Đề thi vào lớp 10 môn Anh Chuyên - Sở GD&ĐT Đồng Nai năm 2026

Kevin: Not much. I was visiting my grandmother and she's pretty sick at the moment, but I did have a coffee near the dolphin fountain.

Eric: (15)_____ That's near the waterfront, right?

Kevin: That's right, they redeveloped that area. They tore down the old office buildings and built a new plaza.

Eric: Sounds great!

ON THE OTHER HAND?

We left-handed people tend to lack pride, which means that we rarely complain 31.1 having to live in a 'right-handed' world. We make 31.2 demands and we avoid a fuss. I used to say whenever someone watched me sign my name and remarked that he or she was also left-handed: 'You and me and Leonardo da Vinci!' That was a weak joke, but it contained my often unconscious desire to belong to Left Pride, a social movement that 31.3 far doesn't exist but I hope may one day come.

There are many false stories about left-handed people 31.4 circulation: for example, a few decades ago someone wrote that Picasso was left-handed, and others kept repeating it, but the proof is all 31.5 the contrary. The great genius Einstein is often still claimed as one of ours, also without proof. And sadly there is also no truth in the myth that the left-handed tend to be smarter and more creative.

31.6 the great amount of research that has been carried out, researchers in the field still find it hard to decide precisely what we mean 31.7 left-handed. Apparently a third of those 31.8 write with their left hand throw a ball with their right. However, those using their right hand for writing rarely throw with their left. The skill of writing is one that becomes crucial at a most impressionable age, and defines 31.9 you will call yourself. I have never used scissors, baseball bat, hockey stick or computer mouse with anything but my right; even so, I still regard myself as left-handed, as 31.10 everyone else.

GADGETS FOR THE FUTURE

This year's Future Product of the Year Award has attracted a number of unusual entries, including the Inculpable Mousetrap and an alarm-clock duvet and pillow. Stuart Penny and Gianni Tozzi, both 29, conceived the Inculpable Mousetrap as an 'exercise in morality' and accept it is unlikely to 32.1appreciatefavoursupportenjoy commercial success. You 32.2fixputsetshut the trap, wander off to the pub and wait to see what happens. If a mouse approaches the trap, a transmitter 32.3attachedunitedcollatedenclosed to it sends a signal to your mobile phone. You are then 32.4letofferedaskedurged to decide whether to activate the trap or not. You send back your answer as a text message and the trap's metal bar slams down or 32.5restsstaysholdslasts open accordingly.

Rachel Wingfield's alarm-clock duvet and pillow could 32.6writespellsayspeak the end for alarm clocks. They use pulsating light beams to wake sleepers and can be used individually or together. The sleeper 32.7plainlyuniquelysimplypurely programmes the alarm clock on their mobile phone, plugs it into a socket on the duvet or pillow and is woken at the correct time with light. The whole effect is 32.8pretendedsupposedassumedsuggested to replicate the break of 32.9lightsunrisefastdawn. The duvet and pillow are woven through with electro-luminescent cords. At the 32.10statedsaidspecifiedannounced time the mobile phone sends a tiny electric current through them and they begin to glow. Rachel, 24, says: 'Alarm clocks needlessly wake 32.11totalhighwholefull households. I wanted to design something 32.12plannedintendedthoughttargeted at the individual sleeper.'

