Số 1 Tiếng Anh: Reading 10

Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Reading 10. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Reading 10. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Năm, 4 tháng 9, 2014

Reading

The city of Cambridge

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"Where is the university?" is a question many visitors to Cambridge ask, but no one can give them a clear answer, for there is no wall to be found around the university. The university is the city. You can find the classroom buildings, libraries, museums and offices of the university all over the city. And most of its members are the students and teachers or professors of the thirty-one colleges.

Cambrige is already a developing town long before the first students and teachers arrived 800 years ago. It grew up by the river Granta, as the Cam was once called. A bridge was built over the river as early as 875.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, more and more land was used for college buildings. The town grew faster in the nineteenth century after the opening of the railway in 1845. Cambridge became a city in 1951 and now it has the population of over 100000. Many young students want to study at Cambridge. Thousands of people from all over the world come to visit the university town. It has become a famous place all around the world.

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Reading

The Taj Mahal

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In the city of Arga in northern India lies the mausoleum complex known as the Taj Mahal. Made of white marble and decorated with gemstones, the mausoleum is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It was built by a ruler named Shah Jahan as a monument and tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The construction began in 1632. 20,000 people from India, Persia and other countries worked for 22 years to complete the project.

The interior of the mausoleum is an eight-sided chamber that has monuments to Jahan and his wife. Beneath the monuments, at garden level, lie the actual tombs of Jahan and his wife. The Taj Mahal has been affected by pollution from nearby factories as well as from motor vehicles. However, steps are being taken to prevent further damage to the site. Some factories have been closed and vehicle traffic has been limited around the complex. In 1983, the Taj Mahal was designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

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Michelle Yeoh

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Action stars like Bruce, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat are well known for their skill in acting fighting scenes. But there are also quite few female actors known for their skill in acting in martial arts movies. One of the most famous female stars in action movies is Michelle Yeoh. Yeoh was born in 1962 in Malaysia and grew up watching movies with female action stars like Angela Mao and Hsu Feng. After studying ballet, Yeoh became Miss Malaysia in a beauty contest in 1983. As Miss Malaysia, she made some commercials for television with Jackie Chan and was then chosen to act in several action movies. Yeoh did not know martial arts at that time, but while training to prepare for her roles, she worked out up to nine hours a day. Her acting and the 1985 hit Yes, Madam made a huge star in Hong Kong. In 1992, Yeoh starred in Super Cop with Jackie Chan. The film was a blockbuster and Yeoh became the highest paid female actor in Asia. Later, Yeoh starred in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Both films helped Yeoh become even more famous worldwide.

Nguồn: Internet

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Reading

World Cup

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For centuries, people have been playing kicking games with a ball. The game of soccer developed from some of these early games. The English probably gave soccer its name and its rules. In European countries, soccer is called football. Some people belive that the name "soccer" came from the high socks that the players wear.

Organized soccer games began in 1863. In soccer, two teams of eleven players try to kick or head the ball into the goal of other team. The goalkeeper, who tries to keep the ball out of the goal, is the only player on the field who can touch the ball with his or her hands. The others must use the feet, heads, and bodies to control the ball.

Every four years, soccer teams around the world compete for the World Cup. The World Cup competition started in 1930. Brazil is the home of many great soccer players, including the most famous football player of all time, Pele. With his fast dazzling speed, he played for many years in Brazil and then later in New York. People in more than 140 countries around the world play soccer. It is definitely the world's most popular sport!

Nguồn: Internet

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Tchaikovsky

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May 7, 1840 was the birthday of one of the most famous Russian composer of the nineteenth century: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The son of a mining inspector, Tchaikovsky studied music as a child and later studied composing at the St. Peterburg Conservatory. His greatest period of productivity occurred between 1876 and 1890, during which time he enjoyed the patronage of Madame Von Meck, a woman he never met, who gave him a living stipend of about $ 1,000,000 a year. Madame Von Meck later terminated her friendship with him, as well as his living allowance when she herself was facing financial troubles. It was during the time of Madame Von Meck's patronage, however, that Tchaikovsky created the music for which he became most famous, including the music for the ballets of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky's music, well known for its rich melodic sometimes melancholy passages, was one of the first that brought dramatic music for dance. Before this, little attention had been given to the music behind the dance. Tchaikovsky died on November 6, 1893, ostensibly of cholera, though there are now some scholars who argue that he committed suicide.

