PRE- CLASS READING 1

Exercise 1: Translate the following sentences into Vietnamese.

1. Drought (n) /draʊt/: a long period when there is little or no rain hạn hán
-> This year a severe drought has ruined the crops
Hạn hán nghiêm trọng đã tàn phá mùa màng trong năm nay
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2. Exhausted (adj) /ɪɡˈzɔː.stɪd/: extremely tired kiệt sức

-> He was driving through the night and he arrived in an exhausted state
Anh ấy đã lái xe xuyên đêm và anh ấy đên nơi trong tình trạng kiệt sức.
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3. Annually (adv) /ˈæn.ju.ə.li/ once every year hàng năm

-> These animals migrate annually in search of food
Những loài động vật di cư hàng năm để tìm kiếm thức ăn
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4. Cultivate (v) /ˈkʌl.tɪ.veɪt/: to prepare land and grow crops on it, or trồng ( xây dựng )
to grow a particular crop
-> The villagers cultivate mostly maize and beans
Dân làng chủ yếu trồng ngô và đậu
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5. By means of: a method or way of doing something bằng cách

-> She tried to explain by means of sign language

Cô ấy cố gắng giải thích bằng ngôn ngữ kí hiệu
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6. Expertise (n) /ˌek.spɜːˈtiːz/ : a high level of knowledge or skill chuyên môn

-> I have no expertise in sewing

Tôi không có kĩ năng về may vá
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7. Distinguish (v) /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/: to recognize the difference between two people or phân biệt
things
-> English law clearly distinguishes between murder and manslaughter.
Luật pháp Anh phân biệt rõ ràng giữa giết người và ngộ sát
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8. Specific (adj) /spəˈsɪfɪk/ clear and exact chính xác, cụ thể ( particular )
Can you be more specific about where your back hurts?
Bạn có thể nói chính xác là lưng bạn đau ở đâu không?
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9. Struggle (v) /ˈstrʌɡl/ to try very hard to do something when it is difficult or when
there are a lot of problems khó khăn trong việc
-> Local workers were still struggling to find employment
Những người lao động ở địa phương vẫn chật vật tìm việc làm
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10. Offensive (adj) /əˈfensɪv/ extremely unpleasant khó chịu

-> The problem is how to eliminate offensive smells from the processing plant
Vấn đề là làm thế nào để khử mùi khó chịu từ nhà máy chế biến
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11. Disorder (n) /dɪsˈɔːdə(r)/an illness that causes a part of the body to stop functioning
correctly rối loạn
-> The family have a history of mental disorder
Gia đình có tiền sử rối loạn tâm thần
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12. Diagnose (v) /ˈdaɪ.əɡ.nəʊz/: to recognize and name the exact character of
a disease or a problem, by examining it chẩn đoán
-> She was diagnosed with having diabetes
Cô ấy được chẩn đoán mắc bênh tiểu đường
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13. Shelter (v) to protect yourself, or another person, thing,from bad weather, danger,
or attack che nơi, trú ẩn

-> The city feeds, clothes, and shelters the orphans

Thành phố nuôi sống trẻ em mồ côi
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14. Take place (v) to happen xảy ra, diễn ra ( occur )

-> The concert takes place next Thursday.
Buổi hòa nhạc diễn ra vào thứ Năm tuần sau.
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15. Flock (v) /flɒk/ to move or come together in large numbers kéo đến ( flood into) (flock to)
-> Hundreds of people flocked to the football match
Hàng trăm người kéo đến để xem trận bóng đá
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Exercise 2: Fill in the sentences using the appropriate words in exercise 1. Remember to
use the right tense.
flock
1. Crowds of people .......................... to see the Picasso exhibition
sheltered
2. We were caught in a thunderstorm and .......................... in a cave
expertise
3. Software is not really my area of ..........................
drought
4. The country’s entire grain harvest has been hit by ..........................
cultivate
5. Olives have been .......................... successfully in southern Australia
6. The firm is ..........................
struggle to cope with the demand for its products
7. We escaped ..........................
by means of a secret tunnel

8. She suffers from an eating ..........................

disorder
diagnosed
9. Since his cancer was .........................., he feels as if he's living on borrowed time
 exhausted
10. The children ran round and round the playground until they were ..........................
annually
11. Times Square attracts more than 30 million visitors ...........................
distinguish
12. He's colour-blind and can't .....................the difference between red and green easily.
offensive
13. The smell was ..........................
specific
14. The virus attacks .......................... cells in the body
take place
15. We may never discover what .......................... that night
 IN- CLASS READING 1
READING 1 – SENTENCE COMPLETION/ SHORT ANSWER QUESTION
I> SENTENCE COMPLETION
NO MORE THAN ONE WORD AND/OR A NUMBER

Binayo dropped out of school when she was 1. The water levels in the Toiro River are
eight years old, in part because she had to help falling because of ................
her mother fetch water from the Toiro River. The
water is dirty and unsafe to drink; every year that
the ongoing drought continues, the once mighty
river grows more exhausted. But it is the only
water Foro has ever had.

