Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).Ngân hàng câu hỏi tiếng anh ( đọc hiểu, trắc nghiệm, điền chỗ trống ).
Trang 1CLOZE TESTS (20)
C1 We’ve just come back exhausted after a two-week holiday in France We werereally exhausted On the last day, we drove non-stop from Marseille to Calais –weshould have (1) _our journey in Lyon or Paris As if that wasn’t enough, the sea was sorough in the English Channel that the (2) _ took three hours instead of one and ahalf Next year, we plan to book a cheap (3) _holiday to Italy It sounds marvellous
— the cost of the flight, the hotel and all our meals are (4) _ in the price Whilewe’re in Rome, we’ll be going on a guided (5) _ to Coliseum The last time I was(6) _ Italy, I was in a business (7) _ I couldn’t see many of the famous tourist(8) _on that occasion, but my wife was really interested (9) _ Italy We have workhard these years to save money for the next trips in the (10) _ years
C2 According (1) _computer models that were used to estimate the running speeds
of dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex would have been able to outrun a footballer Thestudy shows that the dinosaur could reach a top (2) _of 8 metres a second, which is(3) _faster than the average professional footballer There has been a lot ofcontroversy (4) _whether the Tyrannosaurus Rex was a predator or a scavenger;some believe that its highly developed sense of smell indicates that it was a scavenger,(5) _others say that its keen eyesight shows that it was a hunter The (6) _groupwill appreciate the recent study, as a hunter is more (7) _to require such speed TheUniversity of Manchester study used a powerful supercomputer to calculate the runningspeeds of five meat-eating dinosaurs and used data taken (8) _ from dinosaur fossils,(9) _than referring to previous work on (10) _animals
C3 In 1993, Greg Mortenson took a (1) _to Pakistan to climb K2, the second tallestmountain in the world On his way down the mountain, he got lost Food and waterwere (2) _, but Mr Mortenson found a small village The people there saw that hewas (3) and helped him While in the village, Mr Mortenson watched the childrenwrite in the dirt for their school lessons The village did not have money to build a school
or (4) a teacher Before he left, Mr Mortenson (5) to return to the village andhelp them build a school Mr Mortenson returned to the US and wrote to many(6) people That idea did not work very well, but (7) enough people heardabout Mr Mortenson's plan and helped him That was the beginning of the Central AsiaInstitute, an organization that has (8) in building or helping to build more than 130schools in small villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan With the help of (9) DavidRelin, Mr Mortenson wrote the famous book Three Cups of Tea Some people havecriticized him, however, Mr Mortenson was given an (10) _in 2009 by thegovernment of Pakistan for his work in that country
Trang 2C4 Beijing is the capital city of the People’s Federal Republic of China “Beijing” comesfrom the Chinese words “northern” and “capital” and follows a(n) (1) _East Asiantradition of naming capital cities literally Other similarly named cities (2) _Nanjing inSouthern China which means “southern capital”, and Tokyo in Japan, which means
“eastern capital” Beijing is the political and cultural (3) _of China and is famous for its many historical attractions Four million people visit Beijing each year tosee (4) _such as the magnificent Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and The GreatWall of China It is also one of the world’s great modem metropolises and is (5) of21st century vitality Towering skyscrapers, huge shopping malls, and modemcommercial areas are just as much a (6) _of modern-day Beijing In 2001, Beijingcelebrated the news that it had been selected to (7) the 2008 Summer Olympics.Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Chinese poured into Beijing’s streets, singing andcheering Fireworks (8) _up the sky as the city rejoiced The morning after the (9) , the titles of all Beijing’s newspapers were printed in red — a special colour inChinese (10) that is reserved for good and important news
world-C5 Most people think that the capital of the (1) _world is Hollywood, in the (2) _.However, the real movie capital is Mumbai, in (3) _ Mumbai used to be known asBombay, and the movie industry there is often called “Bollywood.” Bollywood makestwice as many movies each year as Hollywood — more than 1,000 movies a year The(4) _ from Bollywood are very different from those made by Hollywood studios Forone thing, Bollywood movies are much (5) _than most Hollywood movies MostBollywood movies are more than three hours long, and contain singing, dancing,action, adventure, mystery, and romance (but usually no kissing) Because Bollywoodmovies contain so many different features, this (6) _of movie is sometimes called a
“masala” movie — “masala” is an Indian word for a mixture of spices Another big (7) _between Bollywood and Hollywood movies is the way the movies are made Ittakes much longer to make a movie in Hollywood than in Bollywood (8) _, filmingmay begin on a Bollywood movie before the script is even finished The director andwriters can make (9) _the story while the movie is being made Sometimes they willeven write the script by hand instead (10) _taking time to type it Bollywood actorsare very popular and some are in such high demand that they may work on severalmovies at the same time
C6 There is an old English (1) _, “Laughter is the best medicine” One person whocertainly would have agreed with this is Norman Cousins Norman Cousins the editor of
a magazine called Saturday Review for almost forty years He also wrote and (2) _about world peace and anti-nuclear and anti-war issues, traveling (3) _many
