15000 bài tập tách từ đề thi thử môn Tiếng Anh có đáp án (Phần 85)

Smallpox was the first widespread disease to be eliminated by human intervention. Known as a highly contagious viral disease, it broke out in Europe, causing the deaths of millions of people until the vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner around 1800. In many nations, it was a terror, a fatal disease until very recently. Its victims suffer high fever, vomiting and painful, itchy, pustules that left scars. In villages and cities all over the world, people were worried about suffering smallpox.

          In May, 1966, the World Health Organization (WHO), an agency of the United Nations was authorized to initiate a global campaign to eradicate smallpox. The goal was to eliminate the disease in one decade. At the time, the disease posed a serious threat to people in more than thirty nations. Because similar projects for malaria and yellow fever had failed, few believed that smallpox could actually be eradicated but eleven years after the initial organization of the campaign, no cases were reported in the field.

          The strategy was not only to provide mass vaccinations but also to isolate patients with active smallpox in order to contain the spread of the disease and to break the chain of human transmission. Rewards for reporting smallpox assisted in motivating the public to aid health workers. One by one, each small-pox victim was sought out, removed from contact with others and treated. At the same time, the entire village where the victim had lived was vaccinated.

          By April of 1978 WHO officials announced that they had isolated the last known case of the disease but health workers continued to search for new cases for additional years to be completely sure. In May, 1980, a formal statement was made to the global community. Today smallpox is no longer a threat to humanity. Routine vaccinations have been stopped worldwide

 The first question we might ask is: What can you learn in college that will help you in being  an employee? The schools teach a (121) __________ many things of value to the future accountant, doctor or electrician. Do they also teach anything of value to the future employee? The answer is: “Yes - they teach the one thing that it is perhaps most valuable for the future employee to know. But very few students bother (122)___________ it. This one basic skill is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and in speaking. This means that your success as an employee will depend on your ability to communicate with people and to (123)___________ your own thoughts and ideas to them so they will (124)___________ understand what you are driving at and be persuaded.

          Of course, skill in expression is not enough (125)___________ itself. You must have something to say in the first place. The effectiveness of your job depends as much on your ability to make other people understand your work as it does on the quality of the work itself.

The Census Counts!

          Every ten years there is a national census to count the number of people. The census counts the number of people in each area, the number of men and women, their ages, their profession, their family size and status. The census is the only way to count everyone. Its results are used by a great many people and are available to everyone. The census is useful; it helps to work  out present and future needs for housing by seeing how many people are housed now, or the sizes and ages of their families. In addition, the size of annual grants made by the Government to  public services depends largely on the numbers and needs of people in the area provided by the census. Furthermore, the census shows how many people have moved from one area to another and how the number of the local work force is changing.

          The census is taken in order to provide the figures about the nation as a whole. It does not give information about any named person, family or household. Therefore, names and addresses are needed on the forms but they are not fed into the computer. After the census, the forms with the names on are locked away and will not be released to anyone outside the Census Office for 100 years. The answers people give on their census forms will be treated in strict confidence. Everyone working on the census is sworn to secrecy and can be sued if he or she improperly reveals information

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

Public awareness of the value of recycling materials such (141)___________ plastic, paper, and glass is increasing daily in all corners of the globe. In some countries these efforts are being (142)___________ by the local governments and in others, by individuals. Participation in these programs is at an all-time high. In the small town of Truro in eastern Massachusetts, for example, space in the local landfill has run out; therefore, residents have had to think of new ways to (143)___________ of their trash. With no room for items such as newspaper, bottles, and old lumber at the land fill, local residents have come up with many (144)___________ programs to recycle and/ or reuse what was once thought of as only trash. For instance, yard waste such as leaves and grass which used to be thrown in the landfill is now broken down and made into compost used by local people as fertilizer in their gardens. In addition, (145)___________ plastics, newspapers, bottles and cans are sold to a recycling company, thereby bringing in revenue for the town.

Homing pigeons are placed in a training program from about the time they are twenty-eight days of age. They are taught to enter the loft through a trap and to exercise above and around the loft, and gradually they are taken away for short distances in wicker baskets and released. They are then expected to find their way home in the shortest possible time.              

 In their training flights or in actual races, the birds are taken to prearranged distant points and released to find their way back to their own lofts. Once the birds are liberated, their owners, who are standing by at the home lofts, anxiously watch the sky for the return of their entries. Since time is of the essence, the speed with which the birds can be induced to enter the loft trap may make the difference between gaining a win or a second place.     

The head of a homing pigeon is comparatively small, but its brain is one quarter larger than that of the ordinary pigeon. The homing pigeon is very intelligent and will persevere to the point of stubbornness; some have been known to fly a hundred miles off course to avoid a storm.

