Phương pháp làm bài điền từ (Completion) trong IELTS Reading

Phương pháp làm bài điền từ (Completion) trong IELTS Reading

Phương pháp thực hiện dạng bài điền từ (Completion)

Bước 1: Phân tích đề bài

Đây là một bước rất quan trọng trong việc làm bài nhưng có xu hướng bị bỏ qua bởi nhiều thí sinh. Phần điểm Reading sẽ được tính dựa theo số câu trả lời trùng khớp với đáp án có sẵn. Nếu thí sinh không tuân thủ yêu cầu đề bài, đưa ra một câu trả lời đúng về mặt nội dung nhưng sai về mặt cách thức, thí sinh sẽ không được tính điểm cho câu trả lời đó. Khi đọc đề bài, thí sinh cần nắm được nêu yêu cầu, số lượng từ và vị trí cần điền thông tin. Ví dụ, với đề bài sau đây:

Thí sinh cần chú ý để nhận ra đề bài yêu cầu điền chỉ một từ khóa từ đoạn, giữ nguyên từ đoạn văn vào vị trí câu trả lời từ 1 - 7. Việc thay đổi từ khóa trong đoạn, hay điền quá số lượng từ (từ hai trở lên) vào câu trả lời sẽ khiến thí sinh bị mất điểm.

Hay với một đề bài khác:

Đề bài yêu cầu thí sinh lựa chọn không quá hai từ trong đoạn cho mỗi câu trả lời. Thí sinh cần chú ý rằng câu trả lời có thể là một từ, hoặc hai từ, được trích chính xác từ phần bài đọc.

Bước 2: Skimming (đọc lướt) để xác định ý chính của toàn nội dung đọc

Đây là một bước cơ bản cần thực hiện trước khi thực hiện không chỉ cho dạng bài điền từ, mà cả các dạng bài khác trong bài thi IELTS Reading. Mục đích của việc Skimming là để người đọc nắm được đại ý của các đoạn nói chung và đề bài nói riêng. Điều này sẽ giúp thí sinh nhanh chóng hơn trong việc xác định đoạn chứa thông tin câu trả lời (Bước 4).

Việc thực hiện kỹ thuật Skimming yêu cầu thí sinh có hiểu biết về cấu trúc của đoạn văn trong bài viết. Thông thường, một đoạn văn sẽ có cấu trúc từ tổng quát tới chi tiết như sau:

Nội dung của đoạn sẽ được thể hiện từ câu chủ đề, và được phát triển lần lượt trong các ý bổ trợ và ý giải thích. Điều này cho thấy rằng, để xác định được nội dung chính của đoạn văn, thí sinh sẽ cần xác định được vị trí và nội dung câu chủ đề và các ý giải thích tương ứng. Hãy cùng nhau phân tích ví dụ dưới đây:

Dựa theo cấu trúc đoạn văn đã được trình bày ở phía trên, thí sinh có thể xác định được câu chủ đề: “There are many reasons why technology is advancing so fast” (Tạm dịch: Có nhiều lý do giải thích cho việc công nghệ đang phát triển nhanh chóng). Sau khi đọc câu chủ đề, thí sinh có thể xác định được các ý bổ trợ trực tiếp (Do phần lớn tai nạn xảy đến do yếu tố con người). Câu chủ đề và ý bổ trợ trực tiếp sẽ là thông tin then chốt thể hiện nội dung chính của đoạn mà thí sinh cần ghi nhớ.

Bên cạnh đó, để có thể tăng tốc độ đọc lướt, thí sinh cũng nên áp dụng cách đọc từ theo cụm từ (Chunks). Các cụm từ này là những cụm thường đi cùng với nhau trong tiếng Anh, VD: các collocation, các cấu trúc ngữ pháp cố định. Vận dụng kiến thức của bản thân về các cụm từ này, thí sinh có thể đoán được một phần nội dung sắp tới trong câu. Trong ví dụ phía trên, các cụm từ như: human error (lỗi con người), contributory factor (nhân tố đóng góp), primary cause (nguyên do chính), the vast majority (đại đa số) là những cụm từ có thể đọc theo cụm.

Bước 3: Đọc phần câu hỏi và xác định các từ khóa trong đoạn cần điền thông tin

Trong một câu văn, từ khóa là những từ mang ý nghĩa chính của cả câu. Việc xác định được các từ khóa (keyword) trong đoạn cần điền thông tin phục vụ cho hai việc. Thứ nhất, các từ khóa sẽ giúp thí sinh hiểu được nội dung thông tin chính của đoạn (do từ khóa mang ý nghĩa then chốt). Thứ hai, các từ khóa sẽ là dấu hiệu được sử dụng để nhận biết đoạn, hay câu chứa thông tin dành cho phần trả lời.

