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.
It is not difficult for me to guess why I developed a love of cats in my life. Cats
will let us love them, in fact they plainly wish us to, but they will not love us in
return, though many of us persuade ourselves that they do. On the other hand, they
do not pretend to return our feelings, nor do they make promises that they cannot
or will not keep.
I never saw my cat Tim hurry; nobody did, even when he catching mice, though
long before he died he had given up trying to do so. It was not that he was a lazy
cat; I think he had come to the conclusion that the mice had just as much right to
live as he had, and since they were not his enemies and he would have disliked
eating one, he could see no point in stretching out a soft paw to bring it down on a
struggling back.
He was proud but gentle; I remember as a child putting my finger to his mouth
to feel his warm breath, and despite the fact that he normally avoided showing
affection, he licked my finger slowly, so that I felt for the first time that curious
roughness that all cats’ tongues have.
He would never play in the ordinary sense, a ball on the end of a string he
ignored, and though he would occasionally go after one rolled across the floor he
would not, having caught it, repeat the action as soon as he realized it was only a
game. Nor would he never beg; it was beneath his dignity, and besides, his wants
were few.
Tim was the only cat I have ever known who understood what a mirror was. In
my grandfather’s shop there was a full-length mirror, too big and heavy to hang or
even fix, so it stood against the wall with its base a few inches out. All other cats I
have ever seen before a mirror were confused; they either failed to see their
reflection or, seeing it, would think it was another cat, and, after putting out an
exploratory paw, would run around behind the mirror, into the space made by the


angle at which it leaned against the wall. Tim was plainly aware that it was his own
self that he saw in it - but he did not need the mirror to tell him he was handsome;

it is generally only the man or woman who lacks confidence who needs constantly
to look in the mirror, and doubtless the same applies to cats.
1. The writer loves cats because they do not _______
A. deceive us about their feelings
B. care whether we love them
C. need much human company
D. need much looking after
2. The writer’s cat stopped catching mice because he _______
A. was too old to run

B. had other enemies

C. always had enough to eat

D. felt it was unfair

3. Why would the writer’s cat chase a ball only once?
A. He refused to play games.
B. He realized he could not eat it.
C. He preferred playing with other things.
D. He could not catch it.
4. The writer says that when most cats look in a mirror they _______.
A. understand that they were looking at themselves
B. enjoy looking at themselves
C. think there is another cat behind it ‘
D. hide behind it because they are afraid
5. The writer’s cat didn’t look in the mirror because he _______.
A. had seen his reflection many times
B. did not like looking at his reflection
C. lacked confidence

D. was content with his appearance


2. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
Like all growing plants, the potato is a product of the seamless cooperation of
sun, soil, temperature and water. However, while potatoes thrive on moisture, so,too, does the potato’s worst affliction, late blight. After attacking and blackening
the leaves, phytophthora infestans spores move down the stem, eventually reaching
and rotting the tubers in the ground. Even those potatoes harvested and stored may
carry the fungus and be wiped out.
The search for the cause of the blight that ruined the Irish plants in the 1840’s
and the Polish plants in 1980 preoccupied researchers for years. M.J.Berkeley, a
19th-century naturalist, first recognized that the fungus appearing on the potato
plants in 1845 in Ireland and elsewhere was not the result of the blight but the
cause. Working in Germany, another scientist, Henrich Anton de Bary, proved
Berkeley’s theory by identifying the fungus as an outgrowth on the host. It took
another hundred years, however, before the mystery of the origin of the fungus was
solved, and the pathogen itself was traced to central Mexico.
Late blight has traditionally been held in check with costly chemical fungicides.
Unfortunately, for many farmers, the chemicals are too expensive, if available at
all. Therefore today, identifying or creating blight-resistant potato species is the
major goal of agricultural researchers interested in late blight.
1. Where does late blight begin?
A. in the stems of potato plants

B. on the leaves of potato plants

C. in potatoes in the ground

D. in potatoes that are being stored

2. M.J. Berkeley is known for _______
A. discovering the cause of late blight
B. finding a treatment for late blight
C. understanding that the fungus was a result of late blight
D. recognizing that the blight in Ireland was the same as the blight in Germany


