Question sheet code: 2101

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Semester/Academic year - -
MID-TERM
TEST Date -
Course title English 2
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY – VNUHCM Course ID LA1005
FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER Duration 50 mins Question sheet code 2101
- Note: Submit the question sheet together with the answer sheet.

PRONUNCIATION AND STRESS

A. Which word is stressed differently from the others?
1. A. assistant B. librarian C. architect D. translator
2. A. excellent B. exciting C. exotic D. extremely
3. A. particular B. incredible C. fantastic D. scientific
4. A. design B. texture C. portrait D. marriage
5. A. politician B. attention C. disappointment D. vegetarian
B. Which underlined part is pronounced differently?
6. A. chemist B. charge C. challenge D. charity
7. A. invite B. inspire C. final D. signal
8. A. elegant B. heavy C. frequently D. pleasant
9. A. heat B. great C. beach D. teach
10. A. reuse B. insist C. reason D. design

GRAMMAR AND STRUCTURE

Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.
11. My favorite month is always February _______ we celebrate Valentine‟s Day.
A. who B. which C. where D. when
12. I‟m afraid the human resources manager hasn‟t arrived ________. Please have a seat.
A. already B. still C. soon D. yet
13. I‟ve started drinking coffee recently. I _______ like it.
A. not used to B. used never to C. didn‟t use to D. didn‟t used to
14. The photographer _______ took pictures at our graduation will post the photos online.
A. whom B. who C. which D. whose
15. My brother has lived in New York _______.
A. for 3 years B. in 3 years C. 3 years ago D. after 3 years
16. I _______ smoke a lot when I was young.
A. used B. use to C. used to D. am used to
17. Between France and Spain there are mountains _______ have many dark caves inside.
A. they B. which C. where D. who
18. Over the last 25 years, the world of science and technology _______ significantly.
A. have changed B. changed C. change D. has changed
19. The man and his dogs _______ were reported missing yesterday have just been found safe.
A. who B. which C. that D. Ø
20. I have been to Death Valley, _______ is a desert valley located in California and Nevada.
A. which B. that C. who D. whose
21. Do you know a restaurant _______ we can have a good meal?
A. that B. when C. where D. which
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22. I _______ there once a long time ago and _______ back since then.
A. went / have not been B. was going / am not
C. have gone / will not be D. had gone / was not
23. There‟s _______ a lot of discussion on the environmental issues.
A. had B. got C. be D. been
24. House prices _______ dramatically in recent years. It‟s time for us to buy our own house now.
A. drop B. dropped C. have dropped D. has dropped
25. Bob has _______ had curry before. He doesn‟t like spicy food.
A. already B. never C. recently D. frequently

VOCABULARY
Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.
26. We have been _______ the possibility of working together.
A. insisting B. talking C. inspiring D. discussing
27. This _____ is light, easy to recycle and much better for the environment than plastic or cardboard.
A. element B. material C. tissue D. article
28. Finding a cure for cancer is one of the biggest challenges facing medical _______.
A. geographers B. stylists C. teachers D. researchers
29. We have a policy to encourage _______ and recycling plastic bottles in our company.
A. renewing B. increasing C. repeating D. reuse
30. The ______ Jupiter radiates twice as much heat from inside as it receives from the Sun.
A. environment B. planet C. weather D. climate
31. A team of engineers and _______ help manufacture the machines used on assembly lines.
A. lamplighters B. mechanics C. dentists D. salesmen
32. My son had never seen the ______, so we drove to the coast and watched the waves from the beach.
A. river B. mountain C. volcano D. ocean
33. In the past few years, weather predicting has become more scientific through the use of high ____.
A. technology B. internet C. sensors D. devices
34. Do you _______ the same cause as your husband?
A. hold B. donate C. support D. make
35. When _______ go to space, they float due to the lack of gravity.
A. photographers B. journalists C. travellers D. astronauts
36. Learners can feel very _______ if they can finish a challenging exercise.
A. embarrassed B. encouraged C. unsupported D. worried
37. Adam is a _______ in this restaurant. He‟s responsible for cooking here.
A. chef B. chief C. head D. cooker
38. The chair is made of _______ material.
A. recycled B. designed C. manufactured D. delivered
39. Great _______ can amuse their audience with interesting performances.
A. adventurers B. entertainers C. illustrators D. scientists
40. Surprisingly, the two main _______ in the detective story successfully escaped from the prison.
A. individuals B. characters C. followers D. designers
41. My parents always _______ me to do my best when I studied in America.
A. encouraged B. provided C. imitated D. inhibited
42. If people are relaxed, entertained and correctly treated, they will forget their previous ______
experiences.
A. positive B. neutral C. negative D. happy
43. He‟s a _______. He writes reports for newspapers and magazines.
A. psychologist B. judge C. translator D. journalist
44. It‟s not easy to _______ as an actor. You have to be really good or have the right connections.
A. make a good living B. make a comment C. make a point D. make a right decision
45. People with talents can _______ others in different ways.
A. discourage B. combine C. inspire D. replace
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CLOZE PASSAGE
Read the following passage and choose the best word (A, B, C, or D) to fill in each blank.
A recent survey found that office workers are suffering from an increasingly common 21st century
problem: too many emails. The study, which involved observing the (46) ______ of over 50 companies,
appears to show that the huge number of messages they are now receiving is (47) ______ many of them
from doing their jobs properly. In some cases, according to the authors of the report, the negative
effects on concentration can be as bad as losing a whole night‟s sleep.
The main problem seems to be that whenever employees receive emails, they feel obliged to (48)
______ to them immediately. Often the message has nothing at all to (49) ______ with the work they
are currently involved in, requiring them to focus on a completely different issue until the next email
arrives. These constant changes are tiring for the brain and this inevitably (50) ______ to poor overall
performance.
46. A. crew B. staff C. team D. band
47. A. delaying B. opposing C. preventing D. interfering
48. A. answer B. solve C. comply D. reply
49. A. see B. do C. make D. go
50. A. results B. leads C. causes D. creates