Trang 3different countries to share his ideas In the 1960s, after returning to the United Statesfrom a busy and tiring trip to Europe, Mr Cousins got sick He discovered he had a raredisease known as <i>ankylosing spondylitis</i> that caused the joints between his bones
to (4) _ stiff In less than a week after he got (5) _, he could not stand Every movethat he (6) _was painful He was not able to sleep at night The doctors told Mr.Cousins that they did not (7) _how to cure his problem and he might never get overthe illness Mr Cousins, however, refused to give (8) _hope Mr Cousins thought thatthe illness could be caused (9) _unhappy thoughts He did not want to(10) _medicine to cure himself Instead, he felt that happy thoughts or laughtermight cure his illness
C7 Human memory, formerly believed to be rather inefficient, (1) _really much moresophisticated than that of a computer Researchers approaching the problem from avariety of (2) _of view have all concluded that there is a great deal more stored inour minds than has been generally supposed Dr Wilder Penfield, a Canadianneurosurgeon, proved that by stimulating (3) _brains electrically, he could elicit thetotal recall of complex events in his subjects’ lives Even dreams and other minor eventssupposedly forgotten (4) _many years suddenly emerged in detail The memorytrace is the term for (5) _forms the internal representation of the specific informationabout the event stored in the memory Assumed to have been made by structuralchanges in (6) brain, the memory trace is not subject to direct observation but israther a theoretical construct that is used to speculate about how informationpresented at a particular time can cause performance at a later time Most theoriesinclude the (7) of the memory trace as a variable in the degree of learning,retention, and retrieval possible for a memory One theory is that the fantastic capacityfor storage in the brain is the result (8) an almost unlimited combination ofinterconnections between brain cells, stimulated by patterns of (9) _ Repeatedreferences to the same information support recall Or, to say that another way,improved performance is the result of (10) _the chemical bonds in the memory
C8 Psychologists generally (1) _memory into (2) _least two types, short-term andlong-term memory, which combine (3) _form working memory Short-term memorycontains what we are actively (4) _on at any particular time, but items are notretained longer (5) _twenty or thirty seconds without verbal rehearsal We use short-term (6) _when we look up a telephone number and repeat it to ourselves until wecan place the call On the other (7) _, long-term memory can store facts, concepts,and experiences after we stop thinking (8) _them All conscious (9) _ofinformation, as in problem solving for example, involves both short-term and long-term
Trang 4memory As we repeat, rehearse, and recycle information, the memory trace isstrengthened, allowing that information to move (10) _ short-term memory to long-term memory.
C9 I have (1) to my hometown of Wilson Creek after an absence of 10 years Somany things have changed around here When I left Wilson Creek, there (2) a smallpond on the right as you left town They have filled in this pond and they have built alarge shopping mall (3) A new post office has also been built just across from myold school There is a baseball (4) on the outskirts of Wilson Creek which has beenchanged (5) They have now added a new stand where probably a few thousandpeople could sit It looks really great The biggest changes have taken place (6) thedowntown area They have pedestrianised the centre and you can't drive thereanymore A European-style fountain has been (7) and (8) benches have alsobeen added along with a grassy area and a new street cafe My street looks just thesame as it always has but a public library has been built in the next street along There(9) to be a great park there but they have cut down all the trees which is a pity Thelibrary now has a large green area in front (10) it but it's not the same as when thepark was there
C10 Philology (1) _the traditional study of language, especially of written languages
in their cultural settings Because philology (2) _with the relationship of languages, it isusually comparative; because these relationships evolve (3) _time, it is typicallyhistorical Languages (4) _ to change in the direction of greater diversity; onelanguage tends to be superseded by several: a (5) _“dead” language preservesevidence of the earlier forms from which “living” languages developed Thedescendants of Latin have diverged to the point that, though Italian is related(6) _English, they are now foreign to each other as is their common “parent” to both.Also cultures change the meaning and use of many words In English, piano is akeyboard (7) _; in Italian piano not only names the instrument, it also means “soft” asopposed to “loud” The original name for the instrument was pianoforte (soft-loud),because it was more (8) _of varying sound volume than instruments like theharpsichord that came before it The special meaning of the Italian phrase results fromits (9) _context and the distinctive feature of the instrument it names But in Englishand other languages, we abbreviate it to piano The English word still (10) _the sameinstrument but the abbreviation discards “and loud" from the original Italian phrase andhence becomes a name and not a description
