Choose the best answer:
I/ can’t/ imagine/ life/ without/ science/ technology.
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Lời giải:
Báo saiGiải thích:
and nối 2 danh từ mang nghĩa “và…”
Dịch: Tôi không thể tưởng tượng cuộc đời chúng ta khi không có khoa học và công nghệ.
Câu hỏi liên quan
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Rewrite the sentence:
I am really keen on playing sports. -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain structure that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been speculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary. The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’ responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free ranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact. This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole is also particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to being touched there The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species. Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater – specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whales and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii – have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision. On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has an extremely keen vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently see fairly well through the air–water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’s hand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.
6. As mentioned in paragraph 3, grey whale calf _____________ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Books have been around for thousands of years. When ancient civilizations first started developing writing systems, they would write on just about anything, from stone to tree bark. Ancient Egyptians were the first to use paper-like materials, called “papyrus”, which they made by pounding flat the woven stems of the papyrus plant. It was not long before the ancient Egyptians began gluing together papyrus sheets to form scrolls, which were the first steps toward books as you know. The birthplace of bookbinding is considered to be India in the 2nd century B.C., where Hindi scribes would bind palm leaves that were etched with religious texts between two wooden boards using twine. The technique became popular in the Middle East and Eastern Asia, and spread to the Romans by the 2nd century A.D. In the mid-15th century, German Johannes Gutenberg invented the first mechanical printing press. His invention was revolutionary because it enabled mass production of booksfor the first time. Before the printing press, a few pages per day could be produced by handcopying. Afterward, printing presses could produce as many as 3,600 pages per day. Today, modern publishers take advantage of incredible advances in technology to produce books in many sizes and shapes very quickly. Although there are many types of processes and machines available, most processes involve similar steps. Printers print the text of a book on large sheets of paper, sometimes as large as a newspaper page. Working with large volumes of paper allows printers to lower costs and produce books more efficiently.The large sheets are then cut into smaller pages that are still about twice the size of a finished book. The smaller pages are then divided into small groups, folded in half, and sewn together. Lastly, the folded and sewn pages are cut down to their finished size and glued to the spine of the final book’s cover. Depending on the quality of the book, additional finishing touches may be added, such as blank pages at the front and back of the book or special tape around the edges of the cover to increase durability. Although printed books may never go away completely, today’s readers will most certainly soon become more familiar with e-books. “E-book” refers to an electronic book, which is simply the text of a book displayed electronically, either via the Internet, a CD-ROM, a tablet, an e-book reader, or even a mobile phone. As electronic devices, such as tablets and mobile phones, become more commonplace, e-books are expected to become more and more popular. One of the benefits of e-books is that they save paper, which helps the environment by reducing the demand for trees
5. According to paragraph 4, how to produce books more cheaply and efficiently? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Globalization can be seen as increased economic, cultural and technological exchange between countries. Examples might be McDonald's in Calcutta and Japanese motor technology in Britain. Many international organizations are pro-globalization, while many others are anti- ones. The main organizations against globalization are the environmental organizations, such as Friends of the Earth and reenpeace, who put forward the belief that globalization harms the environment. In general, these organizations blame global corporations for global warning and the depletion of natural resources. The most obvious is oil and gas, but there are others such as tropical rainforests, which are cut down for timber, and the resources of the sea, which may be affected by pollution. Organizations which represent developing countries, including international aid agencies such as Oxfam, are also against globalization. They are concerned that the global organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, are not doing enough to help the poor and indeed, may be adding to their problems. Some are critical of the World Trade Organization (WTO). They argue that the WTO is making difficult for poor countries to protect and build their own industries. On the contrary, many organizations are in favor of globalization. Perhaps the most important one is the WTO. This organization was set up in 1995 and has 123 member countries. It administers the rules of international trade agreed by its member countries. The WTO's rules make it difficult for a country to favor their own industry over imports from other countries. The WTO argues that the growth of trade between countries increases the wealth of everyone. Trade allows those who can produce goods most cheaply to do so, thus giving everyone the best possible price. Another pro-globalization organization is IMF. This was established after World War II in 1946. It aims to promote international cooperation on finance and provide temporary help for countries suffering financial problems. The IMF has 182 member countries. Finally, the United Nations, which was established after the Second World War, has become a promoter of globalization. It aims to promote a shared set of values in the areas of labour standards, human rights and environmental practices between the UN and the business community.
