15000 bài tập tách từ đề thi thử môn Tiếng Anh có đáp án (Phần 86)

Last year thieves broke into a Scottish stately home and stole only one thing: a rhino horn trophy, which at 1.5 meters was the longest in the world. Meanwhile, in China, pharmaceutical factories have been building up (181)___________ of antiques made from rhino horn, for the sole purpose of smashing them to powder to make the (182)___________ ingredient of many of their medicines. And in Zimbabwe, 34 poachers died in 1990 in the search for the black rhino.

Recently, conservationists met to (183)___________a campaign to persuade countries where rhino horn is still part of the traditional medicine to switch to substitutes. The biggest threat to the survival of the rhinoceros is the refusal of certain countries to enforce a ban on domestic trading in rhino horn.

The rhino horn is included in many doses for disorders raging from fevers to nosebleeds. Horn, like fingernails, is made of keratin and has no proven medicinal (184)___________. Traditional substitutes, such as horn from buffalo or antelope, are regarded as second best.

The battle is thought to be winnable. But it may be harder than the battle against the trade in ivory, for there is a (185)___________between the two commodities. Ivory is a luxury; rhino horn, people believe, could save the life of their child.

Beads were probably the first durable ornaments humans possessed, and the intimate relationship they had with their owners is reflected in the fact that beads are among the most common items found in ancient archaeological sites. In the past, as today, men, women, and children adorned themselves with beads. In some cultures still, certain beads are often worn from birth until death, and then are buried with their owners for the afterlife. Abrasion due to daily wear alters the surface features of beads, and if they are buried for long, the effects of corrosion can further change their appearance. Thus, interest is imparted to the bead both by use and the effects of time.

Besides their wearability, either as jewelry or incorporated into articles of attire, beads possess the desirable characteristics of every collectible, they are durable, portable, available in infinite variety, and often valuable in their original cultural context as well as in today's market. Pleasing to look at and touch, beads come in shapes, colors, and materials that almost compel one to handle them and to sort them.

Beads are miniature bundles of secrets waiting to be revealed: their history, manufacture, cultural context, economic role, and ornamental use are all points of information one hopes to unravel. Even the most mundane beads may have traveled great distances and been exposed to many human experiences. The bead researcher must gather information from many diverse fields. In addition to having to be a generalist while specializing in what may seem to be a narrow field, the researcher is faced with the problem of primary materials that have little or no documentation. Many ancient beads that are of ethnographic interest have often been separated from their original cultural context.

The special attractions of beads contribute to the uniqueness of bead research. While often regarded as the "small change of civilizations", beads are a part of every culture, and they can often be used to date archaeological sites and to designate the degree of mercantile, technological, and cultural sophistication.

Milpa Alta is a region of twelve villages and towns to the south of Mexico City. In Milpa Alta, traditions are still very important and one of the most famous traditional events is a community meal. It takes place every Christmas and is called La Rejunta. More than a meal, it’s a feast, where about sixty thousand tamales and fifteen thousand litres of hot chocolate are made and consumed. Tamales are made from corn. They are typical of the region:  the name Milpa Alta means “High cornfield”. The feast is offered to the people who go on the long walk to El Señor de Chalma about 80 kilometers away. It’s an important event on the religious calendar for local people and as many as 20,000 people take part.

The planning and organisation of La Rejunta takes the whole year. Every year, different people are given the job of majordomo, which means they’re responsible for organising the meal. There’s a waiting list for the opportunity to do this and currently the next available year is 2046. This year’s majordomos are Virginia Meza Torres and her husband Fermín Lara Jiménez, who put their names on the list 14 years ago.

One year before the meal, men go to the forest and collect wood that they store near the home of the majordomo. It has to be dry when it’s used to make the cooking fires. Local farmers grow most of the corn, meat and vegetables that are needed as ingredients. In the week before the feast, hundreds of volunteers arrive to help with the preparation and the cooking. No instant or ready-made foods are allowed. Amazingly, everyone seems to know what they have to do. On the day of the feast, the majordomos and others have stayed up all night cooking. Fermin is in charge of the numbers – making sure there are enough tamales for everyone.

For the people of Milpa Alta, eating together is one of their most important traditions. One woman, Josefina García Jiménez, explains that sitting together at the table is like a glue that keeps people together. It feels like I am passing down a tradition, and when they are adults, they will remember what I have done. Here we have time to cook, time to think about the ingredients, time to show our kids through cooking that we love them. ‟ The time that everybody stays at the table after the meal has finished is just as important as the food. They talk, tell stories and laugh together. At Christmas, La Rejunta is a giant version of a family meal.

The Indonesian capital, with a population of over 10 million, has been named the most packed city on the planet. Its greater metropolitan area, (201)___________ as Jabodetabek, is the second largest in the world.

