Chuyên đề 19: Kỹ năng đọc hiểu

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.

THE FUTURE OF WORK

According to a leading business consultancy, 3–14% of the global workforce will need to switch to a different occupation within the next 10-15 years, and all workers will need to adapt as their occupations (1) _______ alongside increasingly capable machines. Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge Judge Business School believes that some of the most fundamental changes are happening as a result of the 'algorithmication' of jobs (2) _______ are dependent on data rather than on production - the so-called knowledge economy. Algorithms are capable of learning from data to (3) _______ tasks that previously needed human judgement, such as reading legal contracts, analysing medical scans and gathering market intelligence. 'In (4) _______ cases, they can outperform humans,' says Pachidi.

'(5) _______ these enhancements are not without consequences,' says Pachidi. 'If routine cognitive tasks are taken over by AI, how do professions develop their future experts?' she asks. 'One way of learning about a job is “legitimate peripheral participation” - a novice stands next to experts and learns by observation. If this isn't happening, then you need to find new ways to learn.'

(Adapted from Cambridge IELTS Academic 16 by Cambridge University Press)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 26 to 30.

THE BYGONE ERA

We live in an era dominated by and increasingly dependent on technological innovations. It is for this reason that younger generations find it (6) _______ impossible to envision a future devoid of the convenience and comfort they provide us with. Small wonder then that when asked to forecast what life will be like in the future, they come up with something (7) _______ sounds as if it's been taken out of a science-fiction book.

(8) _______ this description is actually not the product of an unbridled imagination. Based on the present speed at which breakthroughs are being made, it's actually a fairly accurate prediction. It looks as if technology will have the upper hand and that fully automated systems will (9) _______ for people in all areas. People will take the back seat and instead of beavering away at work we will be able to take advantage of the time made available to us to engage in more recreational activities. Utilising this time constructively will be a feat in itself. Perhaps a case of too (10) _______ of a good thing. Things might just come to the point where, from time to time, we will reminisce about the good old days.

(Adapted from Traveller by H.Q. Mitchell)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

Despite predictions that the traditional media were going to disappear in the internet age, newspapers, the radio and television have managed to survive. However, their survival has come at a price. Digital technology has given birth to social media, tools that allow ordinary people to create, share and exchange information without the need for the usual news channels. Moreover, social media is also attracting a large share of advertisers' money away from the traditional media. As a result, newspapers, the radio and television are always looking for ways to hurt their new rival and they are more than happy to publish stories that play on people's fears about how untrustworthy and unsafe social media is.

As all football fans know, the sports media has to work harder between matches to fill their pages and sites. The most popular method of doing this is by speculating about the players that clubs might buy or sell, especially talented foreigners. However, many readers often suspect that these stories are the products of lazy journalism and, if not completely false, contain very little truth and a lot of exaggeration. One Irish football fan decided to find out by using social media to invent Masal Bugduv, a sixteen-year old football superstar from the small Eastern European country of Moldova. The fan set up a Wikipedia page for the player that explained that Bugduv had already played for his national team and that his nickname was 'Massi'. He then wrote false press agency stories that claimed Bugduv would soon join Arsenal and sent them to sports blogs. The blogs accepted the stories as true, but the big surprise came when The Times newspaper included an article entitled Football's Top 50 Rising Stars. At number thirty on the list was 'Moldova's finest', sixteen-year-old Masal Bugduv, who had been linked with Arsenal and 'plenty of other top clubs as well.'

While most people would agree that the traditional press should warn people about the dangers of new technology, it is also good to know that social media can expose the unprofessional practices of some journalists. The more they zoom in on each other's unacceptable practices, the better for the readers.

(Adapted from Solutions 3rd Edition by Tim Falla and Paul A Davies)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is in the south-east of the country. Edinburgh is situated on the coast, and the beautiful, green Pentland hills are not far from the city centre. Castle Rock stands in the centre of Edinburgh and is the best place for fantastic views of the city. With a population of almost half a million people, the city is an exciting mix of traditional and modern.

The first stop for most visitors to the city is the castle on Castle Rock. It is certainly worth a visit and the area nearby is full of shops that sell whisky and tartans to the tourists. Edinburgh’s most famous street, the Royal Mile, runs from the castle to the Palace of Holyrood house and the Scottish Parliament. Along the street, you can see many interesting buildings and you can stop for a drink at a traditional, old Scottish pub.

During your visit, you should certainly take the time to see other parts of the city. Princess Street has lovely gardens, museums and shops. The New Town is a superb area for walking with its attractive 18th century houses, offices and churches. Finally. The Grassmarket is an old part of the city, which is full of cafés, bars and restaurants.

