Professional Documents
Culture Documents
LESSON 3
Focus: Reading – matching headings & information
MATCHING HEADING
LIST OF HEADINGS
i. A range of geographical features in the Sahara
ii. Fauna and flora
iii. How to deal with the lack of water
iv. No worries about the insufficiency of water
v. Size and geographical position
1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
THE SAHARA
A. The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert
behind Antarctica and the Arctic, which are both cold deserts. The Sahara is one of the
harshest environments on Earth, covering 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square
kilometers), nearly a third of the African continent, about the size of the United States
(including Alaska and Hawaii). The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the
west, the Red Sea on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the north and the Sahel
Savannah on the south. The enormous desert spans 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt,
Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
B. The Sahara desert has a variety of terrains, but is most famous for the sand dune
fields that are often depicted in movies. The dunes can reach almost 600 feet (183
meters) high but they cover only about 15 percent of the entire desert. Other
topographical features include mountains, plateaus, sand- and gravel-covered plains,
salt flats, basins and depressions. Mount Koussi, an extinct volcano in Chad, is the
highest point in the Sahara at 11,204 feet (3,415 m), and the Qattara Depression in
C. Water is scarce across the entire region, yet the Sahara contains two permanent
rivers (the Nile and the Niger), at least 20 seasonal lakes and huge aquifers, which are
the primary sources of water in the more than 90 major desert oases. Water
management authorities once feared the aquifers in the Sahara would soon dry up
due to overuse, but a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in
2013, discovered that the "fossil" (nonrenewable) aquifers were still being fed via rain
and runoff.
Để làm tốt dạng bài này, ta cần đi theo các bước sau:
III. How to deal with the lack of water 2 câu hơi giống nhau cần phân biệt:
III– các giải quyết; IV – không cần lo
IV. No worries about the insufficiency of water
lắng
V. Size and geographical position
Kích cỡ & vị trí địa lý
Lưu ý: Những tiêu đề hơi giống nhau cần phải phân biệt, 1 trong 2 câu đó có thể là
đáp án.
Bước 2: Skimming with keywords - Tìm thông tin chứa câu trả lời
- Dựa vào kĩ năng Skimming trong phần I, áp dụng để tìm nội dung chính cho đoạn văn
sau:
A. The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert
behind Antarctica and the Arctic, which are both cold deserts. The Sahara is one of the
harshest environments on Earth, covering 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square
kilometers), nearly a third of the African continent, about the size of the United States
(including Alaska and Hawaii). The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the
west, the Red Sea on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the north and the Sahel
Savannah on the south. The enormous desert spans 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt,
Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
- Sau khi xác định được khu vực chứa thông tin, ta nhớ lại các từ khóa đã gạch
chân ở tiêu đề và chọn đáp án đúng
- Ở đây, có hai đáp án khiến ta phân vân: Tiêu đề này: thiếu chi tiết
kích thước “size” được nhắc
I. A range of geographical features in the Sahara
đến nhiều trong đoạn văn
V. Size and geographical position
So sánh với các tiêu đề, đoạn B tương đương với đáp án: vii. A method to detect a
perfectionist.
LIST OF HEADINGS
i. Controversy regarding the role of a particular body part
ii. The beneficial effects of finding food using visual signals
iii. Comparison drawn between three species which have lethal body
parts to insect pollinators
iv. Two parts of a plant with distinct methods to deal with different
kinds of insects
v. Reasons for an unusual evolutionary strategy
vi. The price for using sunlight to generate energy
vii. A reverse pattern in the food chain
viii. An alternative for protecting friendly insects other than making use
of odours
ix. A common strategy based on timing and positioning
x. Challenges that carnivorous plants have to face in exchange for food
1. Paragraph A ....................................
2. Paragraph B ....................................
3. Paragraph C ....................................
4. Paragraph D ....................................
5. Paragraph E ....................................
6. Paragraph F ....................................
7. Paragraph G ....................................
B. Life for a carnivorous plant is challenging. They cannot very well march across the
landscape in search of a meal. Dinner has to come to them. Carnivorous plants live
in places like bogs and rocky slopes where the soil – if there is any – is so nutrient-
poor that few plants can survive. A study published in February 2016 shows for the
first time that some carnivorous plants use smells to secure meals – validating an
idea that Charles Darwin suggested 140 years ago. Darwin worked on the sundews,
a type of predatory plant with leaves covered in tentacles, each tentacle having a
drop of sticky fluid at its tip. Darwin described the sticky leaves as "temporary
stomachs" with which the plants catch live prey, break it down with acids, and "feed
like animals". Carnivorous plants eke out a living here because they converged on the
same solution to the nutrient problem: animals are nutritious, so eat them.
