15000 bài tập tách từ đề thi thử môn Tiếng Anh có đáp án (Phần 87)

Imagine the busy streets of New York City, an enormous place with millions of people. Every day, the streets are congested with people going about their daily lives. Now imagine a small robot in the middle of all of those people rolling down a busy sidewalk. Most people would not even notice the teninch smiling robot, called a Tweenbot, rolling along the street. This strange machine may interest some people, while others would ignore it completely. A researcher interested in studying how helpful people really are uses such robots in her experiments that take place on the streets of New York.

The Tweenbots experiment is the idea and creation of Kacie Kinzer. Kinzer’s idea was to make a robot that could navigate the city and reach its destination only if it was aided by pedestrians. Tweenbots rely on the kindness of warm-hearted strangers. Made simply of cardboard, wheels, and a device to turn the wheels, the Tweenbots face many dangers on the city streets. They could be run over by cars or smashed by careless kids. Kinzer thought her little robots might even be seen as some kind of terrorist device. The only real protection a Tweenbot has is its friendly smile. In addition to that, each of Kinzer’s robots is fitted with a flag that displays instructions for the robot’s destination. The only way these robots will reach their final point is if someone lends them a hand. Tweenbots are essentially a social experiment aimed at providing people a chance to show how caring they are.

On a daily basis, people in New York City are often in a hurry to get around. However, the Tweenbots, through their inability to look after themselves, took people out of their normal routines. The people who noticed the helpless little robots were actually interested in helping the Tweenbots find their way home. Tweenbots move at a constant speed and can only go in a straight line. If one was to get stuck, or was going in the wrong direction, it would be up to strangers to free it or turn it in the right direction. Surprisingly, no Tweenbot was lost or damaged, and each one arrived at its target in good condition. In fact, most people treated the robot in a gentle manner, and some even treated it as though it were a small living being. 

Even if you were in a rush to go somewhere, would you stop and help a Tweenbot successfully reach its destination?

By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1860-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor of the modern refrigerator, had been invented.

Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The common-sense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the nice balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.        

But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

It isn’t difficult to imagine how increases in international commerce and in the movement of people—two defining features of globalization—might influence health. More goods go more places today than at any (261)___________ in history. More people travel farther, more frequently, and come in contact with more people and goods, than at any point in history.

This increased movement of both goods and people increases opportunities for the spread of disease around the world. And it’s not just goods and services that can travel across oceans and state borders—so can diseases like AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis. The (262)___________ of BSE, or ―mad cow disease,‖ in several European countries is only one example of (263)___________trade can promote the spread of dangerous diseases. Mosquitoes that carry malaria have been found aboard planes thousands of miles from their primary habitats, and (264)___________ seafood carrying cholera bacteria have been shipped from Latin America to the United States and Europe.

 But just as globalization increases the frequency and ease (265)___________ which diseases can move around the world, it also can improve access to the medicines, medical information, and training that can help treat or cure these diseases.

Leisure activity isn’t just for fun, says a University of Florida psychologist who has developed a scale that classifies hobbies and avocations based on needs they satisfy in people. The scale can help people find more personal fulfillment by giving them insight into what they really like and by helping them to find substitutes when they can’t pursue their favorite activities.

“The surprising thing is that activities you might think are very different have similar effects on people” said Howard E.A. Tinsley, a UF psychology professor who developed the measurement. ―Probably no one would consider acting to have the same characteristics as roller-skating or playing baseball, but men and women who act as a hobby report feeling an intense sense of belonging to a group, much the same way others do in playing sports.

And activities providing the strongest sense of competition are not sports, but card, arcade and computer games, he found.

Tinsley, whose research on leisure has been published in several journals, is scheduled this spring to present some of the findings in Milwaukee at a conference of the Society for Vocational Psychology.

Based on surveys with more than 3,000 people about the satisfactions they get from various hobbies, Tinsley obtained numerical scores for values such as “challenge” and “hedonism”, and grouped some 82 leisure activities into 11 categories. For example, dining out and watching movies fall into the “sensual enjoyment” category, playing soccer and attending sports clubs meetings satisfy participants’ desires for a sense of “belongingness” and coin collecting and baking fulfill their need for “creativity”.

“With so many people in jobs they don’t care for, leisure is a prized aspect of people’s lives,” Tinsley said. “Yet it’s not something psychologists really study. Economists tell us how much money people spend skiing, but nobody explains what it is about skiing that is really appealing to people or how one activity relates to another, perhaps in unexpected ways.”

“Fishing, generally considered more of an outdoor or recreational activity, for example, is a form of self-expression like quilting or stamp collecting, because it gives people the opportunity to express themselves by doing something completely different from their daily routine,”he said.

