Read the passage and choose the best answers:
In the United States and Canada, it is very important to (1)___________ a person directly in the eyes when you are having a conversation with him or her. If you look down or to the side when the other person is talking, that person will think that you are not interested in (2)___________ he or she is saying. This, (3) __________is not polite. If you look down or to the side when you are talking, it might seem that you are not honest.
However, people who are speaking will sometimes look away for a few seconds when they are thinking or (4)______________ to find the right word. But they always turn immediately back to look the listener directly in the eyes. These social "rules" are (5)___________ for two men, two women, a man and a woman, or an adult and a child.
(4)___________
Suy nghĩ và trả lời câu hỏi trước khi xem đáp án
Lời giải:
Báo saiCấu trúc song hành dùng những liên từ đẳng lập để nối 2 từ, cụm từ,…với nhau miễn sao 2 vế của nó phải có cùng chức năng, giống nhau về loại từ. Các liên từ đẳng lập bao gồm: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
=> However, people who are speaking will sometimes look away for a few seconds when they are thinking or trying to find the right word.
Tạm dịch: Tuy nhiên, những người đang nói đôi khi sẽ nhìn sang chỗ khác trong vài giây khi họ đang suy nghĩ hoặc cố gắng tìm từ thích hợp.
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:
What unusual or unique biological train led to the remarkable diversification and unchallenged success of the ants for over 50 million years? The answer appears to be that they were the first group of predatory eusocial insects that both lived and foraged primarily in the soil and in rotting vegetation on the ground. Eusocial refers to a form of insect society characterized by specialization of tasks and cooperative care of the young; it is rare among insects. Richly organized colonies of the land made possible by eusociality enjoy several key advantages over solitary individuals.
Under most circumstances groups of workers are better able to forage for food and defend the nest, because they can switch from individual to group response and back again swiftly and according to need. When a food object or nest intruder is too large for one individual to handle, nestmates can be quickly assembled by alarm or recruitment signals. Equally important is the fact that the execution of multiple- step tasks is accomplished in a series-parallel sequence. That is, individual ants can specialize in particular steps, moving from one object (such as a larva to be fed) to another (a second larva to be fed). They do not need to carry each task to completion from start to finish - for example, to check the larva first, then collect the food, then feed the larva. Hence, if each link in the chain has many workers in attendance, a sense directed at any particular object is less likely to fail. Moreover, ants specializing in particular labor categories typically constitute a caste specialized by age or body form or both. There has been some documentation of the superiority in performance and net energetic yield of various castes for their modal tasks, although careful experimental studies are still relatively few.
What makes ants unusual in the company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators (predators are animals that capture and feed on other animals) occupying the soil and ground litter. The eusocial termites live in the same places as ants and also have wingless workers, but they feed almost exclusively on dead vegetation.All of the following terms are defined in the passage EXCEPT .
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Iron production was revolutionized in the early eighteenth century when coke was first used instead of charcoal for refining iron ore. Previously the poor quality of the iron had restricted its use in architecture to items such as chains and tie bars for supporting arches, vaults, and walls. With the improvement in refining ore, it was now possible to make cast-iron beams, columns, and girders. During the nineteenth century further advances were made, notably Bessemer’s process for converting iron into steel, which made the material more commercially viable.
Iron was rapidly adopted for the construction of bridges, because its strength was far greater than that of stone or timber, but its use in the architecture of buildings developed more slowly. By 1800 a complete internal iron skeleton for buildings had been developed in industrial architecture replacing traditional timber beams, but it generally remained concealed. Apart from its low cost, the appeal of iron as a building material lay in its strength, its resistance to fire, and its potential to span vast areas. As a result, iron became increasingly popular as a structural material for more traditional styles of architecture during the nineteenth century, but it was invariably concealed.
Significantly, the use of exposed iron occurred mainly in the new building types spawned by the Industrial Revolution: in factories, warehouses, commercial offices, exhibition hall, and railroad stations, where its practical advantages far outweighed its lack of status. Designers of the railroad stations of the new age explored the potential of iron, covering huge areas with spans that surpassed the great vaults of medieval churches and cathedrals. Paxton’s Crystal Palace, designed to house the Great Exhibition of 1851, covered an area of 1.848 feet by 408 feet in prefabricated units of glass set in iron frames. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 included both the widest span and the greatest height achieved so far with the Halle Des Machines, spanning 362 feet, and the Eiffel Tower 1,000 feet high. However, these achievements were mocked by the artistic elite of Paris as expensive and ugly follies. Iron, despite its structural advantages, had little aesthetic status. The use of an exposed iron structure in the more traditional styles of architecture was slower to develop.According to paragraph 3, the architectural significance of the Halle Des Machines was its ...........
