Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy – one plate, one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs. Soon they are capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons, and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second-grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.

Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped or, as the case might be, bumped into concepts that adults that for granted, as they refused, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short stout glass into a tall thin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total.

Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers – the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that applies to any class of objects - is a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table – is itself far from innate.

According to the passage, when small children were asked to count a pile of red and blue pencils, they _______.

People should _______ green lifestyle to help conserve the natural resources.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions.

Right after the boy got out of his house, it started to rain heavily.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions.

The children were attracted by the show. It was performed by the animals.

Would you mind _______ these plates a wipe before putting them in the cupboard?

We are all too _______ of traditions in our modern world, but they can have a very strong impact on us.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Educators are complaining that students rely on social media so much that they lose the ability to think critically.

Digital clocks, however precise, they cannot be perfectly accurate because the earth’s rotation changes slightly over years.

Sometimes people just focus on the _______ benefits without thinking of the environmental risks of certain economic activities.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

Seeking a new life and hoping a significant (28) ___________ in their standard of living, foreign workers began flocking into Western Europe during the 1950s. In Britain, some of the first immigrants arriving from the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent were welcomed by brass bands, but the dream of a new life soon (29) _______ sour for many.

Attracted by the promise to earn good money and learn new skills, the reality they found was often one of low wages and, in many case, unemployment. Some did not adapt (30) _______ to life in a country of cold weather and discrimination. The (31) ________ of West Indian immigrants moved into the inner cities, areas that were already fraught with social tensions caused by poverty and poor housing. There were cases of open hostility towards the newcomers; riots (32) ________ out in Notting Hill, West London in 1958, when gangs of white youths began taunting immigrants.

Yet despite the numerous difficulties they encountered, many foreign workers did manage to adjust to their new conditions, settling in their new adopted country and prospering. Their contribution had the effect of not only speeding up the pace of economic change in the postwar period, but also transforming Western Europe into a multiracial society.

Điền vào ô 28

“Don’t _______ to phone Mrs. Whiteman. I’ve already talked to her about the upcoming meeting held by the board of directors.”, said Mary.

He is _______ he has bought a lot of house in this area.

_______, the meeting stops now. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions later.

__________, cars are widely used as the most popular mode of transport in the United States.

Because there were so few women in the early Western states, the freedom and rights of Western women were more extensive than Eastern ladies.

If he _______ ill yesterday, he would have taken part in the football match.