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Reading

Conserving the world natural resources

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In the decade of the 1700s, the United Nations organized several important meetings on the human environment to study a very serious problem. We humans being are destroying the world around us. We are using up all of our natural resources. We must learn to conserve them, or life will be bad for our children and our grandchildren.

There are several major parts to this problem.

Distribution: Scientists say there is enough water in the world for everyone but some countries have a lot of water and some have only little. Some areas get all the rain during one season. The rest of year is dry. There are huge forests in the Amazon area of Brazil. In other parts of the world, there is only desert.

Petroleum: We are using up the world's petroleum. We use it in our cars and to heat our buildings in winter. Farmers are using petrochemicals to make their soil rich. They use them to kill insects that eat plants. These chemicals go into the rivers and lakes and kill fish there. Thousands of people also die from these chemicals every year. Chemicals also go into the air and pollute it. Winds carry this polluted air to other countries and other continents.

Poverty: Poor farmers use the same land over and over. The land needs a rest so it will be better next year. However, the farmers must have food this year. Poor people cut down trees for firewood. In some areas when the trees are gone, the land becomes desert. However, people need wood to cook their food. Poor people can not save environment for the future.

We now have information and the ability to solve the huge problems. However, this is not the problem for one country or one area of the world. It is a problem for all humans. The people and the nations of the world must work together to conserve the world's resources. No one controls the future, but we all help make it.

Nguồn: Internet

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Reading

El Nino

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Every four or ten years, something happens to the weather system. Everything changes, and scientists don't understand why.

People call this "El Nino". It usually happens at Christmas and El Nino is the Spanish name for baby Jesus. The El Nino that started in 1982 was different from the other recent ones. It caused huge changes in the ocean currents. It caused floods in some areas and droughts in others. There were terrible windstorms and huge ocean waves swept houses into the sea. It did billion of dollars worth of damage. Thousands of people lost their lives and thousands of others were homeless.

In 1983 the winds, ocean currents and pressure areas started to become normal again. Scientists throughout the world are using satellites and research boats to observe the atmosphere and the ocean. It is very complicated problem, but if the scientists of the world work together, they should be able to find out the causes of El Nino. Then they will be able to predict what will happen and work to prevent a repeat of the death and destruction in 1982-1983.

Nguồn: Internet

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Seasons and life

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The thing I like about living on a farm when I was small was the change of seasons. Spring, summer, autumn and winter- I could see them all come and go, each one was completely different. If I hadn't been born and raised in the country, I would have never been able to tell the difference. Now in the city, you can buy summer flowers in winter and eat the same vegatables all the year round. Whereas, in the country, I could only eat things at certain times of a year- for example strawberries in June and turnips in winter. I lived my childhood with the seasons. Also we made most of our food and would never eat frozen or tinned food. Everything was fresh- so it must be better than type of food I am taking now in the city. City people may think people in the country miss a lot of good things about modern life, but in my opinion they miss a lot more than rural people - they miss real life.

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Summer holidays

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The whale is the largest animal in the world. Since the whale is shaped like fish, why is it still considered a mammal? The fact is that the whale did live on the land a very long time ago. However, during its thousand of years of living in water, the whale gradually become structured like a fish. Thus, the whale has adapted to marine life. Nevertheless, though the whale resembles the fish externally, it still has the characteristics of a mammal.

One important difference between the whale and a fish is that the baby whale is born alive. It is not hatched from an egg. Furthermore, the baby is fed on its mother's milk just like other mammals.

Unlike other sea creatures, the whale is a warm blooded animal. It keeps itself warm in the cold water with a layer of blubber. "Blubber" is a layer of oily tissues that protects the internal organs and retains heat.

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Computer virus

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With increasing development and use of computer technology, there is a new disease to worry about. Computer "viruses" program designed to sabotage computers, are infecting computers in corporation homes and universities. These viruses spread exponentially, much like biological contagion, and then disrupt the affected system. The virus secretly attaches itself to the alter files. The damage is generally activated by using computer's clock. Then, any program executed may be exposed to the virus including program spread through telephone connections. Because of the increasing incidents of virus infiltration, businesses and agencies are becoming wary of sharing software. Security policies need to be increased as immunity programs are being developed.

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Reading

An unforgettable holiday

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The first few days after getting home from college were okay but then I began to feel rather bored and lonely. My parents were busy working and most of my friends were either away on holiday or else had holiday jobs. I tried to get a job myself but without success. I was beginning to wish I had not come home when I saw an advertisement for holiday courses in the local newspaper. For a small fee, you can try a lot of different activities organized by the town's youth club. Each activitiy lasted half a day and they were all exciting. I also met new people as many of the tourists staying in the town joined in. You could do things like paiting, acting, play-writing or computing. I met some students from Bulgaria who invited me to visit Bulgaria next year. You can imagine how excited I am; in fact, it was one of the best summer holidays I've ever had.