1. The author mentions McDonald's in Calcutta and Japanese motor technology in Britain as examples of: -
Stop Pollution Now!
Pollution is a really big problem on our planet and it must (1) …. immediately. It must be stopped before our planet goes extinct. There are three main reasons, in my opinion, why pollution should be stopped.
The first reason why we should stop pollution is that pollution is destroying the environment we live in. Carbon dioxide is a big (2) ……….. to pollution. Carbon dioxide affects our climate in many different ways. The way it works is that certain ‘greenhouse gases’ can't escape (3) …….. our atmosphere because they get trapped. The second reason why we should stop pollution is that it also has an influence on us – (4) ……….. Pollution also influences human life and that is a big problem. According to the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution from the burning of coal or biomass fuels like wood risks lives of millions of people. Air pollution causes two million deaths per year, mostly from heart disease and respiratory disorders (5) …….. infections and lung cancer.
The third reason why we should stop pollution is that (6) …………. we do, we can live longer on this planet. If we don’t stop pollution and global warming, something really bad will happen (7) ….. us. Humans have destroyed the planet so quickly. We can live longer and extent our existence on this planet so that our children’s children can live in a planet without worries. In short, pollution must be stopped immediately. The earth is our only home and we must protect it and take care of it as much as we can. Pollution must be stopped before we (8) ………. our planet.
et.
(7) …......
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Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the undelined part that needs correction in each of the following questions:
There has been much debate over the past few decades concerning fears that automation will lead to robots replacing human workers on a massive scale.
The increasing use of robotics, computers and artificial intelligence is a reality, but its full implications are far from cut and dried. Some forecasts present the future in a utopian way, claiming that robots will take over the tedious heavy work thus freeing up human time and potential, allowing for more creativity and innovation. At the other end of spectrum are those who foresee an employment apocalypse, predicting that almost fifty percent of all American jobs could vanish within the next few decades. Former Microsoft chairman Bill Gates states that in 20 years robots could be in place in a number of job categories, particularly those at lower end of the scale in terms of skills.
The bottom line is that while the future is always uncertain, robots are a fixture of our society, which is not going to disappear. As with the Industrial Revolution, where machines were utilized in many tasks in place of manual laborers and social upheaval followed, the Digital Revolution is likely to place robots in various jobs. In spite of that, many of today’s jobs were not in existence before the Industrial Revolution, such as those of programmers, engineers and data scientists. This leads other experts to criticize this alarmist approach of robot scare-mongering, which is invariably compared to the 19th-century “Luddites”. This group was textile workers who feared being displaced by machines and resorted to violence, burning down factories and destroying industrial equipment – their rejection of inevitable progress has come to symbolize mindless ignorance.
Needless to say, exactly what new kinds of jobs might exist in the future is difficult to envision at present. Therefore, the crux of the issue is not whether jobs will be lost, but whether the creation of new vacancies will outpace the ever-increasing number of losses and what skills will be required in the future.
It is clearly not all doom and gloom, as demand for employees with skills in data analysis, coding, computer science, artificial intelligence and human-machine interface is rising and will continue to do so. Furthermore, the demand for skills in jobs where humans surpass computers, such as those involving care, creativity and innovative craftmanship, are likely to increase considerably. Ultimately, the key lies in the adaptation of the workforces, through appropriate education and training, to keep pace with our world’s technological progress.What is the main concern associated with technological advances in the workplace?
