HUE FESTIVAL 2026 

Travel and Venue Notice

Along the riverfront: Visitors without printed passes may still be (1) __________ through side entrances before 6 p.m., depending on crowd levels and security checks.

At heritage venues: Extra signs have been installed to (2) __________ confusion where the walking route to the Imperial City overlaps with the evening parade line. Please follow the (3) __________ at junction points instead of older wall maps.

Weather and seating: Several riverside viewing sections, (4) __________ by high water earlier this week, will reopen gradually. (5) __________ showers remain unlikely until evening, some outdoor performances may still be shortened later at night if river winds become stronger. Late arrivals may be left with little choice but (6) __________ from outer walkways if the inner courts reach capacity.

Question 1:
A.  admitting        B. admitted
C.  admissible        D. admittedly

Question 2:
A.  stir up        B. clear away        C. head off        D. take aside

Question 3:
A.  temporary guidance route        B. route guidance temporary

C. guidance route temporary        D. temporary route guidance

Question 4:
A.  closing off        B. closed off
C.  being closed off        D. having closed off

Question 5:
A.  Even though        B. In default of        C. Despite        D. Whereas

Question 6:
A.  watch        B. to watch        C. watching        D. watched

Helicopter Parenting: Protection or Pressure? 

At home: Many parents step in because they want to keep their children safe. In some families, however, care turns into constant (7) __________ of every private choice. Teenagers may be told what to wear, who to meet, and how to spend every hour.

In daily life: Some parents simply ask about school; (8) __________ go much further and follow nearly every private choice. An excessive (9) __________ of parental control may seem caring at first, but it can slowly reduce a child’s independence.

• Mistakes are hidden rather than discussed.

• Young people may fail to express (10) __________ about excessive parental control.

• Tension often grows (11) __________ Sunday evening, when school worries return.

In the long term: Children raised this way may become more (12) __________ and less ready to act without approval.

Question 7:
A.  scrutiny
B.  inspection        C. supervision        D. surveillance

Question 8:
A.  all others        B. each other        C. the others        D. others

Question 9:
A.  sum        B. number        C. level
D.  rate

Question 10:
A.  apprehension        B. trepidation
C.  foreboding        D. qualms

Question 11:
A.  in        B. at        C. by        D. on

Question 12:
A.  withdrawn        B. indecisive        C. reluctant        D. reserved

Question 13:

a. Zara: Fair for whom, though? The people winning most are often those with quiet homes, strong Wi-Fi, and visas that do not block movement.

b. Owen: Remote work was supposed to erase geography, so why does it still feel selective?

c. Owen: Exactly, which means distance matters less now, but private advantages matter far more than companies admit.

A. a – b – c        B. b – a – c
C.  c – a – b        D. b – c – a

Question 14:

a. Maya: I think that view misses something important: many young workers simply refuse to treat burnout as evidence of character, which older workplaces praised too easily.

b. Eric: What do you make of managers who say Gen Z wants balance only because it cannot handle pressure?

c. Maya: True, but that does not cancel the broader point that many young workers still chase difficult goals, just on terms that do less damage.

d. Eric: That is convincing, yet some people still use boundaries as a shield when effort becomes repetitive or uncomfortable.

e. Eric: Fair enough, so the real divide may be between unhealthy loyalty to work and ambition with limits.

A. a – b – c – d – e        B. d – a – b – c – e        C. b – a – d – c – e
D.  b – a – e – c – d

Question 15:

Dear Aunt Elena,

I hope your new apartment feels more like home each week.

a. Walking through our old district now feels strange, because the cafés are fuller, the sidewalks look cleaner, and yet fewer familiar faces remain.

b. Last month, a real estate firm offered to buy our building, and the amount sounded absurd until my parents admitted several neighbors had already sold.

c. The city says rising values mean progress, but that word feels thin when people who built the area can no longer afford to stay in it.

d. I keep wondering whether a city belongs more to those who invest in its future or to those who have given it daily life for decades.

e. Even the grocery shop near the station is becoming a design showroom, which makes the whole street look wealthier and less lived in at the same time.

