Choose the word which is stresses differently from the rest: heavy, major, program, reform
Hãy suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiheavy /ˈhevi/
major /ˈmeɪdʒə(r)/
program /ˈprəʊɡræm/
reform /rɪˈfɔːm/
Câu D trọng âm rơi vào âm thứ 2, còn lại rơi vào âm thứ 1
Câu hỏi liên quan
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
Halloween falls on October 31 each year in North America and other part of the world. What do you know about Halloween? Do you celebrate it in your country? Here is a little history about it?
Like other holidays, Halloween has evolved and changed throughout history. Over 2,000 years ago people called the Celts lived in what is now Ireland, the UK, and parts of Northern France. November 1 was their New Year's Day. They believed that the night before the New Year (October 31) was a time when the living and the dead came together.
More than a thousand years ago the Christian church named November 1 All Saints Day (also called All Hallows). This was a special holy day to honor the saints and other people who died for their religion. The night before All Hallows was called Hallows Eve. Later the name was changed to Halloween.
Like the Celts, the Europeans of that time also believed that the spirits of the dead would visit the earth on Halloween. They worried that evil spirits would cause problems or hurt them. So on that night people wore costumes that looked like ghosts or other evil creatures. They thought if they dressed like that, the spirits would think they were also dead and not harm them.
The tradition of Halloween was carried to America by the immigrating Europeans. Some of the traditions changed a little, though. For example, on Halloween in Europe some people would carry lanterns made from turnips. In America, pumpkins were more common. So people began putting candles inside them and using them as lanterns. That is why you see Jack 'o lanterns today.
These days Halloween is not usually considered a religious holiday. It primarily a fun for children. Children dress up in costumes like people did a thousand years ago. But instead of worrying about evil spirits, they go from house to house. They knock on door and say "trick or treat". The owner of each house give candy or something special to each trick and treat.According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
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Choose the item among A, B, C or D that best answers the question about the passage:
"When Franklin Roosevelt was elected President of the United States in 1932. not only the United States but also the rest of the world was in the throes of an economic depression. Following the termination of World War I, Britain and the United States at first experienced a boom in industry. Called the Roaring Twenties, the 1920s ushered in a number of things - prosperity, greater equality for women in the work world, rising consumption, and easy credit. The Outlook for American business was rosy.
October 1929 was a month that had catastrophic economic reverberation worldwide. The American stock market witnessed the “Great Crash,” as it is called, and the temporary boom in the American economy came to a standstill. Stock prices sank, and panic spread. The ensuing unemployment figure soared to 12 million by 1932.
Roosevelt was elected because he promised a “New Deal” to lift the United States out of the doldrums of the depression. Following the principles advocated to Keynes, a British economist, Roosevelt mustered the spending capacities of the federal government to provide welfare, work, and agricultural aid to the millions of down-and-out Americans. Roosevelt succeeded in dragging the nation out of the Depression before the outbreak of World War II."The 1920s were called the Roaring Twenties because …….
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
Geothermal energy is natural heat from the interior of the Earth that is converted to heat buildings and generate electricity. The idea of harnessing Earth’s internal heat is not new. As early as 1904 , geothermal power was used in Italy . Today, Earth’s natural internal heat is being used to generate electricity in 21 countries , including Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, Mexico, Ethiopia, Guatemala, EI Salvador, the Philippines, and the United States .Total worldwide production is approaching 9,000 MW (equivalent to nine large modern coal-burning or nuclear power plants)-double the amount in 1980 .Some 40 million people today receive their electricity from geothermal energy at a cost competitive with that of other energy sources. In EI Salvador , geothermal energy is supplying 30% of the total electric energy used.
However, at the global level, geothermal energy supplies less than 0,15%of the total energy supply.
