I/ OPEN CLOZE TEST

GRAMMAR
A word in a dictionary is very much like a car in a mammoth motor show - full of potential but
temporarily inactive. To put the car on the road a(n) (1)________ complex of things is required
including fuel, a controller at the wheel and knowledge of the-rules of the road. To get a word
moving we (2)________ the things that come (3)__from_____the heading of grammar. Grammar
describes words (4)__into_______ action. It classifies words (5)________parts of speech, lists
the changes of form that words can undergo when (6)___________contact with other words and
examines the placing of the totality of words needed (7)_________the expression of thought.
Because grammar (8)________like a science and yet does not behave like one (words often jump
(9)_________of their classificatory cages), teachers and textbook-writers have been accused of
digging too (10)_________ into it. A lot of out-of-date conceptions (11)________fossilised in
grammar-books, and their writers do not like to admit this. Nor does the inertia of teachers or the
examiner’s love of (12)_________ unambiguous encourage them to revise the thirty-third
edition. It is best to let things carry (13)_________ as they are; let sleeping dogmas lie. The
pupil-examinees do not want (14)__________light ( phuong dien) on grammar; they merely
want to get rid of it.
1 2 3 from 4 5into 6in 7 8 is 9 10 deep 11are 12 13on 14 shed
DRIVERS ON MOBILE PHONES
Some 12 million people in Britain own mobile phones, and we are a society on the 1_________.
To save time we conduct business, chat with friends, 2 _________arrangements - all from the
car. The huge explosion in their use is causing concern. Research has shown that drivers talking
on mobiles were four times more likely to have an accident than 3 __________not on the
phone. Ninety-five percent of road accidents are caused by driver error, and just the physical
mechanics of dialling, answering, or replacing the handset can be dangerous. Even if you are
activating only one button, you still have to take your eyes and mind 4 ___________the road.
More and more drivers 5 _________as if they are at the office when on the car phone. West
Midlands traffic police told of one salesman they pulled over who had his phone in one hand,
order book in the 6 __________. He told them he could keep 7 __________of the car using his
knees only. But mobiles are not the only distraction; sophisticated communication and
navigation devices are showing up in many new car models. The Jaguar S-type is the first car
with an optional satellite navigation system, which gives road 8 __________, and a voice-
activated control system for the CD, radio, air-conditioning and phone, It will call a number
from an electronic phone book or answer a call at the driver’s verbal command. All this still
demands the driver’s attention, and driving is all about concentration. It only takes a second’s
lapse to cause an accident and to lose a 9 __________ . Should we ban hand-10 __________
devices in cars ? Certainly the problem should be carefully 11 ___________into by road safety
experts.

1 2,make 3,ones 4,on 5, 6, 7,notice 8,direction 9, 10, using 11,

GOOD FATHERS

Traditionally, a good father provided for his family and acted as a disciplinarian, but he could be
a pretty remote character. Today many men actively 1 _________parenthood with their wives,
and many of these men consider child-rearing as important as their careers. But a father is not
simply a “second mother”, another nurturer and comforting presence. Good fathers have a more
robust and playful 2 __________with their children. Research suggests that fathers are more
likely than mothers to teach physical competence, adventurousness, new 3 _________and
confidence in asserting opinions. It is widely believed that children with “effective” fathers 4
__________on better with their peers and display more social confidence. They are less 5
___________ to be argumentative and do not want to force their way of doing things on others.
Boys especially don’t feel they have to prove themselves as the “leader”, which boys 6
________a male role model frequently do. So, how do we rate a “good” dad? First of all, is he
there? In one American study it was found that 42% of children 7 ________ parents had been
divorced had not seen their fathers for over a year. A divorced dad should find some way to be
included in his child’s life. Further research has linked father absence to lower IQ in their
children, poor school 8 ___________ , delinquency and problems handling aggression. A good
father should also be involved. Separate studies of children whose fathers were 9 ___________
for at least 40% of their care found that their youngsters demonstrated better thinking
10___________, increased empathy for others and a greater ability to rely on their own
judgement. Fathers should also cheer their children’s successes. People who rated high in the
ability to plot their own course in life 11_________to have fathers who encouraged them,
showed trust in their abilities and joined them in their endeavours.