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Before the 1500’s, the Western plains of North America were dominated by farmers. One group, the Mandans, lived in the upper Missouri River country, primarily in present-day North Dakota. They had large villages of houses built close together. The tight arrangement enabled the Mandans to protect themselves more easily from the attacks of others who might seek to obtain some of the food these highly capable farmers stored from one year to the next.
The women had primary responsibility for the fields. They had to exercise considerable skill to produce the desired results, for their northern location meant fleeting growing seasons. Winter often lingered; autumn could be ushered in by severe frost. During the spring and summer, drought, heat, hail, grasshoppers, and other frustrations might await the wary grower.
Under such conditions, Mandan women had to grow maize capable of weathering adversity. They began as early as it appeared feasible to do so in the spring, clearing the land, using fire to clear stubble from the fields and then planting. From this point until the first green corn could be harvested, the crop required labor and vigilance. Harvesting proceeded in two stages. In August the Mandans picked a smaller amount of the crop before it had matured fully. This green corn was boiled, dried, and shelled, with some of the maize slated for immediate consumption and the rest stored in animal-skin bags. Later in the fall, the people picked the rest of the corn. They saved the best of the harvest for seeds or for trade, with the remainder eaten right away or stored for later use in underground reserves. With appropriate banking of the extra food, the Mandans protected themselves against the disaster of crop failure and accompanying hunger.
The women planted another staple, squash, about the first of June, and harvested it near the time of the green corn harvest. After they picked it, they sliced it, dried it, and strung the slices before they stored them. Once again, they saved the seed from the best of the year`s crop. The Mandans also grew sunflowers and tobacco; the latter was the particular task of the older men.The word "disaster" is closest in meaning to ............
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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:
In young language learners, there is a critical period of time beyond which it becomes increasingly difficult to acquire a language. Children generally attain proficiency in their first language by the age of five and continue in a state of relative linguistic plasticity until puberty. [A] Neurolinguistic research has singled out the lateralization of the brain as the reason for this dramatic change from fluidity to rigidity in language function. Lateralization is the process by which the brain hemispheres become dominant for different tasks. The right hemisphere of the brain controls emotions and social functions, whereas the left hemisphere regulates the control of analytical functions, intelligence, and logic. [B] For the majority of adults, language functions are dominant on the left side of the brain. [C] Numerous studies have demonstrated that it is nearly impossible to attain a nativelike accent in a second language, though some adults have overcome the odds, after lateralization is complete. [D]
Cognitive development also affects language acquisition, but in this case adult learners may have some advantages over child learners. Small children tend to have a very concrete, here- and-now view of the world around them, but at puberty, about the time that lateralization is complete, people become capable of abstract thinking, which is particularly useful for language. Generally speaking, adults can profit from grammatical explanations, whereas children cannot. This is evidenced by the fact that children are rather unreceptive to correction of grammatical features and instead tend to focus on the meaning of an utterance rather than its form. However, language learning theory suggests that for both adults and children, optimal language acquisition occurs in a meaning centered context. Though children have the edge over adult language learners with respect to attaining a nativelike pronunciation, adults clearly have an intellectual advantage which greatly facilitates language learning.The word “critical” could best be replaced by .
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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:
Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island rich in history and remarkable natural beauty, has a cuisine all its own. Immigration to the island has helped to shape its cuisine, with people from all over the world making various contributions to it. However, before the arrival of these immigrants, the island of Puerto Rico was already known as Borikén and was inhabited by the Taíno people. Taíno cuisine included such foods as rodents with sweet chili peppers, fresh shellfish, yams, and fish fried in corn oil.
Many aspects of Taíno cuisine continue today in Puerto Rican cooking, but it has been heavily influenced by the Spanish, who invaded Puerto Rico in 1508, and Africans, who were initially brought to Puerto Rico to work as slaves. (2)Taíno cooking styles were mixed with ideas brought by the Spanish and Africans to create new dishes. (3) Africans also added to the island’s food culture by introducing powerful, contrasting tastes in dishes like piñon–plantains layered in ground beef. In fact, much of the food Puerto Rico is now famous for—plantains, coffee, sugarcane, coconuts, and oranges—was actually imported by foreigners to the island. (4)
A common assumption many people make about Puerto Rican food is that it is very spicy. It’s true that chili peppers are popular; ajícaballero in particular is a very hot chili pepper that Puerto Ricans enjoy. However, milder tastes are popular too, such as sofrito. The 25 base of many Puerto Rican dishes, sofrito is a sauce made from chopped onions, garlic, green bell peppers, sweet chili peppers, oregano, cilantro, and a handful of other spices. It is fried in oil and then added to other dishes.Look at the four numbers (1), (2), (3), and (4) in paragraph 2 that indicate where this sentence can be added to the passage. Where would the sentence fit best?
