SELF-STUDY (LAM HUY)

I. LISTENING (5,0 points)

Part 1. For questions 1-5, listen to part of an audio about the university of Oxford and decide
whether the following statements are True (T), False (F), or Not Given (NG) according to what you
hear.
1. ______ The third Earl of Pembroke was a philanthropist to a famous playwright.
2. ______ The central library can be accessed by the general public through a paid guided tour.
3. ______ The university museum is now a prototype for all modern museums.
4. ______ Visitors to the museum have to pay for a fixed amount of fee.
5. ______ For fresh air, the fauna and flora of the garden and the waterways are recommended.
Part 2. For questions 6-10, listen to part of an audio about drawing and answer the questions. Write
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording for each answer.
6. How does the man describe the central role of drawing to the economy?
___________________________________________________________________
7. What part does drawing have in architecture?
___________________________________________________________________
8. What kind of awareness is vital for studying biochemistry?
___________________________________________________________________
9. What can you rotate in space to have a digital floating experience?
___________________________________________________________________
10. Besides age, what factors do not prevent people from partaking in the Big Draw?
___________________________________________________________________
Part 3. For questions 11-15, listen to two people talking about a new children art project and choose
the correct answer A, B, C, or D which fits best according to what you hear.
11. What difference can be noticed at the new Met museum?
A. The setting of tables and chairs B. The entrance fee for kids
C. The noise level D. The new main source of patronage
12. To Patty Brown, what has been a surprising finding in the children art program?
A. The spontaneous transmission of art B. The varicolored replicates of one original work
C. The application of technology in an arts entity D. The supportive interface of the table
13. What is the role of the department of scientific research in the building?
A. To stimulate scientific activities among children B. To research the composition of art works
C. To acquaint children with current art materials D. To promote co-operation between members
14. What educational activity is not on offer at the Met museum?
A. Pillow making B. Construction C. Playing music D. Lighting display
15. What does Patty Brown want the children to learn from the program?
A. How to form new relationships B. How to unwind themselves
C. How to engage in science D. How to make visual connections
Part 4. For questions 16-25, listen to a news report about ways to improve critical thinking and
complete the sentences below. NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
Teaching science in the US sometimes features (16) _____________ popular notions.
The tongue map is an example. It originated in 1901 when a German scientist coined the term “(17)
_______________ “. The faulty notion only got popularized when a psychologist at Harvard depicted it
pictorially. Modern science, i.e. (18) _______________, has discovered that the tongue has multiple taste
buds called receptors.
Another myth is the number of flavors. More than four have been reported, notably one termed umami
discovered by a (19) _______________. He found that (20) ________________ in food can catch the
attention of umami receptors.
Textbooks in the US also get it wrong that humans have worse sniffing capabilities than other animals. This
myth begun when a French scientist found other species have a larger and curvier (21) _______________
than humans, thus being better sniffers. In fact, when it comes to chemicals, humans (22)
_______________ their rivals.
The US science books also perpetuate the idea that (23) ______________ or other senses are not actual
human senses which only comprise of smell, taste, vision, hearing, and touch. They also omit the sense of
balance which operates on the co-ordination of our brain, (24) _______________ and eyes.
Such examples alone can testify why book revision is needed so that education actually challenges popular
ideas and (25) _________________.
II. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (2,0 points)
Part 1. For questions 26-40, choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each of the following
questions.
1. The magazine often leaves a small column for pop _____. They are trivial but somehow catch the
fascination of teenagers.
A. factoids B. factuals C. factions D. factives
2. People from the metropolises often look down on people of the countryside, calling them peasant or
_____.
A. upstate B. woodsy C. rustic D. hillbilly
3. For fast striders, being stuck behind their slow counterparts can be a real _____.
A. fast track B. pet peeve C. low-down D. flying circus
4. A non-conformist himself, John gradually led a life of a _____, avoiding social contact.
A. hermit B. griffin C. gorgon D. vampire
5. Jewel-studded gowns, diamond rings and sapphire earrings are few of the _____ of a truly royal
princess.
A. accouterments B. cloche C. chattels D. landholdings
6. Many scientist couples have been criticized for using their children as _____ for behavioral experiments.
A. rabbits B. hamsters C. guinea pigs D. bunnies
7. Listening to One Direction really ___ him _____ as he grew up in Britain in the 2010s.
A. beats … hollow B. hits … where he lives C. hits … in the pocket D. beats … to it
8. _____ aren’t uncommon among celebrities or wealthy cautious people.
