HỘI CÁC TRƯỜNG CHUYÊN VÙNG ĐỀ THI CHỌN HỌC SINH GIỎI LẦN THỨ

DUYÊN HẢI VÀ ĐỒNG BẰNG BẮC BỘ XVI

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN NGUYỄN MÔN: TIẾNG ANH - KHỐI 11
TRÃI Thời gian: 180 phút
TỈNH HẢI DƯƠNG Đề thi gồm: 18 trang
ĐỀ ĐỀ XUẤT

SECTION 1: LISTENING (50 points)

I. You will hear an introduction to a radio phone-in programme about modern lifestyles. Listen and
indicate true (T) or false (F) statements. (10 points)
Statements T F
1. Ron is a record-breaking athlete.
2. Ron thinks an accountant can lead a health and fulfilled life.
3. “Total Living” is believed to be good for athletes.
4. “Total Living” means that we should develop one aspect of our life to the
full.
5. According to Ron Clarke, some current health trends are harming us.
II. You will hear a short radio report about how technology is helping archaeologists who
want to learn more about some texts written over 2,000 years ago known as Roman tablets.
Listen and give short answers to the questions. Write NO MORE THAN FIVE WORDS
AND/OR A NUMBER taken from the recording. (10 points)
1. Where did archaeologists discover about 200 tablets?
………………………………………………………………………
2. When did Roman soldiers often use tablets?
………………………………………………………………………
3. In what field is Professor Mike Brady a leading figure?
………………………………………………………………………
4. What were panels on the tablets once filled with?
………………………………………………………………………
5. Which type of texts has the new technology already been applied to?
………………………………………………………………………
III. You will hear part of an interview with someone who has been having ballet lessons.
Listen and choose the correct answer. (10 points)
1. What does Rupert say about the fact that he is doing ballet classes?
A. Other people have ridiculed him for it.
B. He expects to be mocked for it.
C. It is not as unusual as people might think.
D. People might think it isn’t really true.
2. Rupert says that before he started doing ballet lessons

