Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 3...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 33 to 40.

        Ho Chi Minh City’s headline joblessness has eased, yet youth unemployment has spiked in dissonant fashion. Officials disclosed on June 5 that more than 9,000 degree holders are currently without work, a stark figure that jars with the city’s otherwise improving indicators. Graduates face delayed hiring as firms recalibrate after cyclical shocks and technological upgrades. Entry-level posts are consolidated, internships become protracted auditions, and probation drags on. The result is a bottleneck: qualified applicants circulate résumés while vacancies demand experience they cannot yet plausibly claim.

        Administrators attribute the surge to sectoral realignment, mismatched skills, and cautious corporate headcounts. Service industries digitize front-of-house tasks; factories automate repetitive lines; back-office functions migrate to shared-service hubs. If employers continue prioritizing prior experience over demonstrable potential, many first-time applicants will remain stranded at the threshold. Universities, meanwhile, struggle to retrofit curricula at the cadence of industry turnover. Students, sensing fragility, hedge with short courses and micro-credentials, but the signaling power of these badges remains uneven across recruiters and fields.

        Policy responses spotlight apprenticeships, modular upskilling, and tighter campus-employer pipelines. Career centers convene job fairs; municipal programs underwrite training vouchers; firms trial paid traineeships with conversion targets. Communication is crucial: clear competency maps help graduates articulate value, while employers learn to parse capabilities beyond pedigree. Still, frictions persist – stipends can be meager, rotations brief, and evaluation opaque. When placement data are published, applicants can sort credible pathways from cosmetic schemes, reducing churn and restoring a measure of trust to the entry-level market.

        The paradox is reputational: a dynamic metropolis that still leaves bright newcomers idle. Families bankroll degrees, yet returns feel deferred; civic patience thins as cafés fill with overqualified baristas. Sustainable fixes require tempo and coordination: faster curriculum loops, transparent hiring rubrics, and targeted subsidies where vacancies are genuine. Graduates, too, must curate portfolios and rehearse problem-solving under time constraints. Over time, the city can turn this bottleneck into a bridge – provided stakeholders abandon complacency for experimental, data-literate pragmatism.

(Adapted from Vietnamnet: “Ho Chi Minh City sees youth unemployment surge despite lower overall rate”)

Question 33. The word recalibrate in paragraph 1 can be best replaced by ______?

A. ossify                B. fine-tune                        C. invalidate                        D. dismantle

Question 34. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in paragraph 2 as a driver of rising youth unemployment?
A. Sectoral realignment                                B. Skills mismatch

C. Cautious headcounts                                D. Currency devaluation

Question 35. The word meager in paragraph 3 is OPPOSITE in meaning to ______.

A. paltry                B. scant                        C. ample                        D. thin

Question 36. The word these in paragraph 2 refers to ______.

A. shared-service hubs                                B. micro-credentials

C. university curricula                                D. back-office functions

Question 37. Which of the following best paraphrases the underlined sentence in paragraph 2?
A. Persistent emphasis on experience rather than capability will leave numerous entry-level candidates unable to secure their first positions.

B. Continued employer preference for proven experience over latent ability will perpetuate barriers for novice job seekers.

C. If firms keep valuing experience above promise, many beginners will stay excluded from initial employment opportunities.

D. Should companies maintain their focus on past performance rather than aptitude, entry-level aspirants will find access blocked.

Question 38. Which of the following is TRUE according to paragraph 1?

A. Youth unemployment fell in parallel with overall unemployment as firms expanded trainee quotas across sectors.

B. The city’s overall indicators improved while many graduates struggled to secure initial roles despite qualifications.

C. Internships largely disappeared, forcing companies to hire inexperienced graduates directly into permanent posts.

D. Probation periods shortened significantly, enabling applicants to claim sufficient experience within weeks.

Question 39. Which paragraph mentions concrete policy responses like apprenticeships and training vouchers?

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

Question 40. Which paragraph mentions the reputational paradox of an energetic city leaving newcomers idle?

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