Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
In the 1980s feminism became less popular in the US and there was less (1) ____ in solving the remaining problems, such as the fact that most women still earn much less than men. But American women have more opportunities than anyone thought possible 40 years ago. One of the biggest discrimination is in (2) ____ people think. Although there is still discrimination, the principle that should not exist is widely accepted. Feminism has brought (3) ____ many changes in the English language. Many words for job titles that included ‘man’ have been replaced, for example ‘police officer’ is used (4) ____ of policeman’ and ‘chair’ or ‘chairperson’ for ‘chairman’. ‘He’ is now rarely used to refer to a person when the person could be either a man or woman. Instead, he/she, or sometimes (s)he, is preferred. The title Ms is used for women instead of ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs’, since, like ’Mr, it does not show (5) ____ a person is married or not
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiGiải thích:
A. đem lại, mang lại, làm cái gì xảy ra
B. kiếm được, thu được
C. đề cập, nói đến, nuôi lớn một đứa trẻ
D. làm ai tỉnh lại
Tạm dịch: Nữ quyền đã mang lại nhiều thay đổi trong ngôn ngữ tiếng Anh
Câu hỏi liên quan
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Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Modern society has given significant attention to the promises of the digital economy over the past decade. But it has given little attention to its negative environmental footprint. Our smartphones rely on rare earth metals, and cloud computing, data centers, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies consume large amounts of electricity, often sourced from coal-fired power plants. These are crucial blind spots we must address if we hope to capture the full potential of the digital economy. Without urgent system-wide actions, the digital economy and green economy will be incompatible with each other and could lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, accelerate climate change and pose great threats to humanity. The world’s data centers-the storehouses for enormous quantities of information - consume about three percent of the global electricity supply (more than the entire United Kingdom), and produce two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions-roughly the same as global air travel. A report by Greenpeace East Asia and the North China Electric Power University found that China’s data centers produced 99 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2018, the equivalent of about 21 million cars driven for one year. Greenhouse gases aren’t the only type of pollution to be concerned about.Electronic waste (e-waste), which is a byproduct of data center activities, accounts for two percent of solid waste and 70 percent of toxic waste in the United States. Globally, the world produces as much as 50 million tonnes of electronic e-waste a year, worth over US$62.5 billion and more than the GDP of most countries. Only 20 percent of this e-waste is recycled. The world and its intractable challenges are not linear-everything connects to everything else. We must raise awareness about these major blind spots, embrace systems leadership (leading across boundaries), boost circular economy ideas (decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources), leverage an eco-economics approach (an environmentally sustainable economy) and encourage policy-makers to explore the interrelationships between government-wide, system-wide and societal results. We must also consider collective problem-solving by bringing together diverse perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South. We should take an inventory of the global and local damages caused by electronic devices, platforms and data systems, and frame issues about the digital economy and its environmental impact in broad societal terms.
5. The word “linear” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Hardly a week goes by without some advance in technology that would have seemed incredible 50 years ago. And we can expect the rate of change to accelerate rather than slow down within our lifetime. The developments in technology are bound to have a dramatic effect on the future of work. By 2010, new technology will have revolutionized communications. People will be transmitting messages down telephone lines that previously would have been sent by post. Not only postmen but also clerks and secretaries will vanish in a paper-free society. All the routine tasks they perform. will be carried on a tiny silicon chip so that they will be as obsolete as the horse and cart after the invention of the motor car. one change will make thousands, if not millions, redundant. Even people in traditional professions, where expert knowledge has been the key, are unlikely to escape the effects of new technology. Instead of going to a solicitor, you might go to a computer which is programmed with all the most up-to-date legal information. Doctors, too, will find that an electronic competitor will be able to carry out a much quicker and more accurate diagnosis and recommend more efficient courses of treatment. In education, teachers will be largely replaced by teaching machines far more knowledgeable than any human being. Most learning will take place in the home via video conferencing. Children will still go to school though, until another place is created where they can make friends and develop social skills. What can we do to avoid the threat of unemployment? We shouldn’t hide our heads in the sand. Unions will try to stop change but they will be fighting a losing battle. People should get computer literate as this just might save them from professional extinction. After all, there will be a few jobs left in law, education and medicine for those few individuals who are capable of writing and programming the software of the future. Strangely enough, there will still be jobs like rubbish collection and cleaning as it is tough to programme tasks which are largely unpredictable.
