- Câu hỏi 25839:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Early morning in California, and Elizabeth Safran, a public relations consultant, is dealing with a huge number of e-mails. Everybody in the small company works from home and relies on e-mails and instant messaging to stay in touch. Elizabeth worries about her work-life balance and thinks that ‘technology makes us more productive, but everyone is working all the time – weekends, evenings. It is too much.’
Five o’clock Friday afternoon in the , Paul Renucci, managing director of a systems integration company, switches off his computer. He now works at home and is off to pick up his children. In the past, it would take him two hours to get home from the office.
Ms Safran and Mr Renucci represent different side of a modern problem: the capacities of the latest communications technologies, such as e-mails, texts, messaging and video conferencing, make it difficult to draw the line between work and leisure and raise important questions about the nature of ‘flexible working’- where employees can work where and when they choose.
There are three issues here. First, does the rise of portable, networked devices such as the Blackberry and Palm Treo really damage an individual’s work and life? Second, what is the effect of these devices on traditional workplace relationships? And third, how do individuals manage them?
A Microsoft survey found that where flexibility had increased, so had productivity and employee morale, together with lowered stress levels and staff turnover.
However, individuals can suffer technology-related stress as work moves into their free time and from the complexity of the gadgets they must use, such as mobile phones where manufacturers try to persuade customers upgrade more frequently.
Statement: Those working with flexibility find it difficult to get spare time.
- Câu hỏi 25844:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Some scientists have predicted that healthy adults and children may one day take drugs to improve their intelligence and intellectual performance. A research group has suggested that such drugs might become as common as coffee or tea within the next couple of decades.
To counter this, students taking exams might have to take drugs tests like athletes. There are already drugs that are known to improve mental performance, like Ritalin, which is given to children with problems concentrating. A drug given to people with trouble sleeping also helps people remember numbers.
These drugs raise serious legal and moral questions, but people already take vitamins to help them remember things better, so it will not be a simple problem to solve. It will probably be very difficult to decide at what point a food supplement becomes an unfair drug in an examination.
Statement: Coffee is as common as tea.
- Câu hỏi 25855:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Some scientists have predicted that healthy adults and children may one day take drugs to improve their intelligence and intellectual performance. A research group has suggested that such drugs might become as common as coffee or tea within the next couple of decades.
To counter this, students taking exams might have to take drugs tests like athletes. There are already drugs that are known to improve mental performance, like Ritalin, which is given to children with problems concentrating. A drug given to people with trouble sleeping also helps people remember numbers.
These drugs raise serious legal and moral questions, but people already take vitamins to help them remember things better, so it will not be a simple problem to solve. It will probably be very difficult to decide at what point a food supplement becomes an unfair drug in an examination.
Statement: Intelligence pills are already as common as coffee or tea.
- Câu hỏi 25859:
Read the following article and choose the best answer for the following question:
For one group of children aged between ten and fifteen, Saturdays are spent learning the art of serious cooking. Their weekly lessons in small classes are so popular that there is a waiting list of 30 children who want to do the course. Parents pay $ 280 for the course where their children can have fun and learn how to make good food,
Class member Bill, aged ten, says, ‘I love my mum’s cooking and now I can do it better than her. The teachers make us laugh, especially when we sit down with them to share the good we’ve made’.
Flora is twelve, and she’s having problems preparing onions. ‘I love cooking. I did a meal for ten friends which they really enjoyed. Then my mum suggested I take up a hobby, instead of doing nothing at weekends. I was happy staying at home, so I wasn’t too keen at first. I’m really glad I decided to come, though’.
Their teacher, Phillipe, says, ‘It’s great fun. Children pay attention and remember things better than adults, although the kitchen isn’t always as tidy when they’re cooking! As adults, we’re always learning more about food. If parents interest their children in cooking while they are young, they’ll have enough skill to make food for themselves when they leave home.
Question: What is the writer trying to do in the text?
