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Đề thi thử CEFR C2 số 2: CEFR C2 Mock Test 2

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Use of English (45 phút)

Part 1: Multiple-choice cloze

Read the text below and decide which answer best fits each gap.

Singing over the noise

Anyone who has lain awake listening to a robin singing beneath a streetlight at two in the morning may have (1) ____ to the conclusion that the bird was confused. In fact, it is responding quite sensibly to its environment. Research on city birds has (2) ____ to light a range of adaptations to urban life, few more striking than the changes in their song.

Traffic noise is concentrated at low frequencies, and birds whose songs (3) ____ in the same range find themselves drowned out. Several species have been found to sing at a higher pitch in cities than their rural counterparts, presumably so that their songs (4) ____ through the din. Others shift their singing to quieter times of day, which (5) ____ for the night-time robin.

Whether these adjustments come at a cost is a matter of ongoing (6) ____. Some studies suggest that females of certain species prefer lower-pitched songs, which may (7) ____ the city males at a disadvantage in finding a mate. If so, the birds are caught in something of a (8) ____: sing low and go unheard, or sing high and risk sounding less attractive.

  1. Gap 1: may have ____ to the conclusion that the bird was confused
    • come
    • drawn
    • made
    • reached
  2. Gap 2: Research on city birds has ____ to light a range of adaptations
    • come
    • brought
    • thrown
    • cast
  3. Gap 3: birds whose songs ____ in the same range
    • drop
    • descend
    • fall
    • sink
  4. Gap 4: so that their songs ____ through the din
    • chop
    • hack
    • carve
    • cut
  5. Gap 5: which ____ for the night-time robin
    • accounts
    • reasons
    • explains
    • justifies
  6. Gap 6: a matter of ongoing ____
    • feud
    • debate
    • quarrel
    • row
  7. Gap 7: which may ____ the city males at a disadvantage
    • bring
    • give
    • put
    • make
  8. Gap 8: the birds are caught in something of a ____
    • knot
    • tie
    • lock
    • bind

Part 2: Open cloze

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only ONE word in each gap.

An object of ridicule

It is hard to believe that the umbrella, now so commonplace, was once regarded in England as a sign of eccentricity, (9) ____ not worse. In the mid-eighteenth century, a gentleman caught in the rain was expected to hire a carriage or simply put up (10) ____ getting wet. Those who carried umbrellas risked being jeered at in the street, not least by the coachmen whose trade depended (11) ____ the discomfort of pedestrians.

One man who refused to be deterred was the traveller and campaigner Jonas Hanway, who is said to have carried an umbrella in London for some thirty years. (12) ____ only was he mocked for doing so, but he reportedly had to dodge at least one coachman who tried to drive at him. Hanway persisted, and by the time of his death the umbrella had begun to win acceptance, (13) ____ grudgingly.

What eventually turned the tide was less any single individual than a series of practical improvements. Early umbrellas were heavy and cumbersome, made as they (14) ____ of oiled cloth stretched over frames of wood or whalebone. As lighter materials became available, the umbrella became (15) ____ much more convenient that its usefulness outweighed any lingering stigma. (16) ____ the end of the following century, few respectable Londoners would have dreamed of going out without one.

  1. Gap 9: a sign of eccentricity, ____ not worse
  2. Gap 10: simply put up ____ getting wet
  3. Gap 11: whose trade depended ____ the discomfort of pedestrians
  4. Gap 12: ____ only was he mocked for doing so, but...
  5. Gap 13: had begun to win acceptance, ____ grudgingly
  6. Gap 14: made as they ____ of oiled cloth
  7. Gap 15: the umbrella became ____ much more convenient that...
  8. Gap 16: ____ the end of the following century

Part 3: Word formation

Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals to form a word that fits the gap.

Chosen for you

Recommendation algorithms have become so (17) ____ (PERVADE) that many of us no longer notice them. They decide which songs we hear next, which articles appear at the top of our feeds and which products are displayed most (18) ____ (PROMINENT) when we shop online.

Their defenders argue that, faced with an almost (19) ____ (LIMIT) supply of content, users would be overwhelmed without some form of filtering. Critics counter that the systems are designed to maximise engagement rather than (20) ____ (SATISFY), and that they tend to reinforce existing preferences, narrowing rather than broadening our horizons.