Warmly,
Sofia

A. c – a – e – d – b        B.  b – c – a – e – d        C. b – a – c – e – d        D. b – e – a – c – d

Question 16:

a. In practice, though, the badge of being green often comes with an entry fee: electric cars need charging access, solar panels need property, and organic food usually costs more than the fastest cheap option.

b. That is why the debate is not only about personal choice but also about infrastructure, pricing, and who is expected to carry the burden of saving the planet.

c. Green living is advertised as a moral upgrade, as if buying the right products were enough to place someone on the responsible side of history.

d. When environmental virtue is packaged through expensive technology and premium branding, it can quietly turn into a lifestyle that flatters the wealthy while judging everyone else.

e. Many people do care deeply about waste, transport, and energy use, yet care alone does not erase the gap between what people support in theory and what they can afford in daily life.

A. c – e – a – b – d        B. c – a – d – e – b        C. c – a – e – d – b
D.  a – c – b – d – e

Question 17:

a. What makes these stories powerful is not only the distance traveled but the evidence that discipline, timing, and imagination can matter even under pressure.

b. Yet those same narratives become dangerous when they are used as proof that structural unfairness is merely an excuse, because one exceptional outcome cannot cancel the weight of unequal schools, unstable housing, weak healthcare, or inherited debt.

c. A person who rises from poverty into influence often becomes the kind of symbol people repeat with relief, as if one life could settle an argument about justice.

d. The problem begins when inspiration hardens into ideology: admiration for resilience slowly shifts into a demand that everyone should overcome hardship beautifully, quietly, and without asking what should have been different in the first place.

e. So the most honest way to read such a life is to hold two truths together at once: the achievement deserves respect, and the system that made that climb so unlikely still deserves scrutiny.

A. c – a – d – b – e        B. a – c – b – e – d        C. c – d – e – b – a        D. c – a – b – d – e

THE AI REVOLUTION IN TRAVEL

The global travel industry has undergone a radical transformation due to the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence. (18) __________. These sophisticated systems can analyze millions of data points to predict flight delays or suggest hidden gems in remote cities. To enhance user engagement, many travel platforms now design their interfaces to be incredibly intuitive. Travelers can interact with these systems (19) __________, so they can navigate complex booking systems without any prior technical knowledge. This shift toward automation is not just about convenience.

(20) __________. The real difficulty often stems from how much travelers had relied on human expertise before AI became the dominant force. (21) __________. As the technology continues to evolve, it is essential that modern tourists proactively adopt emerging tools and (22) __________.

Question 18: 

A. This digital transition facilitates a more streamlined planning process for modern explorers

B. Planning processes are facilitated by digital transitions through explorers' seamless integration instead

C. Such modern explorers facilitate a streamlined digital transition for those planning processes

D. Those planning processes instead facilitate digital transitions for explorers with seamless integration

Question 19: 

A. like they are experienced travel professionals

B. as though they could be an experienced travel professionals

C. like being experienced travel professionals         

D. as if they were experienced travel professionals

Question 20: 

A. It represents a paradigm shift in how people perceive reliability during their trips

B. This industry fundamentally redefines the psychological landscape of reliability in it instead

C. The perception of reliability instead redefines people fundamentally perceive the shifting industry

D. Reliability within global travel instead represents a significant change in convenience perception

Question 21: 

A. Several travelers only recently grasped how deeply such automated tools had altered journeys

B. Most individuals only recently grasp how significantly those digital shifts will alter voyages

C. Many have only recently realized how profoundly these advancements have reshaped their habits

D. Diverse explorers had only recently grasped how profoundly these advancements alter their habits

Question 22: 

A. they preserved authentic human connections by critically evaluate automated data

B. that they critical evaluation of systematic data while they preserve authentic human connections

C. critically evaluate automated data while preserving authentic human connections

D. it is critically evaluating systematic data while preserve authentic human connections

A teenager watches a creator speak about success with bright eyes and perfect timing. In another video, a young entrepreneur turns failure into a polished lesson, neat enough to fit inside a minute. By the time the phone is put down, ambition has already been stirred. What once grew slowly through teachers, books, or private reflection now often arrives through visibility. A future feels desirable not simply because it is meaningful, but because someone has made it look luminous on screen.