The Spanish extended food choices by bringing cattle, pigs, 15 goats, and sheep to the island.
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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:
You might be surprised to know that bicycles have existed for less than two hundred years. Though the earliest comes from a sketch said to be from 1534 and attributed to Gian Giacomo, there are several early but unverified claims for the invention of the modem bicycle. No one is sure who invented this popular two- wheeled machine, but it was probably either the German Karl von Drais, in 1817, or the American W K Clarkson, in 1819. The early models didn't look much like the bicycles of today. The front wheel was much bigger than the back one, and also there weren't any pedals - riders had to move themselves forward by pushing their feet against the ground. Pedals finally arrived in the 1840s, and in 1879 an Englishman named Henry Lawson had the idea of connecting them to the back wheel with a chain. Gears, which made things much easier for those cycling uphill, first appeared in the 1890s.
There are now approximately one billion bicycles in the world - more than twice the total number of cars - and they are the main form of transport in some developing countries. They have to compete with cars on the streets of all the world’s cities, and the two forms of transport don't always mix well. In London in 2005, for example, over 300 cyclists were either killed or seriously injured in accidents involving cars. Even though bicycles are much more environmentally friendly than cars, most governments don't do much to encourage people to ride rather than drive. In China, which is famous for having a huge number of bicycles (about 200 million), the authorities in the city of Shanghai even banned cycling for a while in 2003.
Cycling is on the rise is the United Kingdom, and the number of annual journeys made by bike in London has increased 50% over the last five years. Experts say there is a mixture of reasons for this boom: concerns about the environment, the desire to keep fit, and also the fact that cycling is often not only cheaper but also quicker than travelling by car.
However, although one in three British adults owns a bicycle, they still don't use them nearly as much as they could. Bikes are used for a mere 2% of journeys in the UK, while the figure for the Netherlands is an impressive 27%.
Cycling is becoming more popular as a competitive sport, and the most famous race is of course the three-week Tour de France, which takes place every July. American Lance Armstrong won it every year from 1999 to 2005 - one of the greatest individual sporting achievements of all time.Why didn't early bicycles look much like today's models?
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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.
The story of gold is an adventure involving kings, queens, pirates, explorers, conquerors, and the native peoples they conquered. Throughout history, gold has woven a magic spell over those it touched. Gold is beautiful and rare; a soft shiny metal that can be moulded into many (1)...... . It has been used for money, jewelry, and to decorate special buildings such as palaces and places of worship. (2)......the precious metal was discovered, prospectors rushed to mine it, starting new cities and countries as they went. Gold and the people who love it have helped shape the world we live (3).........today. Gold is one of many elements, or substances that cannot be changed by normal chemical means, that are found in the Earth's crust. Gold has a warm, sunny colour and (4)......... it does not react with air, water, and most chemicals, its shine never fades. In its natural (5)........... , gold is soft and easily shaped. When heated to 1,062 Celsius it melts and can be poured into moulds to form coins, gold bars, and other objects. Stories have been told, movies made and legends bom about the discovery of the world’s great gold deposits. It is a saga of dreams, greed, ambition and exploration.
(3)...................................
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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.The main purpose of the passage is to
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The protozoans, minute, aquatic creatures each of which consists of a single cell of protoplasm, constitute a classification of the most primitive forms of animal life. They are fantastically diverse, but three major groups may be identified on the basis of their motility. The Mastigophora have one or more long tails, which they use to project themselves forward. The Ciliata, which use the same basic means for locomotion as the Mastigophora, have a larger number of short tails. The Sarcodina, which include amoebae, float or row themselves about on their crusted bodies.
In addition to their form of movement, several other features discriminate among the three groups of protozoans. For example, at least two nuclei per cell have been identified in the Ciliata, usually a large nucleus that regulates growth but decomposes during reproduction, and a smaller one that contains the genetic code necessary to generate the large nucleus.