A. Other regular subjects like history and science are not neglected. Rather, they are embedded inside such quests, where students use a blend of academic subjects to solve problems. For example, in Creepytown, students pretend they are travel agents and use maths to convert currencies and English to write a travel blog. When the city has an economic crisis, students must improvise - they design a theme park to bring in revenue.
B. The game evokes the full spectrum of emotions from elation to being visibly moved and then stunned into utter silence in the game's final scene. Their teacher says he couldn't imagine this having happened if they had simply watched a film or read a novel together.
C. National policy makers and parents alike are concerned about life skills, thus the recurrent debate centres around which skills students need for success in a rapidly evolving world. One point of consensus is the need for innovation in the nation's schools.
D. Quest to Learn aims to bridge this gap with gaming. "Kids love to play games and they will commit to games for hours and hours, when their attention span is quite short for other things," says Arana Shapiro, director of curriculum at the school. Digital games are an integral part of children's lives and through play and exploration, we construct new ideas. Thus, games are a powerful tool for learning and could stimulate a quantum shift in teaching.
E. The benefits of gaming are not restricted to schools in the USA. In Norway, for example, students watch a video game called The Walking Dead. They debate the ethical dilemma of dividing food between 10 survivors when they have provisions for only four. Who should be fed first? Having reached an ethical solution, students justify it with concepts of moral philosophy they have studied.
F. As he cheats death and reaches home safely with less than two seconds to spare, the room erupts in cheers of relief, admiration and delight. There is no denying the level of engagement in learning in this classroom. It is absolute.
G. Students are sometimes asked to design their own computer games as well, which demands expertise in maths, art, coding and deductive reasoning. Richard Arum, a professor at New York University, says this teaches children "to collaborate, think critically and master 21st-century competencies," skills required for tomorrow's job market.

In an old school building, a lively group of sixth graders is taking a class in "Sports for the Mind".

In a classroom, a teacher is playing a computer game on his laptop, which is linked to a large interactive whiteboard. His students are riveted to the screen. While he tries to avoid enemy robots to make it home safely, his sixth graders are tracking the robots' movements. They shout out instructions and warnings. "That extra movement cost you precious time," one student observes. "Look behind you!" shout others. "Go! Go!"

33.1

This is no ordinary classroom. At the Quest to Learn school in New York City, a radical experiment is underway. Who knows where it will lead? This public school is being reinvented with the latest technology and quest-based learning as the underlying principle of teaching. Quest to Learn is the creation of game designer Katie Salen, who has long been concerned about the fact that the curriculum taught in schools often has little relevance to the students' world outside.

33.2

This "gamification" of education is underpinned by the belief that learning which is fun leads to greater acquisition and retention of knowledge. Therefore, lessons are designed like quests including online activities that teach subjects like maths through games. The grading system reflects levels of gaming competence such as novice, apprentice and master. Final exams are named boss level, referring to the last stage of video games where players face the ultimate test.

33.3

As to homework, students still do traditional reading assignments, but also record podcasts or make their own video clips. These videos can provide a means of assessing student learning. "You have to understand something in order to explain it to someone else," curriculum designer Daniel O'Keefe points out. In the future, games could even replace examinations. If a student succeeds in moving through ever more sophisticated levels of a game teaching physics, for example, he or she has clearly demonstrated the knowledge required.

33.4

Another area that gaming develops is the ability to persevere. Gamers always "level up" and aim to win, but the road to winning involves failure. Will Wright, designer of The Sims game, calls it failure-based learning, in which failure is short-lived, non-threatening and motivational for children. "They play for five minutes and lose," he says. But inevitably they will play again and again until they win. Children who persist after constant failures develop emotional resilience and intellectual stamina.

33.5

In another lesson, the teacher presents the students with the survival game The Last of Us. With its complex plot and engaging characters, students learn nearly as much about literature as they would have done by reading a book. They play eight hours at home and complete the game in class.

33.6

Gaming may be the catalyst for a fundamental change in education, for as games make the transition from commercial to educational use, they are proving to be very versatile. And since many games can be written to be intuitive or adaptive, maybe the day will dawn when the content of learning is customized to each individual's needs.

33.7

This is one experiment that could pave the way towards a revolution in our education system. It's a goal worth pursuing. The question is whether other schools will follow suit.

AUTUMN LEAVES
Canadian writer Jay Ingram investigates the mystery of why leaves turn red in the fall

A. One of the most captivating natural events of the year in many areas throughout North America is the turning of the leaves in the fall. The colours are magnificent, but the question of exactly why some trees turn yellow or orange, and others red or purple, is something which has long puzzled scientists.

