely be understood by anybody, no matter what slime they're made out of, because it's so basic."

19.6 

The discussion might seem academic. But many astronomers are confident they'll detect an extraterrestrial intelligence in the next few decades, and when that happens, we'd better have an official reply ready, or risk being drowned out by the public.

* Search for Extra Intelligence

Read the passage and do the following tasks.

MEASURES TO COMBAT INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN TSARIST RUSSIA

A. In the second half of the seventeenth century, Russian authorities began implementing controls at the borders of their empire to prevent the importation of plague, a highly infectious and dangerous disease. Information on disease outbreak occurring abroad was regularly reported to the tsar's court through various means, including commercial channels (travelling merchants), military personnel deployed abroad, undercover agents, the network of Imperial Foreign Office embassies and representations abroad, and the customs offices. For instance, the heads of customs offices were instructed to question foreigners entering Russia about possible epidemics of dangerous diseases in their respective countries.

B. If news of an outbreak came from abroad, relations with the affected country were suspended. For instance, foreign vessels were not allowed to dock in Russian ports if there was credible information about the existence of epidemics in countries from whence they had departed. In addition, all foreigners entering Russia from those countries had to undergo quarantine. In 1665, after receiving news about a plague epidemic in England, Tsar Alexei wrote a letter to King Charles II in which he announced the cessation of Russian trade relations with England and other foreign states. These protective measures appeared to have been effective, as the country did not record any cases of plague during that year and in the next three decades. It was not until 1692 that another plague outbreak was recorded in the Russian province of Astrakhan. This epidemic continued for five months and killed 10,383 people, or about 65 percent of the city's population. By the end of the seventeenth century, preventative measures had been widely introduced in Russia, including the isolation of persons ill with plague, the imposition of quarantines, and the distribution of explanatory public health notices about plague outbreaks.

C. During the eighteenth century, although none of the occurrences was of the same scale as in the past, plague appeared in Russia several times. For instance, from 1703 to 1705, a plague outbreak that had ravaged Istanbul spread to the Podolsk and Kiev provinces in Russia, and then to Poland and Hungary. After defeating the Swedes in the battle of Poltava in 1709, Tsar Peter I (Peter the Great) dispatched part of his army to Poland, where plague had been raging for two years. Despite preventive measures, the disease spread among the Russian troops. In 1710, the plague reached Riga (then part of Sweden, now the capital of Latvia), where it was active until 1711 and claimed 60,000 lives. During this period, the Russians besieged Riga and, after the Swedes had surrendered the city in 1710, the Russian army lost 9,800 soldiers to the plague. Russian military chronicles of the time note that more soldiers died of the disease after the capture of Riga than from enemy fire during the siege of that city.

D. Tsar Peter I imposed strict measures to prevent the spread of plague during these conflicts. Soldiers suspected of being infected were isolated and taken to areas far from military camps. In addition, camps were designed to separate divisions, detachments, and smaller units of soldiers. When plague reached Narva (located in present-day Estonia) and threatened to spread to St. Petersburg, the newly built capital of Russia, Tsar Peter I ordered the army to cordon off the entire boundary along the Luga River, including temporarily halting all activity on the river. In order to prevent the movement of people and goods from Narva to St. Petersburg and Novgorod, roadblocks and checkpoints were set up on all roads. The tsar's orders were rigorously enforced, and those who disobeyed were hung.

E. However, although the Russian authorities applied such methods to contain the spread of the disease and limit the number of victims, all of the measures had a provisional character: they were intended to respond to a specific outbreak, and were not designed as a coherent set of measures to be implemented systematically at the first sign of plague. The advent of such a standard response system came a few years later.

F. The first attempts to organise procedures and carry out proactive steps to control plague date to the aftermath of the 1727-1728 epidemic in Astrakhan. In response to this, the Russian imperial authorities issued several decrees aimed at controlling the future spread of plague. Among these decrees, the 'Instructions for Governors and Heads of Townships' required that all governors immediately inform the Senate - a government body created by Tsar Peter I in 1711 to advise the monarch - if plague cases were detected in their respective provinces. Furthermore, the decree required that governors ensure the physical examination of all persons suspected of carrying the disease and their subsequent isolation. In addition, it was ordered that sites where plague victims were found had to be encircled by checkpoints and isolated for the duration of the outbreak. These checkpoints were to remain operational for at least six weeks. The houses of infected persons were to be burned along with all of the personal property they contained, including farm animals and cattle. The governors were instructed to inform the neighbouring provinces and cities about every plague case occurring on their territories. Finally, letters brought by couriers were heated above a fire before being copied.