Protozoans are considered animals because, unlike pigmented plants to which some protozoans are otherwise almost identical, they do not live on simple organic compounds. Their cell demonstrates all of the major characteristics of the cells of higher animals.
Many species of protozoans collect into colonies, physically connected to each other and responding uniformly to outside stimulate. Current research into this phenomenon, along with investigations carried out with advanced microscopes may necessitate a redefinition of what constitutes protozoans, even calling into question the basic premise that they have only one cell. Nevertheless, with the current data available, almost 40,000 species of protozoans have been identified. No doubt, as the technology improves our methods of observation, better models of classification will be proposed.The word “uniformly” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to.............
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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 possessive “their” 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 young language learners, there is a critical period of time beyond which it becomes increasingly difficult to acquire a language. Children generally attain proficiency in their first language by the age of five and continue in a state of relative linguistic plasticity until puberty. [A] Neurolinguistic research has singled out the lateralization of the brain as the reason for this dramatic change from fluidity to rigidity in language function. Lateralization is the process by which the brain hemispheres become dominant for different tasks. The right hemisphere of the brain controls emotions and social functions, whereas the left hemisphere regulates the control of analytical functions, intelligence, and logic. [B] For the majority of adults, language functions are dominant on the left side of the brain. [C] Numerous studies have demonstrated that it is nearly impossible to attain a nativelike accent in a second language, though some adults have overcome the odds, after lateralization is complete. [D]
Cognitive development also affects language acquisition, but in this case adult learners may have some advantages over child learners. Small children tend to have a very concrete, here- and-now view of the world around them, but at puberty, about the time that lateralization is complete, people become capable of abstract thinking, which is particularly useful for language. Generally speaking, adults can profit from grammatical explanations, whereas children cannot. This is evidenced by the fact that children are rather unreceptive to correction of grammatical features and instead tend to focus on the meaning of an utterance rather than its form. However, language learning theory suggests that for both adults and children, optimal language acquisition occurs in a meaning centered context. Though children have the edge over adult language learners with respect to attaining a nativelike pronunciation, adults clearly have an intellectual advantage which greatly facilitates language learning.The word “unreceptive” is closest in meaning to .
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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:
"Quite apart from the economic similarity between present-day automation and the mechanization which has been proceeding for centuries, it must also be stressed that even in the United States automation is by no means the only factor (1)….. people from existing jobs.
The increasing number of unneeded workers in (2)…. years has been the result of much more simple and old-fashioned influences: farm labourers have been (3)…. out of work by bigger tractors, miners by the cheapness of oil, and railwaymen by better roads.
It is quite wrong, therefore, to think of automation as some new monster whose arrival (4)…. the existence of employment in the same way that the arrival of myxomatosis threatened the existence of the rabbit. Automation is one (5)….. of technological change, which itself is only one of the several changes (changes in tastes, changes in social patterns, changes in organization) which (6)…. in certain jobs disappearing and certain skills ceasing to be required. And even in America, which has a level of technology and output per (7)…. much in (8)….. of Britain’s, there is no (9)…. that the (10)…. of change is actually speeding up.
Nevertheless changes in the amount of labour needed to produce a certain output are proceeding fairly rapidly in America - and in other countries - and my proceed more rapidly in future. Indeed it is one of the main objects of economic policy."6. which itself is only one of the several changes (changes in tastes, changes in social patterns, changes in organization) which (6)…. in certain jobs disappearing and certain skills ceasing to be required.
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Read the passage carefully and choose the correct answer.
Vietnam is a densely-populated and developing country that in the last 30 years has had to recover from the ravages of war. Substantial progress was achieved from1986 to 1997 in moving forward from an extremely low level of development and significantly reducing poverty.
Since 2001, Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to economic liberalization and international integration. They have moved to implement the structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries…
Vietnam's membership in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and entry into force of the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in December 2001. have led to even more rapid changes in Vietnam's trade and economic regime. Vietnam's exports to the US doubled in 2002 and again in 2003.
Vietnam joined the WTO (World Trade Organization) in January 2007, following over a decade long negotiation process. This should provide ail important boost to the economy and should help to ensure the continuation of liberalizing reforms.
Vietnam is working to create jobs to meet the challenge of a labor force that is growing by more than one million people every year. Vietnamese authorities have tightened monetary and fiscal policies to stem high inflation. Hanoi is targeting an economic growth rate of 7. 5-8% during the next five years.
The word This refers to _______.