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A. he had been doing routine physical fitness training.
B. his knowledge of ballet had been growing.
C. ballet had taken over from football as his greatest interest.
D. he had been considering doing ballroom dancing again.
3. Rupert say that when the idea of ballet lessons was suggested to him,
A. he thought it was a joke.
B. he was unsure exactly what would be involved.
C. he began to have unrealistic expectations of what he could achieve.
D. he initially lacked the confidence to do it.
4. One of the advantages of ballet that Rupert mentions is that
A. it leads to fewer injuries than other physical activities.
B. it has both physical and mental effects.
C. it is particularly good for certain parts of the body.
D. it is more interesting than other forms of exercise.
5. What does Rupert say about his progress at ballet?
A. It has been much more rapid than he had expected.
B. It has made him consider giving up his other training.
C. It has given him greater appreciation of the skills of professionals.
D. It has led him to enroll for certain exams.
IV. Listen to a piece of BBC news about the World War One centenary and fill in the missing
information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS taken from the recording for each
answer in the spaces provided. (20 points)
People have criticised Germany's government for not doing enough to (1) ___________ the
World War One centenary.
Germany hasn’t spent as much on events as some other (2) ________________ countries.
And the events which have taken place have been seen as (3) ________________by critics.
Traditionally in Germany the First World War is (4)________________the Second World
War. History teaching in German schools tends to focus on (5)______________ of the Nazis rather
than what happened (6) ____________ earlier.
And since 1945 there's been a strong (7)_____________ in Germany to anything that might
be seen as (8) _______________ . So many people here are uncomfortable with any anniversary of
a war or a battle.
There's still (9)_________________ among historians about who was responsible for World
War One. But having spent the last 70 years atoning for Nazi guilt, many Germans have
(10)______________ to now take on the blame for the First World War, too. SECTION 2:
LEXICO - GRAMMAR (30 points)
I. Choose the word or phrase that best fits the gap in each sentence (20 points)
1. Although the company seems very successful and popular, it has _______ actual money.
Everything is built off loans and debts.
A. less or no B. little or no C. many or not D. not any or little
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2. There is no point in phoning him. He’s certain _______by now.
A. to leave B. to have left C. left D. having left
3. So little _____ that the neighbors could not settle their differences.
A. did they agree B. they agreed C. agreed did they D. they did agree
4. Something’s ____________ up, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it this afternoon.
A. shown B. pulled C. cropped D. cut
5. Could you lend me some money to _________ me over to the end of the month?
A. hand B. tide C. get D. make
6. Have you considered applying for a job with the ________ service?
A. civil B. civic C. national D. governmental
7. I wonder if you could let me know what the _________ fare to Berlin is?
A. round B. double C. two-way D. return
8. Maria was just walking along the road when someone on a motorbike ________ her handbag.
A. clutched B. grabbed C. clenched D. fumbled
9. Fred Astaire is one of my favourite dancers and I love the way he seems to ________ across
the floor.
A. glide B. march C. skid D. dash
10. The new Arts Centre seems to have been ________ construction for quite some time.
A. in B. under C. on D. below
11. The new regulations have _________ up a number of problems for the company.
A. come B. thrown C. got D. moved
12. We’re saving for our holiday, so we’re __________ back on luxuries this month.
A. dropping B. moving C. giving D. cutting
13. Cars have been banned from the city centre, which makes the area much safer for _________.
A. passersby B. onlookers C. pedestrians D. footmen
14. There has been a real boom in _________ electronics over the last three decades.
A. consumer B. customer C. buyer D. client
15. When I realized that I’d left my homework at home, I quickly ________ back to get it.
A. crept B. dashed C. crawled D. drifted
16. I know it’s got his name on the cover, but he used a ________.
A. correspondent B. model C. ghostwriter D. fellow
17. The text doesn’t give you the answer explicitly – you have to _________ it from the evidence.
A. convert B. grasp C. reckon D. deduce
18. I couldn’t decide what to write about, when I suddenly _________ upon the idea of doing
something on writer’s block.
A. thought B. chanced C. hit D. arrived
19. This fabric has the __________ of silk but it’s very cheap.
A. stroke B substance C. friction D. texture
20. You’ll have to __________ your jacket quite hard to get the grass stain off it.
A. polish B. scrub C. pat D. crush
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II. Fill each gap with the correct form of the word in brackets. (10 points)
1. She stood there completely _______, so I had no idea at all what she was thinking. (EXPRESS)
2. Any actor who becomes known for one role is in danger of becoming _______. (TYPE)
3. This school was once _______ as a military hospital during the war. (REQUIRE)
4. So far, the United States has said it cannot agree to _______ all types of antipersonnel mines.
(LAW)
5. In Scotland, there is greater emphasis on _______ by individual schools. (VALUE)
6. The role of clouds is one of the big conundrums of _______. (CLIMATE)
7. Whatever happens, don't let this failure _______ you. (HEART)
8. It is _______ summer, but it's rather autumnal today. (THEORY)
9. She thinks that with a little ________ she can persuade her husband to change his mind.
