Choose the best answer
Nearly 200 of the 1500 native plant species in Hawaii are at risk of going extinct in the near future because they have been (1) ____ to such low numbers. Approximately 90 percent of Hawaii's plants are found nowhere else in the world but they are (2) ____ by alien invasive species such as feral goats, pigs, rodents and non- (3) ____ plants. The Hawaii Rare Plant Restoration Group is striving to (4) ____ the extinction of the 182 rare Hawaiian plants with fewer than 50 individuals remaining in the (5) ____. Since 1990, (6) ____ a result of their “Plant Extinction Prevention Program‟, sixteen species have been brought into (7) ____ and three species have been reintroduced. Invasive weeds have been removed in key areas and fencing put up in order to (8) ____ plants in the wild.
In the future the Hawaii Rare Plant Restoration Program aims (9) ____ collecting genetic material from the remaining plants in the wild for storage as a safety net for the future. They also aim to manage wild populations and where possible reintroduce species into (10) ____.
(4) ____
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiA. prevent (v) ngăn chặn
B. encourage (n) khuyến khích
C. stimulate (v) thúc đẩy
D. influence (v) ảnh hưởng
Dựa vào ngữ cảnh câu, đáp án A phù hợp về nghĩa nhất
=> The Hawaii Rare Plant Restoration Group is striving to (4) prevent the extinction of the 182 rare Hawaiian plants with fewer than 50 individuals remaining.
Tạm dịch: Nhóm phục hồi thực vật quý hiếm Hawaii đang nỗ lực ngăn chặn sự tuyệt chủng của 182 loài thực vật quý hiếm ở Hawaii với số lượng ít hơn 50 cá thể còn lại.
Câu hỏi liên quan
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Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density, or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources. Only a certain number of people can be supported o a given area of land, and that number depends on how much food and other resources the land can provide. In countries where people live primarily by means of simple farming, gardening, herding, hunting, and gathering, even large areas of land can support only small numbers of people because these labor - intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food.
In developed countries such as the United States, Japan and the countries of Western Europe, overpopulation generally is not considered a major cause of poverty. These countries produce large quantities of food through mechanized farming, which depends on commercial fertilizers, large - scale irrigation, and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of people in metropolitan areas.
A country's level of poverty can depend greatly on its mix of population density and agricultural productivity. Bangladesh, for example, has one of the world's highest population densities, with 1,147 persons per sq km. A large majority of the people of Bangladesh engage in low - productivity manual farming, which contributes to the country's extremely high level of poverty. Some of the smaller countries in Western Europe, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, have high population densities as well. These countries practice mechanized farming and are involved in high - tech indutries, however, are therefore have high standards of living.
At the other end of the spectrum, many countries in sub - Saharan Africa have population densities of less than 30 persons per sq km. Many people in these countries practice manual subsistence farming, these countries also have infertile land, and lack the economic resources and technology to boost productivity. As a consequence, these nations are very poor. The United States has both relatively low population density and high agricultural productivity; it is one of the world's weathiest nations.
High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labor, usually for farming. Cultural norms in traditionally rural societies commonly sanction the value of large families. Also, the goverments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for farming planning; even people who wish to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all those reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth.The phrase "engage in" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning 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.
Times are tough. The nightly news is filled with stories of people who have lost their jobs due to the economic crisis, or lost their homes in a fire or natural disaster. Have you ever seen people who have just endured an awful situation? Some focus on what they have lost, and this is easy to understand. But other people focus on what they did not lose, and they start thinking about a better future.
One good piece of advice to remember is that you cannot always control situations or other people. The only thing you can control is your own personal reaction to bad situations. Sometimes a situation may really be overwhelming. However, in many cases, you really can influence our own moods by the way you think about negative situations.