Nguồn: Internet

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Reading

Sign Language

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American Sign Language (ASL), which is the first language of many deaf people in North America, uses hand gestures, facial expressions, and other body movements to communicate. ASL is one of the four most commonly used languages in the United States.

ASL was first introduced to America in 1817. In that year, a French teacher who came to America to teach brought with him the French Sign Language (FSL) and taught it to his deaf students. The students then added their own American signing and changd FSL into ASL. Modern FSL and ASL share some elements, including a large amount of vocabulary. However, an ASL user can not understand a FSL user.

No form of sign language is universal. For example, British Sign Language (BSL) differs notably from ASL. Different sign languages are used in different countries or regions.

Nguồn: Internet

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Google

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The word "google" has many uses. It is an adjective, used to describe very large numbers. It is also a proper noun. "Google" is the name of a popular internet search engine. It also has a new meaning. The writers of a new edition of a dictionary have used it as a verb. They list google as a verb. It means to search the internet. This makes terms like "google me" part of the English language. A person could say " I wanted to know more about volcanoes so I googled it." Google is now an offical part of the English language. The dictionary's editors say that the public has adopted the term. "Google" is one of one hundred new words that were included in the new dictionary. Many other words are based on technology. "Mouse potato" is someone who spends a lot of time in front of a computer. "Ringtone" is a sound of a cell phone ringing. Many new technology words have become common. We use them every day and don't even think about them.

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Alfred Nobel

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After inventing dynamic, Swedish-born Alfred Nobel became a very rich man. However, he foresaw its universally destructive powers too late. Nobel preferred not to be remembered as the inventor of dynamite, so in 1985, just two weeks before his death, he created a fund to be used for awarding prizes to people who had made worthwhile contributions to mankind. Originally there were five awards: literature, physics, chemistry, medicine and peace. Economics was added in 1968, just 67 years after the first awards ceremony. Nobel's original legacy of nine million dollars was invested, and the interest on this sum is used for the awards which vary from $30.000 to $125.000.

Every year on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death, the awards (gold medal, illuminated diploma, and money) are presented to the winners. Somtimes politics plays an important role in the judges' decisions. Americans have won numerous science awards, but relatively few literature prizes. No awards were presented from 1940 to 1942 at the beginning of World War II. Some people have two prizes, but this is rare; others have shared their prizes.

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The world's oldest university

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The world's oldest university, Al-Azhar is in Cairo, Egypt. It was first built as a mosque in AD 972. A few years later, learners and teachers began meeting in the mosque in "tutoring circles". They read and talked about the subject of law. Around 988, leaders in city of Cairo decided to create a school for higher learning and the University of Al-Azhar was founded.

At Al-Azhar, there were many univesity "firsts". Courses were created. The earliest ones taught were in law and religion. In a course, students read and studied with the teachers, but there were also free discussion. Often, students and teachers talked about a topic, and there was no "right" answer. Finally, scholars from around the world came to Al-Azhar to teach and do research. At the university, people studied the past, but also the place for sharing new ideas.

Over a thousand years later, Al-Azhar is still an important university in the world. Its library contains more than 250,000 of the world oldest and most valuable books. Today, many of the world's most important universities such as Oxford and Harvard still follow the tradition started at Al-Azhar.

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Summer holidays

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Seumas Macsporran is a very busy man. He is 60 years old and he has thirteen jobs. He is a postman, a policeman, a fireman, a taxi driver, a boat man, an ambulance man, an accountant, a petrol attendant, a barman and an undertaker. Also, he and his wife, Margaret, have a shop and a small hotel.
Seumas lives and works on the island of Gigha in the West of Scotland. Only 120 peole live in Gigha but in summer 150 tourists come by boat everyday.

Every weekday, Seumas gets up at 6.00 and makes breakfast for the hotel guests. At 8.00 he drives the island's children to school. At 9.00, he collects the post from the boat and delivers it to all the house on the island. He also delivers the beer to the island's only pub. Then he helps Margaret in the shop.

He says: "Margaret likes being busy, too. We are never on holidays and we don't like watching TV. In the evenings, Margaret makes supper and I do the accounts. At 10.00 we have a glass of wine then we go to bed. Perhaps, our life isn't very exciting but we like it."

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