bộ đề IELTS reading cam 9-11 chứa bộ từ vựng trọng tâm

tcc neu 25-26

1. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading

Passage 1 below,

William Henry Perkin

The man who invented synthetic dyes

William Henry Porkin was born on
March 12, 1838, in London, England.

As a boy, Perkins curiosity prompted
early Interests in the ars, sciences,
photography, and engineering. But it was
chance stumbling upon a run-down,

yet functional, laboratory in his late
randfathers home that solidified the
young man's enthusiasm for chemistry

As a student at Ihe City of London Scho
Perkin became immersed In the study of
chemistry. His talent and devotion to the
subject were porceived by his teacher,
Thomas Hall, who encouraged him to
attend a series of leetures given by the
eminent scientist Michael Faraday at the
Royal Institution. Those speeches fred
the young chemists enthusiasm further,
and ho later went on to attend the Royal
College of Chemistry, which he suceeded
in ontering in 1853, at the ago of 15.

‘At the time of Perkins enrolment, the
Royal College of Chemistry was headed
by the noted German chemist August
Wilhelm Hofmann. Porkin's scientific
silts soon caught Hoftnanns attontion
and, within two years, he became
Hofmann’s youngest assistant. Not long
after that, Perkin made the scientific
breakthrough that would bring him both
fame and fortune,

At the timo, quinine was the only viable
medical troatment for malaria, The
drug is derived from the bark of the
dmchona tree, native to South Amorica,
and by 1856 demand for the drug was
surpassing the available supply. Thus,
when Hofmann mado some passing
comments about the desirability of a
synthetic substitute for quinine, it was
unsurprising that his star pupil was
moved to take up the challenge.

During his vacation in 1856, Perkin
spent his time in the laboratory on the
top Moor of his family’s house, Ho was
attempting to manufacture quinine
from aniline, an inexpensive and readily
available coal tar waste product. Despite
his best efforts, however, he did not end
up with quinine. Instead, he produced a
mysterious dark sludge. Luckily, Perkin's
sciontific training and nature prompted
him to investigate the substance further:
Incorporating potassium dichromate and
alcohol into the aniline at various stages.
of the experimental process, he finally
produced a deep purple solution. And
proving the truth of the famous scientist
Louis Pastour's words ‘chance favours
only the prepared mind’, Perkin saw the
potential of his unexpected find,

4. on Questions 1-13, w

6 based on Reading

THE STORY OF SILK

The history of the world’s most luxurious fabric,
from ancient China to the present day

k isa fino, smooth material produced

from the cocoons = soft protective shells

~ that are made by mulberry silkworm

(insect larvae). Legend has it that it was
Lei Tau, wife of the Yellow Emperor;
ruler of China in about

discovered sil

000 BC, who

worn, One account ofthe
i taking a walk

in her husband' gardens, she d

that sky sponsible for the

destruction of several mulberry trees. She

collected a number of cocoons and

down toh

a rest. I just so happened
that while she was sipping
‘of the cocoons that she had collected
janded in the hot tea and started to
into a fine thread. Lei Tzu found
she could wind this thread around her
Subsequently, she persuaded her
ona grove of mulberry tre also
devised a special reel to draw the fibres
from the cocoon into a single thread so
that they would be strong enough to be
woven into fabric. While iis unknown
just how much of this is true, it is certainly
known that silk cultivation has existed in
China for several millennia,

Originally illavorm farming was solely
restricted to women, and it was they
who were responsible for the growing,
harvesting and weaving. Silk quickly gre
into a symbol of status, and originally
royalty were entitled to have clothes
made of silk. The rules were gradually
relaxed over the years until finally during,
the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD), even
peasants, the lowest caste, were also,
entitled to wear silk. Sometime during the
Han Dynasty (206 BC
so prized that it
currency. Government officials were paid
their salary in silk, and farmers paid their
taxes in grain and silk Silk was also used
as diplomatic gifts by the emperor. Fishing
lines, bowstrings, musical instrumen
and paper were all made using silk. The
earliest indication of silk paper being use
was discovered in the tomb of a noble
no is estimated to have died around
168 AD.