C. But the path to meat-eating is costly. As plants transform their leaves into traps
that can trick, bind, drown, and digest prey, they gradually become less effective for
harnessing sunlight to produce energy. Therefore, most carnivorous plants grow
slowly and stay small. Beyond that carnivorous plants face a more profound problem:
sex. Like many plants, carnivorous plants produce flowers when they are ready to
reproduce. Most of these flowers appear suitable for insect-pollination – again, in
keeping with many plants. The trouble is that many carnivorous plants trap and kill
insects. They are faced with a unique dilemma called "pollinator-prey conflict": they
need to eat insects without jeopardizing their chances of being pollinated by insects.
For example, a carnivorous plant from Spain called Pinguicula vallis neriifolia could
produce more seeds if its flowers receive more pollinators. But sticky leaves mere
inches away from the flowers kill a good number of those pollinators.
D. The carnivorous plant's challenge is to avoid confusing the insects it needs to eat
with the insects it relies on for pollination. Studies suggest that most carnivorous
plants handle this challenge very well. There is often very little overlap between the
E. But the role of the stalks in protecting pollinators remains debated. Some plants
extend their flowers on stalks even though pollinators cannot reach their traps:
bladderworts (Utricularia), for instance, have stalked flowers despite the fact that
their traps lie underground. Furthermore, a survey of more than 50 sundew species
found that plants closer to ground grow longer stalks than those higher up. Some
scientists argue that carnivorous plants evolve their stalks to better attract flying
pollinators rather than to better protect them.
F. There are other options to mitigate pollinator-prey conflict. "We studied three
sundew species with different distances between flowers and sticky leaves," says El-
Sayed. The sundews were lethal – less than a fifth of insects caught on leaves
escaped. But in all three species, less than 5% of insects caught on leaves were also
found in flowers. "We suspected that the plants might be using other cues to guide
the insects," says El-Sayed. El-Sayed found that Drosera auriculata – the species
whose flowers grow closest to its leaves – has flowers that smell distinct from its
leaves. El-Sayed then exposed insects to synthetic blends of these odours. He found
that flower odours attract floral visitors – insect pollinators – while leaf odours deter
them. Only insects that the sundews usually eat are attracted by the leaf odours. This
means D. auriculata is the first carnivorous plant known to use various odours both
to lure prey and protect pollinators.
G. However, the other two sundews in El-Sayed's study, D. spatulata and D. arcturi,
have scentless sticky leaves and flowers that grow further apart. Floral visitors prefer
the white colour of flowers, while preys do not discriminate between flower and trap
colours. So instead of smells, D. spatulata and D. arcturi use visual signals and
1. Paragraph A
2. Paragraph B
3. Paragraph C
4. Paragraph D
5. Paragraph E
6. Paragraph F
B. Fleming was the seventh of eight children of a Scottish hill farmer (third of four
children from the farmer’s second wife). His country upbringing in southwestern
E. Penicillin eventually came into use during World War II as the result of the work of a
team of scientists led by Howard Florey at the University of Oxford. Though Florey, his
coworker Ernst Chain, and Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize, their relationship was
clouded owing to the issue of who should gain the most credit for penicillin. Fleming’s
role was emphasized by the press because of the romance of his chance discovery and
his greater willingness to speak to journalists.
F. In 1953, two years prior to his death, Fleming married Greek microbiologist Amalia
Coutsouris-Voureka, who had been involved in the Greek resistance movement during
World War II and had been Fleming’s colleague since 1946, when she enrolled at St.
Mary’s Hospital on a scholarship. For the last decade of his life, Fleming was feted
universally for his discovery of penicillin and acted as a world ambassador for medicine
and science. Initially a shy uncommunicative man and a poor lecturer, he blossomed
under the attention he received, becoming one of the world’s best-known scientists.
Bài tập 2:
1.vii “According to our average ecological knowledge, animals eat plants, not the other
way round. But there are plant species that break this rule”
Theo kiến thức thông thường, động vật ăn thực vật chứ không phải
ngược lại. Tuy nhiên, có một loại thực vật đã phá vỡ quy luật này.
Chi tiết này khớp với tựa đề vii: Một xu hướng bị đảo ngược trong
chuỗi thức ăn.
2.v “They cannot very well march across the landscape in search of a meal”
“Carnivorous plants live in places like bogs and rocky slopes where the soil – if
there is any – is so nutrient-poor that few plants can survive”
Những loài thực vật ăn thịt không thể di chuyển để tìm kiếm thức ăn
và chúng sống ở những nơi mà đất đai rất ít dinh dưỡng. Đây chính là
lí do dẫn tới xu hướng tiến hoá bất thường
3.x “But the path to meat-eating is costly”, “...most carnivorous plants grow slowly
and stay small. Beyond that carnivorous plants face a more profound problem:
sex.”
