HỘI CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT KÌ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI NĂM HỌC 2016-

CHUYÊN 2017
VÙNG DUYÊN HẢI & ĐỒNG MÔN THI: TIẾNG ANH LỚP 11
BẰNG BẮC BỘ Ngày thi: … tháng 4 năm 2017
TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN Thời gian làm bài: 180 phút
LÊ KHIẾT QUẢNG NGÃI (không kể thời gian giao đề)
ĐỀ THI ĐỀ XUẤT Đề thi gồm 16 trang

A. LISTENING (50 pts)

Part 1. (10 pts)
You will hear part of a radio interview with the comedian, Lenny Henry.
For questions 1-5, choose the answer (A, B, C or D), which fits best
according to what you hear.
1 Why did Lenny decide to do a degree?
A He was self-conscious because he didn't have one
B Other actors persuaded him that it was a good idea.
C He needed one to further his acting career.
D He was impressed by other actors who had been to a university.
2 What effect has studying for a degree had on Lenny?
A It has developed his ability to think more clearly about his work in general.
B It has made him think more seriously about his career.
C It has given him the confidence to try for more challenging acting roles.
D It causes him a lot of stress when he has to write an essay.
3 According to Lenny, how does comedy affect the way people feel?
A It hinders their appreciation of the seriousness of a situation.
B It helps them deal with disturbing images.
C It makes people more sensitive.
D. It enables them to laugh at heartbreaking stories.
4. What does Lenny say about the work of Comic Relief in Africa?
A People in Africa now have new ways of raising money for themselves.
B The task they are facing is too big for them to make a real difference.
C People aren't committed enough yet to the cause.

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 D It should be a steady process to help the local communities.
5. What does Lenny say about his visit to Debre Zeit?
A He enjoyed working as a care worker for a while.
B He was impressed by Fanti's bravery despite his illness.
C He was moved by the way the people there handled their situation.
D He was impressed by the way Fanti praised Comic Relief.
Part 2. (10 pts)
Listen and decide whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F).
1. Lauren and Dieter found that moving to Germany from England
was easier than a move from America to Germany would have 1……………
been.
2. Lauren believes that some 'rituals' in Germany are closer to 2……………
'rituals' in England than 'rituals' in America. 3……………
3. According to Lauren, everyone goes for Sunday lunch in England.
4. Lauren had not expected there to be so many differences
4……………
between life in New York and life in Munich.
5. Cross-cultural relationships are easy according to Dieter. 5……………
Part 3. (10 pts)
Listen and answer the following questions.
1. According to the speaker, in what way is Camber's different from other theme parks?
……………………………………………………………………………………
2. When was the first Park opened?
……………………………………………………………………………………
3. What's included in the entrance fee?
……………………………………………………………………………………
4. What does the Future Farm zone encourage visitors to do?
……………………………………………………………………………………
5. When is hot food available in the park?
……………………………………………………………………………………
Part 4. (20 pts)
You will hear a radio program about the history of roller skating. Complete the
sentences, using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS.
History of roller skating
The country where the first roller skates were probably made was (1) …………………