(FLATTER)
10. The branch of a tree knocked one of the riders _________. (SENSE)
SECTION 3: READING (60 points)
I. Fill each gap in the passage below with ONE appropriate word in the space provided. (15
points)
Stuart Hayes had launched himself on a promising career as a swimmer when something
odd happened (1) ______ him at the local pool. Flogging up and down for the umpteenth time, he
suddenly realized how bored he had become with the monotony. Wasn’t there a more interesting
way of (2) ______ sporty, for heaven’s sake? There was and there is: the colour, sweat and sheer
emotion of triathlons. On August 5 and 6, Stuart, 27, will join almost 10,000 athletes in the
London Triathlon, the biggest event of (3) ______ kind in the world.
Triathlons are (4) ______ but boring. Combining swimming, cycling and running in one
physical onslaught, they offer huge variety within a single racing framework. The classic
Olympic distances are a 1,500 m swim, followed by a 40 km bike ride and 10 km run. Hayes, a
world-class triathlete, won last year’s London Triathlon in an impressive 1 hour 47 minutes. “The
worst part is the last 5 km of the run – you’re starting to get really fatigued by (5) ______ ,”he
says. So why does he do it? He shrugs. “It’s interesting.”
In Britain, the sport is growing (6) ______ 10 per cent a year. “People are moving away
(7) ______ just running, and are looking for new challenges,” says Nick Rusling, event director
for the London Triathlon. “Triathlons are a great deal more interesting to train for and you can
vary training to fit busy lifestyles, swimming in your lunch break and (8) ______ on. On top of
(9) ______ , people are much more aware of their bodies. They know running is potentially bad
(10) ______ the joints. A triathlon is actually very easy and very smooth, particularly the cycle
and swim.”
II. Read the following passage and choose the best answer. (10 points)
Over the last century the world has become increasingly smaller. Not geographically, of
course, but in the sense that media, technology and the opening of borders has enabled the
world’s citizens to view, share and gain access to a much wider range of cultures, societies and
world views. In this melting pot that the world has become, today’s child is privy to facets of the
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human experience that his immediate predecessors had no inkling even existed. It stands to reason
that in order to absorb, configure and finally form opinions about this information-laden planet,
children must be supplied with certain tools. Included in this list of ‘tools’ are: education, social
skills, cultural awareness and the acquisition of languages, the most important of these being the
latter. Until recently, a child who had the ability to speak more than one language would have
been considered a very rare entity. This one-language phenomenon could be attributed to a
combination of factors. Firstly, the monolingual environment in which a child was raised played a
strong role, as did the limited, biased education of the past. With regard to immigrants, the sad
fact was that non-native parents tended to withhold the teaching of the mother tongue so that the
child would acquire the ‘more prestigious’ language of the adopted country.
Nowadays, the situation has undergone an almost complete reversal. In the majority of
North American and European countries, most children are given the opportunity to learn a
second or even a third language. Children acquire these foreign languages through various and
diverse means. In many countries, learning a foreign language is a compulsory subject in the state
school curriculum. Other children rely on language schools or private tuition to achieve their goal.
In other instances, children are born to bilingual parents, who, if they so desire, may teach the
children two languages.
Bringing up one’s child bilingually is not a decision to be taken lightly. Both parents must
consider long and hard the implications involved in raising a child in a two-language home. This
decision is one of those all-important choices which will affect not only the parents’ lives but also
the life of the child. Raising a child bilingually has a two-fold effect. Firstly, of course, the child
learns the two languages of the parents. Secondly, the parents’ decision will influence factors
which will have a far-reaching effect on the child’s life. Some of these factors include: style and
place of education; diameter of social circle; employment potential and preference; and, most
importantly, the way in which the child views himself and his global environment.
One of the more advantageous by-products of being a member of a bilingual family is the
inherent awareness of two different cultures. This bicultural child inherits a wealth of knowledge
brought about by an exposure to: historical backgrounds; traditional songs and folklore; rituals of
marriage; models of social interaction; and therefore, two varying interpretations of the world.
The monolingual child seems to be at a disadvantage in comparison to the bilingual child, who
has a set of languages and an accompanying set of abstract cultural ideas. Practically speaking,
when a child comes from a two-language family, he must be taught both languages in order to
communicate with the extended family members. When, for example, the grandparents speak a
language which differs from that of the child’s locale, a monolingual child would be deprived of
the interaction which occurs between grandparents and grandchildren. On the other hand, a
bilingual child will not only be able to speak to grandparents, but will also comprehend where
these people have ‘come from’. There will be a shared cultural empathy within the family.
Because all family members can communicate, on both a verbal and cultural level, no one will
feel excluded and the child will develop a sense of rootedness.

