SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN
Đề chính thức
KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI CẤP TỈNH THPT
Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH
Thời gian làm bài: 90 phút (không kể thời gian phát đề)
(Đề thi gồm 80 câu trắc nghiệm)
PART I. LEXICO-GRAMMAR (Questions 1–20)
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.
Câu 1. Plagued by persistent rumors of embezzlement, the former chief financial officer decided to ______ and confessed his involvement in the covert offshore transactions to the state prosecutors.
A. take the rough with the smooth
B. make a clean breast of everything
C. throw caution to the four winds
D. steal a march on the authorities
Câu 2. Far from being an unforeseen catastrophe, the collapse of the tech startup was completely inevitable; anyone who scrutinized their unbridled expenditures could see that the firm was simply ______.
A. heading straight for disaster on a collision course
B. barking up the wrong tree in broad daylight
C. keeping a stiff upper lip against all odds
D. burning the candle at both ends without respite
Câu 3. When challenged during the live parliamentary debate on the unviable healthcare reform, the minister deftly managed to ______ without committing to any concrete timeline.
A. jump out of the frying pan into the fire
B. fly off the handle over trivialities
C. skate over the thin ice of contentious issues
D. bite off considerably more than he could chew
Câu 4. Discontent with the board's unilateral resolution had been ______ for several months before erupting into a full-scale corporate rebellion during the annual shareholder assembly.
A. cooking up a storm behind closed doors
B. simmering under the surface of tranquility
C. turning over a new leaf among executives
D. bringing home the bacon for foreign investors
Câu 5. Instead of addressing the systemic flaws in the curriculum, the school administration merely decided to ______, offering superficial workshops that resolved none of the underlying dilemmas.
A. paper over the cracks in the existing system
B. pave the way for revolutionary advancements
C. pull the rug out from under junior teachers
D. tread water until the storm blew over completely
Câu 6. In this hyper-competitive trading environment, veteran speculators are always poised to ______ unsuspecting retail investors who panic at the slightest market volatility.
A. make common cause with
B. give short shrift to
C. make mincemeat of
D. pay lip service to
Câu 7. Having exhausted every legal loophole to stall the eviction order, the rogue tenants ultimately found themselves ______ and were forced to surrender the disputed premises.
A. at the absolute end of their tether
B. on the horns of an ethical dilemma
C. in the good books of local constabulary
D. down in the mouth regarding their prospects
Câu 8. The defense attorney's closing argument was so compelling and meticulously reasoned that it completely ______ the prosecution’s circumstantial evidence.
A. put the cat among the pigeons regarding
B. blew out of the water the claims of
C. struck a chord with the prejudice of
D. took the wind out of the sail of
Câu 9. It is quintessential that young researchers do not accept long-standing scientific dogmas at face value; rather, they ought to ______ through rigorous experimental verification.
A. take the bull by the horns
B. leave well enough alone
C. subject conventional wisdom to acid tests
D. keep their ear to the ground
Câu 10. Under the relentless cross-examination of the special investigative committee, the witness began to ______ and contradicted her previous sworn affidavit.
A. crack under the immense strain
B. throw in the sponge with dignity
C. fall between two stools of thought
D. run the gauntlet without fear
Câu 11. The international consortium agreed that stringent sanctions should be swiftly imposed to ______ the illicit proliferation of enriched fissile materials.
A. put a spoke in the wheel of
B. nip in the bud any further attempt at
C. pour oil on troubled waters of
D. cast caution to the wind regarding
Câu 12. Throughout the acrimonious trade negotiations, the chief delegate displayed admirable sangfroid, resolutely refusing to ______ despite aggressive diplomatic provocations.
A. blow his own trumpet
B. split hairs over procedural rules
C. lose his composure under intense pressure
D. show his hand prematurely to adversaries
Câu 13. His scathing diatribe against the university’s tenure policy served only to ______ with the senior faculty members, alienating those whose endorsement he desperately required.
A. rub salt into the raw wounds
B. rub shoulders with the upper echelons
C. ruffle the feathers of the academic establishment
D. curry favor with the conservative faction
Câu 14. The young prodigy's breathtaking piano performance at Carnegie Hall didn't just meet the critics' sky-high expectations; it completely ______ in every conceivable aesthetic dimension.
A. cleared the air once and for all
B. exceeded all expectations by leaps and bounds
C. wiped the slate clean of previous blunders
D. threw down the gauntlet to contemporary composers
Câu 15. Whenever complex macroeconomic indicators are scrutinized in public forums, media commentators tend to ______ rather than engaging in nuanced analytical exposition.
