READING TEST #7
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
Early humans watched their fires blacken the ceilings of the caves where they lived. They saw blue and red in the sky and brown and green on the ground. In time, people began to understand that color not only made the world more beautiful, it was also able to convey emotion and symbolize power. In the 19th century, a young chemistry student became the first to manufacture a synthetic dye, and suddenly the world became a much more colorful place. By the 20th century, as scientists discovered the psychological effects of colors, everyone from advertisers to educators found ways to make use of color to influence our feelings and behavior. [A]
Red, the color of human blood, has traditionally symbolized intensity, fire, love, and anger. In Eastern cultures, it also represents luck, wealth, and success. In humans, the color red can send different messages. Some people redden, for example, when they are angry or embarrassed. British anthropologists Russell Hill and Robert Barton of the University of Durham found that when opponents in a game are equally matched, the team dressed in red is more likely to win. Why? According to Barton, red seems to be the color, across species, that signals dominance” – giving those dressed in red an advantage in sporting events. In many animal species, contact with this bold color causes the heart rate to accelerate. However, one of red’s lighter shades, pink, can have the opposite effect on people. Men in prisons are reported to be more passive when the walls are painted a specific shade of pink. Humans have also used the color red in everything from politics to advertising. Many food products in the U.S, for example, are packaged in red containers. Why? [B]
Yellow, the color we most often associate with sunshine, is found throughout nature and the man-made world as a color that commands attention; indeed, it is one of the easiest colors to see. This highly visible shade is found on everything from school buses to traffic signs and pens used to highlight important information in a text. The color is also used to caution people. [C] Soccer players, for example, are shown yellow as a reminder to behave. It can be used as a stimulant as well: In a number of studies, yellow has been found to help children focus on their work and do better in school.
Blue has long been associated in many cultures with water, holy or religious objects, and protection against evil. Over the years, darker shades of the color have also come to represent calm, stability, and power. Dark blue, for example, is the color of the business suit or police uniform. In other cultures, blue has been associated with sadness. It’s common in English, for example, when feeling sad or depressed, to talk about “feeling blue,” while in Iran, blue is the color of mourning, worn when a person dies. Like pink, blue has a neutral, calming effect on people. Rooms painted blue help people relax or sleep. (Sleeping pills are often colored blue to suggest exactly this idea.) [D]
Câu 1: What is the passage mainly about?
- A. how color influences our lives
- B. the various sources for extracting color
- C. how views about color have changed
- D. how certain colors can have a calming effect
- A. many centuries ago
- B. in the 19th century
- C. in the 20th century
- D. only recently
- A. dominance
- B. anger
- C. attention
- D. success
- A. black
- B. yellow
- C. blue
- D. red
- A. go slower
- B. go faster
- C. become uneven
- D. become louder
- A. to warn people of something
- B. to decorate things
- C. to express the feeling of sadness.
- D. to reduce one’s hunger
- A. red
- B. yellow
- C. blue
- D. pink
- A. inhibiting hunger
- B. blue food
- C. relaxation
- D. painting rooms
- A. They both have a calming effect.
- B. They both make people less hungry.
- C. They both express sadness.
- D. They both represent power.
- A. [A]
- B. [B]
- C. [C]
- D. [D]
PASSAGE 2
Questions 11-20
In what is probably the first memorable sporting action photo, we see a tiny man with a moustache, bent backwards, eyes closing in exhaustion, a handkerchief slipping off his head, surrounded by officials as he finishes the marathon at the London Olympics of 1908. [A] The man was Dorando Pietri, an Italian baker. In many ways, this was the beginning of global media coverage for big sporting events, and Pietri became the first global sporting celebrity. [B]
Early last century, when Pietri began running in his home town of Carpi in northern Italy, the ancient Greek idea of the marathon race was just being rediscovered. The course for the London Games was set by Britain’s Queen Alexandra, who decided that for her grandchildren’s convenience, the race should start beneath the nursery window at their home, Windsor Castle. The finish line in London’s White City stadium was 26 miles and 385 yards away - which remains the marathon’s official distance today.
Back then, the best preparation for running a marathon was believed to be steak for breakfast. Pietri had also taken a chemical called strychnine - today typically used in rat poison - in the mistaken belief that it would improve his performance. By the time he approached White City he understandably felt a little unwell. He later recalled seeing ‘a grey mass in front’, which proved to be the stadium. He added, ‘After that, I remember little.’
It soon became obvious that Pietri was struggling. He began running the wrong way around the track. When officials pointed this out to him, he fell over. He got up, then collapsed again. Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was watching from a few metres away, reporting for the Daily Mail. He wrote: ‘It is horrible, and yet fascinating, this struggle between a set purpose and an utterly exhausted frame.’
The crowd - including Queen Alexandra - began urging the officials to help Pietri. Pietri kept collapsing, but eventually they practically pushed him across the finish line. Conan Doyle was impressed: ‘No ancient Roman had known how to accept the laurels of victory better than Pietri.’ Seconds after Pietri, the American runner Johnny Hayes, a sales clerk at Bloomingdale’s department store in New York, trotted over the line. Quite naturally, Hayes pointed out that Pietri had been helped, which was against the rules. After much debate, Hayes was declared the winner. Pietri fell unconscious, and several newspapers prematurely reported his death.
There is no celebrity without mass media. If you could choose anyone on earth to write up your drama in 1908, it would be Conan Doyle in the Daily Mail, which in 1902 had become the bestselling newspaper on earth, with circulation topping one million. Newspapers around the world reprinted Conan Doyle’s article. He also started a collection to help Pietri set up his own bakery. Throw in the startling action picture by an unknown photographer, and Pietri’s story went global.
[C] Nowadays people dressed in Donald Duck costumes run double marathons for charity, but in 1908 completing a marathon was considered an almost superhuman feat. [D] To my mind, that distinguishes Pietri from the Olympic heroes of today. Most of them have lived since childhood in a higher realm of top-performance sport. They are better prepared than Pietri in every way, but it is much easier to see ourselves in him.
Câu 11: What can be the best title for the passage?
- A. The original Olympic hero
- B. the length of ancient Olympic marathon
- C. the history of Olympic Games.
- D. preparation for Olympic marathon
- A. it was based on measurements used in ancient games.
- B. it used to be changed quite often at the Olympic Games.
- C. it used to be much longer than it is in the current Games.
- D. it was originally fixed at the 1908 London Olympic Games.
- A. it had ignored expert advice.
- B. it hadn’t really been appropriate.
- C. it had been interrupted by illness.
- D. it had not involved running the course itself.
- A. Britain
- B. Greece
- C. Italy
- D. the US
- A. Pietri’s state of health.
- B. an error which Pietri made.
- C. an attempt to give Pietri first aid.
- D. the correct direction in which Pietri should run.
- A. Pietri’s determination to finish it.
- B. Pietri’s willingness to accept defeat.
- C. The way Pietri was helped to complete it.
- D. The respect which Pietri showed for the rules.
- A. surprisingly
- B. too soon
- C. immediately
- D. finally
- A. Conan Doyle felt that he had treated Pietri badly.
- B. Pietri didn’t approve of what was written about him.
- C. Pietri benefitted from the fact that Conan Doyle was famous.
- D. The photograph of Pietri was more important than the newspaper article.
- A. admiration for Pietri’s attempt at the marathon.
- B. surprise that Pietri attracted so much media attention.
- C. doubts about the commitment of some modern athletes.
- D. disappointment with the way modern marathons are organised.
- A. [A]
- B. [B]
- C. [C]
- D. [D]
