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

Glass is a remarkable substance made from the simplest raw materials. It can be colored or colorless, monochrome or polychrome, transparent, translucent, or opaque. It is lightweight impermeable to liquids, readily cleaned and reused, durable yet fragile, and often very beautiful. Glass can be decorated in multiple ways and its optical properties are exceptional. In all its myriad forms - as table ware, containers, in architecture and design - glass represents a major achievement in the history of technological developments.

Since the Bronze Age about 3,000 B.C., glass has been used for making various kinds of objects. It was first made from a mixture of silica, line and an alkali such as soda or potash, and these remained the basic ingredients of glass until the development of lead glass in the seventeenth century. When heated, the mixture becomes soft and malleable and can be formed by various techniques into a vast array of shapes and sizes. The homogeneous mass thus formed by melting then cools to create glass, but in contrast to most materials formed in this way (metals, for instance), glass lacks the crystalline structure normally associated with solids, and instead retains the random molecular structure of a liquid. In effect, as molten glass cools, it progressively stiffens until rigid, but does so without setting up a network of interlocking crystals customarily associated with that process. This is why glass shatters so easily when dealt a blow. Why glass deteriorates over time, especially when exposed to moisture, and why glassware must be slowly reheated and uniformly cooled after manufacture to release internal stresses induced by uneven cooling.

Another unusual feature of glass is the manner in which its viscosity changes as it turns from a cold substance into a hot, ductile liquid. Unlike metals that flow or "freeze" at specific temperatures glass progressively softens as the temperature rises, going through varying stages of malleability until it flows like a thick syrup. Each stage of malleability allows the glass to be manipulated into various forms, by different techniques, and if suddenly cooled the object retains the shape achieved at that point. Glass is thus amenable to a greater number of heat-forming techniques than most other materials.

According to the passage, how is glass that has cooled and become rigid different from most other rigid substances?

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.

They were exposed to biased information, so they didn’t know the true story.

Carnegie Hall was the first building in New York designing specially for                                                               

orchestral music.

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

He made me ________ they had left the district

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.

NEIGHBOURS INFLUENCE BUYING DECISIONS

However objective we believe ourselves to be, most of us do not judge a product solely on its merits, considering quality, value and style before making a decision. (34) ________, we are easily influenced by the people around us.

There is nothing wrong with this. It is probably a smarter way to make decisions than (35) ________ on only our own opinions. But it does make life hard for companies. They have long understood that groups of friends and relatives tend to buy the same products, but understanding the reasons has been tricky. It is because they are so similar with (36)________ to how much money they make and what television ads they watch that they independently arrive at the same decision? Or do they copy one another, perhaps (37) ________ envy or perhaps because they have shared information about the products?

Research in Finland recently found overwhelming evidence that neighbours have a big influence on buying decisions. When one of a person’s ten nearest neighbours bought a car, the chances (38) ________ that person would buy a car of the same brand during the next week and a half rose by 86 per cent. The researchers argued that it was not just a matter of envy. Used cars seemed to attract neighbours even more than new cars. This suggested that people were not trying to keep up with their neighbours, they were keen to learn from them. Since used cars are less reliable, a recommendation of one can strongly influence a buying decision.

Điền vào ô 34

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

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

NEIGHBOURS INFLUENCE BUYING DECISIONS

However objective we believe ourselves to be, most of us do not judge a product solely on its merits, considering quality, value and style before making a decision. (34) ________, we are easily influenced by the people around us.

There is nothing wrong with this. It is probably a smarter way to make decisions than (35) ________ on only our own opinions. But it does make life hard for companies. They have long understood that groups of friends and relatives tend to buy the same products, but understanding the reasons has been tricky. It is because they are so similar with (36)________ to how much money they make and what television ads they watch that they independently arrive at the same decision? Or do they copy one another, perhaps (37) ________ envy or perhaps because they have shared information about the products?

Research in Finland recently found overwhelming evidence that neighbours have a big influence on buying decisions. When one of a person’s ten nearest neighbours bought a car, the chances (38) ________ that person would buy a car of the same brand during the next week and a half rose by 86 per cent. The researchers argued that it was not just a matter of envy. Used cars seemed to attract neighbours even more than new cars. This suggested that people were not trying to keep up with their neighbours, they were keen to learn from them. Since used cars are less reliable, a recommendation of one can strongly influence a buying decision.

Điền vào ô 37