A. take up the cudgels for minorities
B. look a gift horse in the mouth
C. reduce intricate arguments to mere soundbites
D. set the Thames on fire with novel insights
Câu 16. Were the municipal council to ______ regarding heritage conservation, several iconic nineteenth-century architectural landmarks would be demolished to construct high-density shopping plazas.
A. turn a blind eye to unauthorized demolitions
B. hold the fort during the economic downturn
C. grease the palm of international developers
D. go the extra mile to salvage historical relics
Câu 17. The CEO's abrupt resignation came completely ______, leaving the executive board frantically scrambling to appoint an interim leader before the Tokyo stock exchange opened.
A. in the nick of time
B. like a bolt out of the blue
C. off the beaten track
D. down the beaten path
Câu 18. Rather than confronting the thorny issue of redundancy entitlements directly, the human resources director chose to ______ during the staff consultative meeting.
A. put his foot down unequivocally
B. take the bull by the horns
C. call a spade a spade without fear
D. beat about the bush evasively
Câu 19. Realizing that their covert operation had been catastrophically compromised by double agents, the intelligence operatives had to ______ and flee across the border immediately.
A. cut their losses and pull out without delay
B. bury the hatchet with former adversaries
C. throw their weight around the embassy
D. face the music in court martial hearings
Câu 20. His audacious plan to revolutionize urban transit through underground vacuum tubes was initially dismissed as ______, but it has recently garnered colossal institutional funding.
A. a shot in the dark
B. a bitter pill to swallow
C. a pie in the sky scheme
D. an open secret among engineers
PART II. SENTENCE COMBINATION & TRANSFORMATION (Questions 21–28)
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to the sentence given or that best combines each pair of sentences.
Câu 21. The government had scarcely enacted the contentious property surcharge when nationwide demonstrations paralyzed metropolitan infrastructure.
A. No sooner had nationwide demonstrations paralyzed metropolitan infrastructure than the government decided to enact the property surcharge.
B. Hardly had the controversial property surcharge been enacted by the government when nationwide demonstrations brought metropolitan infrastructure to a standstill.
C. Only after nationwide demonstrations paralyzed metropolitan infrastructure did the government consider enacting the controversial property surcharge.
D. Scarcely did the government enact the contentious property surcharge than nationwide demonstrations were brought to an end.
Câu 22. If the whistleblower had not disclosed the confidential memorandum to investigative journalists, the extensive corporate fraud would never have come to light.
A. But for the whistleblower's disclosure of the confidential memorandum to investigative journalists, the extensive corporate fraud would have remained undetected.
B. Had the whistleblower disclosed the confidential memorandum to investigative journalists, the extensive corporate fraud would have been concealed.
C. Without the extensive corporate fraud coming to light, the whistleblower would have disclosed the confidential memorandum.
D. Provided that the whistleblower disclosed the confidential memorandum, the corporate fraud would never have been exposed.
Câu 23. It was an egregious lapse in administrative protocol, not malicious intent, that precipitated the catastrophic logistical breakdown.
A. Malicious intent together with an egregious lapse in administrative protocol precipitated the catastrophic logistical breakdown.
B. Neither an egregious lapse in administrative protocol nor malicious intent contributed to the catastrophic logistical breakdown.
C. What precipitated the catastrophic logistical breakdown was an egregious lapse in administrative protocol rather than any malicious intent.
D. The catastrophic logistical breakdown could have been averted had there been no malicious intent in the administrative protocol.
Câu 24. The archeological team unearthed the ancient crypt. Immediately thereafter, violent sandstorms obliterated their access route back to base camp.
A. No sooner was their access route obliterated by sandstorms than the archeological team unearthed the ancient crypt.
B. Barely had the archeological team unearthed the ancient crypt when violent sandstorms obliterated their access route back to base camp.
C. Only when their access route was obliterated did the archeological team unearth the ancient crypt.
D. The archeological team had no sooner returned to base camp than violent sandstorms unearthed the ancient crypt.
Câu 25. We must insist that all applicants submit verified transcripts. Otherwise, their candidacies cannot be formally appraised.
A. On no account will applicants' candidacies be formally appraised unless verified transcripts are duly submitted.
B. Under no circumstances should verified transcripts be submitted if applicants desire their candidacies to be appraised.
C. So long as verified transcripts are not submitted, we insist on appraising all applicants' candidacies.
D. In no way can applicants' candidacies be dismissed once they fail to submit verified transcripts.
Câu 26. The meteorological department issued severe blizzard warnings. Many mountaineers nevertheless embarked on the perilous ascent of K2.
A. Severe blizzard warnings were issued by the meteorological department, so that many mountaineers embarked on the perilous ascent of K2.
B. However perilous the ascent of K2 was, the meteorological department refrained from issuing severe blizzard warnings.
C. Despite the severe blizzard warnings issued by the meteorological department, numerous mountaineers embarked on the perilous ascent of K2.