Demand for this exotic fabric eventually
‘created the lucrative trade route now
known as the Silk Road, taking sill
westward and bringing gold, silver and

8. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below

COLLECTING AS A HOBBY

Collecting must be one of the most varied Some may spend thei whole lives in a
OF human activities, and ts one that many hunt for ths, Psychologically, he can give
‘of us psychologists ind fazeinating. Many a purpose to a life that oth
forms o collecting have been digeifed aimless. There isa danger though, that
with technical name: anarchtophiist ifthe individual is ever lucky enough to
Collects teddy bears, aphilatelst collects find what they're looking or rather than
postage stamps, and à deltlocis celebrating their success, they may foo
Coleds postcards Amassing hundreds or empty, now thatthe goal that drove thom
ven thousands of pestcards chocolate 。 on has gone.
‘wrappers or whatever, takes time, energy
and money that could surely be put to
much more productive use. And yet there stamps, another
sre milions of collectors around the world. it or, perhaps, a result of collecting - is
Why do they doit? its educational value. Stamp collecting
There are the people who collect because to the plants, animals, or famous people:
they wart to make money = this could be shown on their stamps, Similarly inthe
called an instrumental reason for colecting; 19° century, many collectors amassed
thats, collecting as a means to anend. fossi, animals and plants fom around
They look for say, antiques that they the globe, and their collections provided
can buy cheaply and expect tc be able à vast amount of information about the
Lo sel ata pret, But there may wellbe 2 natural world, Without those collections,
peyenel buying cheap our understanding would be greatly inferior
and seling dear can give the collectors towhat tis.
Sense of triumph. And as selling online is so
16096 more and more people are joining in， Inthe past ~ and nowadays, too, thot
to a lesser extent ~a popular form of
Many collectors colectto develop their collecing, particularly among boys
attending meetings ofa group — and mer, was trainspotting. This might
lectors end exchanging information 。 involve tying to see every locomotive of a
toms This is varianton joining» particular type, using published data that
bridge club or a gym, and smilarly brings identifies each one, and ticking off each
hem into contact wth ike-minded people. engine as itis seen. Transpotters exchange
information, these days often by mobile
Another motive for collecting isthe desire. phone, so they can work out where to go
(0 ind something special, ora particular to, to see a particular engine. As a by
‘example ofthe collected item, such as a product, many practitioners of the hobby
(are var recording by a particular singer. become very knowledgeable about rit

11. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading

Passage 1 below.

Cork

ie thiek bark ofthe cork oak
rcus suber) ~is a romarkable

material. 1115 tough, elastic buoyant,

and fire-resistant, and suitable for a

Wide rango of purposes, It ha

been used for millennia: the a

Egyptians sealod their sarcophagi

{stone coffins) with cork, while

ancient Greeks and Romans u

for anything from bechives to san

‘And the cork oak itself is an

rdinary tre. Is bark grow
cm in thickness, insulating

the tree like à coat wrapped around

the trunk and branches and keoping

the inside at a constant 20°C all year

round. Developed most probably as

a defence against forest Ares. à

back of the cork oak has a

cellular structure - with about

40 million cells per cubic centimotre ~

hat technology has never succoode

in replicating. The cells are filled with

air, which is why cork 15 90 buoyant.

I also has an elastiity that me

you ean squash it and wateh it

back to its original size and s

Portugal, Spain, als, Greece and
Morocco, They flourish in
Himates where there is a minimum of
400 millimetres of rain per year, and
not more than 800 millimetres. Like
rape vines, the trees thrive in poor
Sol, putting down deep roots in search
moisture and nutrients. Southern
Portugal's Alentejo rogion meets all 0
these requirements, which oxplains
why. by the early 20th century, this
on had become the world’s largest
accounts for roughly half of al cork
production around the world

cork forests are family-owned,
ofthese family businesses, and
indeed many of the trees thems
are around 200 years old. Cork
production ls above all, an exorc
patienc the planting of a
sapling to the first harvest takes
years, and a gap of approximately a
‘decade must separate harvests from
an individual tree. And for top-quality
to wait a further
u even have to wait

do
a day when it's too cold - or when the
air is damp - tho tee will be dam:

