Question 4

The Game of Squares

Either boys or girls, usually aged from seven to ten, play the two-person game of"Mandarin's Box". They draw a rectangle on the ground and (1)……….. it into ten smallsquares called "rice fields" or "fish ponds”.

They also draw two additional semi-circular boxesat the two (2)………. of the rectangle, which are called"mandarin's boxes" - the game's name. Each person has 25 small pebbles and a bigger stone.

Each player places the stone in one of the mandarin's boxes and five small pebbles in each of the other squares. Then the game begins. The first player takes up the contents of one square on his or her side ofthe board, but not a mandarin's box and distributes the pebbles one by one, (3)……….. with the next square in (4)………. direction. Since each square contains five pebbles at the beginning, the first move will distribute five pebbles to the left or right.

After the last pebble is distributed, the player takes the contents of the following squareand repeats the distribution (5)………... But if the following square is one of the mandarin's boxes, the turn ends and passes to the other player.

If the last pebble falls into a square that precedes one empty square, the player wins all the contents of the square following the empty square and (6)……….these pebbles from the board. However, if there are two or more empty squares in a row, the player (7)…….. his or her turn.

Once a player has taken pebbles from the board, the turn is (8)……….to the other player. If all five squares on one player's side of the board are emptied at any time, that player must place one pebble he or she has aside back in each of the five squares so that the game can resume.

The game (9)………until the two mandarins' boxes have both been (10)……….. At the end of the game, the player with more pebbles wins, with each of the large stones counting as ten points.

Question 1

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

On September 2, 1945, Viet Nam gained independence from France. President Ho Chi Minh decided that the three key priorities of the new, independent government would be: fighting against poverty, illiteracy, and invaders. His new driving philosophy for education was “an illiterate nation is a powerless one”, and in October 1945 he issued a “Call for anti-illiteracy”. The President’s call was a success. Within one year, 75 thousand literacy classes were established with about 96 thousand teachers to help 2.5 million people learn to read and write.

During the years of French resistance (1946 -1954), schools operated in demilitarized areas. They stopped teaching in French and created curriculum in Vietnamese. The government passed an education reform in 1950 with the goal of reducing the years of general education and concentrating on reading, writing, and calculating skills.

One of the priorities was to make sure that people could read and write.

Question 2

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

The majority of the population could read and write after the campaign of anti-illiteracy.

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

Right before gaining the independence, President Ho Chi Minh called for a struggle against illiteracy.

Question 8

Question 3

Question 5

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

President Ho Chi Minh thought that an illiterate nation did not have power to gain independence.

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

It also reduced the years of general education to ten years.

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

The education reform reduced the number of subjects.

Read the text, and identify whether the statements are true (T), false (F), or not given (NG).

According to the education reform, general education paid much attention to basic skills.

Question 7

Question 6