Imagine two families: Both have lost their homes and all their belongings in a devastating storm. One family cannot mask their grief. They feel that everything they hold dear has been destroyed. They cannot imagine how they will ever be able to replace things and start over again. Their normal life seems to have been completely lost. In contrast, a second family is crying with joy. All of the people in their family are unharmed and safe. This family is just happy that everyone has survived. This family is already trying to figure out how they can recover. You can’t really blame the first family for experiencing a very normal reaction to a terrible situation. However, the second family certainly seems to be better off. They are thinking about making progress rather than focusing on the tragic events.
Though this scenario is extreme, everyone experiences setbacks that seem just awful at the time. This could be a job loss, illness, or problems with family members. Nobody gets through life without having some bad things happen. In these situations, try to focus on the steps you can take to remedy the situation, instead of how awful the setback is. By doing this, you will be laying the foundation for a better tomorrow. And you will not suffer as much pain today.
Actually, controlling how you feel and trying to maintain a positive attitude can help you through many tough situations. The bottom line is, no matter what the problem is, you are more likely to fix it if you can stay positive and work out a plan. Also, never be afraid to seek help when you need it. The advice of a friend, family member, or even a professional may be all it takes to get back on track.
It may sound like a cliché. While a positive attitude may not be the answer to every problem, it can certainly give you an advantage in surviving most of life’s minor setbacks.The word “scenario” in paragraph 4 mostly means _____________.
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Choose the best answer to complete the passage.
Most people (1) ____ learning with formal education at school, college, university etc. We are all told, from an early age, that we should get a good education'. Generally speaking, it is true that a formal education and the resulting qualifications are important. Education may (2) ____ our potential to find better, more satisfying jobs, earn more and perhaps, become more successful in our chosen career.
However, 'schooling' is only one type of learning. There are many other opportunities to further your (3) ____ and develop the skills you need throughout life. Knowledge can be acquired and skill sets developed anywhere - learning is unavoidable and happens all the (4) ____. However, lifelong learning is about creating and maintaining a positive attitude to learning both for personal and professional development.
Lifelong learners are self-motivated to learn and develop because they want to. (5) ____ learning can enhance our understanding of the world around us, provide us with more and better opportunities and improve our quality of life. People learn for personal development and for professional (6) ____. There are many reasons why people learn for personal development. You may want to increase your knowledge or (7) ____ around a particular hobby or pastime that you enjoy. Perhaps you want to develop some entirely new skill that will in some way enhance your life – take a pottery (8) ____ car mechanic course for example. Perhaps you want to research a medical condition or your ancestry.
If you do find yourself unemployed, then use the time wisely. Learning something new can pay off with new opportunities which might not otherwise have (9) ____. While you are employed, take advantage of training, coaching or mentoring opportunities and work on your continuous professional development as you will likely (10) ____ better at what you do and more indispensable to your current or future employer.
(5) ____
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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.
Although television was first regarded by many as “radio with pictures,” public reaction to the arrival of TV was strikingly different from that afforded the advent of radio. Radio in its early days was perceived as a technological wonder rather than a medium of cultural significance. The public quickly adjusted to radio broadcasting and either enjoyed its many programs or turned them off. Television, however, prompted a tendency to criticize and evaluate rather than a simple on-off response.
One aspect of early television that can never be recaptured is the combined sense of astonishment and glamour that greeted the medium during its infancy. At the midpoint of the 20th century, the public was properly agog about being able to see and hear actual events that were happening across town or hundreds of miles away. Relatively few people had sets in their homes, but popular fascination with TV was so pronounced that crowds would gather on the sidewalks in front of stores that displayed a working television set or two. The same thing happened in the typical tavern, where a set behind the bar virtually guaranteed a full house. Sports events that might attract a crowd of 30,000 or 40,000 suddenly, with the addition of TV cameras, had audiences numbering in the millions. By the end of television’s first decade, it was widely believed to have greater influence on American culture than parents, schools, churches, and government-institutions that had been until then the dominant influences on popular conduct. All were superseded by this one cultural juggernaut.