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In 1760, John Merlin went to a ball in London playing a (2) ………………… whilst on
roller skates.
Unfortunately, John Merlin injured himself when he broke a (3) ………………… at the
ball.
In Germany, roller skating was used in a ballet called (4) …………………
James Plimton’s invention helped roller skaters to control the (5) ………………… of their
skates.
The first team sport to be played on roller skater was (6) ………………… .
In Detroit in 1937, the first (7) ………………… in the sport took place.
The use of plastics mean that both the (8) ……… and ………….. of roller skates
improved.
The musical Starlight Express was seen by as many as (9) ………………… in London.
The speaker says that modern roller skates are now (10) ………. and ………… than ever
before.
B. VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR (30 pts)
Part 1. Choose the word/ phrase that best completes each of the following sentences. (10
pts)
1. The ______________ in our building often falls asleep at the front desk.
A. caretaker B. stockbroker C. undertaker D. bookmaker
2. Police blamed a small hooligan______ in the crowd for the violence which occurred.
A. constituent B. element C. division D. portion
3. The police arrested the wrong man mainly because they ____the names they had been
given by the witness.
A. bewildered B. merged C. confused D. puzzled
4. He was arrested for trying to pass______ notes at the bank.
A. camouflaged B. fake C. counterfeit D. fraudulent
5. The safe deposit box _______ a high-pitched sound when it was moved.
A. ejected B. excluded C. expelled D. emitted
6. He offered me $500 to break my contract. That’s _______.
A. bribery B. blackmail C. compensation D. reward
7. It was such a shock to receive a letter like that________
A.in the red B. out of the blue C.in the pink D. over the moon
8. Mr Wellbred went to a school which______ good manners and self-discipline.
A. blossomed B. planted C. harvested D. cultivated.
9. The smell of the burnt cabbage was so __________ that it spread to every room.
A. pervasive B. effusive C. extensive D. diffuse
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10. If the terrorists are not sent to prison, there will be a public ______
A. attack B. onslaught C. recrimination D. outcry

Part 2. Read the text and find 5 mistakes and correct them. You should indicate in
which line the mistake is. (5 pts)
Let us suppose that you are in the position of a parent. Would you allow your children to
read any book they wanted without first checking its content? Would you take them to see
any film without first finding whether it is suitable for them? If your answer of these
questions is yes, then you are either extremely permissive, or just plainly irresponsible. If
your answer is no, then you are exercising your right as a parent to protect your children
from what you consider to be desirable influences. In other words, by acting as a censor
yourself, you are admitting that there is a strong case for censorship.

Part 3. Put VERBS OR PREPOSITIONS to complete the following sentences. (5pts)

1.He threw _________ his studies when he was offered a well-paid sales job.
2.The play ____ for a lot of criticism when it first opened.
3.When you make _____ the check, please make it payable to Mrs. Smith.
4.The team had to _______out of the competition because of injuries.
5.How did you ever get ___________that policeman to let you park here ?

Part 4. Complete the text by writing the correct form of the word in capitals. The first
has been done as an example. (10 pts)
The (1.CONCEIVE) ________ of “rhetoric”, or elective public speaking, dates back thousands of
years. The underlying(2.ASSUME)_______ behind rhetoric is that how you present an argument
can greatly influence whether people are persuaded by you or not. There is (3.DOUBT) _____
plenty of evidence to support this idea _it’s practically (4.THINK)______,for example, for a
successful politician to be a poor communicator-but is it just question of style winning over
substance ?
Certainly, it is often said of politicians that they talk complete (5.SENSE)______ but what they
say they say with such (6.CONVINCE)________ that we tend to believe them, at least when
they’re in opposition. On the other hand, (7.WISE)_____and knowledge are of little value if you
cannot communicate them effectively to your peers or the next generation. It is the combination
of clear (8.REASON),_______ sound (9.JUDGE)______ and effective presentation and
communication skills that defines true rhetoric. A true rhetorician should always come across as
knowledgeable, and never as (10.OPINION)____or ignorant.

C. READING COMPREHENSION (60 pts)

Part 1. For each gap, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D which best fits the
context. (12 pts)

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As petrol prices continue to (1) ……….. , many people are looking for ways to reduce the
(2) ……….. of higher prices while still doing the driving necessary to their work and other
activities. (3) ……….. are some suggestions which will save you a (4) …….. amount of
money on petrol.
1. Ask yourself every time you (5) ……….. to use your car, truck, SUV, or van, "Is this
trip really necessary?" Every mile you drive your vehicle will cost you at least an (6)
……….. of 36 cents. If the trip is not necessary, think twice before using your vehicle.
2. Drive at a (7) ……….. speed on the motorway. According to the Department of
Energy, most automobiles get about 20 per- cent more miles per gallon on the motorway at
55 miles per hour than they do at 70 miles per hour.
3. Consider (8) ……….. an automobile which gets the best petrol mileage. For example,
generally, the following get better petrol mileage: lighter weight vehicles, vehicles with
smaller engines, vehicles with manual transmissions, those with four cylinders, and those
with fewer accessories. Check the "fuel economy" labels (9) ……….. to the windows of
new automobiles to find the aver- age estimated miles per gallon for given makes and
models.
4. Decrease the number of short trips you make. Short trips (10) ……….. reduce petrol
mileage. If an automobile gets 20 miles per gallon in general, it may get only 4 miles per gallon on a short
trip of 5 miles or less.