For many young people, career imagination is increasingly shaped by stories they can see, not only by formal advice or labour market data. That shift is not shallow by nature. For students with little guidance, public figures can widen the map of what seems possible. A life once hidden by geography, class, or limited exposure may suddenly come into view. In that sense, influence can do something generous. It can place new language around dreams people had felt but could not yet name.

The difficulty lies elsewhere. A visible path is not always a solid one. When clear career guidance is weak, polished stories begin to carry more authority than they should. A job becomes an image. A calling becomes a mood. Hard years of training, boredom, doubt, and repetition are pushed to the edges, while confidence takes center stage. That is where the line sharpens. Raising awareness gives people a broader sense of possibility. Exploiting longing sells aspiration in a form too edited to be trusted.

No one should be mocked for wanting examples to follow. Human beings have always borrowed courage from other lives. The real question is what kind of example deserves belief. Probably not the loudest one, nor the most varnished. More often, the trustworthy voice is the one that leaves the rough edges in place, showing not only the shine of arrival but the long, uneven road beneath it. Influence may awaken desire. Direction asks for something deeper.

[Adapted from recent World Economic Forum reporting on youth careers and aspirations]

Question 23. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraphs 1 and 2 as a way public figures may shape young people’s career imagination?

A. They can make certain futures look attractive through visible success stories.

B. They can help students with little guidance imagine lives once outside their view.

C. They can give language to ambitions that some young people had not yet clearly expressed.

D. They can provide more reliable labour market data than formal career advisors.

Question 24. The word “stirred” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. shaken        B. encouraged        C. awakened        D. shaped

Question 25. The word “varnished” in paragraph 4 is OPPOSITE in meaning to __________.

A. polished        B. smooth        C. raw        D. refined

Question 26. The word “It” in paragraph 2 refers to __________.

A. influence        B. that sense        C. a life once hidden        D. public guidance

Question 27. Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

A. Helpful influence expands what people believe they might pursue, while manipulative influence markets ambition through stories made unreal by too much editing.

B. Public inspiration becomes harmful only when it presents too many possible careers for young people to consider carefully.

C. The main problem with online career content is that it discourages desire and leaves students with fewer goals than before.

D. When aspiration is communicated clearly online, it usually becomes more accurate and therefore easier for young people to trust.

Question 28. Which of the following is TRUE according to paragraph 4?

A. The most convincing examples are usually those that present success in a polished and uninterrupted form.

B. A believable example often keeps visible the hardship and imperfection behind achievement.

C. People tend to follow examples only when those examples remove uncertainty from ambition.

D. What makes an example trustworthy is its ability to turn desire into immediate direction.

Question 29. Which paragraph focuses on the risk of confusing genuine career awareness with aspiration packaged for emotional effect?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2        C. Paragraph 3        D. Paragraph 4

Question 30. In which paragraph does the author suggest that following someone else’s example is a natural human behavior?

A. Paragraph 1        B. Paragraph 2        C. Paragraph 3        D. Paragraph 4

Comfort has not disappeared from modern life. It has been downsized. For many people, especially in an era marked by precarious budgets, ambient anxiety, and futures that feel increasingly difficult to plan for, consolation now arrives in miniature: an overpriced pastry after a draining day, a beautifully packaged drink bought less out of thirst than out of the need for a brief emotional reprieve, a snack chosen because it feels like a small permission to go on. What makes little treat culture so telling is that it does not pretend to solve anything. It offers, instead, a scaled-down form of relief, one modest enough to seem harmless and frequent enough to become a habit. In that sense, the treat is rarely just a treat. It is a coping device, disguised as a purchase.

Recent commentary on the trend links it to a long-observed pattern sometimes called the “lipstick effect,” in which people faced with wider economic strain turn not to grand luxury but to affordable indulgence. [I] Food and drink, the piece notes, have become especially prominent splurge categories, and younger consumers in particular have helped turn such spending into a recognizable cultural script. That script matters. It frames the small purchase not as extravagance but as earned softness, a tiny emotional dividend extracted from a life that often feels overmanaged and underrewarded. [II] The little treat, then, functions as more than consumption. It becomes a ritual of self-compensation.