The 1950s was a time of remarkable achievement in television, but this was not the case for the entire medium. American viewers old enough to remember TV in the ’50s may fondly recall the shows of Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, and Lucille Ball, but such high-quality programs were the exception; most of television during its formative years could be aptly described, as it was by one Broadway playwright, as “amateurs playing at home movies.” The underlying problem was not a shortage of talented writers, producers, and performers; there were plenty, but they were already busily involved on the Broadway stage and in vaudeville, radio, and motion pictures. Consequently, television drew chiefly on a talent pool of individuals who had not achieved success in the more popular media and on the young and inexperienced who were years from reaching their potential. Nevertheless, the new medium ultimately proved so fascinating a technical novelty that in the early stages of its development the quality of its content seemed almost not to matter.
Fortunately, the dearth of talent was short-lived. Although it would take at least another decade before areas such as news and sports coverage approached their potential, more than enough excellence in the categories of comedy and drama emerged in the 1950s to deserve the attention of discriminating viewers. They are the most fondly remembered of the Golden Age genres for both emotional and intellectual reasons. Live TV drama was, in essence, the legitimate theatre’s contribution to the new medium; such shows were regarded as “prestige” events and were afforded respect accordingly. The comedies of the era are remembered for the same reason that comedy itself endures: human suffering and the ever-elusive pursuit of happiness render laughter a necessary palliative, and people therefore have a particular fondness for those who amuse them.Which of the following is TRUE according to the paragraph?
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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 word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
Engineers have dreaming of an underwater link between Britain and France (35)_____1802. Finally in 1994 the Channel Tunnel ( nicknamed "The Chunnel" by the English) was (36)______ opened.
This fifteen billion dollar project took seven years to (37)_____. It is about 50 km long and built 45metres under the seabed .The trains which go through the Chunnel can travel at up 300 km/h due to the (38)_______electrical system.
The journey from London to Paris via the Chunnel takes just three hours. It is also (39)______ for drivers since they can load their cars onto the trains. They don't need to book in (40)______ , as trains (41)_______every few minutes. However, while on the train, there isn't much to do and many (42)_________ the Chunnel for this (43)________ the ferries , there is no duty-free shopping , no videogame parlou or refreshment stand (44)________can you look outside and enjoy the view . As a result, many would find the Chunnel unappealing and would take the ferry instead.
(40).......................................... -
Plants and animals will find it difficult to escape from or adjust to the effect of global warming, Scientists have already observerd shifts in the lifecycles of many plants and animals, such as flowers blooming earlier and birds hatching earlier in the spring. Many species have begun shifting where they live or their annual migration patterns due to warmer temperatures.
With further warming, animals will tend to migrate toward the poles and up mountainsides toward higher elevations. Plants will also attempt to shift their ranges, seeking new areas as old habitats grow too warm. In many places, however, human development will prevent these shifts. Species that find cities or farmland blocking their way north or south may become extinct. Species living in unique ecosystems, such as those found in polar and mountantop regions, are especially at risk because migration to new habitats is not possible. For example, polar bears and marine mammals in the Arctic are already threatened by dwindling sea ice but have nowhere farther to go.
Projecting species extinction due to global warming is extremely difficult. Some scientists have estimated that 20 to 50 percent of species could be committed to extiction with 2 to 3 Celsius degrees of further warming. The rate of warming, not just the magnitude, is extremely important for plants and animals. Some species and even entire ecosystems, such as certain types of forest, many not be able to adjust quickly enough and may disappear.
Ocean ecosystems, especially fragile ones like coral reefs, will also be affected by global warming. Warmer ocean temperatures can cause coral to "bleach", a state which if prolonged will lead to the death of the coral. Scientists estimate that even 1 Celsius degree of additional warming could lead to widespread bleaching and death of coral reefs around the world. Also increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enters the ocean and increases the acidity of ocean waters. This acidification furter stresses ocean ecosystems.According to paragraph 2, when their habitats grow warmer, animali tend to move ..................