1. A. crash B. accelerate C. escalate D. fly

2. A. danger B. occurrence C. burden D. chance
3. A. Below B. After C. Coming D. Later
4. A. measurable B. negotiable C. negligible D. considerable
5. A. think B. plan C. need D. arrange
6. A. equivalent B. average C. amount D. increase
7. A. mild B. conservative C. considerate D. substantial
8. A. inquiring B. trading C. preferring D. purchasing
9. A. attached B. selected C. stretched D. held
10. A. extensively B. exclusively C. intensively D. drastically

Part 2. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only
one word in each space. (12 pts)
From Royalist to Republican

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 Erskine Childers was not what you would call your (1) ………… Irish freedom
fighter. A Briton by birth, and a proud (2) ………… at that for most of the early years of
his life, Childers was a decorated soldier of the British Admiralty (3) ………… had
demonstrated unwavering commitment and loyalty to both king and country. And yet,
somewhere along the way, disillusionment (4) ………… in.
While it is difficult to pinpoint the precise moment when doubt started to creep into
Childers' mind (5) ………… to whether his loyalty was misguided, what was essentially a
complete philosophy shift - a total realignment of ideals - did occur. Childers went from (6)
………… royalist to a staunch nationalist, obsessed with the cause of Irish freedom.
He befriended the (7) ………… of Eamon DeVelera and Michael Collins, key figures
in the Irish Republican camp, and even went so far as to ship illegal armaments to the leaders
of the ill-fated Easter Rising of 1916, which was easily put (8) ………… by the British
army.

Later, he would fight on the (9) ………… of the Irish rebels in the War of
Independence, until an uneasy truce was agreed between Britain and Ireland. Eventually, a
treaty was signed partitioning the country. For Childers, by now totally devoted to the
cause of Irish freedom and the notion of a united Ireland, partition was (10) …………
bitter a pill to swallow.
Part 3. Read the passage and choose the best answer to each of the questions. (12 pts)
Legend has it that sometime toward the end of the Civil War (1861-1865) a
government train carrying oxen traveling through the northern plains of eastern Wyoming
was caught in a snowstorm and had to be abandoned. The driver returned the next spring
to see what had become of his cargo. Instead of the skeletons he had expected to find, he
saw his oxen, living, fat, and healthy. How had they survived?
The answer lay in a resource that unknowing Americans lands trampled underfoot
in their haste to cross the "Great American Desert" to reach lands that sometimes proved
barren. In the eastern parts of the United States, the preferred grass for forage was a
cultivated plant. It grew well with enough rain, then when cut and stored it would cure and
become nourishing hay for winter feed. But in the dry grazing lands of the West that