From 21 to 25 November, the Guardian Cities team will be in Jakarta for a live week of (202)___________ reporting and special events all about the issues shaping the city. As a key part of this week, we’d love to hear from local residents about local life and how it’s changing – for better (203)___________ worse – as well as aspiration for Jakarta’s future

From huge street protests earlier this  month against Jakarta’s Christian governor Ahok’s alleged blashpheny in his comments about the Qur’an, to the president’s spokenperson saying there is “no room” for LBGT people in Indonesia and plans to ban gay networking apps like Grindr, have you witnessed social division in the city, or experienced discrimination yourself?

Is the city rapid development – including the proliferation of shopping malls and a huge land reclamation project to help (204)___________ a growing population  a positive or negative thing in your view?

If you live or work in Jakarta, we’d love to hear from you. From traffic and urban development to community and culture, what are the best and worst things about life in the city? What would make Jakarta better, and what changes are most (205)___________ needed?

Certain birds are, more often than not, considered bad luck, or even a sign of impending death. For example, all over the world, both crows and ravens have some connection to war, and death. In early times, crows and ravens were thought to accompany the gods of war, or be signs of the god’s approaching arrival. This idea later changed. Crows  in particular were thought to be harbingers of ill fortune or, in some cases, guides to the afterlife. Woe be it to the person who saw a single crow or raven flying overhead, for this was most certainly a portent of death in the near future.

Interestingly, though potentially bad luck for people individually, the raven is considered to be  good luck for the crown of England. So much so, in fact, that a “raven master” is, even today, an actual government position in London. He takes care of the ravens there and also clips their wings, ensuring that these birds can never fly far from the seat of the British government. This way, the kingdom will never fall to ill fortune.

Another bird that is thought to play a part in forecasting the fortunes of people is the swallow. Depending on how and when it is seen, the swallow can be a harbinger of either good or ill fortune. Perhaps inspired  the swallow’s red-brown breast, Christian people initially related the swallow to the death of Jesus Christ. Thus, people who saw a swallow fly through their house considered it a portent of death. Later, however, farmers began to consider swallows signs of good fortune. Any barn that has swallows living in it is sure to be blessed in the following year. Farmers also have to beware of killing a swallow; that would be certain to end any good luck they might have had.

Though many people think these superstitions are old wives’ tales, there is actually some evidence to support them. For example, crows and ravens, being scavengers, appear at the aftermath of battles. Thus, large numbers of crows and ravens could be good indications of war in an area. As well, swallows feed on insects that can cause infections in cattle. Thus, a farmer who has many swallows in his barn may actually have healthier animals on his farm. Therefore, the next time you feel inclined to laugh at an old wives’ tale, maybe you  had better find out if there is any truth to it first!.

A newborn baby can see, hear and feel. By the age of five, a child can talk, ride a bike and invent imaginary friends. How does this development happen? We don’t understand the way language, thinking and planning develop very well. Now scientists are using new technology to ‘see’ into children’s brains. And they are discovering new information about the way a baby’s brain develops.

A study in 2010 showed that the experiences a child has in their first few years affect the development of the brain. It showed that children who received more attention often had higher IQs. The brain of a newborn baby has nearly a hundred billion neurons. This is the same number as an adult‟s brain. As they grow, a baby receives information through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This information creates connections between different parts of the brain. At the age of three, there are a hundred trillion connections.

One experiment looked at images of babies’ brains while they were listening to different sounds. The sounds were in different sequences. For example, one sequence was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern ‘A- B-B’. Another sequence was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern ‘A-B-C’. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during ‘A-B-B’ patterns. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. This experiment is interesting because sequences of words are important to grammar and meaning. Compare two sentences with the same words in a different order: “John killed the bear” is very different from ‘The bear killed John’. So babies are starting to learn grammatical rules from the beginning of life.

Researchers also know that babies need to hear a lot of language in order to understand grammar rules. But there is a big difference between listening to television, audio books or the internet, and interacting with people. One study compared two groups of nine-month-old American babies. One group watched videos of Mandarin Chinese sounds. In the other group, people spoke the same sounds to the babies. The test results showed that the second group could recognise different sounds, however the first group learned nothing.

The scientist, Patricia Kuhl, said this result was very surprising. It suggests that social experience is essential to successful brain development in babies.