14. You should spend about 20 minutes tions 1-13, which are based on Reading

Passage 1 bel

Crop-growing skyscrapers

By tho year 2050, nearly 80% of buildings in which food erops are
the Earth's population will live in grown in environmentally controlled
turban centres. Applying the most conditions, Situated in the heart o
conservative estimates to current turban centres, they would drastically
demographic trends, the human reduce the amount of transportation
population will increase by about required to bring food to consumers,
three billion people by then, An Vertical farms would neod to be
estimated 10” hectar efficient, cheap to construct and
(about 20% larger than Brazil) will be /7” safe to operate. If successfully
needed to grow enough food to 1660. 。 implemented, proponents claim
them, iftraditional farming meth« vertical farms offer tho promise
re practised today. ofurban renowal, sustainable
ghout the world, production ofa safe and va
wer 80% of the land that issultable food supply (through year
for raising crops is in uso, Historically, production of a
some 15% of that has been laid waste eventual r stems that
by poor management practices, What have been sacrificed for horizontal
can be done to ensure enough food farming.
for the world's population to live on?
took humans 10,000 years to
‘The concopt of indoor farming is learn how to grow most of the crops
nce hothouse production we now take for granted. Along the
and other produce has ay, we despoiled most of the land
in vogue for somo timo, What worked, often turni
js new is the urgent need to scale natural ecozones into semi-arid
up this technology to accomn deserts. Within that same time fr
another three billion people. Many ve evolved into an urban species, in
eve an entirely new approach to which 60% of the human populati
mploying now lives vertically in cities. This
nologies. One such means that, for the majority, we
proposal is for the ‘Vertical Farm’ humans have shelter from the
‘Tho concept Is of multi-storey elements, yet we subject our food

+

17. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.

The History of Glass

From our earliest origins, man has been ability inthe making of glass botes, a
making use of glas. Historians have many ofthe ven len aly to
discovered that a type of natural glass sel up lassworks througout Europe.
‘obsidian = formed inp
‘the mouth ofa voleano as a result of A major milestone in the history of ala

the intense heat of an eruption melting occurred with the invention of lead er
Sand was first used a tips for spears lass by the Engl hufseturer
Archacologists have even found evidence a 683) He

of manmade glass which dates bneleto attempted to counter the effect of
1000 BC: this took the form of glaves used clouding that sometimes occurred in

for coaling stone beads. It was not until low glass by introducing lead to the raw
1500 BC, however, that the first hollow materials used in the process. The new
ass container was made by coverin lass he created was softer and easter
Sand core with a layer of molten glass. to decorate, and had a higher refractive
adding to its brillance and beauty

Glass blowing became the most common and i proved invaluable o the optical

way to make glass containers from the industry. It is thanks to Ravenscr

first century BC. The glass made during invention that optical lenses, astronomical
this time was highly coloured dueto the telescopes, microscopes and the like
Smputities ofthe raw material. In the became possible

‘century AD, methods of ereating
colourless glass were developed, which In Britain, the modern glass industry only
‘as then tinted by the addition of really started to de

colouring materials The secret of glass ofihe

making was taken across Europe by the time, heavy taxes had been placed on the
Romans during this century. However, amount of glass melted ina glasshouse
they guarded the skills and technology and were levied continuously from
required to make glass very closely, and 1745 to 1845. Joseph Paxton Crystal
it was not until their empire collapsed Palace at London's Great Exhibit
in 476 AD that glass- making knowledge 1851 marked the beginning of glass as a
became widespread throughout Europe material used in Ue building industry. This
and the Middle Bast. From the 1h revolutionary new building encouraged
Century onwards, the Venetians gained athe use of glass in public, domestic
Feputation for technical skill and artistic and horticultural architecture. Glass

20. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.

The life and work of Marie Curie

Marie Curie is probably the most famous woman
scientist who has ever lived, Born Maria Sklodowska
in Poland in 1867, she is famous for her work on
radioactivity, and was
Prize With her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri
Becquerl, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for
Physics, and was then sole winner of he 1911 Nobel
Prize for Chemistry. She was the first women to
Nobel Prize.