D. Much as mountaineers embarked on the perilous ascent of K2, no severe blizzard warnings had been issued.
Câu 27. The board of directors only recognized the full gravity of the insolvency crisis after independent forensic auditors published their interim dossier.
A. Not until the board of directors recognized the insolvency crisis did independent forensic auditors publish their interim dossier.
B. Only after independent forensic auditors published their interim dossier did the board of directors recognize the full gravity of the insolvency crisis.
C. Hardly had the board of directors recognized the crisis when independent forensic auditors were commissioned to publish their dossier.
D. It was not until the crisis was resolved that forensic auditors published their interim dossier to the board.
Câu 28. Professor Vance was exceptionally erudite in evolutionary anthropology. Even so, he struggled to articulate his hypothesis to a lay audience.
A. Erudite though Professor Vance was in evolutionary anthropology, he struggled to articulate his hypothesis to a lay audience.
B. As Professor Vance was erudite in evolutionary anthropology, articulating his hypothesis to a lay audience presented no struggle.
C. Were Professor Vance less erudite in evolutionary anthropology, he would easily articulate his hypothesis to a lay audience.
D. Despite his struggle to articulate his hypothesis to a lay audience, Professor Vance lacked erudition in anthropology.
PART III. TEXT COHESION & DISCOURSE STRUCTURE (Questions 29–33)
Choose the correct arrangement of the sentences to form a coherent text or dialogue.
Câu 29.
1. Consequently, synthetic biology now stands at the threshold of transforming industrial enzyme synthesis.
2. Historically, biochemical manufacturing relied on extracting metabolic compounds from unengineered microorganisms.
3. However, the advent of precision CRISPR gene editing has enabled scientists to rewrite cellular genomes with unprecedented fidelity.
4. This breakthrough allows microbes to synthesize complex therapeutic proteins at a fraction of former production costs.
A. 2 – 1 – 3 – 4
B. 2 – 3 – 4 – 1
C. 3 – 4 – 2 – 1
D. 2 – 4 – 3 – 1
Câu 30.
1. Nevertheless, excessive reliance on quantitative performance metrics frequently incentivizes perverse institutional behaviors.
2. Algorithmic assessment tools were originally deployed to eliminate human bias in employee evaluations.
3. For instance, customer support representatives may prematurely terminate complex inquiries simply to minimize average call duration metrics.
4. To counteract this distortion, progressive organizations are reintroducing qualitative peer reviews alongside algorithmic scoring.
A. 2 – 1 – 3 – 4
B. 1 – 3 – 2 – 4
C. 2 – 3 – 1 – 4
D. 4 – 2 – 1 – 3
Câu 31.
1. Dr. Aris: "Undoubtedly, yet without rigorous validation protocols, generative models risk amplifying widespread diagnostic hallucinations."
2. Dr. Aris: "Have you reviewed the clinical trial data regarding automated diagnostic algorithms in oncology imaging?"
3. Dr. Thorne: "I have, and the predictive accuracy in detecting early-stage malignant carcinomas appears genuinely astonishing."
4. Dr. Thorne: "Precisely why clinical deployment must remain assistive rather than autonomous for the foreseeable future."
A. 3 – 2 – 1 – 4
B. 2 – 3 – 1 – 4
C. 2 – 1 – 3 – 4
D. 3 – 4 – 2 – 1
Câu 32.
1. This epistemic isolation entrenches polarization, rendering bipartisan legislative compromises exceedingly elusive.
2. Social media architectures prioritize algorithmic engagement, preferentially serving ideologically confirmatory content to users.
3. Over time, individual consumers become cocooned within self-reinforcing echo chambers that insulate them from dissenting empirical facts.
4. As civic trust deteriorates, foundational democratic deliberative processes face systemic paralysis.
A. 2 – 1 – 3 – 4
B. 3 – 2 – 1 – 4
C. 2 – 3 – 1 – 4
D. 2 – 3 – 4 – 1
Câu 33.
1. First and foremost, quantum computing leverages quantum superposition to process combinatorial possibilities simultaneously.
2. Classical supercomputers, by contrast, evaluate permutations sequentially, requiring millennia to crack complex cryptographic keys.
3. This paradigm shift promises to overhaul pharmacology, material sciences, and cybersecurity within the coming decades.
4. Accordingly, global nation-states are pouring billions into establishing sovereign quantum supremacy before legacy encryptions fall vulnerable.
A. 1 – 2 – 3 – 4
B. 2 – 1 – 4 – 3
C. 1 – 3 – 2 – 4
D. 3 – 1 – 2 – 4
PART IV. LOGICAL REASONING & CRITICAL THINKING (Questions 34–42)
Read the arguments or factual scenarios and select the best answer for each question.