Polluted water and lack of proper hygiene cause 2. Globally, the number of people who die
disease and kill 3.3 million people around the each year as a result of using dirty water
world annually, most of them children. In 3.3 million
is ................
southern Ethiopia and in northern Kenya, a lack
of rain over the past few years has made even
dirty water hard to find.

Communities where clean water becomes 3. When families have clean water, they
crops
accessible and plentiful are transformed. All the can spend more time growing ................
hours previously spent hauling water can be
used to cultivate more crops, raise more animals
or even start a business. Families spend less
time sick or caring for family members who are
unwell.

But the challenges of bringing water to remote 4. Specialist knowledge and equipment
wells
villages like those in Konso are overwhelming. are needed to dig ................
Locating water underground and then reaching it require
by means of deep wells requires geological
expertise and expensive, heavy machines.

Words in the questions Words in the text

PRACTICE
ONE WORD ONLY

In one well-known test, women and men were 1. Tests have shown that odours can help
clothing belonging to
able to distinguish by smell alone clothing worn people recognise the ................
by their marriage partners from similar clothing their husbands and wives.
worn by other people

Smell, however, is a highly elusive 2. Certain linguistic groups may have difficulty
phenomenon. Odours, unlike colours, for describing smell because they lack
instance, cannot be named in many languages vocabulary
the appropriate ................
because the specific vocabulary simply doesn’t
exist. ‘It smells like . . . ,’ we have to say when
describing an odour, struggling to express our
olfactory experience.

Researchers have still to decide whether smell 3. The sense of smell may involve response to
is one sense or two - one responding to odours chemicals which do not smell, in addition to
................
proper and the other registering obvious odours.
odourless chemicals in the air

Odours are invested with cultural values: smells 4. Odours regarded as unpleasant in certain
cultures are not regarded as unpleasant in
that are considered to be offensive in ................
some cultures may be perfectly acceptable in others.
others.

Words in the questions Words in the text

 II> SHORT ANSWER QUESTION
NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER

The New Zealand Ministry of Health has found 1. For what period of time has hearing loss in
from research carried out over two decades that schoolchildren been studied in New Zealand?
6-10% of children in that country are affected by
hearing loss. two decades

Those experiencing these disorders often find 2. In addition to machinery noise, what other
sounds such as crowd noise and the noise type of noise can upset children with autism?
generated by machinery painful and distressing. machinery painful

It is probable that many undiagnosed 3. What term is used to describe the hearing
children exist in the education system with problems of schoolchildren which have not
'invisible' disabilities. been diagnosed? invisible

The New Zealand Government has developed a 4. What part of the New Zealand Disability
New Zealand Disability Strategy and has Strategy aims to give schoolchildren
embarked on a wide-ranging consultation equal opportunity?
process. The strategy recognises that
people experiencing disability face significant Objective 3
barriers in achieving a full quality of life in areas
such as attitude, education, employment and
access to services. Objective 3 of the New
Zealand Disability Strategy is to 'Provide the
Best Education for Disabled People' by
improving education so that all children, youth
learners and adult learners will have equal
opportunities to learn and develop within their
already existing local school.

Words in the questions Words in the text

PRACTICE
ONE WORD ONLY

Some wells are vast, open craters with hundreds

of steps paving each sloping side, often in tiers.
Others are more elaborate, with long stepped 1. Which part of some stepwells provided shade
passages leading to the water via several for people?
storeys built from stone and supported by pillars,
they also included pavilions that sheltered pillars
visitors from the relentless heat.
Down the centuries, thousands of wells were
constructed throughout northwestern India, but
the majority have now fallen into disuse; many 2. What type of serious climatic event, which
are derelict and dry, as groundwater has been took place in southern Rajasthan, is mentioned
diverted for industrial use and the wells no longer in the article?
reach the water table. Their condition hasn’t
been helped by recent dry spells: southern
drought
Rajasthan suffered an eight-
year drought between 1996 and 2004.
Today, following years of neglect, many of these
monuments to medieval engineering have been
saved by the Archaeological Survey of India, 3. Who are frequent visitors to stepwells
which has recognised the importance of nowadays?
preserving them as part of the country’s rich
history. Tourists flock to wells in far-flung tourists
corners of northwestern India to gaze in wonder
at these architectural marvels from 1,000 years
ago, which serve as a reminder of both the
ingenuity and artistry of ancient civilisations and
of the value of water to human existence.