A. pre-ops B. pre-nups C. apostilles D. apothegms
9. The CIA and FBI are criticized for unethical use of _____ on political prisoners. They clap back by saying
that such prisoners can be the key to combat Russia.
A. truth serums B. truth essences C. nerve gases D. nerve essences
10. We should be immensely proud when the renowned diplomat Le Duc Tho was an _____ of the Le Hong
Phong high school for the gifted.
A. alumna B. alumnae C. alumni D. alumnus
11. Annually, the ministry of Education and Training holds a ceremonious night. This year, I am determined
to make it to the _____.
A. whitelist B. honor roll C. birthday honors D. roll of honor
12. Former members of the NEC team should be able to _____ the English end-of-year exam this July.
A. breeze through B. zip through C. swerve through D. cadge through
13. The innovative plant-based bacons will help our company to _____ the competition in the vegan
market.
A. flit B. zap C. slit D. klap
14. John is annoyingly nosy: _____!
A. He’s always down in the mouth B. He’s always at my elbow
C. His ears are always flapping D. His hair is never out of place
15. Mrs Huyen makes us study all week long. Sometimes, we must play _____!
A. kooky B. moony C. choky D. hooky
Part 2: Give the correct form of each bracketed word in each sentence.
1. Oil and water are (MIX) ________________, the former staying on top of the latter if thrown into one
cup.
2. Prevention is better than cure, and sex education is better during (PUBERTY) ________________ than
teenage years or adolescence.
3. Lenient teaching methodologies prove futile when naughty students cause a chaos with (PUNISH)
________________.
4. The Milky way and other galaxies have (GALAXY) ________________ space in-between.
5. Fashion trends die out when everyone wears the same shirt, puts on the same pants and becomes
(IDENTITY) ________________ replicates of the trendsetters.
III. READING (5,0 points)
Part 1. For questions 1-10, read the passage and fill each of the following numbered blanks with
ONE suitable word. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Education now acts as an unshakeable (1) __________ of any civilized society. Any society that
neglects it shall face its demise. The right to education is described as ‘both a human right in itself and an
indispensable means of realizing other human rights.’ It should be accorded (2) __________ distinction and
should be accessible for all. However, despite international obligations to make education readily
accessible, minority groups are not always (3) __________ this right. Although they may attend school,
classes may be in a language they are unfamiliar with. Curriculums may also (4) __________ information
about their history, tradition and language, thus failing to protect their identity. Children facing such
problems may be unable to participate fully due to (5) __________ problems and may face potential
expulsion either for lack of participation or failure to attend classes in which they feel unable to (6)
__________. In addition, there may be physical restrictions to education due to a lack of accessibility.
Children from minority groups may have to travel large distances to attend school and this can be both time
consuming and expensive, and/or the costs of school uniforms and textbooks can be (7) __________.
Failure to address these problems also prevents access to education. The (8) __________ of minority
groups in the decision-making process would allow for education authorities to better understand the needs
of these groups and to adjust the curriculum (9) __________. However, to achieve this, they need a
figurehead who becomes their representative. To become a representative requires education. This
paradox (10) __________ a vicious circle of under-representation of minority groups.
Part 2. For questions 1-8, read a passage on the human immune system and choose the answer
A, B, C or D which fits best according to the passage.
A good night's sleep has more benefits than originally thought, and the definition of what constitutes a
"good" sleep might be changing. Based Line on a new study printed in Oxford University Press' SLEEP,
students perform better when they're well rested-but that's not a surprising find. The surprising result of the
study is that the number of hours of sleep isn't the main determiner of how well-rested kids will be during
the early morning hours- it's the time they wake up that matters.
Based on data from the Center for Disease Control, the average school start time for US middle and
high schools is 8:03 am, with times ranging from 7:40 to 8:23. Moreover, it has been this way for so long
that it's thought of as a cultural norm, and culturally accepted norms can be difficult to change. Take
breakfast foods for example if you wouldn't feel comfortable eating soup, salad, or any other typical lunch
food during "normal breakfast hours," you are certainly not alone. With the case of school start times,
though, the implications of changing normal behavior are much larger than simply trading your Cheerios
for a Waldorf salad. For students, the results could be life-changing.
With a plethora of data on circadian rhythms, researchers in the study set out to put theory into practice.
