Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BÀI ĐỌC MỚI
BÀI ĐỌC MỚI
BÀI ĐỌC MỚI
In the sense that Earth and space exploration both stem from the
same human drive to understand our environment and our place
within it, there is no reason for the split to exist. A more accurate
view of Earth and space exploration is to see them as a continuum
of exploration with many interconnected and mutually beneficial
links. The Earth and Space Foundation, a registered charity, was
established for the purposes of fostering such links through field
research and by direct practical action.
Questions 1-5
YES
NO
NOT GIVEN
if the statement agrees with the views of the writer if the statement
contradicts the views of the writer
Questions 6-9
1.....................
a common theme.
D It gave the Foundation greater control over the forests. GPS and
satellite imagery were used in the Syrian project to A help
archaeologists find ancient items.
B explore land that is hard to reach.
C reduce the impact of archaeological activity.
D evaluate some early astronomical theories.
Questions 10-14
1. A comparable
2. B extreme
3. C connected
D ideal
E unexpected F beneficial
GHI
Solution:
1. YES
2. NO
3. NOT GIVEN 4. NO
5. NOT GIVEN 6. C
7. A
However, not all educators are enamoured with Khan and his site.
Gary Stager, a longtime educational consultant and advocate of
laptops in classrooms,, thinks Khan Academy is not innovative at
all. The videos and software modules, he contends, are just a high-
tech version of the outdated teaching techniques—lecturing and
drilling. Schools have become
Khan's success has injected him into the heated wars over school
reform. Reformers today, by and large, believe student success
should be carefully tested, with teachers and principals receiving
better pay if their students advance more quickly. In essence, Khan
doesn't want to change the way institutions teach; he wants to
change how people learn, whether they're in a private school or a
public school—or for that matter, whether they're a student or an
adult trying to self-educate in Ohio, Brazil, Russia, or India. One
member of Khan's staff is spearheading a drive to translate the
videos into ten major languages. It's classic start-up logic: do
something novel, do it with speed, and the people who love it will
find you.
Questions 1-5
2. 2 What does the writer say about the content of the Khan
Academy videos? A They have been produced in a professional
manner.
B They include a mix of verbal and visual features.
C Some of the maths problems are too easy.
Questions 6-10
Write
YES
NO
NOT GIVEN
6.....................
turned out to be wrong.
7..................... 8.....................
Questions 11-14
4.B 5.D
6. YES 7. NO
8. NO
9. NOT GIVEN 10. NOT GIVEN 11. B
12. D
13. G
14. E
'I admit I was sceptical until 1 did the calculations myself,’ says
Michael Pawlyn, director of Exploration Architecture, one of three
British environmental companies comprising the Sahara Forest
Project, which is testing solar plants in Oman and the United Arab
Emirates. Pawlyn calls the Sahara’s potential ’staggering’.
Questions 1-5
2.....................
3.....................
potential
4..................... 5.....................
Questions 6-9
List of Organisations
A Exploration Architecture B DESERTEC
C ABB Power Technologies D Aerospace Centre
E Abengoa
F The European Parliament G e-Parliament
Questions 10-13
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
The resulting dirty water will be used for 13..................... around the
power plant, and in this way oases will be formed.
Solution:
1.E 8.E
2.B 9.A
3.G 10. mirrors
4.A 11. steam
5.E 12. depressions 6.F 13. irrigation
7. G
But researchers in the United States and Japan are planning to hit
back. Already in laboratory trials they have tested strategies for
neutralising the power of thunderstorms, and this winter they will
brave real storms, equipped with an armoury of lasers that they will
be pointing towards the heavens to discharge thunderclouds before
lightning can strike.
The idea of forcing storm clouds to discharge their lightning on
command is not new. In the early 1960s, researchers tried firing
rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up
an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these
clouds generate. The technique survives to this day at a test site in
Florida run by the University of Florida, with support from the
Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI), based in California.
EPRI, which is funded by power companies, is looking at ways to
protect the United States’ power grid from lightning strikes. ‘We can
cause the lightning to strike where we want it to using rockets,’
says Ralph Bernstein, manager of lightning projects at EPRI. The
rocket site is providing precise measurements of lightning voltages
and allowing engineers to check how electrical equipment bears up.
