VSTEP Mock Test #1 - READING

Read and choose the correct answer for each of the following questions.

Hanoi is the busy capital city of Vietnam, and its hospitals are important places for people to get well. However, for many poor families, going to the hospital causes big money problems. Many patients and their families must travel a long way from the countryside to get treatment. This journey costs a lot of unexpected money for a place to sleep, medicine, and even daily food. When the money runs out, the pressure is very intense. Sometimes, families must choose to take a patient home early, even if they have not fully recovered. This financial difficulty is a big hidden problem that slows down recovery.

Seeing this huge problem, a simple but powerful act of kindness started more than ten years ago: giving free, healthy meals to poor patients. This charity work is done by small groups of local volunteers or special charity kitchens near hospitals. People call these kitchens "Bếp ăn Tình Thương" (Compassionate Kitchens). Every morning, rain or shine, volunteers meet early. Many of these helpers are retired people or small business owners.

First, they buy fresh and quality ingredients. Then, they cook thousands of meals in very clean kitchens. The food must be hot when it is delivered to the patients. The cooking must adhere to special food rules. These rules are established by the hospital staff to ensure the patients receive the proper nutrition. The dedicated volunteers plan the menus carefully to ensure the meals are balanced. This is crucial because some patients, like those with diabetes or kidney issues, require specialized dietary needs. A free meal quickly becomes an indispensable part of helping the patient get well.

This simple help does much more than just save money. For poor families, a hot, free meal means they do not have to choose between buying simple food or saving money for important medicine. This assistance reduces their worry, allowing them to focus entirely on their patient's recovery. Furthermore, the act of giving and receiving these meals fosters a strong sense of community. It helps remind patients that they are not isolated in their difficult time. Every day, when volunteers distribute meals, they also offer kind words and essential emotional support. This kind of holistic support is vital for the patient's hope and mental health.

The "Bếp ăn Tình Thương" movement operates entirely on local donations. Local people contribute money, rice, vegetables, and cooking oil. Because the system is entirely local, all operations remain highly transparent and accountable. These groups are responsible directly to the very people they serve. As this form of assistance has expanded, it has become a celebrated aspect of Hanoi's social fabric. It clearly demonstrates the strong spirit of kindness and communal support inherent in Vietnamese culture. It helps ensure that no patient has to choose between seeking recovery and facing hunger.

Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

According to the passage, what is one of the main financial difficulties faced by poor patients traveling to Hanoi hospitals?

The word "intense" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to _____

What does the word "they" in the third paragraph refer to?

The phrase "adhere to" in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to _____

The dedicated volunteers ensure the meals are balanced because _____

What does the pronoun "This" in the fourth paragraph refer to?

Based on the information in the passage, we can infer that "Bếp ăn Tình Thương" is a successful model because _____

What does the word "indispensable" in the third paragraph suggest about the free meals?

Which of the following items is NOT mentioned as a local donation to the "Bếp ăn Tình Thương" movement?

Read and choose the correct answer for each of the following questions.

Because governments around the world want to protect domestic industries and generate revenue, most countries impose tariffs on imported goods. A "tariff" is essentially a tax placed on a product when it crosses an international border, and the amount charged is usually calculated as a percentage of the product's declared value. Tariffs on manufactured goods such as automobiles, electronics, and textiles tend to receive the most public attention, yet agricultural tariffs often represent the highest rates. The level of a tariff is influenced largely by political considerations, which means that when a government wants to shield a struggling industry from foreign competition, tariff rates on competing imports will rise, and when a government seeks to encourage free trade, those rates will fall.

Because tariffs change the final cost of goods, companies that trade internationally must pay close attention to how they select suppliers and where they choose to sell their products. For example, if a German electronics manufacturer wants to sell televisions in Brazil, it must factor the Brazilian import duty into its pricing strategy. Setting the price too low could eliminate profit margins entirely, while setting it too high could make the product uncompetitive against locally made alternatives. In practice, the company exporting the goods usually absorbs less of the tariff burden than the company or consumers in the importing country. So if Brazil imposes a 20 percent tariff on imported televisions, the German manufacturer still ships the goods at the same wholesale price, but Brazilian retailers and their customers end up paying more. The difference between the original price and the final retail cost can sometimes be substantial enough to determine whether a product succeeds or fails in a foreign market.