1, 2,friend 3,things 4,are 5,likely 6,playing 7,whose 8,performance 9, 10,way 11

FATHERHOOD

Besides being there financially in the practical ways that have always defined fatherhood, a good
father doesn’t 1_________ promises he can’t keep, 2 __________it be to attend a school play or
to have a game of football in the park. He also listens to his children, and is sensitive to what his
children are thinking and feeling. More than 3 ________, he must be able to approach a conflict
with patience and flexibility. For example, a father who tells his daughter that she is too young
for a summer job in another country might 4 _________ better to explain to her his feelings
about the subject, and that he would be worried if she were that far away, and 5 _________ for
her to have a job nearer home. In other words, he shows that he is capable of adjusting his
opinions to suit his daughter. The special father can also create a feeling of magic for his
children, by perhaps reading a bedtime story every night. Kids often see this as a wonderful way
to wrap 6 ___________ each evening. Lack of communication 7 ___________a family can
create problems. Many parents don’t even tell their children about a job loss, for example. That
is courting disaster and missing an 8 __________to bring the family closer together. Small
children are quick to sense when parents are troubled, and those unknown fears engender
insecurity. It’s best to level with children, and let them know the family is loving and strong
enough to negotiate the bumpiest of 9__problem________. Even young children can come up
with money-saving ideas, and it’s important to a child’s sense of self-worth to be able to 10
__________to the family in a crisis. Finally, mum and dad need to have a set of house rules
which they 11 _________ to. Children gain a 12__________of security from living with two
adults who love and support each other. A dad rated number one by mum is usually a dad rated
number one by the kids, too.