Geothermal energy may be considered a nonrenewable energy source when rates of extraction are greater than rates of natural replenishment. However, geothermal energy has its origin in the natural heat production within Earth , and only a small fraction of the vast total resource base is being utilized today. Although most geothermal energy production involves the tapping of high heat sources, people are also using the low-temperature geothermal energy of groundwater in some applications.Geothermal Systems
The average heat flow from the interior of the Earth is very low, about 0,06% W/m2.This amount is trivial compared with the 177 W/m2from solar heat at the surface in the United States. However, in some areas, heat flow is sufficiently high to be useful for producing energy . For the most part, areas of high heat flow are associated with plate tectonic boundaries. Oceanic ridge systems (divergent plate boundaries) and areas where mountains are being uplifted and volcanic island arcs are forming (convergent plate boundaries) are areas where this natural heat flow is anomalously high. One such region is located in the western, United States, where recent tectonic and volcanic activity has occurred.
On the basis of geological criteria, several types of hot geothermal systems (with temperatures greater than about 800C , or 1760F)have been defined, and the resource base is larger than that of fossil fuels and nuclear energy combined. A common system for energy development is hydrothermal convection, characterized by the circulation of steam and / or hot water that transfers heat from depths to the surface.Geothermal Energy and the Environment
The environmental impact of geothermal energy may not be as extensive as that of other sources of energy , but it can be considerable. When geothermal energy is developed at a particular site, environmental problems include on-site noise, emissions of gas, and disturbance of the land at drilling sites, disposal sites, roads and pipelines, and power plants. Development of geothermal energy does not require large-scale transportation of raw materials or refining of chemicals, as development of fossil fuels does. Furthermore, geothermal energy does not produce the atmospheric pollutants associated with burning fossil fuels or the radioactive waste associated with nuclear energy. However, geothermal development often does produce considerable thermal pollution from hot waste-waters, which may be saline or highly corrosive, producing disposal and treatment problem.
Geothermal power is not very popular in some locations among some people. For instance, geothermal energy has been produced for years on the island of Hawaii, where active volcanic processes provide abundant near surface heat. There is controversy, however, over further exploration and development .Native Hawaiians and other -
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
Children learn to construct language from those around them. Until about the age of three, children tend to learn to develop their language by modeling the speech of their parents, but from that time on, peers have a growing influence as models for language development in children. It is easy to observe that, when adults and older children interact with younger children, they tend to modify their language to improve children communication with younger children, and this modified language is called caretaker speech.
Caretaker speech is used often quite unconsciously; few people actually study how to modify language when speaking to young children but, instead, without thinking, find ways to reduce the complexity of language in order to communicate effectively with young children. A caretaker will unconsciously speak in one way with adults and in a very different way with young children. Caretaker speech tends to be slower speech with short, simple words and sentences which are said in a higher- pitched voice with exaggerated inflections and many repetitions of essential information. It is not limited to what is commonly called baby talk, which generally refers to the use of simplified, repeated syllable expressions, such as ma-ma, boo-boo, bye-bye, wa-wa, but also includes the simplified sentence structures repeated in sing-song inflections. Examples of these are expressions such as “ say bye-bye” or “where’s da-da?”
Caretaker speech serves the very important function of allowing young children to acquire language more easily. The higher-pitched voice and the exaggerated inflections tend to focus the small child on what the caretaker is saying, the simplified words and sentences make it easier for the small child to begin to comprehended, and the repetitions reinforce the child’s developing understanding. Then, as a child’s speech develops, caretakers tend to adjust their language in the response to the improved language skills, again quite unconsciously. Parents and older children regularly adjust their speed to a level that is slightly above that of a younger child; without studied recognition of what they are doing, these caretakers will speak in one way to a one-year-ago and in a progressively more complex way as the child reaches the age of two or three.