Edinburgh’s nightlife is excellent. Clubs usually stay open until three in the morning. You can hear live music in pubs, choose from a number of first-class cinemas or go to a ‘ceilidh’ (a traditional Scottish dance).

The best time to come to the city is in August. Thousands of people visit the Edinburgh Festival, the world’s biggest arts festival held every summer. With concerts, opera, theatre and art exhibitions, there is something for everyone. For winter visitors. Hogmanay (the Scottish New Year) is also an incredible experience that you will never forget.

(Trích mã đề 424- Đề thi THPTQG 2019)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Dubai is the second largest of the emirates which make up the United Arab Emirates. In the 1950s it was a tiny coastal village. Now it is a huge modern city with a population of over 700000. It offers an excellent modern lifestyle and is known around the world as a top tourist destination.

Dubai has something for everyone. Holidaymakers can enjoy a relaxing break, and people looking for adventure can find something new and exciting. The excellent hotels and facilities make it a popular place for business conferences and exhibitions.

Dubai offers many unusual holiday experiences. Visitors can go on a desert safari or drive in the sand dunes in a for-wheel drive, watch camel racing or learn how to hunt with falcons. They can also try sand skiing. More relaxing is a cruise in a wooden dhow in the Gulf or a visit to the old city markets.

There are many opportunities to take photographs. The traditional architecture is amazing, and there are many magnificent palaces and mosques. Visitors can visit a Bedouin village and see camels and herds of goats. There are beautiful desert oases and the best senses in the world.

It is said that Dubai is the shopper’s paradise. Many people come to Dubai for the shopping. Visitors enjoy everything from modern malls to traditional markets. Low customs duties mean that many products are less expensive than products bought in other countries. While Dubai’s official language is Arabic, many shopkeepers speak English. Bur Juman Centre and Al Ghurair Centre are places that every shopper should try.

(Trích mã đề 419- Đề thi THPTQG 2019)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 31 to 35.

Robots are useful for exploring and working in space. In particular, many robots have been sent to explore Mars. Such robots have usually looked like a box with wheels. Though these robots are useful, by their very nature they are unreliable, extremely expensive, and they break easily. Also, they cannot do very many tasks. Because of these problems, scientists have been developing a new and unusual kind of robot. These new robots move like snakes, so they have been given the name “snakebots.”

But how can such a robot shape be made? A snakebot is built like a chain made of about thirty parts, or modules. Each module is basically the same in that they all have a small computer and a wheel to aid movement. The large computer in the “head” of the snake makes all of the modules in a snakebot work together. The modular design of the snakebot has many advantages. If one module fails, another can be added easily. Snakebot modules can also carry different kinds of tools, as well as cameras. Since each module is actually a robot in itself, one module can work apart from the rest if necessary. That is, all the modules can separate and move on their own, and then later, reconnect back into a larger robot.

Overall, the snakebot design is much simpler than that of common robots. Thus, snakebots will be much less expensive to build. For example, a robot recently sent to Mars cost over a hundred million dollars, whereas snakebots can cost as little as a few hundred dollars. With their versatility and affordability, snakebots seem to be the wave of the future, at least as far as space robots are concerned.

(Adapted from Reading Challenge 3 by Casey Malarcher and Andrea Janzen)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 1 to 7

Is the west falling out of love with the car? For environmentalists it seems an impossible dream, but it is happening. While baby boomers and those with young families may carry on using four wheels, a combination of our ageing societies and a new attitude among the young seems to be breaking our 20th- century car addiction. Somewhere along the road, we reached the high point of the car and are now cruising down the other side.

The phenomenon was first recognised in The Road... Less Traveled, a 2008 report by the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, but had been going on largely unnoticed for years. Japan reached it in the 1990s. They talk there of “demotorisation”. The west had its tipping point in 2004. That year the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia and Sweden all saw the start of a decline in the number of kilometres the average person travelled in a car that continues today.

What could be driving us off the road? Fuel costs and rising insurance premiums may be a factor. And urban gridlock, combined with an absence of parking places and congestion charging, makes an increasing number of us look on the car as a dumb way to move around in cities where there are public transport alternatives. Demographics are another possible explanation. It is surely no accident that ‘peak car’ happened first in Japan, which has the world’s oldest population. Pensioners do not drive to work, and many don’t drive at all. There is also the rise of “virtual commuters” who work from home via the Internet. Besides these new employment patterns, leisure lifestyles are also changing. Social scientists detect a new ‘culture of urbanism’. The stylish way to live these days is in inner-city apartments, not the suburbs. Richard Florida, an urban studies theorist at the University of Toronto in Canada, points out that the young shop online, telecommute, live in walkable city neighbourhoods near public transport and rely more on social media and less on face-to-face visiting. Given those changes, they can think of better ways to spend their money than buying a car.