Particularly troubling is the (21) ____ (ABLE) of most users to discover why a particular item has been recommended, and even the engineers who build the algorithms may struggle to explain their (22) ____ (DECIDE). Calls for greater (23) ____ (ACCOUNT) have grown louder, though it remains unclear how regulators could scrutinise systems that change constantly and are, for commercial reasons, closely guarded. What is clear is that the question of who decides what we see is no longer a purely (24) ____ (THEORY) one.

  1. Gap 17: have become so ____ (PERVADE)
  2. Gap 18: displayed most ____ (PROMINENT)
  3. Gap 19: an almost ____ supply of content (LIMIT)
  4. Gap 20: to maximise engagement rather than ____ (SATISFY)
  5. Gap 21: the ____ of most users to discover why (ABLE)
  6. Gap 22: struggle to explain their ____ (DECIDE)
  7. Gap 23: Calls for greater ____ (ACCOUNT)
  8. Gap 24: no longer a purely ____ one (THEORY)

Part 4: Key word transformations

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. Use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given.

  1. It was only when I read the report that I understood the scale of the problem. Key word: UNTIL Not ____ did I understand the scale of the problem.
  2. There's no way I'm lending him money again. Key word: CIRCUMSTANCES Under ____ him money again.
  3. Her decision to resign surprised all of us. Key word: CAME Her decision to resign ____ all of us.
  4. He pretended to be ill so that he wouldn't have to go to work. Key word: AVOID He pretended to be ill ____ to work.
  5. Whatever happens, you must not open the door to strangers. Key word: ACCOUNT On ____ open the door to strangers.
  6. The plan was abandoned because there was not enough money. Key word: LACK The plan was abandoned ____ money.

Reading (60 phút)

Part 1: The art of saying sorry

Read the essay. For each question, choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

Public apology has become one of the defining rituals of our age. Barely a week passes without a politician, a company or a celebrity expressing regret for something said, done or posted online, and the form these statements take has become so familiar that it is possible to predict them almost word for word. There is the acknowledgement that 'mistakes were made', the assurance that the speaker 'takes full responsibility', the promise to 'learn lessons' so that it will never happen again. What is less often asked is whether any of this does what an apology is supposed to do.

To answer that question, it helps to be clear about what an apology is for. At its simplest, an apology is an act of moral repair. It acknowledges that a wrong has been done, accepts that the speaker is responsible for it, and expresses a commitment, however implicit, to behave differently in future. Crucially, it involves a kind of self-abasement: the person apologising places themselves, for a moment, below the person they have wronged. This is why genuine apologies are so difficult to make, and why they can be so powerful when they are made.

The public apology, as it has evolved, tends to retain the vocabulary of this act while quietly removing its substance. Consider the familiar formula 'I am sorry if anyone was offended'. On the surface, it resembles an apology. In fact, it does something close to the opposite: it relocates the problem from the speaker's conduct to the listener's sensitivity, and makes the regret conditional on a reaction the speaker implicitly regards as excessive. Similarly, the passive construction 'mistakes were made' acknowledges that something went wrong while carefully avoiding any statement about who did it.

It would be easy, and somewhat self-satisfying, to treat all this as evidence of moral decline. The reality is more interesting. Many of the people who issue such statements are not cynics but are operating under genuine constraints. Lawyers warn, with reason, that an unqualified admission of fault may be used against them in court; public relations advisers know that a full apology can prolong a story that a vaguer statement might allow to die. The evasive apology is, in this sense, less a failure of character than a predictable response to the incentives that surround public life.

That does not make it any less unsatisfactory. If anything, the ubiquity of the non-apology has made the real thing harder to recognise and therefore harder to believe. When every statement of regret sounds the same, the public learns to treat all of them as performance, and a speaker who is genuinely sorry may find that their sincerity is discounted in advance. The currency, one might say, has been debased.

Is there a way back? Some legal systems have experimented with laws that prevent apologies, particularly in medical cases, from being used as evidence of liability, on the reasonable grounds that patients often want an acknowledgement of what happened more than they want compensation. The early results are encouraging: where doctors feel free to apologise, the number of lawsuits appears, if anything, to fall. This suggests that the obstacles to genuine apology are not immovable, and that changing the incentives can change the behaviour.

