Đề thi chọn học sinh giỏi Quốc gia môn Tiếng Anh năm học 2012 - 2013

Based on how students are spending their time, then, it doesn't look (49) though academic
or financial pressures are greater now than a generation ago. The time-use data don't speak directly
(50) Social pressures, and it may well be that these have become more intense lately.
41. 42. 43. 44. 45.
46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
Part 2:
Questions 51 — 55: Read the following passage and choose the most suitable sentence from A to G
on the list for each gap from 51 to 55. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes.
There are two extra sentences which you do not need to use.
(51) . Creative genius is, in fact, latent with many of us without our realizing it. But how
far do we need to travel to find the path to creativity? For many people, it is a long way. In our everyday lives,
We have to perform many acts out of habit to survive, like door opening, shaving, getting dressed, walking to
Work, and so on. lf this were not the case, we would, in all probability, become mentally unhinged. So
strongly ingrained are our habits, though this varies from person to person, that, sometimes, when a
conscious effort is made to be creative, automatic response takes over. We may try, for example, to walk to
work following a different route, but end up on our usual path. By then, it is too late to go back and change
our minds. Another day, perhaps. This applies to all other areas of our lives. VWVhen we are solving problems,
for example, we may seek different answers, but, as often as not, find ourselves walking along the same
well-trodden paths.
So, for many people, their actions and behavior are set in immovable blocks, their minds clogged
with the cholesterol of habitual actions, preventing them from operating freely, and thereby stifling creation.
(52) — the obsessive desire to give order to the world is a case in point. Witness people's
attitude to time, social customs and the panoply of rules and regulations by which the human mind is now
circumscribed.
The groundwork for keeping creative ability in check begins at school. School, later university and
Work teach us to regulate our lives, imposing a continuous process of restricions, which is increasing
exponentially with the advancement of technology. Is it surprising then that creative ability appears to be so
rare? lt is trapped in the prison that we have erected. Yet, even here in this hostile environment, the
foundations for creativity are being laid, because setting off on the creative path is also partly about using
rules and regulations. (53) :
The truly creative mind is often seen as totally free and unfettered. But a better image is of a mind,
which can be free when it wants, and one that recognizes that rules and regulations are parameters. or
barriers, to be raised and dropped again at will. An example of how the human mind can be trained to be
creative might help here. People's minds are just like tense muscles that need to be freed up and the
potential unlocked. One strategy is to erect artificial barriers or hurdles in solving a problem. As a form of
stimulation, the participants in the task can be forbidden to use particular solutions or to follow certain lines of
thought to solve a problem. In this way, they are obliged to explore unfamiliar territory, which may lead to
some startling discoveries. (54) . There is also an element of fear involved, however subliminal,
as deviating from the safety of one's own thought patterns is very much akin to madness. But, open
Pandora's box, and a whole new world unfolds before your very eyes.
(55) . Parameters act as containers for ideas, and thus help the mind to fix on them.
When the mind is thinking laterally, and two ideas from different areas of the brain come or are brought
together, they form a new idea, just like atoms floating around and then forming a molecule. Once the idea
has been formed, it needs to be contained or it will fly away, so fleeting is its passage. The mind needs to
hold it in plaoe for a time so that it …