1,make 2, 3, ever 4,be 5,better 6, 7,in 8,opportunity 9,problem 10 attach 11adhere 12lot
II/ IELTS READING
What are Dreams?
A. Thousands of years ago, dreams were seen as messages from the gods, and in many cultures,
they are still considered prophetic. In ancient Greece, sick people slept at the temples of
Asclepius, the god of medicine, in order to receive dreams that would heal them. Modern dream
science really begins at the end of the 19th century with Sigmund Freud, who theorized that
dreams were the expression of unconscious desires often stemming from childhood. He believed
that exploring these hidden emotions through analysis could help cure mental illness. The
Freudian model of psychoanalysis dominated until the 1970s, when new research into the
chemistry of the brain showed that emotional problems could have biological or chemical roots,
as well as environmental ones. In other words, we weren‘t sick just because of something our
mothers did (or didn‘t do), but because of some imbalance that might be cured with medication.
B. After Freud, the most important event in dream science was the discovery in the early 1950s
of a phase of sleep characterized by intense brain activity and rapid eye movement (REM).
People awakened in the midst of REM sleep reported vivid dreams, which led researchers to
conclude that most dreaming took place during REM. Using the electroencephalograph (EEG),
researchers could see that brain activity during REM resembled that of the waking brain. That
told them that a lot more was going on at night than anyone had suspected. But what, exactly?
C. Scientists still don‘t know for sure, although they have lots of theories. On one side are
scientists like Harvard‘s Allan Hobson, who believes that dreams are essentially random. In the
1970s, Hobson and his colleague Robert McCarley proposed what they called the “activation-
synthesis hypothesis”, which describes how dreams are formed by nerve signals sent out during
REM sleep from a small area at the base of the brain called the pons. These signals, the
researchers said, activate the images that we call dreams. That put a crimp in dream research; if
dreams were meaningless nocturnal firings, what was the point of studying them?
D. Adult humans spend about a quarter of their sleep time in REM, much of it dreaming. During
that time, the body is essentially paralyzed but the brain is buzzing. Scientists using PET and
fMRI technology to watch the dreaming brain have found that one of the most active areas
during REM is the limbic system, which controls our emotions. Much less active is the prefrontal
cortex, which is associated with logical thinking. That could explain why dreams in REM sleep
often lack a coherent storyline. (Some researchers have also found that people dream in nonREM
sleep as well, although those dreams generally are less vivid.) Another active part of the brain in
REM sleep is the anterior cingulate cortex, which detects discrepancies. Eric Nofzinger, director
of the Sleep Neuroimaging Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, thinks that
could be why people often figure out thorny problems in their dreams. “It‘s as if the brain
surveys the internal milieu and tries to figure out what it should be doing, and whether our
actions conflict with who we are”, he says.
E. These may seem like vital mental functions, but no one has yet been able to say that REM
sleep or dreaming is essential to life or even sanity. MAO inhibitors, an older class of
antidepressants, essentially block REM sleep without any detectable effects, although people do
get a “REM rebound” – extra REM – if they stop the medication. That‘s also true of selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, which reduce dreaming by a third to a half.
Even permanently losing the ability to dream doesn‘t have to be disabling. Israeli researcher
Peretz Lavie has been observing a patient named Yuval Chamtzani, who was injured by a
fragment of shrapnel that penetrated his brain when he was 19. As a result, he gets no REM sleep
and doesn‘t remember any dreams. But Lavie says that Chamtzani, now 55, “is probably the
most normal person I know and one of the most successful ones”. (He‘s a lawyer, a painter and
the editor of a puzzle column in a popular Israeli newspaper.)
F. The mystery of REM sleep is that even though it may not be essential, it is ubiquitous – at
least in mammals and birds. But that doesn‘t mean all mammals and birds dream (or if they do,
they‘re certainly not – talking about it). Some researchers think REM may have evolved for
physiological reasons. “One thing that‘s unique about mammals and birds is that they regulate
body temperature”, says neuroscientist Jerry Siegel, director of UCLA‘s Center for Sleep
Research. “There‘s no good evidence that any coldblooded animal has REM sleep”. REM sleep
heats up the brain and non-REM cools it off, Siegel says, and that could mean that the changing
sleep cycles allow the brain to repair itself. “It seems likely that REM sleep is filling a basic
physiological function and that dreams are a kind of epiphenomenon”, Siegel says – an
extraneous byproduct, like foam on beer.
G. Whatever the function of dreams at night, they clearly can play a role in therapy during the
day. The University of Maryland‘s Clara Hill, who has studied the use of dreams in therapy, says
that dreams are a “back door” into a patient‘s thinking. “Dreams reveal stuff about you that you
didn‘t know was there”, she says. The therapists she trains to work with patients‘ dreams are, in
essence, heirs to Freud, using dream imagery to uncover hidden emotions and feelings. Dreams
provide clues to the nature of more serious mental illness. Schizophrenics, for example, have
poor-quality dreams, usually about objects rather than people. “If you‘re going to understand
human behavior”, says Rosalind Cartwright, a chairman of psychology at Rush University
Medical Center in Chicago, “here‘s a big piece of it. Dreaming is our own storytelling time – to
help us know who we are, where we‘re going and how we‘re going to get there”. Cartwright has
been studying depression in divorced men and women, and she is finding that “good dreamers”,
people who have vivid dreams with strong story lines, are less likely to remain depressed. She
thinks that dreaming helps diffuse strong emotions. “Dreaming is a mental-health activity”, she
says.
Questions 1 – 5
Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A - G. Which paragraph contains the following
information? Write the correct number, A – G, in boxes 1 – 5 on your answer sheet.
1 reference of an artist‘s dreams who has versatile talents E
2 dream actually happens to many animals F
3 dreams are related with benefit and happinessG
4 advanced scientific technology applied in investigation of REM stage D
5 questioning concern raised about usefulness of investigation on dreams C
1.
Questions 6 – 8
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 32 – 34 on your answer
sheet.
6. What were dreams regarded as by ancient people
A superstitious and unreliable
B communication with gods and chance to predict the future
C medical relief for children with ill desire
D rules to follow as they fell asleep in a temple
7. According to Paragraph D, which part of brain controls reasoning
A anterior cingulate cortex
B internal cortex
C limbic system
D prefrontal cortex
8. What can we conclude when author cited reference on dreams in animals
A Brain temperature rises when REM pattern happens.
B The reason why mammals are warm blooded.
C Mammals are bound to appear with more frequent REM.
D REM makes people want to drink beer with more foam.
Questions 9 – 14
Look at the following people and the list of statements below. Match each statement with the
correct person, A – G. Write the correct letter, A – G, in boxes 35 – 40 on your answer sheet.
9 Dreams sometimes come along with REM as no more than a trivial attachment.
10 Exploring parents‘ dreams would be beneficial for treatment as it reveals the unconscious
thinking. A Sigmund Freud
11 Dreams help people cope with difficulties they meet in daytime. D Eric Nofzinger
12 Decoding dreams would provide a remind to human desire in early days. C Robert McCarley
13 Dreams are a body function to control strong emotion. F Clara Hill
14 Dreams seem to be as randomly occurring and have limited research significance. B Allan
Hobson (Harvard)
Lists of people
A Sigmund Freud
B Allan Hobson (Harvard)
C Robert McCarley
D Eric Nofzinger
E Jerry Siegel
F Clara Hill
G Rosalind Cartwright