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 On a more abstract level, it has been said that a bilingual child thinks differently from a
monolingual child. Current research in linguistics indicates that there may be a strong correlation
between bilingualism and cognitive skills. This new research concerns itself with the fact that a
bilingual child has two lexical structures for any given physical or abstract entity. This leads
logically to the assumption that the child also has two associations for many words, as a word can
mean different things in different languages. For example, the word ‘fire’ in many western
hemisphere languages connotes warmth and relaxation. In the Inuit language however, where fire
is a necessity of life, it may connote heat and survival. For the bilingual child, then, vocabulary
items and the abstract idea behind them are both dual in nature and more elastic. Researchers
maintain that this elasticity of ideas may allow the child to think more flexibly and, therefore,
more creatively.
1. In the author’s view, the world is becoming a _____.
A. more culturally diverse place.
B. place where only privileged children will prosper.
C. less complex place to live in.
D. much more integrated place.
2. According to the first paragraph, which of the following was true of immigrants?
A. Children were reluctant to use their mother tongue.
B. The mother tongue was considered less important.
C. Parents encouraged children to use their mother tongue.
D. Most parents made it a priority for children to grow up bilingual.
3. The phrase “privy to” in paragraph 1 mostly means _____.
A. acquainted with B. advised of C. apprised of D. in the know about
4. The phrase “attributed to” in paragraph 1 mostly means _____.
A. ascribed to B. associated with C. connected with D. held responsible for
5. According to the writer, second or foreign language learning is something _____.
A. people are still apathetic towards.
B. mainly associated with private sector education.
C. that few people take seriously.
D. about which general attitudes have evolved considerably.
6. According to the article, the decision to raise bilingual children is difficult because ______.
A. it may limit the child’s choice of friends.
B. though simple for parents, it can impact negatively on children.
C. it may cause children to lose their sense of identity.
D. it needs to be considered from many different angles.
7. With regard to the extended family in immigrant situations, the writer feels it is important that
_____.
A. adults try to understand the child’s difficult cultural situation.
B. children are not pressured to speak their parents’ native language.
C. adults recognize the child’s need to identify more with local culture.
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 D. children can relate to all aspects of their parents’ native culture.
8. The word “by-products” in paragraph 4 mostly means _____.
A. entailments B. knock-on effects C. side effects D. spin-offs
9. The word “connotes” in paragraph 5 mostly means _____.
A. underpins B. implies C. signifies D. smacks of
10. According to current research, the benefit of learning two languages is that _____.
A. different types of knowledge can be accessed in different languages.
B. bilinguals become more aware the origin of words in languages.
C. it helps to develop different capabilities of the mind.
D. bilinguals develop a greater sense of the value of culture.
III. Read the passage and do the tasks that follow. (13 points)
Questions 1 - 6
The reading passage has six paragraphs A-F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph
from the list below.