Với mục đích sử dụng làm dấu hiệu, ta sẽ phân loại từ khóa dựa theo mức độ dễ bị paraphrase (trình bày lại theo cách viết khác, vẫn giữ nguyên nội dung). Từ đó, ta sẽ có các phân loại:

• Loại I: Các tên riêng, số liệu: Thông thường, các thông tin này sẽ khó bị thay đổi khi trình bày trong đoạn, là một dấu hiệu nên được sử dụng để tìm kiếm thông tin nhanh chóng.
• Loại II: Các danh từ: Danh từ thường đóng vai trò làm chủ ngữ hoặc tân ngữ trong câu, và có thể được dùng trong việc tìm thông tin trong đoạn. Tuy nhiên, khác với dạng tên riêng, số liệu ở trên, các danh từ trong phần câu hỏi có thể được trình bày bằng cách khác (từ đồng nghĩa) trong bài đọc.
• Loại III: Các động từ, tính từ, trạng từ: Các từ khóa động từ, tính từ, trạng từ cũng có vai trò quan trọng trong việc phát triển đoạn, tuy nhiên so với tên riêng, số liệu và các danh từ, các từ thuộc loại 3 này dễ dàng bị paraphrase hơn (các từ đồng nghĩa, động từ được biến đổi dạng: thì động từ, dạng chủ động - bị động).

Với cách phân loại như trên, thí sinh nên ưu tiên sử dụng các từ khóa theo thứ tự: Loại I > Loại II > Loại III để dễ dàng và nhanh chóng hơn trong việc xác định nội dung.

Hãy cùng phân tích một câu hỏi ví dụ sau đây (Cambridge IELTS Academic 15, Test 1, Reading Passage 2):

Trước hết, hãy cùng nhau xác định các từ khóa trong câu đầu tiên để xác định câu trả lời cho câu 19.

• Các từ khóa loại I: Transport Research Laboratory
• Các từ khóa loại 2: Figures, motor accidents
• Các từ khóa loại 3: Indicate, most, partly, due to

Với việc phân tích các từ khóa trên, thí sinh có thể đoán được nghĩa của câu cho dù vẫn đang khuyết thiếu phần trả lời cho câu hỏi 19. Nội dung câu đề cập rằng: Số liệu (Figures) từ phòng nghiên cứu giao thông (Transport Research Laboratory) biểu thị (indicate) rằng phần lớn (most) tai nạn mô-tô (motor accident) một phần (partly) là do (due to) 19 ……….. Có thể thấy rằng, chỉ riêng việc ghép các từ khóa vào với nhau đã giúp ta xác định được đại ý của câu.

Bước 4: Phân tích loại thông tin cần điền

Bước tiếp theo trong quá trình trả lời là phân tích loại thông tin cần điền dựa vào kiến thức ngữ pháp và nội dung câu hỏi. Trong ví dụ 19 phía trên, từ cần điền, kết hợp với cụm từ phía trước sẽ tạo thành cấu trúc: due to + danh từ (tạm dịch: nguyên nhân do điều gì). Kết hợp với ý ngĩa của câu đã phân tích ở bước 2 dựa vào từ khóa, ta nhận thấy rằng để trả lời cho câu hỏi số 19, ta cần tìm một danh từ, với ý nghĩa là một nhân tố trong việc gây ra tai nạn mô-tô.

Bước 5: Xác định vị trí phần thông tin cần tìm trong bài đọc

Việc xác định vị trí phần thông tin trong bài đọc sẽ dựa vào việc kết hợp thông tin từ bước 1 (Skimming), bước 2 (Tìm từ khóa). Kết hợp việc hiểu nội dung chính các đoạn thu thập được từ Bước 1 và ý nghĩa câu chứa phần trả lời từ Bước 2 sẽ giúp xác định đoạn chứa thông tin cần tìm. Ngoài ra, các từ khóa thu được từ Bước 2 sẽ giúp xác định vị trí cụ thể của thông tin cần tìm trong đoạn.

Sau khi đã xác định được vị trí phần thông tin cần tìm, thí sinh có thể lập bảng trình bày các cách diễn đạt trong câu trả lời và các diễn đạt tương ứng được sử dụng trong đoạn để phục vụ cho hai mục đích:

• Xác định chính xác sắc thái nghĩa của từ
• Phục vụ cho việc mở rộng vốn từ vựng.

Với câu hỏi ví dụ phía trên, ta nhận thấy rằng phần đề bài cho câu số 19 đề cập tới nguyên nhân gây tai nạn. Dựa vào việc biết các thông tin chính của đoạn từ bước 1, ta xác định được đoạn chứa câu trả lời là đoạn B (Đoạn văn ví dụ trong bước 1). Tới đây, việc cần làm là sử dụng các từ khóa làm dấu hiệu với thứ tự ưu tiên từ loại I tới loại III để xác định vị trí chứa đáp án. Bảng dưới đây thể hiện các từ khóa đã tìm được trong phần câu hỏi và các cách diễn đạt trong đoạn văn:

Figures from the Transport Research Laboratory indicate that most motor accidents are partly due to 19 ………

Ta xác định được vị trí câu chứa đáp án là câu số 2 trong đoạn, với các cách diễn đạt trùng khớp về mặt ý nghĩa của các từ khóa: “One frequently cited motive is safety; indeed, research at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory has demonstrated that more than 90 percent of road collisions involve human error as a contributory factor, and it is the primary cause in the vast majority.”