III/ CAE, CPE READING

1/ MULTIPLE CHOICE

CLONING: WHERE IS IT TAKING US?

When the cloned sheep, Dolly, first hit, the newspapers, nearly 90 per cent of Americans found
human cloning morally repugnant. Perhaps no other moral issue in American history has
produced such near unanimity. But politicians have been reluctant to cement this consensus into
law. A bill recently introduced would have outlawed human cloning under a penalty of up to ten
years in prison. It lost under a hail of criticism that it would be an unnecessary impediment to
scientific research. This is a seductive argument, especially when cancer victims make it.
But the talk of concrete material benefits from cloning assumes that if it is permissible to
reproduce certain cells for certain purposes (eg — to reproduce a burn victim's remaining healthy
skin cells to produce a graft), it is permissible to reproduce human beings in a Petrie dish.
Humans are embodied beings, our souls and physical selves are profoundly intertwined. Cloning
would take the humanity out of human reproduction and, in so doing, rob our spirits of
something that cannot be replaced artificially. Furthermore, the manufacture of human beings on
demand without conception would turn people into made-to-order goods, and would in aggregate
debase our respect for human life.
Most advocates of cloning ignore the moral arguments and tempt us with small concrete benefits.
These potential benefits play on our current notions of rights and our culture of compassion in a
way that gives them considerable political force. But these arguments do not sustain scrutiny.
There is little disagreement about the profound effects the cloning of human beings would have
on human nature. However, some cloning apologists simply respond, "So what?"
We hear most often that cloning could provide perfectly compatible body parts for people who
need them, or that it could enable infertile couples to have "biological" offspring. It is hard to say
without sounding callous, but death and bodily infirmity are concomitant with human existence
and, in the long run, unavoidable. We live in a society where longevity is becoming a value in
itself, but longevity cannot justify a practice that is basically wrong. As for infertility, it is not
even a disabling sickness that, on humanitarian grounds, we should feel obliged to alleviate. It is
simply a limitation. There is nothing heartless about saying that people should resort to
alternatives besides cloning, like adoption.
When defenders of cloning talk about the brave new world of medical techniques it is important
to remember what cloning entails: the DNA-laden nucleus from a somatic cell is placed into a
denucleated egg and stimulated into growth with an electric shock. What begins to grow is a
"fertilised" egg, an embryo — not a kidney or any other disembodied piece of tissue.
Charles Krauthammer recently wrote about experiments in which headless mice were created,
and raised the spectre of headless humans used as organ factories: "There is no grosser
corruption of biotechnology than creating a human mutant and disembowelling it for spare
parts." Actually, there is perhaps one grosser corruption, for the "headless human" scenario is
still a science fiction nightmare: it is much easier to delete mouse genes (preventing the head
from growing) than human genes. In the meantime, cloned organs would probably have to
develop within human foetuses, which would be aborted when the organs were ready. This is
called "organ farming": growing human life as material. Advocates of cloning like to sidestep the
idea of organ farming with visions of growing organs, not a foetus.
The infertility applications of cloning have nightmares of their own. Consider: a woman wants
"biological" children, but her ovaries do not work because of age or other reasons. She clones
herself. The foetus will be female, and have, inside her ovaries, a lifetime supply of eggs, exactly
identical to the woman's own eggs. The foetus is then aborted and the eggs harvested for
implantation in the woman. This is an option actually entertained by some fertility doctors, who
say they already see a market for it; cloning defenders celebrate this as a marvellous extension of
a woman's reproductive capabilities.
The fact that people are already inventing — and endorsing —such scenarios demonstrates the
corrosive magic this technology works on the notion of human dignity. Indeed, it is not just the
horrific applications but cloning itself that are abominations. For we human beings are
unavoidably defined by our biological, embodied natures. How we come into being is not trivial:
it is central to who we are.

