15000 bài tập tách từ đề thi thử môn Tiếng Anh có đáp án (Phần 47)

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 After the United States purchased Louisiana from France and made it their newest territory in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson called for an expedition to investigate the land the United States had bought for $15 million. Jefferson’s secretary, Meriwether Lewis, a woodsman and a hunter from childhood, persuaded the president to let him lead this expedition. Lewis recruited Army officer William Clark to be his co-commander. The Lewis and Clark expedition led the two young explorers to discover a new natural wealth of variety and abundance about which they would return to tell the world.

 When Lewis and Clark departed from St. Louis in 1804, they had twenty-nine in their party, including a few Frenchmen and several men from Kentucky who were well-known frontiersmen. Along the way, they picked up an interpreter named Toussant Charbonneau and his Native American wife, Sacajawea, the Shoshoni “Bird Woman” who aided them as guide and peacemaker and later became an American legend.

 The expedition followed the Missouri River to its source, made a long portage overland though the Rocky Mountains, and descended the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. On the journey, they encountered peaceful Otos, whom they befriended, and hostile Teton Sioux, who demanded tribute from all traders. They also met Shoshoni, who welcomed their little sister Sacajawea, who had been abducted as a child by the Mandans. They discovered a paradise full of giant buffalo herds and elk and antelope so innocent of human contact that they tamely approached the men. The explorers also found a hell blighted by mosquitoes and winters harsher than anyone could reasonably hope to survive. They became desperately lost, then found their way again. Lewis and Clark kept detailed journals of the expedition, cataloging a dazzling array of new plants and animals, and even unearthing the bones of a forty-five-foot dinosaur.

 When the party returned to St. Louis in 1806 after travelling almost 8,000 miles, they were eagerly greeted and grandly entertained. Their glowing descriptions of this vast new West provided a boon to the westward migration now becoming a permanent part of American life. The journals written by Lewis and Clark are still widely read today.

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Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions described as close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for one of the major high street retailers. The discovery of these children working in appalling conditions in the Shahpur Jat area of Delhi has renewed concerns about the (441)______ by some large retail chains of their garment production to India, recognised (442)______ the United Nations as one of the world’s hotspots for child labour. According to one (443)______, over 20 per cent of India's economy is dependent on children, (444)______ comes to a total of 55 million youngsters under 14 working. Consumers in the West should not only be demanding answers from retailers about how their (445)______ are produced but also should be looking into their consciences at how they spend their money and whether cheap prices in the West are worth the suffering caused to so many children.

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Unlike these fish, which are actually extinct, the coelacanth is a type of fish that was believed to be extinct. However, an unexpected twentieth- century rediscovery of living coelacanths has brought about a reassessment of the status of the prehistoric sea creature that was believed to have long since disappeared from the Earth. From fossil remains of the coelacanth, paleontologists have determined that the coelacanth was in existence around 350 million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era, more than 100 million years before the first dinosaurs arrived on the Earth. The most recent fossilized coelacanths date from around 70 million years ago, near the end of the age of dinosaurs. Because no fossilized remnants of coelacanth was believed to have died out around the same time as the dinosaurs.

The prehistoric coelacanth studied by paleontologists had distinctive characteristics that differentiated it from other fish. It was named for its hollow spine and was known to have been a powerful carnivore because of its many sharp teeth and a special joint in the skull that allowed the ferocious teeth to move in coordination with the lower jaw. It also had a pair of fins with unusual bony and muscular development that allowed the coelacanth to dart around the ocean floor. These fins also enable the coelacanth to search out prey trying to hide on the ocean bottom.

In 1938, a living specimen of the coelacanth was discovered in the catch of a fishing boat off the coast of South Africa, and since then numerous other examples of the coelacanth have been found in the waters of the Indian Ocean. This modern version of the coelacanth is not exactly the same as its prehistoric cousin. Today's coelacanth is larger than its prehistoric relative, measuring up to six feet in length and weighing up to 150 pounds. However, the modern version of the coelacanth still possesses the characteristic hollow spine and distinctive fins with their unusual bony and muscular structure.