But law can only do so much. In the end, a real apology depends on something that cannot be legislated: the willingness to be seen, for a moment, at a disadvantage. That willingness is uncomfortable, and in public life it may even be costly. Yet it is precisely the cost that gives an apology its value. An apology that risks nothing is, in the end, worth roughly what it costs.

  1. What point does the writer make in the first paragraph about public apologies?
    • They have become less frequent in recent years.
    • They are usually issued by politicians.
    • Their predictability raises doubts about whether they achieve their purpose.
    • They are generally more sincere and carefully considered than private apologies.
  2. According to the writer, what makes genuine apologies difficult?
    • They need to be very carefully worded.
    • They require the speaker to accept a position of humility.
    • They involve promising, in public, never to make any mistake again.
    • They must be made in public.
  3. What does the writer say about the phrase 'I am sorry if anyone was offended'?
    • It is a sincere but clumsy apology.
    • It shows respect for the listener's feelings.
    • It is acceptable in most situations.
    • It shifts the blame from the speaker to the listener.
  4. In the fourth paragraph, the writer suggests that evasive apologies
    • are largely a response to legal and professional pressures
    • are more effective than full apologies
    • reveal a general decline in the moral standards of public figures
    • are mostly produced by cynical individuals
  5. What does the writer mean by 'The currency, one might say, has been debased'?
    • The public no longer cares in the slightest whether public figures apologise.
    • Apologies have become too costly to make.
    • Genuine apologies are now more common.
    • Apologies have lost credibility because empty ones are so common.
  6. What does the example of medical apology laws suggest?
    • Doctors remain reluctant to apologise even when the law fully protects them.
    • Patients care mainly about compensation.
    • Changing the consequences of apologising can encourage people to do it.
    • Lawsuits increase where apologies are allowed.
  7. What is the writer's final point?
    • An apology is valuable precisely because it costs the speaker something.
    • Public figures should avoid apologising.
    • Apologies should be made only in private.
    • Laws protecting apologies are the most effective way to encourage genuine regret.

Part 2: The bell founders

Read the article. Five paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose the paragraph which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

The foundry stands at the end of a narrow lane, behind a pair of wooden gates that look as though they have not been painted in decades. Inside, the yard is crowded with bells: some newly cast and gleaming, others green with age, waiting to be retuned. The oldest, I am told, was cast in the fifteenth century and has been brought in from a village church whose tower has become unsafe.

(8) ____

Bell founding is among the oldest metalworking crafts, and remarkably little about the basic process has changed in centuries. A mould is built in two parts, an inner core and an outer cope, from a mixture of loam, sand and, traditionally, horse manure and goat hair, which help the mould withstand the heat of the molten metal. The gap between the two parts defines the shape of the bell, and therefore its sound.

(9) ____

It is the tuning, though, that separates a good bell from a merely serviceable one, and this is where the foundry's reputation was made. A bell does not produce a single note but a cluster of them, and the relationships between these notes determine whether it sounds sweet or sour. The tuner's job is to shave metal from the inside of the bell, on a vast rotating lathe, until those relationships are just right.

(10) ____

Martin Hale, the head tuner, has been doing this work for thirty-one years. He began, like most of his colleagues, as an apprentice straight from school, sweeping floors and carrying sand. 'You don't learn this from a book,' he says. 'You learn it by standing next to someone who knows, for years, until one day you realise you've stopped needing to ask.'

(11) ____

Demand, perhaps surprisingly, has held up. Churches still commission bells, sometimes to mark an anniversary, sometimes to replace one that has cracked. But a growing proportion of the foundry's work now comes from abroad, and from customers who are not churches at all: universities, town councils, even a private collector who has commissioned a set of eight for his garden.

(12) ____

As I leave, the casting of a new bell is about to begin. The furnace has been heating since dawn, and the metal glows a colour that seems almost too bright to look at. Hale watches it pour without a word. When I ask him afterwards whether he still finds it exciting, he considers the question for a long time. 'Every time,' he says eventually. 'You never know quite what you've got until you hear it.'