1 In the first paragraph the writer suggests that Americans

A are not keen to ban human cloning.
B have ethical objections to human cloning.
C want a lot more research into human cloning.
D are divided on the issue of human cloning.
2 The writer argues in the second paragraph that human cloning
A goes against nature.
B will help certain people.
C diminishes human dignity.
D should be done in a laboratory.
3 According to the writer, the arguments for human cloning
A stress the ethical issue.
B refer to real advantages.
C persuade politicians.
D are not well-founded.
4 What point is the writer making about infertility?
A It should be treated by any means possible.
B It is an unavoidable part of life.
C It does not justify cloning.
D It is not an important issue.
5 According to the writer, the creation of headless mice
A illustrates the potential direction of biotechnology.
B was done to create organs.
C makes it easier to create headless humans.
D is more wrongful than developing organs from human foetuses.
6 Which word sums up the writer's opinion of human cloning?
A exciting
B indefensible
C beneficial
D speculative

2/ GAP TEXT

Temptation, temptation
We tend to act impulsively when small imminent rewards triumph over big future benefits.
How can we keep our impulsivity in check?

By David Freeman

Walk into any fast-food restaurant, and you can watch a small crowd of ordinary people doing
something that is utterly irrational: eating junky, excess-weight-inviting food that is likely to
leave them feeling bad about their bodies and open to a host of serious ills. We literally line up to
trade our health and self-image for a few minutes of pleasant mouth feel and belly comfort -
because the latter is right here, right now, whereas the former is months, years or even decades
away.

1.

Today this tendency plays out in such undesirable habits as overeating and overspending.
Because the rewards for our good behaviour are off in the future where they seem less important,
we are almost guaranteed to act against our own interests when we make impulsive decisions.

2.
New insights into the psychological subtleties of temporal discounting have suggested ways to
counteract the distorted thinking behind the phenomenon and change short-sighted behaviour. If
these strategies work, we will be more likely to cat more healthily, exercise and stay out of debt.

3.

Thoughtful decisions to resist temptation, on the other hand, appear largely rooted in the
prefrontal cortex, the seat of executive functions such as working memory, attention and
inhibitory control. So, if we can make the sooner, smaller reward seem less compelling or get the
larger, later reward to attract more attention, researchers have discovered, activity shifts from the
limbic system to the prefrontal cortex - and we make wiser choices.

4.

What is more, that perceived gap between the value of sooner and later rewards grows as the
time to the sooner reward approaches. A study published in 2009 showed that students placed
much less value on a gift voucher that they had to wait a relatively short time to use than on one
they could use immediately. The same study also determined that the students perceived only a
minimal difference in the worth of two vouchers when one required waiting a long time and the
other even longer.

