Bộ 20 đề luyện thi Chuyên Anh năm 2023 có đáp án (Đề 81)

 Read the following passage adapted from an article on environment, Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009 and choose the correct word for each of the blanks

Greenpeace, international environmental organization (1)______ to preserving the earth's natural resources and its diverse plant and animal life. The organization campaigns (2) ______ nuclear weapons testing, environmental pollution, and destructive practices in fishing, logging, and other industries. Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1971 by members of the Don't Make a Wave Committee, a small group (3) _____ to nuclear weapons testing by the United States military in Alaska. The group renamed itself Greenpeace to reflect the broader goal of creating a green and peaceful world. Greenpeace won fame for its (4)________ exploits calculated to attract media attention to environmental issues. Greenpeace members in rubber rafts have (5) _______ whaling expeditions by positioning themselves between the whales and hunters' harpoons. They used similar tactics in Newfoundland and Labrador to protest the clubbing of baby harp seals, (6)_______ soft white fur is highly valued by clothing manufacturers. The organization is well known for scaling corporate skyscrapers and factory smokestacks to hang protest banners. Greenpeace's aggressive style has often led to (7)_________ with corporations, local authorities, and even national governments. In 1985 the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, on a (8) _______ to protest French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific, sank in a New Zealand port, and the crew photographer, Fernando Pereira, drowned. Investigations revealed that the ship had been deliberately sabotaged (damaged) with explosives planted by (9)________ agents of the French military. The resulting scandal rocked the highest levels of the French government, leading to the resignation of Defense Minister Charles Hernu and the dismissal of Admiral Pierre Lacoste, director of the French Secret Service. During the 1990s Greenpeace has been troubled by internal disagreements over political strategy. Some members want to persist with a militant approach, emphasizing civil disobedience and physical confrontation. Other members, including the organization's leaders, are convinced that Greenpeace must work cooperatively with the companies and industries that have been its targets in the past. Greenpeace has about 3 million dues-paying members and offices in more than 40 countries. Its international (10) ________ are in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Read the following extract from Jess McElhinney's article on health issues and choose the correct answer to each of the questions.

In a study of aspirin's effect on blood clotting in which abstinence from chocolate was required, a large proportion of participants broke the rules. Their "offence" led to what is believed to be the first biochemical evidence that a few squares of chocolate a day can almost halve the risk of heart attack death by decreasing the tendency of tiny particles (or platelets) to clot in narrow blood vessels. "What these chocolate offenders taught us is that the chemical in cocoa beans has a biochemical effect similar to aspirin in reducing platelet clumping, which can be fatal if a clot forms and blocks a blood vessel, causing a heart attack," said Diane Becker from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, USA, who led the study. Becker cautions that this discovery should not become an excuse to indulge in large amounts of chocolate frequently, since chocolate also contains high amounts of sugar, butter and cream. However just a few squares of dark chocolate the purest form may be just what the doctor ordered. For almost 20 years researchers have known that chemicals, called flavonoids, most common in dark chocolate, help blood flow and lower blood pressure. This new finding, presented at the American Heart Association's annual scientific sessions in Chicago this week, identifies the effect of everyday doses of chocolate found in regular foods such as hot chocolate or chocolate bars. This differs from previous studies which have examined the effects of eating unrealistic doses of flavonoids, equivalent to several pounds of chocolate a day. "Eating a little bit of chocolate or having a drink of hot cocoa as part of a regular diet is probably good for personal health, so long as people don't eat too much of it, and too much of the kind with lots of butter and sugar," said Becker. In the study, 139 chocolate offenders were disqualified from a larger experiment which aimed to examine the effects of aspirin on blood clotting. Before the study began, all participants were instructed to follow a strict exercise and diet regimen and to refrain from smoking or using foods and drinks known to affect blood-clotting activity, like caffeinated drinks, wine, grapefruit juice and, of course, chocolate. Platelet samples from both groups (offenders and non-offenders) were run through a mechanical blood vessel system designed to time how long it takes for platelets to clump together. Chocolate lovers' samples were found to clot more slowly, on average taking 130 seconds to block the system. Platelets from those who stayed away from chocolate clotted faster, taking an average of 123 seconds. 

Read the following passage adapted from MS Encarta 2008 and choose the correct answer to each of the questions that follow.

The work of women has been economically vital since prehistory, although their contributions have varied according to the structure, needs, customs, and attitudes of society. In prehistoric times, women and men participated almost equally in hunting and gathering activities to obtain food. With the development of agricultural communities, women's work revolved more around the home. As urban centres developed, women sold or traded goods in the marketplace.                                                                                                              From ancient to modern times, four generalizations can be made about women's paid work. (1) Women have worked because of economic necessity; poor women in particular worked outside the home whether they were unmarried or married, and especially if their husbands were unable to sustain the family solely through their own work. (2) Women's indentured work has often been similar to their work at home. (3) Women have maintained the primary responsibility for raising children, regardless of their paid work. (4) Women have historically been paid less than men and have been allocated lower-status work. Some major changes are now occurring in industrial nations, including the steadily increasing proportion of women in the labour force; decreasing family responsibilities (due to both smaller family size and technological innovation in the home); higher levels of education for women; and more middle and upper-income women working for pay or for job satisfaction. Statistically, they have not yet achieved parity of pay or senior appointments in the workplace in any nation Artisans working in their own homes not infrequently used the labour of their families. This custom was so prevalent during the Middle Ages, craft guilds of the period, including some that otherwise excluded women, often admitted to membership the widows of guild members, providing they met professional requirements. Dressmaking and lacemaking guilds were composed exclusively of women.        Gradually, the guilds were replaced by the putting-out system, whereby tools and materials were distributed to workers by merchants; the workers then produced articles on a piecework basis in their homes. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, as the Industrial Revolution developed, the putting-out system slowly declined. Goods that had been produced by hand in the home were manufactured by machine under the factory system. Women competed more with men for some jobs, but were concentrated primarily in textile mills and clothing factories. Manufacturers often favoured women employees because of relevant skills and lower wages, and also because early trade union organization tended to occur first among men. Employees in sweatshops were also preponderantly women. The result was to institutionalize systems of low pay, poor working conditions, long hours, and other abuses, which along with child labour presented some of the worst examples of worker exploitation in early industrial capitalism. Minimum wage legislation and other protective laws, when introduced, concentrated particularly on the alleviation of these abuses of working women. Women workers in business and the professions, the so-called white-collar occupations, suffered less from poor conditions of work and exploitative labour, but were denied equality of pay and opportunity. The growing use of the typewriter and the telephone after the 1870s created two new employment niches for women, as typists and telephonists, but in both fields the result was again to institutionalize a permanent category of low-paid, low-status women's work.