Trang 5C11 Edward Patrick Eagan was (1) _April 26, 1897, in Denver, Colorado, and hisfather died in a railroad accident when Eagan was only a year old He and his fourbrothers (2) _raised by his mother, who earned a small income from teaching foreignlanguages Inspired (3) _Frank Merriwell, the hero of a series of popular novels forboys, Eagan pursued an education for himself as well as an interest (4) _boxing He(5) _the University of Denver for a year before serving in the U.S Army as an artillerylieutenant during World War I After the war, he entered Yale University and, whilestudying there, won the U.S national amateur heavyweight boxing title He graduatedfrom Yale in 1921, attended Harvard Law School, and received a Rhodes scholarship tothe University of Oxford (6) _he received his A.M in 1928 While studying at Oxford,Eagan became (7) _first American to win the British amateur boxing championship.Eagan won his first Olympic gold medal as a light heavyweight boxer (8) _the 1920Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium Eagan also fought at the 1924 Olympics in Paris as
a heavyweight but failed to get a medal Though he had (9) _ the sport just threeweeks before the competition, he managed to win a second gold medal as a member
of the four-man bobsled team at the 1932 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York Thus hebecame the only athlete to (10) gold medals at both the Summer and WinterOlympics
C12 Vitamins, taken in tiny doses, (1) _a major group of organic compounds thatregulate the mechanisms by which the body converts food (2) _energy They shouldnot be confused (3) _minerals, which are inorganic in their makeup Although ingeneral the naming of vitamins followed the alphabetical order of their (4) _, thenomenclature of individual substances may appear to be somewhat random anddisorganized Among the vitamins (5) _today, five are produced in the body.Because the body produces (6) _quantities of some but not sill vitamins, they must
be supplemented in the daily diet (7) _each vitamin has its specific designationand cannot be replaced by another compound, a lack of one vitamin can interferewith the processing of (8) _ When a lack of even one vitamin in a diet is continual, avitamin deficiency may (9) _ The best way for an individual to ensure a necessarysupply of vitamins is to maintain a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods andprovides adequate quantities of all the compounds Some people take vitaminsupplements, predominantly in the (10) _of tablets
C13 What has caused these major changes? One reason (1) _economic necessitymay be that the husband has (2) _his job and the wife must support the family Oreven if the husband is working, some families say they can’t survive on only(3) _paycheck But probably a (4) _important influence has been the “women’s
Trang 6liberation movement” Women are being told in (5) _magazines and TV programsthat “You can be successful on your own Don’t be satisfied with (6) _being a wifeand mother Use your intelligence and talents to do something bigger And you should
be paid (7) much as a man.” (8) _doubt this movement has accomplished muchgood But it has also contributed to a selfish “me first” attitude that is breaking up manyfamilies Sometimes women (9) _are happy staying at home feel that workingwomen look (10) them There are no easy answers to these problems But certainlywomen’s influence will continue to grow in business, education and politics
C14 Leisure is generally seen as an (1) which takes place outside (2) _ hours.The peak leisure time for most people is between 6.00 pm and 12.00 am, although inrecent years there has been an increase in people working (3) hours and shifts,together with more "flexitime" Leisure is often thought of purely as a (4) activity, i.e.playing sport Although many people use their (5) time in this way, there are plenty
of other leisure opportunities that are more (6) in nature, such as of one's watching television or sunbathing on a beach It is important to realise that leisure canembrace a whole range of experiences and activities, although personal choice may
life-be limited due to factors such as age or provision of local (7) _ The leisure emphasiswill normally change at different (8) _ cycle Different types of leisure (9) tend
to be popular with varying age groups It's probably true, however, that some members
of the older (10) are more capable of pursuing active pastimes than they aresometimes given credit for
C15 Our journey to Greece began at six in the morning, when my family and I set offfrom the house in our old car We'd only gone a mile when we got a (1) tyre, andafter we'd fixed that we had to hurry to the airport We (2) to reach the check-in justbefore it closed, then went through to the departure lounge Soon we were (3) _theplane, and looking forward to our week on an island in the sun I had a window seat,but since I was directly above the (4) I couldn't see much, so I asked the flight(5) if I could move to another seat She found me one nearer the front of the plane,and later on I had a wonderful (6) of the snow-covered mountains as we crossedover the Austrian Alps The weather became sunnier as we approached Greece, andour plane arrived right on (7) at Athens' very smart new airport Half an hour after
we landed, we (8) the train for the centre of Athens, where we (9) _trains for theport of Piraeus It wasn't long before we were on the waterfront After a short wait wewere on board our ferry and sailing out to sea It was a lovely trip, and when finally wereached our destination, the holiday was a (10) _come true
Trang 7C16 Right now, I am (1) _at a shelf full of relics, a collection of has-beens, old-timers,antiques, fossils Right now, I am looking at a shelf full of books If you have some sparecash (the going rate is about $89) and (2) _looking to enhance your readingexperience, then I highly suggest you consider (3) _an e-reader E-readers arereplacing the books of old, and I welcome them with open (4) _ If you haven'theard of an e-reader and (5) _ know what it is, then please permit the followingexplanation An e-reader is a device (6) _allows you to read e-books An e-book is abook-length publication in digital (7) _, consisting of text, images, or both, andproduced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronicdevices Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional (8) _book, e-books can also