It has long been known that children need over eight and a half hours of sleep per night, and that peak
performance is at risk if they don't reach this mark. Furthermore, the brain functions better or worse during
certain hours of the day. For example, melatonin (the hormone that makes us feel tired at night) secretion
ends around 7:30 am. After secretion of the hormone stops, it takes some time for its presence to vacate
the bloodstream, meaning that we will not feel alert immediately after the hormone stops flowing. For
children attending school, then, it appears that pushing the start time to one that correlates with lowered
levels of melatonin would be appropriate. In the study, researchers adjusted start times for kids, pushing
arrival times to minutes later than usual, and measured the effect on sleep timing, sleepiness, and well-
being (mood). Subjects were 15-year-old Singaporean students, who normally begin their school day at
7:30 am. After making the change to 8:15 start times, students reported getting an average 23 minutes
more sleep per night, as well as lower levels of sleepiness and an improvement in overall well-being, and
they maintained this beyond the initial follow-up assessment. Additionally, students reported that they were
getting at least 8 hours of sleep, which puts them much closer to the recommended amount.
Although this study did not use US children as its subjects, it has implications for students all over the
world. As hypothesized, the findings imply that there are clear-cut mental benefits for kids who have later
class start times. By pushing sleeping hours to a time that syncs with young children's circadian rhythm, the
researchers have finally proven a connection between not just total sleep hours, but "proper" sleep hours
and well-being. Furthermore, the benefits could reach further than their direct effects: parents wouldn't have
to wake up so early to get their kids to school, making this a win-win situation. And school start times would
65 still be before the typical nine-to-five workday, giving parents time to get to work after they drop their
kids off. This study is far from perfect, however. Only 337 kids were studied, and they already had an
earlier start-time than kids in the US have. Beyond that, the 23 minutes more that participants were getting
after the experiment dropped to 9 minutes 10 months after the experiment began. This is not to say that
there were no positive long-term takeaways from the study. Seeing a boost in positive moods and alertness
as a result of sleeping longer implies that the number of hours of sleep wasn't the only benefit from the later
school start times; kids' overall wellness was a less anticipated but nonetheless welcome secondary effect.
In the future, it would be beneficial to replicate the study in other countries, and to vary the start-time
delays beyond 8:15 am. Additionally, researchers should extend the length of the study to at least a full
school year so that the long-term benefits can be assessed. Overall, the study's researchers are optimistic
that "starting school later in East Asia is feasible and can have sustained benefits" and that the implications
"argue strongly for disruption in practice and attitudes surrounding sleep and well-being." We should really
consider changing class start times for school children if that change will have a positive effect on their
overall wellness and performance, while not showing any negative effects on the community.
1. What is the central claim of the passage?
A) Studies like the one conducted on the Singapore high school students are inapplicable in the United
States.
B) Current school start times are a result of habit and a series of cultural norms rather than the result of
research.
C) Research into circadian rhythms only looks into how many hours of sleep children need in a night but
much more research is needed
D) While further research should be conducted, there is evidence that later school start times would be
beneficial for student performance and well-being.
2. The word "implications" most nearly means _____.
A) consequences. B) decisions. C) repercussions. D) significance.
3. In the design of the study, the researchers assume that
A) students are getting more sleep each night because of the study itself.
B) cultural norms primarily dictate students' sleep schedules.
C) later start times are beneficial to both students and parents.
D) the fluctuation of melatonin is consistent among students.
4. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
A) ("Moreover, it...change") B) (“For children...appropriate")
C) ("Although this...world") D) ("And school...off”)
5. The word "measured" most nearly means
A) assessed. B) observed. C) evaluated. D) considered.
6. Through the study, the researchers confirmed that
A) the more time children spend sleeping, the better their school performance.
B) optimizing sleep schedules to reflect circadian rhythms would improve students well-being.
C) children need to sleep past 7:30 AM in order to have the best student performance.
D) the production of melatonin is connected to a student's wakefulness in the morning.
7. Which of the following situations is analogous to the one in lines ("Beyond that.. began")?
A) Patients showed a more positive mood after six months of behavioral therapy compared to those who
had undergone treatment for six weeks.
B) Patients prescribed to a new drug would experience increased tolerance to the point that the effects of
the drug have become negligible.
C) Students taking a test at the end of their course exhibit improved scores from their diagnostic exam
which had consisted of similar questions.
D) Participants in a weight loss study initially drastically lost weight but the weight loss begins to plateau
after a couple of months.
8. Which choice best supports the conclusion that the results of the study analyzed in the passage may not
translate to students in the United States?