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Being aware of one's own emotions - recognizing and acknowledging feelings as they happen - is at the very heart of Emotional Intelligence. And this awareness encompasses not only moods but also thoughts about those moods. People who are able to monitor their feelings as they arise are less likely to be ruled by them and are thus better able to manage their emotions.
Managing emotions does not mean suppressing them; nor does it mean giving free rein to every feeling. Psychologist Daniel Goleman, one of several authors who have popularized the notion of Emotional Intelligence, insisted that the goal is balance and that every feeling has value and significance. As Goleman said, "A life without passion would be a dull wasteland of neutrality, cut off and isolated from the richness of life itself." Thus, we manage our emotions by expressing them in an appropriate manner. Emotions can also be managed by engaging in activities that cheer us up, soothe our hurts, or reassure us when we feel anxious.
Clearly, awareness and management of emotions are not independent. For instance, you might think that individuals who seem to experience their feelings more intensely than others would be less able to manage them. However, a critical component of awareness of emotions is the ability to assign meaning to them - to know why we are experiencing a particular feeling or mood. Psychologists have found that, among individuals who experience intense emotions, individual differences in the ability to assign meaning to those feelings predict differences in the ability to manage them. In other words, if two individuals are intensely angry, the one who is better able to understand why he or she is angry will also be better able to manage the anger.
Self-motivation refers to strong emotional self-control, which enables a person to get moving and pursue worthy goals, persist at tasks even when frustrated, and resist the temptation to act on impulse. Resisting impulsive behavior is, according to Goleman, "the root of all emotional self- control."
Of all the attributes of Emotional Intelligence, the ability to postpone immediate gratification and to persist in working toward some greater future gain is most closely related to success - whether one is trying to build a business, get a college degree, or even stay on a diet. One researcher examined whether this trait can predict a child's success in school. The study showed that 4-year-old children who can delay instant gratification in order to advance toward some future goal will be "far superior as students" when they graduate from high school than will 4-year-olds who are not able to resist the impulse to satisfy their immediate wishes.Which of the following can we infer from paragraph 1?
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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.
Before the mid-nineteenth century, people in the United States ate most foods only in season. Drying, smoking and salting could preserve meat for a short time, but the availability of fresh meat, like that of fresh milk, was very limited; there was no way to prevent spoilage. But in 1810, a French inventor named Nicolas Appert developed the cooking-and-sealing process of canning. And in the 1850’s an American named Gail Borden developed a means of condensing and preserving milk. Canned goods and condensed milk became more common during the 1860’s, but supplies remained low because cans had to be made by hand. By 1880, however, inventors had fashioned stamping and soldering machines that massproduced cans from tinplate. Suddenly all kinds of food could be preserved and bought at all times of the year.
Other trends and inventions had also helped make it possible for Americans to vary their daily diets. Growing urban population created demand that encouraged fruit and vegetable farmers to raise more produce. Railroad refrigerator cars enabled growers and meat packers to ship perishables great distances and to preserve them for longer periods. Thus, by the 1890’s, northern city dwellers could enjoy southern and western strawberries, grapes, and tomatoes, previously available for a month at most, for up to six months of the year. In addition, increased use of iceboxes enabled families to store perishables. As easy means of producing ice commercially had been invented in the 1870’s, and by 1900 the nation had more than two thousand commercial ice plants, most of which made home deliveries. The icebox became afixture in most homes and remained so until the mechanized refrigerator replaced it in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Almost everyone now had a more diversified diet. Some people continued to eat mainly foods that were heavily in starches or carbohydrates, and not everyone could afford meat. Nevertheless, many families could take advantage of previously unavailable fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to achieve more varied fare.
The word ”fixture” in line 16 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:
The pain of a migraine headache can virtually disable a person who suffers from it. Millions and millions of people suffer from migraines, although many of them do not even recognize that a migraine is different from a regular headache. A migraine is not at all the same as a normal headache, and it seems to have a very physical cause.
One symptom of a migraine is a precursor, which is a visual aura before an attack. Yet only about a third of patients actually experience that, and it is therefore not a requirement in the diagnosis. Other symptoms include increased pain when a person moves, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound. Scientists now believe that migraines are caused, not by abnormal blood vessels as previously believed, but instead by a unique electrical disorder of brain cells. Physicians used to treat migraines with medicine to constrict blood vessels because of the belief that dilated blood vessels were the cause.
