READING TEST #3
Directions: In this section of the test, you will read FOUR different passages, each followed by 10 questions about it. For questions 1-40, you are to choose the best answer A, B, C or D, to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find the number of the question and fill in the space that corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen. Answer all questions following a passage on the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.
You have 60 minutes to answer all the questions, including the time to transfer your answers to the answer sheet.
PASSAGE 1
Questions 1-10
A diver descends into an underwater cave, a scientist researches a dangerous disease, and an entrepreneur invests in a new business.
Each time we try something new, we take a risk. Sometimes, like the diver or the businessman, we take big risks, usually for obvious reasons – for fame, for money, or to save lives. Most people will take some risk to achieve one of these goals. But as the danger increases, the number of people willing to go forward decreases. Only extreme risk-takers continue on. The question is: What exactly drives these people to go on when others would stop? [A]
The Biology of Risk
To answer this question, scientists are studying the biological factors involved in risk-taking. Their research focuses on certain chemicals in the brain. An important chemical in risk-taking is dopamine. It motivates us to seek out and learn new things, and it helps us process emotions like anxiety and fear. People whose brains don’t produce enough dopamine often lack motivation and interest in life. On the other hand, “someone who takes risks to accomplish something – to climb a mountain or start a company – that’s driven by motivation, and motivation is driven by dopamine,” says Larry Zweifel, a neurobiologist at the University of Washington. “It’s what compels humans to move forward.”
When we accomplish a task, dopamine produces a feeling of satisfaction; it makes us feel good. The riskier the task, the more dopamine we produce, and the better we feel. Given this, why isn’t everyone trying to climb mountains or start businesses? In part, it’s because of small molecules called autoreceptors. These receptors control dopamine use in the brain. A person with more autoreceptors tends to be more careful, as there is less dopamine moving freely around his or her brain. “Think of dopamine like gasoline,” says neuropsychologist David Zald. The autoreceptors, on the other hand, are like the brakes on a car. A person who is less able to use brakes is more likely to take risks. [B]
Dealing with Fear
Dopamine production may make us feel good, but being in a high-risk situation for an extended period of time is also stressful and can be dangerous. Successful risk-takers must learn to deal with the fear associated with high-risk situations to reduce stress and stay safe.
In reality, adapting to risk is something we all learn to do. Take, for example, learning to drive a car. At first, a new driver may be afraid to travel on freeways. In time, as the driver gains experience, he or she will move comfortably into speeding traffic and will worry less about the danger. Similarly, a tightrope walker first learns to walk on a beam on the ground. Later, he or she moves to a rope just off the ground, and then finally to the high wire. By this point, the tightrope walker is in control and the activity doesn’t feel dangerous. By practicing a challenging activity, humans can become used to the risk, manage the danger, and control the fear that they feel in those situations. [C]
The work that marine biologist and deep-sea diver Rhian Waller does illustrates this well. She studies life in some of the deepest and coldest waters on Earth. How does Waller control her fear and stay safe in these high-risk situations? “It comes with practice,” she says. “It’s knowing exactly what to do when something goes wrong. We prepare well for each of our expeditions, and we try to minimize the number of risks we take.”
Of course, a person doesn’t have to be a tightrope walker or a deep-sea diver to be a risk-taker. Taking risks is part of being human. We are all motivated to experience new things. In order to do so, we have to take chances and of course, we may fail. [D]
Câu 1: According to the article, what is a common reason for people to take large risks?
- A. a desire for fame
- B. a lack of dopamine
- C. to control motivation
- D. to learn new things
- A. It allows us to talk.
- B. It allows us to be alert.
- C. It helps us process emotions.
- D. It makes us fear dangerous situations.
- A. takes
- B. forces
- C. makes
- D. discourages
- A. They make us less careful.
- B. They make us feel better.
- C. They control dopamine in our brain.
- D. They connect molecules in our brain.
- A. motivated
- B. satisfied
- C. stressed
- D. safe
- A. slightly
- B. only
- C. recently
- D. finally
- A. to show why driving and tightrope walking are such risky activities
- B. to give examples of how practicing a risky activity can reduce fear of it
- C. to illustrate how some people are attracted to risky activities while others aren’t
- D. to explain why some activities are riskier and more dangerous than others
- A. She has learned to adapt to risk.
- B. She has been afraid of the ocean for most of her life.
- C. She prefers to do her job when there is danger involved.
- D. She thinks it is impossible to prepare for most risks.
