FOUNDATION COURSE

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

READING LESSON 1
Nội dung: Scanning và Đọc tìm thông tin

Lý thuyết:

Scanning là khả năng tìm kiếm các từ riêng lẻ hoặc các diễn giải ngắn gồm hai đến ba
từ. Người đọc chỉ tìm kiếm một sự kiện hoặc một phần thông tin cụ thể mà không đọc
toàn bộ văn bản. Phát triển kỹ năng này sẽ giúp người đọc tiết kiệm thời gian trong bài
kiểm tra.

Có thể tìm thấy bất kỳ từ nào bằng cách quét, nhưng những từ dễ tìm nhất là những

từ có:

1. Chữ in hoa: tên người, địa danh, thành phố, quốc gia, công ty.
2. Các số như 1997, 21/01, 800kg, 5 triệu. Hãy nhớ rằng các con số cũng có thể được
viết dưới dạng các từ như thế kỷ hai mươi, mười tám năm mươi lăm, ba người, v.v.
Bài tập 1: Read the following text quickly. Find these names: Nottingham, Atlantic, Alan
Booth
Spoon-fed feel lost at the cutting edge
Before arriving at university students will have been powerfully influenced by their
school's approach to learning particular subjects. Yet this is only rarely taken into
account by teachers in higher education, according to new research carried out at
Nottingham University, which could explain why so many students experience problems
making the transition.
Historian Alan Booth says there is a growing feeling on both sides of the Atlantic that
the shift from school to university-style learning could be vastly improved. But little
consensus exists about who or what is at fault when the students cannot cope. "School
teachers commonly blame the poor quality of university teaching, citing factors such as
large first-year lectures, the widespread use of inexperienced postgraduate tutors and
the general lack of concern for students in an environment where research is dominant
in career progression," Dr Booth said.

Vocab:

The spoon-fed (n) những người thụ động

The cutting edge (n) sự phát triển hiện đại
Particular (adj): cụ thể
Transition (n): sự chuyển giao
Consensus (n): sự đồng lòng, nhất trí
Dominant (adj): lấn át, chi phối
Bài tập 2: Read the text and find all the numbers.
Helium’s future up in the air
In recent years we have all been exposed to dire media reports concerning the
impending demise of global coal and oil reserves, but the depletion of another key non-
renewable resource continues without receiving much press at all. Helium – an inert,
odourless, monatomic element known to lay people as the substance that makes
balloons float and voices squeak when inhaled – could be gone from this planet within
a generation.
Helium itself is not rare; there is actually a plentiful supply of it in the cosmos. In fact,
24 percent of our galaxy’s elemental mass consists of helium, which makes it the
second most abundant element in our universe. Because of its lightness, however, most
helium vanished from our own planet many years ago. Consequently, only a miniscule
proportion – 0.00052%, to be exact – remains in earth’s atmosphere. Helium is the by-
product of millennia of radioactive decay from the elements thorium and uranium. The
helium is mostly trapped in subterranean natural gas bunkers and commercially
extracted through a method known as fractional distillation.

Vocab:
Impending (adj): mang tính đe dọa
Inert (adj); bất động
Odourless (adj): không mùi
Substance(n): chất
Vanish (v): tan ra
Fractional distillation (n): sự chưng cất phân đoạn
Bài tập 3: Read and follow the instructions (Sentence completion)

For their size, birds are tremendously powerful creatures. We know this thanks to an ingenious
series of tests performed by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina. The researchers
placed a specially trained budgerigar in a wind tunnel and measured how much muscle power it
needed to maintain flight at various airspeeds up to 50 kilometres per hour. The small bird had
to be trained, not only because it had to fly in the artificial environment of the wind tunnel, but
also because it had to do so while wearing a tiny oxygen mask.

Use no more than THREE WORDS to fill in the blank:

Scientists have done experiments on birds in a ______________.

Bài tập 4: Read and follow the instructions (Summary completion)

Silence is not always golden

A global survey has found that city dwellers have better hearing than people who live in quiet
villages, and scientists now believe that the ear needs exercise to keep in shape.

A team of scientists at the University of Giessen, Germany, has spent over a decade testing the
hearing of more than 10,000 people all over the world. As expected, people exposed to
extremely loud noises at work, such as construction workers, had poor hearing. But the hearing
of those living in quiet, rural areas, such as farmers, was just as bad. Orchestral musicians and
airline pilots, by contrast, can usually hear well despite exposure to noise at work. And there is
little difference between people who go to noisy concerts and those who do not.

Use no more than THREE WORDS to fill in the blank.

Notes

Research shows: need to train the ear to make it work well

Geographical research area: 1 _______________________________

Examples of people with poor hearing: 2 __________ and 3 ___________

and good hearing: 4 _______________ and 5 __________________

Bài tập 5: Đọc và trả lời các câu hỏi

August 1985: The worst month for air disasters

There are many grim landmarks in the history of aviation. One in particular stands out. Three
decades ago, 720 travellers and crew lost their lives on board commercial aircraft in a single
month - more than in any other before or since.