“They are faced with a unique dilemma called "pollinator-prey conflict"
Đoạn C liệt kê những khó khăn, thử thách mà các loại cây ăn thịt phải
đối mặt khi tìm kiếm thức ăn. Nổi bật nhất trong số đó là vấn đề sinh
sản khi chúng rất khó tìm được côn trùng thụ phấn (pollinator).
4.ix “Some carnivorous plants do this by making sure their flowers bloom and die
before the traps open”
“Besides, one-third of carnivorous plants have removed all risks of pollinator-prey
conflict by growing their traps underwater and keeping their flowers above
ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | Inter – Adv – Mas
ground”
Chiến lược chính để bảo vệ côn trùng có lợi cho việc thụ phấn tập trung
vào hai khía cạnh. Thứ nhất là timing (căn thời gian) - đảm bảo rằng
hoa sẽ nở và tàn trước khi những cái “bẫy” (traps) được mở ra, và thứ
hai là positioning (chọn vị trí) - đặt những cái “bẫy” dưới nước, còn hoa
thì ở trên mặt đất.
5.i “But the role of long stalks in protecting pollinators remains debated”
“Some plants extend their flowers on stalks even though pollinators cannot reach
their traps: bladderworts (Utricularia), for instance, have stalked flowers despite
the fact that their traps lie underground”
Vai trò của cuống hoa (stalk) trong việc bảo vệ côn trùng thụ phấn vẫn
còn là một chủ đề gây tranh cãi. Ở đoạn trên người ta cho rằng hoa có
cuống dài để cách ly côn trùng thụ phấn khỏi “bẫy”, nhưng một số loài
như bladderworts vẫn có cuống hoa dài dù “bẫy” nằm dưới lòng đất.
6.iv “...the species whose flowers grow closest to its leaves – has flowers that smell
distinct from its leaves”
“He found that flower odours attract floral visitors – insect pollinators – while leaf
odours deter them. Only insects that the sundews usually eat are attracted by the
leaf odours. This means D. auriculata is the first carnivorous plant known to use
various odours both to lure prey and protect pollinators”
Một số loại thực vật có hai bộ phận khác nhau (leaves and flowers) với
mùi hương và chức năng khác nhau. Trong khi mùi hương của hoa chỉ
thu hút côn trùng thu phấn, mùi hương của lá lại thu hút con mồi và
đuổi côn trùng thụ phấn đi.
7.viii “However, the other two sundews in El-Sayed's study, D. spatulata and D. arcturi,
have scentless sticky leaves and flowers that grow further apart”
“So instead of smells, D. spatulata and D. arcturi use visual signals and separation
to protect pollinators”
Một giải pháp thay thế cho việc sử dụng mùi hương để bảo vệ côn
trùng có ích là sử dụng màu sắc, tín hiệu hình ảnh và sự cách ly giữa
hoa và bẫy.
Bài tập 3:
1. vi “discovery of penicillin”
ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | Inter – Adv – Mas
“work on wound infection and lysozime”
“guaranteed him a place in the history of bacteriology”
“sealed his lasting reputaion”
“the Nobel Prize for Phyliosophy of Medicine”
Đoạn này chúng ta thấy được một loạt các thành tựu được nhắc đến
như việc khám phá ra penicillin, công trình về nhiễm trùng vết thương
và lysozime và giải Nobel về triết lý của y học và những thành tựu này
đều mang lại danh tiếng cho Sir Alex Fleming (đảm bảo cho ông ấy một
vị trí trong lịch sử ngành vi khuẩn học, niêm phong danh tiếng lâu dài
của ông ấy)
Đáp án là vi: Một loạt các thành tựu (cái mà) mang lại danh tiếng cho
một người.
2.v “At first, he planned to become a surgeon, but a temporary position in the
laboratories of the Inoculation Department at St. Mary’s Hospital convinced him
that his future lay in the new field of bacteriology”
Trong đoạn B chúng ta thấy nhắc đến rất nhiều sự thay đổi trong suốt
cuộc đời của Fleming (học tiểu học ở Loudoun Moor rồi chuyển sang
Darvel và tiếp theo là Học viện Kilmarnock, v..v). Nổi bật nhất là sự
thay đổi xuất hiện ở dòng 10 khi ông quyết định chuyển từ bác sĩ phẫu
thuật (surgeon) sang làm ở ngành vi khuẩn học (bacteriology), nơi ông
dành được rất nhiều thành công trong sự nghiệp.
Đáp án đúng là v: những sự thay đổi và thành công trên con đường sự
nghiệp
3.ii “That was the first of his major discoveries”
“It came about when he had a cold and a drop of his nasal mucus fell onto
a culture plate of bacteria”
Trong đoạn này chúng ta thấy giới thiệu về phát hiện khoa học của
lysozime và đây là phát hiện chính đầu tiên của Fleming. Phát hiện này
tình cờ (accidential) vì Fleming phát hiện được khi ông bị cảm lạnh và
tình cờ chất nhầy mũi của ông ấy rơi xuống một đĩa nuôi cấy vi khuẩn.