Câu 34. Editorial: "A recent survey reveals that cities with the highest density of artisanal coffee shops also exhibit the highest rates of patent applications filed per capita. Therefore, municipal leaders seeking to stimulate regional high-tech innovation should subsidize the establishment of artisanal coffee shops in downtown redevelopment districts."
Which of the following identifies the most critical logical flaw in the editorial’s reasoning?
A. It fails to distinguish between domestic and international patent applications.
B. It confuses a spurious statistical correlation with a direct causal relationship.
C. It overlooks the environmental impact of commercial coffee roasting facilities.
D. It assumes that all patents filed eventually yield marketable industrial inventions.
Câu 35. Scientist: "All species belonging to genus Xylocopa possess specialized floral vibrational capabilities known as buzz pollination. Specimen Alpha exhibits pronounced buzz pollination behavior. Therefore, Specimen Alpha unquestionably belongs to genus Xylocopa."
The scientist's deductive reasoning is logically defective because it:
A. Affirms the consequent by inferring that possessing a trait unique to a group guarantees membership exclusively within that group.
B. Denies the antecedent by asserting that lack of vibrational capability implies non-insect taxonomy.
C. Equivocates on the ecological definition of buzz pollination across temperate biomes.
D. Generalizes hastily from an unrepresentative sample of isolated tropical insects.
Câu 36. Corporate Strategist: "To increase corporate operating profitability, we must either expand revenue through aggressive international market penetration or slash discretionary operational expenditures. Comprehensive geopolitical analyses indicate that overseas expansion is completely unviable over the next triennium. Hence, our solitary avenue to increased profitability is drastically slashing discretionary expenditures."
The strategist's conclusion logically relies upon which of the following unstated assumptions?
A. Slashing discretionary expenditures will have no adverse effect on long-term employee morale.
B. Geopolitical volatility will inevitably subside after the conclusion of the upcoming triennium.
C. There are no viable alternative strategies beyond market penetration and expenditure reduction that could boost operating profitability.
D. International competitors are currently experiencing similar insurmountable geopolitical headwinds.
Câu 37. Sociologist: "Proponents of remote work claim it enhances aggregate employee productivity. However, data collected from our nationwide corporate survey indicates that 65% of surveyed managers report experiencing heightened difficulty in monitoring staff adherence to core office hours during telecommuting arrangements."
The sociologist’s counterargument is vulnerable to criticism primarily because it:
A. Relies upon anecdotal testimonies rather than structured statistical surveys.
B. Conflates managerial ease of surveillance with aggregate worker productivity.
C. Ignores the economic savings accrued by companies relinquishing commercial real estate leases.
D. Presumes that remote workers universally prefer flexible working schedules.
Câu 38. Argument: "Every member of the prestigious forensic analysis consortium is an internationally recognized expert in ballistics. Therefore, the consortium as an institutional collective is infallible in its ballistics adjudications."
Which of the following exhibits the same structural error in reasoning as the argument above?
A. Every component incorporated into this experimental jet engine is remarkably lightweight; therefore, the assembled engine must be remarkably lightweight.
B. No sovereign nation in the trade bloc has defaulted on debt; therefore, non-member states will default on external debt.
C. If inflation spikes, interest rates will increase; interest rates increased, so inflation must have spiked.
D. Some politicians are corrupt; all politicians are public figures; hence all public figures are corrupt.
Câu 39. Policy Analyst: "Introducing mandatory congestion pricing in the central business district reduced private vehicular traffic by 28% in Stockholm. Opponents who argue that implementing identical pricing mechanisms in Los Angeles will fail to alleviate downtown traffic congestion are ignoring incontrovertible empirical precedent."
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the policy analyst's refutation?
A. The municipal government of Stockholm reinvested congestion revenues directly into cycling lane infrastructure.
B. Unlike Stockholm, which maintains an extensive commuter rail network, Los Angeles possesses virtually no viable public transit alternatives for suburban commuters.
C. Commercial delivery vehicles were exempt from congestion fees during off-peak night delivery windows in Stockholm.
D. Automobile ownership rates per household in Stockholm increased slightly five years after pricing implementation.
Câu 40. Biochemist: "Synthetic sweetener SucraPure has been consumed by laboratory rodents for two consecutive generations with zero statistically significant increases in carcinogenic neoplasms. It can thus be safely deduced that SucraPure poses zero carcinogenic threat to human populations over prolonged lifespans."
Which of the following statements, if true, highlights the most salient limitation of the biochemist’s deduction?