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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
Women’s representation in government is stalled, and in some cases moving backward. Does that make a difference to the work of governing? Yes, according to decades of data from around the world. Women govern differently than men do in some important ways. They tend to be more collaborative and bipartisan. They push for far more policies meant to support women, children, social welfare and — when they’re in executive positions — national security. But these bills are also more likely to die, largely because of gender bias, research shows. Women in Congress sponsor and co-sponsor more bills than men do, and bring 9 percent more federal money to their districts, according to a study in the American Journal of Political Science. Those bills are more likely to benefit women and children or address issues like education, health and poverty. In Congress, for instance, women fought for women’s health coverage in the Affordable Care Act, sexual harassment rules in the military, the inclusion of women in medical trials, and child care vouchers in welfare overhaul. “All members of Congress have to follow their constituency, but because of their personal experiences either as women in the work force or as mothers, they might be inclined to legislate on some of these issues,” said Michele L. Swers, a professor of government at Georgetown University who studies gender and policy making. In a new analysis of the 151,824 public bills introduced in the House between 1973 and 2014, to be published in print in Political Science Research and Methods, researchers found that women were significantly more likely than men to sponsor bills in areas like civil rights, health and education. Men were more likely to sponsor bills in agriculture, energy and macroeconomics. An analysis of floor speeches during the 106th Congress, by political scientists at the University of Iowa and Oklahoma State University, found that women spent more time talking about policy concerns like women’s health and family issues. Another study, of State of the State speechesfrom 2006 to 2008 published in State and Local Government Review, found that female governors devoted much more attention to social welfare issues than male governors did, even after controlling for political and situational factors. Women are less likely to vote for war or the death penalty. Women’s representation in legislatures is significantly correlated with the abolition of capital punishment, according to a study of 125 countries published in July by researchers at Sul Ross State University in Texas. A higher share of female legislators correlates with less military spending and less use of force in foreign policy, even after controlling for other explanations like partisanship, according to an analysis by researchers from Texas A&M University of data from 22 established democracies from 1970 to 2000. Yet when women are in executive positions, the opposite is true: They are more hawkish than men. The researchers said that could be in part because of a need to overcome stereotypes of women as weak. Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi, all of whom governed in conflicts, were described as governing like men.
4. According to the passage, as a worker and a mother, women tried to address many issues, EXCEPT ____________ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Whether a species is endangered—meaning at risk of extinction—depends on which definition you use. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species classifies an animal as endangered when its numbers in the wild have dropped so low that it’s at “extremely high risk” of extinction. Meanwhile, the United States’ Endangered Species Act of 1973 takes into consideration any destruction to a species’ habitat, whether it has been over-consumed, any disease or predation that threaten it, whether any other man-made factors put it in danger, and what policies currently exist to protect it. When members of the public or a state agency propose to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service that a species be listed as endangered under the law, research and management plans are formed to help those species survive. It is illegal under the Endangered Species Act to capture, hunt, shoot, or otherwise harm an animal that’s listed as endangered. Sometimes, federal agencies decide that although a species could be considered endangered, other species are higher priorities. In those cases, the animal or plant gets limited protections. One animal whose numbers have increased through conservation is the bald eagle. There were only about 500 bald eagles in the continental United States in the 1960s because of pesticides that damaged the shells of their eggs. Conservation efforts including captive breeding programs, habitat protection, and a ban on the insecticide DDT helped the bald eagle’s numbers soar back into the thousands. Another is the giant panda, which was declared no longer endangered in 2016 thanks to 50 years of efforts to save it. U.S. Rep. John Dingell, who wrote the Endangered Species Act, argued that “only natural extinction is part of natural order.” Scientists believe that 227 species - including the grizzly bear, the peregrine falcon and the gray wolf - were saved from extinction in the first 33 years of the law’s existence. Still, critics argue that the act is expensive and ineffective because it protects so many species. Several federal courts have heard and rejected arguments that the Endangered Species Act is unconstitutional, and members of Congress have tried to weaken the law in small ways.