Đáp án đúng là ii: Phát hiện khoa học một cách tình cờ đầu tiên
4.viii “He at first called the substance “mould juice” and then “penicillin,” after the
mold that produced it”
“Fleming, working with two young researchers, failed to stabilize and purify
penicillin”
ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | Inter – Adv – Mas
Trong đoạn này Fleming đã phát hiện ra “penicillin” ở dòng thứ 4 rồi
sau đó ông ấy quyết định nghiên cứu sâu hơn về nó (investigate
further). Cuối cùng kết quả (thất bại) của việc nghiên cứu xuất hiện ở
dòng 12.
Đáp án đúng là viii: Sự thất bại của một ngừoi trong việc phát triển
phát hiện của chính mình
5.iii “Though Florey, his coworker Ernst Chain, and Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel
Prize, their relationship was clouded owing to the issue of who should gain the
most credit for penicillin”
Trong đoạn này chúng ta thấy được thành công của penicillin trong
chiến tranh. Và ngay sau đó là sự tranh cãi về việc giữa Fleming và
Ernst Chain thì ai là người xứng đáng được nhận nhiều công trạng hơn.
Đáp án đúng là iii: Sự tranh cãi về công trạng
6.i “For the last decade of his life, Fleming was feted universally for his discovery of
penicillin and acted as a world ambassador for medicine and science”
Mãi đến 10 năm cuối cùng của cuộc đời thì thành tựu của ông về
penicillin mới được công nhận rộng rãi và ông được xem như là đại sứ
thế giới về khoa học và y học”
Đáp án đúng là i: Các nỗ lực cuối cùng cũng được đền đáp trên toàn
thế giới
A. Kelp forests don’t just play a fundamental role in curbing climate change. Sea
otters and some 800 other marine species depend on them, as do fishers in the
state’s abalone and red urchin industries, now devastated by a purple urchin
population explosion. Gray whales shelter their young in kelp forests. The algae can
also be used as biofuel, and when fed to cows dramatically cuts planet-warming
methane emissions from their burps. In California, kelp forests shape waves by
absorbing some of their energy to produce optimal conditions for surfing, a
multimillion-dollar business.
B. But between 2014 and 2016, a marine heat wave wiped out more than 90
percent of the kelp cover along a 200-mile stretch of California’s north coast. Kelp in
some areas of Southern California already had been reduced by 75 percent over the
past century due to pollution and overfishing of species that protect kelp
ecosystems. “Just like the coronavirus is requiring an interdisciplinary, multipronged
attack using all our wits, I think that same mentality is going to help deal with
climate change impacts, and in this case, kelp forest decline,” says Laura Rogers-
Bennett, a marine scientist with the University of California, Davis, and the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, whose research has documented the
kelp die-off.
C. The research vessel Xenarcha is about 10 minutes out of the Port of Los Angeles
on an overcast March morning. A gray whale breaches off the boat’s bow, its tail
sending a spray of seawater skyward. The 28-foot boat belongs to the Bay
Foundation, which has restored nearly 53 acres of Palos Verdes Peninsula’s kelp
forests since 2013. That’s a fraction of the 2,500 acres of seaweed estimated to exist
a century ago. But it’s a huge increase since the late 1960s, when kelp had become
all but extinct in that area.
D. Rough water gives way to the glassy calm of Honeymoon Cove and its eight acres
• Số lượng các đoạn văn (sự lựa chọn) thường nhiều hơn số lượng
các thông tin (câu hỏi)
2
•Một đoạn văn có thể chứa hai thông tin nhưng cũng có thể không
chứa thông tin nào
3
Để làm tốt dạng bài này, ta cần tiếp cận theo các bước sau:
Từ khóa chứa
nội dung chính
Từ khóa chứa
nội dung chính
Sea otters and some 800 other marine species depend on them, as do
fishers in the state’s abalone and red urchin industries, now devastated by
a purple urchin population explosion. Gray whales shelter their young in kelp
forests. The algae can also be used as biofuel, and when fed to cows
Đáp án câu 4 có khả năng ở khu vực này, ta đối chiếu nốt các từ khóa còn lại.
Bước 3: Choosing the correct answers – chọn đáp án đúng
- So sánh thông tin và chọn đáp án:
Bài đọc: Sea otters and some 800 other marine species depend on them……
Câu hỏi 4: A reference to the roles that kelp plays in marine ecosystem
- Áp dụng hướng đi tương tự, ta có đáp án cho các câu hỏi còn lại như sau:
A. Jack Schwager was once a moderately successful trader who wondered why he was
not an immoderately successful trader. Perhaps if he knew the secrets of trading
superstars, such as Paul Tudor Jones or Jim Rogers, he might improve. So he asked them
for those secrets. “Market Wizards”, his book of interviews with hedge-fund traders,
was published in 1989. A second volume soon followed.
