KÌ THI THỬ VÀO LỚP 10 THPT CHUYÊN NĂM 2023 – LẦN 3 (CHUYÊN SƯ PHẠM)

BÀI THI MÔN: TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN

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I. For questions 1-8, read the text below and write the answer (A, B, C or D) that best fits each gap on the
answer sheet.
MARY HEATH, FEMALE PILOT
Mary Heath was the original Queen of the Skies, one of the best-known women in the world during the
(1)_____ age of aviation. She was the first woman in Britain to gain a commercial pilot's licence, the first to
(2)_____ a parachute jump – and the first British women's javelin champion. She scandalized 1920s British society
by marrying three times (at the (3)_____ of her fame she wed politician Sir James Heath – her second husband,
45 years her senior).
In 1928, aged 31, she became the first pilot to fly an open-cockpit plane, solo, from South Africa to
Egypt, (4)_____ 9,000 miles in three months. It was a triumph. Lady Heath was (5)_____ as the nation's
sweetheart and called 'Lady Icarus' by the press.
However, her life was (6)_____ tragically short. Only a year later, she (7)_____ a horrific accident at the
National Air Show in Ohio in the USA, when her plane crashed through the roof of a building. Her health was
never the (8)_____ again, and she died in May 1939.
Question 1. A. sweet B. shiny C. golden D. bright
Question 2. A. put B. hold C. make D. take
Question 3. A. fullness B. top C. height D. crest
Question 4. A. stretching B. crossing C. ranging D. covering
Question 5. A. hailed B. exclaimed C. quoted D. declared
Question 6. A. cut B. stopped C. left D. brought
Question 7. A. undertook B. underwent C. received D. suffered
Question 8. A. equal B. like C. better D. same

II. Mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
Question 9. ________, he was determined to continue to climb up the mountain. Finally, he was there at the top
of the mountain at the end of the day.
A. Tired as he might feel B. He felt very tired though

C. Tired as it was D. As he might feel tired

Question 10. I am in a ________ as how to use this CD Rom.

A. difficulty B. loss C. mind-game D. quandary

Question 11. I will never forget the festival that I took part in last year. Up ________ and the people cheered.
A. did the balloon go B. does the balloon go

C. went the balloon D. goes the balloon

Question 12. If things are going well, our company will get huge profits. In fact, business is ________.
A. rolling B. blooming C. leaping D. soaring

Question 13. I was all set to take the job in Tokyo, but at the last minute I ________ and decided to stay in Britain.
A. held my horses B. called it a day

C. pulled my finger out D. got cold feet

Question 14. Although the patient received intensive treatment, there was no ________ improvement in her
condition.
A. legible B. intelligible C. decipherable D. discernible

Question 15. The police couldn't persuade the man to ________ the source of his information.
A. discover B. concede C. divulge D. uncover

Question 16. The bank where James worked for 3 months last year is reported in the local newspaper ________
in broad daylight yesterday.
A. having been robbed B. to be robbed

C. to have been robbed D. robbed

Question 17. This disagreement is likely to ________ relations between the two countries.
A. disaffect B. sour C. estrange D. alienate

Question 18. Jake recommended that Susan ________ immediately. She shouldn't stay at home all the time
anymore.
A. hires B. be hired C. hired D. hire

Question 19. We ________ last night, but we went to the concert instead.
A. should have studied B. must have studied

C. would study D. might study

III. Write the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs
from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.
Question 20. A. massage B. carriage C. voyage D. dosage
Question 21. A. compassionate B. overwhelming C. collection D. opportunity