8. Which of the following is true, according to the passage? -
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Facebook users spend an average of more than 15 hours a month on the social networking site. While there are plenty who caution against such intensive use — and there are a number of studies detailing the harm Facebook could potentially cause — there also are lots of reports extolling the site’s virtues. As the social media giant prepares for its upcoming initial public offering, here are some ways Facebook just might be good for you. Spending time on Facebook can help people relax, slow down their heart rate and decrease stress levels, according to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Milan. In a study published earlier this year, researchers studied 30 students and found that a natural high was sparked when they were on the social media network that led to the relaxed heart rates and lower levels of stress and tension. In the study, the students were monitored in three situations: looking at panoramic landscapes, performing complicated mathematical equations and using Facebook. While the first situation was the most relaxing to students and the math problems were the most stressful, the time on Facebook uncovered high levels of attractiveness and arousal. The findings support the researchers’ hypothesis that Facebook’s success, as well as that of other social media networks, correlates to the specific positive mental and physical state users experience. While many may argue that social media networks only distract employees, research shows the opposite may be true. Research from Keas.com found that a 10-minute Facebook break makes employees happier, healthier and more productive. The study examined workers in three groups: one that was allowed no breaks, one that was allowed to do anything but use the Internet and one that was allowed 10 minutes to use the Internet and Facebook. The Facebook group was found to be 16 percent more productive than the group that was not allowed to use the Internet and nearly 40 percent more productive than the group that was allowed no breaks. “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf on the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher net total concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity,” said Brent Coker of the department of management and marketing at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Facebook is also in the business of matchmaking. Research shows that nearly 60 percent of singles will friend someone new on Facebook after meeting them in person. If they like what they see, 25 percent are likely to contact their new love interest via Facebook. Once the courting is over, nearly 40 percent of those social networking adults will update their relationship status on Facebook, with just 24 percent telling their friends first. Facebook use between couples will continue through the dating process, the research shows. Throughout the day, 79 percent of couples said they send partners Facebook messages or chat on the social network. In addition, more than 60 percent would post romantic messages on their significant other’s Facebook wall. When the relationship ends, more than half of those surveyed immediately update their status to single, which automatically sends out a notification to their friend list to start the dating cycle over again
8. Which of the following could best describe the tone of the passage? -
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From their inception, most rural neighborhoods in colonial North America included at least one carpenter, joiner, sawyer, and cooper in woodworking; a weaver and a tailor for clothing production; a tanner, currier, and cordwainer (shoemaker) for fabricating leather objects; and a blacksmith for metalwork. Where stone was the local building material, a mason was sure to appear on the list of people who paid taxes. With only an apprentice as an assistant, the rural artisan provided the neighborhood with common goods from furniture to shoes to farm equipment in exchange for cash or for “goods in kind” from the customer’s field, pasture, or dairy. Sometimes artisans transformed material provided by the customer wove cloth of yam spun at the farm from the wool of the family sheep; made chairs or tables from wood cut in the customer’s own woodlot; produced shoes or leather breeches from cow, deer, or sheepskin tanned on the farm. Like their farming neighbors, rural artisans were part of an economy seen, by one historian, as “an orchestra conducted by nature.” Some tasks could not be done in the winter, others had to be put off during harvest time, and still others waited on raw materials that were only produced seasonally. As the days grew shorter, shop hours kept pace, since few artisans could afford enough artificial light to continue work when the sun went down. To the best of their ability, colonial artisans tried to keep their shops as efficient as possible and to regularize their schedules and methods of production for the best return on their investment in time, tools, and materials. While it is pleasant to imagine a woodworker, for example, carefully matching lumber, joining a chest together without resort to nails or glue, and applying all thought and energy to carving beautiful designs on the finished piece, the time required was not justified unless the customer was willing to pay extra for the quality - and few in rural areas were. Artisans, therefore, often found it necessary to employ as many shortcuts and economics as possible while still producing satisfactory products.