  1. Which paragraph fits gap 8?
    • The process is painstaking and unforgiving. Remove too little metal and the bell will sound dull; remove too much and there is no way to put it back. The best tuners work by ear as much as by instrument, striking the bell, listening, adjusting and striking it again, sometimes dozens of times in a single day.
    • Restoring it will take several months. The bell must be cleaned, inspected for cracks and, if it is sound, retuned so that it can once again ring in harmony with the others in its tower. It is the kind of job, the foundry's manager tells me, that comes along perhaps once a decade.
    • Once the mould is ready, the bronze, an alloy of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, is heated in a furnace and poured in. A large bell may take several days to cool before it can be dug out and the mould broken away.
    • That kind of knowledge is difficult to replace, and the foundry's owners worry about what will happen when the current generation retires. They have taken on two new apprentices this year, the first in a decade, but it will be many years before either can work unsupervised.
    • This international trade has kept the foundry afloat through difficult years, but it has also brought new challenges. Bells must be shipped across oceans, and customers in different countries often have quite different ideas about what a bell should sound like.
    • The bell will be returned to its village next week, once a final coat of wax has been applied, and the churchwardens have planned a celebration to welcome it home. Several of the ringers, some of them now well into their eighties, have asked to be in the tower when it is rung for the first time in its new frame.
  2. Which paragraph fits gap 9?
    • The process is painstaking and unforgiving. Remove too little metal and the bell will sound dull; remove too much and there is no way to put it back. The best tuners work by ear as much as by instrument, striking the bell, listening, adjusting and striking it again, sometimes dozens of times in a single day.
    • Restoring it will take several months. The bell must be cleaned, inspected for cracks and, if it is sound, retuned so that it can once again ring in harmony with the others in its tower. It is the kind of job, the foundry's manager tells me, that comes along perhaps once a decade.
    • Once the mould is ready, the bronze, an alloy of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, is heated in a furnace and poured in. A large bell may take several days to cool before it can be dug out and the mould broken away.
    • That kind of knowledge is difficult to replace, and the foundry's owners worry about what will happen when the current generation retires. They have taken on two new apprentices this year, the first in a decade, but it will be many years before either can work unsupervised.
    • This international trade has kept the foundry afloat through difficult years, but it has also brought new challenges. Bells must be shipped across oceans, and customers in different countries often have quite different ideas about what a bell should sound like.
    • The bell will be returned to its village next week, once a final coat of wax has been applied, and the churchwardens have planned a celebration to welcome it home. Several of the ringers, some of them now well into their eighties, have asked to be in the tower when it is rung for the first time in its new frame.
  3. Which paragraph fits gap 10?
    • The process is painstaking and unforgiving. Remove too little metal and the bell will sound dull; remove too much and there is no way to put it back. The best tuners work by ear as much as by instrument, striking the bell, listening, adjusting and striking it again, sometimes dozens of times in a single day.
    • Restoring it will take several months. The bell must be cleaned, inspected for cracks and, if it is sound, retuned so that it can once again ring in harmony with the others in its tower. It is the kind of job, the foundry's manager tells me, that comes along perhaps once a decade.
    • Once the mould is ready, the bronze, an alloy of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, is heated in a furnace and poured in. A large bell may take several days to cool before it can be dug out and the mould broken away.
    • That kind of knowledge is difficult to replace, and the foundry's owners worry about what will happen when the current generation retires. They have taken on two new apprentices this year, the first in a decade, but it will be many years before either can work unsupervised.
    • This international trade has kept the foundry afloat through difficult years, but it has also brought new challenges. Bells must be shipped across oceans, and customers in different countries often have quite different ideas about what a bell should sound like.
    • The bell will be returned to its village next week, once a final coat of wax has been applied, and the churchwardens have planned a celebration to welcome it home. Several of the ringers, some of them now well into their eighties, have asked to be in the tower when it is rung for the first time in its new frame.
  4. Which paragraph fits gap 11?
    • The process is painstaking and unforgiving. Remove too little metal and the bell will sound dull; remove too much and there is no way to put it back. The best tuners work by ear as much as by instrument, striking the bell, listening, adjusting and striking it again, sometimes dozens of times in a single day.
    • Restoring it will take several months. The bell must be cleaned, inspected for cracks and, if it is sound, retuned so that it can once again ring in harmony with the others in its tower. It is the kind of job, the foundry's manager tells me, that comes along perhaps once a decade.
    • Once the mould is ready, the bronze, an alloy of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, is heated in a furnace and poured in. A large bell may take several days to cool before it can be dug out and the mould broken away.
    • That kind of knowledge is difficult to replace, and the foundry's owners worry about what will happen when the current generation retires. They have taken on two new apprentices this year, the first in a decade, but it will be many years before either can work unsupervised.
    • This international trade has kept the foundry afloat through difficult years, but it has also brought new challenges. Bells must be shipped across oceans, and customers in different countries often have quite different ideas about what a bell should sound like.
    • The bell will be returned to its village next week, once a final coat of wax has been applied, and the churchwardens have planned a celebration to welcome it home. Several of the ringers, some of them now well into their eighties, have asked to be in the tower when it is rung for the first time in its new frame.
  5. Which paragraph fits gap 12?
    • The process is painstaking and unforgiving. Remove too little metal and the bell will sound dull; remove too much and there is no way to put it back. The best tuners work by ear as much as by instrument, striking the bell, listening, adjusting and striking it again, sometimes dozens of times in a single day.
    • Restoring it will take several months. The bell must be cleaned, inspected for cracks and, if it is sound, retuned so that it can once again ring in harmony with the others in its tower. It is the kind of job, the foundry's manager tells me, that comes along perhaps once a decade.
    • Once the mould is ready, the bronze, an alloy of roughly four parts copper to one part tin, is heated in a furnace and poured in. A large bell may take several days to cool before it can be dug out and the mould broken away.
    • That kind of knowledge is difficult to replace, and the foundry's owners worry about what will happen when the current generation retires. They have taken on two new apprentices this year, the first in a decade, but it will be many years before either can work unsupervised.
    • This international trade has kept the foundry afloat through difficult years, but it has also brought new challenges. Bells must be shipped across oceans, and customers in different countries often have quite different ideas about what a bell should sound like.
    • The bell will be returned to its village next week, once a final coat of wax has been applied, and the churchwardens have planned a celebration to welcome it home. Several of the ringers, some of them now well into their eighties, have asked to be in the tower when it is rung for the first time in its new frame.