IV. For questions 22-26, read the following passage and write the correct answer for each of the questions
about it on your answer sheet.
CATS ON THE COUCH
Nicholas Bagnall reviews Cat Confidential by Vicky Halls
Vicky Halls is a 'cat behaviour counsellor'. The idea of such a person would have been incomprehensible to those
brought up on Rudyard Kipling, who plainly didn't think much of cats and thought they could manage perfectly
well without humans. Cats in those days were generally thought effeminate anyway, not like gruff and manly
dogs. We know better now, yet it's still surprising how little we understand them.
Vicky Halls has often been called in to sort out some wretched animal that's making messes all over the house or
obnoxiously wetting the furniture (the commonest symptom of anxiety or distress), and has discovered that either
it is frightened of another cat in the household, or is missing a dead one, or is jealous of other cats or of humans,
or it can't stand the wood chips in its litter tray, while its doting owners have had no idea what has been going on
in its unhappy head. Sometimes the problem is obvious enough, as in the case of a cat called Chester whose owner
let him sleep with her when her husband was away, and who then became so jealous that he actively and sometimes
painfully came between husband and wife when all three were in bed. Most of us would have got rid of the cat,
but instead they summoned Ms. Halls who eventually broke up this absurd triangle by arranging alternative
pleasures for Chester, such as a comfy bed of his own and more time outdoors.
Our own two cats are lucky enough to be able to come and go as they please, and I feel sorry for the ones that can
never leave the house or flat. No wonder some of them get a touch neurotic. Ms. Halls prescribes a range of
devices to distract the indoor cat, perhaps a few cardboard boxes to hide in, or a high shelf to sit on with a view
through another window. And she's full of common sense tips. (Don't put the litter tray near the food bowl.)
Her views on cat flaps are more contentious. She thinks of a cat flap as a swing door. How would you like to have
a front door like that, she asks, with no defence against thieves and invaders? No wonder your cat starts spraying
all over the place. (Spraying is also a cat's way of registering its presence and marking its territory.) If you must
have a flap, try locking it shut at night. This seems to me rather hard on the cat, a semi-nocturnal beast.
Ms. Halls is pleasantly free of mawkishness. She realises that for many people, particularly if they live alone, a
cat becomes the focus of their love, and she herself quite plainly adores them, describing the looks and foibles of
individual specimens with touching precision; but she manages to keep her emotional distance and is an excellent
story-teller. Only towards the end, when offering bereaved owners some grievance counselling, does she become
too sentimental, too anthropomorphic if you like, for my taste. But then cats have always evoked strong emotions.
Question 22. What can we infer about cat behaviour counsellors?
A. They are a relatively new breed of professionals.
B. People felt that they were strange in the past.
C. They believe that cats shouldn't be domesticated.
D. They claim dogs are generally viewed in a more favourable way than cats.
Question 23. What does Vicky Halls say about the mess cats make?
A. It is normally the cat owner's fault.
B. It can be put down to stress.
C. It demonstrates that they should be put out at night.
D. It is natural if there is more than one cat at home.
Question 24. What is Vicky Hall's view of indoor cats?
A. She believes they enjoy being able to see outside.
B. She pities them.
C. They should be encouraged to go out.
D. They should be encouraged to go out.
Question 25. What do we learn about the writer of the text and Vicky Hall?
A. They both make use of cat flaps in their homes.
B. They have varying opinions on the use of cat flaps.
C. They believe cat flaps act as an invitation to criminals.
D. They have doubts about how useful cat flaps are.
Question 26. The main aim of the writer of the text is to
A. promote behaviour counselling for cats.
B. point out the difficulties involved in keeping pets.
C. review Ms. Hall's book.
D. praise people who work with animals.
V. Write the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in
the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.
Question 27. A. hospitality B. facilitate C. flexibility D. interaction
Question 28. A. apprentice B. malfunction C. demonstrate D. rewarding

VI. There are 6 errors in the following passage. Identify the errors, write the line number and correct them.
The first error numbered (0) is done as an example. Write your answers in the numbered spaces corresponding
to questions 29-33 on your answer sheet.