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familiar bluejoint grass was often killed by drought. To raise cattle out there seemed risky
or even hopeless.
Who could imagine a fairy-tale grass that required no rain and somehow made it
possible for cattle to feed themselves all winter? But the surprising western wild grasses
did just that. They had wonderfully convenient features that made them superior to the
cultivated eastern grasses. Variously known as buffalo grass, grama grass, or mesquite
grass, not only were they immune to drought; but they were actually preserved by the lack
of summer and autumn rains. They were not juicy like the cultivated eastern grasses, but
had short, hard stems. And they did not need to be cured in a barn, but dried right where
they grew on the ground. When they dried in this way, they remained naturally sweet and
nourishing through the winter. Cattle left outdoors to fend for themselves thrived on this
hay. And the cattle themselves helped plant the fresh grass year after year for they
trampled the natural seeds firmly into the soil to be watered by the melting snows of
winter and the occasional rains of spring. The dry summer air cured them much as storing
in a bam cured the cultivated grasses.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. A type of wild vegetation B. Western migration after Civil War
C. The raising of cattle D. The climate of the Western United States
2. What can be inferred by the phrase "Legend has it" in line I?·
A. Most history book include the story of the train.
B. The story of the train is similar to other ones from that time period.
C. The driver of the train invented the story.
D. The story of the train may not be completed factual.
3. The word "they" in line 4 refers to ………….. .
A. plains B. skeletons C. oxen D. Americans
4. What can be inferred about the "Great American Desert" mentioned in line 7?
A. Many had settled there by the 1860's.
B. It was not originally assumed to be a fertile area.
C. It was a popular place to raise cattle before the Civil War.
D. It was not discovered until the late 1800's.

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 5. The word "barren" in line 7 is closed in meaning to …………… "
A. lonely B. uncomfortable C. infertile D. dangerous
6. The word "preferred" in line 8 is closed in meaning to ………….. .
A. favored B. available C. ordinary D. required
7. Which of the following can be inferred about the cultivated grass mentioned in
the second paragraph?
A. Cattle raised in the Western United States refused to eat it.
B. It had to be imported into the United States.
C. It would probably not grow in the western United States.
D. It was difficult for cattle to digest.
8. Which of the following was NOT one of the names given to the western grasses?
A. Mesquite grass B. Bluejoint grass C. Buffalo grass D. Grama grass
9. Which of the following was NOT mentioned as a characteristic of western
grasses?
A. They contain little moisture B. They have tough stems
C. They can be grown indoors D. They are not affected by dry weather
10. According to the passage, the cattle help promote the growth of the wild grass
by ……………"
A. eating only small quantities of grass.
B. continually moving from one grazing area to another.
C. naturally fertilizing the soil.
D. stepping on and pressing the seeds into the ground.
Part 4. Read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. (12 pts)
A After hours of driving south in the pitch-black darkness of the Nevada desert, a dome of
hazy gold suddenly appears on the horizon. Soon, a road sign confirms the obvious: Las
Vegas 30 miles. Looking skyward, you notice that the Big Dipper is harder to find than it
was an hour ago.
B Light pollution—the artificial light that illuminates more than its intended target area—
has become a problem of increasing concern across the country over the past 15 years. In
the suburbs, where over-lit shopping mall parking lots are the norm, only 200 of the Milky

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Way’s 2,500 stars are visible on a clear night. Even fewer can be seen from large cities. In
almost every town, big and small, street lights beam just as much light up and out as they
do down, illuminating much more than just the street. Almost 50 percent of the light
emanating from street lamps misses its intended target, and billboards, shopping centres,
private homes and skyscrapers are similarly over-illuminated.
C America has become so bright that in a satellite image of the United States at night, the
outline of the country is visible from its lights alone. The major cities are all there, in
bright clusters: New York, Boston, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and,
of course, Las Vegas. Mark Adams, superintendent of the McDonald Observatory in west
Texas, says that the very fact that city lights are visible from on high is proof of their
wastefulness. “When you’re up in an airplane, all that light you see on the ground from the
city is wasted. It’s going up into the night sky. That’s why you can see it.”
D But don’t we need all those lights to ensure our safety? The answer from light
engineers, light pollution control advocates and astronomers is an emphatic “no.”
Elizabeth Alvarez of the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), a non-profit
organization in Tucson, Arizona, says that overly bright security lights can actually force
neighbours to close the shutters, which means that if any criminal activity does occur on
the street, no one will see it. And the old assumption that bright lights deter crime appears
to have been a false one: A new Department of Justice report concludes that there is no
documented correlation between the level of lighting and the level of crime in an area.
And contrary to popular belief, more crimes occur in broad daylight than at night.
E For drivers, light can actually create a safety hazard. Glaring lights can temporarily
blind drivers, increasing the likelihood of an accident. To help prevent such accidents,
some cities and states prohibit the use of lights that impair night-time vision. For instance,
New Hampshire law forbids the use of “any light along a highway so positioned as to
blind or dazzle the vision of travellers on the adjacent highway.”
F Badly designed lighting can pose a threat to wildlife as well as people. Newly hatched
turtles in Florida move toward beach lights instead of the more muted silver shimmer of
the ocean. Migrating birds, confused by lights on skyscrapers, broadcast towers and
lighthouses, are injured, sometimes fatally, after colliding with high, lighted structures.