Part 3: On being alone

Read what five writers say about solitude. For each question, choose the correct writer. Each writer may be chosen more than once.

A. Clara Whitton, novelist I write in a wooden hut at the bottom of the garden, which I had built specifically so that I could not hear the telephone or the doorbell. For six hours a day I see no one, and I could not produce a page without that. But I have learned that there is a difference between solitude and isolation. I need to know that the house is occupied, that there are voices fifty metres away even if I cannot hear them. When my family went away for a month one summer, I wrote almost nothing. The hut was exactly as quiet as usual, but the quiet had changed its character.

B. Daniel Osei, poet I spent a year alone in a cabin in the mountains, with a supply drop once a month. For the first six weeks I was close to despair. I talked to myself, slept badly and seriously considered walking out. Then, gradually, something shifted, and I began to experience a clarity of mind I had never known before, and have not known since. What nobody had warned me about was coming back. The noise, the speed of conversation, the sheer number of people wanting something from me: it took far longer to readjust to that than it had to adjust to being alone.

C. Mira Sandoval, essayist We have inherited a powerful myth about creativity: the solitary genius, alone in an attic, producing masterpieces out of nothing but his own inner resources. It is a myth because it is mostly untrue. Behind almost every celebrated work there were editors, friends, rivals and, very often, a household of people, frequently women, whose labour made the writer's solitude possible. The ability to shut the door and be left alone has always depended on someone else answering the door. That is worth remembering when we are told that what creative people need is simply more time to themselves.

D. Ben Aldridge, travel writer I travel almost entirely on foot and almost always alone, and people often assume this means I am avoiding company. The reverse is true. When I walk with a friend, we talk to each other, and the world goes by. When I walk alone, I talk to everyone: the farmer at the gate, the woman in the village shop, the man waiting at the bus stop. Solitude opens me up. The odd thing is that the loneliest I ever feel is at home, at dinner with old friends, when everyone seems to be playing a part they have played for years.

E. Hilde Brandt, memoirist My solitude arrived when my husband died. I did not seek it, and for a long time I hated it. People who have chosen to be alone for a weekend in a cottage like to talk about the joys of solitude, and I confess that I find this hard to listen to. Theirs is a holiday; mine was a sentence. And yet, ten years on, I would not entirely give it up. I have discovered capacities in myself, for decision, for silence, for my own company, that I would never otherwise have known I possessed.