be born digital The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronicversion of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent
So now you know what an e-reader is But you still may be wondering why they putprinted books to shame E-readers are superior to printed books because they(9) _space, are (10) friendly, and provide helpful reading tips and tools thatprinted books do not
C17 Many of us are trying to think of new (1) to help the environment Groups whichare involved in protecting the environment think they may have found a long-term(2) _ Most of the current ways of getting people involved in helping the environmentmean that people have to (3) _a large organisation and they can sometimes feelthe problem is too large or (4) _to manage A new (5) _is that groups are set uplocally to deal with small issues that affect just the community they (6) _in It is hopedthis will make people more (7) _ of the importance of helping Also, this planmeans that each community works together by contributing (8) _the environmentand this makes for a strong community If every community does this then organisers are(9) _the effect will be national The government may even offer some (10) _helpfor projects set up by these local groups The idea came from someone who thoughtthat reducing the size of what we do would actually be more productive Also, it shouldmean that helping becomes a pleasure rather than a chore
C18 E-readers are superior (1) _printed books because they save space Theaverage e-reader can store thousands of digital books, (2) _a veritable library atyour fingertips Moreover, being the size and weight of a thin hardback, the e-reader(3) _is relatively petite It is easy to hold and can fit in a pocketbook or briefcaseeasily The average novel is about 300 pages (4) _ Therefore, if a novel is printed
1000 times, it will use 300,000 pieces of paper That's a lot of paper! If there are about80,000 pieces of paper in a tree, this means it (5) _almost 4 trees to make these 1000
Trang 8books We know that the average bestseller sells about 20,000 copies per week Thatmeans that it takes over 300 trees each month to sustain this rate And for the super(6) _, these figures increase dramatically For example, the Harry Potter book serieshas sold over 450 million copies That's about 2 million trees! Upon viewing these (7) _,
it is not hard to grasp the (8) _impact of printed books on the environment Since readers use no trees, (9) _represent a impact significant amount of preservation interms (10) _the environment and its resources
e-C19 The latest blockbuster to hit our cinemas is an adventure film which was made(1) location in Spain The (2) is quite simple; a teenager discovers(3) _secret papers which show that the President is in danger Then she disappears!
We interviewed the actress who (4) _the part of the teenager in the film, JulietRoberts It (5) things did not always go well during the production First, Juliet nearlymissed being in the film Apparently, a copy of the (6) , which the producer hadsent her to read, got lost in the post Then, in the middle of filming, part of thebackground (7) _fell on a member of the camera (8) _ Luckily, the man wasnot seriously hurt but they had to (9) _ another cameraman to take his place at shortnotice Something even worse happened a few days later when the director slippedand broke his leg It (10) _him quite a long time to recover from the shock and hehad to direct the final scenes of the film from his wheelchair
C20 Mona (1) _ like to ask people for help But it is hard (2) _her to perform dailyactivities on her own She is almost 13, yet she is no larger than a 5-year-old Mona hastrouble (3) _her balance and can’t walk very far When she uses a wheelchair, shecan’t push it (4) _ Fortunately, Mona has a wonderful service dog (5) _Sam Aservice dog is a dog that has been trained to assist someone who has a physicalproblem Sam (6) _Mona lean on him when she walks He also pulls her wheelchairand turns lights on and off When Mona drops something, Sam picks it up He(7) _pulls her socks off at night Sam also helps Mona with everyday tasks at school
He carries her books from class to class in a special backpack He puts Mona’scompleted assignments in her teachers’ homework trays In the lunchroom he throwsaway her trash (8) _making Mona less dependent on other people, Sam helps herlead a fuller life Mona’s classmates flock around Sam like geese This has helped her(9) _friends Sam also helps Mona be more active With his aid, she raised over $500
in a walk-a-thon for her local society Because of Sam, Mona doesn’t have to askpeople for help Sam brings her closer to other kids And he even helps her (10) _toher community
Trang 9READING COMPREHENSION (20)
C1 All spiders spin webs That's because webs help spiders Webs help spiders do threethings Webs help spiders hold eggs Webs help spiders hide And webs help spiderscatch food Webs help spiders hold eggs Many spiders like to lay their eggs in theirwebs The webs help keep the eggs together Webs help spiders keep their eggs safe.Webs help spiders hide Most spiders are dark They are brown, grey, or black But spiderwebs are light They are white and cloudy When spiders hide in their webs, they areharder to see Webs help spiders catch food Spider webs are sticky When a bug fliesinto the web, it gets stuck It moves around It tries to get out But it can't It is trapped!Spiders can tell that the bug is trapped That's because spiders feel the web move Andthe spider is hungry The spider goes to get the bug As you can see, webs help spidershold eggs Webs help spiders hide And webs help spiders catch food Without webs,spiders would not be able to live like they do Spiders need their webs to survive