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For a century before the Erie Canal was built, there was much discussion among the general population of the Northeast as to the need for connecting the waterways of the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. A project of such monumental proportions was not going to be undertaken and completed without a supreme amount of effort.

The man who was instrumental in accomplishing the feat that was the Erie Canal was Dewitt Clinton. As early as 1812, he was in the nation's capital petitioning the federal government for financial assistance on the project, emphasizing what a boon to the economy of the country the canal would be; his efforts with the federal government, however, were not successful.

In 1816, Clinton asked the New York State Legislature for the funding for the canal, and this time he did succeed. A canal commission was instituted, and Clinton himself was made head of it. One year later, Clinton was elected governor of the state, and soon after, construction of the canal was started.

The canal took eight years to complete, and Clinton was on the first barge to travel the length of the canal, the Seneca Chief, which departed from Buffalo on October 26, 1825, and arrived in New York City on November

4. Because of the success of the Erie Canal, numerous other canals were built in other parts of the country.

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WILLIAM THE HERO!

Brave William Baldock, who is six years old, is a hero after helping his mother when she fell downstairs. William quickly rang for an ambulance when he discovered his mother had broken her leg. In spite of being frightened, he (461) ________ the emergency services what had happened and answered all the questions they asked him. He also telephoned his father at work, and then his grandmother, to explain what he had (462) _________. While waiting for these people to come, William looked after his 18-month-old sister. When ambulance man Steve Lyn went to the house, he was amazed: 'It's great that a young boy of six knew the right number to dial, and was able to give us the correct information. (463) ________ of William's quick thinking, we were able to (464) ________ there immediately." Mrs. Baldock left hospital yesterday, very (465) ________ to both William and the ambulance service.

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A large number of inventions require years of arduous research and development before they are perfected. For instance, Thomas Edison had to make more than 1,000 attempts to invent the incandescent light bulb before he finally succeeded. History is replete with numerous other examples of people trying, yet failing to make inventions before they eventually succeeded. Yet some inventions have come about not through hard work but simply by accident. In most cases, when someone unintentionally invented something, the inventor was attempting to create something else. For example, in the 1930s, chemist Roy Plunkett was attempting to make a new substance that could be used to refrigerate items. He mixed some chemicals together. Then, he put them into a pressurized container and cooled the mixture. By the time his experiment was complete, he had a new invention. It was not a new substance that could be used for refrigeration though. Instead, he had invented Teflon, which is today most commonly used to make nonstick pots and pans. Similarly, decades earlier, John Pemberton was a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia. He was attempting to create a tonic that people could use whenever they had headaches. While he was not successful in that endeavor, he managed to invent Coca - Cola, the world - famous carbonated soft drink.

Scientists have also made crucial discoveries by accident when they were conducting experiments. In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, an antibiotic, in this manner. He discovered some mold growing in a dish with some bacteria. He noticed that the bacteria seemed to be avoiding the mold. When he investigated further, he determined some of the many useful properties of penicillin, which has saved millions of lives over the past few decades. Likewise, in 1946, scientist Percy Spencer was conducting an experiment with microwaves. He had a candy bar in his pocket, and he noticed that it suddenly melted. He investigated and learned the reason why that had happened. Soon afterward, he built a device that could utilize microwaves to heat food: the microwave oven.

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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.

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British families started going on holiday to the seaside around the middle of the 19th century. The invention of the railways made this possible. The first holidaymakers were quite rich and went for their health and education. The seaside was a place to be (481)__________of illnesses, and doctors recommended bathing in the sea and drinking sea water. Also to increase their knowledge, families attended concerts and read books from libraries.

At that time, ordinary working people had very little time (482)__________. However, in 1871, the government introduce four “Bank Holidays” – national holiday days. This allowed people to have a day or two out, which now and then gave them a taste for leisure and the seaside. At first they went on day-trips, taking

(483)__________of special cheap tickets on the railways. By the 1880s, rising incomes meant many ordinary workers and their families could have a week’s holiday at the seaside. Rail fares were reduced and cheap hotels were built to (484)__________them. Holidaymakers enjoyed being idle, sitting on the beach, bathing in the sea, and eating ice-cream. Cheap entertainment was (485)__________offer and holidaymakers went to have fun.

