Bài Tập Trắc Nghiệm Chuyên Đề: Đọc hiểu: suy luận (Tiếng Anh Lớp 10, 11, 12)

One day, a middle-aged man asked a taxi to take him to see Chelsea play Arsenal at football. He told the driver 'Stamford Bridge', the name of Chelsea's stadium, but he was delivered instead to the village of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. Of course, he missed the match. What had happened? With the Sat-Nav system in place, the driver in this story felt he did not need to know where he was going. He confidently outsourced the job of knowing this information to the Sat-Nav. Using an Internet search engine takes a broadband user less than a second. And with smartphones at hand, people will be online almost all of the time. The same could be true of university education. Today, the average student seems not to value general knowledge. If asked a factual question, they will usually click on a search engine without a second thought. Actually knowing the fact and committing it to memory does not seem to be an issue, it's the case with which we can look it up. However, general knowledge has never been something that you acquire formally. Instead, we pick it up from all sorts of sources as we go along, often absorbing facts without realising. The question remains, then: is the Internet threatening general knowledge? When I put that to Moira Jones, expert in designing IQ tests, she referred me to the story of the Egyptian god Thoth. It goes like this: Thoth offers writing as a gift to the king of Egypt, declaring it an 'elixir of memory and wisdom.' But the king is horrified, and tells him: 'This invention will induce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it, because they will not need to exercise their memories, being able to rely on what is written.' Who wants to be a millionaire finalist David Swift, responding to the same question, recognises that there was a problem of young people saying: 'I don't need to know that', but he is far more excited about the educational potential of the Internet. 'There is so much more information out there, giving people opportunities to boost their general knowledge.' After all, the Internet might just help us to forget more and more. But meanwhile, the continuing popularity of quizzes and game-shows shows us that general knowledge is strong enough to remain.

The United Nations recently outlined the extent of the global water crisis, saying that 2.7 billion people would face severe water shortages by 2025 if consumption continues at current rates. Today, an estimated 1.2 billion people drink unclean water, and about 2.5 billion lack proper toilets or waste disposal systems. More than five million people die each year from diseases related to unclean water. Humans are pumping water out of the ground faster than it can be replenished. In this difficult situation, a water conservationist, Neil MacLeod in South Africa, has found innovative ways to improve his local water situation. Neil MacLeod took over as head of Durban Metro Water Services in 1992. The situation he found was a catastrophe. Durban had one million people living in the city and another 1.5 million people who lived in poverty just outside it. The entire city was rife with broken water pipes, leaky toilets, and faulty plumbing whereby 42 percent of the region's water was simply being wasted. MacLeod's crews began repairing and replacing water pipes. They put water meters on residences, replaced eight-litter toilets with four-litter models, and changed wasteful showers and water taps. To ensure that the poor would receive a basic supply of water, MacLeod installed tanks in homes and apartments to provide 190 liters of water a day free to each household. Water consumption in Durban is now less than it was in 1996, even as 800,000 more people have received service. Through sensible water use, Durban's conservation measures paid for themselves within a year. No new reservoirs will be needed in the coming decades, despite the expected addition of about 300,000 inhabitants. MacLeod has also turned to water recycling. At the water recycling plant, wastewater is turned into clean water in just 12 hours. Most people are unable to discern a difference between the usual city drinking water and the treated wastewater, although it is actually intended for industrial purposes. Some people still hope that new technology, such as the desalination of seawater, will solve the world's water problems. “But the fact is, water conservation is where the big gains are to be made,” says Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project. The dedication and resourcefulness of people like Neil MacLeod offer inspiration for implementing timely and lasting solutions to the world's water concern.

For over 300 years since its appearance in Britain in 1621, newspapers were written and read by only a tiny minority. In 1896, a new newspaper was produced in large numbers and at such low prices that ordinary people could buy it on every street corner, and it was an instant success. The Daily Mail, which is still running today, was the mother of the modern tabloid, and the beginning of a whole new subculture in the British press. Today more than twice as many tabloids are sold than the so-called “quality press” titles such as The Times or The Guardian. Originally, the word tabloid referred to the size and format. But today, for most people, the word tabloid has nothing to do with shape and size. What makes a tabloid a tabloid is content, and above all, style. Tabloids follow a special formula: they report the news, but only certain kinds. Tabloids dedicate most of their pages to stories about celebrities. This involves photographing them in embarrassing situations, gossiping about their private lives and generally making them look a bit silly. However, the tabloids are not simply an irritation for celebrities; they are also a vehicle for self-promotion. Though they have millions of devoted readers, tabloids are also widely criticised in Britain. They are accused of being sensationalist, in bad taste, and of having no ethical standards in their reporting and “researching” methods. They may tap celebrities’ phones or even break into their houses just to get a story. When criticised, the tabloids state that the public has a right to know about everything, but celebrities have no rights to privacy at all. So why does Britain, which has access to the best press agencies and the highest journalistic standards, consume tabloids like chocolate? Maybe the reason is that we have enough news on the television, the radio and in the quality newspapers. Tabloids are not actually about news at all; tabloids are just about gossip. And when it comes to gossip, what matters is not what is true or what is kind, but what is entertaining and what is funny. The more in bad taste a story is, the funnier it seems. And bad taste is what the British tabloids have made into an art.

The first impressions are rather menacing. Visitors must sign in and show identification before being allowed into the building. Such tight security gives one the feeling of entering a prison or some other dangerous place. But what a deceptive first impression! Manhattan Comprehensive Night High School may be the friendliest, most caring institution in all of New York City. A school of last resort for many of its students, it is their best chance to turn their lives around, and make friends in the process. Manhattan Comp, as it is called, is the first full-time night high school in America. High school is compulsory until the age of sixteen in America, but many students drop out, either before or after they reach sixteen, and before receiving their high school diplomas. Until now, night education programmes for dropouts only provided the basics and then awarded an equivalency certificate. But now, Manhattan Comp offers the total high school experience, complete with a “lunch” break, physical education and clubs. The students receive an academic diploma, which they say is more helpful in getting a job than an equivalency certificate. More than sixty percent of Manhattan Comp's students go on to college. Most of the school's 450 students have either been expelled from or dropped out of other high schools. Some have been in two or three schools before this one. What seems to make this school work for these hard-to-place students is the staff and, most importantly, the principal. All students call him Howard. As he walks through the building, he greets students by name, asks about their families or jobs and jokes with them about the lack of variety in the school cafeteria. Most students at Manhattan Comp are between eighteen and twenty-two years old. You must be at least seventeen to enrol. The classes run from 5 to 11 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays, with all-day enrichment programmes on Sundays which explore topics like playwriting art and video production. School terms are ten weeks long, which gives students the opportunity to take time off for family matters or jobs. Most students already have some academic credits from previous schools, so instead of the normal four years in high school, they spend between six months and two years at Manhattan Comp.