Đựa vào phân tích trong bước 3, đáp án là một danh từ chỉ nhân tố trong việc gây ra tai nạn ô tô, ta tìm được câu trả lời cho câu hỏi là: human error (lỗi con người).

Bài tập áp dụng

Bài 1:

Bài tập dưới đây có mục đích giúp thí sinh áp dụng phương pháp đã trình bày trong việc thực hiện bài điền từ. Thí sinh trả lời câu hỏi từ 19 - 22 theo phương pháp đã hướng dẫn và lập bảng đối chiếu cách diễn cách diễn đạt từ khóa trong phần điền câu trả lời và cách diễn đạt được sử dụng trong đoạn (tương tự bảng trong bước 4 phía trên).

Questions:

Đáp án

1. human error (Ví dụ)
2. car (-) sharing

Đoạn chứa thông tin: C

1. ownership

Đoạn chứa thông tin: D

1. mileage

Đoạn chứa thông tin: D

Bài 2: 

The War on Smoking

Make no mistake, the move to introduce plain packaging is just the latest front in the war against smoking. Over the past decade, there has been a ban on smoking in public places and moves to restrict displays in shops. But one of the issues that has been concerning health experts and ministers is the number of people who continue to take up smoking, particularly young people.

More than 200,000 under-16’s start in the UK each year – helping ensure a viable market remains for manufacturers once the number of people quitting and dying is taken into account. In countries like the UK where there is a ban on advertising, the pack remains the last major vehicle for promotion. Hence the detail and care taken in the design of the packets with their laminated and special print effects, foil decorations and slide openings and bevelled edges. It should come as no surprise therefore to learn that they have become known as the “silent salesman” and “mobile billboard” within the industry. They are that important.

Questions

Complete the sentences. Choose no more than two words and / or a number from the passage for each answer.

1. …….…….. is the most recent strategy to tackle the problem of smoking.

2. The large number of new smokers, particularly under 16’s, makes certain that cigarette companies will always have a …….……..

3. In some countries, packaging is the only method that cigarette companies have for …….………

4. Packets are seen as being the …….…….. in the cigarette industry.

Đáp án: 

1. Plan packaging

2. Viable market

3. Promotion

4. Silent salesman/mobile billboard (any one)

Bài 3:

The history of tea

The story of tea begins in China. According to legend, in 2737 BC, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves from the tree blew into the water. Shen Nung, a renowned herbalist, decided to try the infusion that his servant had accidentally created. The tree was a Camellia sinensis, and the resulting drink was what we now call tea. It is impossible to know whether there is any truth in this story. But tea drinking certainly became established in China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the West. Containers for tea have been found in tombs dating from the Han Dynasty (206 BC— 220 AD) but it was under the Tang Dynasty (618—906 AD), that tea became firmly established as the national drink of China.

It became such a favourite that during the late eighth century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea, the Ch’a Ching, or Tea Classic. It was shordy after this that tea was first introduced to Japan, by Japanese Buddhist monks who had travelled to China to study. Tea received almost instant imperial sponsorship and spread rapidly from the royal court and monasteries to the other sections of Japanese society.

So at this stage in the history of tea, Europe was rather lagging behind. In the latter half of the sixteenth century there are the first brief mentions of tea as a drink among Europeans. These are mosdy from Portuguese who were living in the East as traders and missionaries. But although some of these individuals may have brought back samples of tea to their native country, it was not the Portuguese who were the first to ship back tea as a commercial import. This was done by the Dutch, who in the last years of the sixteenth century began to encroach on Portuguese trading routes in the East. By the turn of the century they had established a trading post on the island of Java, and it was via Java that in 1606 the first consignment of tea was shipped from China to Holland. Tea soon became a fashionable drink among the Dutch, and from there spread to other countries in continental western Europe, but because of its high price it remained a drink for the wealthy.

Britain, always a little suspicious of continental trends, had yet to become the nation of tea drinkers that it is today. Starting in 1600, the British East India Company had a monopoly on importing goods from outside Europe, and it is likely that sailors on these ships brought tea home as gifts. The first coffee house had been established in London in 1652, and tea was still somewhat unfamiliar to most readers, so it is fair to assume that the drink was still something of a curiosity. Gradually, it became a popular drink in coffee houses, which were as much locations for the transaction of business as they were for relaxation or pleasure. They were though the preserve of middle- and upper- class men; women drank tea in their own homes, and as yet tea was still too expensive to be widespread among the working classes. In part, its high price was due to a punitive system of taxation.