An important point to note is that the function covered by caretaker speech, that of assisting a child to acquire language in small and simple steps, is an unconsciously used but extremely important part of the process of language acquisition and as such is quite universal. It is not merely a device used by English-speaking parents. Studying cultures where children do not acquire language through caretaker speech is difficult because such cultures are not difficult to find. The question of why caretaker speech is universal is not clear understood; instead proponents on either side of the nature vs. nature debate argue over whether caretaker speech is a natural function or a learned one. Those who believe that caretaker speech is a natural and inherent function in humans believe that it is human nature for children to acquire language and for those around them to encourage their language acquisition naturally; the presence of a child is itself a natural stimulus that increases the rate of caretaker speech develops through nurturing rather than nature argue that a person who is attempting to communicate with a child will learn by trying out different ways of communicating to determine which is the most effective from the reactions to the communication attempts; apparent might, for example, learn to use speech with exaggerated inflections with a small child because the exaggerated inflections do a better job of attracting the child’s attention than do more subtle inflections. Whether caretaker speech results from -
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After the Anasazi abandoned southwestern Colorado in the late 1200s or early 1300s, history’s pages are blank. The Anasazi were masons and apartment builders who occupied the deserts, river valleys, and mesas of this region for over a thousand years, building structures that have weathered the test of time.
The first Europeans to visit southwestern Colorado were the ever-restless, ambitious Spanish, who sought gold, pelts, and slaves. In 1765, under orders from the Spanish governor in Santa Fe, Juan Maria Antonio Rivera led a prospecting and trading party into the region. Near the Dolores River in southwestern Colorado, he found some insignificant silver-bearing rocks, and it is thought that it was he who named the mountains nearby the Sierra de la Plata or the Silver Mountains. Rivera found little of commercial value that would interest his superiors in Santa Fe, but he did open up a route that would soon lead to the establishment of the Old Spanish Trail. This expedition and others to follow left names on the land which are only reminders we have today that the Spanish once explored this region.
In 1776, one of the men who had accompanied Rivera, Andre Muniz, acted as a guide for another expedition. That party entered southwestern Colorado in search of a route west to California, traveling near today’s towns of Durango and Dolores. Along the way, they camped at the base of a large green mesa which today carries the name Mesa Verde. They were the first Europeans to record the discovery of an Anasazi archeological site in southwestern Colorado.
By the early 1800s, American mountain men and trappers were exploring the area in their quest for beaver pelts. Men like Peg-leg Smith were outfitted with supplies in the crossroads trapping town of Taos, New Mexico. These adventurous American trappers were a tough bunch. They, possibly more than any other newcomers, penetrated deeply into the mountain fastness of southwestern Colorado, bringing back valuable information about the area and discovering new routes through the mountains. One of the trappers, William Becknell, the father of the Santa Fe Trail, camped in the area of Mesa Verde, where he found pottery shards, stone houses, and other Anasazi remains.What does the passage mainly discuss?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
It is often the case with folktales that they develop from actual happenings but in their development lose much of their factual base; the story of Pocahontas quite possibly fits into this category of folktale. This princess of the Powhatan tribe was firmly established in the lore of early America and has been made even more famous by the Disney film based on the folktale that arose from her life. She was a real-life person, but the actual story of her life most probably different considerably from the folktale and the movie based on the folktale. Powhatan, the chief of a confederacy of tribes in Virginia, had several daughters, none of whom was actually named Pocahontas. The nickname means “playful one,” and several of Powhatan’s daughters were called Pocahontas. The daughter of Powhatan who became the subject of the folktale was named Matoaka. What has been verified about Matoaka, or Pocahontas as she has come to be known, is that she did marry an Englishman and that she did spend time in England before she died there at a young age. In the spring of 1613, a young Pocahontas was captured by the English and taken into Jamestown. There she was treated with courtesy as the daughter of chief Powhatan. While Pocahontas was at Jamestown, English gentlemen John Rolfe fell in love with her and asked her to marry. Both the governor of the Jamestown colony and Pocahontas’s father Powhatan approved the marriage as a means of securing peace between Powhatan’s tribe and the English at Jamestown. In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her new husband to England, where she was royally received. Shortly before her planned return to Virginia in 1617, she contracted an illness and died rather suddenly.