7. The word “act” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
According to airline industry statistics, almost 90 percent of airline accidents are survivable or partiallysurvivable. But passengers can increase their chances of survival by learning and following certain tips. Experts say that you should read and listen to safety instruction before take off and ask questions if you have uncertainties. You should fasten your seat belt low on your hips and as tightly as possible. Of course, you should also know how the release mechanism of your belt operates. During takeoffs and landings, you are advised to keep your feet flat on the floor. Before take off, you should locate the nearest exit and an alterative exit and count the rows of seats between you and the exits so that you can
reach them in the dark if necessary. In the event that you are forewarned of a possible accident, you should put your hands on your ankles and keep your head down until the planes comes to a complete stop. If smoke is present in the cabin, you should keep your head low and cover your face with napkins, towels, or clothing. If possible, wet these for added protection against smoke inhalation. To evacuate as quickly as possible, follow crew commands and do not take personal belongings with you. Do not jump on escape slides before they are fully inflated, and when you jump, do so with your arms and legs extended in front of you. When you get to the ground, you should move away from the plane as quickly as possible, and smoke near the wreckage
2. Travelers are urged by experts to read and listen to safety instruction -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
From their inception, most rural neighborhoods in colonial North America included at least one carpenter, joiner, sawyer, and cooper in woodworking; a weaver and a tailor for clothing production; a tanner, currier, and cordwainer (shoemaker) for fabricating leather objects; and a blacksmith for metalwork. Where stone was the local building material, a mason was sure to appear on the list of people who paid taxes. With only an apprentice as an assistant, the rural artisan provided the neighborhood with common goods from furniture to shoes to farm equipment in exchange for cash or for “goods in kind” from the customer’s field, pasture, or dairy. Sometimes artisans transformed material provided by the customer wove cloth of yam spun at the farm from the wool of the family sheep; made chairs or tables from wood cut in the customer’s own woodlot; produced shoes or leather breeches from cow, deer, or sheepskin tanned on the farm. Like their farming neighbors, rural artisans were part of an economy seen, by one historian, as “an orchestra conducted by nature.” Some tasks could not be done in the winter, others had to be put off during harvest time, and still others waited on raw materials that were only produced seasonally. As the days grew shorter, shop hours kept pace, since few artisans could afford enough artificial light to continue work when the sun went down. To the best of their ability, colonial artisans tried to keep their shops as efficient as possible and to regularize their schedules and methods of production for the best return on their investment in time, tools, and materials. While it is pleasant to imagine a woodworker, for example, carefully matching lumber, joining a chest together without resort to nails or glue, and applying all thought and energy to carving beautiful designs on the finished piece, the time required was not justified unless the customer was willing to pay extra for the quality - and few in rural areas were. Artisans, therefore, often found it necessary to employ as many shortcuts and economics as possible while still producing satisfactory products.
5. It can be inferred from the passage that the use of artificial light in colonial times was ____ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.
In the western customs (26) _____ hands is the customary form of greeting, but in China a nod of the head or (27) _____ bow is sufficient. Hugging and kissing when greeting are uncommon. Business cards are often (28) _____ and yours should be printed in your own language and in Chinese. Also, it is more respectful to present your card or a gift or any other article using (29) _____ hands. The Chinese are (30) _____ applauders. You may be greeted with group clapping, even by small children. When a person is applauded in this practice it is the custom for that person to return the applause or a "thank you." When walking in public places, direct eye (31) _____ and staring is uncommon in the larger cities, especially in those areas accustomed to foreign visitors. (32) _____, in smaller communities, visitors may be the subject of much curiosity and therefore you may notice some stares. (33) _____ speaking, the Chinese are not a touch-oriented society, especially true for visitors. So, avoid (34) _____ or any prolonged form of body contact. Public displays of affection are very rare. On the other hand, you may note people of the same sex walking hand-in-hand, which is simply a gesture of friendship. Do not worry about a bit of pushing and shoving in stores or when groups board public buses or trains. In this case, (35) _____ are neither offered or expected. The Chinese will stand much closer than Westerners.
(35) _____
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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships. “Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world,” said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University. Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m). Previous research has suggested that a person’s conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly. This figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people. But Dr. Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure. The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends. Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face. “People see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships,” added Dr. Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. “What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people,” he said. But to develop a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr. Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need them … It’s very easy to be deceptive on the internet."