- Câu hỏi 25864:
Read the following article and choose the best answer for the following question:
Orbis is an organization which helps blind people everywhere. It has built an eye hospital inside an aeroplane and flown it all over the world with an international medical team. Samantha Graham, a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl from England, went with the plane to Mongolia, Samatha tells the story of Eukhtuul, a young Mongolian girl.
Last year, when Eukhtuul was walking home from school, she was attacked by boys with sticks and her eyes were badly damaged. Dr Duffey, an Orbis doctor, said that without an operation she would never see again, I thought about all the everyday things I do that she couldn’t , things like reading schoolbooks, watching television, seeing friends, and I realized how lucky I am’.
‘The Orbis team agreed to operate on Eukhtuul and I was allowed to watch, together with some Mongolian medical students. I prayed the operation would be successful. The next day I waited nervously with Eukhtuul while Dr Duffey removed her bandages. ‘In six months your sight will be back to normal’, he said. Eukhtuul smiled, her mother cried, and I had to wipe away some tears, too!’
‘Now Eukhtuul wants to study hard to become a doctor. Her whole future has changed, thanks to a simple operation. We should all think more about how much out sight means to us.
Question: What is the result of Eukhtuul’s operation?
- Câu hỏi 25875:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The building company Hong Kong Housing is building a new suburb in Shanghai, a city with a population of more than 15 million people. But this suburb is not like other parts of Shanghai. It is a little piece of England. The name of the new area is "English Town". The manager of Hong Kong Housing, Shi Guangsheng, says many people in this area of China want to buy an English house and live in an English town.
"This town is like Bristol or Chester. There is an English square and there are pigeons to feed like in Trafalgar Square, London. There are four English-style pubs and you can buy English beer to drink. There is a canal and you can row a boat there like in Cambridge."
Are there any cricket fields? "No, there aren't any places to play cricket because nobody in Shanghai can play this game. But there is a football stadium like those in England. And the thing we are very proud of is our shopping street. There are several shops where you can buy traditional English food like fish and chips or Christmas Pudding."
The rich Shanghai businessman can do some gardening too. For with every house in "English Town", there is an English lawn and there are long gardens with ponds and tall hedges.
But there is one problem. The houses in this part of town cost a minimum of $400,000!
Question: There aren't any cricket fields in the new development.
- Câu hỏi 676177:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Come and sail on a Crystal Cruise ship. We have three ships: The Crystal Queen, The Crystal Princess, The Crystal Palace.
Come and sail in luxury on cruises around the Caribbean Sea for 7 or 14 days.
Our seven-day cruise costs $2000 and our two-week cruise is $3500.
A typical one week cruise
Day One - departure from Miami
Day Two - free day in Nassau, in The Bahamas
Day Three - near Haiti
Day Four - visit Puerto Rico and Antigua
Day Five - free day in Barbados
Day Six - free day in Port of Spain, Trinidad
Day Seven - travel to Caracas, Venezuela
Day Eight - fly home.
All food and drink is included in the price of your cruise (except for alcoholic drinks). Our cruise ships all have a casino, a cinema, a five-star restaurant, a theatre, a library and a fully equipped gymnasium.
If you prefer to go on a cruise in another part of the world, we also organize cruises in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean.
Our ships carry over 2000 passengers and we have nearly 600 crew members.
So come on board today for the holiday of a lifetime!Call immediately: 020-4455832
Statement: There are three different ships in the Crystal Cruises company.
- Câu hỏi 676188:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Considering their wedding cost over $20,000 and took a year and a half to organize, you would be surprised to hear that Richard and Victoria Hammond now intend to forget it. Well, almost.
"It was a wonderful wedding, an unbelievable day," says Victoria. "But we have so much we want to do together now, we are both looking to the future." Her husband, banker and amateur race driver Richard, agrees. "Both our minds are now fixed firmly on the future. I'll never forget our wedding ceremony or the reception we had at a cliff-side hotel afterwards, but there's so much we want, so many hopes. Our marriage is so much more important than the wedding."