G. The implementation by the authorities of these combined measures demonstrates their intuitive understanding of the importance of the timely isolation of infected people to limit the spread of plague.

The reading passage has SEVEN sections, A-G. Choose the correct heading for sections A-F from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-viii.

Section A: 20.1

Section B: 20.2

Section C: 20.3

Section D: 20.4

Section E: 20.5

Section F: 20.6

Which TWO measures did Russia take in the seventeenth century to avoid plague outbreaks?

Which TWO statements are made about Russia in the early eighteenth century?

Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

An outbreak of plague in 23.1 prompted the publication of a coherent preventative strategy.

Provincial governors were ordered to burn the 23.2 and possessions of plague victims.

Correspondence was held over a 23.3 prior to copying it.

You are going to read extracts from an article about favourite old songs. For questions 51- 60, choose from the sections (A-E). The extracts may be chosen more than once. 

OLD MUSIC

Five people write about musicians and songs that have been important to them in their life

A. At Last I Am Free by Robert Wyatt

Originally written for those masters of disco, Chic, it seems a long journey to Robert Wyatt's version. Wyatt is one of the great heroes of British counter-culture, whose blend of political commitment and musical experiment has led to a career of almost unrivalled range and influence. On this song he combines the heartbreaking honesty familiar from his other work with a voice that is somehow at once shrill but deeply soulful and communicative. The lyrics speak of a failing relationship but the way Wyatt sings it could be about anything - any momentous parting or now beginnings. The line 'I can hardly see in front of me' is one of those phrases in pop music that come along from time to time that mean almost nothing yet bulge under the weight of a thousand projected meanings for a thousand different listeners.

B. Another Day by Roy Harper

Decades on from its 1974 release 'Another Day' still strikes me as one of the most poignant and beautiful songs ever; a regretful ode to a lost love encountered once again, full of thwarted possibilities that the singer acknowledges but refuses to grasp and with regrets on both sides about things that should have been said but were not. At the song's end, even the possibility for words runs out as the former lovers stand with the shades of their former selves awkwardly between them. Others have covered the song, but none is better than Harper's original version, which Harper himself believes to be one of the "best love songs I wrote'. Although Harper's beautiful, angry and sometimes passionate songs fell into a quiet obscurity for a while, these days he is namechecked at almost every turn by modern-day artists.

C. Say Hello Wave Goodbye by Soft Cell

This song is a time machine for men and women of a certain age. Soft Cell had questionable credibility even then, so this was always a guilty pleasure for me. It has one of the best opening lines, ever I never went to the Pink Flamingo, but if I had, I am sure I would have found someone in the doorway, crying in the rain'. It was all slightly seedy - a down-at-heel, defeated romanticism. The oboe hitting the high notes offers a sharp reminder that singer Marc Almond can't manage the same, but the combination of the two works a treat, backed by a rhythm that doesn't seem to want to end. Back then, the pain was all imagined. Thirty years on, you can wallow in proper melancholy all you like. But make sure the kids are out.

D. Maggie May by Rod Stewart

I once went to an 18th birthday party disco. 'Maggie May' came on and instantly the place erupted; at least half a dozen strapping blokes more suited to the great outdoors started marching around clutching invisible microphone stands. It was a bizarre sight, but testimony to the hold that Stewart had at that time over lads who felt compelled to ape him. What is it about that song? A mood of end-of-summer rueful regret, mingled with rite of passage reminiscence? It came out in September 1971; I had just broken up with a girl who was admittedly nothing like woman-of-the-world Maggie. But you made a first-class fool out of me' - well, I kidded myself that rang true, at the time. Perhaps it was just the footballs, scarves, and glorious, ramshackle live appearances that appealed to men my age.

E. Martha by Tom Waits

Written when Tom Waits was just 24. 'Martha' finds the earliest incarnation of one of the US's most intriguing musical characters dropping comfortably into the slippers of a much, much older man. Calling long-distance to an old flame, he lays his heart bare about their past together and offers the beautifully underplayed revelation that he is still in love with her. The poignancy of this call taking place when both are probably now well into their 50s is given added weight that so much time could never erase this strength of feeling. The lyrics make you wish you could be there to see these two fictional characters reunited. In the age of social media, this track stands as a memorial to a time when you could easily lose touch with someone so very close to you, as time marched brutally on.