Archaeological records - paintings, drawings and carvings of humans engaged in activities involving the use of hands - indicate that humans have been predominantly right-handed for more than 5,000 years. In ancient Egyptian artwork, for example, the right hand is depicted as the dominant one in about 90 percent of the examples. Fracture or wear patterns on tools also indicate that a majority of ancient people were right-handed. Cro-Magnon cave paintings some 27,000 years old commonly show outlines of human hands made by placing one hand against the cave wall and applying paint with the other. Children today make similar outlines of their hands with crayons on paper. With few exceptions, left hands of CroMagnons are displayed on cave walls, indicating that the paintings were usually done by right-handers.

Anthropological evidence pushes the record of handedness in early human ancestors back to at least 1.4 million years ago. One important line of evidence comes from flaking patterns of stone cores used in tool making: implements flaked with a clockwise motion (indicating a right-handed toolmaker) can be distinguished from those flaked with a counter-clockwise rotation (indicating a left-handed toolmaker).

Even scratches found on fossil human teeth offer clues. Ancient humans are thought to have cut meat into strips by holding it between their teeth and slicing it with stone knives, as do the present-day Inuit. Occasionally the knives slip and leave scratches on the users' teeth. Scratches made with a left-to-right stroke direction (by right-handers) are more common than scratches in the opposite direction (made by lefthanders).

Still other evidence comes from cranial morphology: scientists think that physical differences between the right and left sides of the interior of the skull indicate subtle physical differences between the two sides of the brain. The variation between the hemispheres corresponds to which side of the body is used to perform specific activities. Such studies, as well as studies of tool use, indicate that right- or leftsided dominance is not exclusive to modern Homo sapiens. Population of Neanderthals, such as Homo erectus and Homo Habilis, seem to have been predominantly right-handed, as we are.

 In a world where 2 billion people live in homes that don't have light bulbs, technology holds the key (281)______ banishing poverty. Even the simplest technologies can transform lives and save money. Vaccines, crops, computers and sources of solar energy can all reduce poverty in developing countries. For example, cheap oral-rehydration therapy developed in Bangladesh has dramatically cut the death (282)______ from childhood diarrhoea.

 But even when such technologies exist, the depressing fact is that we can’t make them cheap enough for those who most need them. Solar panels, batteries and light bulbs are still beyond the purse of many, but where they have been installed they change lives. A decent light in the evening gives children more time for homework and extends the productive day for adults.

Kenya has a thriving solar industry and six years ago Kenyan pioneers also started connecting schools to the Internet via radio links. These people were fortunate in being able to afford solar panels, radios and old computers. How much bigger would the impact be if these things (283)______ and priced specifically for poor people?

Multinationals must become part of the solution, because (284)______ they own around 60 per cent of the world's technology, they seldom make products for poor customers. Of 1,223 new drugs marketed worldwide from 1975 to 1996, for example, just 13 were for tropical diseases.

People think those enterprises should do more to provide vital products such as medicines at different prices around the world to suit (285)______ people can afford. Alternatively, they could pay a percentage of their profit towards research and development for the poor.

(Adapted from “The Price is Wrong” in “Focus on IELTS Foundations” by Sue O’Connell, Pearson Longman, 2006)

In 1826, a Frenchman named Niépce needed pictures for his business. He was not a good artist, so he invented a very simple camera. He put it in a window of his house and took a picture of his yard. That was the first photograph.

The next important date in the history of photography was 1837. That year, Daguerre, another Frenchman, took a picture of his studio. He used a new kind of camera and a different process. In his pictures, you could see everything clearly, even the smallest details. This kind of photograph was called a daguerreotype.

Soon, other people began to use Daguerre's process. Travelers brought back daguerreotypes from all around the world. People photographed famous buildings, cities, and mountains.

In about 1840, the process was improved. Then photographers could take pictures of people and moving things. The process was not simple and photographers had to carry lots of film and processing equipment. However, this did not stop photographers, especially in the United States. After 1840, daguerreotype artists were popular in most cities.

 Matthew Brady was one well-known American photographer. He took many portraits of famous people. The portraits were unusual because they were lifelike and full of personality. Brady was also the first person to take pictures of a war. His 1862 Civil War pictures showed dead soldiers and ruined cities. They made the war seem more real and more terrible.

 In the 1880s, new inventions began to change photography. Photographers could buy film readymade in rolls, instead of having to make the film themselves. Also, they did not have to process the film immediately. They could bring it back to their studios and develop it later. They did not have to carry lots of equipment. And finally, the invention of the small handheld camera made photography less expensive.

With a small camera, anyone could be a photographer. People began to use cameras just for fun. They took pictures of their families, friends, and favorite places. They called these pictures "snapshots".

Documentary photographs became popular in newspapers in the 1890s. Soon magazines and books also used them. These pictures showed true events and people. They were much more real than drawings.