4. What does the word “they” in paragraph 3 refer to? -
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The British are particular about timings and being late is frowned upon, but being on time is a complicated matter because in some situations, being a few minutes early on others means being exactly on time and in some instances, it is completely acceptable to arrive 10 minutes to a few hours later than the stated time. This can be a minefield for someone who is new to the UK, so here are some basics rules that will help you get your timings right whatever the situation. In formal meetings, such as job interviews, you should arrive at least five minutes before your meeting. This will give you time to compose yourself before your big meeting. In the UK, arriving late for a formal meeting is seen as unprofessional and will reflect badly on you. If you are running late, ring your host to let them know you will be late. On arrival, apologize sincerely and offer a reason for your lateness, such as you got lost or the train was delayed. It will help you redeem yourself. However, if you are late because you set off later than you should have, it’s wise to keep that to yourself! With appointments such as visits to the doctor or dentist, the time you are given for your appointment isn’t necessarily the time you will be seen. It is not uncommon you may have to wait between 15-30 minutes before you are seen by a doctor and that can be much longer if it is a hospital appointment. Nevertheless, you should arrive at least five minutes before your appointment and it is recommended you take a drink and something to read. When you start a new job, you are given your typical working hours. For example, if you are expected to start at 9am, it is not acceptable to arrive after this time. Most employers make an exception if you are late once in a while. If you have an appointment, you need to seek permission from your employer to arrive later on that day. Being late consistently will land you in trouble and you can be sacked from your job if after three warnings you are still late. There is an unsaid rule that you can be a few minutes late for a lecture or seminar once in a while. When you are late, you should enter quietly and find a seat at the back of the room. At the end of lecture or seminar, you should offer your apology to the lecturer. If you have been invited to a dinner party, you should arrive exactly on time as the host will have planned when they will serve the food. You will find that your host will serve their guests a pre-dinner drink, so that gives you a bit of wiggle room, but if you are running later than 10 minutes, you should ring your host and let them know how late you might be. That way they can decide whether to go ahead and serve the other guests. When you arrive you should offer the host and the other guests your apology for being late.
4. Which of the appointments are often later than expected time? -
Choose the best answer:
If/ people/ breath/ contaminate/ air, they/ have/ breathing problems. -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
An astronaut living in space begins a day in much the same way as he would on Earth. The astronaut is able to brush his teeth and use the toilet in space. It is, however, rather challenging as the water droplets will (1) _________ around. The astronaut will also have to make to do with sponge baths. There is a special plan for the astronaut on (2) _______ a spaceship which includes beverages and food items. The astronaut is allowed to have a maximum of three main meals a day. The meal varies each day until the sixth day. On that day, the menu is (3) _______ and the astronaut eats the meals he had on the first day. The food that is brought on a shuttle mission can be dehydrated, in natural (4) _________ for fresh. Sometimes, they are kept in thermostabilized cans or sealed pouches. It takes only thirty minutes to cook a delicious meal for a (5) ____________ of up to seven people on a space mission. However, astronauts have to eat slowly and carefully or the food will float away. -
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The temperature of the earth is rising at nearly twice the rate it was 50 years ago. This rapid rate and pattern of warming, scientists have concluded, cannot be explained by natural cycles alone. The only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. To come to a conclusion on climate change, the United Nations formed a group of scientists called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. The IPCC meets every few years to review the latest scientific findings and write a report summarizing all that is known about global warming. Each report represents a consensus, or agreement, among hundreds of leading scientists. One of the first things the IPCC learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture, especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2. Different greenhouse gases have very different heat-trapping abilities. Some of them can even trap more heat than CO2. A molecule of methane produces more than 20 times the warming of a molecule of CO2. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than CO2. Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which have been banned in much of the world because they also degrade the ozone layer, have heat-trapping potential thousands of times greater than CO2. But because their concentrations are much lower than CO2, none of these gases adds as much warmth to the atmosphere as CO2 does. In order to understand the effects of all the gases together, scientists tend to talk about all greenhouse gases in terms of the equivalent amount of CO2. Since 1990, yearly emissions have gone up by about 6 billion metric tons of “carbon dioxide equivalent” worldwide, more than a 20 percent increase.
3. According to paragraph 2, what is the main work of IPCC every few years? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman’s life spent in caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which custom, opportunity and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman’s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has the care of children, her work is lightened by household appliances and convenience food. This important change in women’s life-pattern has only recently begun to have its full effect on women’s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity, and most of them took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school- leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full-time or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to their abilities and interests of each of them.