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Choose the best answer:
After more than fifty years of television, it might seem only obvious to conclude that it is here to (1) ______ . There have been many objections to it during this time, of course, and (2) ______ a variety of grounds. Did it cause eye-strain? Was the (3) ______ bombarding us with radioactivity? Did the advertisements contain subliminal messages, persuading us to buy more? Did children turn to violence through watching it, either because so (4) ______ programmes taught them how to shoot, rob, and kill, or because they had to do something to counteract the hours they had spent glued to the tiny screen? Or did it simply create a vast passive (5) ______ drugged by glamorous serials and inane situation (6) ______ ? On the other hand did it increase anxiety by sensationalizing the news [or the news which was (7) ______ by suitable pictures] and filling our living rooms with war, famine and political unrest? (8) ______ in all, television proved to be the all-purpose scapegoat for the second half of the century, blamed for everything, but above all, eagerly watched. For no (9) ______ how much we despised it, feared it, were bored by it, or felt that it took us away from the old paradise of family conversation and hobbies such as collecting stamps, we never turned it off. We kept staring at the screen, aware that our own tiny (10) ______ was in if we looked carefully.
4. -
Choose the letter A, B, C or D to answer these following questions
In developing countries, people are sometimes unaware of the importance of education, and there is economic pressure from those parents who prioritize their children's, making money in the short term over any long-term benefits of education. Recent studies on child labor and, poverty have suggested that when poor families reach a certain economic threshold where families are able to provide for their basic needs, parents return their children to school. This has been found to be true, once the threshold has been breached, even if the potential economic value of the children's work has increased since their return to school. Other problems are that teachers are often paid less than other professions; a lack of good universities and a low acceptance rate for good universities are evident in countries with a relatively high population density. India has launched EDUSAT, an education satellite that can reach remote parts of the country at a greatly reduced cost. There is also ail initiative supported by several major corporations to develop a $100 laptop. The laptops have been available since 2007. The laptops, sold at cost, will enable developing countries to give their children a digital education. In Africa, an "e-school program" has been launched to provide all 600,000 primary and high schools with computer equipment, learning materials and internet access within 10 years. Volunteer groups are working to give more individuals opportunity to receive education in developing countries through such programs as the Perpetual Education Fund. An International Development Agency project started with the support of American President Bill Clinton uses the Internet to allow co-operation by individuals on issues of social development.
How many projects are presented in the third paragraph?
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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 word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.
I was an MBA student in the USA and I lived in the university’s coed dormitory. In my culture, usually, if a woman talks to a man, it is a sign of romantic interest. (23)_______, in the first few days of school, I found it strange that so many women were talking to me and I was under the impression that some women on my dormitory floor were interested in me. To (24) _____ their politeness, I would buy them flowers or offer small gifts, as is done in my country. However, I was quite surprised to see that these same women now seemed (25) _______ around me. One was even quite offended and told me to leave her alone. Eventually I talked to the residence adviser on my floor to see what I was doing wrong, and he explained to me the way men and women usually interact in the USA. I was quite relieved to hear that (26) _____ was wrong with me, but rather with the way I was interpreting my conversations with women. Even though I did not find the love of my life while I was in the USA, I still made many good female friends afterwards (27) _______I still maintain contact.(23)_______, in the first few days of school, I found it strange that so many women were talking to me and I was under the impression that some women on my dormitory floor were interested in me.
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Chọn từ thích hợp điền vào chỗ trống:
THE THREAT TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Nowadays people are more aware that wildlife all over the world is in danger. Many (1)________of animals are threatened, and could easily become (2)______ if we do not make an effort to protect them. There are many (3)_______ for this. In some cases, animals are hunted for their fur or for othervaluable parts of their bodies. Some birds, such as parrots, are caught (4)________and sold as pets. For many animals and birds, the problem is that their habitat - the (5)________where they live - is disappearing. More (6)________is used for farms, for houses or industry, and there are fewer open (7)________than there once were. Farmers use powerful chemicals to help them grow better (8)________, but these chemicals pollute the environment and (9)________wildlife. The most successful animals on earth - human beings - will soon be the only Ones left, unless we can (10)________this problem.
