English Examination for selecting good students, Grade 9, 2024 -2025

SECTION ONE: LISTENING

Hướng dẫn phần thi nghe hiểu:
 Nội dung nghe gồm 02 phần, mỗi phần thí sinh được nghe 2 lần, đĩa CD tự chạy 2 lần.
 Mở đầu và kết thúc phần nghe có tín hiệu nhạc.
 Hướng dẫn làm bài chi tiết cho thí sinh (bằng tiếng Anh) đã có trong bài nghe.
Part 1. Listen to an interview with a food writer about the benefits of eating raw food. For
questions 1-6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which fits best according to what you hear.
Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
1. Maureen says that one of the reasons why enzymes are essential in our diet is because they ______.
A. stop us consuming poisonous substances
B. are the main cause of chemical changes
C. increase our resistance to disease
D. prevent us contracting harmful diseases
2. Maureen recommends reducing our intake of cooked food because ______.
A. it cannot supply us with all the nutrients we need
B. too much cooked food makes us feel heavy
C. cooked food can cause health problems
D. raw food tastes so much better than we think
3. The experiment with the cats showed that ______.
A. each generation of cats responded differently to the foods offered
B. there was a mixed reaction in the first group of cats
C. the majority of the cats developed health problems after starting the diets
D. the fourth generation of cats eating cooked food had the most problems
4. If we don’t consume enough enzymes in our food, ______.
A. we force our bodies to use their own store of enzymes
B. we will not be able to process any of the vitamins it contains
C. our bodies will be forced to manufacture interior enzymes
D. we are likely to suffer from digestive problems
5. Cooking food may cause some proteins to ______.
A. break up into amino acids B. fail to function efficiently
C. attack our bodies by mistake D. become damaged and dangerous
6. The presence of too much cooked food in our bodies may ______.
A. change the colour of our blood B. attract invasive organisms
C. put our immune system on a state of alert D. set off an unusual chemical reaction
Your answers
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Part 2. For questions 7 – 20, listen to a news report about plastic pollution and complete the
summary below using words taken from the recording. Write NO MORE THAN TWO
WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER in the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
Since the 1950s, approximately (7) ______ tons of solid plastic waste have been produced,
with most of it neither burned nor recycled. This amount could fill a 70-meter deep landfill, the
(8) ______ of Manhattan. While much of this waste has ended up in landfills worldwide, a
significant portion has polluted the environment, with around 10 million tons entering the
(9) ______ every year. More than half of all plastic is single-use, and it can take centuries to
(10) ______. Beyond its unattractive and (11) ______ appearance, plastic waste poses a threat to
marine life, and constant exposure to (12) ______and saltwater results in its being broken down into
(13) ______plastics, which may harm both sea creatures and those who consume seafood.
However, is plastic waste really as dire an environmental issue as often depicted in wealthier
nations? Plastics make up (14) ______ of the 1.3 billion tons of waste produced, while air pollution
is responsible for 7 million deaths annually. (15) ______, human-generated CO2 emissions,
threatens coral reefs and other living creatures. Nevertheless, steps are being taken to alleviate the
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 English Examination for selecting good students, Grade 9, 2024 -2025

situation, including strict laws enacted in (16) __________ and the issued UN plan committed to by
(17) ______ in December 2017. However, before achieving meaningful progress, plastic waste
must be (18) ______, and while developed countries have largely addressed this, (19)
______ Asian countries are responsible for dumping more plastic into the oceans than the rest of the
world combined. To effectively tackle plastic pollution, efforts should first focus on the (20)
______ in Southeast Asia; otherwise, other initiatives will have minimal impact.
Your answers
7. 12. 17.
8. 13. 18.
9. 14. 19.
10. 15. 20.
11. 16.