The new research has been enhanced by imaging devices that allow scientists to watch patients' brains during an attack. The results show that sufferers have abnormally excitable neurons, or brain nerve cells. Prior to the attack, the neurons suddenly fire off electrical pulses at the back of the brain, which ripple like waves on a lake after a stone hits the water. They ripple across the top and then the back of the brain, ultimately affecting the brain stem where the pain centers are located. The pain then generates possibly from the brain stem itself or from blood vessels inflamed by the rapidly changing blood flow, or perhaps from both.
Scientists have experimented by applying a powerful magnet to stimulate the neurons and discovered that some people's brains react differently than others'. When stimulation was applied to the brains of people who had suffered migraines, they saw the initial aura, and some actually suffered migraines. When the same stimulation was applied to the brains of people who had never suffered migraines, they realized no effect and the neurons showed no change.
Scientists and doctors continue to work on the research in an attempt to find the perfect treatment. It is considered important to treat migraines because it is believed that prolonged untreated attacks could cause physical changes in the brain leading to chronic pain.The word enhanced in paragraph 4 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:
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 does the word “they” in the second paragraph refer to?
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Of all the aspirations which make up the American Dream, perhaps the most prominent is to own one’s own home. Americans are very proud of their homes and spend a great deal of time maintaining their houses and keeping the property in good condition. A man's home is often called his castle, and the hours spent keeping his fortress safe and secure become one of his greatest pleasures.
If a home is in an especially fashionable neighborhood, the owners may consult an interior decorator to give the home a certain coordinated appearance. If there is a large back yard, great care may be spent in having it properly landscaped with exotic trees, shrubs and plants.
It is almost a certainty that you should be the first visitor to an American home, you will be taken on a grand tour of the premises. The owner will take great pride in showing to you the place he calls home. Every closet, every cabinet and closed door will be opened so that you can actually see the extent and value of his home. You will even be taken into the father's den and the mother's sewing room. These are special rooms for the respective man and woman of the house to insure their privacy. They may be off-limits to the rest of the family but, for the visitor they are open to scrutiny and inspection.
It is, of course, considered polite on the tour to comment favorably on each room picking out its most salient, important feature, such as the special view from the window, the vaulted ceiling in the foyer or the exotic choice of wallpaper in the bathroom.
The finished basement is a special cause for pride for the family with its exercise room, video games, carpenter shop and launderette. In most homes it is here that the family entertains itself in the evening while the rest of the house becomes more of a showcase. On your tour you may be reminded of the hours the owners had spent "fixing up the house" so it would be "nice for the kids to bring over their friends". You may even sense a feeling of competition in knowing that they have not only "kept up with the Joneses" but also have far surpassed them.
The tour will terminate after an hour or so somewhere on the back lawn next to the two-car air- conditioned garage where you may be treated to a snack and light refreshment.
Showing off one's home is more than an exercise in vanity. It is a tribute to one's accomplishment. It is a way of saying that a man has been a good provider for his family and that he has realized one of his dreams.If a man lives in a good neighborhood, who may be consulted to fix up the appearance of the home?
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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:
Most volcanoes are found along an imaginary belt, called the Ring of Fire, that encircles the Pacific Ocean. However, volcanic activity takes place in many far-flung regions of the world such as Hawaii, Iceland, Europe, and even the floor of the earth’s oceans. The leading theory as to why volcanic activity, as well as earthquakes, takes place when and where it does is called the theory of “plate tectonics”. The theory holds that the outer shell of the earth is divided into many different rigid sections of rock, called plates. These plates are not static, they are in continuous motion over a layer of partly melted rock. While their movement may appear insignificant, at only several inches per year, it is not. Indeed, the collisions between plates caused by this almost imperceptible movement can have catastrophic consequences. Volcanic activity and earthquakes are concentrated near the boundaries of these giant, moving plates.
The majority of volcanoes are formed at te point where two plates collide. One of the plates is forced underneath the other. As the plate sinks, the earth’s heat and the friction of the movement cause a portion of the sinking plate to melt. This melted portion of plate is called magma, and when it reaches the earth’s surface it becomes a volcano. Volcanoes can also be created when two plates begin to diverge. Then, magma from below the earth’s crust moves up to fill the void between the two plates. Large quantities of lava spill out from the void. Volcanoes of this type usually are found not on land, but on the ocean floor. In extreme instances this can lead to the formation of gigantic, sunken mountain ranges like Mid-Atlantic Ridge that spans nearly the entire length of the Atlantic Ocean. The theory of plate tectonics also explains why some volcanic activity takes place so far from any known plate boundaries. Basically, these volcanoes are the result of huge column of magma, or plumes, that rise up and break through the surface of the earth.The word “static” is closest in meaning to .