List of Headings

i. The productive outcomes that may result from boredom

ii. What teachers can do to prevent boredom
iii. A new explanation and a new cure for boredom
iv. Problems with a scientific approach to boredom
v. A potential danger arising from boredom
vi. Creating a system of classification for feelings of boredom
vii. Age groups most affect by boredom
viii. Identifying those most affected by boredom

1. Paragraph A ______
2. Paragraph B ______
3. Paragraph C ______
4. Paragraph D ______
5. Paragraph E ______
6. Paragraph F ______

Why being bored is stimulating – and useful, too

A We all know how it feels – it’s impossible to keep your mind on anything, time stretches
out, and all the things you could do seem equally unlikely to make you feel better. But
defining boredom so that it can be studied in the lab has proved difficult. For a start, it can
include a lot of other mental states, such as frustration, apathy, depression and indifference.

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 There isn’t even agreement over whether boredom is always a low-energy, flat kind of
emotion or whether feeling agitated and restless counts as boredom, too. In his book,
Boredom: A Lively History, Peter Toohey at the University of Calgary, Canada, compares
it to disgust – an emotion that motivates us to stay away from certain situations. ‘If disgust
protects humans from infection, boredom may protect them from “infectious” social
situations,’ he suggests.
B By asking people about their experiences of boredom, Thomas Goetz and his team at the
University of Konstanz in Germany have recently identified five distinct types: indifferent,
calibrating, searching, reactant and apathetic. These can be plotted on two axes – one
running left to right, which measures low positive or negative the feeling is. Intriguingly,
Goetz has found that while people experience all kinds of boredom, they tend to specialize
in one. Of the five types, the most damaging is “reactant” boredom with its explosive
combination of high arousal and negative emotion. The most useful is that Goetz calls
“indifferent” boredom: someone isn’t engaged in anything satisfying but still feels relaxed
and calm. However, it remains to be seen whether there are any character traits that predict
the kind of boredom each of us might be prone to.
C Psychologist Sandi Mann at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, goes further. “All
emotions are there for a reason, including boredom,” she says. Mann has found that being
bored makes us more creative. “We’re all afraid of being bored but in actual fact it can lead
to all kinds of amazing things,” she says. In experiments published last year. Mann found
that people who had been made to feel bored by copying numbers out of the phone book
for 15 minutes came up with more creative ideas about how to use a polystyrene cup than a
control group. Mann concluded that a passive, boring activity is best for creativity because
it allows the mind to wander. In fact, she goes so far as to suggest that we should seek out
more boredom in our lives.
D Psychologist John Eastwood at York University in Toronto, Canada, isn’t convinced. “If
you are in a state of mind-wandering you are not bored,” he says. “In my view, by
definition boredom is a undesirable sate.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t
adaptive, he adds. “Pain is adaptive – if we didn’t have physical pain, bad things would
happen to us. Does that mean that we should actively cause pain? No. But even if boredom
has evolved to help us survive, it can still be toxic if allowed to fester.” For Eastwood, the
central feature of boredom is a failure to put our “attention system” into gear. This causes
an inability to focus on anything, which makes time seem to go painfully slowly. What’s
more, your efforts to improve the situation can end up making you feel worse. “People try
to connect with the world and if they are not successful there’s that frustration and
irritability,” he says. Perhaps most worryingly, says Eastwood, repeatedly failing to engage
attention can lead to a state where we don’t know what to do any more, and no longer care.
E Eastwood’s team is now trying to explore why the attention system fails. It’s early days but
they think that at least some of it comes down to personality. Boredom proneness has been
linked with a variety of traits. People who are motivated by pleasure seem to suffer
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 particularly badly. Other personality traits, such as curiosity, are associated with a high
boredom threshold. More evidence that boredom has detrimental effects comes from
studies of people who are more or less prone to boredom. It seems those who bore easily
face poorer prospects in education, their career and even life in general. But of course,
boredom itself cannot kill – it’s the things we do to deal with it that may put us in danger.
What can we do to alleviate it before it comes to that? Goetz’s group has one suggestion.
Working with teenagers, they found that those who “approach” a boring situation – in other
words, see that it’s boring and get stuck in anyway – report less boredom than those who
try to avoid it by using snacks, TV or social media for distraction.
F Psychologist Francoise Wemelsfelder speculates that our over-connected lifestyles might
even be a new source of boredom. “In modern human society there is a lot of
overstimulation but still a lot of problems finding meaning,” she says. So instead of
seeking yet more mental stimulation, perhaps we should leave our phones alone, and use
boredom to motivate us to engage with the world in a more meaningful way.

Questions 7-10
Look at the following people and the list of ideas below. Match each person with the correct idea,
A-E.
7. Peter Toohey
8. Thomas Goetz
9. John Eastwood
10. Francoise Wemelsfelder
List of ideas
A. The way we live today may encourage boredom.
B. One sort of boredom is worse than all the others.
C. Levels of boredom may fall in the future.
D. Trying to cope with boredom can increase its negative effects.
E. Boredom may encourage us to avoid an unpleasant experience.