A. The cost of synthesizing SucraPure is considerably lower than processing cane sugar.
B. Many humans consume synthetic sweeteners primarily to regulate metabolic glycemic spikes.
C. Rodent physiology metabolizes synthetic glycosides through biochemical pathways distinctly divergent from human hepatic and intestinal clearance mechanisms.
D. Laboratory rodents maintained an otherwise nutrient-rich, calorie-controlled dietary regimen during testing.
Câu 41. Statement: "If and only if the central bank reduces interbank reserve requirements will domestic commercial banks expand underwriting to small enterprises."
Assuming the truth of the above statement, which of the following MUST be logically true?
A. If domestic commercial banks expand underwriting to small enterprises, the central bank must have reduced interbank reserve requirements.
B. If the central bank reduces reserve requirements, commercial banks will immediately allocate all excess liquidity to small enterprises.
C. Should commercial banks refuse to expand underwriting, it proves reserve requirements were increased.
D. Small enterprises will inevitably flourish once interbank reserve requirements are relaxed.
Câu 42. Historian: "Manuscript Gamma contains references to an astronomical supernova that illuminated northern European skies in 1054 AD. Consequently, Manuscript Gamma could not have been composed prior to the mid-eleventh century."
The historian’s deduction logically depends on assuming that:
A. No other astronomical phenomena occurred in northern Europe during the tenth century.
B. Supernovas can only be accurately observed and documented by monastic scholars.
C. The author of Manuscript Gamma did not possess anachronistic prophetic knowledge of future celestial events.
D. The physical parchment of Manuscript Gamma has been conclusively dated via carbon-14 spectrometry.
PART V. GUIDED CLOZE TEST (Questions 43–52)
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
The emergence of artificial intelligence in literary translation has sparked fervent epistemic debates among linguists. While neural machine translation models demonstrate astonishing proficiency in parsing syntactic structures, they persistently stumble when confronted with the cultural (43)______ and idiomatic nuances intrinsic to masterworks of fiction. Literary texts are rarely straightforward informational vessels; rather, they are intricate tapestries where stylistic cadence, subtext, and historical resonance (44)______ together to evoke profound aesthetic reactions.
Algorithmic translators operate primarily through probabilistic mapping, identifying statistical equivalences across massive bilingual corpora. While this approach suffices for technical manuals, it frequently (45)______ the delicate semantic equilibrium of poetry or satire. An algorithm may translate an archaic proverb literally, entirely missing the ironical undertones that the author intended to (46)______. Furthermore, the creative act of translation involves conscious departures from literal fidelity in order to (47)______ the emotional authenticity of the original voice in a disparate linguistic landscape.
Human translators engage in an interpretive dance that demands acute emotional intelligence and deep cultural empathy. They must continuously (48)______ between competing stylistic demands, determining when to domesticate a foreign idiom for reader accessibility and when to preserve its radical (49)______ to honor the source text's heritage. In doing so, they function not as mechanical transcribers, but as artistic co-creators.
Consequently, visionary scholars advocate for a symbiotic paradigm known as interactive computer-assisted translation. In this framework, automated engines handle baseline lexical heavy lifting, while seasoned practitioners (50)______ their creative judgment to refine stylistic subtleties. Rather than rendering human expertise obsolete, technological innovation may ultimately elevate literary translation by (51)______ practitioners from tedious clerical drudgery, allowing them to focus on the transcendent nuances that define literature's enduring (52)______ power.
Câu 43.
A. increments
B. idiosyncrasies
C. impediments
D. infractions
Câu 44.
A. collude
B. disintegrate
C. coalesce
D. coagulate
Câu 45.
A. ruptures
B. corroborates
C. reconciles
D. sanctifies
Câu 46.
A. fabricate
B. exterminate
C. convey
D. alienate
Câu 47.
A. obliterate
B. recapture
C. fabricate
D. suppress
Câu 48.
A. oscillate
B. arbitrate
C. degenerate
D. capitulate
Câu 49.
A. mediocrity
B. conformity
C. foreignness
D. triviality
Câu 50.
A. bring to bear
B. take for granted
C. run into the ground
D. cast aside
Câu 51.
A. subjugating
B. emancipating
C. constraining
D. indoctrinating
Câu 52.
A. perishable
B. superficial
C. evocative
D. peripheral
PART VI. PRACTICAL TEXT COMPLETION (Questions 53–62)
Read the following institutional notices and policy documents. Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best option for each blank.
Text 1: Questions 53–57
INSTITUTIONAL DIRECTIVE ON DATA STEWARDSHIP & CYBER INCIDENT PROTOCOLS
Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
In light of escalating sophisticated ransomware vectors targeting academic repositories, all departmental research personnel must comply with the revised Data Stewardship Protocol with immediate effect.