5. It can be inferred from the passage that the use of artificial light in colonial times was ____ -
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English teenagers are to receive compulsory cooking lessons in schools. The idea is to encourage healthy eating to fight the country’s increasing obesity rate. It’s feared that basic cooking and food preparation skills are being lost as parents turn to pre-prepared convenience foods. Cooking was once regarded as an important part of education in England – even if it was mainly aimed at girls. In recent decades cooking has progressively become a minor activity in schools. In many cases the schools themselves have given up cooking meals in kitchens in the schools. But the rising level of obesity has led to a rethink about the food that children are given and the skills they should be taught. “What I want is to teach young people how to do basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce, a bolognaise, a simple curry, a stir-fry – which they can use now at home and then in their later life”, said Ed Balls, the minister responsible for schools. The new lessons are due to start in September, but some school without kitchens will be given longer to adapt. There is also likely to be a shortage of teachers with the right skills, since the trend has been to teach food technology rather than practical cooking. Also the compulsory lessons for hands on cooking will only be one hour a week for one term. But the well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, believes it will be worth it. “If we’d done this thirty years ago we might not have the crisis we have got now about obesity and lack of knowledge about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook, not just so that they’ll be healthy, but because it’s a life skill which a real pleasure”. The renewed interest in cooking is primarily a response to the level obesity in Britain which is among the highest in Europe, and according to government figures half of all Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends are not stopped
5. In what way will cooking lessons benefit the students? -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D)
Gender inequality remains an everyday reality for the world’s women and girls. It can begin right at the moment of birth and continue throughout the course of a woman’s life. Despite critical advances over the course of recent history, women in all countries and across all socioeconomic levels in society can face various forms of unfair treatment, including discrimination, harassment, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Other forms of abuse that are particularly prevalent in certain countries or cultural contexts include forced marriage, honor killings, deprivation of education, denial of land and property rights, and lack of access to work and to health care. Women may experience human rights abuses at different points in their working lives, including during recruitment, hiring, promotion and termination processes, as well as in daily interactions with colleagues and supervisors. Outside of the workplace, women are often particularly vulnerable to the social and environmental impacts of business activities. For example, in many developing countries, women and girls are primarily responsible for fetching and hauling water. When company operations contaminate local sources, it is they who carry the burden of walking, often for hours, to the nearest substitute, which can prevent them from working or going to school. According to the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, gender “refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes.” Furthermore, gender equality “refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.” Women and girls comprise half of the planet’s population; their empowerment is essential in expanding economic growth and promoting social development in a sustainable way. Evidence from around the world shows that gender equality advancements have a ripple effect on all areas of sustainable development, from reducing poverty, hunger and even carbon emissions to enhancing the health, well-being and education of entire families, communities and countries. In fact, “Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.”
8. The passage implies that ______ -
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Egypt’s 100 millionth citizen was born last week, undoubtedly a happy occasion for one family, but a moment filled with foreboding for a country struggling to contain a population explosion. In the past year the government has scrambled to stem the birth rate with a new program called “Two is Enough.” It is establishing family planning clinics throughout the country, where Egyptians can purchase heavily subsidized contraceptives. But many doctors and activists fear that this is too little, and comes too late to reverse the uptick in population growth. Doctors complain that the new “Two is Enough” program lacks in a clear strategy to bring down birthrates. The financial resources deployed thus far have been a fraction of previous efforts; some family-planning clinics have reportedly run out of contraceptives. While clinics funded by the campaign to provide some reproductive health education, sexual education remains taboo in Egyptian schools. There is also a lack of adequate services for the poor and pensioners. Many Egyptians opt to have more children in the hope they will look after them as they age, a phenomenon common in countries with high levels of poverty and inadequate safety nets. While over 30 million Egyptians live in poverty, only 9.4 million receive means-tested cash transfers from the government’s welfare programs. Economic reforms undertaken as part of a recently completed International Monetary Fund program have cut subsidies in a number of areas, contributing a spike in inflation that at one point exceeded 30%. For newborns like the 100-millionth Egyptian, the outlook is grim. A burgeoning population exacerbates many problems. Despite Egypt’s limited supply - it depends almost exclusively on the Nile - there has been a systemic failure to adequately address water waste. From wasteful megaprojects draining the Nile to literally dumping waste in the river, Egyptian officials have consistently failed to prudently protect what is perhaps the country’s most vital natural resource. In 2018, Egypt temporarily reduced the farming of rice, a water intensive crop - only to expand cultivation the following year. The New Administrative Capital that Sisi has set out to erect is projected to need 650,000 cubic meters of water per day when finished. Failure to quickly and dramatically improve water management practices in Egypt could be disastrous, and the risk is the greater for the country’s rapid population growth
1. Which best serves as the title for the passage? -
Choose the best answer:
The hotel where we are __________ is quite luxurious. -
