SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO LONG AN


(Đề thi gồm có 06 trang)
KỲ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI LỚP 12 – VÒNG 1
Môn thi: TIẾNG ANH – BẢNG A
Ngày thi: 09/10/2015
Thời gian: 180 phút (Không kể thời gian phát đề)

LƯU Ý: THÍ SINH LÀM BÀI TRÊN PHIẾU TRẢ LỜI (ANSWER SHEET)
KHÔNG LÀM BÀI TRÊN ĐỀ THI NÀY
PART 1: LISTENING (20 points)
You will hear people talking in five different situations. For questions 1-5, choose the best answer (A, B or C). You’ll hear each piece twice.
You overhear a boy talking about a film-making workshop. What criticism does he have of the workshop?
There was too much theory and not enough practice.
The course leaders tried to teach too much in a short time.
The equipment was more basic than he had expected.
You hear a girl talking about her relationship with her sister and brother. In her opinion, why does she argue with her sister?
Their personalities are very similar.
The age gap between them is small.
Her sister is a competitive person.
You overhear a boy leaving a phone message for his girlfriend. What is the purpose of the message?
to make an apology
to complain about something
to make a suggestion
You hear a woman talking about her plans for university. Why is she thinking of studying in London?
She can socialize with more students there.
She is attracted by the cultural opportunities.
It offers the best film studies course and you get to mix with other students very quickly.

You hear a young man and woman talking about a street carnival. What does the man say about it?
There were too many police officers this year.
The parade was less colourful than last year.
The weather wasn’t as good as last year.

PART 2. READING (28 points)
For questions 1-7, read the following passage and choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D).

Learning to Love Oneself
Ask an American schoolchild what he or she is learning in school these days and you might even get a reply, provided you ask it in Spanish. But don’t bother, here’s the answer: Americans nowadays are not learning any of the things that we learned in our day, like reading and writing. Apparently these are considered fusty old subjects, invented by white males to oppress women and minorities.
What are they learning? In a Vermont college town I found the answer sitting in a toy store book rack, next to typical kids’ books like “Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy is Dysfunctional”. It’s a teacher’s guide called “Happy To Be Me”, subtitled “Building Self-Esteem”.
Self-esteem, as it turns out, is a big subject in American classrooms. Many American schools see building it as important as teaching reading and writing. They call it “whole language” teaching, borrowing terminology from the granola people to compete in the education marketplace.
No one ever spent a moment building my self-esteem when I was in school. In fact, from the day I first stepped inside a classroom my self-esteem was one big demolition site. All that mattered was “the subject,” be it geography, history or mathematics. I was praised when I remembered that “near”, “fit”, “friendly”, “pleasing”, “like” and their opposites took the dative case in Latin. I was reviled when I forgot what a cosine was good for. Generally I lived my school years beneath a torrent of castigation so consistently I eventually ceased to hear it, as people who live near the sea eventually stop hearing the waves.
Schools have changed. Reviling is out, for one thing. More importantly, subjects have changed. Whereas I learned English, modern kids learn something called “language skills”. Whereas I learned writing, modern kids learn something called “communication”. Communication, the book tells us, is 7 percent words, 23 percent facial expression, 20 percent tone of voice, and 50 percent body language. So this column, with its carefully chosen words, would earn me at most a grade of 7 percent. That is, if the school even gave out something as oppressive and demanding as grades.
The result is that, in place of English classes, American children are getting a course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Consider the new attitude toward journal writing: I remember one high school English class when we were required to keep a journal. The idea was to emulate those great writers who confided in diaries, searching their souls and honing their critical thinking on paper.
“Happy To Be Me” states that journals are a great way for students to get in touch with their feelings. Tell students they can write on sentence or a whole page. Reassure them that no one, not even you, will read what they write. After the unit, hopefully all students will