One unforeseen consequence of the taxation of tea was the growth of methods to avoid taxation—smuggling and adulteration. By the eighteenth century many Britons wanted to drink tea but could not afford the high prices, and their enthusiasm for the drink was matched by the enthusiasm of criminal gangs to smuggle it in. What began as a small time illegal trade, selling a few pounds of tea to personal contacts, developed by die late eighteenth century into an astonishing organised crime network, perhaps importing as much as 7 million lbs annually, compared to a legal import of 5 million lbs! Worse for die drinkers was that taxation also encouraged the adulteration of tea, particularly of smuggled tea which was not quality controlled through customs and excise. Leaves from other plants, or leaves which had already been brewed and then dried, were added to tea leaves. By 1784, the government realised that enough was enough, and that heavy taxation was creating more problems than it was wordi. The new Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, slashed the tax from 119 per cent to 12.5 per cent. Suddenly legal tea was affordable, and smuggling stopped virtually overnight.

Another great impetus to tea drinking resulted from the end of the East India Company’s monopoly on trade with China, in 1834. Before that date, China was the country of origin of the vast majority of the tea imported to Britain, but the end of its monopoly stimulated the East India Company to consider growing tea outside China. India had always been the centre of the Company’s operations, which led to the increased cultivation of tea in India, beginning in Assam. There were a few false starts, including the destruction by cattle of one of the earliest tea nurseries, but by 1888 British tea imports from India were for the first time greater than those from China.

The end of the East India Company’s monopoly on trade with China also had another result, which was more dramatic though less important in the long term: it ushered in the era of the tea clippers. While the Company had had the monopoly on trade, there was no rush to bring the tea from China to Britain, but after 1834 the tea trade became a virtual free for all. Individual merchants and sea captains with their own ships raced to bring home the tea and make the most money, using fast new clippers which had sleek lines, tall masts and huge sails. In particular there was competition between British and American merchants, leading to the famous clipper races of the 1860s. But these races soon came to an end with the opening of the Suez canal, which made the trade routes to China viable for steamships for the first time.

Questions 1 - 7

Complete the sentences below with words taken from Reading Passage. Use ONE WORD for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet.

1. Researchers believed the tea containers detected in .................... from the Han Dynasty was the first evidence of the use of tea.

2. Lu Yu wrote a....................about tea before anyone else in the eighth century.

3. It was....................from Japan who brought tea to their native country from China.

4. Tea was carried from China to Europe actually by the.....................

5. The British government had to cut down the taxation on tea due to the serious crime of.....................

6. Tea was planted in....................besides China in the 19th century.

7. In order to compete in shipping speed, traders used....................for the race.

Đáp án: 

1. Đáp án: tombs

Từ cần điền tìm được ở câu văn cuối của đoạn văn đầu tiên “Containers for tea have been found in tombs dating from the Han Dynasty ...”

2. Đáp án: book

Từ cần điền tìm được ở câu đầu tiên của đoạn văn thứ 2 “It became such a favourite that during the late eighth century a writer called Lu Yu wrote the first book entirely about tea ...”

3. Đáp án: monks

Từ cần điền tìm được ở câu thứ hai của đoạn văn trên “It was shordy after this that tea was first introduced to Japan, by Japanese Buddhist monks who had travelled to China ...”

4. Đáp án: Dutch

Từ cần điền tìm được ở đoạn giữa của đoạn văn thứ 3 “This was done by the Dutch, who in the last years of the sixteenth century began to encroach on Portuguese trading routes ...”

5. Đáp án: smuggling

Từ cần điền tìm được ở câu đầu tiên của đoạn văn thứ 5 “One unforeseen consequence of the taxation of tea was the growth of methods to avoid taxation—smuggling and adulteration”.

6. Đáp án: India

Từ cần điền tìm được ở đoạn văn thứ 6 “India had always been the centre of the Company’s operations, which led to the increased cultivation of tea in India, beginning in Assam”.

7. Đáp án: clippers

Từ cần điền tìm được ở đoạn văn thứ 7 “Individual merchants and sea captains with their own ships raced to bring home the tea and make the most money, using fast new clippers ...”

Bài 4:

Lessons from the Titanic

A. From the comfort of our modern lives we tend to look back at the turn of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travellers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we consider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of the time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the Titanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. She represented the pinnacle of technological advance at the time. Her builders, crew and passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her.

B. The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time who had paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the most luxurious ship in the world. Imagine her placed on her end: she was larger at 269 metres than many of the tallest buildings of the day. And with nine decks, she was as high as an eleven storey building. The Titanic carried 329 first class, 285 second class and 710 third class passengers with 899 crew members, under the care of the very experienced Captain Edward J. Smith. She also carried enough food to feed a small town, including 40,000 fresh eggs, 36,000 apples, 111,000 lbs of fresh meat and 2,200 lbs of coffee for the five day journey.

C. RMS Titanic was believed to be unsinkable because the hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these compartments flooded, the ship could still float. The ship’s owners could not imagine that, in the case of an accident, the Titanic would not be able to float until she was rescued. It was largely as a result of this confidence in the ship and in the safety of ocean travel that the disaster could claim such a great loss of life.

