The Thousand and one nights is probably one of the most famous books in the world. It is a collection of stories first told by travelers from Persia, Arabia, India and China between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. In later years professional storytellers also told the stories in coffee houses in Turkey, Egypt and many other countries. The Thousand and one nights contains well-known stories like Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, so people often think they are just for children – but they were originally for adults.
Shahrazad’s story
There was once an Indian King called Shahriyar. One day King Shahriyar found his wife with another man so he killed her and her lover. After that the King married a different woman everyday and killed her the next morning before she could stop loving him. This continued for three years.
Shahrazad was the clever and beautiful daughter of the King’s adviser. When her father told her what was happening, she decided to marry the King. Shahrazad’s father tried to stop her because he knew she was going to die. But Shahrazad had a plan to save herself and all the women in the kingdom. The King and Shahrazad got married a few days later.
After the wedding, while the King was drinking with his friends, Shahrazad went to find her sister. ‘I need your help,’ said Shahrazad. ‘Come to the palace this evening and ask me to tell you a story’.
So that night, Shahrazad was getting ready for bed when her sister came to visit her. She began telling her sister a story called The Fisherman and the Genie. While she was telling the story, the King came into the room. He started listening to her story too, and became more and more interested.
Shahrazad continued telling the story all night, but she stopped just before the end and said, ‘The morning’s here, husband. Am I going to die now?’. ‘No, no’, said the King. ‘Tell me the end of the story’. ‘I’ll tell you this evening, but not before’, said Shahrazad with a smile.
That night Shahrazad finished the story – and then immediately began another. This continued night after night. The King never heard the end of a story until the next evening. He couldn’t kill his wife because he always wanted to know how each story ended.
As time passed, the King fell in love with Shahrazad. He knew he could never kill her because he couldn’t live without her and her stories. To show Shahrazad he really loved her, the King married her again. The stories Shahrazad told the King became the stories of The Thousand and one nights.
Are these following sentences true (T) or false (F)
...... The King killed his first wife.
...... He was married to his next wife for three years.
......[F] Shahrazad worked for the King.
...... Shahrazad’s father didn’t want her to marry the King.
Listen to Gilles Philips, a journalist, talk about the effects of file-swapping technology on the music industry. Choose the best option for question 1-6.
Listen to Gilles Philips, a journalist, talk about the effects of file-swapping technology on the music industry. Choose the best option for question 1-6.
What mistakes has the music industry made in the past?
A. It has ignored the importance of reality TV.
B. It hasn’t spent enough on marketing.
C. It has concentrated too much on short-term profit.
Listen to Gilles Philips, a journalist, talk about the effects of file-swapping technology on the music industry. Choose the best option for question 1-6.
Which of the following should the music industry do?
Listen to six short conversations. How does the second person reply in each situation? Predict the meanings of their replies by choose the correct description in italics.
1. John points out a mistake. Jane ......[doesn't apologise] for it.(apologizes/doesn't apologise)
2. Jack invites Barbara to dinner. Barbara ...... the invitation. (accepts/refuses)
3. John introduces Caroline Day to Barbara. Barbara ......[knows] her. (knows/ doesn’t know)
4. Jack asks if he is allowed to park in front of the office. Jane says that he ....... (can/can't)
5. Barbara gives Jane a gift. Jane ...... it. (likes/doesn’t like)
6. Jack helped John to arrange his travel. It ...... a problem for Jack. (was/wasn't)
Listen to six short conversations. How does the second person reply in each situation? Predict the meanings of their replies by choose the correct description in italics.
1. John points out a mistake. Jane ...... for it.(apologizes/doesn't apologise)
2. Jack invites Barbara to dinner. Barbara ...... the invitation. (accepts/refuses)
3. John introduces Caroline Day to Barbara. Barbara ...... her. (knows/ doesn’t know)
4. Jack asks if he is allowed to park in front of the office. Jane says that he ....... (can/can't)
5. Barbara gives Jane a gift. Jane ...... it. (likes/doesn’t like)
6. Jack helped John to arrange his travel. It ...... a problem for Jack. (was/wasn't)
A Sea Turtles are some of the oldest species in the world. The earliest sea turtles appeared over 200 million years ago. Today, however, sea turtle are in trouble. Their populations are getting smaller due to human activities and climate change.
B In Australia, conservationists are studying the effects of climate change on sea turtles. They believe global warming may affect sea turtles in several ways. First, warming temperatures lead to rising sea levels. As sea levels rise, beach areas become flooded. Sea turtles lay their eggs in the beach sand. Flooding can destroy sea turtle nests and the eggs inside them.