Television has changed the lifestyle of people in every industrialized country in the world. In the United States, where sociologists have studied the effects, some interesting observations have been made. TV, although not essential, has become a(n) (221) ______ part of most people’s lives. It has become a baby- sitter, an initiator of conversations, a major transmitter of culture, and a keeper of traditions. Yet when what can be seen on TV in one day is critically analyzed, it becomes evident that TV is not a teacher but a sustainer. The poor quality of programs does not elevate people into greater (222) ______, but rather maintains and encourages the status quo. The (223) ______reason for the lack of quality in American TV is related to both the history of TV development and the economics of TV. TV in American began with the radio. Radio companies and their sponsors first experimented with TV. Therefore, the close relationship, which the advertisers had with radio programs, become the system for American TV. Sponsors not only pay money for time within programs, but many actually produced the programs. Thus, (224) ______  from the capitalistic, profit- oriented sector of American society, TV is primarily concerned with reflecting and attracting society (225) _______ than innovating and experimenting with new ideas. Advertisers want to attract the largest viewing audience possible; to do so requires that the programs be entertaining rather than challenging. TV in America today remains, to a large extent, with the same organization and standards as it had thirty years ago. The hope for some evolution and true achievement toward improving society will require a change in the entire system.

Are organically grown foods the best food choices? The advantages claimed for such foods over conventionally grown and marketed food products are now being debated. Advocates of organic foods – a term whose meaning varies greatly – frequently proclaim that such products are safer and more nutritious than others.

The growing interest of consumers in the safety and nutritional quality of the typical North American diet is a welcome development. However, much of this interest has been sparked by sweeping claims that the food supply is unsafe or inadequate in meeting nutritional needs. Although most of these claims are not supported by scientific evidence, the preponderance of written material advancing such claims makes it difficult for the general public to separate fact from fiction. As a result, claims that eating a diet consisting entirely of organically grown foods prevents or cures disease or provides other benefits to health have become widely publicized and form the basis for folklore.                

Almost daily the public is besieged by claims for "no-aging" diets, new vitamins, and other wonder foods. There are numerous unsubstantiated reports that natural vitamins are superior to synthetic ones, that fertilized eggs are nutritionally superior to unfertilized eggs, that untreated grains are better than fumigated grains, and the like.              

One thing that most organically grown food products seem to have in common is that they cost more than conventionally grown foods. But in many cases consumers are misled if they believe organic foods can maintain health and provide better nutritional quality than conventionally grown foods. So there is real cause for concern if consumers, particularly those with limited incomes, distrust the regular food supply and buy only expensive organic foods instead.

Sometimes the road to the future leads through the past. Such was the case for Americans Scott and Brennan Olson, who used an old idea to launch a hot new trend in sports: inline roller skating.

In 1979, these siblings found a pair of antique roller skates while checking out bargains at a used sporting-goods store. The skates they found had four wheels in a single row instead of the traditional parallel pairs of wheels in front and back. This single row of wheels intrigued the Olsons. They were avid hockey players, and they immediately noticed the similarity between the inline wheels and the long, single blade found on the bottom of ice skates. Could these unusual skates somehow be used to practice hockey off the ice?

The Olsons set about trying to modify the design of the antique skates that they had found. First they tested out the antique skates to see how well they worked. From those tests, they tried to come up with ways to improve the old design. One improvement involved using special materials to make the skates stronger and easier to steer. The Olsons also added reliable brakes to their inline skates. In 1980, the Olsons founded a company called Rollerblade to make and sell their “new” invention. Sales skyrocketed, and soon millions of people worldwide were “rollerblading,” as inline skating was mistakenly called.

At first, inline skating was recreational. People enjoyed skating in parks and on streets, and some even danced on skates at giant roller discos. Today, inline “group skates” are popular all over the world. In cities such as San Francisco, Paris, and Berlin, as many as 20,000 skaters might meet on a free day and skate together through the streets. Many people see inline skating as a great way to exercise and socialize.

By the mid-1990s, inline skating had become more than just a recreational sport. It had developed into several competitive sports. One of the most popular, even today, is aggressive skating. This involves performing tricks and jumping over objects such as boxes, ramps, and rails. Other kinds of competitive skating include speed skating, artistic skating, downhill racing, and skating marathons. 

So, what about hockey? Well, the Olsons achieved their goal. Inline hockey leagues sprang up almost immediately. Then in 1999, inline hockey joined the lineup at the Pan-American Games. There are rumors that inline skating may even become part of the Summer Olympics someday.

The 15th Asian Games took place from December 1 through December 15, 2006, in Doha, Capital of Qatar. More than 10,000 athletes, who (241)___________ 45 countries and regions, took part in 39 sports and 424 events of the Games, the most important event in Asia. Some new events such as chess and triathlon were also included in the Games.

The 15th Asian Games was organized at 34 sporting (242)___________, including Khalifa Stadium, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The Opening Ceremony of the 15th Asian Games, Doha 2006, at Khalifa Stadium, was the most (243)___________ opening of any Games with 50,000 people to get into Khalifa Stadium and more than one billion television viewers. The Doha Asian Games Organizing Committee (DAGOC) wanted to ensure that everybody who saw the ceremony would have a memory for life as suggested in the (244)___________"The Games of Your Life." The 15th Asian Games was a successful sporting event that all (245)___________  would never forget.