SECTION TWO: LEXICO – GRAMMAR

I. Complete the following sentences by choosing option A, B, C or D.
21. By the time we get to the airport, Bob’s plane ______ and he’ll be wondering where we are.
A. is arriving B. had arrived C. having arrived D. will have arrived
22. _______ much of their adult lives at work, job satisfaction is an important element of individual well-being.
A. As most people spend B. Had most people spent
C. Though people mostly spend D. Most people are spending
23. Erik and his family love the holidays; there is ______ than spend them together.
A. nothing they rather would do B. they would rather do nothing
C. rather they would do nothing D. nothing they would rather do
24. Driving a car with faulty brakes is ______ quite a risk.
A. taking B. being C. setting D. putting
25. The area was neglected and soon turned into an overcrowded ______.
A. estate B. quarter C. slum D. suburb
26. The work is beyond the shadow of a ______ one of the best she has ever written.
A. suspicion B. criticism C. contradiction D. doubt
27. It’s difficult to ______ to one’s beliefs when one is being constantly attacked.
A. devote B. commit C. attach D. adhere
28. My neighbors’ loud music every night is driving me up the ______.
A. ground B. stair C. roof D. wall
29. The interviews with parents showed that the vast majority were ______ of teachers.
A. supportive B. support C. supporter D. supportively
30. Anna say she will visit us, but I can’t ______ to a date. She’ll email us about her plan later.
A. tie her down B. rip her off C. put her in D. set her through
31. When the ship docked at Hamburg, they found a ______ in the hold.
A. gate-crasher B. interloper C. stowaway D. trespasser
32. A horse gets rid of ______ by flicking its tail.
A. butterflies B. flies C. ants D. spiders
33. The wild animal ______ savagely at the piece of meat.
A. eat B. severed C. tore D. split
34. Two ______ were sacked, because they were always turning up late.
A. applicants B. applications C. employers D. employees
35. Students sometimes support themselves by ______ of evening jobs.
A. means B. methods C. efforts D. ways
Your answers:
21. 22. 23. 24. 25.
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26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

II. Complete the following passage by supplying the correct form of the word to fill in each blank.
There is a saying that first impressions are generally correct and I would
say that (36) ______ throughout my entire life, I have found this to be true ALL
apart from one notable exception of a good friend and neighbor with whom
my first (37) ______ was decidedly unfriendly. CHANGE
At the time of our first meeting I was living in a (38) ______ area of DEPRIVE
London, not far from the exit of a dual carriageway, and this meant
that although it was a (39) ______ street, even with the (40) ______ RESIDENCE
will in the world, drivers would often travel dangerously fast within inches of GOOD
my front door. This used to really annoy me and I have to admit I did often go
a bit (41) ______ in expressing my anger even though (or perhaps because) I BOARD
knew I didn't stand a (42) ______ chance of being taken notice of at all. So, REASON
when one day, I shouted my usual string of swear words at a rapidly
passing car and it immediately screamed to a halt, my first reaction was an
enormous sense of (43) ______. But then the driver of the car opened his
window and shouted a stream of swear words back at me. ACHIEVE
So, the next morning, I was more than a little surprised to
find an apology note from the same motorist in my mailbox
explaining that in an attempt to (44) _______ his career as an up and
coming IT (45) ______, he had been driving too fast the previous FAR
evening and inviting me to have dinner with him and his wife. CONSULT

Your answers:
36. 37. 38.
39. 40. 41.
42. 43. 44.
45.
SECTION THREE: READING
I.Read the passage and choose the most suitable answer A, B, C or D to indicate the correct
word for each of the blanks. Write the correct letter in the corresponding boxes provided.
Modern Barging
There has been a fundamental change in the way the canals of Britain are used. The (46) _____
network of canals that covers much of the country (47) ______ back to the industrial revolution, when
goods were transported along these routes. The canals themselves, the (48) ______ waterways of the
country, were dug by teams of men. This was no mean feat in the days before mechanized diggers. It
was also necessary to construct a system of locks, which raise and lower boats so they can (49) _____
with the varying height of the canal themselves. Barges – simple boats without engines – were used to
carry the freight, and horses would (50) _____ along the side of the canal pulling these vessels. Many of
the people working on the boats would themselves live on the water, in a long boat with cramped living
quarters: a narrowboat. As the railways and roads increase in popularity as ways of transporting freight,
the canals fell into (51) _____; many of them became (52) ______ with weeds and rubbish. But over the
last few decades Britain appears to have rediscovered these monuments of engineering. A growing
number of people each year sample the delights of canal holidays. Narrowboats can be (53) ______ up
to be very comfortable, and these days they are powered by an engine and not pulled by a horse.
46. A. extensive B. far-flung C. ample D. widespread
47. A. comes B. looks C. throws D. dates
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48. A. inbuilt B. inland C. internal D. interior

49. A. balance B. compensate C. cope D. handle
50. A. trudge B. canter C. stroll D. meander
51. A. disuse B. obsolescence C. redundancy D. negligence
52. A. impeded B. choked C. hindered D. congested
53. A. converted B. worked C. customized D. done
Your answers:
46. 47. 48. 49.
50. 51. 52. 53.