READING COMPREHENSION
Read the following passage and choose the correct answer (A, B, C, or D) to each question.
The modern comic strip started out as ammunition in a newspaper war between giants of the
American press in the late nineteenth century. The first full-color comic strip appeared in January 1894
in the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. The first regular weekly full-color comic
supplement, similar to today‟s Sunday funnies, appeared two years later, in William Randolph Hearst‟s
rival New York paper, the Morning Journal.
Both were immensely popular, and publishers realized that supplementing the news with comic
relief boosted the sale of papers. The Morning Journal started another feature in 1896, the „Yellow
Kid‟, the first continuous comic character in the United States, whose creator, Richard Outcault, had
been lured away from the World by the ambitious Hearst. The „Yellow Kid‟ was in many ways a
pioneer. Its comic dialogue was the strictly urban farce that came to characterize later strips, and it
introduced the speech balloon inside the strip, usually placed above the characters‟ heads.
The first strip to incorporate all the elements of later comics was Rudolph Dirks‟s „Katzenjammer
Kids‟, based on Wilhelm Busch‟s Max and Moritz, a European satire of the nineteenth century. The
„Kids‟ strip, first published in 1897, served as the prototype for future American strips. It contained not
only speech balloons, but a continuous cast of characters, and was divided into small regular panels that
did away with the larger panoramic scenes of most earlier comics.
Newspaper syndication played a major role in spreading the popularity of comic strips throughout
the country. Though weekly colored comics came first, daily black-and-white strips were not far
behind. The first appeared in the Chicago American in 1904. It was followed by many imitators, and by
1915 black-and-white comic strips had become a staple of daily newspapers around the country.
→ Note: comic strip: a short series of funny drawings with a small amount of writing

51. What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. A comparison of two popular comic strips
B. The differences between early and modern comic strips
C. The effects of newspapers on comic strip stories
D. Features of early comic strips in the United States
52. Why does the author mention Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst?
A. They established New York‟s first newspaper
B. They published comic strips about the newspaper war
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C. Their comic strips are still published today
D. They owned major competitive newspapers
53. For which of the following reasons were comic strips popular, according to the passage?
A. They provided a break from serious news stories
B. Readers enjoyed the unusual drawings
C. Readers could identify with the characters
D. They were about real-life situations.
54. “Richard Outcault had been lured away from the World by the ambitious Hearst.” (paragraph
2) means ______.
A. Hearst convinced Outcault to leave the World
B. Hearst fired Outcault from the World
C. Hearst warned Outcault not to leave the World
D. Hearst wanted Outcault to work for the World
55. The word “it” (paragraph 2) refers to ______.
A. the „Yellow Kid‟ B. dialogue C. farce D. balloon
56. According to the passage, the „Yellow Kid‟ was the first comic strip to do all of the following
except ______.
A. featuring the same character in each episode
B. including dialogue inside a balloon
C. appearing in a Chicago newspaper
D. characterizing city life in a humorous way
57. The word “incorporate” (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to ______.
A. affect B. create C. combine D. mention
58. The word “prototype” (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to ______.
A. story B. humor C. drawing D. model
59. The word “staple” (paragraph 4) is closest in meaning to ______.
A. regular feature B. popular edition C. new version D. huge success
60. In what order does the author discuss various comic strips in the passage?
A. In alphabetical order by title
B. In the order in which they were created
C. According to the newspaper in which they appeared
D. From most popular to least popular

End-of-test

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