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ĐỀ THI HỌC SINH GIỎI MÔN TIẾNG ANH CẤP THPT NĂM 2021
Mã đề: 237
Thời gian làm bài: 120 phút

A. LISTENING (1 POINT)

You must try to complete the table below ​for the first time​.
Question 1-5
Complete the table below.
Write ​NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER​ for each answer.
Link audio​: ​https://bitly.com.vn/ASv7w
​ ​Talks for patients at Shore Lane Health Centre
Subject of talk Date/Time Location Notes

Giving up smoking 1​………………….. at room 4 useful for people

7pm with asthma or
2​……………….
problems

Healthy eating 1st March at 5pm the ​3​………………. anyone welcome

(Shore Lane)

Avoiding injuries 9th March at room 6 for all ​5​……………...

during exercise 4​………………..

Questions 6-7​: Choose TWO letters from A to E

Link audio​: ​https://bitly.com.vn/Dp7LD

Which TWO things does Alice say about the Dolphin Conservation Trust?
A​. Children make up most of the membership.
B​. It’s the country's largest conservation organisation.
C​. It helps finance campaigns for changes in fishing practices.
D​. It employs several dolphin experts full-time.
E​. Volunteers help in various ways.

Questions 8-10
Choose the correct letter: A, B, or C
8. Why is Alice so pleased the Trust has won the Charity Commission award?
A. It has brought in extra money.
B. It made the work of the trust better known.
C. It has attracted more members.
9. Alice says oil exploration causes problems to dolphins because of
A. noise.
B. oil leaks.
C. movement of ships.
10. Alice became interested in dolphins when
A. she saw one swimming near her home.
B. she heard a speaker at her school.
C. she read a book about them.

B. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

I. PHONOLOGY: (0,8 POINT)

Choose one word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from the
rest.
1. A. ragg​ed​ B. chang​ed​ C. learn​ed​ D. sacr​ed
2. A. strin​ger​ B. han​ger​ C. stron​ger​ ​ D. ban​ger
3. A. s​ur​plus B. s​ur​gery C. s​ur​prise D. s​ur​face
4. A. commerc​ial​ B. celest​ial​ C. president​ial​ ​D. essent​ial
Cho​ose the word whose stress pattern is different from that of the others.
1. A. instrument B. inflation C. regional D. satellite
2. A. sympathetic B. conservative C. comparative D. indifferent
3. A. mechanize B. innovate C. purify D. exhibit
4. A. grasshopper B. dragonfly C. mosquito D. butterfly

II. VOCABULARY AND STRUCTURE (2 POINTS)

1. ​Every time I wear something white, I ________ coffee or orange juice or

something on it.
A. pour B. let C. drop D. spill
2. Most children these days get inoculated ________ common childhood illnesses
like measles and mumps when they are babies.
A. for B. from C. apart D. against
3. There are far too many teenagers sleeping ________ on the streets.
A. wild B. hard C. rough D. fierce
4. I wish George and his father would settle their ________ and start talking to each
other again.
A. disagreements B. differences C. problems D. arguments
5. We started off walking ________, but after an hour we had slowed down to a
snail’s pace.
A. briskly B. sharply C. heartily D. crisply
6. That boy’s alway been in trouble. Sooner or later he’s going to _________ in
prison. Mark my words.
A. wind up B. grow up C. turn out D. live up
7. ​She cleared out the dead _______ as soon as she took over the company.
A. rock B. wood C. stone D. tree
8. After sleeping in the car, his suit was badly ________.
A. cropped B. wrinkled C. withered D. creased
9. It's ​impossible​ to ________ a conversation with all this ​noise​ going on!
A. hold B. keep C. carry D. take
10. I found her story rather ​hard to swallow​.
A. difficult to read B. difficult to understand
C. difficult to believe D. difficult to sell
11. Since we know each other already, I think we can ________ with the usual
formalities.
A. dispense B. dispatch C. discharge D.dispose
12. A: Why did she throw out all his clothes ?
B: She did it ________ spite, I suppose
A. out from B. out of C. by dint of D. thanks to
13. Thousands more refugees are arriving _________ the day.
A. in B. by C. on D. with
14. Only after buying the house did we discover that it was __________ with mice.
A. infested B. inflicted C. invaded D. infected
15. ​Everyone ​else​ was in suits and ties and I had my pyjamas on - I ​stuck​ out like a
________ ​thumb​.
A. sore B. bruised ​ C. swollen D. wounded
16. She still had _________ doubts about the wisdom of the plan.
A. lingering B. strenuous C. pervasive D. prominent
17. ​People became excited at the ________ mention of his name.
A. sole B. bare C. sparse D. mere
18. ​The advertising campaign aimed to generate a _________ of interest in the once
popular product.
A. renovation B. repulsion C. revival D. repercussion
19. The hotel does exactly what it says on the _______ and offers customers a relaxing
break.
A. bag B. box C. tin D. packet
20. The teenagers did a _______ as soon as the cab stopped, leaving the driver to foot
the bill.
A. jogger B. driver C. worker D. runner