1. Access Governance: Access to Tier-1 empirical datasets containing personally identifiable participant information shall be strictly governed under the principle of least privilege. Under no circumstances (53)______ access credentials with unauthorized staff or external collaborators. Multi-factor hardware authentication must be renewed every 30 days without exception.
2. Encryption Standards: All telemetric and quantitative data at rest and in transit must undergo AES-256 cryptographic encoding. Unencrypted portable flash drives are strictly prohibited within research laboratory confines; non-compliance will (54)______ immediate revocation of institutional lab privileges.
3. Breach Notification: In the unfortunate event of a suspected cybersecurity anomalous infiltration, researchers are mandated to (55)______ the emergency incident response team within sixty minutes. Self-remediation or manual deletion of system audit logs is (56)______ forbidden, as it compromises forensic root-cause analysis.
4. Compliance Audit: Departmental servers will undergo unannounced vulnerability penetration tests bi-annually. Heads of laboratories bear fiduciary accountability for rectifying all flagged security vulnerabilities within seven business days, (57)______ institutional research funding may be temporarily suspended.
Câu 53.
A. personnel should share
B. did personnel share
C. are personnel to share
D. personnel are sharing
Câu 54.
A. result in
B. stem from
C. culminate to
D. account for
Câu 55.
A. brush off
B. sound the alarm to
C. take exception to
D. pull through
Câu 56.
A. cordially
B. conditionally
C. categorically
D. superficially
Câu 57.
A. nonetheless
B. failing which
C. whereas
D. inasmuch as
Text 2: Questions 58–62
MEMORANDUM OF POLICY ON SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT & ETHICAL SOURCING
Global Supply Chain Oversight Committee
As part of our corporate pledge to achieve net-zero Scope 3 greenhouse emissions by 2035, the Global Procurement Division hereby promulgates binding standards for tier-one and tier-two industrial suppliers.
Effective Q3, vendor selection matrices will assign a 35% weighted evaluation score exclusively to environmental sustainability and labor equity compliance. Suppliers must demonstrate that raw cobalt, lithium, and rare-earth minerals are extracted without (58)______ child labor or unregulated toxic tailings discharge. Independent third-party audit dossiers must accompany all annual contract renewals.
Vendors who proactively decarbonize their logistics operations through electrified freight fleets will be granted preferential supplier status and extended three-year master service agreements. Conversely, enterprises that fail to disclose carbon intensity baselines by the close of the current fiscal year will face (59)______ disqualification from our competitive bidding tenders.
We recognize that transitioning to circular supply models imposes capital strains on small-to-medium manufacturing partners. Therefore, our Treasury Department has established a concessional green credit facility to (60)______ upfront capital expenditures for rooftop solar arrays and industrial wastewater reclamation systems.
It is incumbent upon all regional procurement directors to uphold these ethical parameters without deviation. Let us remain steadfast in our conviction that long-term commercial prosperity need not (61)______ at the expense of ecological integrity and basic human dignity. Together, we can construct an ethical supply chain that serves as an inspiring (62)______ for the broader manufacturing sector.
Câu 58.
A. inured to
B. recourse to
C. adherence to
D. immunity to
Câu 59.
A. tentative
B. negligible
C. summary
D. voluntary
Câu 60.
A. defray
B. inflate
C. hoard
D. forfeit
Câu 61.
A. break out
B. pass off
C. come about
D. look down
Câu 62.
A. anachronism
B. beacon
C. deterrence
D. bottleneck
PART VII. READING COMPREHENSION (Questions 63–80)
Read the following passages and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Passage 1: Questions 63–71
The Enlightenment narrative of human historical progression posited that human societies evolved linearly from nomadic egalitarian bands of hunter-gatherers to hierarchical, agrarian settlements, ultimately culminating in modern urban industrial nation-states. Within this teleological orthodoxy, popularized by thinkers ranging from Thomas Hobbes to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the inception of agriculture was framed either as the catalytic dawn of civilization or as the catastrophic fall from primordial innocence into the shackles of private property, physical toil, and institutionalized inequality. However, landmark revelations emerging from contemporary anthropological archaeology—exemplified by the monumental pre-agricultural temple complex of Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Anatolia—have comprehensively shattered this rigid evolutionary schema.
Constructed approximately 11,500 years ago by groups without domesticated crops, metal tools, or draft animals, Göbekli Tepe boasts megalithic T-shaped limestone pillars carved with intricate animal reliefs, requiring the mobilized cooperation of hundreds of individuals from disparate foraging communities. The discovery directly overturns the orthodox dogma that complex monumental architecture and organized ritual hierarchies could only emerge subsequent to the food surpluses generated by sedentary agriculture. On the contrary, evidence suggests that monumental collaborative ritual gatherings may have provided the social impetus that spurred the domestication of flora and fauna, as regional populations congregated periodically, eventually needing to secure predictable nutritional yields to sustain monumental collective endeavors.