A major part of the folktale of Pocahontas that is unverified concerns her love for English Captain John Smith is the period of time before her capture by the British and her rescue of him from almost certain death. Captain John Smith was indeed at the colony of Jamestown and was acquainted with Powhatan and his daughters, he even described meeting them in 1612 journal. However, the story of his rescue by the young maiden did not appear in his writing until 1624, well after Pocahontas had aroused widespread interest in England by her marriage to an English gentlemen and her visit to England. It is the discrepancy in dates that has caused some historians to doubt the veracity of the tale. However, other historians do argue quite persuasively that this incident did truly take place.aThe pronoun “he” in the third paragraph refers to .
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
In the late 1960’s, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.
Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and waster, of electric power. In one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120,-000 kilowatts- enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or gain) through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen the strain on heating and air- conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to use double glazed panels of glass, and reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city’s sanitation facilities, too. If fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year-as much as a city the size of Stamford, Connecticut, which has a population of more than 109,000.
Skyscrapers also interfere with television reception, block bird flyways, and obstruct air traffic. In Boston, in the late 1960’s some people even feared that shadows from skyscrapers would kill the grass on Boston Common.
Still, people continue to build skyscrapers for all the reasons that they have always built them – personal ambition, civic pride, and the desire of owners to have the largest possible amount of rentable space.According to the passage, all of the following are mentioned as reasons for building skyscrapers EXCEPT
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Quite different from storm surges are the giant sea waves called tsunamis, which derive their name from the Japanese expression for “high water in a harbor.” These waves are also referred to by the general public as tidal waves, although they have relatively little to do with tides.
Scientists often referred to them as seismic sea waves, far more appropriate in that they do result from undersea seismic activity.
Tsunamis are caused when the sea bottom suddenly moves, during an underwater earthquake or volcano for example, and the water above the moving earth is suddenly displaced. This sudden shift of water sets off a series of waves. These waves can travel great distances at speeds close to 700 kilometers per hour. In the open ocean, tsunamis have little noticeable amplitude, often no more than one or two meters. It is when they hit the shallow waters near the coast that they increase in height, possibly up to 40 meters.
Tsunamis often occur in the Pacific because the Pacific is an area of heavy seismic activity.
Two areas of the Pacific well accustomed to the threat of tsunamis are Japan and Hawaii. Because the seismic activity that causes tsunamis in Japan often occurs on the ocean bottom quite close to the islands, the tsunamis that hit Japan often come with little warning and can, therefore, prove disastrous. Most of the tsunamis that hit the Hawaiian Islands, however, originate thousands of miles away near the coast of Alaska, so these tsunamis have a much greater distance to travel and the inhabitants of Hawaii generally have time for warning of their imminent arrival.
Tsunamis are certainly not limited to Japan and Hawaii. In 1755, Europe experienced a calamitous tsunami, when movement along the fault lines near the Azores caused a massive tsunami to sweep onto the Portuguese coast and flood the heavily populated area around Lisbon. The greatest tsunami on record occurred on the other side of the world in 1883 when the Krakatoa volcano underwent a massive explosion, sending waves more than 30 meters high onto nearby Indonesian islands; the tsunami from this volcano actually traveled around the world and was witnessed as far away as the English Channel.The passage suggests that the tsunamis resulting from the Krakatoa volcano ..............
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
Twenty-five students from Walling School are currently living in France. They are there for three months as part of a living-abroad project. The 16- and 17-year-old students are living with French families and attending a French school. Most of the students have taken French language classes for 3 or 4 years and are finally getting an opportunity to use their French.
Not only are students learning a new language, but they are learning about a new culture, too. Students have been particularly surprised about the French attitude towards food. “They won’t leave anything on their plate,” says Vanessa Athol. “They aren’t wasteful at all.” Vanessa has vowed to be more careful with waste when returning to the United States.
