Bài đọc hiểu tiếng anh

1. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
There are many causes of headaches, and most people suffer them at some time or
other. Although doctors have come a long way from the old days, when headaches were
ascribed to evil spirits and treatments ranged from cutting out part of the skull to
concoctions of cow brain and goat dung, they are still not sure what sets off headaches.
The most significant advance has been the acceptance that they are not the result of
emotional stress. Until recently, many doctors thought that imbalances in the body’s
systems were to blame, but experts now believe it is the brain itself. They point to
malfunctioning chemicals, such as serotonin, whose job it is to send messages to regulate
the contraction and dilation of blood vessels in the brain.
Monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer used in Chinese cooking, can cause
headaches in some people, as do many other common foods. Red wine, aged cheese,
coffee, chocolate, nuts, and preserved meats contain nitrates, caffeine, and tyramine,
chemicals that may produce pounding headaches.
Even though the exact culprit has yet to be found, there are plenty of treatments for
prevention or cure. Over-the-counter preparations such as aspirin are fine for treating the
occasional headache, but often exacerbate severe cases. Beta blockers, usually used for
lowering blood pressure, seem to head off migraines. Antidepressant are effective, too.
But doctors also recommend non-drug treatments such as relaxation techniques, which
can be used in combination with medication, and diet modification, to cut out foods that
cause attacks.
1. According to the passage, many years ago, one way doctors tried to cure headaches
was by _______
A. praying to spirits

B. sacrificing cows and goats

C. operating on the patient’s head

D. writing prescriptions

2. It is no longer believed that headaches are caused by _______
A. emotional stress
B. malfunctioning chemicals in the brain
C. certain kinds of foods


D. contraction and dilation of blood vessels.
3. According to the passage, doctors now believe that headaches are related to _______.
A. imbalance in the body’s systems

B. chemicals in the brain

C. emotional stress

D. high blood pressure

4. According to the passage, beta blockers can be used to _______.
A. treat migraines

B. cause migraines

C. contract blood vessels

D. treat depression

5. According to the passage, severe headaches cannot be successfully treated by
_______.
A. beta blockers

B. aspirin

C. relaxation techniques

D. serotonin

2. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
There was one thing that I found rather strange on my first day as housekeeper at
Monk’s House. The floors in the house were very thin. The bathroom was directly above
the kitchen, and when Mrs. Woolf was having her bath before breakfast, I could hear her
talking to herself. On and on she went, talk, talk, talk, asking questions and giving herself
the answers. I thought there must be two or three people up there with her. When Mr.
Woolf saw that I looked surprised, he told me that Mrs. Woolf always said the sentences
out loud that she had written during the night. She needed to know if they sounded right
and the bath was a good place for trying them out.
I was not allowed to make coffee at Monk’s House. Mr. and Mrs. Woolf were very
particular about coffee and always made it themselves-so Mr. Woolf came into the
kitchen at eight o’clock every morning to make it. When we carried the breakfast trays to
Mrs Woolf’s room I noticed that she had always been working during the night. There
were pencils and paper beside her bed so that when she woke up she could work, and
sometimes it seemed as though she had had very little sleep.
Mrs. Woolf’s bedroom was outside the house in the garden; I used to think how
inconvenient it must be to have to go out in the rain to go to bed. Her bedroom had been
added on to the back of the house; the door faced the garden and a window at the side out


on to a field. Because the writing room was small, she had had a larger one built for her
at the end of the garden against the church wall.
I can always remember her coming to the house each day from the writing-room;
when I rang the bell for lunch at one o’clock she used to walk down through the garden
smoking one of her favourite cigarettes in a long holder. She was tall and thin and very

graceful. She had large, deep-set eyes and a curving mouth- I think perhaps it was this
that made her face seem particularly beautiful. She wore long skirts-usually blue or
brown-in the fashion of the day, and silk jackets of the same colour.
Her cigarettes were made from special tobacco called My Mixture. Mr. Woolf bought
it for her in London, and, in the evenings, they used to sit by the fire and make these
cigarettes themselves.
Mrs. Woolf wore clothes that suited her well. I pressed them for her and did any
sewing that was necessary-she was not able to sew, although sometimes she liked to try.
There was one thing in the kitchen that Mrs. Woolf was very good at doing; she could
make beautiful bread.
1. What was particularly unusual about Monk’s House?
A. The bathroom was next door to the kitchen
B. Mrs. Woolf’s bedroom door opened on to the garden
C. The kitchen window looked out over the field
D. The breakfast room was upstairs.
2. What did the writer observe about Mrs. Woolf’s writing habits?
A. She did a great deal of writing at night
B. She worked in the garden whenever she could
C. She preferred to write in the house
D. She sometimes wrote in the bath
3. Mrs. Woolf wore clothes which were _______
A. in matching colours

