Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word for each of the blanks.
Could Computer Games Be Good For You After All?
In Britain, the average young person now spends more money on games each year than on going to the cinema or renting videos. But is this ____ (41)a bad thing? For years, newspaper reports have been _____ (42) that children who spend too much time playing computer games become unsociable, bad-tempered, even violent as a _____ (43). But new research, ____(44) out in both Europe and the USA, suggeststhat the opposite may be true.Indeed, playing some of the more complicated games may help people of all ages to improve certain skills. Researchers claim that this is because the games _____(45) the brain work harder in certain ways, like _____(46) sounds and movements quickly and identifying what they are. The fact that people play the games repeatedly ____(47) that they get a lot of practice in these skills which are, therefore, likely to become highly developed.Social skills may benefit, too. Researchers in Chicago think that fans of first-person shooter games _____(48) “Counterstrike” are better than non-players when it comes to building trust and co-operation, and that this ____ (49)them to make good friendships and become strong members of their communities. So rather than _____ (50) up computer games, perhaps young people need to spend more time on them.
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
A number of factors related to the voice reveal the personality of the speaker.
The first is the broad area of communication, which includes imparting information by use of language, communicating with a group or an individual and specialized communication through performance. A person conveys thoughts and ideas through choice of words, by a tone of voice that is pleasant or unpleasant, gentle or harsh, by the rhythm that is inherent within the language itself‘, and by speech rhythms that are flowing and regular or uneven and hesitant, and finally, by the pitch and melody of the utterance. When speaking before a group, a person’s tone may indicate uncertainty or fright, confidence or calm. At interpersonal levels, the tone may reflect ideas and feelings over and above the words chosen, or may believe them. Here the participant’s tone can consciously or unconsciously reflect intuitive sympathy or antipathy, lack of concern or interest, fatigue, anxiety, enthusiasm or excitement, all of which are usually discernible by the acute listener. Public performance is a manner of communication that is highly specialized with its own techniques for obtaining effects by voice and/or gesture. The motivation derived from the text, and in the case of singing, the music, in combination with the performer’s skills, personality, and ability to create empathy will determine the success of artistic, political, or pedagogic communication.
Second, the voice gives psychological clues to a person’s self-image, perception of others, and emotional health. Self-image can be identified by a tone of voice that is confident, pretentious, shy, aggressive, outgoing, or exuberant, to name only a few personality traits. Also the sound may give a clue to the facade or mask of that person, for example, a shy person hiding behind an overconfident front. How a speaker who perceives the listener‘s receptiveness, interest. or sympathy, in any given conversation can drastically alter the tone of presentation, by encouraging or discouraging the speaker. Emotional health is evidenced in the voice by free and melodic sounds of the happy, by constricted and harsh sound of the angry, and by dull and lethargic qualities of the depressed.
Notes:
- belie (v): gây một ấn tượng sai lầm
- intuitive (adj): thuộc về trực giác
- antipathy (adj): ác cảm
- fatigue (n): sự mệt mỏi, sự mệt nhọc
- discernible (adj): có thể nhận thức rõ, có thể thấy rõ
- empathy (n): sự thấu cảm
- exuberant (adj): cởi mở, hồ hởi
- front (n): bình phong ( nghĩa bóng)
- receptiveness (n): sự dễ lắng nghe, sự dễ lĩnh hội
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Butterflies are among the most extensively studied insects - an estimated 90percent of the world’s species have scientific names. As a consequence, they are perhaps the best group of insects for examining patterns of terrestrial biotic diversity and distribution. Butterflies also have a favorable image with the general public. Hence, they are an excellent group for communicating information on science and conservation issues such as diversity. Perhaps the aspect of butterfly diversity that has received the most attention over the past century is the striking difference in species richness between tropical and temperate regions. For example, in 1875, one biologist pointed out the diversity of butterflies in the Amazon when he mentioned that about 700 species were found within an hour’s walk, whereas the total number found on the British islands did not exceed 66, and the whole of Europe supported only 321. This early comparison of tropical and temperate butterfly richness has been well confirmed.
A general theory of diversity would have to predict not only this difference between temperate and tropical zones, but also patterns within each region, and how these patterns vary among different animal and plant groups. However, for butterflies, variation of species richness within temperate or tropical regions is poorly understood. Indeed, comparisons of numbers of species among the Amazon basin, tropical Asia, and Africa are still mostly “personal communication” citations, even for vertebrates. In other words, unlike comparison temperate and tropical areas, these patterns are still in the documentation phase. In documenting geographical variation in butterfly diversity, some arbitrary,practical decisions are made. Diversity, number of species, and species richness are used synonymously; little is known about the evenness of butterfly distribution. The New World butterflies make up the preponderance of examples because they are the most familiar species. It is hoped that by focusing on them, the errors generated by imperfect and incomplete taxonomy will be minimized.
Notes:
- terrestrial (adj): ở cạn, sống trên mặt đất
- vertebrate (n): động vật có xương sống
- arbitrary (adj): tùy tiện, tùy hứng
- preponderance (n): sự trội hơn