  1. Which writer says that their solitude was not something they had chosen?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  2. Which writer points out that solitude has depended on the work of others?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  3. Which writer found returning to society harder than leaving it?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  4. Which writer says that being alone makes them more open to strangers?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  5. Which writer needs other people nearby even while working alone?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  6. Which writer challenges a widely held belief about how great works are produced?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  7. Which writer describes a mental clarity unlike anything experienced before or since?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  8. Which writer finds it difficult to hear others praise the pleasures of solitude?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  9. Which writer feels most alone in the company of people they know well?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)
  10. Which writer had their working space designed to keep out interruptions?
    • A (Clara Whitton)
    • B (Daniel Osei)
    • C (Mira Sandoval)
    • D (Ben Aldridge)
    • E (Hilde Brandt)

Part 4: The invisible hand

Read the extract from a memoir by a book editor. For each question, choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.

For many years, when people at parties asked me what I did, I would say that I was an editor and watch their expressions settle into polite incomprehension. Those who knew something about publishing tended to imagine one of two things: either a kind of glorified proofreader, hunting for misplaced commas, or a figure of almost sinister power, rewriting authors' books behind their backs. Neither picture is accurate, though each contains a fragment of the truth.

The work I did for most of my career, on novels and works of non-fiction, was concerned less with sentences than with structure. A manuscript arrives, often after years of labour, and the author is usually too close to it to see its shape. They know what they meant to write; they cannot always see what they have actually written. The editor's first task is to read the book as a stranger would, without access to the intentions behind it, and to notice where those intentions have failed to reach the page. Where does the narrative sag? Which character is doing nothing? What has the author explained three times, and what have they forgotten to explain at all?

This sounds straightforward, but it requires a peculiar kind of self-discipline. The temptation, for anyone who reads closely, is to imagine the book one would have written oneself and to nudge the author towards it. I gave in to this temptation more than once in my early years, and the results were invariably bad: books that were neither the author's nor mine, and that satisfied no one. The editor's loyalty must be to the book the author is trying to write, which may be quite different from the book the editor would prefer to read.

Determining what that book is can be the hardest part of the job. Authors are not always reliable guides to their own work. One novelist I worked with insisted for months that her book was a comedy, and resisted every suggestion that pointed elsewhere. It was only when she read a chapter aloud at a public event, and noticed that the audience had fallen completely silent, that she began to accept what I had suspected from the start: that the book was, at heart, a study of grief, and its jokes were a way of avoiding the subject rather than its purpose. The revised version was the best thing she ever wrote.

It follows that the most important skill an editor possesses is not linguistic but diplomatic. An author who has spent five years on a manuscript is in no condition to hear that its central section does not work, and the way that message is delivered can make the difference between a book that is rescued and one that is abandoned. I learned to begin every editorial letter with what the book did well, not as a softening tactic, though it served that purpose too, but because an author who understands what is working is much better placed to fix what is not.

If editing is done well, it leaves no trace. Readers do not see the chapter that was cut, the subplot that was folded into another, the ending that was rewritten four times. They see only a book that seems to have arrived fully formed. This invisibility is, I think, the source of both the job's frustrations and its peculiar satisfactions. Editors are almost never thanked by readers, and only occasionally by authors, who may in time come to believe that the improvements were their own idea. Often, of course, they were: the best editorial suggestions are the ones that lead an author to a discovery they were already close to making. It would be a vain editor who minded.