Words in the questions Words in the text

 HOMEWORK

I> SENTENCE COMPLETION

THE STORY OF SILK
The history of the world’s most luxurious fabric, from ancient China to the present day
Silk is a fine, smooth material produced from the cocoons - soft protective shells - that are made by
mulberry silkworms (insect larvae). Legend has it that it was Lei Tzu, wife of the Yellow Emperor, ruler
of China in about 3000 BC, who discovered silkworms. One account of the story goes that as she was
taking a walk in her husband’s gardens, she discovered that silkworms were responsible for
the destruction of several mulberry trees. She collected a number of cocoons and sat down to have a
rest. It just so happened that while she was sipping some tea, one of the cocoons that she had
collected landed in the hot tea and started to unravel into a fine thread. Lei Tzu found that she could
wind this thread around her fingers. Subsequently, she persuaded her husband to allow her to rear
silkworms on a grove of mulberry trees. She also devised a special reel to draw the fibres from the
cocoon into a single thread so that they would be strong enough to be woven into fabric. While it is
unknown just how much of this is true, it is certainly known that silk cultivation has existed in China for
several millennia.
Originally, silkworm farming was solely restricted to women, and it was they who were responsible for
the growing, harvesting and weaving. Silk quickly grew into a symbol of status,and
originally, only royalty were entitled to have clothes made of silk. The rules were gradually relaxed
over the years until finally during the Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911 AD), even peasants, the lowest caste,
were also entitled to wear silk. Sometime during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), silk was so prized
that it was also used as a unit of currency. Government officials were paid their salary in silk,
and farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk. Silk was also used as diplomatic gifts by the emperor.
Fishing lines, bowstrings, musical instruments and paper were all made using silk. The earliest
indication of silk paper being used was discovered in the tomb of a noble who is estimated to have
died around 168 AD.
Demand for this exotic fabric eventually created the lucrative trade route now known as the Silk Road,
taking silk westward and bringing gold, silver and wool to the East. It was named the Silk Road after
its most precious commodity, which was considered to be worth more than gold.
The Silk Road stretched over 6,000 kilometres from Eastern China to the Mediterranean Sea,
following the Great Wall of China, climbing the Pamir mountain range, crossing modern-
day Afghanistan and going on to the Middle East, with a major trading market in Damascus. From
there, the merchandise was shipped across the Mediterranean Sea. Few merchants travelled the
entire route; goods were handled mostly by a series of middlemen.
With the mulberry silkworm being native to China, the country was the world’s sole producer of silk for
many hundreds of years. The secret of silk-making eventually reached the rest of the world via the
Byzantine Empire, which ruled over the Mediterranean region of southern Europe, North Africa and
the Middle East during the period 330—1453 AD. According to another legend, monks working for
the Byzantine emperor Justinian smuggle silkworm eggs to Constantinople (Istanbul in modern-day
Turkey) in 550 AD, concealed inside hollow bamboo walking canes. The Byzantines were
as secretive as the Chinese, however, and for many centuries the weaving and trading of silk fabric
was a strict imperial monopoly.
Then in the seventh century, the Arabs conquered Persia, capturing their magnificent silks in the
process.
Silk production thus spread through Africa, Sicily and Spain as the Arabs swept, through these lands.
Andalusia in southern Spain was Europe’s main silk-producing centre in the tenth century. By the
thirteenth century, however, Italy had become Europe’s leader in silk production and export. Venetian
merchants traded extensively in silk and encouraged silk growers to settle in Italy. Even now, silk
processed in the province of Como in northern Italy enjoys an esteemed reputation.
The nineteenth century and industrialisation saw the downfall of the European silk industry. Cheaper
Japanese silk, trade in which was greatly facilitated by the opening of the Suez Canal, was one of the
many factors driving the trend. Then in the twentieth century, new manmade fibres, such
as nylon, started to be used in what had traditionally been silk products, such as stockings and
parachutes. The two world wars, which interrupted the supply of raw material from Japan, also stifled
the European silk industry. After the Second World War, Japan’s silk production was restored, with
improved production and quality of raw silk. Japan was to remain the world’s biggest producer of raw
silk, and practically the only major exporter of raw silk, until the 1970s. However, in more recent
decades, China has gradually recaptured its position as the world’s biggest producer and exporter of
raw silk and silk yarn. Today, around 125,000 metric tons of silk are produced in the world, and almost
two thirds of that production takes place in China.

Questions 1-9
Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.

Early silk production in China

• Around 3000 BC, according to legend:
- silkworm cocoon fell into emperor’s wife’s (1) ................
tea
- emperor’s wife invented a (2) ................
rell to pull out silk fibres
• women were allowed to produce silk
Only (3) ................
• royalty were allowed to wear silk
Only (4) ................
• currency
Silk used as a form of (5) ................
- e.g. farmers’ taxes consisted partly of silk
• Silk used for many purposes
paper
- e.g. evidence found of (6) ................ made from silk around 168 AD

Silk reaches rest of world

• wool and precious metals
Merchants use Silk Road to take silk westward and bring back (7) ................