Furthermore, comparative ethnographic research reveals that ancient human societies actively experimented with diverse political architectures for millennia. Rather than becoming mechanically trapped within despotic regimes upon the adoption of agriculture, many early urban experiments—such as the Indus Valley civilization or the Mesoamerican metropolis of Teotihuacan—exhibit conspicuous absences of royal tombs, palaces, or glorifications of individual warlords. In many cases, ancient urbanites consciously abolished aristocratic governance, replacing it with municipal council assemblies and egalitarian urban zoning that provided dignified standardized housing for thousands of citizens.
Far from being passive automatons swept along by blind ecological or technological determinism, our ancestors demonstrated acute political self-consciousness. They routinely shifted between authoritarian seasonal hierarchies during collective hunting seasons and intensely egalitarian arrangements during seasons of dispersed settlement. The fundamental question regarding human society is therefore not why inequality initially emerged, but how we became historically stuck in systems of permanent domination, having forfeited the institutional flexibility that characterized our pre-modern ancestry.
Câu 63. Which of the following best captures the primary thesis of the passage?
A. Sedentary agriculture inevitably precipitated human subjugation and psychological alienation.
B. Archeological evidence refutes the linear evolutionary model of human civilization, highlighting ancient societal plasticity.
C. Megalithic architecture such as Göbekli Tepe proves that nomadic hunter-gatherers possessed advanced metallurgy.
D. Modern democratic municipalities directly replicate the egalitarian urban planning of Teotihuacan.
Câu 64. The word "teleological" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
A. random and unpredictable
B. empirically unverified
C. goal-directed and purpose-driven
D. mathematically formulated
Câu 65. According to paragraph 2, what revolutionary insight did the excavation of Göbekli Tepe provide?
A. Domesticated grain surpluses were indispensable prerequisites for constructing religious monuments.
B. Massive collaborative ritual projects preceded and may have stimulated the adoption of agriculture.
C. Nomadic hunter-gatherers lived in perpetual hostility without regional cross-communal gatherings.
D. Megalithic limestone masonry was exclusively invented by sedentary Mesopotamian dynasts.
Câu 66. The author mentions the Indus Valley civilization and Teotihuacan in paragraph 3 in order to:
A. demonstrate that urban density inevitably spawns authoritarian monarchical control.
B. argue that pre-modern societies lacked technical architectural sophistication.
C. illustrate ancient urban societies that consciously eschewed despotic autocratic governance.
D. prove that written constitutions were prevalent throughout prehistoric Mesoamerica.
Câu 67. The word "eschewed" in the context of paragraph 3 most nearly means:
A. embraced
B. deliberately avoided
C. violently crushed
D. codified
Câu 68. It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that the author views pre-modern human societies as:
A. Politically conscious agents capable of intentionally alternating social structures.
B. Naive communities entirely subjugated to environmental vicissitudes.
C. Bellicose clans incapable of peaceful inter-tribal deliberative consensus.
D. Biologically predisposed toward rigid perpetual patriarchal hierarchies.
Câu 69. Which of the following is NOT cited in the text as a characteristic of early egalitarian urban centers?
A. The conspicuous absence of opulent royal mausoleums.
B. Standardized dignified municipal housing developments.
C. The total eradication of religious ritual and ancestral worship.
D. Governance administered via municipal council assemblies.
Câu 70. The word "imperious" could best substitute for which concept highlighted in the passage regarding ancient rulers?
A. egalitarian
B. nomadic
C. despotic
D. seasonal
Câu 71. The author concludes the passage by suggesting that contemporary social science should:
A. abandon archeological excavation in favor of speculative philosophical theorizing.
B. investigate why modern civilizations lost the political malleability and egalitarian flexibility of ancient ancestors.
C. encourage modern populations to return to nomadic foraging to dismantle economic inequality.
D. prioritize technological determinism when modeling future macroeconomic trends.
Passage 2: Questions 72–80
The concept of the Anthropocene—a proposed geological epoch denoting the interval during which human activities have driven planetary systems outside the stable boundaries of the Holocene—has migrated from specialized stratigraphy journals into the core of cultural and philosophical discourse. While geologists vigorously debate the chronostratigraphic golden spike that demarcates this epoch (whether the dawn of neolithic deforestation, the industrial steam revolution, or the radioactive fallout from mid-twentieth-century nuclear detonations), cultural theorists confront a deeper existential conundrum: the collapse of the foundational modern bifurcation between Nature and Culture.