II. You are going to read an article about fitness websites on the Internet. Seven sentences
have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each
gap (54-60). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. Write the correct letter in
the corresponding boxes provided.

THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE FITNESS TRAINING

Thanks to the Internet you can get into shape dressed in your pyjamas.
Fitness experts these days generally agree that “natural exercise” is the answer to our unhealthy
lifestyles. An activity such as stair-climbing or running for the bus, they say, gets the heart rate going for
five or ten minutes, several times a day, without the boredom of going to a gym or jogging round the park.
(54) ______, but thanks to the Internet it is now at least theoretically possible to get into great shape
without even changing out of your pyjamas. The web is packed with creative, instant and varied exercises
that are often available free. Just start typing and watch the kilos disappear.
Joanna Hall is a fitness expert who has set up a walking club on the Internet. At her Walkactive
website, she promises that in six weeks you can achieve a 25% increase in fitness levels by following her
activity programme based entirely on walking. “These days people are used to finding what they need
online,” she says. (55) ______. Perhaps the best way to deal with this problem is just to have a look around
and see what’s out there.
One click of your mouse can take you, for instance, straight into an aerobics, dance or yoga class, or
introduce you to a variety of other lively activities. You can put together your own strength training
programmes, concentrate on particularly weak body parts or learn fun new ways of getting fit. (56)______.
There are so many possibilities that you could spend the entire day sitting on your chair just surfing the
websites and chatting with all these new friends you have made.
Quality, however, can be harder to find. Some sites try to tempt you into buying DVDs after they’ve
started you off with free beginners’ programmes. (57) ______. Sometimes the quality of the picture or the
sound can be extremely poor.
You may have to put up with advertisements that suddenly appear on the screen, and there is the
annoying tendency for some computers to suddenly pause in the middle of an activity, then return to the
beginning of the video when you start clicking the mouse.
(58) ______. “Online programmes allow you to fit your training times around other things you have
to do, such as going to college or work,” says Hall. “They can be very effective and achievable way to
exercise, something you can do all year round.” You can use them any time of the day or night, in an office,
hotel room or at home. In addition, you do not have to turn up at a gym or studio on time, wear embarrassing
clothing, or deal with annoyingly fit people.
If a particular fitness programme doesn’t completely suit you, the website may suggest ways of
adjusting it to your own needs. It should also, most importantly, offer advice on healthier living in general.
(59) ______. Some sites will help you bring this about by providing charts showing how much change you
can expect for a given amount of exercise. They may even encourage you to keep to your training
programme by sending regular emails, perhaps including a daily “fit tip”.
All that is fine, but the trouble is that you do also need to have a certain amount of self-discipline to
ensure that you keep going once you have started. (60) ______. There’s also the danger that family, friends
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 English Examination for selecting good students, Grade 9, 2024 -2025

or colleagues could come in and start laughing at you at any time. And there is a risk of injury if you don’t
follow the more complex instructions (though this issue arises with exercise DVDs and poorly taught classes
too). Still, if you want a cheap, possibly funny and definitely varied way to get fit, then sit back and surf.
A. Once you manage to find a more worthwhile website, however, there are real advantages
B. Of course, it’s not easy to include exercise in your daily routine if you are lazy and spend all day sitting
around at home
C. Best of all, you can do so with the support of an online community who have the same aims as you
D. Otherwise it’s just too easy to give up, because you’ve paid nothing and nobody cares if you log onto (or
off) the website, or whether you actually do any exercise at all
E. Others require a large joining fee in order to progress to more advanced activities
F. Because of the amount of time they spend on the Internet, many of these people are actually doing less
exercise than before
G. Good eating habits are essential for achieving this, particularly if you want your weight to decrease, or increase
H. True, but it can be hard to know exactly what that is when there is such an enormous range of online choice
Your answers:
54. 55. 56. 57. 58.
59. 60.