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Esperanto is what is called a planned, or artifiial, language. It was created more than a century ago by Polish eye doctor Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof. Zamenhof believed that a common language would help to alleviate some of the misunderstandings among cultures. In Zamenhof's fist attempt at a universal language, he tried to create a language that was as uncomplicated as possible. This fist language included words such as ab, ac, ba, eb, be, and ce.This did not result in a workable language in that these monosyllabic words, though short, were not easy to understand or to retain. Next, Zamenhof tried a different way of constructing a simplified language. He made the words in his language sound like words that people already knew, but he simplifid the grammar tremendously. One example of how he simplifid the language can be seen in the suffies: all nouns in this language end in o, as in the noun amiko, which means "friend", and all adjectives end in -a, as in the adjective bela, which means "pretty". Another example of the simplifid language can be seen in the prefi mal-, which makes a word opposite in meaning;theword malamiko therefore means "enemy", and the word "malbela" therefore means "ugly" in Zamenhof's language. In 1887, Zamenhof wrote a description of this language and published it. He used a pen name, Dr. Esperanto, when signing the book. He selected the name Esperanto because this word means "a person who hopes" in his language. Esperanto clubs began popping up throughout Europe, and by 1950, Esperanto had spread from Europe to America and Asia. In 1905, the First World Congress of Esperanto took place in France, with approximately 700 attendees from 20 different countries. Congresses were held annually for nine years, and 4,000 attendees were registered for the Tenth World Esperanto Congress scheduled for 1914, when World War I erupted and forced its cancellation. Esperanto has had its ups and downs in the period since World War I. Today, years after it was introduced, it is estimated that perhaps a quarter of a million people are flent in it. This may seem like a large number, but it is really quite small when compared with the billion English speakers and billion Mandarin Chinese speakers in in today's world. Current advocates would like to see its use grow considerably and are taking steps to try to make this happen.
10. The paragraph following the passage most likely discusses: -
Application for admission to the Graduate School at this university must be made on forms provided by the Director of Admission. An applicant whose undergraduate work was done at another institution should request that two copies of undergraduate transcripts and degrees be sent directly to the Dean of the Graduate School. Both the application and the transcripts must be on file at least one month prior to the registration date, and must be accompanied by a non-refundable ten-dollar check or money order to cover the cost of processing the application. Students who have already been admitted to the Graduate School but were not enrolled during the previous semester should reapply for admission using a special short form available in the office of the Graduate School. It is not necessary for students who have previously been denied admission to resubmit transcripts; however, new application forms must accompany all requests for reconsideration. Applications should be submitted at least eight weeks in advance of the session in which the student wishes to enroll. Students whose applications are received after the deadline may be considered for admission as non-degree students, and may enroll for six credit hours. Non-degree status must be changed prior to the completion of the first semester of study, however. An undergraduate student of this university who has senior status and is within ten credit hours of completing all requirements for graduation may register for graduate work with the recommendation of the chairperson of the department and the approval of the Dean of the Graduate School.
What is the author's main point?
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Each sentence has a mistake. Find it bychosing A B C or D
The world’s nonrenewable fossil fuels and others mineral deposits that took million of years to form are now being destroyed in decades
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For nearly all of human history, there haven’t been that many of us. Around the year zero, Earth’s population is estimated to have been 190 million. A thousand years later, it was probably around 250 million. Then the Industrial Revolution happened, and human population went into overdrive. It took hundreds of thousands of years for humans to hit the 1 billion mark, in 1800. We added the next billion by 1928. In 1960, we hit 3 billion. In 1975, 4 billion. That sounds like the route to an overpopulation apocalypse, right? To many midcentury demographers, futurists, and science fiction writers, it certainly predicted one. Extending the timeline, they saw a nightmarish future ahead for humanity: human civilizations constantly on the brink of starvation, desperately crowded under horrendous conditions, draconian population control laws imposed worldwide. Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich wrote in his best-selling book, “In the 1970’s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death” because of overpopulation. None of that ever came to pass. The world we live in now, despite approaching a population of nearly 8 billion, looks almost nothing like the one doomsayers were anticipating. Starting in the 19th century in Britain and reaching most of the world by the end of the 20th century, birthrates plummeted — mostly because of women’s education and access to contraception, not draconian population laws. In wealthy societies where women have opportunities outside the home, the average family size is small; in fact, it’s below replacement level. Called the demographic transition, it is one of the most important phenomena for understanding trends in global development. There’s still significant debate among population researchers about the extent of the sea change in population trends. Researchers disagree on whether global populations are currently on track to start declining by midcentury. There’s also disagreement on what the ideal global population figure would be, or whether it’s morally acceptable to aim for such a figure. While academic research seeks to nail down these questions, it’s important to be clear what is consensus among researchers. Our projections around population are used to make global health and development policy. They’re critical for planning, especially about climate change. Fears of overpopulation sometimes turn into hostility to immigrants, those who choose to have large families, and countries in an earlier stage of their population transition. Having an informed conversation about population is crucial if we are to get humanity’s future right.