(9)________
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Read the passage below and decide whether the statements are TRUE or FALSE?
According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, more than 30 of the highest-ranked 45 institutions are in the United States, as measured by awards and research output. Public universities, private universities, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges all have a significant role in higher education in the United States. An even stronger pattern is shown by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities with 103 US universities in the World's Top 200 universities.
The 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau found that 19.5 percent of the population had attended college but had no degree, 7.4 percent held an associate's degree, 17.1 percent held a bachelor's degree, and 9.9 percent held a graduate or professional degree.
Educational attainment in the United States is similar to that of other developed countries. Colleges and universities in the U.S. vary in terms of goals: some may emphasize a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum while others may emphasize a liberal arts curriculum. Many combine some or all of the above. Students can apply to some colleges using the Common Application. There is no limit to the number of colleges or universities to which a student may apply, though an application must be submitted for each.'
Educational attainment in the United States is similar to that of other developed countries.
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Read the following passage and choose among A, B, C or D the correct answer to each of the questions.
In my experience, freshmen today are different from those I knew when I started as a counselor and professor 25 years ago. College has always been demanding both academically and socially. But students now are less mature and often not ready for the responsibility of being in college.
It is really too easy to point the finger at parents who protect their children from life's obstacle. Parents, who handle every difficulty and every other responsibility for their children writing admission essays to picking college courses, certainly may contribute to their children's lack of coping strategies. But we can look even more broadly to the social trends of today.
How many people do you know who are on medication to prevent anxiety or depression? The number of students who arrive at college already medicated for unwanted emotions has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. We, as a society, don't want to "feel" anything unpleasant and we certainly don't want our children to "suffer".
The resulting problem is that by not experiencing negative emotions, one does not learn the necessary skills to tolerate and negotiate adversity. As a psychologist, I am well aware of the fact that some individuals suffer from depression and anxiety and can benefit from treatment, but I question the growing number of medicated adolescents today.
Our world is more stressful in general because of the current economic and political realities, but I don't believe that the college experience itself is more intense today than that of the past 10 years. What I do think is that many students are often not prepared to be young "adults" with all the responsibilities of life.
What does this mean for college faculty and staff? We are required to assist in the basic parenting of these students - the student who complains that the professor didn't remind her of the due date for an assignment that was clearly listed on the syllabus and the student who cheats on an assignment in spite of careful instructions about plagiarism.
As college professors, we have to explain what it means to be an independent college student before we can even begin to teach. As parents and teachers we should expect young people to meet challenges. To encourage them in this direction, we have to step back and let them fail and pick themselves up and move forward. This approach needs to begin at an early age so that college can actually be a passage to independent adulthood.
According to the writer, students today are different from those she knew in that they are____.
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Choose the word or phrase among A, B, C or D that best fits the blank space in the following passage:
"Do you want to take part in the battle to save the world’s wildlife? “Animal Watch” is a book which will (1)….. you in the fight for survival that (2)…. many of our endangered animals and show how they struggle on the (3)…. of extinction. As you enjoy the book’s 250 pages and over 150 coloured photographs, you will have the (4)….. of knowing that part of your purchase money is being used to help animals (5)…. . From the comfort of your armchair, you will be able to observe the world’s animals close-up and explore their habitats. You will aỉso discover the terrible results of human greed for land, flesh and skins.
“Animal Watch” is packed with fascinating facts. Did you know that polar bears cover their black noses (6)…. their paws so they can hunt their prey in the snow without being seen, for example? Or that for each orangutan which is captured, one has to die?