Line
1 Without a time machine, it's impossible to say for sure how things will turn up, but in my own –
2 somewhat pessimistic – view of the future, I see a world where much of the earth's flora and fauna will
3 have become extinct – a world with pollution skies and seas. Thanks to climate change, icebergs will
4 have melted and coastal waters will have raised. A soaring human population will live in overcrowded
5 cities further inland, the super-rich will have everything they need, while three quarters of the global
6 population will face starvation.
7 And the population will continue to increase. In the western world, medical advances will helped to
8 eradicate most diseases and people will live much longer. However, societies will struggle to support
9 this ageing population, many of them will be forced to keep working until they are well into their
10 nineties. Medical intervention will have made it possible for most fertile couples to have children, while
11 the super-rich will be able to 'design' their babies, and select the qualities they would like them to have.
Example: 0. (line 1) up → out

VII. Write the correct form of the word in capitals that fits each blank in the text below in the corresponding
numbered box on your answer sheet.

Rice crops fail in drought conditions or where the soil is too (34. SALT)__________. So work is
underway to ‘climate-proof’ rice so it can grow in even the most (35. FAVOUR)__________ of conditions.
Drought affects 23 million hectares of rice annually, and salt is equally (36. PROBLEM)__________; it reduces
yields by 40% and consequently (37. INTENSE)__________ the pressures on food supplies. Further reductions
in yields are likely due to climate (38. STABLE)__________. Scientists are attempting to produce a super rice by
mixing genes from drought-tolerant plants with those from another that exploits nitrogen (39.
EFFECT)__________, thus enabling it to grow without fertiliser. Comparing the new rice’s (40.
PERFORM)__________ with that of ordinary rice, the super rice produced 17% more than the ordinary variety
in individual trials and 42% more when subjected to a (41. COMBINE)__________ of stresses. In addition,
researchers are working on improving other crops. For example, one team has developed a potato that is (42.
RESIST)__________ to certain diseases. It is hoped that developments such as this will (43. LESS)__________
the impact of climate change in developing countries.

VIII. Write the suitable preposition(s) in each of the following blanks in the corresponding numbered box on
your answer sheet.
Question 44. __________ my utter astonishment, she remembered my name.
Question 45. I like this photograph so much that I'm going to have it blown __________.
Question 46. They are planning to wind __________ countries. their operation in china and concentrate on
ASEAN countries
Question 47. The news about Sue's pregnancy leaked __________ quickly despite her efforts to keep secret.
Question 48 My cousin talked __________ length about his recent holiday and bored everyone to death.
IX. For questions 49-55, read the text below and write the word which best fits each gap on the answer sheet.
Use only ONE word in each gap.

BEYOND THE PAIN BARRIER

Alongside extreme sports, endurance sports are gaining in popularity. (49)__________ its debut at the
Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, the triathlon has become one of the world's fastest developing 'multi- sport'
endurance challenges, with thousands of races (50)__________ held every year.

Usually, races consist (51)__________ a swimming section, followed by a cycling stretch, then
culminating (52)__________ a run. The individual legs of each course may vary in distance, and events are held
on different levels. For instance, the Olympic event involves a 1.5 km swim, a bike ride of 40km, with a 10km
run to finish. This is (53)__________ as the 'standard course.' For those masochists who really want to push
(54)__________ beyond the pain barrier, there are the Ironman long-distance triathlons, requiring competitors to
swim 3.8km, cycle a gruelling 180km and then run 42 km.

However, few athletes have the stamina to endure such distances. Most (55)__________ the Olympic
course more accessible.

X. For questions 56-61, you are going to read an article about dealing with addiction. Six sentences have
been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap. There is one
extra sentence which you do not need to use. Write your answers in corresponding numbered boxes.

A. Half an hour of intense aerobic exercise can produce five times the amount you’d have if you were sitting
down.

B. Low concentrations of these are closely linked to depression.

C. It may be, though, that the thrill can never quite compare with that achieved by talking drugs.

D. People become addicted to something because there’s an underlying unhappiness.

E. Steve, a personal trainer, used his work to mask his secondary addiction.

F. The thrill from the exercise is the thing, the drug-like feelings brought about by the activity are what addicts
want.

