PASSAGE 2 – Questions 11-20

In 2001, another landmark event took place when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. In 2001, another landmark event took place when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. To a teenager, Dennis Tito dreamed of visiting outer space. As a young man, he aspired to become an astronaut and earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering. However, Tito did not have all the qualities necessary to become a professional astronaut, so instead he went to work as a space engineer in one of NASA’s laboratories for five years. Later Tito set up his own financial investment company and, eventually, he became a multi- millionaire. Later in life, the ex – rocket engineer, still passionate about space travel, began looking into ways to make a trip into space.
In the early 1990s, the Soviet space agency was offering tickets for a visit to the Mir space station to anyone who could afford it. Tito jumped at the chance for his once- a-lifetime experience. Due to political and economic changes in the former Soviet Union, however, Tito’s trip was postponed and later Mir was decommissioned. In 2001, Tito’s dream was finally come true when he paid a rumored $20 million to look off aboard a SOYUZ rocket to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, a joint venture between the space agencies of Japan, Canada, Europe, Russia, and the U.S.
In preparation for the trip, Tito trained at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center at Star City in Russia. He underwent eight months of physical fitness training (weightless simulations, and a variety of other exercises to prepare him for space travel). Although the Russians believed that Tito was adequately prepared for the trip, NASA thought otherwise. Dennis Tito had no sign an agreement with international space officials taking financial responsibility for any equipment he damaged or broke on his trip. He was also barred from entering any part of the space station owned by the U.S. unless escorted.
Although Tito made history and paved the way for the future of space tourism, factors such as cost, and the amount of training required, stand in the way of space vacations becoming an option for most people in their future. In spite of the Japanese and North American markets data shows that there is definite public interest in space travel. In 1993, a poll of 3,030 Japanese, 80 percent of those under the age of forty had they would like to visit space at least once. Seventy percent of this group would pay up to three month’s salary for the trip. In 1995, 1,020 households in North America were surveyed and of those, 60 percent were interested were under forty years of age. Just over 45 percent said they would pay three month’s salary, around 18 percent said they would pay six month’s salary, and nearly 11 percent would pay a year’s salary. Two – thirds of those who want to visit space would like to do so several times. Since the nature of this type of travel makes it hazardous to humans, it would have to be restricted to those who are physically fit and able to take responsibility for the risks involved.

Câu 11: According to the passage, what was the main event in 1969?

PASSAGE 3 – Questions 21-30

During the heyday of the railroads, when America’s rail system provided the bulk of the country’s passenger and freight transportation, various types of rail cars were in service to accomplish the varied tasks handled by the railroads. One type of car that was not available for public use prior to the Civil War, however, was a sleeping car. Ideas for sleeping cars abounded at the time, but these ideas were unworkable. It unfortunately took the death of a president to make the sleeping car a viable reality.
Cabillet – maker George M. Pullman had recognized the demand for sleeping cars and had worked on developing experimental models of sleeping cars in the decade leading up to the Civil War. However, in spite of the fact that he had made successful test runs on the Chicago and Alton railroads with his models, he was unable to sell his idea because his models were too wide and too high for existing train stations and bridges in 1863. After spending some working as a storekeeper in a Colorado mining town, he invested his savings of twenty thousand dollars, a huge fortune at the time, and all the money that he had in the world, in a luxurious sleeping car that he named the Pioneer. Pullman and friend Ben Field built the Pioneer on the site of the present – day Chicago Union Station. For two years, however; the Pioneer sat on a railroad siding, useless because it could not fit through train stations and over bridges.
Following President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, the state of Illinois, Lincoln’s birthplace, wanted to transport the presidential casket in the finest fashion possible. The Pullman Pioneer was the most elegant car around; in order to make the Pullman Pioneer of the presidential funeral train fit to from Springfield to Chicago, the state cut down station platforms and raised bridges. In order to accommodate the luxurious railway car. The Pullman car greatly impressed the funeral party, which included Lincoln’s successor as president, General Ulysses S. Grant, and Grant later requested the Pioneer for a trip from Detroit to Chicago. To satisfy Grant’s request for this Pioneer, the Michigan Central Railroad made improvements on its line to accommodate the wide car, and soon other railroads followed. George Pullman founded the Pullman Palace Car Company in partnership with financier Andrew Carnegie and eventually became a millionaire.
Pullman cars were normally a dark, Pullman green, although some were painted in the 1920s, the cars carried individual names. They usually did not carry visible numbers. In the 1920s, the Pullman Company went through a series of restructuring steps, which in the end resulted in a parent company, Pullman Incorporated, controlling the Pullman Company (which owned and operated sleeping cars) and the Pullman – Standard Car Manufacturing Company.

Câu 21: Which of the following statements best states the main idea of the passage?

PASSAGE 4 – Questions 31-40

Garbage cans are not magical portals. Trash does not disappear when you toss it in a can. Yet, the average American throws away an estimated 1,600 pounds of waste each year. If there are no magic garbage fairiers, where does all that trash go? There are four methods to managing waste: recycling, land-filling, composing, and incinerating. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take a quick look at each.
Recycling is the process of turning waste into new materials. For example, used paper can be turned into paperboard, which can be used to make book covers. Recycling can reduce pollution, save materials, and lower energy use. Yet, some argue that recycling waste may not effectively reduce the amount of collecting, processing, and converting waste uses more energy than it saves. Still, most people agree that recycling is better for the planet than land-filling.
Large filling, the oldest method of managing waste. In its simplest form, land-filling is when people bury garbage in a hole. Over time the practice of land-filling has advanced. Garbage is compacted before it is thrown into the hole. In this way more garbage can fit in each landfill. Large liners are placed in the bottom of landfills so that toxic garbage juice doesn’t get into the ground water. Sadly, these liners don’t always work. Landfills may pollute the local water supply. Not to mention that all of that garbage stinks. Nobody wants to live next to a landfill. This makes it hard to find new locations for landfills.
As landfill space increases, interest in composting grows. Composting is when people pile up organic matter, such as food waste, and allows it to decompose. The product of this decomposition is compost. Compost can be added to the soil to make the soil richer and better for growing crops. While composting is easy to do on-site somewhere, like home or school, it is hard to do after the garbage gets all mixed up. This is because plastic and other inorganic materials must be removed from the compost pile or they will pollute the soil. There is a lot of plastic in garbage, which makes it hard to compost on a large scale.
One thing that is easier to do is burning garbage. There are two main ways to incinerate waste. The first is to create or harvest fuel from the waste, such as methane gas, and turn the fuel. The second is to burn the waste directly. The heat from an incineration process can boil water, which can power steam generators. Unfortunately, burning garbage pollutes the air. Also, some critics worry that incinerators destroy valuable resources that could be recycled.
Usually, the community, whom you live manage waste. Once you put your garbage in that can, what happens to it is beyond your control. But you can make choices. While it is still in your possession. You can choose to recycle, you can choose to compost, or you can choose to let someone else deal with it. The choice is yours.

Câu 31: Which best explains why the author begins the text by talking about magical garbage fairies?