C Global warming also raises the temperature of sand around a sea turtle’s nest. The temperature of the nest affects the sex of the turtle’s eggs. Warmer temperatures (above 84 degrees Fahrenheit, or 29 degrees Celsius) produce mostly females. Cooler temperatures produce more males. So, as global temperature rise, more female babies will be born. Scientists predict that in 50 years almost all sea turtle babies in northern Australia will be female.
D To survive these changes, sea turtles will need to adapt. But adapting is difficult because the environmental changes are happening quickly. In addition, sea turtles are more at risk from other dangers, especially ones related to human activities. For example, some populations are getting smaller because of predators brought in by humans. As conservationist Mariana Fuentes says, ‘We can’t be sure if sea turtles will adapt on their own.’ They may need our help to survive.
E One of Fuentes’s projects is at Turtle Camp, a beach in northern Australia. Here, Fuentes helps to protect turtles that are laying eggs. She works with a team of rangers and researchers. Together, they prevent predators such as wild pigs and dogs from eating the turtles’ eggs. Without the rangers’ help, the turtles were losing up to 90% of their eggs. Now there are fewer predators, so the turtles can safely lay their eggs.
Write the letter of the correct paragraph (A-E) from the reading next to its main idea.
......[D] 1. Seaturtles may need help to survive climate change and other dangers.
......[E] 2. Fuentes help to protect the areas where sea turtles lay their eggs.
......[A] 3. Sea turtles are old species, but they are now in trouble.
......[C] 4. Warmer temperatures affect the sex of sea turtles.
......[B] 5. Climate change is causing problems for sea turtles.
A Sea Turtles are some of the oldest species in the world. The earliest sea turtles appeared over 200 million years ago. Today, however, sea turtle are in trouble. Their populations are getting smaller due to human activities and climate change.
B In Australia, conservationists are studying the effects of climate change on sea turtles. They believe global warming may affect sea turtles in several ways. First, warming temperatures lead to rising sea levels. As sea levels rise, beach areas become flooded. Sea turtles lay their eggs in the beach sand. Flooding can destroy sea turtle nests and the eggs inside them.
C Global warming also raises the temperature of sand around a sea turtle’s nest. The temperature of the nest affects the sex of the turtle’s eggs. Warmer temperatures (above 84 degrees Fahrenheit, or 29 degrees Celsius) produce mostly females. Cooler temperatures produce more males. So, as global temperature rise, more female babies will be born. Scientists predict that in 50 years almost all sea turtle babies in northern Australia will be female.
D To survive these changes, sea turtles will need to adapt. But adapting is difficult because the environmental changes are happening quickly. In addition, sea turtles are more at risk from other dangers, especially ones related to human activities. For example, some populations are getting smaller because of predators brought in by humans. As conservationist Mariana Fuentes says, ‘We can’t be sure if sea turtles will adapt on their own.’ They may need our help to survive.
E One of Fuentes’s projects is at Turtle Camp, a beach in northern Australia. Here, Fuentes helps to protect turtles that are laying eggs. She works with a team of rangers and researchers. Together, they prevent predators such as wild pigs and dogs from eating the turtles’ eggs. Without the rangers’ help, the turtles were losing up to 90% of their eggs. Now there are fewer predators, so the turtles can safely lay their eggs.
F In the next few decades, sea turtles will face some tough challenges. With human help, says Fuentes, they will have a better chance to adapt and survive.
Complete the notes with details from the reading.
Sea turtles have been around for more than ......[200 million] years.
The number of sea turtles is getting smaller due to ......[Human activities] and ......[climate change].
Sea turtles lay their eggs in nests in the ......[Beach sand].
Predators such as ......[Wild pigs] and ......[dogs] are dangerous for sea turtles.
Before Fuentes and her helpers started Turtle Camp, sea turtles were losing almost ......[90]percent of their eggs.
The Thousand and one nights is probably one of the most famous books in the world. It is a collection of stories first told by travelers from Persia, Arabia, India and China between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. In later years professional storytellers also told the stories in coffee houses in Turkey, Egypt and many other countries. The Thousand and one nights contains well-known stories like Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, so people often think they are just for children – but they were originally for adults.
Shahrazad’s story
There was once an Indian King called Shahriyar. One day King Shahriyar found his wife with another man so he killed her and her lover. After that the King married a different woman everyday and killed her the next morning before she could stop loving him. This continued for three years.