The group’s chaperone, Mrs. Smith, has been pleased with the students’ acquisition of language. “Even the most timid are trying their best to speak. The students are learning a lot. I’m very impressed,” she said. Mrs. Smith added that she thinks living with a French family makes a difference because students are forced to speak French. “We are all very grateful to the French families who are hosting us.”
The French families are happy to have the students, as they are getting to leam about American culture. Both groups will be celebrating the exchange at a large potluck dinner at the end of the stay. There will be a slide show of memories and the students will speak about their experiences. Currently, the American students are periodically posting pictures and student essays on the Walling School website. “Living in France is an experience I’ll never forget,” writes student Tina Davis. “I know I’ll want to eat these croissants and this Camembert for the rest of my life!”Which title would be the most suitable for this article?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
Sir Anthony Van Dyck, one of the world’s greatest masters of portraiture, was born in Antwerp and was the seventh of twelve children. His affluent father apprenticed him to a painter when he was just a little over ten. Having become a member of the Antwerp Guild of painters before he was nineteen, he worked in the studio of Peter Paul Rubens for several years. In Italy, Van Dyck studied the great Venetian masters and painted flattering portraits of gorgeous ladies and haughty nobles in gilded velvet robes with lace and pearls. While he was sought after by the aristocracy for his acclaimed loose brushwork, his engravings and etchings also evinced his outstanding talent. Upon his return to Antwerp in 1628, he was influenced by Rubens’s interpretation of the artistic form and produced numerous religious paintings while holding an appointment as the court painter. During his tenure, he proved that his use of color, his sensitive elegance, and his remarkable insight were unexcelled.
His fame preceded him to England, where he was invited by King Charles I. After years of faithful service, he was knighted in recognition of his achievements in painting countless portraits of the king, the queen, the royal children, and the titled nobility of England.
However, Van Dyck’s greatest piece is one of his religious works, a true masterpiece displayed in the Antwerp gallery. This group scene exhibits his artful polish in painting the folds of fabric, the delicacy of human skin, landscape, and other externals, and puts him above other accomplished contemporary masters. Although Charles paid Van Dyck a salary and granted him a pension, the painter’s extravagant life-style and penchant for luxuries led him into debt, and he died without means.How did Charles I honor Van Dyck?
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Choose the best answer:
We are all slowly (1) __________ the earth. The seas and rivers are too dirty to swim in.
There is so much smoke in the air that it is unhealthy to live in many of the world’s cities. In one well-
known city, for example, poisonous gases (2) __________ cars pollute the air so much that traffic
policemen have to wear oxygen masks. We have cut down (3) __________ trees that there are now
vast areas of wasteland all over the world. As a result, farmers in parts of Africa cannot grow enough
(4) __________. In certain countries in Asia, there is too little rice. Moreover, we do not take care of
the countryside.
Wild animals are quickly disappearing. For instance, tigers are rare in India now because we
have killed too many of them. However, it isn’t enough simply to talk about the problem. We must act
now before it is too late to do (5) __________ about it. Join us now. Save the Earth!