C. GUIDED CLOZE TEST (1 POINT)

A blog is a diary posted on the Internet by the person writing it - the "blogger" - who
presumably expected other people to read it. It is ironical that modern technology is
being used to (​1​) ….... new life into such an old-fashioned form as the personal
joural. And now, as the technology behind video cameras is making them easier to
use, we have the video log, or "vlog". Vlogging does not require (​2​) …….
sophisticated equipment: a digital video camera, a high-speed Internet connection
and a host are all that is needed. Vloggers can put anything that (​3​) …… their fancy
onto their personal website. Some vloggers have no ambitions (​4​) …... than to show
films they have shot while on holiday in exotic places. However, vlogs can also (​5​)
…… more ambitious purposes. For instance, amateur film-makers who want to make
a (​6​) …... for themselves might publish their work on the Internet, eager to receive
advice or criticism. And increasingly, vlogs are being used to (​7​) …... political and
social issues that are not newsworthy enough to (​8​) …... coverage by the mass
media. It is still too early to predict whether vlogging will ever (​9​) …… off in a major
way or if it is just a passing fad, but its (​10​) …... is only now becoming apparent

1. A add B inhale C insert D breathe

2. A absolutely B largely C utterly D highly
3. A grasps B appeals C takes D gives
4. A except B apart C rather D other
5. A serve B employ C function D play
6. A publicity B fame C name D promotion
7. A emphasise B publicise C distribute D circulate
8. A earn B warrant C excuse D cause
9. A fly B show C take D make
10. A potential B possibility C ability D feasibility

D. Write your answers ​IN CAPITAL LETTERS​ on the separate answer sheet.
(1,3 POINTS)

​Second-hand but better than new

Many people who are building their own homes or renovating existing buildings have
discovered that it makes more sense to buy second-hand goods (1) …... to buy new
doors, fireplaces or radiators. These days a large (2) …... of businesses offer
second-hand material, though many of (3) …... cater exclusively for professional
builders. However, there are outlets that sell to members of the public, so someone
who wants to indulge (4) …... a spot of Do It Yourself will probably be able to find
reclamation material, (5) …... second- hand building supplies are known, anywhere
in the country.

Searching for (6) …... one wants can be time-consuming, so (7) …... bother? Is
there, for example, any financial reason to make it (8) …... one’s while? The answer,
in many cases, is yes. An oak door in good condition will be considerably (9) …...
expensive than a new one, even (10) …... it is only a few years old. However, the
majority of clients of reclamation yards are on the …... lookout for items that simply
can’t be found these days, (11) …... as stone fireplaces several centuries old. Items
like this (12) …… , of course, be expensive, but there are a lot of people who do not
(13) …... paying a high price for a second-hand fireplace that is, in their view, better
than new.