This superb (7)…. has so (8)….. Britain’s leading wildlife charity that it has been chosen as Book of the Year, a (9)….. awarded to books which are considered to have made a major contribution to wildlife conservation. You will find “Animal Watch” at a special low introductory at all good bookshops, but hurry while (10)….. last."5. that part of your purchase money is being used to help animals (5)…. .
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Đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn đáp án đúng cho mỗi câu hỏi:
Species that belong to an area are said to be native species. Typically, they have been part of a given biological landscape for a long period, and they are well adapted to the local environment and to the presence of other native species in the same general habitat. Exotic species are interlopers, foreign elements introduced intentionally or accidentally into new settings through human activities. In one context an introduced species may cause no obvious problems and may, over time, be regarded as being just as "natural" as any native species in the same habitat. In another context, exotics may seriously disrupt delicate ecological balances and create a cascade of unintended consequences. The worst of these unintended consequences arise when introduced species put native species in destruction by preying on them, altering their habitats, or out-competing them in the struggle for food resources. Although biological introductions have affected environments the world over, the most destructive, effects have occurred on islands, where introduced insects, cats, pigs, rats, mongooses, and other nonnative species have caused the grave endangerment or outright extinction of literally hundreds of species during the past 500 years. One of other reason to cause species extinction is overexploitation. This word refers to the utilization of a species at a rate that is likely to cause its extreme endangerment or outright extinction. Among many examples of severe overexploitation, the case of the great whales stands out in special relief. By the middle of the 20th century, unrestricted whaling had brought many species of whales to incredibly low population sizes. In response to public pressure, in 1982 a number of nations, including the USA, agreed to an international moratorium on whaling. As a direct result, some whale species which are thought to have been on extinction's doorstep 25 years ago have made amazing comebacks, such as grey whales in the western Pacific. Others remain at great risk. Many other species, however, continue to suffer high rates of exploitation because of the trade in animal parts. Currently, the demand for animal parts is centered in several parts of Asia where there is a strong market for traditional medicines made from items like tiger bone and rhino horn.
Exotic species _______.
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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:
Animation traditionally is done by hand-drawing or painting successive frame of an object, each slightly different than the proceeding frame. In computer animation, although the computer may be the one to draw the different frames, in most cases the artist will draw the beginning and ending frames and the computer will produce the drawings between the first and the last drawing. This is generally referred to as computer-assisted animation, because the computer is more of a helper than an originator.
In full computer animation, complex mathematical formulas are used to produce the final sequences of pictures. These formulas operate on extensive databases of numbers that defines the objects in the pictures as they exist in mathematical space. The database consists of endpoints, and color and intensity information. Highly trained professionals are needed to produce such effects because animation that obtains high degrees of realism involves computer techniques from three-dimensional transformation, shading, and curvatures.
High-tech computer animation for film involves very expensive computer systems along with special color terminals or frame buffers. The frame buffer is nothing more than a giant image memory for viewing a single frame. It temporarily holds the image for display on the screen.
A camera can be used to film directly from the computer’s display screen, but for the highest quality images possible, expensive film recorders are used. The computer computers the positions and colors for the figures in the picture, and sends this information to the recorder, which captures it on film. Sometimes, however, the images are stored on a large magnetic disk before being sent to the recorder. Once this process is completed, it is replaced for the next frame. When the entire sequence has been recorded on the film, the film must be developed before the animation can be viewed. If the entire sequence does not seem right, the motions must be corrected, recomputed, redisplayed, and rerecorded. This approach can be very expensive and time – consuming. Often, computer-animation companies first do motion tests with simple computer-generated line drawings before selling their computers to the task of calculating the high-resolution, realistic-looking images.Which of the following statement is supported by the passage?
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In the West, cartoons are used chiefly to make people laugh. The important feature of all these cartoons is the joke and the element of surprise which is contained. Even though it is very funny, a good cartoon is always based on close observation of a particular feature of life and usually has a serious purpose.