Some think car use will revive if and when economies recover. But it looks like something more profound is going on. Florida calls it a “great reset” in society that will have profound consequences – not least for the environment. Even our most treasured consumer aspirations can have a peak. Enough can be enough.

(Adapted from Compact Advanced by Peter May)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

I grew up with precious little choice about anything. You ate what you were given, went to school where you were told, wore your sister's hand-me-downs. And twice a year - birthday, Christmas - you got a present. We weren't poor at all but that was entirely normal and I don't remember feeling remotely deprived. Today, as we can see all around us, children seem to have everything - designer clothes, computer games, fussy eating habits and the attention span of itchy gnats. A report yesterday from the Children's Society found that one in ten kids now has mental illness diagnosed and it concluded that materialistic consumer pressure may be partly to blame, with children from poor backgrounds the main victims.

Where is it coming from, this consumer pressure? First, from television, and the false dreams on offer there. Children from poor backgrounds, as well as having less money to buy the latest clothes or electronic games, are more likely to have parents without time to spend with them, and homes without access to outside space, so are far more likely to end up spending hours in front of the telly soaking up adverts alongside the easy gratification offered by cartoon; fantasy or drama. You cannot just blame the parents for this; many will be working hard, with no choice, just to put food on the table; after all, how many can afford a house with a garden in a city or suburb these days?

Of course parents can correct bouts of consumerism in their children by teaching them what is and is not affordable, but why subject them to the clever traps of marketing people in the first place? Pressure is bad enough as it is, from schoolfriends and celebrity excess, without allowing some of the cleverest adult minds in the sharpest advertising agencies in the world to manipulate them as well.

But why is it in a child's interests to be treated like a consumer? It has yet to be proven that giving even adults a wide range of choices improves their lives. In many instances, from too many yoghurts in the supermarket all the way up to a supposed choice of doctor or school, it is just confusing and stressful. I think the fewer, carefully selected, choices we can give young children, the more we help them. Watch the exhausted face of a six-year-old confronted by all this year's Christmas presents, without the time to play with any of them for more than a few minutes, and see what I mean.

We are spoilt, and we are spoiling our children. They need to be taught to look down as well as up; to choose to feel fortunate, and not envious -and to recognise that gratification isn't as easy as buying a new toy or switching on a dream. And, as my mother would have been delighted to hear, it will not cost a thing.

(Adapted from Traveller by H.Q. Mitchell)

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions

Can you imagine your life without advertisements? They are present in all sectors of our lives, in our homes on TV, on public means of transport, in the streets, in newspapers, you name it. It is only natural that all this advertising with its intrusive nature would have an impact on our lives, and many people would agree that this impact is on the whole a negative one.

Adverts are very creative and attract our attention; they are also highly persuasive and influence the way we think. Their aim is to make us believe we will feel a certain way if we purchase the product which is being advertised. For example, many adverts for products show good-looking, successful people enjoying themselves and consuming or using a specific product. This plays on our psychology and our sense of self-worth, and it makes us want to buy the product so that we can look and feel like the models in the adverts.

Images and lifestyles aren't the only thing that advertising imposes on us. Artificial needs are also imposed on us. We are constantly exposed to visual and verbal adverts which try to convince us that our lives will be improved if we buy a particular product. Don't tell me the plasma TV or the air freshener advertised on TV is a necessity. However, clever advertising creates in people a sense of need for material goods, which if they don't acquire, can often lead to feelings of inferiority and unhappiness.

Advertising also gives a distorted picture of reality, which creates unrealistic expectations, particularly among young children and teenagers. Many adverts are targeted specifically at these age groups, creating an intense desire to own a particular product. The resulting pressure on parents is so great that they often give in to the demands of their children in order to avoid confrontation and tantrums, thus creating patterns of consumption and gratification at the expense of other values in life. This vicious cycle can have a very detrimental effect on children and, consequently, the future of society.

Advertising today, with its ubiquity and aggressive nature, poisons our minds with false ideals and instils in people a sense of dissatisfaction. It turns people into materialistic consumers; this is a far cry from the self-assured, informed individuals who know the real value of money and are able to develop the sensible shopping habits that any healthy society needs.

(Adapted from Traveller by H.Q. Mitchell)