PASSAGE 2. Read the following passage and do the task that follows. (1.0 pt)

A. More than eighty years after its first publication. Thach Lam's "Hanoi's 36 Streets" still teaches readers how to see a city. Unlike travel guides that list monuments and museums, this collection of essays captures something more elusive: the soul of Hanoi through everyday moments. A member of the Self-Reliance Literary Group, Thach Lam avoided both grand descriptions and harsh criticism. Instead, he wrote gently about small beauties the night cries of street vendors on Hang Bac Street, the aroma of early-season sticky rice from Vong Village, and a morning cup of tea. These are not grand events. But together, they form a portrait of a city where elegance hides in simplicity. His approach was unusual for the 1930s and 1940s. While many writers focused on social realism, Thach Lam chose sentimentalism, believing that preserving ordinary beauty was itself an act of resistance

B. Consider how Thach Lam writes about a single dish: bun cha. He wondered why ordinary ingredients rice noodles, grilled meat, herbs could create such an extraordinary flavor. His answer reveals his philosophy. The person who first invented bun cha, he argued, deserved recognition as a creative artist. Not a cook, but an artist. The magic lay not in expensive ingredients but in perfect balance: the grilled meat on fresh bamboo skewers, the thinly wrapped noodles, the precisely mixed dipping sauce. And especially the Lang mint a herb that grows only in Hanoi. Take it anywhere else, Thach Lam noted, and it loses its distinctive scent For him, bun cha was not fast food. It was a "masterpiece" - rustic yet elegant, ordinary yet irreplaceable.

C. The book also traces the rhythm of Tet, Vietnam's lunar New Year, through three acts. Before Tet the streets buzz with shoppers; the scent of candies, jams, and incense fills every alley. During Tet. Hanoi seems to exhale. Street vendors disappear. Firecrackers echo through quiet neighborhoods. A feeling of togetherness seeps into each home. Then comes the aftermath. Thach Lam captures this with heartbreaking precision: "The joy of Tet has gone with the firecracker remnants that people sweep away, never to return. And so another year has passed." He does not mourn loudly. Instead, he lets the emptiness speak for itself. What makes his writing timeless is this restraint - the ability to describe loss without sentimentality, to feel deeply without shouting.

D. Published in 1943, "Hanoi's 36 Streets" contains just fourteen short essays. Yet its influence extends far beyond literature. As Hanoi modernises, expanding streets, erecting high-rises, speeding up daily life, the book is a bridge between past and present. It reminds readers that a city's identity does not reside in concrete structures. It lives in how people love, how they eat, how they greet each other on a quiet morning. Thach Lam teaches us to value the simple beauty around us: a bowl of pho at a street corner, the smile of a vendor, the scent of Lang mint that refuses to grow elsewhere. Seventy-one years after Hanoi's liberation, the soul of the capital still beats in those small moments. Thech Lam simply showed us where to listen.

The passage has four paragraphs A-D. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from

list of headings below. Write the correct number i-viii in boxes 51-54 on your answer sheet.

51: Paragraph A ______

52: Paragraph B ______

53: Paragraph C ______

54: Paragraph D ______

List of Headings

i A three-part journey through Vietnam's most important holiday

ii The problem with modern travel guides

iii The forgotten political messages in Thach Lam's writing

iv Listening to the silence after the firecrackers fade

ν Why a bowl of noodles can be considered a work of art

ví Finding a city's heartbeat in quiet moments, not grand monuments

vii How one writer turned ordinary street food into cultural treasure

viii Why fourteen short essays outlast skysorapers

Match each half-sentence in COLUMN A with its suitable one in COLUMN B to make a complete sentence....