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Read the following passage, and mark the letter A. B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Loneliness is a curious thing. Most of us can remember feeling most lonely when we were not in fact alone at all, but when we were surrounded by people. Everyone has experienced, at some time, that utter sense of isolation that comes over you when you are at a party, in a room full of happy laughing people, or in an audience at a theatre or a lecture. It suddenly seems to you as if everybody knows everybody else, everybody is sure of himself, everybody knows what is going on; everybody, that is, except you. This feeling of loneliness which can overcome you when are in a crowd is very difficult to get rid of. People living alone - divorced, widowed or single people - are advised to tackle their loneliness by joining a club or society, by going out and meeting people. Does this really help? And what do you do if you are already surrounded by people? There are no easy solutions. Your first day at work, or at a new school or university, is a typical situation in which you are likely to feel lonely. You feel lonely because you feel left out of things. You feel that everybody else is full of confidence and knows what to do, but you are adrift and helpless. The fact of the matter is that, in order to survive, we all put on a show of self-confidence to hide our uncertainties and doubts. So it is wrong to assume that you are alone. In a big city it is particularly easy to get the feeling that everybody except you is leading a full, rich, busy life. Everybody is going somewhere, and you tend to assume that they are going somewhere nice and interesting, where they can find life and fulfilment. You are also going somewhere, and there is no reason at all to believe that your destination is any less, or, for that matter, any more exciting than the next man's. The trouble is that you may not be able to hide the fact that you are lonely, and the miserable look on your face might well put people off. After all, if you are at a party you are not likely to try to strike up a conversation with a person who has a gloomy expression on his face and his lips turned down at the comers. So trying to look reasonably cheerful is a good starting point in combating loneliness, even if you are choking inside. The next thing to avoid is finding yourself in a group where in fact you are a stranger, that is, in the sort of group where all the other people already know each other. There is a natural tendency for people to stick together, to form 'cliques'. You will do yourself no good by trying to establish yourself in a group which has so far managed to do very well without you. Groups generally resent intrusion, not because they dislike you personally, but because they have already had to work quite hard to turn the group into the functioning unit. To include you means having to go over a lot of ground again, so that you can learn their language, as it was, and get involved in their conversation at their level. Of course if you can offer something the group needs, such as expert information, you can get in quickly. In fact the surest way of getting to know others is to have an interest in common with them. There is no guarantee that you will then like each other, but at least part of your life will be taken up with sharing experiences with others. It is much better than always feeling alone. If all this seems to be a rather pessimistic view of life, you have to accept the fact that we are all alone when it comes down to it. When the most loving couple in the world kiss and say goodnight, as soon as the husband falls asleep, the wife realizes that she is alone, that her partner is as far away as if he were on another planet. But it is no cause for despair: there is always tomorrow.In a city it is easy to believe that other people,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people. In his book Counting Sheep, Paul Martin - a behavioural biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which does not givesleeping the importance it deserves.
Modern society has invented reasons not to sleep. We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours. We spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work. Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV and the Internet tempt us away from our beds. When we need more time for work or pleasure, the easy solution is to sleep less. The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half hours' sleep to feel at their best.
Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they live in an almost permanent state of 'sleep debt'.
Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend on the hours of daylight. People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall. But nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life) and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock. During the day caffeine, the world's most popular drug, helps to keep us awake. 75% of the world's population habitually consume caffeine, whichup to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation.
What does a chronic lack of sleep do to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work. This has serious implications for society in general.
Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially when they are on 'night call', and may get less than three hours' sleep. Lack of sleep can seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions. Tired engineers, in the early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophicresults. On our roads and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year. Tests show that a tired driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against the law but driving when exhausted isn't. As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible. Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight hours a night.Which of the following could best serve as the title of the passage?
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Choose the word or phrase that best fits each space in the following passage
Many people love boats. Going out on the water on a warm summer day is a lot of fun. (1) _______ ,different people like different kinds of boats. Two of the most popular kinds of boat are sailboats and speedboats. Sailboats use the (2) _______to give them power. They only have small engines. In contrast, speedboats have large engines and go very fast. Furthermore, speedboats are usually not as (3) _______ as sailboats. Speedboats are small so that they can go fast. Sailboats, on the other hand, are big so that they are more comfortable. ( 4) _______, sailboats can travel into the ocean, but this would be very dangerous in a speedboat. You can only use speedboats on rivers or lakes.
(2) _______
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Choose the best answer:
By the time we (1)________old age most of us have (2)________twenty years sleeping. Yet nobody knows why we do it. Most scientists believe that by resting our bodies, we allow time for(3) ________ maintenance work to be done. Any (4)________that there is can be put right more quickly if energy isn’t being used up doing other things. Sleep is controlled by certain chemicals. These build up during the day, eventually reaching peaks that cause tiredness. We can control the effects of these chemicals to some extent. Caffeine helps to (5)________ us awake while alcohol and some medicines make us sleepy. By using electrodes, scientists are able to (6)________what goes on in people’s heads while they sleep. They have (7)________ that when we first drop off everything slows down. The heart (8)________ more slowly and our breathing becomes shallow.