D. In the ten hours prior to the Titanic’s fatal collision with an iceberg at 11.40pm, six warnings of icebergs in her path were received by the Titanic's wireless operators. Only one of these messages was formally posted on the bridge; the others were in various locations across the ship. If the combined information in these messages of iceberg positions had been plotted, the ice field which lay across the Titanic’s path would have been apparent. Instead, the lack of formal procedures for dealing with information from a relatively new piece of technology, the wireless, meant that the danger was not known until too late. This was not the fault of the Titanic crew. Procedures for dealing with warnings received through the wireless had not been formalised across the shipping industry at the time. The fact that the wireless operators were not even Titanic crew, but rather contracted workers from a wireless company, made their role in the ship’s operation quite unclear.

E. Captain Smith’s seemingly casual attitude in increasing the speed on this day to a dangerous 22 knots or 41 kilometres per hour, can then be partly explained by his ignorance of what lay ahead. But this only partly accounts for his actions, since the spring weather in Greenland was known to cause huge chunks of ice to break off from the glaciers. Captain Smith knew that these icebergs would float southward and had already acknowledged this danger by taking a more southerly route than at other times of the year. So why was the Titanic travelling at high speed when he knew, if not of the specific risk, at least of the general risk of icebergs in her path? As with the lack of coordination of the wireless messages, it was simply standard operating procedure at the time. Captain Smith was following the practices accepted on the North Atlantic, practices which had coincided with forty years of safe travel. He believed, wrongly as we now know, that the ship could turn or stop in time if an iceberg was sighted by the lookouts.

F. There were around two and a half hours between the time the Titanic rammed into the iceberg and its final submersion. In this time 705 people were loaded into the twenty lifeboats. There were 473 empty seats available on lifeboats while over 1,500 people drowned. These figures raise two important issues. Firstly, why there were not enough lifeboats to seat every passenger and crew member on board. And secondly, why the lifeboats were not full.

G. The Titanic had sixteen lifeboats and four collapsible boats which could carry just over half the number of people on board her maiden voyage and only a third of the Titanic’s total capacity. Regulations for the number of lifeboats required were based on outdated British Board of Trade regulations written in 1894 for ships a quarter of the Titanic’s size, and had never been revised. Under these requirements, the Titanic was only obliged to carry enough lifeboats to seat 962 people. At design meetings in 1910, the shipyard’s managing director, Alexander Carlisle, had proposed that forty eight lifeboats be installed on the Titanic, but the idea had been quickly rejected as too expensive. Discussion then turned to the ship’s décor, and as Carlisle later described the incident … ’we spent two hours discussing carpet for the first class cabins and fifteen minutes discussing lifeboats’.

H. The belief that the Titanic was unsinkable was so strong that passengers and crew alike clung to the belief even as she was actually sinking. This attitude was not helped by Captain Smith, who had not acquainted his senior officers with the full situation. For the first hour after the collision, the majority of people aboard the Titanic, including senior crew, were not aware that she would sink, that there were insufficient lifeboats or that the nearest ship responding to the Titanic’s distress calls would arrive two hours after she was on the bottom of the ocean. As a result, the officers in charge of loading the boats received a very halfhearted response to their early calls for women and children to board the lifeboats. People felt that they would be safer, and certainly warmer, aboard the Titanic than perched in a little boat in the North Atlantic Ocean. Not realising the magnitude of the impending disaster themselves, the officers allowed several boats to be lowered only half full.

I. Procedures again were at fault, as an additional reason for the officers’ reluctance to lower the lifeboats at full capacity was that they feared the lifeboats would buckle under the weight of 65 people. They had not been informed that the lifeboats had been fully tested prior to departure. Such procedures as assigning passengers and crew to lifeboats and lifeboat loading drills were simply not part of the standard operation of ships nor were they included in crew training at this time.

J. As the Titanic sank, another ship, believed to have been the Californian, was seen motionless less than twenty miles away. The ship failed to respond to the Titanic’s eight distress rockets. Although the officers of the Californian tried to signal the Titanic with their flashing Morse lamp, they did not wake up their radio operator to listen for a distress call. At this time, communication at sea through wireless was new and the benefits not well appreciated, so the wireless on ships was often not operated around the clock. In the case of the Californian, the wireless operator slept unaware while 1,500 Titanic passengers and crew drowned only a few miles away.

K. After the Titanic sank, investigations were held in both Washington and London. In the end, both inquiries decided that no one could be blamed for the sinking. However, they did address the fundamental safety issues which had contributed to the enormous loss of life. As a result, international agreements were drawn up to improve safety procedures at sea. The new regulations covered 24 hour wireless operation, crew training, proper lifeboat drills, lifeboat capacity for all on board and the creation of an international ice patrol.

Complete the sentences below using words taken from the reading passage. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

1) One positive outcome was that the inquiries into the Titanic disaster sought to improve safety procedures by initiating ..........

2) The Titanic’s safety feature, which convinced most people that she wouldn’t sink, was her ..........