B. Both books have since been pored over by a generation of hedge-fund wannabes.
They are full of great stories and tips covering a range of investing styles. Yet there are
common elements. It is striking, for instance, how little emphasis the wizards put on
getting into a position—finding the right trade at the right entry price—compared with
when to get out of it. That makes sense. Deciding what and when to sell surely matters
at least as much as, and perhaps more than, deciding what to buy.
C. The wizardly injunction to cut your losses and let your winners ride has hardened
into hedge-fund doctrine. Even so, it is not widely practised in mainstream investing.
Fund managers pay lots of attention to buying decisions. But they are remarkably
careless in deciding what to sell.
D. That is the central finding of “Selling Fast and Buying Slow”, published late last year
by a trio of academics—Klakow Akepanidtaworn of the University of Chicago’s Booth
School of Business, Alex Imas of Carnegie Mellon University and Lawrence Schmidt of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—together with Rick Di Mascio of Inalytics, a
data firm. They examined the daily turnover of hundreds of portfolios over several
years, tracking more than 2 million stock purchases and almost as many sales. Buying
decisions, they found, were good: the addition of a stock generally improved a
E. The disparity between sales and purchases is explained by the attention given to
each. Fund managers are careful buyers. Purchases come at the end of a long period of
serious thought and research. But they do not give stock sales anything like the same
attention. That is especially true when they are stressed because their portfolio has
recently done badly. Instead of deliberating, they use a mental shortcut. Stocks that
have done either really well or really badly, and so stick in the mind, are far more likely
to be sold. The more inclined fund managers are to sell in this way, the worse they
perform.
F. They do not realise that careless selling is harmful, it seems. “Selling is simply a cash-
raising exercise for the next buying idea,” one told the paper’s authors. “Buying is an
investment decision; selling is something else,” said another. Fund managers sell the
stocks that come most readily to mind. Yet they are able to sell wisely, if they pay
attention. Sales made when they are focused on information about a stock, for example
around the time of an earnings report, are almost as smart as buying decisions, the
authors say.
G. The message is clear. If fund managers took more care over selling, they would be
more successful. But the world is not arranged in such a way as to make them take that
care. They will be asked often for their best buying ideas, but rarely about stocks they
own that are ripe for selling. This lopsided approach to decision-making is not confined
to fund management. Businesses often spend an age deciding whom to hire but put off
thinking about whom to let go until there is a pressing financial need, by which point
the decision is likely to be rushed.
H. Why do fund managers take their losses on bad stocks too late and their profits on
good stocks too early? A body of empirical research, surveyed by Brad Barber and
Terrance Odean of the University of California, finds that individual investors show a
strong preference for selling winners over losers. They may be impatient to experience
I. The type of superstar trader profiled in “Market Wizards” is as likely to sell a currency,
commodity or stock short as to buy it. For them, selling is as natural as buying, and
requires just as much attention. For his part, Mr Schwager recalls in the book how he
lost a lot of money trading soybeans. He failed to get out of his position when the
market moved against him. The decision to buy the beans might not have been a great
one. But it was his selling decision that he truly regretted.
Questions 1-5
The text has 9 paragraphs, A-I
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-I, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
N.B. You many use any letter more than once
1. Á review of turnover over a period of time
2. An account of a failure in running a type of business
3. A reference of two very successful traders
4. The finding from a survey on investors
5. A comparison drawn between selling and buying regarding their importance
Bài tập 2
Angkor Wat: History of Ancient Temple
Built between roughly A.D. 1113 and 1150, and encompassing an area of about 500
acres (200 hectares), Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious monuments ever
constructed. Its name means "temple city."
A. Originally built as a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu, it was converted into
a Buddhist temple in the 14th century, and statues of Buddha were added to its already
rich artwork. Sometime later it was turned into a military fortification. Today it is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site that scientists are struggling to preserve. Its 213-foot-tall
ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | Inter – Adv – Mas
(65 meters) central tower is, along with other four
smaller towers, wrapped around by a series of enclosure walls, a layout that recreates
the image of Mount Meru, a legendary place in Hindu mythology that is said to lie
beyond the Himalayas and be the home of the gods.
B. The city where the temple was built, Angkor, is located in modern-day Cambodia and
was once the capital of the Khmer Empire. This city contains hundreds of temples, and
the population may have been over 1 million people. It was easily the largest city in the
world until the Industrial Revolution. Angkor had an urban core that could easily have
held 500,000 people and a vast hinterland that had many more inhabitants, as airborne
laser scanning (lidar) research has shown. Researchers have also identified a "lost" city
called Mahendraparvata, which is located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of
Angkor Wat.