A) ("This study...have") B) ("Beyond that...began")
C) ("In the...8:15 AM") D) ("Additionally...assessed")
Part 3. In the passage below, seven paragraphs have been removed. For questions 1-7, read the
passage and choose from paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is ONE extra
paragraph which you do not need to use.
THE EDUCATED POLAND
Polish education has changed over the last 20 years. With the collapse of the communist system,
Poland experienced a rapid transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy. The so-called shock
therapy quickly transformed Poland into one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe.
1.
The education reforms started in 1999 and were continued until recently. The goals of the 1999 reform
were to improve the quality of education and to increase educational opportunities for all students, but it
was also seen as a chance to get rid of communist roots and ingratiate with the Western ideology.
2.
The structural reform of 1999 replaced 8 years of primary school with 9 years of comprehensive
education in primary and lower secondary schools. The curricular reform of 2008 introduced a new
requirement for all vocational schools to cover at least a one-year equivalent of the core subjects taught in
academic schools. In a way, it also completed the reforms begun in 1999 through the introduction of a
consistent curriculum emphasizing key competencies from preschool up to the end of upper secondary
education.
3.
In 2015, general education started at the age of 3 and continued until the age of 16. Unfortunately, in
2016 these reforms were in large part reversed and now the period of general education is again shorter.
International assessments document large improvements in student outcomes over the last 20 years. In
PISA, Poland has improved its performance from below the OECD average level to above-average
performance. The latest results from TIMSS and PIRLS also show improved outcomes in primary
education.
4.
However, as we will discuss in this paper, this evidence has not been sufficient to convince those who
dislike the changes introduced over the last 20 years.
Most importantly, the reforms reached the goals that were set in the 1990s, when they were planned in
response to rapid structural changes of the economy and society. Many more students now go to general
education upper secondary schools or general-vocational schools, which also provide access to higher
education.
5.
The goal of the reforms was to encourage as many students as possible to continue education and to
open a way to tertiary education for them. This was entirely successful.
6.
The rapid increase in the supply of people with tertiary degrees decreased the wage premium and
increased the variability in salaries, but the market valuation of these diplomas is still high. Young adults
with tertiary degrees are also less affected by economic shocks like the crisis in 2009 and have much
higher employment rates.
7.
The direction for the reform of the Polish education system that was set in 1999 is not continued by the
current government, which in 2016 reversed the reform that extended comprehensive education, while it
promotes vocational education and limits its support for preschool education.

MISSING PARAGRAPHS
A. Finally, the reform of early education started in 2009 and was continued until 2015. It introduced
compulsory education for 5-year-olds and extended the right to a preschool education to 3- and 4-year-
olds. Overall, the reforms expanded the length of compulsory comprehensive education from 8 to 10 years.
B. The general level of literacy has been uplifted significantly. In 1990, more than one-third of students
went into basic vocational education. Now the figure is less than 10%.
C. While there exists a widespread notion that an expansion of tertiary education is associated with a
lowering of its quality, the market premium for a tertiary education diploma in Poland is comparable to the
average across the EU or OECD countries.
D. Before the first PISA study was conducted in 2000, there was not a single standardized assessment
conducted in Poland that measured student knowledge and skills. The national examinations and university
entrance exams were not standardized. The exam at the end of secondary education has the same set of
questions for all students, but the results were evaluated differently in each school.
E. The constitutional body underwent changes to be more democratic. Meanwhile, the first changes in
education focused on disinheriting communism and decentralization with the ministry playing the key role.
These efforts were, however, underfunded and unsuccessful for another decade.
F. Such compelling evidence bears witness to the Poland’s success in renovating its educational system.
The goal initially set out had been achieved, to a certain extent. Nevertheless, as the nation’s ministry of
education stated, it is now undergoing another revolutionary phase of adjustments.
G. the PIAAC assessments of adults show that only the youngest cohorts perform at or above the OECD
average. In Europe, Poland is currently among the top performers in international assessment rankings.
H. For politically minded commentators, the education reforms in Poland were inconsistent and did not
lead to substantial improvements. However, more careful analyses of policy objectives and outcomes
suggest the opposite. Despite differences in opinion and the usual politics, the education reforms had one
overarching idea behind them: to expand comprehensive education so as to provide learning opportunities
for all students.
Part 4. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.
Unfair Education
In a country where government and families alike are tightening their belts and trying to make do with
less, you could be pardoned for thinking that private education would be in a bit of a jam right now. And yet,
although fees at independent schools in Britain have approximately doubled over the last two and a half
decades, pupil numbers are the highest since records started in 1974.