After about 90 minutes our eyes start to twitch and we go into what is called REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, which is a (9)________that we’ve started to dream .You have dreams every night, even if you don’t remember them. There are many theories
about why we dream, none of them conclusive. A lot of people say they have to have eight hours’ sleep every night while others seem to (10)________on a lot less. One thing’s for sure – we all need some sleep. Going without it can have some very strange effects. -
Increasing numbers of parents in the U.S. are choosing to teach their children at home. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education has estimated that in 1999, about 850,000 children were being homeschooled. Some educational experts say that the real number is double this estimate, and the ranks of homeschooled children seem to be growing at the average rate of about eleven percent every year.
At one time, there was a theory accounting for homeschooling: it was traditionally used for students who could not attend school because of behavioral or learning difficulties. Today, however, more parents are taking on the responsibility of educating their own children at home due to their dissatisfaction with the educational system. Many parents are unhappy about class size, as well as problems inside the classroom. Teacher shortages and lack of funding mean that, in many schools, one teacher is responsible for thirty or forty students. The children are, therefore, deprived of the attention they need. Escalating classroom violence has also motivated some parents to remove their children from school.
Although there have been a lot of arguments for and against it, homeschooling in the U.S. has become a multi-million dollar industry, and it is growing bigger and bigger. There are now plenty of websites, support groups, and conventions that help parents protect their rights and enable them to learn more about educating their children. Though once it was the only choice for troubled children, homeschooling today is an accepted alternative to an educational system that many believe is failing.The attitude of the author towards homeschooling can be best described as ............
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The increase in urbanization causes different problems. Air and water pollution are amongst the major issue we have to tackle.
In the first place, cars, factories and burning waste emit dangerous gases that change the air quality in our cities and pose threats to our health. Dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides cause respiratory diseases, for instant, bronchitis and asthma. Those are also proved to have long-term effects on the environment.
Furthermore, with the increased population, it becomes difficult to manage the waste generated in cities. Most of the waste is discharged or dumped into rivers or onto streets. The waste pollutes water and makes it unfit for human consumption. Subsequently, it becomes more and more difficult for city dwellers to get clean water. Some cities in Africa are unable to provide adequate water supply because most of the water is lost in pipe leakages. In fact, most city dwellers in developing countries are forced to boil their water or to buy bottled water, which is very expensive.
There are several actions that could be taken to eradicate the problems described above. Firstly, a simple solution would be joining community efforts to address problems affecting your city. Ask your parents, friends and relatives to join in as well. These efforts might include clean-up campaigns, recycling projects and a signature campaign to ask the government to do something about the situation. A second measure would be encouraging your teacher to talk about these problems and to discuss how young people can help to solve them. Finally, writing to local organizations working on these issues for ideas on how you can contribute to solve them.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
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Millions of people are using cellphones today. In many places, it is actually considered unusual not to use one. In many countries, cellphones are very popular with young people. They find that the phones are more than a means of communication - having a mobile phone shows that they are cool and connected.
The explosion in mobile phone use around the world has made some health professionals worried. Some doctors are concerned that in the future many people may suffer health problems from the use of mobile phones. In England, there has been a serious debate about this issue. Mobile phone companies are worried about the negative publicity of such ideas. They say that there is no proof that mobile phones are bad for your health.
On the other hand, medical studies have shown changes in the brain cells of some people who use mobile phones. Signs of change in the tissues of the brain and head can be detected with modern scanning equipment. In one case, a traveling salesman had to retire at young age because of serious memory loss. He couldn't remember even simple tasks. He would often forget the name of his own son. This man used to talk on his mobile phone for about six hours a day, every day of his working week, for a couple of years. His family doctor blamed his mobile phone use, but his employer's doctor didn't agree.