  1. What does the writer suggest about the two common views of editors?
    • The first is more accurate than the second.
    • Each is partly but not entirely correct.
    • Both are completely mistaken.
    • They are held mainly by people in publishing.
  2. According to the writer, why must an editor read a manuscript 'as a stranger would'?
    • to avoid becoming friends with the author
    • to see where the author's intentions have not reached the page
    • to predict how well it will sell
    • to check the accuracy of the facts
  3. What lesson did the writer learn early in their career?
    • Steering an author towards the editor's own preferences produces poor books.
    • Authors rarely accept suggestions about structure.
    • Books work best when the editor and the author contribute to them in equal measure.
    • Editors should avoid reading too closely.
  4. The story of the novelist who believed she had written a comedy illustrates
    • that editors should keep their opinions to themselves
    • that comedy is harder to write than tragedy
    • that public readings are the best way to test a book
    • that authors may misunderstand the nature of their own work
  5. What does the writer mean by saying the jokes were 'a way of avoiding the subject rather than its purpose'?
    • The audience did not understand the jokes.
    • The jokes were not funny enough.
    • The humour was hiding what the book was really about.
    • The book needed more humour to succeed.
  6. Why did the writer begin editorial letters with what the book did well?
    • It is the only reliable way to avoid upsetting authors who have worked for years.
    • Authors expect it as a matter of politeness.
    • It makes further criticism unnecessary.
    • It helps authors see what is working so they can fix what is not.
  7. What does the writer say about the invisibility of good editing?
    • It means editors deserve more public recognition.
    • It is a recent development in publishing.
    • It is a source of both frustration and satisfaction.
    • It shows that the editor has failed.
  8. What attitude does the writer express in the final sentence?
    • Editors should not resent authors taking credit for improvements.
    • Most editors are too proud of their work.
    • Authors should always thank their editors.
    • Editors' ideas are usually better than the ideas authors arrive at on their own.

Listening (40 phút)

Part 1: Listening to ecosystems

You will hear a talk about soundscape ecology. Complete the sentences. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

  1. Krause began recording natural habitats in the late ____.
  2. He compared species using different frequency bands to instruments in an ____.
  3. The sounds of wind, rain and running water make up the ____.
  4. A degraded habitat may sound thinner even when it still looks ____.
  5. One logged site looked almost unchanged in ____.
  6. A small recorder can run for weeks on a single set of ____.
  7. Recorders are particularly valuable at ____, when human observers are rarely present.
  8. Software calculates numerical measures known as acoustic ____.
  9. Automated measures can be misled by heavy ____.
  10. Playing healthy reef sounds over damaged reefs attracted more young ____.

Part 2: Restoring paintings

You will hear an interview with a man who restores paintings. For each question, choose the answer which fits best according to what you hear.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

  1. What does Tobias say is the most common misunderstanding about restoration?
    • that it is mainly done by machines
    • that it aims to return a painting to its original appearance
    • that it is rarely necessary
    • that it usually damages paintings more than it actually helps them
  2. According to Tobias, the purpose of restoration is to
    • remove what hides a painting without erasing signs of its age
    • reverse the changes in the pigments
    • repaint areas that have faded
    • make old paintings suit modern taste
  3. What does the example of the portrait's background illustrate?
    • Landscapes were unpopular with nineteenth-century artists.
    • Tobias prefers landscapes to portraits.
    • Earlier restorers sometimes changed paintings to suit the taste of their time.
    • Backgrounds are usually the most fragile and easily damaged part of a painting.
  4. What principle does Tobias follow when deciding how much to clean?
    • Every layer of varnish should be removed.
    • Cleaning should continue until the colours are bright.
    • The artist's glazes can be replaced if necessary.
    • It is better to remove too little than too much.
  5. What does Tobias say about retouching?
    • It may cover surrounding original paint.
    • It should be clearly visible from a distance.
    • Anything added must be removable without harming the original.
    • It is never acceptable in a museum.
  6. What is Tobias's view of making retouching deliberately visible?
    • He always does this himself.
    • He sympathises with it but takes a compromise approach in museums.
    • He believes most museum visitors prefer to see clearly where repairs were made.
    • He considers it dishonest.
  7. How does Tobias feel about the future of cleaning methods?
    • He hopes machines will soon take over.
    • He expects imaging to make cleaning unnecessary.
    • He worries that the necessary skills are being lost.
    • He is content for cleaning to remain a manual process.

Part 3: Who owns a style?