The deaths occurred in four separate accidents in August 1985. Each disaster had quite
different causes. The aircraft involved ranged from a 747 with hundreds on board to a tiny
twin engine turboprop carrying just eight people.

There was Japan Air Lines flight 123, the worst single-aircraft accident in history, in which
520 of 524 on board were killed. A further 137 died when Delta flight 191 flew into heavy
winds as it approached Dallas-Fort Worth International. A fire on board British Airtours flight
28M at Manchester Airport led to 55 deaths. And all those on board the smallest aircraft, Bar
Harbor Airlines flight 1808, lost their lives as it flew into a small airport in Maine, USA.

Each, in their own way, had a lasting legacy, whether in the memories of those left bereaved
or in changes in technology and procedure introduced as a direct result. The worst death toll
was on Japan AirLines Flight 123, a Boeing 747, which was en route from Tokyo to Osaka on
12 August 1985 when the airtight bulkhead between its cabin and tail tore open. The change
in pressure blew off the vertical stabiliser, or tail fin. It also destroyed the hydraulic systems.
The plane lurched up and down.

Vocab:

1. Aviation (n): hàng không 5. Approach (v): tiếp cận

2. Commercial (adj): thuộc về thương mại 6. Legacy (n): di sản

7. Bereaved (n): tang quyến

3. Disaster (n): thảm họa

8. Tail (n): đuôi

4. Engine (n): Động cơ

9. Stabiliser (n): bộ thăng bằng của máy bay

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

1. When did the 720 travellers die?

A. Thirteen decades ago.

B. A few decades ago.

C. 30 years ago.

D. There is no information about it.

2. Twin engine turboprop could carry:

A. Eight people.

B. Four people.

C. Two people.

D. Only a pilot.

3. The worst accident in history, according to the paragraph, was:

A. Flight 123.

B. Delta flight 191.

C. British Airtours flight 28M.

D. Bar Harbor Airlines flight 1808.

4. Why did the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crash?

A. The change in pressure blew off the vertical stabiliser.

B. Destruction of the hydraulic systems.

C. The airtight bulkhead between its cabin and tail tore open.

D. It is unknown.
Bài tập 6: Đọc và trả lời câu hỏi
The life of the European bee-eater
A brilliant movement of colour as it catches its food in the air, the European bee-eater moves
between three continents.
True to their name, bee-eaters eat bees (though their diet includes just about any flying insect).
When the bird catches a bee, it returns to its tree to get rid of the bee's poison, which it does
very efficiently. It hits the insect's head on one side of the branch, then rubs its body on the
other. The rubbing makes its prey harmless.
European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) form families that breed in the spring and summer
across an area that extends from Spain to Kazakhstan. Farmland and river valleys provide huge
numbers of insects. Flocks of bee-eaters follow tractors as they work fields. When the birds
come upon a beehive, they eat well - a researcher once found a hundred bees in the stomach of
a bee-eater near a hive.
European bees pass the winter by sleeping in their hives, which cuts off the bee-eater's main
source of food. So, in late summer, bee-eaters begin a long, dangerous journey. Massive flocks
from Spain, France and northern Italy cross the Sahara desert to their wintering grounds in West
Africa. Bee-eaters from Hungary and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe cross the
Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Desert to winter in southern Africa. 'It's an extremely risky
stratagem, this migration,' says C. Hilary Fry, a British ornithologist who has studied European
bee-eaters for more than 45 years.
'At least 30 percent of the birds will be killed by predators before they make it back to Europe
the following spring.'
In April, they return to Europe. Birds build nests by digging tunnels in riverbanks. They work for
up to 20 days. By the end of the job, they've moved 15 to 26 pounds of soil - more than 80 times
their weight.
The nesting season is a time when families help each other, and sons or uncles help feed their
father's or brother's chicks as soon as they come out of their eggs. The helpers benefit, too:
parents with helpers can provide more food for chicks to continue the family line.
It's a short, spectacular life. European bee-eaters live for five to six years. The difficulties of
migration and avoiding predators along the way affect every bird. Bee-eaters today also find it
harder to find food, as there are fewer insects around as a result of pesticides. Breeding sites
are also disappearing, as rivers are turned into concrete-walled canals.
Vocab:

1. Breed (v): Sinh sản

2. Massive (a): to lớn
3. Flock (n): đàn
4. Pesticides (n): thuốc trừ sâu
5. Risky (a): rủi ro
6. Predator (n): thú săn mồi

Questions 8-15
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
8 Bee-eaters’ prey are bees and other …………..
9 Bee-eaters need to remove the ……………… from bees before eating them.
10 There is plenty of food for bee-eaters on agricultural land and in ……………….
11 Bee-eaters migrate to spend the winter in different parts of ……………….
12 Because of ………………., almost one-third of bee-eaters do not survive migration.
13 Bee-eaters make nests in……………… , which they build themselves.
14 When nesting, the …………….. receive food from different family members.
15 One problem for bee-eaters is…………… , which have reduced the amount of food available.