For centuries, Western modernity operated upon an ontological apartheid that conceptualized "Nature" as a mute, mechanistic backdrop of infinite resources, against which the dynamic drama of human "History" unfolded. The Earth was an inert stage, resilient and passive, governed by immutable physical laws indifferent to human desires. In the Anthropocene, however, this ontological dualism implodes. Humanity has transformed into a colossal telluric force, capable of altering atmospheric thermodynamics, acidifying oceanic chemistry, and re-engineering global biogeochemical nitrogen cycles. Conversely, the Earth has ceased to behave as an inert background; it reacts unpredictably with violent climatic turbulence, droughts, and oceanic feedback loops, demonstrating a monstrous agency that defies technocratic management.
This convergence dismantles traditional anthropocentric humanism. Thinkers such as Bruno Latour argue that we must discard the modern fantasy of mastery and mastery’s counterpart: romantic preservationism that views nature as pristine, untouched wilderness. There is no longer any pristine exteriority to which humanity can retreat, nor any purely natural domain unmediated by anthropogenic carbon signatures and microplastic strata. We inhabit what Donna Haraway terms a "damaged planet," where human and non-human destinies are inextricably enmeshed in mutual vulnerability.
Faced with this predicament, two opposing ideological factions have crystallized. On one extreme stand the ecomodernists, who preach an intensified technocratic hubris, advocating for geoengineering interventions such as atmospheric aerosol injection and nuclear-powered carbon capture to "decouple" human civilization from ecological dependencies. On the opposing flank, critical post-humanists argue that technological silver bullets merely replicate the instrumentalist mindset that precipitated ecological disruption in the first place. Instead, they call for a radical ontological humility—a fundamental recalibration of human subjectivities that acknowledges terrestrial limits and dismantles the extractive imperatives of global hyper-capitalism. The Anthropocene ultimately forces us to recognize that surviving the coming centuries will require not merely novel machines, but entirely novel modes of planetary cohabitation.
Câu 72. What is the primary purpose of the passage?
A. To resolve the ongoing stratigraphic debate regarding the start date of the Anthropocene.
B. To examine the profound ontological and philosophical ramifications of the Anthropocene epoch.
C. To promote atmospheric geoengineering as the ultimate remedy for climatic instability.
D. To critique the scientific methodology utilized in measuring global carbon emissions.
Câu 73. The phrase "ontological apartheid" in paragraph 2 refers to:
A. racial segregation policies enforced during early European colonial expansion.
B. the rigid philosophical separation of human culture from the natural world.
C. geopolitical conflicts over non-renewable fossil fuel deposits.
D. the scientific classification of species into discrete phylogenetic kingdoms.
Câu 74. According to paragraph 2, how has the Earth’s role shifted in the Anthropocene?
A. It has become entirely stabilized due to advanced meteorological modeling.
B. It continues to act as a resilient, impassive backdrop to human drama.
C. It has acquired an unpredictable, reactive agency that confounds human control.
D. It has exhausted all natural physical cycles and ceased thermodynamic activity.
Câu 75. The author implies in paragraph 3 that "romantic preservationism" is fundamentally flawed because:
A. it requires excessive government expenditure on national park rangers.
B. there is no longer any pristine wilderness unaffected by human anthropogenic presence.
C. technological innovation has rendered wild flora and fauna obsolete.
D. wild animals naturally prefer urbanized human ecosystems over natural habitats.
Câu 76. The word "bifurcation" in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to:
A. unification
B. division
C. amplification
D. degradation
Câu 77. Which of the following best characterizes the ecomodernist ideology described in paragraph 4?
A. Technocratic optimism advocating planetary geoengineering to decouple society from ecological constraints.
B. Radical rejection of all modern medical and industrial technologies.
C. Complete resignation to inevitable catastrophic planetary collapse.
D. A commitment to dismantling global market economies in favor of agrarian communalism.
Câu 78. The word "hubris" in paragraph 4 most nearly denotes:
A. diffidence
B. sagacity
C. overweening arrogance
D. altruism
Câu 79. Post-humanist thinkers, as depicted in the final paragraph, advocate for:
A. launching orbital space mirrors to reflect solar radiation away from the Earth.
B. prioritizing economic deregulation to foster rapid technological breakthroughs.
C. cultivating ontological humility and abandoning extractive capitalist mindsets.
D. reclassifying the Anthropocene as a sub-era of the Holocene epoch.
Câu 80. It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes resolving the ecological crisis demands:
A. exclusive reliance on automated algorithmic resource allocation systems.
B. a fundamental philosophical transformation in how humanity coexists with the planet.
C. returning immediately to pre-industrial subsistence hunting lifestyles.
D. accelerating commercial space colonization before Earth becomes uninhabitable.
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