15000 bài tập tách từ đề thi thử môn Tiếng Anh có đáp án (Phần 12)

How is the news different from entertainment? Most people would answer that news is real but entertainment is fiction. However, if we think more carefully about the news, it becomes clear that the news is not always real. The news does not show us all the events of the day, but stories from a small number of chosen events. The creation of news stories is subject to specific constraints, much like the creation of works of fiction. There are many constraints, but three of the most important ones are. commercialism, story formulas, and sources. Newspapers, radio, and TV stations are businesses, all of which are rivals for audiences and advertising revenue. The amount of time that the average TV station spends on news broadcasts has grown steadily over the last fifty years - largely because news is relatively cheap to produce, yet sells plenty of advertising. Some news broadcasts are themselves becoming advertisements. For example, during one week in 1996 when the American CBS network was airing a movie about the sinking of the Titanic, CBS news ran nine stories about that event (which had happened 84 years before). The ABC network is owned by Disney Studios, and frequently runs news stories about Mickey Mouse. Furthermore, the profit motive drives news organizations to pay more attention to stories likely to generate a large audience, and to shy away from stories that may be important but dull. This pressure to be entertaining has produced shorter, simpler stories. more focus on celebrities than people of substance, more focus on gossip than on news, and more focus on dramatic events than on nuanced issues.

As busy people under relentless pressure to produce, journalists cannot spend days agonizing over the best way to present stories. Instead, they depend upon certain story formulas, which they can reuse again and again. One example is known as the inverted pyramid. In this formula, the journalist puts the most important information at the beginning of the story, than adds the next most important, and so on. The inverted pyramid originates from the age of the telegraph, the idea being that if the line went dead halfway through the story, the journalist would know that the most crucial information had at least been relayed. Modern journalists still value the formula for a similar reason. Their editors will cut stories if they are too long. Another formula involves reducing a complicated story into a simple conflict. The best example is "horse race" election coverage. Thorough explication of the issues and the candidates' views is forbiddingly complex. Journalists therefore concentrate more on who is winning in the opinion polls, and whether the underdog can catch up in the numbers than on politicians' campaign goals.

Sources are another constraint on what journalists cover and how they cover it. The dominant sources for news are public information officers in businesses and government offices. The majority of such officers try to establish themselves as experts who are qualified to feed information to journalists. How do journalists know who is an expert? In general, they don't. They use sources not on the basis of actual expertise, but on the appearance of expertise and the willingness to share it. All the major news organizations use some of the same sources (many of them anonymous), so the same types of stories always receive attention. Over time, the journalists may even become close friends with their sources, and they stop searching for alternative points of view. The result tends to be narrow, homogenized coverage of the same kind.

American movies create myths about college life in the United States. These stories are entertaining, but they are not true. You have to look beyond Hollywood movies to understand what college is really like.

Thanks to the movies, many people believe that college students party and socialize more than they study. Movies almost never show students working hard in class or in the library. Instead, movies show them eating, talking, hanging out, or dancing to loud music at wild parties. While it is true that American students have the freedom to participate in activities, they also have academic responsibilities. In order to succeed, they have to attend classes and study hard.

Another movie myth is that athletics is the only important extracurricular activity. In fact, there is a wide variety of nonacademic activities on campus such as special clubs, service organizations, art, and theater programs. This variety allows students to choose what interests them. Even more important, after graduation, students’ résumés look better to employers if they list a few extracurricular activities.

Most students in the movies can easily afford higher education. If only this were true! While it is true that some American college students are wealthy, most are from families with moderate incomes. Up to 80% of them get some type of financial aid. Students from middle and lower-income families often work part-time throughout their college years. There is one thing that many college students have in common, but it is not something you will see in the movies. They have parents who think higher education is a priority, a necessary and important part of their children's lives.

Movies about college life usually have characters that are extreme in some way. super athletic, super intelligent, super wealthy, super glamorous, etc. Movies use these stereotypes, along with other myths of romance and adventure because audiences like going to movies that include these elements. Of course, real college students are not like movie characters at all.

So the next time you want a taste of the college experience, do not go to the movies. Look at some college websites or brochures instead. Take a walk around your local college campus. Visit a few classes. True, you may not be able to see the same people or exciting action you will see in the movies, but you can be sure that there are plenty of academic adventures going on all around you !

TRAVELING TO WORK

If you were going to choose a job that involves travel, what would be your first choice? There are many jobs available today that give people opportunities to travel. Although may traveling careers sound fantastic, they also have disadvantages.

Being an au pair is an excellent way to not only go to different countries, but to live in different places around the world and really get a feel for the culture. Au pairs lives with the families they are placed with and take of children. Many parents include au pairs in family events and vacations, so they experience many aspects of the new culture while on the job. However, many of the activities are centered around the children, so they may not get to experience many things that interest adults.

For people who want a bit more freedom working abroad, being an English teacher maybe a good choice. There are English teaching jobs in almost countries in the world. People teaching English in other countries often have a chance to travel on the weekends around the country. One drawback is that many teachers often wind up hanging out with other English teachers, and they don’t have time to learn the country’s language. The nickname “roadie” implies that this job involves life on the road. Roadies are people who work and travel with bands and provide technical support. Roadies can be lighting and stage crew who set up the stage and break it down before and after events. They can also be technicians helping band members with their instruments. International tours take a band’s crew to cities around the world, often requiring air travel. However, the crew doesn’t get much time off, so they may travel to several countries without seeing much besides concert venues and hotels.