Questions 11-13
Complete the summary below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Responses to boredom
For John Eastwood, the central feature of boredom is that people cannot (11) _________,
due to a failure in what he calls the “attention system”, and as a result they become frustrated and
irritable. His team suggests that those for whom (12) _________ is an important aim in life may
have problems in coping with boredom, whereas those who have the characteristic of (13)
_________ can generally cope with it.

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IV. You are going to read an extract from an article. Seven paragraphs have been removed.
Select from the paragraphs (A-H) the one that fits each gap (1-7). There is one extra paragraph
that you do not need to use. (7 points)
A Race to Remember
Imagine, if you will, driving across sand dunes at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, with
sand flying up at the windscreen while you try to maintain control of the wheel and your navigator
attempts to maintain their compass steady at 25 degrees north-northwest, so you don't divert from
your course. Now, imagine that scenario taking place over eight hours in a single day and over a
period of around 12 days. That is the reality of the world-renowned Dakar Rally.
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This year the race took place in Saudi Arabia with a total of 310 vehicles, made up of
motorbikes and cars, amongst many other categories, and only 206 of those vehicles crossed
the finish line. One individual that made it through this brutal event was Frederique Le Salles
for whom it was his second rally. “Although my first Dakar Rally was five years ago, I’ve
dreamed about coming back ever since. It took me all that time to raise the funds to enter
again, and I’m overjoyed to finally return.”
2
As these examples show, the Rally truly does get under people’s skin, with the same
competitors returning multiple times. This gives them the benefit of experience, which is an
essential attribute in this competition. Without the modem necessities of GPS, knowing
what the race takes in terms of the trials and tribulations, gives old-timers an important
mental advantage in the race, and many taking part more than once because of this.
3
The event originated from the experience of a man called Thierry Sabine who became
so adrift from the course in the 1977 Abidjan-Nice Rally that he realized his detour would
make for a great race in itself. The first Dakar Rally started in Dakar in Africa and finished
in Paris, skirting around the edges of the Sahara Desert, a grueling 10,000 - kilometre trip.
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It is here that I spoke to competitors about their expectations of and concerns for the
race, as well as finding out a bit about their preparation for an unyielding few weeks of fierce
motor racing. The responses I received didn’t vary wildly - participants’ preparation was
always meticulous.
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One rally driver, who is on his fifth race, told me that he believes a lot of the rally is
down to luck. “It takes just a split second to make a mistake, and so, it doesn’t matter if you’ve
driven brilliantly for thousands of kilometers, because all you need is one meter to go wrong,
and you crash out. It’s happened to me twice and it’s a completely soul- crushing experience.”
6

