Đề thi thử Đại học môn Tiếng Anh lần 4 năm 2014 trường THPT Chuyên, ĐHKHTN- ĐHQG Hà Nội

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress in each of the following questions. 

Read the following passage on the development of the postal system in the USA, and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to the questions.

 In the early days of the United States, postal charges were paid by the recipient, and the charges varied with the distance carried. In 1825, the US Congress permitted local postmasters to give letters to mail carriers for home delivery, but these carriers received no government salary and their entire compensation depended on what they were paid by the recipients of the individual letters.

 In 1847 the US Post Office Department adopted the idea of a postage stamp, which simplified the payment for postal service but caused grumbling by those who did not want to prepay. Besides, the stamp covered only delivery to the post office and did not include carrying it to a private address. In Philadelphia, for example, with a population of 1500,000, people still had to go to the post office to get their mail. The confusion and congestion of individual citizens looking for their letters was itself enough to discourage use of the mail. It is no wonder that, II during the years of these cumbersome arrangements, private letter-carrying and express businesses developed. Although their activities were only semi-legal, they thrived, and  actually advertised that between Boston and Philadelphia they were a half-day speedier than the government mail. The government postal service lost volume to private competition and was not able to handle efficiently even the business it had.

Finally, in 1863, Congress provided that the mail carriers who delivered the mail from the post offices to private addresses should receive a government salary, and that there should be no extra charge for that delivery. But this delivery service was at first confined to cities, and free home delivery became a mark of urbanism. As late as 1887, a town had to have 10,000 people to be eligible for free home delivery. In 1890, of the 75 million people in the USA, fewer than million had mail delivered free to their doors. The rest, nearly three-quarters of the population, still received no mail unless they went to their post office. 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to show the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions. 

Read the following passage on FRIENDSHIP and mark the letter A,B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase for each of the blanks form 21 to 30.

The advice of friends can often (21) ________  to be invaluable when we have difficulties to face. Even though they are unable to solve problems for us, their support can help to raise our (22)  ________  and they can (23) ________  us up when we are feeling depressed. They remind us of the fact that we are not alone and we should be (24) ________  of what they have to offer. Of course, we should not be (25) ________  on others. We are all ultimately responsible for our own (26) ________   and we all have to accept the (27) ________   of the mistakes we make. However, there is a distinct difference between (28)  ________   on others and being prepared to listen to what they have to say. Friends can often prevent us from seeing things in a distorted way and help us to bear the hardships that lie ahead. It is (29) ________   if we have no-one to talk to and have no alternative but to (30) ________   our feelings. We all need to give, and to receive, friendship. It helps to make us human. 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions. 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions. 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best restates the given sentence in the following questions. 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions. 

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is CLOSEST in meaning to each of the following questions. 

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Every year a group of birdwatchers assembles in an Indian swamp to count Siberian cranes, a species celebrated by ancient Persian poets as "the Great Northern Princess" and now more likely to be shot out of the sky and roasted for dinner. At most, only 200 are left in the wild. A "western flock" of birds breeds in the Russian tundra and migrates 6,000 miles to wintering grounds in northern India while the larger eastern flock more sensibly opts for China.

With that unerring instinct for self-destruction characteristic of so many endangered species, the western 6 flock flies straight across the most turbulent areas of Iran and Afghanistan, where trigger-happy soldiers find the large, slow flying birds irresistible for target practice and the pot.

Meanwhile villagers in northern Pakistan have taken to crane-hunting. Nearly 6,000 cranes are held in captivity, according to the World Wildlife Fund, most of them are demoiselle or common cranes. Some of them act as decoys to attract the migrants, which are caught in flight by teams of hunters using soias, crude flying snares of lead-weighted cords. In skilled hands, a sofa can bring down a crane from 100ft. More happily, recent reports suggest that some of the birds, their wings clipped to prevent escape, have adapted surprisingly well to their homes and have bred.

Other, more orthodox captive-breeding programs have been supplemented with a range of weird and wonderful experiments: eggs produced by captive cranes have been distributed among nests in the northern tundra, and small radio transmitters have been fitted to the birds' legs to help scientists trace the vicissitudes of migration. Some Indian conservationists are convinced, however, that it is too late to save the western flock, which could cease to migrate altogether by the end of the century. 'The increasing number of obstacles the birds meet in their flight south — hunters, new industrialized areas, the  disappearance of water-holes - will finally stop the migration and the cranes will be condemned to die from the cold in Siberia," - the Indian Association for the Protection of Nature have warned.

The World Wildlife Fund believes seven of the 15 species of crane to be in danger of extinction, primarily because so many of their wetland habitats have been destroyed. Several species have recovered spectacularly after becoming national causes celebres among them the American whooping crane and the Manchurian, or red crest, crane of Japan. But as marshlands in eastern I4okkaido continue to be drained, this bird's future still hangs in the balance.

Though few Japanese have ever seen a live tancho its potency as a symbol in contemporary Japan is such that it crops up everywhere, from wedding gowns to the national airline. The ultimate humiliation fora dying species, surely, to serve as decoration for the forces that are wiping it out.