What is it that makes mobile phones potentially harmful? The answer is radiation. High-tech machines can detect very small amounts of radiation from mobile phones. Mobile phone companies agree that there is some radiation, but they say the amount is too small to worry about.
As the discussion about their safety continues, it appears that it's best to use mobile phones less often. Use your regular phone if you want to talk for a long time. Use your mobile phone only when you really need it. Mobile phones can be very useful and convenient, especially in emergencies. In the future, mobile phones may have a warning label that says they are bad for your health. So for now, it's wise not to use your mobile phone too often.Doctors have tentatively concluded that cellphones may ...........
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
In Viet Nam festivals often take place during the three months in spring and in autumn when people have a lot of leisure time. In addition, the climate in spring and autumn is especially suitable for holding festivals and for festivals goers to enjoy. Traditional festivals constitute a form of cultural activities, a spiritual product which the people have created and developed during the course of history. From generation to generation, the Vietnamese people preserve the fine tradition of “remembering the source while drinking water.” Festivals are events which represent this tradition of the community as well as honour the holy figures named as “gods” -the real persons in national history or legendary persons. The images of gods converge the noble characteristics of mankind. They are national heroes who fought against foreign invaders, reclaimed new lands, treated people, fought against natural calamities, or those legendary characters who affect the earthly life.
Accordingly, first and foremost, festivals are events when people pay tribute to divinities that rendered merits to the community and the nation. These are occasions when people come back to either their natural or national roots, which form a sacred part in their mind. Furthermore, testivals represent the strength of the commune or village, the local region or even the whole nation. Worshipping the same god, the people unite in solidarity to overcome difficulties, striving for a happy and wealthy life.
Moreover, festivals display the demand for creativity and enjoyment of spiritual and material cultural values of all social strata. They become a form of education under which fine traditional moral values can be handed from one generation to the next in a unique way of combining spiritual characters with competition and entertainment games. Festivals are also the time people can express their sadness and worries in a wish that gods might bestow favour on them to help them strive for a better life.What is the best title of the passage?
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Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions:
After the Anasazi abandoned southwestern Colorado in the late 1200s or early 1300s, history’s pages are blank. The Anasazi were masons and apartment builders who occupied the deserts, river valleys, and mesas of this region for over a thousand years, building structures that have weathered the test of time.
The first Europeans to visit southwestern Colorado were the ever-restless, ambitious Spanish, who sought gold, pelts, and slaves. In 1765, under orders from the Spanish governor in Santa Fe, Juan Maria Antonio Rivera led a prospecting and trading party into the region. Near the Dolores River in southwestern Colorado, he found some insignificant silver-bearing rocks, and it is thought that it was he who named the mountains nearby the Sierra de la Plata or the Silver Mountains. Rivera found little of commercial value that would interest his superiors in Santa Fe, but he did open up a route that would soon lead to the establishment of the Old Spanish Trail. This expedition and others to follow left names on the land which are only reminders we have today that the Spanish once explored this region.
In 1776, one of the men who had accompanied Rivera, Andre Muniz, acted as a guide for another expedition. That party entered southwestern Colorado in search of a route west to California, traveling near today’s towns of Durango and Dolores. Along the way, they camped at the base of a large green mesa which today carries the name Mesa Verde. They were the first Europeans to record the discovery of an Anasazi archeological site in southwestern Colorado.
By the early 1800s, American mountain men and trappers were exploring the area in their quest for beaver pelts. Men like Peg-leg Smith were outfitted with supplies in the crossroads trapping town of Taos, New Mexico. These adventurous American trappers were a tough bunch. They, possibly more than any other newcomers, penetrated deeply into the mountain fastness of southwestern Colorado, bringing back valuable information about the area and discovering new routes through the mountains. One of the trappers, William Becknell, the father of the Santa Fe Trail, camped in the area of Mesa Verde, where he found pottery shards, stone houses, and other Anasazi remains.Which of the following is most likely true about William Becknell?