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 Whether this is truly enough to be ready, only time will tell. While the financial
rewards for winning aren't publicized (although rumor has it that they are relatively low),
the accolade of winning is certainly something money can't buy. However, this doesn't mean
that the rally is unprofitable for all, and there are some enterprising routes to make the
rally a little more lucrative.
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A. Such is the commitment to compete that one racer, Chris Cork, sold his house in the UK in
order to secure a place on the 2015 Dakar Rally. Unfortunately, he crashed out on the fourth day
and had to undergo a difficult recovery procedure for his injuries. Undeterred, he came back the
next year to compete, with financial help from well- wishers who were touched by his story.
B. Although some entrants go it alone, with the bare-minimum requirements needed to
participate, there are many other participants who sign up with companies and receive sponsor
bonuses depending on their performance in each round. While finishing a round may be in the
hands of fate, it is far more beneficial to do it with sponsorship, as many successful rally winners
know.
C. As a motorsport reporter, I’ve been fortunate enough to follow this competition for the last
five years, and it never ceases to amaze me how tough and committed each racer is. Racers are
required to fix their vehicles themselves while on a stage, and there is not even a great probability
that they will be able to finish, with most competitors crashing out or breaking down on the route.
D. Perhaps the main appeal for these riders is that it offers a sense of adventure that is hard
to parallel. The Rally covers lots of harsh terrain and the course is simply a series of written
directions. In addition to that, if they don’t have any overnight repairs to keep them busy, many
drivers find themselves sleeping in tents alongside their vehicles, giving them just enough time to
recuperate and get back on the ride. Indeed, unlike many racing events, there is little luxury to
have, and this has always been the case with the Dakar Rally.
E. There was lot of focus, as with every rally before, on the terrain, and the best ways to cope
with it. 75% of the rally would take place on sand, and a great deal on sand dunes. This means
hill climbs and sheer drops, and little ability to spot landmarks to help you know where you are.
And remember, if you get your directions wrong, it can take you hours to catch up.
F. Fortunately, for many people, the Dakar Rally is a labour of love, but budget can make a
significant difference to your opportunities of succeeding. While amateurs may be sleeping aside
their vehicles relying on themselves for any repairs, professionals will have a team that can take
care of their every need at the end of each stage.
G. Although for many years Africa was its home, the location of the Rally has not remained
static, it transferred to a different continent altogether, South America, from 2009 to 2019, and
more lately to Saudi Arabia, where the vehicles have had to compete with the Middle Eastern
deserts, and their scorching days and nearly freezing nights.

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 H. Others are more concerned with how they’ll keep their momentum up. “This will be our
third race, and we think we’ve finally discovered what we need to really compete with the best.
We’ve come to realise that the race is about resilience and technical ability, and we've been
training with sleep deprivation and motor repair exercises to make sure we’ve got both these
qualities.”
V. You are going to read an article by a psychologist about laughter. For questions 1 - 10,
choose from the sections (A – D). The sections may be chosen more than once. (15 points)
Which section …
1. comments on which person laughs within a verbal exchange?
2. uses a comparison with other physical functions to support an idea?
3. gives reasons why understanding laughter supplies very useful insights?
4. refers to someone who understood the self-perpetuating nature of laughter?
5. cites a study that involved watching people without their knowledge?
6. describes laughter having a detrimental effect?
7. criticizes other research for failing to consider a key function of laughter?
8. explains that laughing does not usually take precedence over speaking?
9. describes people observing themselves?
10. encourages checking that a proposition is correct?

Why do people laugh?

Psychologist Robert Provine writes about why and when we laugh.

A. In 1962, what began as an isolated fit of laughter in a group of schoolgirls in Tanzania rapidly
rose to epidemic proportions. Contagious laughter spread from one individual to the next and
between communities. Fluctuating in intensity, the laughter epidemic lasted for around two and a
half years and during this time at least 14 schools were closed and about 1,000 people afflicted.
Laughter epidemics, big and small, are universal. Laughter yoga, an innovation of Madan Kataria
of Mumbai, taps into contagious laughter for his Laughter Yoga clubs. Members gather in public
places to engage in laughter exercises to energise the body and improve health. Kataria realised
that only laughter is needed to stimulate laughter – no jokes are necessary. When we hear
laughter, we become beasts of the herd, mindlessly laughing in turn, producing a behavioural
chain reaction that sweeps through our group.

B. Laughter is a rich source of information about complex social relationships, if you know where
to look. Learning to ‘read’ laughter is particularly valuable because laughter is involuntary and
hard to fake, providing uncensored, honest accounts of what people really think about each other.
It is a decidedly social signal. The social context of laughter was established by 72 student
volunteers in my classes, who recorded their own laughter, its time of occurrence and social
circumstance in small notebooks (laugh logbooks) during a one-week period. The sociality of

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laughter was striking. My logbook keepers laughed about 30 times more when they were around
others than when they were alone – laughter almost disappeared among solitary subjects.