G. With a negative addiction; on the other hand, exercise overrides everything.

KICKING THE HABIT

The term ‘exercise addiction’ was coined in 1976 by Dr William Glasser when he was studying long- distance
runners. He noticed that many of them experienced low moods when they couldn't train, and he came to
differentiate between positive and negative addictions: a positive addiction involves a love of the activity, and the
exercise is scheduled around other everyday activities. You run your running schedule, for example, rather than it
running you, and an enforced day off isn't the end of the world. The results are increased feelings of physical and
psychological wellbeing. (56)__________ Relationships and work suffer, a day away from the gym causes
distress, and health can decline as overtraining leads to injury and illness.

Two types of negative exercise addiction have since been defined. Secondary addiction is probably the most
common, where the compulsion to exercise is driven by a need to control and change one's body shape, and is
often accompanied by an eating disorder. (57)__________ 'Whatever workout my client was doing, I'd do it, too,
alongside them, supposedly to motivate them, but in fact it was to keep my weight down. In total, I was doing
several hours of cardio every day, and I didn't actually enjoy the exercise. I hated the feeling of not having the
perfect body even more, though.'
With Primary addiction, body image isn't so central. (58)__________ works like this: when we exercise
strenuously, we activate our sympathetic nervous system, causing a rise in the concentration of serotonin and other
chemicals in the brain which make us feel happy.

At the same time, the body produces endorphins which shut down pain signals reaching the brain. (59)__________
Add all these together, and you have a recipe for mild euphoria. Unfortunately, just as the body's tolerance of
drugs increases, so it is with endorphins: more are required to produce the same thrill, so the exercise intensity
has to be increased. (60)__________

Tony, who took drugs daily for almost a decade, then took to running half-marathons. He admits that getting the
kick got harder. He said he'd lie awake at night thinking about the next day's session. It still wasn't as good as the
drugs he was on before. Sports and exercise psychologist Paul Russell has encountered many people like Tony.
‘Exercise addiction tends to be a more temporary addiction, marking time before the person returns to the basic
ones, like drugs. (61)__________ If they haven't sorted out the reasons for this state, via counselling for example,
they'll have to direct that need to something else.

XI. For questions 62-75, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ‘ARTIFICIAL LIFE’

They come into a world where they must struggle to survive. Over many generations, they evolve. But are they
alive? Of course, you might say. But we’re not talking about amoebae, ants or alligators. We’re talking about
computer programs.

‘Artificial life’ exists only within PCs and more powerful computers, but existence in its electronic universe
parallels many elements of life in the biological world. Some programs flock like birds. Others organise like bees.
Some mutate swiftly from chaotic hordes to complex, stable populations in a process eerily akin to Darwinian
evolution.

As a group, artificial life programs represent the most exciting work on the edge of computer research. Study of
artificial life holds promise for new ways of solving complex problems and fresh opportunities to model biology
and society. Perhaps, far in the future, such research will yield the ability to blueprint living organisms.

The basics behind artificial life are surprisingly simple. The programs follow a few simple rules, applying them
with a speed and persistence that’s possible only inside a computer. When many such programs are run
simultaneously, amazingly complex patterns can emerge. In many cases, these patterns are spooky replications of
natural behaviours. Programs ‘band together’ against common enemies and devise new ways of surviving when
their environment changes. These results aren’t surprising when you consider that biological life itself consists of
nothing more than variations on four simple rules: the four compounds that constitute DNA, the building block of
all genes and therefore all life. In artificial life, computer instructions take the place of DNA code.

The father of modern artificial life, research, Christopher Langton of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the
U.S., sees his work this way: ‘For us, artificial life is the study of man-made systems that exhibit behaviours
characteristic of natural living systems. We’re attempting to abstract logical forms of life, not matter. We can
obtain some of the same dynamics as life, albeit with different materials.’