Shahrazad was the clever and beautiful daughter of the King’s adviser. When her father told her what was happening, she decided to marry the King. Shahrazad’s father tried to stop her because he knew she was going to die. But Shahrazad had a plan to save herself and all the women in the kingdom. The King and Shahrazad got married a few days later.
After the wedding, while the King was drinking with his friends, Shahrazad went to find her sister. ‘I need your help,’ said Shahrazad. ‘Come to the palace this evening and ask me to tell you a story’.
So that night, Shahrazad was getting ready for bed when her sister came to visit her. She began telling her sister a story called The Fisherman and the Genie. While she was telling the story, the King came into the room. He started listening to her story too, and became more and more interested.
Shahrazad continued telling the story all night, but she stopped just before the end and said, ‘The morning’s here, husband. Am I going to die now?’. ‘No, no’, said the King. ‘Tell me the end of the story’. ‘I’ll tell you this evening, but not before’, said Shahrazad with a smile.
That night Shahrazad finished the story – and then immediately began another. This continued night after night. The King never heard the end of a story until the next evening. He couldn’t kill his wife because he always wanted to know how each story ended.
As time passed, the King fell in love with Shahrazad. He knew he could never kill her because he couldn’t live without her and her stories. To show Shahrazad he really loved her, the King married her again. The stories Shahrazad told the King became the stories of The Thousand and one nights.
Are these following sentences true (T) or false (F)
......[T] The King killed his first wife.
......[F] He was married to his next wife for three years.
......[F] Shahrazad worked for the King.
......[T] Shahrazad’s father didn’t want her to marry the King.
In almost all developing countries, the lack of adequate supplies of cheap, convenient and reliable fuel is a major problem. Rural communities depend largely on kerosene, wood and dung for their cooking and lighting needs. But kerosene is now priced out of reach of many people and wood, except in heavily forested areas, is in short supply. The search for firewood occupies a large part of the working day and has resulted in widespread deforestation.
Dung is in constant supply wherever there are farm animals and, when dried, it is convenient to store and use. But burning dung destroys its value as fertilizer, thus depriving the soil of a much needed source of humus and nitrogen.
Rural areas of developing countries are also plagues by a lack of adequate sanitation. Improper waste disposal spreads disease, contaminates water sources and provides breeding ground for disease-carrying insects.
The problem of improving environmental hygiene, conserving resources and finding alternative sources of fuel may be unrelated. Their solutions, however, are not, as many countries experimenting with biogas technology are discovering. Biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, is produced by the fermentation of organic matter. The process of anaerobic fermentation is a natural one, occurring whenever living matter decomposes. By containing the matter – and the process – in a digester or biogas plant, the combustible gas can be trapped and used as fuel for household lighting and cooking. The digested slurry that remains can be used on the land as a soil conditioner and fertilizer.
Biogas plants have attracted much interest in recent years and they are in use in several Asian countries: 38,000 are reported in rural area of India, 27,000 in Korea and more than 80,000 in China. In most countries, the value of the gas has been the prime factor leading to their adoption: 70 percent of India’s plants, for instance, were built during the energy and fertilizer crisis of 1975-76 – although their use in that country dates back to 1951. similarly in Thailand and Korea, biogas is being investigated as an alternative to costly charcoal and to save compost materials form being burned.
In Japan and China, reducing pollution from animal wastes has been an important factor. Privies, hen houses and pigpens are built in proximity to the fermentation chamber in China. Examinations of the digested slurry have shown that the total number of parasite eggs was reduced by 93.6 per cent, hookworms by 99 per cent and no schistosome flukes were found.
The greatest benefits from biogas systems, however, are probably to be derived from the manorial value of the slurry, although it is not widely used outside of India and China. Vegetable farmers near Calcutta found that the digested slurry produced bigger and better tasting peas than did other fertilizers and the weight of root vegetables increased by nearly 300 per cent.
According to the reading passage, are the statements T (True) or F (False)? 1. ......[T] Biogas is the answer for the lack of cheap, convenient and reliable fuel.
2. ......[F] The production of biogas by fermentation of animals and vegetables wastes is a technology used in developed countries.
3. ......[F] Family –sized biogas plants first came into widespread used in India in the 1940s.
4. ......[F] There are less and less biogas plants in the world nowadays.
5. ......[T] Biogas is for domestic use.
6. ......[T] The system is economically sound, in addition to other benefits such as a cleaner, healthier environment.
DONATE
Để giúp chúng tôi phát triển sản phẩm tốt hơn, đạt kết quả học tập cao hơn