B. Summer leaves are green because they are full of chlorophyll, the molecule that captures sunlight and converts that energy into new building materials for the tree. As fall approaches in the northern hemisphere, the amount of solar energy available declines considerably. For many trees - evergreen conifers being an exception - the best strategy is to abandon photosynthesis until the spring. So rather than maintaining the now redundant leaves throughout the winter, the tree saves its precious resources and discards them. But before letting its leaves go, the tree dismantles their chlorophyll molecules and ships their valuable nitrogen back into the twigs. As chlorophyll is depleted, other colours that have been dominated by it throughout the summer begin to be revealed. This unmasking explains the autumn colours of yellow and orange, but not the brilliant reds and purples of trees such as the maple or sumac.

C. The source of the red is widely known: it is created by anthocyanins, water-soluble plant pigments reflecting the red to blue range of the visible spectrum. They belong to a class of sugar-based chemical compounds also known as flavonoids. What's puzzling is that anthocyanins are newly minted, made in the leaves at the same time as the tree is preparing to drop them. But it is hard to make sense of the manufacture of anthocyanins: why should a tree bother making new chemicals in its leaves when it's already scrambling to withdraw and preserve the ones already there?

D. Some theories about anthocyanins have argued that they might act as a chemical defence against attacks by insects or fungi, or that they might attract fruit-eating birds or increase a leaf's tolerance to freezing. However, there are problems with each of these theories, including the fact that leaves are red for such a relatively short period that the expense of energy needed to manufacture the anthocyanins would outweigh any anti-fungal or anti-herbivore activity achieved.

E. It has also been proposed that trees may produce vivid red colours to convince herbivorous insects that they are healthy and robust and would be easily able to mount chemical defences against infestation. If insects paid attention to such advertisements, they might be prompted to lay their eggs on a duller, and presumably less resistant host. The flaw in this theory lies in the lack of proof to support it. No one has as yet ascertained whether more robust trees sport the brightest leaves, or whether insects make choices according to colour intensity.

F. Perhaps the most plausible suggestion as to why leaves would go to the trouble of making anthocyanins when they're busy packing up for the winter is the theory known as the 'light screen' hypothesis. It sounds paradoxical, because the idea behind this hypothesis is that the red pigment is made in autumn leaves to protect chlorophyll, the light-absorbing chemical, from too much light. Why does chlorophyll need protection when it is the natural world's supreme light absorber? Why protect chlorophyll at a time when the tree is breaking it down to salvage as much of it as possible?

G. Chlorophyll, although exquisitely evolved to capture the energy of sunlight, can sometimes be overwhelmed by it, especially in situations of drought, low temperatures, or nutrient deficiency. Moreover, the problem of oversensitivity to light is even more acute in the fall, when the leaf is busy preparing for winter by dismantling its internal machinery. The energy absorbed by the chlorophyll molecules of the unstable autumn leaf is not immediately channelled into useful products and processes, as it would be in an intact summer leaf. The weakened fall leaf then becomes vulnerable to the highly destructive effects of the oxygen created by the excited chlorophyll molecules.

H. Even if you had never suspected that this is what was going on when leaves turn red, there are clues out there. One is straightforward: on many trees, the leaves that are the reddest are those on the side of the tree which gets most sun. Not only that, but the red is brighter on the upper side of the leaf. It has also been recognised for decades that the best conditions for intense red colours are dry, sunny days and cool nights, conditions that nicely match those that make leaves susceptible to excess light. And finally, trees such as maples usually get much redder the more north you travel in the northern hemisphere. It's colder there, they're more stressed, their chlorophyll is more sensitive and it needs more sunblock.

I. What is still not fully understood, however, is why some trees resort to producing red pigments while others don't bother, and simply reveal their orange or yellow hues. Do these trees have other means at their disposal to prevent overexposure to light in autumn? Their story, though not as spectacular to the eye, will surely turn out to be as subtle and as complex.

The article "Để trẻ em bước vào thế giới số một cách tự tin và an toàn", published by Báo Chính phủ in April 2026, discusses the need to protect children and teenagers in digital environments. It points out that social media can offer opportunities for communication and learning, but it may also expose young users to harmful content, cyberbullying, misinformation and unhealthy online habits. The article suggests that students need guidance from families, schools and reliable information sources so that they can use digital platforms confidently, safely and responsibly.

Note: You may use ideas from the summary, but you should express them in your own words and develop your own examples.