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And light pollution harms air quality as well: Because most of the country’s power plants
are still powered by fossil fuels, more light means more air pollution.
G So what can be done? Tucson, Arizona is taking back the night. The city has one of the
best lighting ordinances in the country, and, not coincidentally, the highest concentration
of observatories in the world. Kitt Peak National Optical Astronomy Observatory has 24
telescopes aimed skyward around the city’s perimeter, and its cadre of astronomers needs
a dark sky to work with.
H For a while, that darkness was threatened. “We were totally losing the night sky,” Jim
Singleton of Tucson’s Lighting Committee told Tulsa, Oklahoma’s KOTV last March.
Now, after retrofitting inefficient mercury lighting with low-sodium lights that block light
from “trespassing” into unwanted areas like bedroom windows, and by doing away with
some unnecessary lights altogether, the city is softly glowing rather than brightly beaming.
The same thing is happening in a handful of other states, including Texas, which just
passed a light pollution bill last summer. “Astronomers can get what they need at the same
time that citizens get what they need: safety, security and good visibility at night,” says
McDonald Observatory’s Mark Adams, who provided testimony at the hearings for the
bill.
I And in the long run, everyone benefits from reduced energy costs. Wasted energy from
inefficient lighting costs us between $1 and $2 billion a year, according to IDA. The city
of San Diego, which installed new, high-efficiency street lights after passing a light
pollution law in 1985, now saves about $3 million a year in energy costs.
J Legislation isn’t the only answer to light pollution problems. Brian Greer, Central Ohio
representative for the Ohio Light Pollution Advisory Council, says that education is just as
important, if not more so. “There are some special situations where regulation is the only
fix,” he says. “But the vast majority of bad lighting is simply the result of not knowing any
better.” Simple actions like replacing old bulbs and fixtures with more efficient and better-
designed ones can make a big difference in preserving the night sky.
Questions 1- 6

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The first six paragraphs of the reading passage are lettered A-F.
Choose the most suitable headings for paragraphs A-F from the list of headings below.
NB There are more headings than paragraphs, so you will not use them all.

List of Headings
I .Why lights are needed
ii.  Lighting discourages law breakers
iii.  The environmental dangers
iv. People at risk from bright lights
v. Illuminating space
vi.  A problem lights do not solve
vii.  Seen from above
viii. More light than is necessary
ix. Approaching the city
1) Paragraph A   
2) Paragraph B   
3) Paragraph C   
4) Paragraph D   
5) Paragraph E
6) Paragraph F  
Questions 7-10
Complete each of the following statements with words taken from the passage.
Write ONE or TWO WORDS for each answer.
7) According to a recent study, well-lit streets do not .................... or make
neighbourhoods safer to live in.
8) Inefficient lighting increases .................... because most electricity is produced from
coal, gas or oil.
9) Efficient lights .................... from going into areas where it is not needed.
10) In dealing with light pollution .................... is at least as important as passing new
laws.