You will hear a discussion between an illustrator, Kemi, and a technology lawyer, Marcus, about image-generating software. For each question, choose the answer which fits best according to what you hear.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

  1. What is Kemi's main objection to image generators?
    • Artists' work was used to build them without consent or payment.
    • She dislikes using any kind of software.
    • They make it impossible to sell original artwork.
    • The images they produce are of poor quality.
  2. What point does Marcus make about copyright?
    • It has never protected an artist's style.
    • It should be abolished.
    • It applies only to written works.
    • It clearly protects artists against such software.
  3. How does Kemi respond to Marcus's comparison with human imitators?
    • She says human imitators of her style should also be taken to court.
    • She claims machines cannot really imitate style.
    • She agrees that there is no real difference.
    • She argues that the scale of machine imitation makes it different.
  4. What does Marcus suggest about Kemi's argument regarding scale?
    • It applies only to illustrators.
    • It settles the legal question decisively in favour of artists like Kemi.
    • It may support new laws rather than show that current ones are broken.
    • It is irrelevant to the debate.
  5. Why does Kemi criticise the argument that it is 'too late now'?
    • It ignores the technical facts.
    • It conveniently benefits those who failed to ask permission.
    • It was invented by lawyers.
    • It underestimates how angry artists are.
  6. What does Kemi imply about industry self-regulation?
    • It usually arrives too late for those affected.
    • It has never been attempted.
    • It is preferable to government regulation.
    • It is generally effective.
  7. What do both speakers feel has not been sufficiently recognised?
    • the high earnings of established illustrators
    • the poor quality of self-published book covers
    • the role of lawyers in the debate
    • the impact on artists who are just starting out

Part 4: A life on the ice

You will hear an interview with a scientist who studies glaciers. For each question, choose the answer which fits best according to what you hear.

Phần nghe phát trong phòng thi.

  1. What first attracted Astrid to the study of glaciers?
    • a lecture she attended at university
    • the sense of complete silence on her first visit
    • the noises that glaciers make
    • her friend's enthusiasm for the subject
  2. What does Astrid say about field seasons?
    • They usually produce immediate results.
    • They are more comfortable and more glamorous than most people imagine.
    • Much of the time goes on practical problems rather than discovery.
    • They are mainly spent analysing data.
  3. What concern does Astrid express about how glacier loss is presented?
    • Different processes are sometimes treated as if they were the same.
    • The scale of the problem is exaggerated.
    • Predictions are based on too few glaciers.
    • Scientists are reluctant to discuss it.
  4. Why does Astrid mention the glacier in the Alps?
    • to describe where her career began
    • to show that the Alps are warming faster than elsewhere
    • to convey the personal effect of witnessing such change
    • to illustrate an error in measurement
  5. What does Astrid suggest about scientific detachment?
    • She has never found it difficult.
    • She believes it is impossible to achieve.
    • She thinks scientists should abandon it.
    • She tries to keep it in her work despite strong personal feelings.
  6. How does Astrid respond to people who feel nothing can be done?
    • The problem has already gone too far to be reversed by any human action.
    • The outcome depends on how much warming occurs, so action matters.
    • Only governments can make any difference.
    • Glaciers will recover naturally in time.

Writing (75 phút)

Part 1: Essay

You must answer this question. Write your answer in 240 to 280 words.

  1. Read the two texts below. Write an essay summarising and evaluating the key points from both texts. Use your own words throughout as far as possible, and include your own ideas in your answer. Text 1: The value of depth In a world of rapid technological change, the most valuable workers are those with deep expertise in a particular field. Universities that require students to spread their time across many unrelated subjects risk producing graduates who know a little about everything and not enough about anything. Specialisation allows students to reach the frontier of a discipline early, and it is at the frontier that genuine innovation takes place. Breadth can be acquired later in life; depth, by contrast, requires years of focused study that are hard to find once a career has begun. Text 2: The case for breadth The problems that will define this century, from climate change to the ethics of artificial intelligence, do not respect the boundaries between academic disciplines. A graduate who understands only engineering, or only economics, will struggle to make sense of them. A broad education teaches students to recognise connections between fields, to communicate with specialists other than themselves, and to adapt when the job they trained for disappears. Far from being a luxury, breadth may prove to be the most practical preparation of all.

    Tối thiểu 240 từ.

Part 2: Report

Write your answer in 280 to 320 words in an appropriate style.

  1. You recently attended an arts festival in your city that was funded by a charitable foundation. The foundation has asked people who attended to submit a report. Write a report for the foundation in which you evaluate how successful the festival was in attracting a wide audience, comment on the quality of the events, and recommend how the foundation's money could be used more effectively next year.

    Tối thiểu 280 từ.

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