III. Read the following passage, and then do the tasks that follow.
Pacific Navigation and Voyaging
How people migrated to the Pacific islands
The many tiny islands of the Pacific Ocean had no human population until ancestors of
today’s islanders sailed from Southeast Asia in ocean-going canoes approximately 2,000 years ago.
At the present time, the debate continues about exactly how they migrated such vast distances
across the ocean, without any of the modern technologies we take for granted.
Although the romantic vision of some early twentieth-century writers of fleets of heroic
navigators simultaneously setting sail had come to be considered by later investigators to be
exaggerated, no considered assessment of Pacific voyaging was forthcoming until 1956 when the
American historian Andrew Sharp published his research. Sharp challenged the “heroic vision” by
asserting that the expertise of the navigators was limited, and that the settlement of the islands was
not systematic, being more dependent on good fortune by drifting canoes. Sharp’s theory was
widely challenged, and deservedly so. If nothing else, however, it did spark renewed interest in the
topic and precipitated valuable new research.
Since the 1960s a wealth of investigations has been conducted, and most of them, thankfully,
have been of the “non-armchair” variety. While it would be wrong to denigrate all “armchair” research
– that based on an examination of available published materials – it has turned out that so little progress
had been made in the area of Pacific voyaging because most writers relied on the same old sources –
travelers’ journals or missionary narratives compiled by unskilled observers. After Sharp, this began to
change, and researchers conducted most of their investigations not in libraries, but in the field.
In 1965, David Lewis, a physician and experienced yachtsman, set to work using his own
unique philosophy: he took the yacht he had owned for many years and navigated through the
islands in order to contact those men who still find their way at sea using traditional methods. He
then accompanied these men, in their traditional canoes, on test voyages from which all modern
instruments were banished from sight, though Lewis secretly used them to confirm the navigators’
calculations. His most famous such voyage was a return trip of around 1,000 nautical miles between
two islands in midocean. Far from drifting, as proposed by Sharp, Lewis found that ancient
navigators would have known which course to steer by memorizing which stars rose and set in
certain positions along the horizon and this gave them fixed directions by which to steer their boats.
The geographer Edwin Doran followed a quite different approach. He was interested in
obtaining exact data on canoe sailing performance, and to that end employed the latest electronic
instrumentation. Doran traveled on board traditional sailing canoes in some of the most remote parts
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 English Examination for selecting good students, Grade 9, 2024 -2025

of the Pacific, all the while using his instruments to record canoe speeds in different wind strengths
– from gales to calms – the angle canoes could sail relative to the wind. In the process, he provided
the first really precise attributes of traditional sailing canoes.
A further contribution was made by Steven Horvath. As a physiologist, Horvath’s interest
was not in navigation techniques or in canoes, but in the physical capabilities of the men
themselves. By adapting standard physiological techniques, Horvath was able to calculate the
energy expenditure required to paddle canoes of this sort at times when there was no wind to fill the
sails, or when the wind was contrary. He concluded that paddles, or perhaps long oars, could indeed
have propelled for long distances what were primarily sailing vessels.
Finally, a team led by P. Wall Garrard conducted important research, in this case by making
investigations while remaining safely in the laboratory. Wall Garrard’s unusual method was to use
the findings of linguists who had studied the languages of the Pacific islands, many of which are
remarkably similar although the islands where they are spoken are sometimes thousands of
kilometres apart. Clever adaptation of computer simulation techniques pioneered in other
disciplines allowed him to produce convincing models suggesting the migrations were indeed
systematic, but not simultaneous. Wall Garrard proposed the migrations should be seen not as a
single journey made by a massed fleet of canoes, but as a series of ever more ambitious voyages,
each pushing further into the unknown ocean.
What do we learn about Pacific navigation and voyaging from this research? Quite correctly,
none of the researchers tried to use their findings to prove one theory or another; experiments such
as these cannot categorically confirm or negate a hypothesis. The strength of this research lay in the
range of methodologies employed. When we splice together these findings we can propose that
traditional navigators used a variety of canoe types, sources of water and navigation techniques, and
it was this adaptability which was their greatest accomplishment. These navigators observed the
conditions prevailing at sea at the time a voyage was made and altered their techniques accordingly.
Furthermore, the canoes of the navigators were not drifting helplessly at sea but were most likely
part of a systematic migration; as such, the Pacific peoples were able to view the ocean as an
avenue, not a barrier, to communication before any other race on Earth. Finally, one unexpected but
most welcome consequence of this research has been a renaissance in the practice of traditional
voyaging. In some groups of islands in the Pacific today young people are resurrecting the skills of
their ancestors, when a few decades ago it seemed they would be lost forever.
(Source: From ieltsexpress)
Question 61-65:
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage? Write the
appropriate letters (YES, NO, OR NOT GIVEN) in the corresponding boxes provided.

YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
NOT GIVEN if is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this
61. The Pacific islands were uninhabited when migrants arrived by sea from Southeast Asia
62. Andrew Sharp was the first person to write about the migrants to islanders
63. Andrew Sharp believed migratory voyages were based on more on luck than skill
64. Despite being controversial, Andrew Sharp’s research had positive results
65. Edwin Doran disagreed with the findings of Lewis’s research
Questions 66-70:
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in the corresponding boxes provided.
66. David Lewis’s research was different because ______.
A. he observed traditional navigators at work
B. he conducted test voyages using his own yacht
C. he carried no modern instruments on test voyages
D. he spoke the same language as the islanders he sailed with
67. What did David Lewis’s research discover about traditional navigators?

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 English Examination for selecting good students, Grade 9, 2024 -2025

A. They used the sun and moon to find their position.

B. They could not sail further than about 1,000 nautical miles.
C. They knew which direction they were sailing in.
D. They were able to drift for long distances.
68. What are we told about Edwin Doran’s research?
A. Data were collected after the canoes had returned to land.
B. Canoe characteristics were recorded using modern instruments.
C. Research was conducted in the most densely populated regions.
D. Navigators were not allowed to see the instruments Doran used.
69. Which of the following did Steven Horvath discover during his research?
A. Canoe design was less important than human strength.
B. New research methods had to be developed for use in canoes.
C. Navigators became very tired on the longest voyages.
D. Human energy may have been used to assist sailing canoes.
70. What is the writer’s opinion of P Wall Garrard’s research?
A. He is disappointed it was conducted in the laboratory.
B. He is impressed by the originality of the techniques used.
C. He is surprised it was used to help linguists with their research.
D. He is concerned that the islands studied are long distances apart.
Questions 71-74:
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below. Write the correct letter, A-F, in
the corresponding boxes provided.
71. One limitation in the information produced by all of this research is that it
72. The best thing about this type of research
73. The most important achievement of traditional navigators
74. The migration of people from Asia to the Pacific
A. was the variety of experimental techniques used
B. was not of interest to young islanders today
C. was not conclusive evidence in support of a single theory
D. was being able to change their practices when necessary
E. was the first time humans intentionally crossed an ocean
F. was the speed with which it was conducted
Your answers:
61. 62. 63. 64. 65.
66. 67. 68. 69. 70.
71. 72. 73. 74.

SECTION FOUR: WRITING

I. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence,
using the word given. DO NOT CHANGE THE WORD GIVEN.
0. John does not intend to retire yet. (INTENTION)
John has no intention of retiring yet.
75. He didn’t think much of the musical show yesterday. (OPINION)
He had a _____________________________________________________________________.
76. We’ve decided to replace those plastic shower curtains with these rubber ones. (SUBSTITUTE)
We have decided ______________________________________________________________.
77. You should think about the price before you decide whether to buy it or not. (CONSIDERATION)
You should take the price _______________________________________________________.

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 English Examination for selecting good students, Grade 9, 2024 -2025

78. People don’t want to buy cars with large engines any more. (CALL)
There is no ___________________________________________________________________.
79. Twenty years ago this region produced twice as much coal as it does now. (HALVED)
Coal production/ the coal produced ________________________________________________.
80. The policeman acted quickly and averted an accident. (PROMPT)
The ______________________________________________________________________________.
II. Write an essay about the following topic (about 200-250 words).
More and more people today are spending large amounts of money on their complexions in
order to look younger. Why do people want to look younger? Do you think this is a positive or
negative progression?