C. Further clues about the social context of laughter came from the surreptitious observation of
1,200 instances of conversational laughter among anonymous people in public places. My
colleagues and I noted the gender of the speaker and audience (listener), whether the speaker or
the audience laughed, and what was said immediately before laughter occurred. Contrary to
expectation, most conversational laughter was not a response to jokes or humorous stories. Fewer
than 20% of pre-laugh comments were remotely jokelike or humorous. Most laughter followed
banal remarks such as ‘Are you sure?’ and ‘It was nice meeting you too.’ Mutual playfulness, in-
group feeling and positive emotional tone – not comedy – mark the social settings of most
naturally occurring laughter. Another counterintuitive discovery was that the average speaker
laughs about 46% more often than the audience. This contrasts with the scenario in stand-up
comedy – a type of comedy performance in which a non-laughing speaker presents jokes to a
laughing audience. Comedy performance in general proves an inadequate model for everyday
conversational laughter. Analyses that focus only on audience behaviour (a common approach)
are obviously limited because they neglect the social nature of the laughing relationship.

D. Amazingly, we somehow navigate society, laughing at just the right times, while not
consciously knowing what we are doing. In our sample of 1,200 laughter episodes, the speaker
and the audience seldom interrupted the phrase structure of speech with a ha-ha. Thus, a speaker
may say ‘You are wearing that? Ha-ha,’ but rarely ‘You are wearing … ha-ha… that?’ The
occurrence of laughter during pauses, at the end of phrases, and before and after statements and
questions suggests that a neurologically based process governs the placement of laughter. Speech
is dominant over laughter because it has priority access to the single vocalisation channel, and
laughter does not violate the integrity of phrase structure. Laughter in speech is similar to
punctuation in written communication. If punctuation of speech by laughter seems unlikely,
consider that breathing and coughing also punctuate speech. Better yet, why not test my theory of
punctuation by examining the placement of laughter in conversation around you, focusing on the
placement of ha-ha laughs. It's a good thing that these competing actions are neurologically
orchestrated. How complicated would our lives be if we had to plan when to breathe, talk and
laugh.

SECTION 4: WRITING (60 points)

I. Read the following extract and use your own words to summarize it. Your summary should
be about 140 words long. (15 points)
NATIONALISM
Until about 1800, people in most of the world were loyal to the places where they and their
families lived. Most did not see themselves as part of a larger state or nation. But the rise of
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industry and the need to raise armies prompted rulers to try to inspire a sense of national identity
and common cause. This drive toward lifting the interests of the nation above those of individuals
or groups became known as nationalism. Many historians date modern nationalism from the
French Revolution in the late 1700s. The French monarchy was replaced by a republic, in which
the citizens no longer were expected to see themselves as subjects of the king. Rather, they found
their identity in the abstract concept of France as their mother country. The process was repeated
throughout Europe during the next century.
The philosophical basis of nationalism is that the nation is the most important unit of social
and economic life to which all other human activities and desires must yield. Helping to secure
national pride are flags, foods, sports, traditions, histories, folk tales, music, literature, and
culture. There may even be a national religion. Nationalists point to criteria that distinguish
nations from each other, such as a common language, culture, and value. These traits are often
represented by a single ethnic group to which almost all citizens of a nation belong. Many
nations, however, host different ethnic groups side by side, sometimes with violent or politically
disruptive results.
Some ethnic groups refuse to recognize their nation, seeking to secede in order to rule
themselves. Separatist movements in Quebec, Canada, and in the Basque region of Spain have
been active for many years but have not yet succeeded.
Requiring that all speak the same language has been an important means of enforcing
national identity. New nations often attempt to outlaw minority languages. The national language
tends to be the one spoken by the upper classes, resulting in the high-status language replacing the
low-status ones.

II. Writing task 2: (15 points)

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IV. Writing an essay: (30 points)
Write an essay of about 350 words to express your opinion on the following topic:
“Some people think that you can never become fluent in a language unless you have
spent time living or working in that country. To what extent do you agree?”

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