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 Part 5. You are going to read some reviews of art events. For questions 1 - 10,
choose from the reviews (A-F). The reviews may be chosen more than once.
In which review is the following mentioned?
Institutions could suffer because of a thoughtless act. 1
Many different styles offered by artists in Europe. 2
A substantial amount of time needed to complete one piece of work. 3
Land and sea treated very differently. 4
Paintings about other paintings. 5
Man's negative impact on the environment. 6
Finding ways to payoff debts. 7
A primitive style of interior decoration. 8
Showing how something is set up for public viewing. 9
Fantasy images based on a real environment. 10
Reviews of art events
A Ben Cook and Phil Whiting
Landscape, such a dominant theme in Cornwall, has the chalk and cheese treatment from
two artists showing in Penzance this month. At Cornwall Contemporary Gallery Ben
Cook " uses abstract vocabulary to make almost entirely conceptual references. His use
of found objects and time spent surfing drew him to look at the processes involved in
surfboard manufacture. Based on these, his constructions and paintings combine areas of
high resist, high speed, water deflecting sheen with those tempered by wax to produce
mottled, opaque, non-slip surfaces that smack of stone and solidity. Phil Whiting is a
painter. His vigorous use of materials - acrylics in thick impasto inks, charcoal applied
with a brush, knife and 'whatever' - recalls a terrain smarting from the brute force of man's
misuse of it. This is not the celebrated, picturesque Cornwall we so often see but its dirty,
rain-soaked underbelly, a landscape left bereft by voracious mining and haphazard
industrial development.
B Shanti Panchal

I It is almost thirty years since Shanti Panchal first came from India to study art in London,
where he has lived ever since. This retrospective at Chelmsford Museum elucidates his

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 distinctive, radical water-colourist's achievement. Growing lip in a Gujarati village, he
decorated local houses with Images of birds and animals. As a Bombay art student, cave
paintings and images from Jain temples inspired him, and as a student in Europe, he was
drawn to medieval icons. It is erroneous to say that his work is characterised by poignant
nostalgia for India. The paintings are not nostalgic. Rather they evoke with subtle clarity
what it is like to be exiled and dispossessed while at the same time rooted inalienably in
nature and the cosmos.
Every watercolour is multi-layered, giving a similar surface to Buddhist cave paintings. It
can take days in order to face Nhat is going to happen in a piece. Each picture takes weeks

I and sometimes months. Recent pictures include portraits and even a homage to Frida
Kahlo, a painter that Shanti respects immensely.
C Iwan Gwyn Parry
Ian Gwyn Parry's first solo exhibition at Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff is a significant
event. Until now the artist has shown mostly in North Wales. Now there is an opportunity
to experience, further south, a coherent and powerful assemblage of his latest work. It is
clear the show will be something special. For these remarkable landscapes and seascapes
appear to have emerged from deep within his psyche and are a highly imaginative
response to a coastal terrain familiar to the artist. There is a strong sense of mysticism, the
painting suffused with ethereal vapours and incandescent light; there are restless swathes
of deep orange and yellow. The seascapes are haunting and elemental while the
landscapes are more reflective studies in grey, black and white. His oil The Irish Sea, for
example is on an awesome scale, its seething waters of churning paint intensely lit by a
low sun. Definitely a show not to be missed.
D Art auctions
Of the top three Modern British sales last month, it was Christie's who kicked off the,
proceedings, but not without controversy. Bury district council, in their wisdom,
auctioned a major painting by LS. Lowry so as to cover a £10 million shortfall in their
finances. The £1.2 million hammer price, less expenses, will not make all that much
difference but the