4. Nowadays, a husband tends to__________ -
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For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that took Neolithic builders an estimated 1,500 years to erect. Its construction is so baffling because, scientists have traced the bluestones that make up its inner ring all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles from where Stonehenge sits on Salisbury Plain. If the facts surrounding the architects and construction of Stonehenge remain shadowy at best, the purpose of the arresting monument is even more of a mystery. While historians agree that it was a place of great importance for over 1,000 years, we may never know what drew early Britons to Salisbury Plain and inspired them to continue developing it. There is strong archaeological evidence that Stonehenge was used as a burial site, at least for part of its long history, but most scholars believe it served other functions as well-either as a ceremonial site, a religious pilgrimage destination, a final resting place for royalty or a memorial erected to honor and perhaps spiritually connect with distant ancestors. In the 1960s, the astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggested that the cluster of megalithic stones operated as an astronomical calendar, with different points corresponding to astrological phenomena such as solstices, equinoxes and eclipses. While his theory has received quite a bit of attention over the years, critics maintain that Stonehenge’s builders probably lacked the knowledge necessary to predict such events or that England’s dense cloud cover would have obscured their view of the skies. More recently, signs of illness and injury in the human remains unearthed at Stonehenge led a group of British archaeologists to speculate that it was considered a place of healing, perhaps because bluestones were thought to have curative powers.
5. According to paragraph 3, what is the speculation of Gerald Hawkins concerning the purpose of the heritage? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Like the revolutions that preceded it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for populations around the world. To date, those who have gained the most from it have been consumers able to afford and access the digital world; technology has made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and pleasure of our personal lives. Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product, making a payment, listening to music, watching a film or playing a game — any of these can now be done remotely. In the future, technological innovation will also lead to a supply-side miracle, with long-term gains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and communication costs will drop, logistics and global supply chains will become more effective and the cost of trade will diminish, all of which will open new markets and drive economic growth. At the same time, as the economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee have pointed out, the revolution could yield greater inequality, particularly in its potential to disrupt labor markets. As automation substitutes for labor across the entire economy, the net displacement of workers by machines might exacerbate the gap between returns to capital and returns to labor. On the other hand, it is also possible that the displacement of workers by technology will, in aggregate, result in a net increase in safe and rewarding jobs. We cannot foresee at this point which scenario is likely to emerge, and history suggests that the outcome is likely to be some combination of the two. However, I am convinced of one thing — that in the future, talent, more than capital, will represent the critical factor of production. This will give rise to a job market increasingly segregated into “low-skill/low-pay” and “highskill/high-pay” segments, which in turn will lead to an increase in social tensions. In addition to being a key economic concern, inequality represents the greatest societal concern associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The largest beneficiaries of innovation tend to be the providers of intellectual and physical capital — the innovators, shareholders and investors — which explains the rising gap in wealth between those dependent on capital versus labor. Technology is therefore one of the main reasons why incomes have stagnated, or even decreased, for a majority of the population in high-income countries: the demand for highly skilled workers has increased while the demand for workers with less education and lower skills has decreased. The result is a job market with a strong demand at the high and low ends, but a hollowing out of the middle. This helps explain why so many workers are disillusioned and fearful that their own real incomes and those of their children will continue to stagnate. It also helps explain why middle classes around the world are increasingly experiencing a pervasive sense of dissatisfaction and unfairness. A winnertakes-all economy that offers only limited access to the middle class is a recipe for democratic malaise and dereliction.
5. What does the word “this” in the third paragraph refer to? -
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In fact, two out of three working Americans are not (1)______ in their work, according to a Gallup survey. People who send résumés and go to interviews think that they care only about salaries and (2)______. These are important, yes, but they are not enough. To identify a satisfying job, people should be thinking about office morale and doing work that is interesting and fun. To demonstrate this point, my colleague Kaitlin Woolley and I asked a large group of employees what made them like their present jobs, along with what factors would (3)_____ them to like future jobs. Unsurprisingly, we found that promotions and raises were important for people both in their current job and in applying for future jobs. What was interesting, (4)______, was that the majority cared a lot about present benefits (such as doing something interesting with people they like) in their current job, but they expected not to care very much about those things in their future jobs. When envisioning themselves in the future, they predicted that they would almost solely be driven by delayed benefits like salaries. Why are people (5)______ aware that present benefits are important in their current job, and yet expect not to care about those benefits in the future? Why, for example, does a student who cannot sit through a boring two-hour lecture think she would be satisfied by a boring but well-paying job?