3. The work of Heinrich Anton de Bary supported the theory that _______
A. blight was a disease caused by potatoes
B. late blight caused a fungus
C. the cause of late blight was a fungus
D. German potato blight and Irish potato blight had different causes
4. Where did the fungus come from originally?
A. Ireland

B. Poland

C. Germany

D. Mexico

5. According to the passage, current research is primarily aimed at _______
A. finding types of potatoes not so affected by late blight
B. developing more effective chemical fungicides to fight late blight
C. developing less expensive chemical fungicides to fight late blight
D. discovering the cause of phytophthora infestans
3. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
Africa’s legendary pygmy elephant may be the largest unrecognized animal in
the world. In the past couple of years two German zoologists have built a strong
case for the existence of the six-foot-tall elephant as a separate species.

Zoologists currently accept the existence of only one species of African
elephant. This species, Loxodonta africana, consists of two subspecies, the 11-foot
savannah elephant of southern and eastern Africa and the smaller eight-foot forest
elephant found in central and western Africa. The pygmy elephant, on the other
hand, has been dismissed as nothing more than a Loxodonta juvenile.
However, a paper published in the German Journal of the Cologne Zoo details a
number of significant skull characteristics that distinguish this controversial
creature from others. Moreover, pygmy elephants are said to be much more
aggressive than the generally playful Loxodonta juveniles.
If pygmy elephants are juveniles, argue the German zoologists, how then can you
explain their fully grown tusks, the puberty of small female, and the presence of


entire pygmy herds? In fact, a set of colour slides taken by a former German
ambassador to the Congo depicts pygmy elephants together with their own
juveniles, as well as some other animals, providing an objective scale. Yet
zoologists remain skeptical.
“I’m convinced that there are small elephants running around the forest,” says
one elephant expert,” but I’m not certain yet what the explanation is. What we
need are some tissue or blood samples for biochemical analysis.”
1. The author’s purpose in writing this passage was to _______
A. describe Loxodonta africana
B. disprove the German zoologists’ claim
C. present the controversy about pygmy elephants
D. convince readers that small elephants are in the forest.
2. The German zoologists believe that pygmy elephants _______
A. are Loxodonta africana

B. are not Loxodonta africana

C. are juveniles

D. are generally playful

3. What evidence did the German zoologists use to support their theory?
A. differences in elephants’ skull features
B. general playfulness of Loxodonta
C. reports of aggressive Loxodonta juveniles
D. biochemical analysis of blood and tissue samples
4. What evidence came from the German ambassador to the Congo? Pictures
showing pygmy elephants _______
A. playing with Loxodonta juveniles
B. attacking Loxodonta juveniles
C. next to savannah and forest elephants
D. with their babies and other animals
5. What new evidence would determine the validity of the Germans’ claim?


A. photographs of mature and juvenile pygmy elephants
B. fully grown tusks from pygmy elephants
C. biochemical analysis of blood and tissue samples
D. detailed skull measurements of different elephant species.
4. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
Botanists and biomedical scientists have been collecting evidence for decades
that tannins, compounds of plant origin that are found in tea and red wine, can
cause cancer of the esophagus, which is almost always fatal. In 1962, they began to
investigate a fivefold increase in the rate of cancer of the esophagus among the
Bantu of Africa from 1943 to 1953
Soon after, they began to search for causes of the disease among the inhabitants of
Curacao and other Caribbean islands. Interviews with victims and surviving

relatives led them to suspect that something in the diet was causing the cancer.
Three of the dietary plants that they had collected produced tumours in 100 percent
of their experimental animals. The suspect plants were all native teas with
medicinal application. Though the plants were not related botanically, the one
thing they had in common was condensed tannin.
Tannins, like caffeine and nicotine, serve plants as defenses against insects and
other predators. Tannins were found in the sorghum that serves both the Bantu and
the people of Curacao as a dietary staple. The botanists theorized that a drought
had been indirectly responsible for the cancer epidemic among the Bantu, because
it forced them to rely more on tannin- rich sorghum, which is extremely drought
resistant, after their other staple crops died out.
While studies have shown that tannins produce liver cancer in lab animals,
human studies involving tannins so far have been only field observations, under
controlled conditions. Some scientists believe other factors, such as smoking and
drinking ethanol (beverage alcohol) also contribute to esophageal cancer in