2. The word “brink” in paragraph is closest in meaning to _______ -
Read the following passage and choose the best answer (A, B, C, D):
Scientists believe that something very serious is happening to the Earth. It is becoming warmer. Scientists predict that there will be major changes in the climate during the 21st century. Coastal waters will have higher temperatures. This will have a serious effect on agriculture. Farmers will have trouble producing good crops. In warm regions, the weather will be too dry. The amount of water could decrease by 50 per cent. This would cause a large decrease in agricultural production. World temperatures could increase from 1.5 to 5.6 degrees Celsius by the middle of the 21st century. And the increase in temperature could be even greater in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. A rise in temperature could cause the great ice sheets to melt, which, in turn would raise the level of oceans by one to two meters. Many coastal cities would be underwater. Why is all this happening? The Earth and its atmosphere are kept warm by the Sun. The atmosphere lets most of the light from the Sun pass through to warm the Earth. The Earth is warmer by the sunlight and sends heat energy back into the atmosphere. Much of this energy escapes from the Earth’s atmosphere. However, some of it remains. Gases such as carbon dioxide, ozone and water vapor absorb this energy and create more heat. Then, this heat is sent back down to Earth, and the Earth becomes warmer. Recently, however, an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing serious problems. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere prevents heat energy from escaping. Too much heat is sent back down to the Earth, and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to increase. When oil, gas, and coal burn, they create large amounts of carbon dioxide. The destruction of rain forests that absorb carbon dioxide also helps to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Some scientists believe that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air will double by the late 2000s. Scientists call this warming of the Earth and its atmosphere “the greenhouse effect”. A greenhouse, made of glass and plastic, is a special place where plants are grown. The sunlight passes through the glass or plastic and warms the air inside. The heat inside escapes very slowly, so the greenhouse remains very warm. This is exactly what is happening on the Earth. Another reason why the Earth is growing warmer is because of the amount of ozone in our atmosphere. Ozone is a form of oxygen. In the upper atmosphere, very far from the Earth, a layer of ozone helps to protect the Earth from 95 percent of the harmful light that comes from the sun. If your skin receives too much of this light, you would develop skin cancer. We need the ozone layer to protect ourselves. But the ozone layer is in trouble. Scientists have observed that the ozone layer is becoming thin, and above Antarctica there is a hole. This allows too much of the sun’s dangerous light into our atmosphere and makes the Earth warmer. Scientists say we must start making changes and planning now. We need to continue to do research, so we can predict what will happen in the future. We must burn less coal, oil, and gas. Other scientists believe that the problem is not so serious. They think that the Earth is growing warmer naturally, that we don’t need to worry about it now, and that we should just get ready for life in the warmer climate. Most scientists agree that the causes of the world’s climate are very complicated. They say that we must continue to measure the amount of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere. Scientists also encourage people to learn about the changes that are occurring in the world and how we can all help protect our atmosphere
5. When the rainforests are destroyed ____ -
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When hosting an Olympic Games, a country has to take account of several considerations, among which the financial one is by far the most important. The costs of hosting the Olympics can (1) _______ tens of billions of dollars, and it is commonplace for budgets to double or even triple. In addition to the direct costs of hosting the Games (the opening and closing ceremonies, athletes’ village, security, etc.), cities often must build expensive new venues (2) _______ lesser-known sports. Once constructed, sports venues often incur additional maintenance costs long after the Games have ended. While costs are the (3) _______ concern for a host city, there are other factors to consider. For one, an Olympic host city may receive substantial revenue from ticket sales, tourist spending, corporate sponsorship, and television rights. Cities such as Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988) actually made a large profit from the Games they hosted. (4) _______, hosting the Olympic Games confers prestige on a host city and country, which can lead to increased trade and tourism. The Olympics are also an opportunity to invest in projects (5) _______ improve the city’s quality of life, such as new transportation systems -