D. The heart of the temple was the central tower, entered by way of a steep staircase,
a statue of Vishnu at top. This tower "was at once the symbolic center of the nation and
the actual center where secular and sacred power joined forces," writes researcher
Eleanor Mannikka in the book "Angkor: Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire"
(Abbeville Press, 2002). "From that unparalleled space, Vishnu and the king ruled over
the Khmer people."
G. Building Angkor Wat was an enormous undertaking that involved quarrying, careful
artistic work and lots of digging. To create the moat around the temple, 1.5 million cubic
meters (53 million cubic feet) of sand and silt were moved, a task that would have
required thousands of people working at one time. To support them, a tough material
called laterite was used, which in turn was encased with softer sandstone that was used
for carving the reliefs. These sandstone blocks were quarried at the Kulen Hills, about
18 miles (30 km) to the north. A series of canals were used to transport the blocks to
Angkor Wat, research shows.
H. Beneath the central tower was a shaft that leads to a chamber where, in 1934,
archaeologists found "two pieces of crystal and two gold leaves far beneath where the
Vishnu statue must have been," Coe writes, adding that deposits like these "spiritually
'energized' a temple, much as a battery will provide power to a portable electronic
device."
I. Although Angkor Wat is dedicated to Vishnu, the full purpose of the temple is still
debated. Researchers still wonder whether the ashes of Suryavarman II were interred
in the monument, perhaps in the same chamber where the deposits were found. If that
were the case, it would give the temple a funerary meaning.
ZIM SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND TEST PREPARATION | Inter – Adv – Mas
Questions 1 – 5
Reading Passage 1 has nine sections A – I
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A – I, in boxes 1 – 5 of your answer sheet.
B. Leopard seals are the largest of the “true” (having no external ear flaps) Antarctic
seals, and can grow to over 11 feet (3.3 meters) in length, with exceptionally large
individuals weighing up to 1,300 pounds (590 kg). They are identified by their huge
reptilian-like head, large toothy mouth, long neck, arched back and long powerful
flippers with webbed digits (fingers and toes). The fur on the back is dark grey, the
stomach light grey, and the throat area is white with characteristic black spots.
Leopard seals can be confused with Weddell seals, which can also be spotted.
Females are slightly larger than males.
C. With the exception of Antarctic fur seals which are “eared” seals, the leopard seal
is a true seal like all other Antarctic seals. Even without external ear flaps they do
have an ear canal with an external opening on both sides of their head. They can hear
as well as humans when outside of the water and even better when underwater.
Although it was long believed seals use sonar for navigation and locating food in
conditions of low visibility, scientists now believe they use their movement-sensitive
whiskers to navigate and to locate much of their prey by following hydrodynamic
turbulence trailing from fish, squid, penguins and other seals in dark or murky water.
D. During the Antarctic summer (November–April), leopard seals hunt among the
pack ice surrounding the Antarctic continent, spending almost all of their time
(except for breeding) in the water. In the winter (May–October) they range
E. Solitary by nature, leopard seals come on land (ice) only during the breeding
season and then only in pairs or small groups. Pupping generally takes place during
November and December. Females dig a hole in the fast ice where they will give birth
to a single pup after a 9 to 11-month gestation period (implantation can be delayed
by up to two months). The pups weigh about 66 pounds (30 kg) at birth and nurse
for about one month. The female protects the pups until they can take care of
themselves; males do not participate in parental care. Male leopard seals reach
sexual maturity between ages 6 and 7, females between 3 and 7 years of age. Mating
generally takes place after the pupping season in February when the females are in
estrus. Mating takes place in the water.
F. Leopard seals’ acute hearing, sight and smell, coupled with their streamlined
bodies that move with agility and speed, have established them as one of the top
predators of the Antarctic. While krill are an important food for leopard seals, their
diet also includes a significant number of warm-blooded animals, including other
seals. The leopard seal’s jaw is adapted to a varied diet. Lobes on the sides of the
mouth filter krill and their mouths have a remarkable looseness—opening to more
than 160 degrees—that enables them to feed on large marine mammals. Their long,
sharp teeth are well adapted for cutting and tearing prey. Being a highly-evolved
predator, leopard seals eat krill (estimated at 45% of their diet), other seals (30%),
penguins (10%), and fish and cephalopods (10%). In summer, leopard seals patrol
penguin rookeries, waiting underwater near an ice shelf and snaring the birds just as
they enter the water after jumping off the ice. They have also been seen coming up
beneath seabirds resting on the water surface and snatching them in their jaws.
G. Unlike other seal species that swim by moving their hind limbs from side to side,
leopard seals are graceful swimmers, using long, powerful, simultaneous strokes
with their forelimbs. When underwater, their nose closes automatically and doesn’t
reopen until they surface. They can remain underwater for 15–30 minutes, even
sleeping under the water and resurfacing for air without waking. As shallow-water
hunters, they do not dive deep. On the ice leopard seals are generally quiet.