3) Passenger ships across the North Atlantic Ocean had had an excellent safety record in the ..........

Đáp án: 

(1) international agreements/new regulations

(2) sixteen watertight compartments

(3) previous forty years

Bài 5:

Palm oil 

A.   Palm oil is an edible oil derived from the fruit of the African oil palm tree, and is currently the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. It’s almost certainly in the soap we wash with in the morning, the sandwich we have for lunch, and the biscuits we snack on during the day. Why is palm oil so attractive for manufacturers? Primarily because its unique properties – such as remaining solid at room temperature – make it an ideal ingredient for long-term preservation, allowing many packaged foods on supermarket shelves to have ‘best before’ dates of months, even years, into the future. 

B.   Many farmers have seized the opportunity to maximise the planting of oil palm trees. Between 1990 and 2012, the global land area devoted to growing oil palm trees grew from 6 to 17 million hectares, now accounting for around ten percent of total cropland in the entire world. From a mere two million tonnes of palm oil being produced annually globally 50 years ago, there are now around 60 million tonnes produced every single year, a figure looking likely to double or even triple by the middle of the century. 

C.   However, there are multiple reasons why conservationists cite the rapid spread of oil palm plantations as a major concern. There are countless news stories of deforestation, habitat destruction and dwindling species populations, all as a direct result of land clearing to establish oil palm tree monoculture on an industrial scale, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Endangered species – most famously the Sumatran orangutan, but also rhinos, elephants, tigers, and numerous other fauna – have suffered from the unstoppable spread of oil palm plantations. 

D.   ‘Palm oil is surely one of the greatest threats to global biodiversity,’ declares Dr Farnon Ellwood of the University of the West of England, Bristol. ‘Palm oil is replacing rainforest, and rainforest is where all the species are. That’s a problem.’ This has led to some radical questions among environmentalists, such as whether consumers should try to boycott palm oil entirely. 

Meanwhile Bhavani Shankar, Professor at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, argues, ‘It’s easy to say that palm oil is the enemy and we should be against it. It makes for a more dramatic story, and it’s very intuitive. But given the complexity of the argument, I think a much more nuanced story is closer to the truth.’ 

E.  One response to the boycott movement has been the argument for the vital role palm oil plays in lifting many millions of people in the developing world out of poverty. Is it desirable to have palm oil boycotted, replaced, eliminated from the global supply chain, given how many low-income people in developing countries depend on it for their livelihoods? How best to strike a utilitarian balance between these competing factors has become a serious bone of contention. 

F.   Even the deforestation argument isn’t as straightforward as it seems. Oil palm plantations produce at least four and potentially up to ten times more oil per hectare than soybean, rapeseed, sunflower or other competing oils. That immensely high yield – which is predominantly what makes it so profitable – is potentially also an ecological benefit. If ten times more palm oil can be produced from a patch of land than any competing oil, then ten times more land would need to be cleared in order to produce the same volume of oil from that competitor.  

As for the question of carbon emissions, the issue really depends on what oil palm trees are replacing. Crops vary in the degree to which they sequester carbon – in other words, the amount of carbon they capture from the atmosphere and store within the plant. The more carbon a plant sequesters, the more it reduces the effect of climate change. As Shankar explains: ‘[Palm oil production] actually sequesters more carbon in some ways than other alternatives. [… ] Of course, if you’re cutting down virgin forest it’s terrible – that’s what’s happening in Indonesia and Malaysia, it’s been allowed to get out of hand. But if it’s replacing rice, for example, it might actually sequester more carbon.’ 

G.  The industry is now regulated by a group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), consisting of palm growers, retailers, product manufacturers, and other interested parties. Over the past decade or so, an agreement has gradually been reached regarding standards that producers of palm oil have to meet in order for their product to be regarded as officially ‘sustainable’. The RSPO insists upon no virgin forest clearing, transparency and regular assessment of carbon stocks, among other criteria. Only once these requirements are fully satisfied is the oil allowed to be sold as certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO). Recent figures show that the RSPO now certifies around 12 million tonnes of palm oil annually, equivalent to roughly 21 percent of the world’s total palm oil production. 

H.  There is even hope that oil palm plantations might not need to be such sterile monocultures, or ‘green deserts’, as Ellwood describes them. New research at Ellwood’s lab hints at one plant which might make all the difference. The bird’s nest fern (Asplenium nidus) grows on trees in an epiphytic fashion (meaning it’s dependent on the tree only for support, not for nutrients), and is native to many tropical regions, where as a keystone species it performs a vital ecological role. Ellwood believes that reintroducing the bird’s nest fern into oil palm plantations could potentially allow these areas to recover their biodiversity, providing a home for all manner of species, from fungi and bacteria, to invertebrates such as insects, amphibians, reptiles and even mammals. 

Questions 1 – 4: Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 1 – 4 on your answer sheet.

1. One advantage of palm oil for manufacturers is that it stays even when not refrigerated.

2. The ……………………………………is the best known of the animals suffering habitat loss as a result of the spread of oil palm plantations.

