The air we breathe is getting cleaner.

For the past five years, a breath of new air has been
blowing around the globe. The world appears to be cleaning itself of pollutants. "It appears as if
the planet"s own cleaning service has suddenly gotten a new lease on life," says Paul Novell
of the University of Colorado, co-author of a research on the phenomena. "There are a lot of
changes going on up 1 there all of a sudden."
The death toll from urban smog has been continuously rising, thus the new cleaner trend
could have significant consequences for both city life expectancy and the planet"s overall
health. From the air in city streets to the farthest reaches of the mid-Pacific Ocean and
Antarctica, a dramatic and unexpected reversal of decades of worsening pollution has occurred.
Carbon monoxide from car exhaust and burning rain forests, as well as methane from cattle
bellies, paddy fields, and gas fields, are among the contaminants that have begun to depart
from the atmosphere. Even carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to global warming, has
decreased llittle.
There are two possible explanations for why pollution is vanishing. To begin with, there is less
pollution due to laws aimed at reducing urban smogs, and acid rain is beginning to have a global
influence. Second, the planet may be improving its ability to clean up. A molecule called
hydroxyl is the primary planet-cleaning agent. It is found in trace amounts throughout the
environment and oxidizes most contaminants to remove them from the air. In the 1980s, the
amount of hydroxyl in the air was reduced by a quarter. It may now be resurrecting for two
reasons: first, the ozone hole has widened, allowing more UV radiation into the lower
atmosphere, where it produces hydroxyl; and second, the ozone hole has widened, allowing
more ultraviolet radiation into the lower atmosphere, where it manufactures hydroxyl. Then,
stronger automobile exhaust regulations in the United States and Europe may have reduced
global carbon monoxide emissions, allowing more hydroxyl to clean up other contaminants.

1. Which of the following sentences is NOT correct?

A. Oxidization of pollutants is carried out by hydroxyl.
B. The reduction in the ozone layer is beneficial to hydroxyl.
C. Ultraviolet radiation increases production of hydroxyl.
D. There is a difficulty in destroying carbon dioxide by hydroxyl.

2. The word “It” in paragraph 5 refers to _________.

A. Car exhaust: khí thải xe hơi
B. Global carbon: carbon toàn cầu
C. Acid rain: muaw axit
D. A clear-up agent: chất làm sạch
3. It is mentioned that life expectancy partly depends on _________.
A. What people can get from university research
B. when people have changed their lifestyle
C. people having improvement in atmosphere conditions
D. how much people know about atmospheric pollution
4. What is the topic of the passage?
A. Hydroxyl’’s influence on the atmosphere
B. The oxygenation of the atmosphere
C. The changes of the Earth’’s climate
D. The decreasing pollution of the atmosphere
5. It can be inferred that the cleaning of the planet is _______.
A. Reasonable
B. Practical
C. Surprising
D. Confusing
6. According to the passage, what is the main cause of pollution reduction?
A. A smaller number of cars
B. A limitation of chemicals
C. Less impact from burning forests
D. A reduction of cattle and gas fields
7. What are the pollutants disappearing from the atmosphere?
A. Methane from paddy fields and poisonous gases from gas fields
B. Dangerous kinds of smoke from burning rain forests
C. Carbon monoxide and car exhausts
D. Carbon from car exhausts and burning rain forests and methane from paddy fields, gas
fields…etc
8. The word “toll” in paragraph 2 means ______.
A. Loss
B. Quantity
C. Count
D. damage