That does not make the phenomenon trivial, nor merely embarrassing. Small pleasures can punctuate stress, restore mood, and offer moments of texture in otherwise flattened routines. [III] The uneasier question is what happens when this impulse is absorbed so seamlessly into market logic that even coping begins to arrive pre-formatted for sale. The same commentary observes that snack makers are paying close attention, producing ever more upscale and highly stylized indulgences designed to capitalize on the trend. What began as a modest emotional strategy is thus converted into a revenue stream. [IV] Desire is not simply met. It is studied, aestheticized, and sold back in portable form.

Seen this way, little treat culture reveals a broader small-pleasure coping economy in which comfort is fragmented into purchasable moments rather than supported through durable conditions of well-being. The treat may be little, but the hunger behind it is not. What it soothes can be real. What it cannot repair is structural. And that asymmetry is precisely what makes the culture worth reading seriously. When a society grows skilled at selling consolation one bite at a time, it may also be admitting, more quietly than it intends, how little else it has learned to provide.

[Adapted from The Guardian]

Question 31: Where in the passage does the following sentence best fit?

There is nothing inherently foolish about seeking manageable joy when larger forms of security remain elusive.

A. [I]
B. [II]
C. [III]
D. [IV]

Question 32. What suggests that a “little treat” often means more than a simple pleasure?

A. It is typically chosen because it costs less than other forms of leisure.

B. It works as a modest emotional relief rather than a genuine solution.

C. It mainly helps people forget financial pressure for long periods.

D. It is purchased chiefly for its practical usefulness in daily life.

Question 33. In paragraph 2, the phrase “That script” refers to __________.

A. a cultural pattern that presents small indulgences as deserved emotional comfort

B. the growing popularity of food and drink among younger consumers

C. a long-standing economic theory about luxury spending in hard times

D. the habit of treating snacks as symbols of social status and prestige

Question 34. Which of the following best summarises paragraph 2?

A. Economic pressure has led many people to reject luxury altogether and to become more cautious about spending on food and drink.

B. Younger consumers have created a trend in which splurging on snacks is mainly a public performance shaped by social approval.

C. The paragraph links little treat culture to affordable indulgence and shows how it is culturally framed as a deserved emotional reward.

D. The passage argues that food and drink have replaced all other forms of comfort because they are easier to market to younger buyers.

Question 35. The word “aestheticized” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. reduced        B. examined        C. hidden        D. beautified

Question 36. Which of the following is NOT stated in the passage about little treat culture?

A. It often provides a manageable sense of relief without claiming to fix deeper problems.

B. It has become especially visible in food and drink purchases.

C. It developed mainly because snack quality has declined in recent years.

D. It can be turned into profit when companies study and exploit the trend.

Question 37. According to paragraph 3, why should little treat culture not be dismissed as trivial?

A. It proves that market-driven solutions can successfully replace deeper forms of social support.

B. It may offer real emotional relief, even though that coping impulse can later be commercialized.

C. It encourages consumers to abandon expensive habits in favour of more responsible financial planning.

D. It shows that highly stylized products are usually more effective than ordinary comforts in reducing stress.

Question 38. Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 4?

A. The purchase itself may be minor, but the need it answers is much more significant.

B. Small indulgences become harmful only when people depend on them too often for comfort.

C. The cultural value of little treats is limited because the products themselves are too insignificant.

D. What people truly want is not comfort but a wider range of attractive goods to choose from.

Question 39. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A. Little treat culture is likely to disappear once consumers realise that companies are charging too much for ordinary products.

B. The rise of little indulgences shows that people today prefer temporary pleasures to long-term forms of stability and care.

C. Since these purchases can improve mood, they should be seen mainly as a healthy substitute for broader social support.

D. The stronger the gap in lasting well-being, the easier it becomes for markets to sell consolation in smaller purchasable forms.

Question 40. Which of the following best summarises the passage?

A. Little treat culture shows how small purchases can brighten stressful routines, especially for younger consumers, and how these habits have gradually become a familiar part of everyday modern spending.

B. Small indulgences may offer real emotional relief, but the passage mainly shows how a culture of purchasable comfort turns coping into consumption while leaving the deeper causes of distress untouched.

C. The rise of premium snacks and drinks proves that businesses now understand consumers more closely and can respond effectively to emotional needs through more attractive and better-designed everyday products.

D. What begins as an affordable form of self-reward is presented mainly as a harmless cultural trend, one that reflects changing tastes in food and drink more than broader economic or emotional pressures.