Câu hỏi:

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

SHAYNE’S DREAMS COME TRUE - BUT WILL THEY BE SHATTERED?

It is a week before The X Factor live tour when I meet the winner of the series, Shayne Ward. “It has been mental,” he says, referring to the past six months of his life. “I've just been talking to Louis Walsh on the phone. Louis Walsh!” Walsh, a top record producer and The X Factor judge, now manages Shayne’s career. “I was talking to Simon Cowell (a celebrity record producer) yesterday!” He shakes his head in amazement. And these people are telling me they're excited about working with me. “I can't get my head round it.”

Shayne is about as natural as any pop star arriving in the public arena can be. “I just can’t accept where I am now” he says sincerely. “It doesn't feel real. To me, this is just a job.” “What do you think being famous feels like?” I ask him. “I'm not sure, to be honest. Different from this?” he laughs, with only a hint of nerves. Since winning The X Factor, Shayne's success has been phenomenal. His debut single took just three days to reach the number one spot. On tour, he's going to play to audiences of 10,000 on average. He has already brought the house down at a gig in his home city. “I walked out after that performance and just thought, “I’m dreaming!”” Shayne is one of a family of seven children. Times were hard, but he has never wished or a different childhood. Although he thought about going to college, he ended up leaving school at sixteen, just to help his mother pay the rent. He set out on his reality show journey shortly afterwards. When he told he friends he had an audition for The X Factor, none of them really believed him. “I thought I’d go fot it because my family wanted me to, but I never really believed that I would win.”

Naturally, Ward is a fan of reality TV talent shows. “They're brilliant, because people who want recording contracts try for years and get nowhere. Then these competitions come along the people at home decide whether they like the singers or not. So its not just a few people at a record company deciding who gets a chance.” But the previous winner of The X Factor only had one hit. He hasn't been heard of since then. Is Shayne Ward going to be another talent show flop?

A lot of people feel cynical about reality TV show winners and their chances of continuing success. Audiences usually lose interest in them as soon as the show has finished. In fact, contestants on shows like Big Brother are given severe warnings from the show’s producers beforehand, basically telling them “you will not be liked”. Talent shows like The X Factor have to offer contestants a kind of stardom though, and something they can think of as a career, months afterwards at least.

The word “it” in the first paragraph refers to

A. the tour

B. the experience

C. the phone call

D. the show

Câu 1:

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

I didn’t see the red light at the crossroads. Otherwise, I _____ my car.

A. stopped 

B. had stopped

C. would have stopped

D. would stop

Câu 2:

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

A. royal

B. unique

C. remote

D. extreme

Câu 3:

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

John's ______ and efficiency at the company led to his promotion to Sales Manager.

A. punctuality

B. punctual

C. punctuate

D. punctually

Câu 4:

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair of sentences in the following questions.

Steve said to Mike, “Don’t touch the electric wires. It might be deadly.”

A. Steve advised Mike not to touch the electric wires as it might be deadly.

B. Steve warned Mike not to touch the wires as it might be deadly.

C. Steve suggested that Mike not touch the electric wires as it might be deadly.

D. Steve did not allow Mike to touch the electric wires as it might be deadly.

Câu 5:

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) or phrase(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the bold and underlined word(s) or phrase(s) in each of the following questions.

Wendy is on the horns of a dilemma: she just wonders whether to go for a picnic with her friends or to stay at home with her family.

A. unwilling to make a decision

B. able to make a choice

C. eager to make a plan

D. unready to make up her mind

Câu 6:

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

People rumour that the Prince secretly got married to an ordinary girl.

A. The Prince is rumoured to have secretly got married to an ordinary girl.

B. It was rumoured that the Prince secretly got married to an ordinary girl.

C. The Prince was rumoured to secretly get married to an ordinary girl.

D. The Prince had secretly got married to an ordinary girl, as it was rumoured.