In the early 1980s, Langton took up the study of self-replicating programs begun more than 30 years earlier by
John von Neumann, a Hungarian mathematician whose theories contributed to the development of the
programmable digital computer. An example of how programs mimic biology can be found in cellular automata-
literally, ‘cell-like machines’: structures that arise from tiny programs that each display a seemingly independent
existence based on a few simple rules. Analogies between programs like this and actual life forms are inevitable.
When simulated organisms cluster together, leaving rectilinear tracks on the screen, researchers call them ‘ants’.
When they do this in a three-dimensional model, they’re called ‘bees’. And perhaps the most disturbing analogy
with biological life can be found in computer ‘viruses’, self-replicating programs that display purposeful
behaviour and tolerate perturbations in their environment. Although some scientists regard viruses as the first
programs capable of existing without the wilful cooperation of humans, the fact is that without humans to design
them, they wouldn’t exist at all.

Still, some of the work demonstrated at a recent gathering of the artificial life research clan causes the biological
heart to flutter.

‘During five intense days’, said Langton, ‘we saw a wide variety of models of living systems, including
mathematical models for the origins of life, self-reproducing automata, computer programs using the mechanisms
of Darwinian evolution to produce co-adapted ecosystems, simulations of flocking birds and schooling fish, the
growth and development of artificial plants, and much, much more.’

Craig Reynolds of Symbolics demonstrated his ‘Boids’, computer-animated, bird-shaped creatures that flock like
real birds. Reynolds programmed the Boids to follow three simple rules: they maintain a minimum distance from
the nearest object; they match velocity with the nearby flock; and they fly toward the greatest concentration of the
flock. The resulting flocking behaviour is shockingly real. ‘Ants’, the creation of David Jefferson and Robert
Collins, also appeared. Colonies of these randomly generated creatures have developed the ability to navigate
electronic mazes and search for symbols that represent food. Independent programmer John Nagle argued that the
next generation of supercomputers should challenge researchers to create ‘squirrels", computer models with the
intelligence level of a biological rodent with one gram of brain mass, by the year 2010 ... electronic rats.

Langton’s contribution, ‘Computation at the Edge of Chaos’, was one of the spookiest presentations. Biologists
maintain that life began in a spontaneous outburst of activity that occurred when Earth’s environment reached
critical thresholds of heat, atmosphere and chemical composition. A few variations on any of these variables would
have thrown the planet into either chaos or barrenness.

Langton’s presentation was based on a computer model demonstrating similar principles. Changing a parameter
in the model acts like changing the temperature of a computer-generated petri dish of single- cell creatures. When
this variable passes a critical threshold, the colonies of Langton’s artificial life programs neither freeze nor
evaporate but settle into recurring patterns conducive to the orderly transmission of information. ‘At one end,
activity freezes; at the other end, it’s too volatile,’ notes Langton. As a result, he wonders whether ‘computation
may emerge spontaneously and come to dominate the dynamics of physical systems’ much as life has. In fact,
Langton speculates that life itself may have started as a chance computation on the cusp of liquid and gaseous
states.

And which of these simple programs, we might wonder, will someday hoist itself out of the electronic soup (as
creatures once dragged themselves out of ancient seas), look around at the new surroundings and wonder who
made it all happen? To Langton, that's not an odd image. ‘In the scale of geologic time,’ he observes, ‘this may be
the end of an era in our little part of the universe. We're not the end point of evolution. Some artificial life form
we create may be the next step on the evolutionary ladder.’

‘We haven't really needed a definition of "life" before,’ he says. ‘We were it. But the computational structures that
we're looking at do exhibit a lot of the criteria that biologists use for describing life: they're complex, purpose-
driven structures. They reproduce. They use the energy resources of their host for their own ends. Are real viruses
alive? We're not so sure now. There's a grey area in here where our definitions just don't work.’