The challenges created by tariffs for international businesses can be grouped into three main categories. The first, cost unpredictability, arises because governments may adjust tariff rates with little advance warning. A company that has committed to a long-term supply contract may suddenly find that a tariff increase has made the arrangement unprofitable. Even modest rate changes of just a few percentage points can erase thin profit margins on high-volume goods.

The second category, market access limitation, occurs when tariffs become so high that they effectively block foreign products from entering a market. [A] This forces companies to consider alternative strategies, such as establishing local manufacturing facilities in the target country to avoid the import tax altogether. [B] Building a factory abroad, however, introduces its own set of financial and logistical risks that must be weighed carefully against the potential savings.

The third category is called retaliatory escalation. [C] This happens when one country raises tariffs on another country's goods, and the affected country responds by imposing equally high or higher tariffs in return. Such trade disputes can spiral rapidly, disrupting supply chains that took years to build and affecting industries that were not part of the original disagreement. [D] Companies caught in the middle of these disputes often have no control over the political decisions driving the conflict, yet they bear the financial consequences directly.

What does the example of German televisions in Brazil imply about end consumers in importing countries?

All of the following can be inferred from the passage EXCEPT _____.

According to the passage, compared to consumers in the importing country, the company exporting goods to them generally bears _____.

In which space (marked A, B, C and D in the passage) will the following sentence fit?

"As a result, businesses frequently find themselves adjusting prices, switching suppliers, or even exiting markets they had previously considered profitable."

Read and choose the correct answer for each of the following questions.

The national policy shift from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to English as a Second Language (ESL) is a major strategic commitment with broad socio-economic aims. Unlike EFL, which limits English to external communication, ESL integrates the language into the national infrastructure for higher education and internal professional use. This shift aims to boost global competitiveness by accelerating foreign direct investment and streamlining supply chain participation. Furthermore, an ESL framework exponentially enhances academic access to global scientific literature and scholarly discourse, strengthening the national knowledge base. [A] The pervasive daily use of ESL also fosters cultural exposure, creating a more cosmopolitan and adaptable citizenry.

Yet, this transition is fraught with significant and often underestimated challenges. The most immediate risk is the potential erosion of linguistic and cultural heritage, a form of soft power displacement where indigenous languages may suffer diminished status or resource investment, particularly within academic and technical domains. On the ground, the resource allocation issues are monumental: transitioning to ESL necessitates a massive, sustained financial commitment to update national curricula, provide standardized, quality materials, and, most critically, retrain a generation of teachers to achieve and maintain native or near-native proficiency levels required for content instruction. Psychologically, the shift can generate anxiety and inequality, creating a linguistic barrier that disadvantages learners from low socio-economic backgrounds whose native language proficiency is often the only available foundation for learning.

Adding a layer of unprecedented complexity to this policy debate is the disruptive influence of Artificial Intelligence. Advancements in AI, particularly real-time machine translation and large language models (LLMs), are rapidly dissolving traditional human language barriers. AI-powered language learning tools offer hyper-personalized instruction that may eventually surpass the quality available in under-resourced public school systems. [B] The geopolitical question emerges: if AI can soon provide instantaneous, near-perfect translation of complex technical discourse, does the necessity for widespread, high-level human English proficiency—the core promise of the ESL model—become fundamentally negated? Critics posit that an aggressive ESL strategy may prove to be an outdated investment, arguing that future-readiness lies not in mastering one foreign language, but in leveraging AI to make every language equally accessible for commerce and diplomacy.

From a geopolitical and future-readiness perspective, the ESL investment can be viewed either as an indispensable hedge or an expensive redundancy. On one hand, maintaining a critical mass of human English speakers acts as an irreplaceable hedge against technology failure, ethical lapses in AI-driven communication, and the immediate need for human-to-human nuance in sensitive negotiations. [C] Conversely, the considerable resources allocated to the ESL initiative might be more effectively deployed in cultivating technology competence, AI literacy, and digital fluency across the populace—abilities arguably more essential for navigating a future increasingly governed by automation in global communication.

Ultimately, the wisdom of moving from EFL to ESL is not a universal constant but a highly contextualized strategic calculation. The decision cannot be based on the blanket adoption of a global trend but must emerge from a rigorous, nuanced cost-benefit analysis. This analysis must be tailored to the specific nation's socio-economic goals, its current linguistic diversity, the availability of resources, and a clear-eyed projection of AI's trajectory and role in international affairs. [D] For some, ESL is the immediate, essential pathway to global relevance; for others, it represents an investment risk that future AI capabilities will render obsolete. The goal is a balanced policy that maximizes global access while meticulously safeguarding cultural and linguistic sovereignty.