humans.
1. According to the passage, where are tannins found?
A. in some plants like tea and sorghum
B. in animal tumours and liver cancers
C. in caffeine and nicotine
D. in human studies and field observation
2. According to the passage, in what way are tannins beneficial? They _______
A. give native teas medicinal applications
B. serve as a dietary staple
C. are very drought resistant
D. protect plants against insects
3. What do scientists think was the reason for the increase in esophageal cancer
among the Bantu?

A. They used too much caffeine and nicotine
B. They drank too much tea and red wine
C. Sorghum became a larger part of their diet
D. They began smoking and drinking alcohol.
4. What did scientists observe about the native teas they collected in the
Carribean?
A. They protected people from insects
B. They caused tumours to grow in lab animals
C. They were related botanically to sorghum
D. They were also found among the Bantu
5. When did the scientists begin to look for causes of esophageal cancer in
Curacao and the Caribbean?
A. shortly after 1962

B. shortly after 1953

C. between 1943 and 1953

D. between 1953 and 1962


5. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
The contract was finally signed and we moved one Saturday in June. A
carpenter cut the table, which had been originally constructed in a classroom, in
two, and took the bookcase apart. We lowered chairs on the end of a rope down
through a window into the street below and took down the bull-fighting poster only to find that Raphael, who had decorated the wall, had been conscientious
enough with our money not to paint underneath. As we carried crates of books
down the sixty-seven steps, I remembered our struggles up the stairs two years
earlier.
Soon the flat was empty, with even the carpet ripped up. We stood for a moment in

the deserted waiting room and then clattered finally down the steps.
At our new address in Shaftesbury Avenue, regulations made things difficult for
a lorry which was now loaded with chairs and tables. Our driver eventually parked
in a side street and we pulled the furniture up past a large shop-window. Saturday
afternoon crowds were in the streets and we had to be careful or chairs and tables
would have gone crashing down on their heads. As we were working a young man
I had never seen before, approached us and offered to help. He staggered up the
stairs with armful of books, and helped me carry up the heavy red reception desk.
When we had finished, I offered to pay him but he refused adamantly and vanished
into the crowd again like some visiting angel.
Until we got used to it, it seemed incredible that, with our resources, we were
now installed right in the centre of London. It made us feel like adventurers. In the
evening w sat in the sitting room and there was no need to put on the lights.
Opposite were the Apollo and Globe theatres; outside the lights and noise of
traffic. A man with a concertina was singing below us. There were shouts and then
the sound of feet running down the street. In the middle of so much life, it was like
being on an island, hidden yet seeing sheltered against the flood.


1. The first paragraph suggests the writer worked in _______.
A. a bookshop

B. a school

C. a doctor’s surgery

D. a theatre

2. Why did they need a carpenter when they moved?
A. Boxes had to be made for all their books

B. The furniture needed to be taken out through the windows
C. The broken furniture had to be repaired
D. Some of their furniture was too large to move as it was
3. What made the move particularly difficult?
A The lorry was not allowed to park in the most convenient place
B. The lorry was very full
C. The lorry crashed into a shop window
D. It was difficult to find their new address
4. Why does the writer call the young man an angel?
A. He was a friend who helped them enormously in the move
B. It was difficult to persuade him to accept payment for his help
C. He disappeared after helping them
D. The writer didn’t know who he was
5. Why does the writer describe their new place as like being on an island?
A. The theatres opposite were like lighthouses
B. They felt completely separated from the people and traffic surrounding them
C. Being in the very heart of London made the writer feel like an explorer
D. They were protected from the rain all round them.
6. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
A little more than a hundred years ago, a number of European scholars began to
record stories being told in peasant cottages and compile them into the first great
collections of European folk tales. Written evidence exists to prove that the folk