H. Leopard seals may live for 26 years or longer. Their only known natural predators
are the orca whale and some large sharks. Leopard seals exhibit a ferocious nature
with their prey, but they rarely interact with humans—although visitors to Antarctica
are generally warned to keep their distance.
Questions 1-5
Reading Passage 1 has eight sections, A-H
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
1. A change in scientific beliefs about the sense that leopard seals use for underwater
navigation
2. Leopard seal’s contrasting characteristics in and out of the sea.
3. A reference of body parts that evolve to be able to consume various foods
4. A description about time and place of reproduction of leopard seals
5. A reference of the only natural enemies that can threaten leopard seals
A. Teabags, which seem to be humble, but turn out to provide an ingenious window
onto a largely hidden world: soil. When soil litter – dead leaves, twigs and other organic
material – decomposes, it emits carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.
Being able to measure the rate at which this happens is important – and nowhere more
so than in the Arctic, where the tundra holds vast quantities of carbon and is emitting
it into the air at an accelerating rate as the land heats up. Sizing up this problem should
allow us to better predict the ramifications of a warmer world, and chart a course to
avert disastrous climate change.
B. It started in 2010, when Joost Keuskamp and Judith Sarneel at Utrecht University in
the Netherlands had a eureka moment. Both study soil decomposition, and their
research entails sewing or gluing together the seams of hundreds of tiny bags, filling
them with dead plant material, then burying them in the ground. The ecologists later
dig up the bags and reweigh them to track the progress of decay. During a well-earned
tea break, the pair were bemoaning the tedium of this time-consuming job. If only there
were some way to avoid it, they mused, while staring into the depths of their teacups.
Teabags! It was a genius idea. Not only would using them bypass all the sewing and
gluing, but if ecologists everywhere buried the same type of teabag instead of
homemade litterbags, it would also give them a standard piece of kit with which to do
their studies.
C. Soil decomposition occurs when microorganisms, including fungi and bacteria, digest
dead plant material, transforming it into nutrients and releasing carbon dioxide. The
rate of decay depends on environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, soil
acidity and nutrient content, together with the chemical properties of the litter and the
types of microorganisms present. It is a two-stage process. Typically, decay is fast at
first, as microbes consume all the easily degraded organic material. In the next phase,
the decomposition rate is slower because the material left behind is more resistant.
E. They looked at early stage decay rates of the two types of teabags in soil at 336 sites
within nine different biomes, including boreal forests, equatorial regions, the
Mediterranean and Arctic tundra. They found that rooibos tea always decayed much
slower than green tea, reassuring them that the Tea Bag Index works in vastly different
geographical areas and biomes. As expected, decay of both tea types was faster in
warmer, more humid environments. However, for tea at least, moisture levels have
more impact on decomposition rates than temperature.
F. Being able to make such global comparisons is a huge leap forward for soil scientists.
But the group acknowledged that data from the Arctic was sparse. That matters
because tundra contains huge amounts of carbon – almost twice as much as the
atmosphere – in the form of dead vegetation.
G. Historically, low temperatures in the Arctic have kept the decomposition rates in
tundra soil low, locking up this carbon. With global warming, that is no longer the case.
However, we don’t know how fast carbon dioxide is being released from the tundra
into the atmosphere or what impact this will have. That is what Myers-Smith and her
team are trying to find out. They are particularly keen to examine the unusual changes
that are occurring in places like Herschel Island, where rising temperatures are leading
to increased plant growth. “One of the big questions is, what happens to that biomass
once it gets deposited into the soil,” says Myers-Smith. Might it rapidly decompose,
creating a feedback loop that makes things worse?
I. “We’re seeing a linear relationship across the whole tundra,” says Myers-Smith.
“Some of the highest rates of decomposition occurred at sites that were the warmest
and the wettest.” She hopes that the findings, which will be published soon, will be
used to update climate models and improve our ability to predict the effects of climate
change at high latitudes.
Questions 1-6
Reading Passage 2 has seven sections A-I.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-I in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
Đoạn I
For his part, Mr Schwager recalls in the book how he lost a lot of
money trading soybeans
2. I Về phần mình, ông Schwager nhớ lại trong cuốn sách ông đã
mất rất nhiều tiền khi mua bán đậu nành.
Câu 2: Mô tả một thất bại trong việc điều hành một loại hình
kinh doanh
Đoạn A
“Perhaps if he knew the secrets of trading superstars, such as Paul
Tudor Jones or Jim Rogers, he might improve”
3. A Có lẽ nếu anh ta biết những bí mật của các siêu sao giao dịch,
như Paul Tudor Jones hay Jim Rogers, anh ta đã có thể cải
thiện.