Similarly, flight attendants often travel to cities around the world, but they don’t see much besides the inside of airplanes and hotels. However, when they do have time off, they can often fly at no cost, and family member can sometimes fly free as well. Its is widely thought that a flight attendant job is glamorous, but flight attendants must deal with travel hassles, as well as security issues. All jobs gave advantages and disadvantages whether or not you travel for work, so if you have the travel bug, keep these jobs in mind for the future.

Many people today would like the traditional two-parent family back, that is to say, they want a man and a woman to (23)____________ for life; they also think the man should support the family, and the woman should stay home with the children. However, few families now (24)____________ in the this category. In fact, if more women decide to have children on their own, the single-parent household may become more typical than the traditional family in many countries. Also, couples may decide to have more children, or they might take in foster children or (25)____________ . And because people are staying single and living longer, there may be more one-person households.

(26)____________ the other hand, some people believe that similar events happen again and again in history. if this is true, people may go back to the traditional (27)____________ or nuclear family of the past. Others think that the only certainty in history is change. in other words, the structure of the future family could begin to change faster and faster and in more and more ways.

If you're an environmentalist, plastic is a word you tend to say with a sneer or a snarl. It has become a symbol of our wasteful, throw-away society. But there seems little doubt it is here to stay, and the truth is, of course, that plastic has brought enormous (23)__________, even environmental ones. It’s not really the plastics themselves that are the evil ─ it's the way society chooses to use and (24)__________ them.

Almost all the 50 or so different kinds of modern plastic are made from oil, gas or coal ─ non-renewable natural (25)__________.We (26)__________ well over three million tones of the stuff in Britain each year and, sooner or later, most of it is thrown away. A high (27)__________ of our annual consumption is in the form of packaging, and this (28)__________ about seven percent by weight of our domestic refuse.

Owning a car has several advantages. ___________(27), you can go wherever you want, whenever you want. You don’t have to depend on public transport, and ___________(28), you will feel more independent. ___________(29), you are able to give lifts to friends, or carry heavy loads of shopping.

___________(30), there can be certain financial problems, especially if you live in a city. Running a car can be costly, since you have to spend quite an amount on items___________(31) petrol, servicing the car, and repairs. You might also have problem with parking, as every where is more and more crowded with cars. ___________(32) most people feel that the advantages of owning a car outweigh the disadvantages.

If you want to prepare yourself for great achievement and have more to (24) ________ to your education or your work, try reading more books. (25) ________ up some of the interestingly informative books and search for well - researched materials that can help you grow.

We should encourage our children to read more books and spend less time watching TV. Some people have commented that this is inconsistent. "Why is the written word a superior way to get information than television?" That is (26) ________ interesting point of view worth further (27) ________. Reading is a skill that is in much greater demand than the demand for watching TV. There are no jobs that require a person to be able to watch TV but reading is an integral part of many jobs.

The written word is an incredibly flexible and efficient way of communication. You can write something down and, in no time, it can be communicated to many different people. Not only that, we can (28) ________ vast amounts of information through reading in a very short time. A good reader can acquire more information in reading for two hours than someone watching TV can acquire in a full day. You are able to gain a lot of information quickly because you are a fast reader with good comprehension skills. It will save you massive amounts of time and you will be able to assimilate vast quantities of information.

Our classes take place for three hours every morning from Monday to Friday. The (23)_________ class size is twelve and the average is ten. We use modern methods (24)_________ teaching and learning, and the school has a language laboratory, a video camera and recorders. You will only be successful in improving your English; however, if you work hard and practise speaking English as much as you can. You will take a short (25)_________ in English as soon as you arrive. In this way, we can put you in a (26)_________ at the most suitable level.

The emphasis is on oral communication practice in a wide (27)_________ of situations at the advanced knowledge. You will learn how to use language correctly and appropriately when you talk to native speakers. In addition, you will develop such study skills as reading efficiently, writing articles and reports, and note-taking from books and lectures.

A surprising number of popular spectator sports, for example football or baseball, (24)______ in Europe or the USA in the nineteenth century. This did not happen by chance. It was the (25) ______ of changes in the way people lived in those places at that time. Until then, more people lived In the country than in towns. They worked in small groups and had no regular time off. All this changed with the growth of factories and industry in the nineteenth century, first in Europe and (26) ______. In the USA. For the first time, most people began to live in towns, and they found themselves with regular free time. They had more leisure time than ever before. This resulted in the need for organized entertainment. Suitable games developed or were invented, typically team games, in which the crowd could (27) ______ sides and become involved. This gave people some of the entertainment they need in their free time. The recent explosion in TV, with the introduction of satellite and cable channels, has caused an increase in (28) ______ for sports as entertainment. The money TV has broughtto games such as football, tennis and baseball means that spectator sports will certainly go on playing an important part in our lives.

Personal space is a term that refers (23) ………. the distance we like to keep between ourselves and other people. When (24) …………. we do not know well gets too close we usually begin to feel uncomfortable. If a business colleague comes closer than 1.2 meters, the most common response is to move (25) ………. Some interesting (26) ……….. have been done in libraries. If strangers come too close, many people get up and leave the building; others use different methods such as turning their back on the intruder. Living in cities has made people develop new skills for dealing with situations where they are very close to strangers. Most people on crowded trains try not to look at strangers; they avoid skin contact, and apologize if hands touch by mistake. People use newspapers (27) …….. a barrier between themselves and other people, and if they do not have one, they stare into the distance, making sure they are not looking into anyone’s eyes.