Which extract mentions

a suggestion that all is not lost? 24.1

the technical limitations of the musician? 24.2

an instance of personal satisfaction? 24.3

awareness of self-delusion? 24.4

the possibility of varying interpretations of this version of the song? 24.5

a restored reputation? 24.6

the increased personal significance that a song has come to have? 24.7

some thoughts on the nature of hero worship? 24.8

an example of the artist adopting a particular identity? 24.9

the ability of music to evoke the past? 24.10

Complete the text with the correct form of the word in brackets. 

Innate talent: myth or fact?

Recent research has indicated that talent as an innate characteristic is purely a myth, and that there is nothing 25.1 (MIRACLE) about someone excelling in their chosen area of expertise. What really matters is 25.2 (DILIGENT) and what's become known as 'purposeful practice'; in other words, 25.3 (EXPLICIT) trying to improve. Only by applying yourself and striving to be better each time you practise can you be any good at anything, be it playing chess or running a marathon. The increments in ability may be almost 25.4 (PERCEIVE) but are most certainly there.

Such studies have also suggested that circumstance is as much a requirement to success as physical attributes (like fast muscle twitch in sprinters). The majority of long-distance runners, they claim, come from African countries because they do their training at high altitudes, which is beneficial when competing at lower ones, where increased oxygen levels are hugely 25.5 (ENERGY).

While practice and the right conditions may appear to be 25.6 (DISPENSE) to success, is there actually any truth in the idea that innate talent is a myth as studies like these have 25.7 (SUPPOSE) proven? What may have been overlooked is who participated in the studies. It's 25.8 (REASSURE) for researchers when they prove that musicians are able to sing a perfect 'A' note without hearing it first - but does the research bear 25.9 (SCRUTINIZE)? Would it be possible to train someone professing to have no 'ear' for music to do the same?

Some later studies have claimed that professional sportspeople have no more physical advantage than anyone else. If that were true, how would c w would one explain why virtually all basketball players are 25.10 (EXCEPT) tall? The results of nature versus nurture, it seems, are far from conclusive.

Fill in each blank with ONE best word.

Picture the scene: you're in a meeting and the marketing manager stands up and delivers a speech. You listen attentively, hanging onto her every word, but slowly your mind wanders and you find 26.1 planning the weekly shop. You don't mean to be impolite, but you're not quite up to the mark on the most recent power speak. Her talk of "fishing where the fish swim" and "making significant inroads into e-tailing" leave you wandering why you're the only person who hasn't got a clue what's going on. Don't panic, you've just been 26.2 to the latest barrage of business 'buzzwords'.

Research shows that up to 75% of office employees engage in the use of such meeting-room jargon to give the impression that they have power. If you're not up-to-date you may find that you are no longer taken 26.3 your colleagues. Power speak is a game completely bound up with group identification and the exclusion of outsiders who don't know the language.

As extensive as its usage may be, not everyone is impressed by it. Many find it irritating and regard those who indulge in it as pretentious and somewhat ridiculous.

Nonetheless, power speak is here to stay and the Internet has 26.4 on its part in providing a wealth of new vocabulary. We can now 'download' (share ideas) with colleagues, make 'guesstimates' or if all else fail, experience a 'hard-drive crash' (nervous breakdown). Don't feel downhearted if most of this goes over your head. It is estimated that 20% of people who use jargon don't know what it means 26.5.

Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.

Claire behaved as if she was not bothered even though her boyfriend had just left her.

=> Claire put on a .........................

Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.

They spent three hours working and then they stopped to have lunch.

=> By the time .........................

Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.

My dad insisted on picking me up after the party.

=> My dad put .........................

Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.

He's a very talented dancer who's definitely had lots of practice over the years.

=> He's a very talented dancer who .........................

Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.

Not many people want typewriters nowadays.

=> Typewriters aren't much in .........................

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.

Don't ask for time off until things calm down. (DUST)

=> You should allow before asking for time off.

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.

I only watch television once in a blue moon. (DO)

=> Very television.

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.

They have a reason for wanting us to fail. (VESTED)

=> They have failure.

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.

You didn't enter the competition, so you had no chance of winning. (MIGHT)

=> If you had gone won.

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.

I don't think you should give up as soon as things start to get difficult. (TOWEL)

=> I'm against sign of difficulty.

Write a paragraph of around 150 words, answering the following question:

Excessive screening time (e.g. using mobile phones or computers for too long) can have negative effects on teenagers' development. What are these negative effects?