C2 Most human beings are awake during the day and sleep all night Owls live theopposite way Owls are nocturnal This means that they sleep all day and stay awake atnight Because owls are nocturnal, this means they must eat at night But finding food inthe dark is difficult To help them, they have special eyes and ears Owls have very largeeyes These eyes absorb more light than normal Since there is little light during the night,
it is helpful to be able to absorb more of it This helps owls find food in the dark Owls alsohave very good hearing Even when owls are in the trees, they can hear small animalsmoving in the grass below This helps owls catch their prey even when it is very dark Likeowls, mice are also nocturnal animals Mice have an excellent sense of smell This helpsthem find food in the dark Being nocturnal helps mice to hide from the many differentanimals that want to eat them Most of the birds, snakes, and lizards that like to eat micesleep at night—except, of course, owls! Some animals are nocturnal This means theyare active at night The owl and the mouse are good examples of nocturnal animalsthat use their senses to find food in the dark
C3 When we are young, we learn that tigers and sharks are dangerous animals Wemight be scared of them because they are big and powerful As we get older;however, we learn that sometimes the most dangerous animals are also the smallestanimals In fact, the animal that kills the most people every year is one that you haveprobably killed yourself many times: the mosquito While it may seem that all mosquitoesare biters, this is not actually the case Male mosquitoes eat plant nectar On the otherhand, female mosquitoes feed on animal blood They need this blood to live andproduce eggs When a female mosquito bites a human being, it transmits a smallamount of saliva into the blood This saliva may or may not contain a deadly disease.The result of the bite can be as minor as an itchy bump or as serious as death Because
Trang 10a mosquito can bite many people in the course of its life, it can carry diseases from oneperson to another very easily Two of the most deadly diseases carried by mosquitoesare malaria and yellow fever Mosquitoes have many natural enemies like bats, birds,dragonflies, and certain kinds of fish Bringing more of these animals into places wheremosquitoes live might help to cut down the amount of mosquitoes in that area This is anatural solution, but it does not always work very well Mosquitoes can also be killed withpoisons or sprays Even though these sprays kill mosquitoes, they may also harm otherplants or animals.
C4 Rainforests circle the globe for twenty degrees of latitude on both sides of theequator In that relatively narrow band of the planet, more than half of all the species ofplants and animals in the world make their home Several hundred different varieties oftrees may grow in a single acre, and just one of those trees may be the habitat for morethan ten thousand kinds of spiders, ants, and other insects More species of amphibians,birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles live in rainforests than anywhere else on earth.Unfortunately, half of the world’s rainforests have already been destroyed, and at thecurrent rate, another 25 percent will be lost by the year 2030 Scientists estimate that asmany as fifty million acres are destroyed annually In other words, every sixty seconds,one hundred acres of rainforest is being cleared By the time you finish reading thispassage, two hundred acres will have been destroyed! When this happens, constantrains erode the former forest floor, the thin layer of soil no longer supports plant life, andthe ecology of the region is altered forever Thousands of species of plants and animalsare condemned to extinction and since we aren’t able to predict the ramifications ofthis loss to a delicate global ecology, we don’t know what we may be doing to thefuture of the human species as well
C5 Should women find their happiness inside or outside the home? In the United Statespeople used to believe the saying, “A woman’s place is in the home.” But now bothwomen and society are changing More than fifty percent of American womencontinue their work even after they are married What has brought about thesechanges? What is happening to the American family today? Up until the 1950’s atypical American woman got married in her early 20’s In those days she quit her joband became a mother “A woman’s place is in the home” was a popular saying Mostwomen felt that taking care of their home and family was their full-time job But timeshave changed Women are getting married later these days and more have chosen tostay single Others get married but decide not to have any children Today more thanfifty percent of all married women work full-time Many others run businesses in theirhomes What has caused these major changes? One reason is economic necessity Itmay be that the husband has lost his job and the wife must support the family Or even if
Trang 11the husband is working, some families say they can’t survive on only one paycheck Butprobably a more important influence has been the “women’s liberation movement.”Women are being told in many magazines and TV programs: “You can be successful onyour own Don’t be satisfied with just being a wife and mother Use your intelligence andtalents to do something bigger And you should be paid as much as a man.”