3. As one of its criteria for the certification of sustainable palm oil, the RSPO insists that growers check on a routine basis.

4. Ellwood and his researchers are looking into whether the bird’s nest fern could restore ……………………………………in areas where oil palm trees are grown.

Đáp án: 

1. solid

2. (Sumatran) orangutan / orang-utan

3. carbon stocks

4. biodiversity

Bài 6:

Ice Harvesting Process

Ice harvesting necessitated various specialized tools, such as chisels, ice saws, and grapples, as well as protective gear like specialized footwear for workers and horses. To begin the ice harvest on a lake, the chosen area's surface was first cleared of snow and the thickness of the ice assessed. This cleaned area was marked out using a cutter pulled by a worker and horse, similar to a slim plough with parallel blades that formed long grooves on the lake surface. The ice was then cut along these grooves using metal handsaws. The blocks had to be manageable for workers who lifted and dragged them using grapples.

The size of the blocks varied depending on their final destination, with the smallest being around half a meter square. Approximately a quarter of the ice could melt during transport and storage, so the farther the destination, the larger the individual blocks needed to be.

In Norway, artificial lakes for ice harvesting were positioned near the coast for easier export. Once ice blocks were floated to the lake shore, they were hoisted out of the water using grapples and slid along the ice to specialized slides, which formed a wooden railway transporting the ice down to the docks, where they were loaded onto ships bound for London. Upon reaching the London docks, the ice blocks were unloaded onto horse-drawn barges and taken along the canal to the underground ice wells in Wharf Road at King’s Cross. There they could be stored for months until needed.

With the increasing demand for ice, a range of associated industries emerged alongside the ice trade. Aside from the production of specialized tools and clothing, manuals were printed on how to create artificial lakes for ice harvesting, and specialized ships and train carriages were constructed for ice delivery, among other innovations. The growth of the ice trade also impacted the timber industry, as previously unusable sawdust became a valuable commodity for packing and storing ice during transport.

Questions 1–6

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer

Ice Harvesting Process

Before the ice was harvested, the 1 ________________ was tested and snow removed from the surface.

⬇

2. ________________ were cut in the ice as markers for the ice cutters.

⬇

The ice blocks varied in size depending on their 3 ________________.

⬇

 Between cutting and use approximately a 4 ________________ of the ice could be lost

⬇

Artificial lakes near the coast. Ice floated to the 5 ________________

⬇

Sent along 6 ________________ like a rail system to the docks

⬇

Transported on ships destined for London

Đáp án: 

1. (ice) thickness
2. long grooves
3. final destination
4. quarter
5. lake shore
6. special slides

Bài 7:

Ancient Chinese Chariots

Excavation of ancient Chinese chariots has validated the descriptions found in the earliest texts. Wheels were crafted from a variety of woods: elm was used for the hub, rosewood for the spokes, and oak for the felloes. The hub was bored through to create an empty space where the axle could fit snugly, and the entire wheel was covered with leather to retain lubricating oil. While the number of spokes varied, wheels by the fourth century BC typically had between eighteen and thirty-two spokes. Records indicate the meticulous testing of each completed wheel: flotation and weighing were considered the best methods for assessing balance, and even the empty spaces in the construction were checked with millet grains. A notable structural feature of ancient Chinese wheels was their dishing, giving them a dish-like shape akin to a flat cone. Occasionally, dished wheels were reinforced with pairs of struts running from rim to rim through the hub, enhancing their strength. The use of leather wrapping around the wheel's edge aimed to preserve the bronze elements.

Within a thousand years, Chinese chariot-makers had developed a vehicle with shafts, laying the foundation for true carriages or carts. This design did not appear in Europe until the decline of the Roman Empire. Due to the upward curve of the shafts and the harness pressing against the horse's shoulders rather than its neck, the shaft chariot proved highly efficient. The standard weaponry of chariots included the halberd, typically measuring over 3 meters long, allowing a chariot warrior to strike down a charioteer in a passing chariot when wielded sideways. Chariots tested on sand exhibited considerable speed, making such encounters exceedingly perilous for the crews of both chariots.

Questions 1-6

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 5-10 on your answer sheet.

The hub is made of wood from the tree of 5 ………………… The room through the hub was to put tempering axle in which is wrapped up by leather aiming to retain 6 ………………… The number of spokes varied from 18 to 7 ………………… The shape of wheel resembles a 8 …………………Two 9 …………………was used to strengthen the wheel. Leather wrapped up the edge of the wheel aimed to remain 10 ……………

Đáp án:

5. elm

6. oil

7. 32

8. dishing

9. reinforcements

10. bronze

Bài 8:

Careers with Kiwi Air

Flight Attendants - Recruitment and Training Process

Recruitment

The position of Flight Attendant is one of prestige and immense responsibility. Recruitment is conducted according to operational demands and there can be periods of up to 12 months where no new intake is required. However, applications are always welcomed.

