Created by Tran Ho Quoc Khanh – Viet Bac high school
PRACTICE TEST 2
I. Choose the most suitable word for each space. (Đề thi hsg quốc gia năm 2007)
SECRETARIES
What’s in a name? In the case of the secretary, it can be something rather surprising. The dictionary calls a secretary
“anyone who (0)___B____correspondence, keeps records and does clerical work for others”. But while this particular job
(1)_______looks a bit (2)_______, the word’s original meaning is a hundred times more exotic and perhaps more
(3)_______. The word itself has been with us since the 14
th
century and comes from the medieval Latin word secretaries
meaning “something hidden”. Secretaries started out as those members of staff with knowledge hidden from others, the
silent ones mysteriously (4)_______the secret machinery of organizations.
A few years ago “something hidden” probably meant (5)_______out of sight, tucked away with all the other secretaries and
typists. A good secretary was an unremarkable one, efficiently (6)_______orders, and then returning mouse-like to his or
her station behind the typewriter, but, with the (7)_______of new technology, the job (8)_______upgraded itself and the role
has changed to one closer to the original meaning. The skills required are more (9)_______and more technical. Companies
are (10)_______that secretarial staff should already be (11)______trained in, or at least familiar with, a (12)_______of word
processing packages. In addition to this, they need the management skills to take on some administration, some personnel
work and some research. The professionals in the (13)_______business see all these developments as (14)_______the jobs
which secretaries are being asked to do.
It may also encourage a dramatic (15)_______in office practice. In the past it was usual to regard the secretary as almost
dehumanized, to be seen and not heard.
0. orders handles runs controls
1.
explanation detail definition characteristic
2.
elderly unfashionable outdated aged
3.
A. characteristic B. related C. likely D. appropriate
4.
operating pushing vibrating effecting

what about farmers? Is it the conversation in the farmyard that keeps them captivated by the job? Work is power and sense
of status say those (7)_________ have either attained these elusive goals, or feel aggrieved that nobody has yet recognized
their leadership qualities. Or we can blame it all on someone else, the family or the taxman, I suspect, and I say this under
my breath, that most of us work rather as Mr. Micawber lived, hoping for something to (8)_________ up. We'll win the
pools, and tell the boss what we really think. We'll scrape together the (9)_________ and open that little shop we have
always dreamed of, or go round the world, or spend more time in the garden. One day, we'll get that (10)_________ we
deserve, but until then at least we have something to do. And we are so busy doing it that we won't have time to wonder
why.
1. A. might B. can C. will D. should
2. A. below B. rest C. following D. latter
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Created by Tran Ho Quoc Khanh – Viet Bac high school
3. A. deal B. position C. job D. engagement
4. A. enjoyed B. wished C. hoped D. felt
5. A. make B. turn C. issue D. give
6. A. one B. case C. question D. problem
7. A. people B. must C. who D. may
8. A. move B. turn C. ease D. end
9. A. resources B. opportunities C. riches D. money
10.A. ambition B. station C. vocation D. promotion
1-A 2-C 3-A 4-D 5-D 6-B 7-C 8-B 9-D 10-D
III. Choose the most suitable word for each space. (Đề thi thử ĐH-CĐ)
If you’ve been told by your boss to improve your knowledge of a foreign language you will know that success doesn’t come
quickly. It generally takes years to learn another language well and constant (1)_______to maintain the high standards
required for frequent business use. Whether you study in a class, with audiocassettes, computers or on your (2)_______
sooner or (3)_______every language course finishes and you must decide what to do next if you need a foreign language for
your career.
Business audio Magazine is a new product designed to help you continue language study in a way that fits easily into your
busy schedule. Each audiocassette (4)_______of an hour – long program packed with business news, features and

colleges and universities receive funding from the state in which they are located. Each state’s legislative body decides how
many tax dollars will be given to public colleges and universities. Students in grades 1-12 do not pay tuition. College and
university students do pay tuition, but many earn scholarships or receive loans.
Much of the control of American public schools lies in the hands of each local schools district. Each school district is
governed by a school board, a small committee of people elected by the local community or appointed by the local
government. The school board sets general policies for the school district and insures that state guidelines are met.
Generally, school districts are divided into elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Elementary schools
are composed of students in kindergarten and grades 1-6. Many children attend kindergarten when they are five years old.
Children begin 1
st
grade at age six. Middle school is composed of students in grades 6-8 and high school contains grades 9-
12.
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Created by Tran Ho Quoc Khanh – Viet Bac high school
High school students are required to take a wide variety of courses in English, Mathematics, Science, and Social
Science. They may also be required to take foreign language or physical education, and they may select to take music or art
courses. A course can be one semester or two semesters in length. The academic year generally begins in late August and
ends in early June.
In the United States, education is compulsory for all students until age sixteen. According to the U.S Cencus Bureau,
85% of students graduate from high school. Most high school students graduate at the age of seventeen or eighteen. A
student graduates after he or she has successfully passed all of the required courses. Grades are given to students for each
course at the end of each semester. The grading scale is A (excellent), B (above average), C (average), D (below average),
and F (failing). A student who fails a required course must take the course again.
In 1970, about half of all American students who graduated from high schools went to community college or university.
Today, nearly three out of four American high school graduates go to college or university. Students have the option of
attending a two-year community college (also known as a junior college) before applying to a four-year university.
Admission to a community college is easier, tuition is lower, and class sizes are often smaller than in a university.
Community college students can earn an Associate’s degree and transfer course credits to a university.
Question 1. What is true about the American education system?

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10
15
Perhaps the most striking quality of satiric literature is its freshness, its originality of perspective. Satire rarely
offers original ideas. Instead, it presents the familiar in a new form. Satirists do not offer the world new philosophies.
What they do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish,harmful, or
affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we
unquestioningly accept are false. Don Quixote makes chivalry seem absurd; Brave New World ridicules the
pretensions of science; A Modest Proposal dramatizes starvation by advocating cannibalism. None of these ideas is
original. Chivalry was suspect before Cervantes, humanists objected to the claims of pure science before Aldous
Huxley, and people were aware of famine before Swift. It was not the originality of the idea that made these satires
popular. It was the manner of expression, the satiric method, that made them interesting and entertaining.
Satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or
ethically instructive. They are stimulating and refreshing because withcommonsense briskness they brush away
illusions and secondhand opinions. With spontaneous irreverence, satire rearranges perspectives, scrambles familiar
objects into incongruous juxtaposition, and speaks in a personal idiom instead of abstract platitude. Satire exists
because there is need for it. It has lived because readers appreciate a refreshing stimulus, an irreverent reminder that
they live in a world of platitudinousthinking, cheap moralizing, and foolish philosophy. Satire serves to prod people
into an awareness of truth, though rarely to any action on behalf of truth. Satire tends to remind people that much of
what they see, hear, and read in popular media is sanctimonious, sentimental, and only partially true. Life resembles
in only a slight degree the popular image of it. Soldiers rarely hold the ideals that movies attribute tothem, nor do
ordinary citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity. Intelligent people know these things but tend to
forget them when they do not hear.
40. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. Difficulties of writing satiric literature B. Popular topics of satire
C. New philosophies emerging from satiric literature D. Reasons for the popularity of satire
41. The word "realization" is closest in meaning to_______.
A. certainty B. awareness C. surprise D. confusion
42. Why does the author mention Don Quixote, Brave New World, and A Modest Proposal?
A. They are famous examples of satiric literature. B. They present commonsense solutions to problems.