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Next time your boss asks you to work late and miss your band rehearsal or board game night, point them to a new study in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. Researchers have found that spending more time on a hobby can boost people’s confidence in their ability to perform their job well. Ciara Kelly at Sheffield University and colleagues recruited 129 hobbyists — from amateur climbers to improv comedians — to look at how the time spent on their hobbies shaped their work life. To begin with, the team measured the seriousness of each participant’s hobby, asking them to rate their agreement with statements like “I regularly train for this activity”, and also assessed how similar the demands of their job and hobby were. Then, each month for seven months, participants recorded how many hours they had dedicated to their activity, and completed a scale measuring their belief in their ability to effectively do their job, or their “self-efficacy”, in which they rated themselves on statements like “At work I am able to successfully overcome many challenges”. The researchers found that when participants spent longer than normal doing their leisure activity, their belief in their ability to perform their job increased. But this was only the case when they had a serious hobby that was dissimilar to their job, or when their hobby was similar to their work but they only did it casually. When their hobby was both serious and similar to their job, then spending more time on it actually had a detrimental effect, decreasing their self-efficacy. Why might that be? To maintain a serious hobby, people need to invest significant psychological resources, so if the activity has the same kinds of demands as their work, they may be left drained and unable to perform as well at their job. But if their hobby is quite different from their career, it may not interfere in the same way but instead help them develop other knowledge and skills that can boost their confidence at work. Of course, the data don’t provide conclusive evidence about the direction of the effect. Still, the results suggest that companies may want to encourage employees to pursue interests outside of work, as long as those activities differ from their day-to-day tasks. And they also may give pause to those who dream of packing it all in and turning their hobby into a career.
8. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage? -
Choose the answer A, B, c or D to fill the blank space in the following passage.
"Speech is one of the most important ways of communicating. It consists of far more than just (1)….. noises. To talk or to (2)…. by other people, we have to master a language, that is, we have to use combinations of sound that (3)….. for a particular object or idea. Communication (4)…. impossible if everyone (5)….. up their own language.
Learning a language is very important. The basic vocabulary of English is not very large, and only about 2,000 words are needed to speak (6)…. quite well. But the more words you know, the more ideas you can express, and the more precise you can be (7)…. their meaning. Words are the main things we use (8)…. what we want to say. The way we say the words (9)…. also very important. One tone of voice can express (10)…. emotions and show whether we are pleased or angry for instance."1. Speech is one of the most important ways of communicating. It consists of far more than just (1)….. noises.
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Many prehistoric people subsisted as hunters and gatherers. Undoubtedly, game animals, including some very large species, provided major components of human diets. An important controversy centering on the question of human effects on prehistoric wildlife concerns the sudden disappearance of so many species of large animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Most paleontologists suspect that abrupt changes in climate led to the mass extinctions. Others, however, have concluded that prehistoric people drove many of those species to extinction through overhunting. In their “Pleistocene overkill hypothesis,” they cite what seems to be a remarkable coincidence between the arrival of prehistoric peoples in North and South America and the time during which mammoths, giant ground sloths, the giant bison, and numerous other large mammals became extinct. Perhaps the human species was driving others to extinction long before the dawn of history. Hunter-gatherers may have contributed to Pleistocene extinctions in more indirect ways. Besides overhunting, at least three other kinds of effects have been suggested: direct competition, imbalances between competing species of game animals, and early agricultural practices. Direct competition may have brought about the demise of large carnivores such as the saber-toothed cats. These animals simply may have been unable to compete with the increasingly sophisticated hunting skills of Pleistocene people. Human hunters could have caused imbalances among game animals, leading to the extinctions of species less able to compete. When other predators such as the gray wolf prey upon large mammals, they generally take high proportions of each year’s crop of young. Some human hunters, in contrast, tend to take the various age-groups of large animals in proportion to their actual occurrence. If such hunters first competed with the larger predators and then replaced them, they may have allowed younger to survive each year, gradually increasing the populations of favored species. As these populations expanded, they in turn may have competed with other game species for the same environmental niche, forcing the less hunted species into extinction. This theory, suggests that human hunters played an indirect role in Pleistocene extinctions by hunting one species more than another.