E. WORD FORMATION (1 POINT)

Halloween is celebrated in many parts of the western world, and is a time when
people dress up as witches or ghosts, and go "trick-or treating". It is (1) _________
(​DOUBT​) one of the most popular traditions in the United States and Britain.
The celebration (2) _________(​ORIGIN​) about two thousand years ago with the
Celts. These people were the (3) ________ (​INHABIT​) of an area that includes
Britain, Ireland and Brittany. They relied on the land for their (4) _______ (​LIVE​), and
this meant that they were at the mercy of (5) ________ (​PREDICT​) weather
conditions, especially during the winter.
The Celtic new year began on 1st November, which also marked the beginning of
winter, a period (6) _________ (​TRADITION​) associated with death. On the eve of
the new year, it was believed that the barriers between the worlds of the living and
the dead were (7) ________ (​TEMPORARY​) withdrawn, and it was possible to
communicate with spirits. The Celts believed that the spirits offered them (8)
________ (​GUIDE​) and protection, and the Druids (Celtic priests) were (9)
_________ (​REPUTE​) able to predict the future on this point.
When the Roman completed their (10) ________ (​CONQUER​) of Celtic lands, they
added their own flavour to this festival. The advent of Christianity brought about yet
other changes.

F. TRIOS OF GAPPED SENTENCES (0,5 POINT)

QUESTION 1:
- It was uncommon for Thinh to ………….. his trousers, folded them and put them in
a drawer.
-T​ he company pressed ahead with plans to build the skyscraper​.
- The staff …………… for better working conditions and higher wages.
QUESTION 2:
- The worst thing about working in the shop is that you’re on your ……….. all day.
- Capra lost his job, but landed on his ………. when Columbia Pictures hired him.
- After having lived in Saigon for two years now, Binz is getting itchy ……….. and
wants to make for Lao Cai.
QUESTION 3:
- The doctor asked Adelaide to ……………. a deep breath and let it out slowly.
- My job often requires me to …………… on my graphic design skills.
- ​We would have liked to invite all our relatives, but you have to …………... the line
somewhere.
QUESTION 4:
- That horrible building lowers the whole …………. of the neighborhood.
- Maria spoke to her father in a …………, which made him very angry.
- There was unmistakable ………… of sarcasm in his writing.
QUESTION 5:
- Detectives decided to place a ………… inside the suspect’s car.
- ​Hang on - there's a ………. in your hair - ​let​ me get it out for you.
​ nasty flu ……… is going round the school at the moment.
-A