Although there are numerous reasons why parents might choose to fork out an average of £12,500 per
year on their child’s education, there is one which stands out more than any other: their reputation for
getting their students into elite universities, such as the American Ivy League colleges and Britain’s most
prestigious universities: Oxford and Cambridge. Private schools with experience in these admissions
processes run like well-oiled machines. Their informed careers advisers have in-depth tactical knowledge
of which colleges would best suit each candidate, and help them to edit their personal statements to reflect
the qualities that elite universities are looking for. Interview training sessions guide young applicants
through an interview system which has been described as being ‘more reminiscent of an old-boy network
than justice for society’. Those with family members and teachers who have successfully gone through the
admissions process are at a considerable advantage to those who are the first to apply among their social
group.
Consequently, the social mix of students at the top universities remains sadly biased towards the rich
and privately educated – although thanks to increasing numbers of bursaries providing free private school
education to academically gifted youngsters, it is possible to be one without the other. Even so, the fact is
that 7% of British children go to private schools, while more than 40% of the intake at Oxford and
Cambridge is privately educated, and this statistic depicts a worryingly skewed trend.
The proportion matters because, although there are obviously plenty of other universities offering
excellent study programmes, an Oxbridge or Ivy-League degree undoubtedly enhances employability in the
ruling professions. According to recent studies by the UK educational charity The Sutton Trust, over 30% of
leading professionals in the United Kingdom, including almost 80% of lawyers, 47% of highflyers in financial
services and 41% of top journalists attended Oxford or Cambridge. Every university-educated Prime
Minister since 1937 except one, Gordon Brown, is an alumnus of one or the other, as are approximately
two-thirds of the current government cabinet.
This bias is bad news not only for the clever but underprivileged students who have to settle for a less
renowned university; it is bad news for Britain, as decisions that affect the whole nation are made by a
select group with a narrow pool of experience, rather than one that is representative of society as a whole.
This disproportion was brought to public attention in 2000, when politician Gordon Brown launched an
attack on the selection processes at Oxford University. He publicised the story of Laura Spence, a gifted
student who had the “best A-level qualifications you can have”, but nevertheless was turned down by
Magdalen College, Oxford. Later, Member of Parliament David Lammy used the freedom of information act
to examine admissions data at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and found that almost 90% of the
student body at both universities was drawn from the upper and middle classes, that in 2009 Oxford
accepted only one British black Caribbean undergraduate, and it focused its attentions on admissions
events at private schools such as Kate Middleton’s school, Marlborough College, and Prince William’s alma
mater, Eton.
Since then, universities have been forced to up their game welcoming the less privileged among their
students. Quotas have been put into place to ensure that the colleges admit a larger proportion of less
privileged students. These targets are not often met, however, and they have brought about a new practice
in which parents privately educate their children up to the age of 16, giving them a sound academic
background, then put them in state education for their two final years, to better improve their chances of
being accepted at a top university as part of their ‘less privileged’ quota.
Even so, Oxford now spends $4 million a year on student outreach, a $1.6 million increase since 2006–
07. Much of this is spent on school visits and teacher-training programmes aimed at supporting poor and
minority students who wish to apply to the university. The university has also launched a summer school,
which allows around 500 academically talented, state-school students a chance to experience studying at
Oxford for a week. And yet these strategies depend on state schools being able to educate students to the
same level as private schools; where stringent selection processes, partnered with high budgets, parental
support and top-class facilities allow schools to spew out students of an impressively high academic
calibre. State schools have much less opportunity to do this. Or have they? One commentator argues that
the success of private schools is not in their money, but in their organisation. State schools fail their pupils
because, under government control, they lack options. But if head teachers at state schools were given the
same freedom as those at private schools, namely to sack poor teachers and pay more to good ones,
parents would not need to send their children to private schools any more.
For questions 1-7, decide whether the following statements are True (T), False (F) or Not Given
(NG).
1. Numbers of pupils at private schools have doubled since 1975.
2. On average, the cost of tuition at a private school in the UK is £12,500 per child, per year.
3. The interview process at elite universities gives private and state-educated students an equal
chance of success.
4. All students at private schools in Britain come from rich families.
5. Most leading politicians and judges in the UK were educated at Oxford or Cambridge University.
6. Former prime minister Gordon Brown was educated at to Oxford University.
7. Both Kate Middleton and Prince William applied to Oxford University.
For questions 8-13, read the following sentences and fill in each blank with NO MORE THAN FOUR
WORDS taken from the passage.