Which of the following best summarizes the main argument of the passage?

According to the passage, which of the following is an intended benefit of shifting from an EFL to an ESL policy?

In paragraph 1, the phrase "The pervasive daily use of ESL" refers primarily to which of the following?

In paragraph 4, the author uses the word "hedge" to mean a safeguard against which of the following?

The word "rigorous" in paragraph 5 is best understood as _____

The author’s attitude towards the "massive, sustained financial commitment" required for the ESL shift (Paragraph 2) can be best described as _____

What is the inferred cause-and-effect relationship between the ESL shift and social inequality, according to paragraph 2?

The author’s primary purpose in writing the passage is to _____

Look at the four squares [A], [B], [C], and [D] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where would the sentence best fit?

The resources could, instead, be channeled into initiatives that secure linguistic diversity and provide targeted support for those most disadvantaged by the cultural changes.

It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes an unmitigated shift to ESL, without considering AI, would be most likely to lead to which of the following outcomes?

Read and choose the correct answer for each of the following questions.

Although the ocean floor lies hidden beneath kilometers of water, it is no less dynamic than the continents above. The seabed is constantly being reshaped by powerful geological forces, some of which build new structures while others break them down. Because direct observation is difficult, scientists have only begun to understand these processes in detail over the past century, aided by technologies such as sonar mapping and deep-sea submersibles.

One of the most striking features of the ocean floor is the mid-ocean ridge system, a chain of underwater mountains that stretches roughly 65,000 kilometers across the globe. These ridges mark the boundaries where tectonic plates pull apart, allowing molten rock from the mantle to rise and solidify into new crust. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, for instance, is still actively spreading at a rate of about 2.5 centimeters per year, gradually widening the Atlantic Ocean. As fresh crust forms along the ridge, older sections are pushed outward toward the continents. This continuous process, known as seafloor spreading, means that the youngest rocks on the ocean floor are found at the ridges, while the oldest lie near the continental margins.

At the opposite end of the cycle, oceanic crust is destroyed at subduction zones, where one plate slides beneath another and descends into the mantle. These zones produce the deepest points on Earth's surface. The Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, for example, plunges to nearly 11,000 meters below sea level. As the descending plate sinks, it generates intense heat and pressure, which can trigger powerful earthquakes and fuel volcanic eruptions on the overriding plate. The chain of volcanic islands that forms the Japanese archipelago owes its existence to precisely this mechanism. Thus, the ocean floor is continuously created at mid-ocean ridges and recycled back into the Earth's interior at subduction zones.

While tectonic forces operate on a grand scale, smaller but persistent processes also reshape the seabed. Ocean currents transport vast quantities of sediment across the floor, gradually burying older geological features under layers of fine material. The accumulation of these sediments can be remarkably thick; in some areas near river deltas, deposits exceed ten kilometers in depth, compressing lower layers into sedimentary rock over millions of years.

Beyond the movement of water, biological activity plays a surprisingly significant role in shaping underwater terrain. Coral reefs, built by colonies of tiny organisms that extract calcium carbonate from seawater, can grow into massive limestone structures spanning hundreds of kilometers. The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is so large that it is visible from space. These living formations provide habitat for an extraordinary diversity of marine species, yet they are also vulnerable to environmental change. Rising ocean temperatures cause coral bleaching, a process in which stressed corals expel the symbiotic algae that give them color and nutrients, often leading to widespread die-offs.

[A] In the deepest parts of the ocean, an entirely different biological process contributes to the seabed's composition. [B] The shells and skeletons of microscopic organisms called plankton drift downward after death, accumulating on the ocean floor as a fine sediment known as ooze. [C] Over geological time, this biogenic material can harden into chalk or limestone, forming rock layers that may eventually be uplifted above sea level by tectonic activity. [D] The White Cliffs of Dover in England, composed almost entirely of ancient marine plankton, offer a dramatic illustration of how material from the deep ocean can end up as a prominent landscape feature on land.

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the following sentence?

This continuous process, known as seafloor spreading, means that the youngest rocks on the ocean floor are found at the ridges, while the oldest lie near the continental margins.

The word "persistent" in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _____.

Look at the four squares [A], [B], [C], and [D] in paragraph 6. Where would the following sentence best fit?

This steady rain of organic particles, often called marine snow, is one of the primary ways that carbon is transferred from the surface ocean to the deep sea.