- A. *But with enough practice, we might also succeed.*
- B. [A]
- C. [B]
- D. [C]
- E. [D]
- A. The nature of risk
- B. The biology of risk
- C. Problems of risks taking and solutions
- D. Connection between risks and dopamine
PASSAGE 2
Questions 11-20
Astronomers rate the darkness of our skies on a scale of 9 (brightest) to 1 (darkest). Most of us spend our lives in the radiance of levels 5 to 8, only rarely venturing into areas ranked 3 or darker. Because of the rapid growth of light pollution over recent decades, most Americans under 40 have never known real darkness. All over the globe, our nights are growing brighter, and almost nowhere are they growing darker. We are just beginning to learn the true cost of all this light. Studies increasingly link our overuse of light at night with health concerns such as sleep disorders and disease. Other studies report the damaging ecological consequences, the tremendous waste of energy, and even the decrease in safety and security. But the steady loss of darkness from our lives is not easily measured, for like the similarly endangered qualities of solitude and quiet, the true value of darkness is something we are barely aware of.
Take a brilliantly starry sky. Since the beginning of time, a sky plush with stars was part of the common human experience. [A] Everywhere on Earth, on most nights, our predecessors came face to face with the universe. [B] Today, because of light pollution, many of us live under a night sky showing 25 stars or fewer, it is nearly impossible to imagine a natural sky of some 2,500 individual stars backed by great swathes of uncountable billions. [C] Our night sky continues to shape us, but now it is the absence of the universe around us that influences our beliefs, our myths, our impulse to create. We are being shaped by a diminished experience of darkness, and most of us don’t even know what we are missing. [D]
Our Milky Way galaxy is home to several hundred billion stars, and the universe home to several hundred billion other galaxies. A sky wiped clear of stars encourages us to exaggerate our importance, to imagine humanity as the centre of all things. Face to face with the endless immensity of the universe, we have the chance to know how insignificant we really are. But we might also realise the true largeness of our living on this planet, and realise that we have an enormous responsibility to care, that there is no other place to go, that home is here.
And what of beauty? ‘Everyone needs beauty as well as bread,’ wrote John Muir, American naturalist and author, and varied degrees of darkness are rich with this. Lighting designers in Paris understand that without darkness, there is no ‘city of light’, and work constantly to create their city’s atmospheric beauty by subtly mixing artificial light with darkness. And with night’s moonlit geographies, its scents of desert rain and autumn fires, its pulsing insect symphonies punctuated by a bird’s solo call on a northern lake, natural darkness has many offerings of its own.
Yet we live immersed in artificial light. Much of this lighting is wholly unnecessary, born of habit and lack of awareness. So let us become aware: simply by shielding our existing lights we could significantly reduce their negative effects on our body, our mind, our soul. Artificial light at night is a miracle, a wonder, a quality that enriches our lives. But the same has always been true of darkness, and can be again.
Câu 11: What levels of darkness are people often exposed to?
- A. levels 1 to 3
- B. levels 3 to 5
- C. levels 5 to 8
- D. levels 1 to 9
- A. It is impossible to reverse its effects.
- B. It is something that many people are unhappy about.
- C. Its effects are something that need to be studied further.
- D. It can be compared with other things that people often fail to appreciate.
- A. eye problems
- B. energy waste
- C. safety problems
- D. sleeping problems
- A. we are considerably less creative than our ancient ancestors.
- B. we experience the world in a different way to previous generations.
- C. we are aware that we are missing out on a great natural phenomenon.
- D. we need a great deal of imagination in order to understand the universe.
- A. *This experience influenced their beliefs, mythologies, art – their very understanding of their place in the world.*
- B. [A]
- C. [B]
- D. [C]
- E. [D]
- A. We ignore the need to look after our planet.
- B. We have an over-confident belief in our own value.
- C. We behave as though nothing exists apart from ourselves.
- D. We prefer to avoid thinking too deeply about our role on Earth.
- A. beauty
- B. darkness
- C. variety
- D. lighting
- A. to describe what he enjoys least about night-time
- B. to explain why some people think that lighting is necessary at night
- C. to provide an example of the attractive qualities of night-time
- D. to highlight the differences between urban and natural environments
- A. irritated by people’s lack of interest in darkness.
- B. understanding of the reasons why artificial light is essential.
- C. keen to draw comparisons between artificial light and darkness.
- D. hopeful that people are becoming aware of the negative impact of light.
- A. to describe the importance of darkness
- B. to describe levels of darkness
- C. to describe light pollution
- D. to describe the importance of human in the universe