B. designed for her individually

C. suitable for country life

D. rather dull and unattractive

4. Mr. Woolf’s attitude towards his wife seemed to be that _______

A. he found her strange ways difficult to accept
B. he led a very separate life
C. he did what he could for her
D. he watched over her all the time
5. As far as housework was concerned, Mrs. Woolf _______
A. as too busy to do any

B. disliked doing any

C. was very bad at it

D. liked one or two particular tasks

3. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
Surprisingly, no one knows how many children receive education in English
hospitals, still less the content or quality of that education. Proper records are just now
kept.
We know that more than 850,000 children go through hospital each year, and that
every child of school age has a legal right to continue to receive education while in
hospital. We also know there is only one hospital teacher to every 1,000 children in
hospital.
Little wonder the latest survey concludes that the extent and type of hospital teaching
available differ a great deal across the country. It found that half the hospitals in England
which admit children have no teacher. A further quarter have only a part-time teacher.
The special children’s hospitals in major cities do best; general hospitals in the country
and holiday areas are worst off.
From this survey, one can estimate that fewer than one in five children have some
contact with a hospital teacher-and that contact may be as little as two hours a day. Most

children interviewed were surprised to find a teacher in hospital at all. They had not been
prepared for it by parents or their own school. If there was a teacher, they were much
more likely to read books and do maths or number work; without a teacher they would
only play games.
Reasons for hospital teaching range from preventing a child falling behind and
maintaining the habit of school to keeping a child occupied, and the latter is often all the
teacher can do. The position and influence of many teachers was summed up when


parents referred to them as “the library lady” or just “the helper”
Children tend to rely on concerned school friends to keep in touch with school work.
Several parents spoke of requests for work being ignored or, refused by the school. Once
back at school, children rarely get extra teaching, and are told to catch up as best they
can.
Many short-stay child-patients catch up quickly. But schools do very little to ease the
anxiety about falling behind expressed by many of the children interviewed.
1. The writer of this article points out that _______
A. every child in hospital receives some teaching
B. not enough is known about hospital teaching
C. hospital teaching is of poor quality
D. many children pass through hospital each year
2. This latest survey found that hospital teaching is provided _______
A. for the whole of the usual school day
B. in every children’s hospital in the country
C. for a small proportion of children
D. by full-time teachers
3. It seems that the children interviewed in hospital _______
A. liked having maths lessons regularly
B. wanted to play games most of the time
G. did not expect to receive any teaching

D. did not want any contact with their schools
4. It is suggested that most teachers of children in hospital were _______.
A. successful in getting the co-operation of parents
B. unable to get help from other hospital staff
C. unable to provide a proper teaching programme
D. in a position of great influence in the hospital
5. Some children in hospital are able to keep up with their school work because _______
A. the nurses try to teach them


B. their friends help them to do so
C. teachers from the school come to the hospital
D. their parents bring them books from the library
4. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
Before Felix arrived in Baghdad, Miss Bohun had arranged for him. to have lessons
with a Mr. Posthorn of the Education Office. Mr. Posthorn was a busy man; he not only
had his government job but also taught some Arab boys from a wealthy family who
hoped eventually to go to an English university. He had agreed to “fit Felix in his spare
time”, which meant that sometimes Felix went to Mr. Posthorn’s office and was told to
study this or that, and occasionally Mr. Posthorn managed to find a spare hour when he
dropped in to Miss Bohun’s and gave Felix some instruction. Most of Felix’s day was
spent in study in his bedroom. He knew he would not get far in this way and he knew
also that Mr. Posthorn would have been willing to give him more attention had he, like
Miss Bohun, not been disappointed in him Miss Bohun did not say or do anything that
gave Felix any clue as to how he had failed her, but Mr. Posthorn, after testing his
knowledge, said without hesitation, “What on earth have you been doing with yourself
since you left England?”
Felix explained that in Cairo he had taken lessons with an old English lady, an exgoverness to a royal family, who had taught him English composition, French, drawing,
geography and history. Unfortunately she had known less Greek, Latin and mathematics
than he had. His mother had treated lessons there as a joke, and said: “Never mind,