No doubt this movement has accomplished much good But it has also contributed to aselfish “me first” attitude that is breaking up many families Sometimes women who arehappy staying at home feel that working women look down on them There are no easyanswers to these problems But certainly women’s influence will continue to grow inbusiness, education and politics
C6 When John Mills was going to fly in an aeroplane for the first time, he was frightened
He did not like the idea of being thousands of feet up in the air “I also didn’t like thefact that I wouldn’t be in control,” says John “I’m a terrible passenger in the car Whensomebody else is driving, I tell them what to do It drives everybody crazy” However,John couldn’t avoid flying any longer It was the only way he could visit hisgrandchildren in Canada To get ready for the flight John did lots of reading aboutaeroplanes When he booked his seat, he was told that he would be flying on a Boeing
777, which is better known as a jumbo jet “I needed to know as much as possiblebefore getting on that plane I suppose it was a way of making myself feel better TheBoeing 777 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world at the moment Even though Ihad discovered all this very interesting information about the jumbo, when I saw it forthe first time, just before I was going to travel to Canada, I still couldn’t believe thatsomething so enormous was going to get up in the air and fly I was even moreimpressed when I saw how big it was inside with hundreds of people!” The biggestsurprise of all for John was the flight itself “The take-off itself was much smoother than Iexpected although I was still quite scared until we were in the air In the end, I managed
to relax, enjoy the food and watch one of the movies and the view from the windowwas spectacular I even managed to sleep for a while! Of course,” continues John, “thebest reward of all was when I arrived in Canada and saw my son and his family,particularly my beautiful grandchildren Suddenly, I felt so silly about all the years when Icouldn’t even think of getting on a plane I had let my fear of flying stop me from seeingthe people I love most in the world I can visit my son and his family as often as I likenow!”
C7 With the onset of the winter season, man’s natural enemies, the common cold andthe flu, arrive with full force It seems that the fluctuations in temperature and weatherare guarantees that coughs and sneezes will spread infecting germs among family and
Trang 12friends More than 100 different types of bacteria can cause a cold, and doctorssometimes use antibiotics to treat bacterial colds However, there are an equal number
of viruses that can cause influenza, and modern science offers no drug capable ofcuring viral infections In most cases, the best advice is the usual prescription: get plenty
of rest, drink lot fluids, and be prepared to suffer for three to ten days Some home cureshelp to relieve the symptoms of colds and flus Mother’s chicken soup, rich in fats andoils, helps to revitalize a tired body and to soothe a sore throat Garlic, containing theactive ingredient allicin, has long been used to fight off the effects of bacteria andviruses Hot toddies consisting of small amounts of liquor mixed with honey, sugar, andlemon juice can relieve soreness and draw out cold germs Finally, recent evidencesuggests that large doses of vitamin C not only boost the immune system before a coldarrives, but also relieve cold symptoms after they have set in
C8 Today’s cars are smaller, safer, cleaner, and more economical than theirpredecessors, but the car of the future will be far more pollution-free than those on theroad today Several new types of automobile engines have already been developedthat run on alternative sources of power, such as electricity, compressed natural gas,methanol, steam, hydrogen, and propane Electricity, however, is the only zero-emissionoption presently available Although electric vehicles will not be truly practical until apowerful, compact battery or other dependable source of current is available,transportation experts foresee a new assortment of electric vehicles entering everydaylife: shorter-range commuter electric cars, three-wheeled neighborhood cars, electricdelivery vans, bikes, and trolleys As automakers work to develop practical electricvehicles, urban planners and utility engineers are focusing on infrastructure systems tosupport and make the best use of the new cars Public charging facilities will need to be
as common as today’s gas stations Public parking spots on the street or in commerciallots will need to be equipped with devices that allow drivers to charge their batterieswhile they shop, dine, or attend a concert To encourage the use of electric vehicles,the most convenient parking in transportation centers might be reserved for electriccars Planners foresee electric shuttle buses, trains, buses, and neighborhood vehicles allmeeting at transit centers that would have facilities for charging and renting.Commuters will be able to rent a variety of electric cars to suit their needs: light trucks;one-person three-wheelers; small cars; or electric, gasoline hybrid cars for longer trips,which will no doubt take place on automated freeways capable of handling five timesthe number of vehicles that can be carried by a freeway today