Bad behaviour
But while rockets are fine for research, they cannot provide the
protection from lightning strikes that everyone is looking for. The
rockets cost around $1,200 each, can only be fired at a limited
frequency and their failure rate is about 40 per cent. And even when
they do trigger lightning, things still do not always go according to
plan. ‘Lightning is not perfectly well behaved,’ says Bernstein.
‘Occasionally, it will take a branch and go someplace it wasn’t
supposed to go.’
The idea began some 20 years ago, when high-powered lasers were
revealing their ability to extract electrons out of atoms and create
ions. If a laser could generate a line of ionisation in the air all the
way up to a storm cloud, this conducting path could be used to
guide lightning to Earth, before the electric field becomes strong
enough to break down the air in an uncontrollable surge. To stop the
laser itself being struck, it would not be pointed straight at the
clouds. Instead it would be directed at a mirror, and from there into
the sky. The mirror would be protected by placing lightning
conductors close by. Ideally, the cloud- zapper (gun) would be cheap
enough to be installed around all key power installations, and
portable enough to be taken to international sporting events to
beam up at brewing storm
clouds.
A stumbling block
But they have not yet come up with the $5 million that EPRI says
will be needed to develop a commercial system, by making the
lasers yet smaller and cheaper. I cannot say I have money yet, but
I’m working on it,’ says Bernstein. He reckons that the forthcoming
field tests will be the turning point - and he’s hoping for good news.
Bernstein predicts ‘an avalanche of interest and support’ if all goes
well. He expects to see cloud-zappers eventually costing $50,000 to
$100,000 each.
Questions 4-6
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each
answer.
5.....................
6.....................
Questions 7-10
A cloud-zappers D mirrors
G rockets
Questions 11-13
B atoms
E technique H conductors
11..................... 12.....................
storms. 13.....................
8. C
9. G
10. D
11. NO
12. YES
13. NOT GIVEN
The risk is especially large for low- income families who have a
difficult time making ends meet without the additional burden of
college tuition and fees.
There is considerable support for the notion that the rate of return
on investment in higher education is high enough to warrant the
financial burden associated with pursuing a college degree. Though
the earnings differential between college and high school graduates
varies over time, college graduates, on average, earn more than
high school graduates. According to the Census Bureau, over an
adult's working life, high school graduates earn an average of $1.2
million; associate’s degree holders earn about $1.6 million; and
bachelor’s degree holders earn about $2.1 million (Day and
Newburger, 2002).
increasing economic and job security for those who earn bachelor’s
degrees (Ibid.). Research has also consistently shown a positive
correlation between completion of higher education and good
health, not only for oneself, but also for one’s children. In fact,
"parental schooling levels (after controlling for differences in
earnings) are positively correlated with the health status of their
children" and Increased schooling (and higher relative income) are
correlated with lower mortality rates for given age brackets" (Cohn
and Geske, 1992).
CONCLUSION
Questions 1-4
Questions 5-9
The cost of a college education has remained steady for several
years.
Questions 10-13
The list below shows some benefits which college graduates may
enjoy more of as compared to noncollege graduates.
3. TRUE
4. NOT GIVEN
Degree Holder
8. 8655 9. tuition
The front office team discovered through this project that a high
proportion of AHI Club member reservations were incomplete. As a
result, the service provided to these guests was below the standard
promised to them as part of their membership agreement. Reducing
the number of incomplete reservations greatly improved guest
perceptions of service.
This article has been adapted and condensed fem the article by R
Carter (19%), 'Implementing the cycle of success: A case study of
the Sheraten Pacific Division', Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources, 34(3): 111-23. Names and other details have been
changed and report findings may have been given a different
emphasis from the original. W eare grateful to Asia Pacific Journal
of Human Resources for allowing us to use, file material in this way.
Questions 1-5
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 1-5 on
your answer sheet.
1. 1 The high costs of running AHI's hotels are related to their ...
A management. B size.
C staff.
D policies.
D marketing.
4. 4 The total number of jobs advertised at the SAH was ... A 70.
Questions 6-13
Complete the following summary of the last four paragraphs of
Reading Passage 1 using
ONE OR TWO words from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 6-13 on your answer sheet.
Solution: 1. C
2.A
3. C
4.B 5. B
8. (performance) measures
9. productivity
10. (') Take Charge
(')
11. feedback
13. 30 days