Today, the English seaside remained popular, with more than 18 million holidays taken there each year.

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William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), who wrote under the pseudonym of O. Henry, was born in North Carolina. His only formal education was to attend his Aunt Lina’s school until the age of fifteen, where he developed his lifelong love of books. By 1881 he was a licensed pharmacist. However, within a year, on the recommendation of a medical colleague of his Father’s, Porter moved to La Salle County in Texas for two years herding sheep. During this time, Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary was his constant companion, and Porter gained a knowledge of ranch life that he later incorporated into many of his short stories. He then moved to Austin for three years, and during this time the first recorded use of his pseudonym appeared, allegedly derived from his habit of calling “Oh, Henry” to a family cat. In 1887, Porter married Athol Estes. He worked as a draftsman, then as a bank teller for the First National Bank.

In 1894 Porter founded his own humor weekly, the “Rolling Stone”, a venture that failed within a year, and later wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post. In the meantime, the First National Bank was examined, and the subsequent indictment of 1886 stated that Porter had embezzled funds. Porter then fled to New Orleans, and later to Honduras, leaving his wife and child in Austin. He returned in 1897 because of his wife’s continued ill-health, however she died six months later. Then, in 1898 Porter was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment in Ohio. At the age of thirty five, he entered prison as a defeated man; he had lost his job, his home, his wife, and finally his freedom. He emerged from prison three years later, reborn as O. Henry, the pseudonym he now used to hide his true identity. He wrote at least twelve stories in jail, and after re-gaining his freedom, went to New York City, where he published more than 300 stories and gained fame as America’s favorite short Story writer. Porter married again in 1907, but after months of poor health, he died in New York City at the age of forty-eight in 1910. O. Henry’s stories have been translated all over the world.

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INTERNET JOBS

Contrary to popular belief, one does not have to be a trained programmer to work online. Of course, there are plenty of jobs available for people with high-tech computer skills, but the growth of new media has opened up a wide range of Internet career opportunities requiring only a minimal level of technical expertise. Probably one of the most well-known online job opportunities is the job of Webmaster. However, it is hard to define one basic job description for this position. The qualifications and responsibilities depend on what tasks a particular organization needs a Webmaster to perform.

To specify the job description of a Webmaster, one needs to identify the hardware and software the website the Webmaster will manage is running on. Different types of hardware and software require different skill sets to manage them. Another key factor is whether the website will be running internally or externally (renting shared space on the company servers). Finally, the responsibilities of a webmaster also depend on whether he or she will be working independently, or whether the firm will provide people to help. All of these factors need to be considered before one can create an accurate webmaster job description.

Webmaster is one type of Internet career requiring in-depth knowledge of the latest computer applications. However, there are also online jobs available for which traditional skills remain in high demand. Content jobs require excellent writing skills and a good sense of the web as a “new media’.

The term “new media” is difficult to define because it compasses a constantly growing set of new technologies and skills. Specifically, it includes websites, email, internet technology, CD-ROM, DVD, streaming audio and video, interactive multimedia presentations, e-books, digital music, computer illustration, video games, virtual reality, and computer artistry.

Additionally, many of today’s Internet careers are becoming paid-by-the-job professions. With many companies having to downsize in tough economic items, the outsourcing and contracting of freelance workers online has become common business practice. The Internet provides an infinite pool of buyers from around the world with whom freelancers can contract their services. An added benefit to such online jobs is that freelancers are able to work on projects with companies outside their own country.

How much can a person make in these kinds of careers? As with many questions related to today’s evolving technology, there is no simple answer. There are many companies willing to pay people with Internet skills salaries well over $70,000 a year. Generally, webmasters start at about $30,000 per year, but salaries can vary greatly. Freelance writers working online have been known to make between $40,000 to $70,000 a year.