Cartoons in the West have been associated with political and social matters for many years. In wartime, for example, they proved to be an excellent way of spreading propaganda. Nowadays cartoons are often used to make short, sharp comments on politics and governments as well as on a variety of social matters. In this way, the modern cartoon has become a very powerful force in influencing people in Europe and tlie United States.
Unlike most American and European cartoons, however, many Chinese cartoon drawings in the past have also attempted to educate people, especially those who could not read and write. Such cartoons about the lives and sayings of great men in China have proved extremely useful in bringing education to illiterate and semi-literate people throughout China.
Confucius, Mencius and Laozi have all appeared in very interesting Stories presented in the form of cartoons. The cartoons themselves have thus served to illustrate the teachings of the Chinese sages in a very attractive way.
In this sense many Chinese cartoons are different from Western cartoons in so far as they do not depend chiefly on telling jokes. Often, there is nothing to laugh at when you see Chinese cartoons. This is not their primary aim. In addition to commenting on serious political and social matters, Chinese cartoons have aimed at spreading the traditional Chinese thoughts and culture as widely as possible among the people.
Today, however, Chinese cartoons have an added part to play in spreading knowledge.
They offer a very attractive and useful way of reaching people throughout the world, regardless of the particular country in which they live. Thus, through cartoons, the thoughts and teachings of the old Chinese philosophers and sages can now reach people who live in such countries as Britain, France, America, Japan, Malaysia or Australia and who are unfamiliar with the Chinese culture.
Until recently, the transfer of knowledge and culture has been overwhelmingly from the West to the East and not vice versa. By means of cartoons, however, publishing companies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are now having success in correcting this imbalance between the East and the West.
Cartoons can overcome language barriers in all foreign countries. The vast increase in the popularity of these cartoons serves to illustrate the truth of Confucius's famous saying "One picture is worth a thousand words.”The pronoun "this" in paragraph 4 mostly refers to ............................
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Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density, or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources. Only a certain number of people can be supported o a given area of land, and that number depends on how much food and other resources the land can provide. In countries where people live primarily by means of simple farming, gardening, herding, hunting, and gathering, even large areas of land can support only small numbers of people because these labor - intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food.
In developed countries such as the United States, Japan and the countries of Western Europe, overpopulation generally is not considered a major cause of poverty. These countries produce large quantities of food through mechanized farming, which depends on commercial fertilizers, large - scale irrigation, and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of people in metropolitan areas.
A country's level of poverty can depend greatly on its mix of population density and agricultural productivity. Bangladesh, for example, has one of the world's highest population densities, with 1,147 persons per sq km. A large majority of the people of Bangladesh engage in low - productivity manual farming, which contributes to the country's extremely high level of poverty. Some of the smaller countries in Western Europe, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, have high population densities as well. These countries practice mechanized farming and are involved in high - tech indutries, however, are therefore have high standards of living.
At the other end of the spectrum, many countries in sub - Saharan Africa have population densities of less than 30 persons per sq km. Many people in these countries practice manual subsistence farming, these countries also have infertile land, and lack the economic resources and technology to boost productivity. As a consequence, these nations are very poor. The United States has both relatively low population density and high agricultural productivity; it is one of the world's weathiest nations.
High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labor, usually for farming. Cultural norms in traditionally rural societies commonly sanction the value of large families. Also, the goverments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for farming planning; even people who wish to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all those reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth.Bangladesh is a country where the level of poverty depends greatly on ......................
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Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteenth century the term "reading" undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during thenineleenthcenturydid silent reading become commonplace.
One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud was a distraction to others. Examinations of factors related to the historical development of silent reading have revealed that it became the usual mode of reading for most adults mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy and thus in the number of readers. As the number of readers increased, the number of potential listeners declined and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.
Towards the end of the century, there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully and over whether the reading of materials such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed, this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialised readership on the other.