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issue has raised the wrath of the Museums Association, who in future, could block lottery
and National Arts Collection Fund resources in all aspects of museum and gallery
development. Bury may well live to regret their foolhardy action as current and future
donators will also not be encouraged to gift works of art which could be sold on a whim.
Bonhams followed ten days later with a good but not exceptional sale of which a solid
70% was sold and totaled £2.3 million.
It was then Sotheby's turn to shine which they succeeded in doing, with 80% of lots sold
and an impressive total of £7.7 million, though some way behind their arch rival. Records
were broken for works by Sir Winston Churchill, former British Prime Minister.
E Andrew Grassie
Andrew Grassie's exhibition at Maureen Paley Gallery is aptly entitled 'Installation', since
it provides a look backstage at the rituals involved in hanging an exhibition before it
officially opens to the public. To achieve this, Grassie devised and followed a pre-
determined strategy, namely: "Install a series of paintings at the gallery depicting last
year's previous exhibitions during their installation. Each painting should hang at the very
spot from which the image was taken, enabling the viewer to compare views of the space."
The result is five jewel-like paintings, each one painstakingly copied from a mid-
installation photograph taken by Grassie before the opening of the previous year's shows.
The paintings are executed with such detail that it is difficult at times to uncover the
illusion that these are photographs rather than paintings.
F Story
Alexia Goethe has selected fourteen artists, including six resident in the UK and four from
Leipzig, for her show 'Story'. She seeks to demonstrate that whatever technique is used -
painting, text, video, photograph or concept - and regardless of style, the artist is telling a
story. The tales being told made me come away feeling a sense of recovery. Tales of
politics, war, social unrest, personal tragedy, to name just a few, are depicted here. Jin
Meng who now resides in Europe, produces exquisitely framed views from the present
onto China's past. Political statues, glimpsed from a deserted bedroom, evoke the vast
changes sweeping his birthplace. Jean Tinguely's kinetic assemblages illustrate how the

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mechanical is subverted into the amusing and the desirable. This is an eclectic mix of
treasures that can't fail to shock, amuse and move.
D. WRITING (60 pts)
Part 1. Summary (10pts)
Summarize the following extract. Your summary should be between 50 and 70 words
long.
SIGNS OF LIFE
As the search for alien life turn 50, its practitioners find new methods. Frank Drake, who was
born in Chicago, Illinois, graduated in 1952 from Cornell University and obtained his PhD in
1958 from Harvard. He worked initially at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO,
West Virginia (1958-1963) and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California(1963-1964) before
returning to Cornell and serving as professor of astronomy from 1964.He was appointed
professor of astronomy at the University of California in 1984.

Half a century ago a radio astronomer called Frank Drake thought of a way to calculate the
likelihood of establishing contact with aliens. He suggested the following figures should be
multiplied : how many stars are formed in the galaxy in a year : what fraction of these have
planets and thus form solar systems : the average number of planets per solar system that have the
potential to support life : on what percentage of those where it is possible do such biospheres
actually form : what percentage of such biospheres give rise to intelligent species : what
percentage of intelligent life is able to transmit signals into space ; and for how long could such
intelligence keeps sending signals.

This calculation became celebrated as the Drake equation – perhaps the best attempt so far to
tame a wild guess. Most of the terms remain hard to tie down, although there is a consensus that
about ten stars are formed per year in the galaxy. Also, recent searches for extra solar planets
have concluded that planets are not rare.

At the AAAS, Dr. Drake reflected on his search for alien signals. One reason this is hard is that
radio telescopes must chop the spectrum into fine portions to study it, like tuning in to a signal on
a car radio. Another is the trade-off between a telescope’s field of view and its magnificance.
Small telescopes see a lot of sky but can detect only strong signals. Large ones, which can detect
weak signals, have a narrow focus. Astronomers therefore have difficulty looking both carefully
and comprehensively.

Dr. Drake said there may be another difficulty. Researchers tend to look for signals similar to
those now made by humanity. The Earth, though, is getting quitter because the rise of spread-
spectrum communication makes stray emissions less likely than in the past.
Part 2. Graph description (20 pts)

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The following bar chart illustrates the mobile phone ownership in ten European
countries throughout the year from 2005 to 2010.
Write a report for university lecturer describing the information shown .Write at least
150 words
MOBILE PHONE OWNER GROWTH

Part 3. Essay writing (30 pts.)

Some people think college should provide knowledge and skills related to future career;
others think the true function of colleges is to give access to knowledge for its own sake.
Discuss both points of view about the functions of colleges.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own
knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
The end
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