5.

Certain environmental cues can also trick the brain into judging time in ways that might mitigate
temporal discounting. People exposed to a slow audio rhythm are less likely to overestimate the
time to distant events and more likely to opt for later rewards than those who hear sound at a
swifter pace. That result suggests faster-paced sensory cues might speed up our internal clocks,
making time of the essence. It also implies that a calming environment may temper temporal
discounting- that a mellow fast food restaurant might sell more salads and fewer cheeseburgers.

6.

Another approach to combating this damaging trait involves collecting detailed data. A range of
findings shows that our brains tend to grasp events that are further in the future in vaguer terms
than events close at hand. Gathering specific information about more distant rewards, therefore,
may help far-off goals effectively compete for attention with more immediate wants.

7.
These observations strongly suggest that generic statements about consequences do not work.
Instead, it has to be details that are particular to the individual and directly connected to a single
decision which are presented to the person concerned. So, if you are tempted to spend more than
you can afford on that flashy car you have seen, take a breather and remind yourself out loud that
the hefty monthly payments would downgrade your holiday privileges for the next five years.

..............................................................................................................................................

A If these kinds of seemingly simple tweaks prove effective and can be adopted by society as a
whole, we may be able to reap rich revvards. The world 30 years from now could be one in
which obesity epidemics, personal debt crises and other mass ills of poor choice seem like relics
of another age.

B The drive to instant gratification appears to be hardwired in humans. However, that fact does
not mean we are destined to grab immediate rewards we will later regret as was previously
thought because of the long-held belief that impulsiveness was fixed. Recent research has
brought to light evidence that it can be moved, thereby counteracting the urge to make unwise
decisions.

C This concept has been successfully applied to anti-obesity programmes. People on these
health-clinic programmes are asked to document exactly how much weight they gain when they
slip and then how long it takes them to get back to their previous weight. This ritual causes
people to place greater value on the eventual downsides of eating too much. Furthermore, it has
been found that if people are given specific information about the consequences of their
overeating and they say it so that others can hear, they take their decision with their eyes open.

D This foolish exchange reflects a glitch in our brains that may wreak more havoc in our lives
and in society than any other. Known as temporal discounting, it is our tendency to view small
rewards now as more desirable than much bigger payoffs down the road. Scientists think this
trait may have been programmed into us by evolution at a time when the environment, with its
numerous threats to our survival, favoured those who grabbed whatever they could whenever
they could get it.

E Finding ways to delay the more immediate reward can suppress the time-skewing effect.
Research has shown that requiring people to wait just five minutes for a treat cuts the appeal of
the treat in half. Thus, if you are about to order a double cheeseburger at the fast-food counter or
if you are eyeing an unaffordable new watch, persuade yourself to run a few errands before
deciding whether to indulge.

F Additional research supports the notion that the hustle and bustle of fast-food chains may
magnify our desire for a faster pay-off. One 2010 study found that people who were asked to
think about their last visit to a fast-food chain tended to opt for immediate rewards to a greater
extent than those who were not given the fast-food trigger. Therefore, avoiding fast-food
restaurants can have a double bonus: not being plied with less healthy food and easing the
pernicious effects of temporal discounting on health and wealth-related decision making.

G Important clues about how to combat rash behaviour come from studies of how we perceive
time when making decisions in which immediate desires conflict with longer-term goals. Some
of the same brain systems involved in temporal discounting also contribute to our ability to
estimate spans of time. Researchers have shown over the past ten years that these estimates
become skewed when comparing the times at which a reward will be received. In short, the later
benefit feels further off, diminishing its appeal.

H Temporal discounting has long been seen as the triumph of feelings or impulses over reason.
To go beyond that imprecise insight, several groups of neuroscientists have scanned people's
brains using functional MRI while they were tempted to grab immediate rewards. They found
that this urge seems to originate mainly in the brain's limbic system, a set of cerebral regions
charged with emotion.

-THE END-