Câu 3: sự đề cập đến hai doanh nhân thành đạt
Đoạn H
“A body of empirical research, surveyed by Brad Barber and Terrance
Odean of the University of California, finds that individual
investors...”
4. H
Một cơ quan nghiên cứu thực nghiệm, được khảo sát bởi
Brad Barber và Terrance Odean của Đại học California, nhận
thấy rằng các nhà đầu tư cá nhân ...
Câu 4: Kết quả từ một khảo sát các nhà đầu tư
Đoạn B
5. B
“Deciding what and when to sell surely matters at least as much as,
Bài tập 2
1. E Đoạn E
Hidden paintings have been discovered in the central tower.
One chamber in the tower has a scene showing a traditional Khmer
ensemble of musical instruments known as the pinpeat.
Những bức tranh bị giấu đã được phát hiện trong tòa tháp
trung tâm. Một phòng trong tòa tháp có cảnh một dàn nhạc
cụ truyền thống của người Khmer được gọi là pinpeat.
Câu 1: Bằng chứng về những tác phẩm nghệ thuật được tìm
thấy ở Angkor Wat
2. G Đoạn G
Building Angkor Wat was an enormous undertaking that involved
quarrying, careful artistic work and lots of digging
Xây dựng Angkor Wat là một công trình vỹ đại liên quan đến
khai thác đá, các tác phẩm nghệ thuật và sự đào bới.
Câu 2: Sự miêu tả những thách thức trong suốt quá trình xây
dựng Angkor Wat.
3. D Đoạn D
This tower "was at once the symbolic center of the nation and the
actual center where secular and sacred power joined forces
Tòa tháp này "ngay lập tức là biểu tượng của quốc gia và là
trung tâm thực tế nơi sức mạnh thế tục và thiêng liêng hội
tụ.
Câu 3: Một khẳng định về vai trò của tòa tháp trung tâm
4. H Đoạn H
5. I Đoạn I
Researchers still wonder whether the ashes of Suryavarman II were
interred in the monument, perhaps in the same chamber where the
deposits were found. If that were the case, it would give the temple a
funerary meaning.
Các nhà nghiên cứu vẫn tự hỏi liệu tro cốt của Suryavarman II
có được chôn trong di tích hay không, có lẽ trong cùng một
căn phòng nơi các trầm tích đưọc tìm thấy. Nếu đúng như
vậy, nó sẽ mang lại cho ngôi đền một cảm giác tang thương.
Câu 5: Một câu hỏi về những tác dụng tiềm ẩn của Angkor
Wat.
Bài tập 3
1. C Đoạn C
“Although it was long believed seals use sonar for navigation and
locating food in conditions of low visibility, scientists now believe
they use their movement-sensitive whiskers to navigate...”
“On the ice leopard seals are generally quiet. Underwater they
produce trills, grunts, low frequency moans and growling noises”
Mũi của hải cẩu báo tự động đóng lại khi ở dưới nước và chỉ
mở ra khi chúng nổi lên trên mặt nước. Dù khá im lặng trên
cạn, hải cẩu báo thường phát ra một số âm thanh tần số
thấp khi ở dưới nước.
Câu 2 – những đặc điểm trái ngược nhau của hải cẩu báo khi
ở dưới nước và trên cạn.
3. Đoạn F
“Their only known natural predators are the orca whale and some
large sharks”
Những động vật săn mồi duy nhất đối với hải cẩu báo là cá
voi orca và một số loài cá mập lớn
câu 5 – những loài thiên địch duy nhất có thể đe doạ hải cẩu
báo.
Bài tập 4
Câu 2. Một bí ẩn chưa được giải quyết liên quan đến viễn cảnh
có thể xảy ra của một hiện tượng lạ
3. B Đoạn B
“It started in 2010, when Joost Keuskamp and Judith Sarneel at Utrecht
University in the Netherlands had a eureka moment”
Nó bắt đầu từ năm 2010, khi Joost Keuskamp và Judith Sarneel
của trường Đại học Utrecht ở Hà Lan tình cờ phát hiện ra một
điều lý thú.
4. H Đoạn H
“Thomas heads up the Tundra Tea Bag Experiment, an international
collaboration involving some 50 researchers”
Thomas Thomas dẫn dắt Thí nghiệm túi trà Tundra, một sự hợp
tác quốc tế với sự tham gia của khoảng 50 nhà nghiên cứu.
Câu 4: Tên của một nghiên cứu cụ thể được thực hiện trên quy
mô toàn cầu
5. E Đoạn E
6. D Đoạn D
Since they went public with their method in 2013, teabag ecology has
taken off.
Kể từ khi họ công khai phương pháp của họ vào năm 2013, hệ
sinh thái teabag đã phát triển mạnh.
Câu 6: Việc công bố một phương pháp nghiên cứu giúp một lĩnh
vực nghiên cứu phát triển