C9 Being able to forecast the weather isn’t just to do with informing people aboutwhether or not they can go to the beach or have a picnic When there are going to besevere weather conditions, the ability to prepare for them can be a matter of life or
Trang 13death A hurricane needs certain weather conditions to start forming: warm tropicaloceans with moisture and heat above them The centre of the hurricane is very calmand it is called the “eye”, but the most violent activity takes place in the areaimmediately around the eye which is called the “eyewall” When hurricanes move ontothe land from the sea, the heavy rain, strong winds and huge waves can causeunbelievable damage to buildings and trees, and cars can be picked up and thrownlike matchboxes The greatest danger, however, is in the rise in the sea level as it hits theland This is called the ‘storm surge’ and can be catastrophic To measure how powerful
an approaching hurricane is, meteorologists use something called the Saffir-SimpsonHurricane Scale This means that a hurricane coming towards the land is given anumber from 1 to 5 depending on how fast its winds are The calmest hurricane is giventhe number 1 on the scale As technology has developed and we can now forecast theweather, it has meant that the advance warnings given have greatly reduced thenumber of deaths caused by hurricanes However, the damage to property, whichcannot be avoided, still costs billions of dollars to repair
C10 To be successful, a business traveler must be able to maintain contact with theoffice, no matter what the time or place Negotiations often involve decisions based onthe latest figures New telecommunications products and services now on the marketmake staying in touch easier than ever before The most widespread device is thecellular telephone, the price of which has dropped from several thousand dollars to afew hundred, including installation There are over two million mobile cellular phones inuse today, including both car phones and cordless transportable units Car phoneshave proven indispensable for road emergencies as well as routine businesstransactions Phone service is also available on airplanes and on the rails Recentlyintroduced pocket-size organizers help business travelers with heavy schedules keeptrack of clients These are tiny computers that can store all kinds of information Theycan serve as phone and address directories, calendars, electronic memo pads, andcalculators, among other uses Another invaluable telecommunications tool is smaller,lighter fax machines that plug into any standard electrical outlet and phone line Thedevices allow instantaneous transmission of hard copy to any location having acompatible fax machine It is expected that faxing will soon become the primary means
of sending and receiving short documents requiring prompt action
C11 During the nineteenth century, women in the United States organized andparticipated in a large number of reform movements, including movements toreorganize the prison system, improve education, ban the sale of alcohol, grant rights topeople who were denied them, and, most importantly, free slaves Some women sawsimilarities in the social status of women and slaves Women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Trang 14and Lucy Stone were not only feminists who fought for the rights of women but alsofervent abolitionists who fought to do away with slavery These brave people weresocial leaders who supported the rights of both women and blacks They were fightingagainst a belief that voting should be tied to land ownership, and because land wasowned by men, and in some cases by their widows, only those who held the greateststake in government, that is the male landowners, were considered worthy of the vote.Women did not conform to the requirements A number of male abolitionists, includingWilliam Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, also supported the rights of women to speakand to participate equally with men in antislavery activities Probably more than anyother movement, abolitionism offered women a previously denied entry into politics.They became involved primarily in order to better their living conditions and improve theconditions of others However, they gained the respect of those they convinced andalso earned the right to be considered equal citizens When the civil war between theNorth and the South ended in 1865, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to theConstitution adopted in 1868 and 1870 granted citizenship and suffrage to blacks butnot to women Discouraged but resolved, feminists worked tirelessly to influence moreand more women to demand the right to vote In 1869, the Wyoming Territory hadyielded to demands by feminists, but the states on the East Coast resisted morestubbornly than before A women’s suffrage bill had been presented to every Congresssince 1878, but it continually failed to pass until 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendmentgranted women the right to vote.