G. READING COMPREHENSION (1,4 POINTS)

Music: Language We All Speak

Section A  
Music is one of the human species' relatively few universal abilities. Without formal 
training, any individual, from Stone Age tribesman to suburban teenager, has the 
ability to recognise music and, in some fashion, to make it. Why this should be so is 
a mystery. After all, music isn't necessary for getting through the day, and if it aids in 
reproduction, it does so only in highly indirect ways. Language, by contrast, is also 
everywhere - but for reasons that are more obvious. With language, you and the 
members of your tribe can organise a migration across Africa, build reed boats and 
cross the seas, and communicate at night even when you can't see each other. 
Modern culture, in all its technological extravagance, springs directly from the 
human talent for manipulating symbols and syntax.  
Scientists have always been intrigued by the connection between music and 
language. Yet over the years, words and melody have acquired a vastly different 
status in the lab and the seminar room. While language has long been considered 
essential to unlocking the mechanisms of human intelligence, music is generally 
treated as an evolutionary frippery - mere "auditory cheesecake", as the Harvard 
cognitive scientist Steven Pinker puts it. 
Section B  
But thanks to a decade-long wave of neuroscience research, that tune is changing. 
A flurry of recent publications suggests that language and music may equally be 
able to tell us who we are and where we're from - not just emotionally, but 
biologically. In July, the journal Nature Neuroscience devoted a special issue to the 
topic. And in an article in the 6 August issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, David 
Schwartz, Catherine Howe, and Dale Purves of Duke University argued that the 
sounds of music and the sounds of language are intricately connected.  
To grasp the originality of this idea, it's necessary to realise two things about how 
music has traditionally been understood. First, musicologists have long emphasised 
that while each culture stamps a special identity onto its music, music itself has 
some universal qualities. For example, in virtually all cultures, sound is divided into 
some or all of the 12 intervals that make up the chromatic scale -that is, the scale 
represented by the keys on a piano. For centuries, observers have attributed this 
preference for certain combinations of tones to the mathematical properties of 
sound itself.  
Some 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras was the first to note a direct relationship 
between the harmoniousness of a tone combination and the physical dimensions of 
the object that produced it. For example, a plucked string will always play an octave 
lower than a similar string half its size, and a fifth lower than a similar string two 
thirds its length. This link between simple ratios and harmony has influenced music 
theory ever since. 
Section C  
This music-is-math idea is often accompanied by the notion that music, formally 
speaking at least, exists apart from the world in which it was created. Writing 
recently in The New York Review of Books, pianist and critic Charles Rosen 
discussed the long-standing notion that while painting and sculpture reproduce at 
least some aspects of the natural world, and writing describes thoughts and feelings 
we are all familiar with, music is entirely abstracted from the world in which we live. 
Neither idea is right, according to David Schwartz and his colleagues. Human 
musical preferences are fundamentally shaped not by elegant algorithms or ratios 
but by the messy sounds of real life, and of speech in particular – which in turn is 
shaped by our evolutionary heritage. "The explanation of music, like the explanation 
of any product of the mind, must be rooted in biology, not in numbers per se," says 
Schwartz.  
Schwartz, Howe, and Purves analysed a vast selection of speech sounds from a 
variety of languages to reveal the underlying patterns common to all utterances. In 
order to focus only on the raw sounds, they discarded all theories about speech and 
meaning, and sliced sentences into random bites. Using a database of over 100,000 
brief segments of speech, they noted which frequency had the greatest emphasis in 
each sound. The resulting set of frequencies, they discovered, corresponded closely 
to the chromatic scale. In short, the building blocks of music are to be found in 
speech. 
Far from being abstract, music presents a strange analogue to the patterns created 
by the sounds of speech. "Music, like visual arts, is rooted in our experience of the 
natural world," says Schwartz. "It emulates our sound environment in the way that 
visual arts emulate the visual environment." In music we hear the echo of our basic 
sound-making instrument - the vocal tract. The explanation for human music is 
simpler still than Pythagoras's mathematical equations: We like the sounds that are 
familiar to us - specifically, we like the sounds that remind us of us.  
This brings up some chicken-or-egg evolutionary questions. It may be that music 
imitates speech directly, the researchers say, in which case it would seem that 
language evolved first. It's also conceivable that music came first and language is in 
effect an imitation of song - that in everyday speech we hit the musical notes we 
especially like. Alternately, it may be that music imitates the general products of the 
human sound-making system, which just happens to be mostly speech. "We can't 
know this," says Schwartz. "What we do know is that they both come from the 
same system, and it is this that shapes our preferences." 
Section D  
Schwartz's study also casts light on the long-running question of whether animals 
understand or appreciate music. Despite the apparent abundance of "music" in the 
natural world - birdsong, whalesong, wolf howls, synchronised chimpanzee hooting 
- previous studies have found that many laboratory animals don't show a great 
affinity for the human variety of music making.  
Marc Hauser and Josh McDermott of Harvard argued in the July issue of Nature 
Neuroscience that animals don't create or perceive music the way we do. The fact 
that laboratory monkeys can show recognition of human tunes is evidence, they say, 
of shared general features of the auditory system, not any specific chimpanzee 
musical ability. As for birds, those most musical beasts, they generally recognise 
their own tunes - a narrow repertoire - but don't generate novel melodies like we do. 
There are no avian Mozarts. 
But what's been played to animals, Schwartz notes, is human music. If animals 
evolve preferences for sound as we do - based upon the soundscape in which they 
live - then their "music" would be fundamentally different from ours. In the same 
way our scales derive from human utterances, a cat's idea of a good tune would 
derive from yowls and meows. To demonstrate that animals don't appreciate sound 
the way we do, we'd need evidence that they don't respond to "music" constructed 
from their own sound environment. 
Section E  
No matter how the connection between language and music is parsed, what is 
apparent is that our sense of music, even our love for it, is as deeply rooted in our 
biology and in our brains as language is. This is most obvious with babies, says 
Sandra Trehub at the University of Toronto, who also published a paper in the 
Nature Neuroscience special issue.  
For babies, music and speech are on a continuum. Mothers use musical speech to 
"regulate infants' emotional states", Trehub says. Regardless of what language they 
speak, the voice all mothers use with babies is the same: "something between 
speech and song". This kind of communication "puts the baby in a trancelike state, 
which may proceed to sleep or extended periods of rapture". So if the babies of the 
world could understand the latest research on language and music, they probably 
wouldn't be very surprised. The upshot, says Trehub, is that music may be even 
more of a necessity than we realise.  
 