darling, when we return to England we’ll make up for lost time.”
“Your parents ought to have been ashamed of themselves, keeping up away from
school during the most important years of your life. I can’t understand it,” said Mr.
Posthorn, “Your father was an educated man, wasn’t he?”
Felix explained: “It wasn’t my father’s fault. Mother wouldn’t let me go back to
England when the war started. Father was angry, but Mother said: “If he goes I may not
see him again”
Mr. Posthorn said: “You’ll never make up for it,” but Felix, although he knew it to be


a serious matter, could not really care.
1. Before he arrived, Miss Bohun had arranged for Felix _______
A. to go to school in the Education Office
B. to have private lessons with some Arab boys
C. to study at home every morning
D. to be taught by someone who had another job
2. Felix did not feel the arrangements Miss Bohun had made were satisfactory because
_______.
A. he knew Miss Bohun was disappointed in him
B. his lessorfs were very irregular
C. he did not like Mr. Posthorn
D. he didn’t like studying at Miss Bohun’s
3. Felix’s lessons, before he came to stay with Miss Bohun, _______.
A. were shared with some children from a royal family
B. were not thought suitable by his father
C. had not covered some subjects properly
D. had frequently been interrupted by his mother
4. What did Mr. Posthorn think of Felix’s education?
A. He thought his father had not encouraged him enough.
B. He was surprised that Felix had managed to learn anything at all.

C. He thought Felix had wasted a great deal of valuable time.
D. He believed that Felix could catch up with the other boys later.
5. Why didn’t Felix go home to England when the war started?
A. His parents wanted to keep him with them.
B. His mother would not agree to his going.
C. His father intended to teach Felix himself.
D. He didn’t really want to go.
5. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
The elephants left the shade, crossed an open piece of grass between bushes, and


came towards the mud-pool when my truck was parked. One by one they arrived on the
shore, but, just as they seemed to be about to bathe in the inviting muddy liquid, they
became aware of the silent trunk with its telltale smell of man. The leading elephant
merely spread her ears and cautiously backed away taking the young elephants with her.
A smaller mother elephant continued to stand next to the pool, however, swinging her
long trunk and swaying her head from side to side, always keeping an eye on the trunk.
The baby elephant behind her held up his head, waving his trunk to sample the suspicious
smell in the wind. The mother elephant seemed to be uncertain about whether to come on
and investigate the truck or to back away with the others. Finally she made up her mind
and slowly advanced on the truck. Her ears were half out, and her trunk moved
inquiringly towards the vehicle and then back under her stomach in a rhythmic swing.
I was fascinated by this close approach. Never before had I been able to see the
hairiness around the jaw, nor smell the warm scent of elephant which now- reached me in
concentrated waves. The mother elephant’s steps were slow but determined, and brought
her to within a couple of metres of me.
She gave the impression of being intensely curious about this metal object which had
appeared in her world and behaved as if it were itself an animal. I wondered how far she
would accept the situation and, if after all the centuries of men killing elephants, she
would ever allow to approach her on foot. To be able to move freely among the elephants

without their minding was an exciting thought, but I certainly did not expect it would
ever be possible.
1. It had been the elephants’ intention to _______
A. feed on the grass

B. lie in the sunshine

C. swim in the pool

D. avoid the mud

2. The presence of the writer and his vehicle _______
A. was not noticed by the elephants
B. made the leading elephant suspicious
C. made the adult elephants curious
D. frightened all the elephants away


3. How did the smaller elephant react to the truck?
A. She showed more curiosity than the other elephants
B. She kept her baby away from it
C. After some hesitation she moved away with the other elephants
D. She rushed up to it excitedly
4. While he watched the mother elephant approaching, the author _______
A. was worried that the elephants were too close
B. found the smell very unpleasant
C. was impressed by the elephant’s size
D. saw details he had not noticed before
5. The author did not expect he would ever be able to _______.
A. shoot the elephants