"At the moment, we are still living with my parents," explains Victoria, "so our first wish is to find our own place. We intend to start looking for a new house with all the modern conveniences in the suburbs in the new year." Both Victoria and husband Richard have a lot of siblings. Do they intend to add to the extended Hammond family? "We plan on having two or three children ourselves," Richard tells me. "Victoria is just wonderful with children and I can get 3 years paternity leave from my work, which is just perfect."
The young couple has just returned from a two-week honeymoon spent in an authentic Scottish castle. Both the newly-weds are big travel lovers and Richard hopes this will continue. "I would like to go travelling as much as possible together. Travelling with someone else is such a sharing experience. I think it's sad to experience all the wonderful places in the world and have no-one else there." Victoria also has another great travel ambition that she might have to do alone. "I have always been fascinated by safari and my real wish is to go on safari. Richard has no interest in wildlife though."
And what about the marriage itself? In a world with such a high divorce rate, how do Richard and Victoria hope to avoid all the problems that beset so many other couples? Richard explains thoughtfully that "our ambition is to always talk to each other. If you stop communicating, what chance do you have?" His wife goes along with that completely. "I hope that we can speak about things, but also not expect everything to be easy. I think many people expect the wedding to be the end of getting to know each other. I think it's the start."
Statement: Richard can temporarily leave his job to look after his children.
- Câu hỏi 676205:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
The makers of a controversial computer game about bullying have decided to go ahead and launch it despite calls for it to be banned. In the game, players take on the role of a new students at a school and have to fight the bullies, by punching them or hitting them with a baseball bat.Critics have said that the game encourages violence, but the makers deny this and say that, while there is violence in the game, it is just an amusing look at school life, besides which, the violence in the game is directed against the bullies to protect pupils who are being bullied. The makers also say that players will learn to stand up to bullies.A British politician, a former minister, has called for it to be banned as it might affect the way young people perceive violence.Anti-bullying charities have said that the game might make people respond violently to bullies, which might make things more complicated and result in injuries.
Statement: A British politician has spoken in favour of the game.
- Câu hỏi 676222:
Read the following article and decide if the statement below is TRUE (A), FALSE (B) or NOT GIVEN (C)
Considering their wedding cost over $20,000 and took a year and a half to organize, you would be surprised to hear that Richard and Victoria Hammond now intend to forget it. Well, almost.
"It was a wonderful wedding, an unbelievable day," says Victoria. "But we have so much we want to do together now, we are both looking to the future." Her husband, banker and amateur race driver Richard, agrees. "Both our minds are now fixed firmly on the future. I'll never forget our wedding ceremony or the reception we had at a cliff-side hotel afterwards, but there's so much we want, so many hopes. Our marriage is so much more important than the wedding."
"At the moment, we are still living with my parents," explains Victoria, "so our first wish is to find our own place. We intend to start looking for a new house with all the modern conveniences in the suburbs in the new year." Both Victoria and husband Richard have a lot of siblings. Do they intend to add to the extended Hammond family? "We plan on having two or three children ourselves," Richard tells me. "Victoria is just wonderful with children and I can get 3 years paternity leave from my work, which is just perfect."
The young couple has just returned from a two-week honeymoon spent in an authentic Scottish castle. Both the newly-weds are big travel lovers and Richard hopes this will continue. "I would like to go travelling as much as possible together. Travelling with someone else is such a sharing experience. I think it's sad to experience all the wonderful places in the world and have no-one else there." Victoria also has another great travel ambition that she might have to do alone. "I have always been fascinated by safari and my real wish is to go on safari. Richard has no interest in wildlife though."
And what about the marriage itself? In a world with such a high divorce rate, how do Richard and Victoria hope to avoid all the problems that beset so many other couples? Richard explains thoughtfully that "our ambition is to always talk to each other. If you stop communicating, what chance do you have?" His wife goes along with that completely. "I hope that we can speak about things, but also not expect everything to be easy. I think many people expect the wedding to be the end of getting to know each other. I think it's the start."
Statement: Victoria and Richard have been married for about a year and a half.