3. Which of the following is mentioned as supporting the Pleistocene overkill hypothesis? -
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For 150 years scientists have tried to determine the solar constant, the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth. Yet, even in the most cloud-free regions of the planet, the solar constant cannot be measured precisely. Gas molecules and dust particles in the atmosphere absorb and scatter sunlight and prevent some wavelengths of the light from ever reaching the ground. With the advent of satellites, however, scientists have finally been able to measure the Sun's output without being impeded by the Earth's atmosphere. Solar Max, a satellite from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has been measuring the Sun's output since February 1980. Although a malfunction in the satellite's control system limited its observation for a few years, the satellite was repaired in orbit by astronauts from the space shuttle in 1984. Max's observations indicate that the solar constant is not really constant after all. The satellite's instruments have detected frequent, small variations in the Sun's energy output, generally amounting to no more than 0.05 percent of the Sun's mean energy output and lasting from a few weeks. Scientists believe these fluctuations coincide with the appearance and disappearance of large groups of sunspots on the Sun's disk. Sunspots are relatively dark regions on the Sun's surface that have strong magnetic fields and a temperature about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the rest of the Sun's surface. Particularly large fluctuations in the solar constant have coincided with sightings of large sunspot group. In 1980, for example, Solar Max's instrument, registered a 0.3percent drop in the solar energy reaching the Earth. At that time a sunspot group covered about 0.6 percent of the solar disk, an area 20 times larger than the Earth's surface. Long-term variations in the solar constant are more difficult to determine. Although Solar Max's data have indicated a slow and steady decline in the Sun's output, some scientists have thought that the satellite's aging detectors might have become less sensitive over the years, thus falsely indicating a drop in the solar constant. This possibility was dismissed, however, by comparing Solar Max's observations with data from a similar instrument operating on NASA's Nimbus 7 weather satellite since 1978.
9. The phrase "This possibility" in the last paragraph refers to the likelihood that the: -
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By Celsi’s account, Alison has changed her mind a dozen times. Now she was utterly torn. She wanted to (1)_________ her lifelong dream of climbing to K2, adding it to Everest to become the only British woman (2)______the world’s two highest summits. And she (3) _______wanted to be back with her children, Tom, six and Kate, four. But early in that morning, while having a light English breakfast, Alison reopened that burning question once again, (4)__________endless cups of coffee with Celsi as she turned it over and over in her mind. “It was a very emotional thing for her,” says Celsi. “She really went through a lot of things, filling for divorce, raising the kids all by herself and changing a lot of jobs”. Finally, just 15 minutes before the porter was due to depart, she (5) ______ Celsi she had decided to stay, reasoning that, since she had been away for so long, one more week wouldn’t matter. “She said it was logical to give the weather a chance to clear.” -
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Diseases are a natural part of life on earth. If there were no diseases, the population would grow too quickly, and there would not be enough food or other resources, so in a way, diseases are natural ways of keeping the Earth in balance. But sometimes they spread very quickly and kill large numbers of people. For example, in 1918, an outbreak of the flu across the world, killing over 25 million people only in six months. Such terrible outbreaks of a diseases are called pandemics. Pandemics happen when a disease changes in a way that our bodies are not prepared to fiht. In 1918, a new type of fl virus appeared. Our bodies had no way to fiht this new flu virus, and so it spread very quickly and killed large numbers of people. While there have been many different pandemic diseases throughout history, all of them have a new thing in common. First, all pandemic diseases spread from one person to another very easily. Second, while they may kill many people, they generally do not kill people very quickly. A good example of this would be the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is an extremely infectious disease. In addition, it is deadly. About 70%-80% of all people who get the Marburg virus died from the disease. However, the Marburg virus has not become a pandemics because most people die within three days of getting the disease. This means that the virus does not have enough time to spread a large number of people. The flu virus of 1918, on the other hand, generally took about a week to ten days to kill its victims, so it had more time to spread. While we may never be able to completely stop pandemics, we can make them less common. Doctors carefully monitor new disease that they fear could become pandemics. For example, in 2002, and 2003, doctors carefully watched SARS. Their health warming may have prevented SARS from becoming a pandemic.
8. Which of the following is mentioned as a common feature of all pandemic diseases?