Some people began to think of photography as a form of art. They thought that photography could do more than show the real world. It could also show ideas and feelings, like other art forms. From “Reading Power” by Beatrice S. Mikulecky and Linda Jeffries

Architecture is the practice of building design and its resulting products; customary usage refers only to those designs and structures that are culturally significant. Architecture is to building as literature is to the printed word. Vitruvius, a 1st-century BC Roman, wrote encyclopedically about architecture, and the English poet Sir Henry Wotton was quoting him in his charmingly phrased dictum: “Well building hath three conditions: Commoditie, Firmenes, and Delight.” More prosaically, one would say today that architecture must satisfy its intended uses, must be technically sound, and must convey aesthetic meaning. But the best buildings are often so well constructed that they outlast their original use. They then survive not only as beautiful objects, but as documents of the history of cultures, achievements in architecture that testify to the nature of the society that produced them. These achievements are never wholly the work of individuals. Architecture is a social art.

Architectural form is inevitably influenced by the technologies applied, but building technology is conservative and knowledge about it is cumulative. Precast concrete, for instance, has not rendered brick obsolete. Although design and construction have become highly sophisticated and are often computer directed, this complex apparatus rests on preindustrial traditions inherited from millennia during which most structures were lived in by the people who erected them. The technical demands on building remain the elemental ones – to exclude enemies, to circumvent gravity, and to avoid discomforts caused by an excess of heat or cold or by the intrusion of rain, wind, or vermin. This is no trivial assignment even with the best modern technology.

The availability of suitable materials fostered the crafts to exploit them and influenced the shapes of buildings. Large areas of the world were once forested, and their inhabitants developed carpentry. Although it has become relatively scarce, timber remains an important building material.

Many kinds of stone lend themselves to building. Stone and marble were chosen for important monuments because they are incombustible and can be expected to endure. Stone is also a sculptural material; stone architecture was often integral with stone sculpture. The use of stone has declined, however, because a number of other materials are more amenable to industrial use and assembly.

Some regions lack both timber and stone; their peoples used the earth itself, tamping certain mixtures into walls or forming them into bricks to be dried in the sun. Later they baked these substances in kilns, producing a range of bricks and tiles with greater durability.

(Extracted from Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 Encyclopedia – DVD Version)

In addition to the challenge to be excellent, American schools have been facing novel problems. They must (301)______ with an influx of immigrant children, many of whom speak little or no English. They must respond to demands that the curriculum reflect the various cultures of all children. Schools must make sure that students develop basic skills for the job market, and they must consider the needs of nontraditional students, such as teenage mothers.

Schools are (302)______ these problems in ways that reflect the diversity of the US educational system. They are hiring or training large numbers of teachers of English as a second language and, in some communities, setting up bilingual schools. They are opening up the traditional European-centered curriculum to embrace material from African, Asian, and other cultures.

Schools are also teaching cognitive skills to the (303)______ 40 percent of American students who do not go on to higher education. In the (304)______ of a recent report by the Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, “A strong back, the willingness to work, and a high school diploma were once all that was necessary to (305)______ a start in America. They are no longer. A well- developed mind, a continued willingness to learn and the ability to put knowledge to work are the new keys to the future of our young people, the success of our business, and the economic well-being of the nation.”

(Extracted from InfoUSA – CD Version)

The ability to conduct electricity is one of the key properties of a metal. Other solid materials such as silicon can conduct electricity but only effectively at certain temperatures. Also, some substances such as salt (sodium chloride) can conduct when molten or when dissolved in water. The ability of metals to conduct electricity is due to how their atoms bond together. In order to bond together the metal atoms lose at least one of their outermost electrons. This leaves the metal atoms with a positive charge and they are now strictly ions. The lost electrons are free to move in what is known as a sea of electrons. Since the electrons are negatively charged they attract the ions and this is what keeps the structure together.

 An electric current is a flow of charge and since the electrons in the sea of electrons are free to move they can be made to flow in one direction when a source of electrical energy such as a battery is connected to the metal. Hence we have an electric current flowing through the wire, and this is what makes metals such good conductors of electricity. The only other common solid conducting material that pencil users are likely to encounter is graphite (what the „lead’ of a pencil is made from). Graphite is a form of carbon and again the carbon atoms bond in such a way that there is a sea of electrons that can be made to flow as an electric current. Likewise, if we have an ionic substance like salt we can make the electrically charged ions flow to create a current but only when those ions are free to move, either when the substance is a liquid or dissolved in water. In its solid state an ionic substance like salt cannot conduct electricity as its charged ions cannot flow.

 Electrical insulators are substances that cannot conduct electricity well either, because they contain no charged particles or any charged particles they might contain do not flow easily. Water itself is a poor conductor of electricity as it does not contain a significant amount of fully charged particles (the ends of a water molecule are partly charged but overall the molecule is neutral). However, most water we encounter does contain dissolved charged particles, so it will be more conductive than pure water. Many of the problems that occur when touching electrical devices with wet hands result from the ever-present salt that is left on our skin through perspiration and it dissolves in the water to make it more conductive.

By Helena Gillespie and Rob Gillespie. Science for Primary School Teachers. OUP