• monks hide silkworm eggs in canes and take them to Constantinople

550 AD: (8) ................
• Silk production spreads across Middle East and Europe
• nylon
20th century: (9) ................ and other manmade fibres cause decline in silk production
Words in the questions Words in the text
 II. SHORT ANSWER QUESTION

The Flavor of Pleasure

When it comes to celebrating the flavor of food, our mouth gets all the credit. But in
truth, it is the nose that knows.
No matter how much we talk about tasting our favorite flavors, relishing them really depends on a
combined input from our senses that we experience through mouth, tongue and nose. The taste,
texture, and feel of food are what we tend to focus on, but most important are the slight puffs of air as
we chew our food - what scientists call ‘retronasal smell’. critical factor
according to better-known
Certainly our mouths and tongues have taste buds, which are receptors for the five basic flavors:
sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, or what is more commonly referred to as savory. But our tongues
are inaccurate instruments as far as flavor is concerned. They evolved to recognize only a few basic
tastes in order to quickly identify toxins, which in nature are often quite bitter or acidly sour.
unpleasant taste human nasal cavities
All the complexity, nuance, and pleasure of flavor come from the sense of smell operating in the back
of the nose. It is there that a kind of alchemy occurs when we breathe up and out the passing whiffs
of our chewed food. Unlike a hound’s skull with its extra long nose, which evolved specifically to detect
external smells, our noses have evolved to detect internal scents. Primates specialise in savoring the
many millions of flavor combinations that they can create for their mouths.
recognise
Taste without retronasal smell is not much help in recognizing flavor. Smell has been the most poorly
understood of our senses, and only recently has neuroscience, led by Yale University’s Gordon
Shepherd, begun to shed light on its workings. Shepherd has come up with the term
‘neurogastronomy’ to link the disciplines of food science, neurology, psychology, and anthropology
with the savory elements of eating, one of the most enjoyed of human experiences.
In many ways, he is discovering that smell is rather like face recognition. The visual system detects
patterns of light and dark and, building on experience, the brain creates a spatial map. It uses this to
interpret the interrelationship of the patterns and draw conclusions that allow us to identify people and
places. In the same way, we use patterns and ratios to detect both new and familiar flavors. As we
eat, specialized receptors in the back of the nose detect the air molecules in our meals. From signals
sent by the receptors, the brain understands smells as complex spatial patterns. Using these, as well
as input from the other senses, it constructs the idea of specific flavors.
This ability to appreciate specific aromas turns out to be central to the pleasure we get from food,
much as our ability to recognize individuals is central to the pleasures of social life. The process is so
embedded in our brains that our sense of smell is critical to our enjoyment of life at large. Recent
studies show that people who lose the ability to smell become socially insecure, and their overall level
of happiness plummets.
Working out the role of smell in flavor interests food scientists, psychologists, and cooks alike. The
relatively new discipline of molecular gastronomy, especially, relies on understanding the mechanics
of aroma to manipulate flavor for maximum impact. In this discipline, chefs use their knowledge of the
chemical changes that take place during cooking to produce eating pleasures that go beyond the
‘ordinary’.
However, whereas molecular gastronomy is concerned primarily with the food or ‘smell’ molecules,
neurogastronomy is more focused on the receptor molecules and the brain’s spatial images for smell.
Smell stimuli form what Shepherd terms ‘odor objects’, stored as memories, and these have a direct
link with our emotions. The brain creates images of unfamiliar smells by relating them to other more
familiar smells. Go back in history and this was part of our survival repertoire, like most animals, we
drew on our sense of smell, when visual information was scarce, to single out prey.
Thus the brain’s flavor- recognition system is a highly complex perceptual mechanism that puts all five
senses to work in various combinations. Visual and sound cues contribute, such as crunching, as does
touch, including the texture and feel of food on our lips and in our mouths. Then there are the taste
receptors, and finally, the smell, activated when we inhale. The engagement of our emotions can be
readily illustrated when we picture some of the wide-ranging facial expressions that are elicited by
various foods- many of them hard- wired into our brains at birth. Consider the response to the
sharpness of lemon and compare that with the face that is welcoming the smooth wonder of chocolate.
The flavor-sensing system, ever receptive to new combinations, helps to keep our brains active and
flexible. It also has the power to shape our desires and ultimately our bodies. On the horizon we have
the positive application of neurogastronomy: manipulating flavor to curb our appetites.

retronasal smell
umami
toxins
internal scents
disciplines

memories
prey
chocolate
appeties
Words in the questions Words in the text