Questions 1-5 
Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.  
Write the correct number ​1-5​ in boxes i​ -viii​ on your answer sheet. 

1-5: 
1. Section A: ………. 

2. Section B: ………. 

3. Section C: ………. 

4. Section D: ………. 

5. Section E: ……….. 

i-viii: 
List of headings 

i​ Communication in music with animals 

ii ​ New discoveries on animal music 

iii ​ Music and language contrasted 

iv ​ Current research on music 

v​ Music is beneficial for infants 

vi ​ Music transcends cultures 

vii ​ Look back at some of the historical theories 

viii ​ Are we genetically designed for music ? 

Questions 6-12 
Look at the following people (Questions 32-38) and the list of statements below. 
Match each person with the correct statement. 
Write the correct letter ​6-12​ in boxes A
​ -G​ on your answer sheet.  

6​.​ ​Steven Pinker: …………. 

7​.​ ​Musicologists: …………. 

8​.​ Greek philosopher Pythagoras: …………. 

 9​.​ Schwartz, Howe, and Purves: …………….. 

10​.​ Marc Hauser and Josh McDermott: …………….. 

11​. ​ C
​ harles Rosen: ……….….... 

12​.​ Sandra Trehub 

 

A-G:

List of statements

A​ Music exists outside of the world it is created in

B​ Music has a universal character despite cultural influences on it

C​ Music is a necessity for humans

D​ Music preference is related to the surrounding influences

E​ He discovered the mathematical basis of music

F​ Music doesn’t enjoy the same status of research interest as language

G ​ Humans and monkeys have similar traits in perceiving sound

1​3. ​Why was the study of animal music inconclusive? 

A.​ Animals don’t have the same auditory system as humans. 
B.​ Tests on animal music are limited. 
C.​ Animals can’t make up new tunes. 
D.​ There aren’t enough tests on a wide range of animals. 
 
14. What is the main theme of this passage? 
A​ ​. Language and learning 
B​ T ​ he evolution of music 
C​ T​ he role of music in human society 
D​ ​Music for animals

H. SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION (1 POINT)

Rewrite each of the following sentences using the word given in bold in such a
way that it means the same as the original one. Use between 3 and 8 words.
1​. Your excuses are beginning to sound unconvincing to me. ​THIN
Your excuses …………………………………… I’m concerned.
2​. What I would really like is a slice of pizza. ​NOTHING
There’s ................................................... a slice of pizza
3​. We’ll have to believe him, because we don’t know if he really took the money.
BENEFIT
We’ll have to.............................................. because we don’t know if he really took
the money.
4​. I don’t even know whether he’s in town. ​ALL
For ............................................................... be in town.
5​. She didn’t really sing. She just opened and closed her mouth saying nothing.
WORDS
She didn’t really sing. She just ..............................................................
6​. We rarely visit our relatives. ​OCCASIONS
Only ..................................................................visit our relatives.
7​. He remembers his grandmother with love. ​FOND
He has ...............................................................his grandmother.
8​. I don’t make decisions here, so there’s nothing I can do. ​HANDS
I don’t make decisions here so ........................................................................
9​. You may not like the school rules, but you have to obey to avoid trouble. ​TOE
You may not like the rules, but .............................................. to avoid trouble.
10​. The recent poor examination results raise the issue of the effectiveness of our
teaching methods. ​QUESTION
The recent poor examination results ..................................................................
the effectiveness of our teaching methods.

​ ​ ​THE END

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