tales they recorded existed long before then, though. Collections of sermons from
the 12th to the 15th century show that medieval preachers knew of some of the same
stories as those recorded by the 19th century folklorists.
The collections of folk tales made in the late 19 th and early 20th centuries
provide a rare opportunity to make contact with the illiterate masses who have
disappeared into the past without leaving a trace. To reject folk tales as historical

evidence because they cannot be dated and situated with precision like other
historical documents is to turn one’s back on one of the few points of entry into the
previous centuries. But to attempt to penetrate that world is to face a daunting set
of obstacles, the greatest of which is the impossibility of listening in on the story
tellers. No matter how accurate they may be, the versions of the tales recorded in
writing cannot convey the effects that the storytellers must have used to bring the
stories to life: the dramatic pauses, the sly glances, the use of gestures to set
scenes, and the use of sounds to punctuate actions. All of those devices shaped the
meaning of the tales, and all of them elude the historian. He cannot be sure that the
limp and lifeless text he holds between the covers of a book provides an accurate
account of the performance that took place in earlier times.
1. The author believes that written versions of folk tales _______
A. changed dramatically from the 19th to the 20th cent
B. are valid historical documents.
C. show how illiterate the masses were before the 19th century.
D. should be rejected as historical evidence.
2. What problems of folk tale collections does the author discuss?
A. There is no way to tell which version of a story is the original system
B. They contain historical inaccuracies
C. They are used as historical evidence
D. They don’t preserve the original performance style of the storytellers


3. The author’s main purpose in the passage is to _______.
A. criticize historians who use folk tales as historical documents
B. argue that folk tales are authentic historical documents
C. convince readers that modern versions of folk tales are probably not the
same as the originals
D. explain why historians must study the illiterate masses of the past
4. According to the passage, peasant folklore was recorded by _______.

A. 19th century folklorists
B. 19th century preachers
C. historians in the 12th to 15th centuries
D. 19th century peasants
5. The author talks about “limp and lifeless” texts because _______.
A. the original texts have been damaged
B. the texts do not reveal how the storytellers presented their folk tales
C. some of the texts are no longer relevant to historians
D. the texts provide an accurate account of life in earlier times.
7. Hãy đọc đoạn văn sau và chọn câu trả lời tốt nhất trong số A, B, C và D.
LETTER TO THE NEWPORT EVENING NEWS
On Saturday afternoon I left my handbag on the bus. In it were my cheque
book, address book and my purse, which contained about $ 50 in cash and some
credit cards. When I realized what I had done, it was too late, I didn’t know what
to do: I’m 72 years old, I was a long way from home, and I was quite worried. In
fact, I stood by the side of the road and just cried A young man asked me what was
wrong and I explained what had happened to me. He gave me some money for my
bus fare home. When I told the bus driver what had happened he said I should keep
the fare.
I got home safely and the telephone rang soon after. It was the manager of


CityBus, the company that owned the bus on whih I had left my handbag. He said
that they had my handbag and he offered to drive over to return it. I got my
handbag back, amazingly with all its contents untouched. I would just like to say
how wonderful everybody was who helped me on that day, and how much I
appreciate their kindness and honesty.
Mrs. B. James, Newport.
1. What is the writer trying to do in the letter?
A. make a complaints

B. show her thanks

C. report a theft

D. make an enquiry

2. What will the reader learn from the letter?
A. You should not carry mush cash in a handbag
B. Travelling by bus is too difficult when you are old
C. There are some kind people in Newport
D. You should always have the correct bus fare
3. How did the writer feel after her experience?
A. surprised that nothing was stolen
B. annoyed that the local bus service is inconvenient
C. afraid to travel on her own again
D. worried about how to repay the bus driver
4. Why did the writer cry?
A. She was late

B. She was lost

C. She was poor

D. She was anxious

5. What would be a good headline for the letter?
A. WOMAN CATCHES WRONG BUS AND IS LOST FAR AWAY FROM
HOME
B. Woman’s handbag missing, containing cash and cheque book. Have you

seen it?


C. Woman’s bad day has a happy ending
D. WOMAN LOSES EVERYTHING. What is happening to our society?