Apart from spawning sci-fi speculations, artificial life has begun to show commercial promise. Danny Hillis, the
founder of the Thinking Machines Corporation in the U.S., for instance, has unveiled a program that follows a
process similar to Darwinian evolution to optimise the problem-solving efficiency of software – a method that
could lead to continuously self-improving programs.
QUESTIONS 62-67

Complete the following summary of part of the passage by choosing the correct word or phrase from the box
below and writing its letter in the numbered space on the answer sheet. There are more word and phrases than
you will need.

A Darwinian theories of evolution F computer-generated ‘life’

B DNA codes G the end point of evolution
C theories of artificial life H society
D computer instructions I biological life forms
E Christopher Langton J groups lacking organisation

The reading passage discusses possible similarities between 'real' or biological life and (0)____F_____.
In biological life, (62)__________ are the basis of life and behaviour. Recently, computer researchers have begun
to study so-called 'artificial life', computer-generated graphics in which the on-screen images seem to imitate the
behaviour of (63)__________. In these programs (64)__________ take the place of DNA codes.

These computer-generated 'life forms' include some which behave like insects and birds and others which
mutate from (65)__________ into highly organised, complex populations. The researchers inevitably draw
parallels with (66)__________ and compare them to actual life forms, even to the extent of giving them names
like ants and bees.

Eventually, the study of ‘artificial life' may allow researchers to re-evaluate models of (67)__________
and biology.

QUESTIONS 68-70

From the passage, name the computer phenomenon described in each of the definitions below. Write your
answer in the numbered boxes on the answer sheet.

Question 68. Onscreen objects that group together, moving in straight lines.

Question 69. Three-dimensional model of images onscreen moving in straight lines.

Question 70. Programs that reproduce themselves and seem to have a purpose.

QUESTIONS 71-75

Read the statements below. In boxes 71-75 on the answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

Question 71. Computer viruses may be the ‘artificial life’ programs that most closely resemble biological life, but
they ultimately depend on humans.

Question 72. The following generation of ‘artificial life’ programs may be ‘squirrels’ which would be self-
replicating.

Question 73. Langton speculates that life started as a chance computation and goes on to say that one day
computations in computers may generate life.

Question 74. His work in ‘artificial life’ systems has led Langton to offer a new definition of ‘life’ itself.

Question 75. Research into ‘artificial life’ programs, resembling as it does science fiction rather than fact, will
generally speaking, not be useful until far into the future.
XII. Complete each of the following sentences in such a way that it means exactly the same as the sentence
printed before it. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes on the answer sheet.

Question 76. The soldiers entered the castle while it was dark.

→ Under ____________________________________________.

Question 77. In a nutshell, Joe’s not up to the job.

→ The long and ____________________________________________.

Question 78. What alienated the workforce was that management never consulted them.

→ It was __________________________________________________.

Question 79. There aren’t many other books which explain this problem so well.

→ In few other books ________________________________________.

Question 80. If the government urged you to join the army, would you accept it?

→ Were ___________________________________________________.

XIII. Complete the second sentence in each pair so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence. You must
write between three and six words, including the word given, in the corresponding numbered boxes on the
answer sheet. Do NOT change this word.

Question 81. This recipe is really a lot more imaginative than the others in this book. MOST

→ This recipe is by ________________________________ in this book.

Question 82. The day after I lost my job, I did not feel like getting out of bed. INCLINATION

→ I ________________________________ out of bed the day after losing my job.

Question 83. It was Jane who came up with the idea for the sales promotion. BRAINS

→ Jane ________________________________ the sales promotion.

Question 84. It won’t be easy for anyone to take over John’s job when he retires. SHOES

→ When John retires, it will be difficult for anyone ________________________________.

Question 85. It’s true that I like to work on tasks by myself. BEING

→ I ________________________________ a person who prefers to work alone.

XIV. Write an opinion paragraph on the answer sheet to answer the following questions:

Is it OK to like online?