C12 The first settlers who came to America were not rich The ships, food, tools andweapons necessary for voyage to America and new life there were financed bycompanies in England One person’s voyage to the New World cost about ten pounds.Settlers also needed help until they harvested crops The total cost was probably morethan ten thousand dollars, in today’s dollars, for each settler Settlers had to find out how
to repay this debt Almost all the settlers became farmers and raised food and madematerial for their clothes They also produced raw materials which they could send back
to England In the South, in such colonies as Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina,tobacco was found most profitable In South Carolina and Georgia, rice was the mostpopular crop Slaves worked in the tobacco and rice fields on large plantations Therewere also some independent farms which raised them On farms from New York toPennsylvania, settlers produced large quantities of grain, beer, beef and pork, and theyexported them to England and the West Indies They also exported large quantities offurs, which they received in trade from Indians Settlers in New England had a hard time
at the beginning Raising crops in the stony soil was difficult, so they had to find othermeans to make a profit They depended on lumber and other natural resources Theyhad to use the sea to make a living They did ship-building, fishing and trading
Trang 15C13 Thomas Alva Edison lit up the world with his invention of the electric light Withouthim, the world might still be a dark place However, the electric light was not his onlyinvention He also invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and over1,200 other things About every two weeks he created something new Thomas A Edisonwas bom in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847 His family moved to Port Huron, Michigan,when he was seven years old Surprisingly, he attended school for only two months Hismother, a former teacher, taught him a few things, but Thomas was mostly self-educated His natural curiosity led him to start experimenting at a young age withelectrical and mechanical things at home When he was 12 years old, he got his first job
He became a newsboy on a train that ran between Port Huron and Detroit He set up alaboratory in a baggage car of the train so that he could continue his experiments in hisspare time Unfortunately, his first work experience did not end well Thomas was firedwhen he accidentally set fire to the floor of the baggage car Thomas then worked forfive years as a telegraph operator, but he continued to spend much of his time on thejob conducting experiments He got his first patent in 1868 for a vote recorder run byelectricity However, the vote recorder was not a success In 1870, he sold anotherinvention, a stock-ticker, for $40,000 Thomas Edison was totally deaf in one ear andhard of hearing in the ether, but thought of his deafness as a blessing in many ways Itkept conversations short, so that he could have more time for work He left numerousinventions that improved the quality of life all over the world
C14 Have you ever heard someone use the phrase “once in a blue moon?” People usethis expression to describe something that they do not do very often For example,someone might say that he tries to avoid eating sweets because they are unhealthy,but will eat chocolate “once in a blue moon.” Or someone who does not usually like to
go to the beach might say “I visit the shore once in a blue moon.” While many peopleuse this phrase, not everyone knows the meaning behind it The first thing to know is thatthe moon itself is never actually blue This is just an expression The phrase “blue moon”actually has to do with the shape of the moon, not the color As the moon travelsaround the earth, it appears to change shape We associate certain names with certainshapes of the moon For example, when we can see a small part of the moon, it iscalled a crescent moon A crescent is a shape that looks like the tip of a fingernail.When we cannot see the moon at all, it is called a new moon When we can see theentire moon, it is called a full moon Usually, there is only one full moon every month.Sometimes, however, there will be two full moons in one month When this happens, thesecond full moon is called a “blue moon.” Over the next 20 years, there will only be 15blue moons As you can see, a blue moon is a very rare event This fact has led people
Trang 16to use the expression “once in a blue moon” to describe other very rare events in theirlives.
C15 Many people like to eat pizza, but not everyone knows how to make it Making theperfect pizza can be complicated, but there are lots of ways for you to make a morebasic version at home When you make pizza, you must begin with the crust The crustcan be hard to make If you want to make the crust yourself, you will have to makedough using flour, water, and yeast You will have to knead the dough with your hands
If you do not have enough time to do this, you can use a prepared crust that you buyfrom the store After you have chosen your crust, you must then add the sauce Makingyour own sauce from scratch can take a long time You have to buy tomatoes, peelthem, and then cook them with spices If this sounds like too much work, you can alsopurchase jarred sauce from the store Many jarred sauces taste almost as good as thekind you make at home Now that you have your crust and your sauce, you need toadd the cheese Cheese comes from milk, which comes from cows Do you have a cow
in your backyard? Do you know how to milk the cow? Do you know how to turn thatmilk into cheese? If not, you might want to buy cheese from the grocery store instead ofmaking it yourself When you have the crust, sauce, and cheese ready, you can addother toppings Some people like to put meat on their pizza, while other people like toadd vegetables Some people even like to add pineapple! The best part of making apizza at home is that you can customize it by adding your own favorite ingredients
C16 When you imagine the desert, you probably think of a very hot place covered withsand Although this is a good description for many deserts, Earth’s largest desert isactually a very cold place covered with ice: Antarctica In order for an area to beconsidered a desert, it must receive very little rainfall More specifically, it must receive
an average of less than ten inches of precipitation—which can be rain, sleet, hail, orsnow—on the ground every year Antarctica, the coldest place on earth, has anaverage temperature that usually falls below the freezing point And because cold airholds less moisture than warm air, the air in Antarctica does not hold much moisture atall This is evident in the low precipitation statistics recorded for Antarctica For example,the central part of Antarctica receives an average of less than 2 inches of snow everyyear The coastline of Antarctica receives a little bit more—between seven and eightinches a year Because Antarctica gets so little precipitation every year, it is considered
a desert.When precipitation falls in hot deserts, it quickly evaporates back into theatmosphere The air over Antarctica is too cold to hold water vapor, so there is very littleevaporation Due to this low rate of evaporation, most of the snow that falls to theground remains there permanently, eventually building up into thick ice sheets Anysnow that does not freeze into ice sheets becomes caught up in the strong winds that