B. touch the elephants
C. walk about freely near the elephants
D. drive his truck close to the elephants
6. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
It took policeman John Pooley only an hour or two to solve the Case of the
Thorpeness Burglary. It must be said, however, that the crime was not difficult. The
description, though slight, narrowed the number of persons likely to commit such a
crime... to one. Pooley, of course, knows everyone in the three villages in his care, and
their children. But after he had made the arrest - something he has to do more rarely than
once a month - he felt troubled because he not only knew the man, but also knew that he
had family problems.
John Pooley’s area is a very large one by police standards, and includes the three
villages of Middleton, Dunwich and Westleton, where he lives. With a total population of
1,219, he has more than twice as many people to look after as the average policeman has.
Moreover, he is attached to the Halesworth subdivision and is frequently given duties
outside his home area. After 15 years as a policeman, he accepts these duties without
question, but his villages are clearly where his heart and interest really lie. When he was


first sent to Westleton, he lived in the police house which was both his home and the
police station; when the system was changed, he bought the house where he now lives
with his wife, Ann, and his two daughters
He could hardly be better qualified for the job of village policeman. Before he joined
the police, he was an agricultural worker for five years and a male nurse in a mental
hospital for six years. He says: “If you haven’t had another job before you join the police,
you tend to think nothing but police”.
Crime in the country, of course, is somewhat different from city crime. Who was ever
attacked while walking along the village street in Middleton? The things which John
Pooley has to watch for are people stealing tools and equipment from farm vehicles, or
wood from the surrounding forests. There are natural dangers too: he is so worried about

the fire risk in he forests that he has turned his bedroom window into a look-out post.
1. Why was John Pooley able to solve the Case of the Thorpeness Burglary so easily?
A. He had been given a full description of the criminal
B. He knew the criminal extremely well
C. He knows everything that happens in the area
D. There was only one possible suspect
2. From what is said about John Pooley’s work, we learn that he _______.
A. is unpopular with the people in the villages
B. objects when he is given work outside his own area
C. prefer working in the villages of Middleton, Dunwich and Westleton
D. feels unhappy when he arrests anybody
3. John Pooley thinks he is well qualified for his job because _______
A. he had other jobs before he became a policeman
B. he has been a policeman for fifteen years
C. he has lived in Westleton all his life
D. he is a countryman at heart
4. Crime in this area if different from crime in a big city because _______
A. it is hardly ever violent


B. people here have more family problems
C. everyone knows the criminals
D. it is concerned with natural disasters
5. From the passage it appears that nowadays a village policeman, like John Pooley, has
to _______.
A. live in a village police house
B. put out forest fires
C. go through a long period of training
D. look after more people than policemen elsewhere
7. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.

Afred Wainwright told me that one day in November 1952 he decided to set himself a
new task. He would climb all the hills and mountains in the English Lake District and
keep a notebook and drawings of all the routes, just for his own enjoyment. He was by
then forty-five, with a full-time job, and he calculated that doing the 200 or so climbs in
his spare time would take him thirteen years, nearly up to his sixtieth birthday.
It was the publication of the new maps on the 1 to 25,000 scale which set off the idea.
He’d always felt disappointed by the 1 to 50,000 maps because of the lack of detail. On a
1 to 50,000 map a walker can be walking about all day in an area represented by 10
square centimetres. With the larger-scale maps, he has the impression of covering more
ground more quickly. He can move from the top of the map to the bottom in a day. He
wanted to check out the new, bigger-scale maps and fill in for himself details like fields
and walls.
‘I love maps. Maps have always been my favourite literature. I would always rather
study a map than read a book, even a map of a place I have never been to and never will.
Have you ever tried to draw a map? There’s nothing like it for real interest and
concentration. I like to follow streams up from the valley to their source, and if I cannot
do it on the ground I like to do it on maps. I like to stand on a mountain top and see the
valley below as on a map.”
“Sometimes I think I should have taken up map-making as a career, instead of which I


turned out to be an accountant, sitting in an office all day, with figures that passed in and
out of the mind. The figures that stay there permanently are the heights of mountains Scafell Pike 3,206, Bowfell 2,960 Pillar 2,927.”
1. In 1952 Alfred Wainwright decided to keep a notebook so that he would have
_______.
A. information for making maps
B. a new interest to concentrate upon
C. a record of his daily life
D. a place to note down figures
2. Why did Wainwright like the 1 to 25,000 maps?

A. They were easier to read
B. They encouraged people to check their routes
C. They gave more information
D. They showed small streams
3. On a day’s walk Wainwright likes to _______.
A. climb several mountains

B. walk along way very quickly

C. follow the course of streams

D. make maps of valleys

4. Why does Wainwright say he prefers maps to books?
A. He prefers drawing to writing
B. He likes being outdoors as much as possible
C. Travelling has taken up a lot of his time
D. Working out their meaning fascinates him
5. What does Wainwright have to do in his daily job?
A. Make plans and diagrams

B. Calculate figures

C. Climb mountains

D. Produce maps