Some homing pigeon experts claim that this bird is gifted with a form of built-in radar that helps it find its own loft after hours of flight, for hidden under the head feathers are two very sensitive ears, while the sharp, prominent eyes can see great distances in daytime.

Why do homing pigeons fly home? They are not unique in this inherent skill: it is found in most migratory birds, in bees, ants, toads, and even turtles, which have been known to travel hundreds of miles to return to their homes. But in the animal world, the homing pigeon alone can be trusted with its freedom and trained to carry out the missions that people demand.

ACADEMICS AREN’T THE PROBLEM

Studies about how students use their time might shed light on whether they face increased academic and financial pressures compared with earlier eras.

The data show that full-time students in all types of colleges study much less now than they did a generation ago - a full 10 hours a week less. Students are also receiving significantly higher grades. So it appears that academic pressures are, in fact, considerably lower than they used to be. The time-use data don‟t suggest that students feel greater financial pressures, either. When the time savings and lower opportunity costs are factored in, college appears less expensive for most students than it was in the 1960s. And though there are now more full-time students working for pay while in college, they study less even when paid work choices are held constant.

In other words, full-time students do not appear to be studying less in order to work more. They appear to be studying less and spending the extra time on leisure activities or fun. It seems hard to imagine that students feeling increased financial pressures would respond by taking more leisure.

Based on how students are spending their time then, it doesn‟t look as though academic or financial pressures are greater now than a generation ago. The time-use data don‟t speak directly to social pressures, and it may well be that these have become more intense lately.

In one recent set of data, students reported spending more than 23 hours per week either socializing with friends or playing on the computer for fun. Social activities, in person or on computer, would seem to have become the major focus of campus life. It is hard to tell what kinds of pressures would be associated with this change.

Just as more English is being taught in primary schools worldwide, so there are a growing number of language schools in English-speaking countries that are (161)___________ courses for younger learners. In Britain most young learners' courses are (162)___________ to 11-year-olds and upwards, with a few that cater for children as young as seven. But what is a sensible age to start sending children abroad to study? (163)___________, even adult learners find the experience of travelling to a strange country and encountering people who speak an incomprehensible language challenging?

A great deal depends on how a child has been (164)___________ up. For example, if they have been exposed to new things and have already started to learn independence, then they are likely to prosper. Further on, children who have previously travelled abroad with their parents are usually more prepared for a study (165)___________ in an English-speaking country on their own than those who have not.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday in November. For many Americans it is the most important holiday apart from Christmas. Schools, offices and most businesses close for Thanksgiving, and many people make the whole weekend a vacation.

Thanksgiving is associated with the time when Europeans first came to North America. In 1620 the ship the Mayflowers arrived, bringing about 150 people who today are usually called Pilgrims. They arrived at the beginning of a very hard winter and could not find enough to eat, so many of them died. But in the following summer Native Americans showed them what foods were safe to eat, so that they could save food for the next winter. They held a big celebration to thank God and the Native Americans for the fact that they had survived.      

Today people celebrate Thanksgiving to remember these early days. The most important part of the celebration is a traditional dinner with foods that come from North America. The meal includes turkey, sweet potatoes (also called yams) and cranberries, which are made into a kind of sauce or jelly. The turkey is filled with stuffing or dressing, and many families have their own special recipe. Dessert is pumpkin made into a pie.  

On Thanksgiving there are special television programs and sports events. In New York there is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, when a long line of people wearing fancy costumes march through the streets with large balloons in the shape of imaginary characters. Thanksgiving is considered the beginning of the Christmas period, and the next day many people go out to shop for Christmas presents.

A rather surprising geographical feature of Antarctica is that a huge freshwater lake, one of the world’s largest and deepest, lies hidden there under four kilometers of ice. Now known as Lake Vostok, this huge body of water is located under the ice block that comprises Antarctica. The lake is able to exist in its unfrozen state beneath this block of ice because its waters are warmed by geothermal heat from the earth’s core. The thick glacier above Lake Vostok actually insulates it from the frigid temperatures on the surface. 

The lake was first discovered in the 1970s while a research team was conducting an aerial survey of the area. Radio waves from the survey equipment penetrated the ice and revealed a body of water of indeterminate size. It was not until much more recently that data collected by satellite made scientists aware of the tremendous size of the lake; the satellite-borne radar detected an extremely flat region where the ice remains level because it is floating on the water of the lake. 

The discovery of such a huge freshwater lake trapped under Antarctica is of interest to the scientific community because of the potential that the lake contains ancient microbes that have survived for thousands of years, unaffected by factors such as nuclear fallout and elevated ultraviolet light that have affected organisms in more exposed areas. The downside of the discovery, however, lies in the difficulty of conducting research on the lake in such a harsh climate and in the problems associated with obtaining uncontaminated samples from the lake without actually exposing the lake to contamination. Scientists are looking for possible ways to accomplish this.