By the end of the twentieth century, students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use reading skills which were inappropriate, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term "reading" implied.Silent reading, especially in public places, flourished mainly because of:
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Culture is a word in common use with complex meanings, and is derived, like the term broadcasting, from the treatment and care of the soil and of what grows on it. It is directly related to cultivation and the adjectives cultural and cultured are part of the same verbal complex. A person of culture has identifiable attributes, among them are knowledge of and interest in the arts, literature, and music. Yet the word culture does not refer solely to such knowledge and interest nor, indeed, to education. At least from the 19th century onwards, under the influence of anthropologists and sociologists, the word culture means has come to be used generally both in the singular and the plural (cultures) to refer to a whole way of life of people, including their customs, laws, conventions, and values.
Distinctions have consequently been drawn between primitive and advanced culture and cultures, between elite and popular culture, between popular and mass culture, and most recently between national and global cultures. Distinctions have been drawn too between culture and civilization; the latter is a word derived not, like culture or agriculture, from the soil, but from the city.The two words are sometimes treated as synonymous. Yet this is misleading. While civilization and barbarism are pitted against each other in what seems to be a perpetual behavioural pattern, the use of the word culture has been strongly influenced by conceptions of evolution in the 19th century and of development in the 20th century. Cultures evolve or develop. They are not static. They have twists and turns. Styles change. So do fashions. There are cultural processes. What, for example, the word cultured has changed substantially since the study of classical (that is, Greek and Roman) literature, philosophy, and history ceased in the 20th century to be central to school and university education. No single alternative focus emerged, although with computers has come electronic culture, affecting kinds of study, and most recently digital culture. As cultures express themselves in new forms not everything gets better or more civilized.
The multiplicity of meanings attached to the word made and will make it difficult to define. There is no single, unprobfematic definition, although many attempts have been made to establish one. The only non-problematic definitions go back to agricultural meaning (for example cereal culture or strawberry culture) and medical meaning (for example, bacterial culture or penicillin culture). Since in anthropology and sociology we also acknowledge culture clashes, culture shock and counter- culture, the range of reference is extremely wideit can be inferred from the passage that since the 20th century...........................
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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.
The reason women appear to be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than men might be due to a number of genetic, anatomical and even social influences, researchers have suggested.
Recent figures show about 65% of those with living with dementia in the UK are women, with a similar statistic seen in the US for Alzheimer’s disease, while dementia is the leading cause of death for women in England. Alzheimer’s disease is only one of the types of dementia, but the most common form. While one explanation is that dementia risk increases with age, and women have longer life expectancies than men, new research suggests there might be more to the matter, including that protein tangles found within neurons and linked to Alzheimer’s disease might spread differently in women’s brains than men’s.
The study, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Los Angeles by researchers from Vanderbilt University and which has not yet been peer-reviewed, used scans from a method called positron emission tomography. That allowed them to look at the way clumps of a protein called tau were spread in the brains of 123 men and 178 women without cognitive problems, as well as 101 men and 60 women with mild cognitive problems – although not yet diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Cognitively normal older people often have small amounts of tau in certain areas of their brain.
From the data the team could build maps showing which areas of the brain show similar signals relating to tau in the scans, suggesting they are somehow connected. “Based on that we kind of try to reconstruct the pattern of spread,” Dr Sepideh Shokouhi, who is presenting the research, told the Guardian. “It is kind of like reconstructing a crime scene.” The team says the results suggest these maps look different in women and men, suggesting tau might be able to spread more rapidly across the female brain.
Other research presented at the conference – and also not yet peer reviewed – added weight to the idea that there might be differences between men and women that affect dementia risk. Research by scientists at the University of Miami has revealed a handful of genes and genetic variants appear to be linked to Alzheimer’s disease in just one biological sex or the other. While the actual importance of these factors has yet to be unpicked, and the study only looked at white participants, the team says it underscores that there could be a genetic reason for differences in the risk of dementia in men and women, and the way it develops.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?