After you submit your initial application online, the Kiwi Air HR Services Team review the details you have provided. Candidates whose details closely match the requirements of the position are then contacted via email advising that their application has progressed to the next stage of the recruitment process. Potential candidates are then asked to attend a Walk-In Day. This could occur several weeks or months after the original application has been submitted depending on current needs.

The Walk-In Day consists of a brief presentation about the role and a short interview. Candidates who are successful on the Walk-In Day are notified within 10 days and invited to attend an Assessment Centre. Please note that candidates are required to pass a swimming test before attending the Assessment Centre. At the Assessment Centre, candidates attend an interview as well as participating in a number of assessments. Verbal references are then requested, and candidates attend a medical check.

At times, there may not be a need to recruit for Flight Attendant positions. However, the company continuously maintains a 'recruitment pool of those who have completed the Assessment Centre stage. These candidates are contacted when a need for Flight Attendants is established, and attend a full interview before a decision is made on whether to extend an offer of employment.

Due to the volume of applications received, Kiwi Air is not able to offer verbal feedback to candidates at any stage of the recruitment process. Unsuccessful candidates may reapply at any time after 12 months from the date at which their applications are declined.

Training

Upon being offered a role as a trainee Flight Attendant, a 5-week training course is undertaken at our Inflight Services Training Centre in Auckland. This covers emergency procedures, customer care and service delivery, and equipment knowledge. To successfully complete the course, high standards must be attained and maintained in all subjects.

Questions 21-27

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 21-27 on your answer sheet.

Flight attendants of Kiwi Air - Recruitment and Training Process

Candidates go online to complete their 21.........................................................

⬇

Suitable candidates are then invited to come to a 22..........................................

⬇

After having satisfactorily completed a 23.............. candidates will then go to an Assessment Centre. Successful

⬇

Kiwi Air then asks for 24..........and candidates are required to undergo a medical check.

⬇

If there is no immediate need for flight attendants, successful candidates are put into a 25

⬇

When the need arises, these candidates will then be given a 26......, after which they may be offered a job.

⬇

On starting the job, a 5-week training programme is given which includes how to look after passengers and what to do in an 27 ............

Đáp án:

21  (initial) application

22  Walk-In Day

23  swimming test

24  verbal references

25  recruitment pool

26  full interview

27  emergency

 Bài 9:

Let’s Go Bats

D

What else might the engineer think of? Well, blind humans sometimes seem to have an uncanny sense of obstacles in their path. It has been given the name ‘facial vision’, because blind people have reported that it feels a bit like the sense of touch, on the face. One report tells of a totally blind boy who could ride his tricycle at good speed round the block near his home, using facial vision. Experiments showed that, in fact, facial vision has nothing to do with touch or the front of the face, although the sensation may be referred to the front of the face, like the referred pain in a phantom limb. The sensation of facial vision, it turns out, really goes in through the ears. Blind people, without even being aware of the fact, are actually using echoes of their own footsteps and of other sounds, to sense the presence of obstacles. Before this was discovered, engineers had already built instruments to exploit the principle, for example to measure the depth of the sea under a ship. After this technique had been invented, it was only a matter of time before weapons designers adapted it for the detection of submarines. Both sides in the Second World War relied heavily on these devices, under such codenames as Asdic (British) and Sonar (American), as well as Radar (American) or RDF (British), which uses radio echoes rather than sound echoes.

E

The Sonar and Radar pioneers didn’t know it then, but all the world now knows that bats, or rather natural selection working on bats, had perfected the system tens of millions of years earlier, and their radar achieves feats of detection and navigation that would strike an engineer dumb with admiration. It is technically incorrect to talk about bat ‘radar’, since they do not use radio waves. It is sonar but the underlying mathematical theories of radar and sonar are very similar and much of our scientific understanding of the details of what bats are doing has come from applying radar theory to them. The American zoologist Donald Griffin, who was largely responsible for the discovery of sonar in bats, coined the term ‘echolocation’ to cover both sonar and radar, whether used by animals or by human instruments.

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the Passage for each answer.

Facial Vision

Blind people report that so-called ‘facial vision’ is comparable to the sensation of touch on the face. In fact, the sensation is more similar to the way in which pain from a (1)……………………arm or leg might be felt. The ability actually comes from perceiving (2)………..…………..through the ears. However, even before this was understood, the principle had been applied in the design of instruments which calculated the (3)……….…………..of the seabed. This was followed by a wartime application in devices for finding (4)………………

Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Passage for each answer.

5. Long before the invention of radar, ………………………… had resulted in a sophisticated radar-like system in bats.
6. Radar is an inaccurate term when referring to bats because ………………………… are not used in their navigation system.
7. Radar and sonar are based on similar …………………………
8. The word ‘echolocation’ was first used by someone working as a  …………………………

Bài 10: 

Sheet Glass Manufacture: the Float Process

Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (°C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a ‘fire finish’. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive.

Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive.

The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600°C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500°C). The best metal for the job was tin.

Complete the table and diagram below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

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