One study found that nearly nine tenths of students entering Oxford and Cambridge universities came from
the (8) __________. Universities must now adhere to (9) __________ to ensure that they admit a socio-
economic mix of students. This has led to parents choosing to educate their children in (10) __________ to
increase their chances of getting into an elite university. Oxford’s (11) __________ programme has been
expanded to attract the less privileged. However, private schools can educate students to a higher standard
because they have more money and they employ strict (12) __________ . However, one commentator
believes that state schools would do better if their head teachers were allowed more (13) __________.
Part 5. The passage below consists of seven paragraphs (A-G). For questions 1-10, read the
passage and do the tasks that follow. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes
provided.
A. Children in developing countries are healthier and more likely to survive past the age of five when their
mothers can read and write. Experts in public health accepted this idea decades ago, but until now no one
has been able to show that a woman's ability to read in itself improves her children’s chances of survival.
B. Most literate women learnt to read in primary school, and the fact that a woman has had an education
may simply indicate her family’s wealth or that it values its children more highly. Now a long-term study
carried out in Nicaragua has eliminated these factors by showing that teaching reading to poor adult
women, who would otherwise have remained illiterate, has a direct effect on their children’s health and
survival.
C. In 1979, the government of Nicaragua established a number of social programmes, including a National
Literacy Crusade. By 1985, about 300,000 illiterate adults from all over the country, many of whom had
never attended primary school, had learnt how to read, write and use numbers.
D. During this period, researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Central American
Institute of Health in Nicaragua, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and the Costa Rican
Institute of Health interviewed nearly 3,000 women, some of whom had learnt to read as children, some
during the literacy crusade and some who had never learnt at all. The women were asked how many
children they had given birth to and how many of them had died in infancy. The research teams also
examined the surviving children to find out how well-nourished they were.
E. The investigators' findings were striking. In the late 1970s, the infant mortality rate for the children of
illiterate mothers was around 110 deaths per thousand live births. At this point in their lives, those mothers
who later went on to learn to read had a similar level of child mortality (105/1000). For women educated in
primary school, however, the infant mortality rate was significantly lower, at 80 per thousand.
F. In 1985, after the National Literacy Crusade had ended, the infant mortality figures for those who
remained illiterate and for those educated in primary school remained more or less unchanged. For those
women who learnt to read through the campaign, the infant mortality rate was 84 per thousand, an
impressive 21 points lower than for those women who were still illiterate. The children of the newly-literate
mothers were also better nourished than those of women who could not read.
G. Why are the children of literate mothers better off? According to Peter Sandiford of the Liverpool School
of Tropical Medicine, no one knows for certain. Child health was not on the curriculum during the women’s
lessons, so he and his colleagues are looking at other factors. They are working with the same group of
3,000 women, to try to find out whether reading mothers make better use of hospitals and clinics, opt for
smaller families, exert more control at home, learn modern childcare techniques more quickly, or whether
they merely have more respect for themselves and their children.
Which paragraph mentions the following?
1. a change in direction for research
2. a multilateral research undertaking
3. the findings remaining static over time
4. the input of the study
5. a popular notion unexplained
6. the far-reaching implications of a project
7. women of different groups showing different results
8. a study re-using the samples from previous ones
9. mothers’ literacy having implications other than child welfare
10. the level of literacy of some men partaking in the study
IV. WRITING
Part 2. The tables below show how many international students studies in Canada and the United
States by origin. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make
comparisons where relevant. You should write about 150 words.
Part 3: Write an essay of 350 words on the following topics:
3.1 Gifted students are not just those who are knowledgeable but rather they are people who can use
knowledge to solve specific problems.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
3.2 Students should be assessed on a self-selecting set of skills and knowledge; to suggest the contrary
would be unnecessary or counter-productive.
Discuss the statement and give your opinion.
V. SPEAKING
5.1 The study of humanities and social science are often looked down on by our society as opposed to the
STEM science and mathematics. What can be the causes of this? What solutions can be implemented?
5.2 Our society now urges students to be more active in the schooling environment. This has caused a
change in the role of teachers. Do you think teachers are now redundant? Why/Why not?
5.3 “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” How do you, as
a student, interpret this proverb?
5.4 Students now have a variety of educational paths to choose from. What factors can affect this choice?
Is it a positive or negative effect?
5.5 “Competitions are the driving force behind peer pressure as well as dishonesty in education. Therefore,
all competitions should be eliminated.” To what extent do you agree or disagree?