From childhood, Marie was remarkable for her

ous memory and at the age of 16 won 2 gold

medal on completion of her secondary education, Be
1000 investment, she then had to take
finance her sister Bronias medical studies in Paris on the understanding that
tum, later help her to get an education

In 1891 this promise was fulfilled and M ce
Sorbonne (the University of Pais). She often worked far into the night and Ih
than bread and butter and tea. She came fist In the examination in the physical sciences in
1693, and in 1894 was placed second in the examination in mathematica Sciences, It was not
until the spring ofthat year that she was introduced to Pierre Cure,

Their mariage in 1895 marked the start of a partnership that was soon to achieve results of
word significance. Following Henri Becquerel' discovery In 18 -nomenon, which
Marie later called ‘radioactivity, Marie Curie decided to find out if the radioactvty discovered
in uranium was to be found in other elements. She escoveres that this was true for thorium.

Turning her attention to mineral St drawn to pitchblende, a mineral
whose radioactivity, superior to that of pure uranium, could be explained only by the presence
in the ore of small quantities of an unknown substance of very high activity. Pierre Curie joined
her nthe work that she had undertaken to resolve this problem, and that ld tothe discovery
‘ofthe new elements, polonium and radium, While Pierre Curie devoted himself chiefly to
the physical study ofthe new radiations, Marie Curie struggled to obtain pure radium in the
metal state. This was achieved with the help of the chemist André-Lovis Debierne, one o

24. end about 2
g Passage 1

which are based on

A millennium ago, stepwells were fundamental to life in the driest
parts of India. Richard Cox travelled to north-western India to
document these spectacular monuments from a bygone era

During the sixth and soventh centuries
the inhabitants of the modern-day
tates of Gujarat and Rajasthan in

a
drinking, bathing, watering animals and
irrigation, However, the significance
ofthis invention - the stepwell - goes

beyond its utilitarian application

de

Most stepwells are found dotted
the desert areas of Gujarat (where th
are called var) and Raja
they are called aor while afew ala)
survive in Delhi: Some were located in

than (where

community: others were positioned beside

As their name suggests, stepwells

개 티아 oures Inormally an underground
Aquifer) as it recedes following the rains.
When oser

‘ould have o bo negotiated.

Some wells are vast, open craters with

paving each sloping
sido, often in tiers. Others are more

claborate, with long stepped passages

lading thats ins

they also included pavilions that sheltered
tors from the relentless heat. But
perhaps the most impressive feature
are the intricate decorative sculptures
that embellish many stepwells, showing
tivities from fighting and dancing to
everyday acts such as women combin
their hair or churning butter
Down the centuries, thousands of wells
were constructed throughout north
western India, but the majority have now
fallen into disuse; many are derelict and
dry, as groundwater has been diverted
for industrial use and the wells no long:
ach the water table. Their condition

26. Questions 1-5
Do the folowing statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 17
In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write

it the statement agrees w the information

FALSE ifthe statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1 Examples of ancient stepwWellscan be found allover the wond
Stepwells had a range of functions, in addition to those related k
The few exiting slepwels in Delhi are more atactiv than those found elsewhere.

It took workers many years to build the stone steps characteristic of stepwell.

‘The numberof stps above he walr ev na siapwe aerod dung the couse,
a

Questions 6-8
Answer ho questions below.

(Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage foreach answer.
Me your answers in boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet.

6 Which part of some stepwells provided shade for people?
7 Mal yp o serious mal eve. which tok place in sonar
‘mentioned in the 21001

drought

8 "Whoare frequent visitors to stepwells nowadays? lou

28. You should spend about 20 minut
Passage 3 below.

on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading

The history of the tortoise

If you go back far enough, everything lived
In the sea. At various points in evolutionary
history, enterprising individuals within
‘many different animal groups moved out
onto the land, sometimes even to the
most parched deserts, taking their own
private seawater with them in blood and

lular Aids, In addition to the reptiles,
birds, mammals and insects which we

e all around us, other groups that have

ueceeded out of water include scorpions,
snails, crustaceans such as woodlice and

ind crabs, milipedes and centipedes,
splders and various worms. And we
mustn’ forget the plants, without whose
prior invasion ofthe land none of th
‘migrations could have happened.

Moving from water to land invoh
major redesign of every aspect of lite,
including breathing and reproduct
Nevertheless, a good number of
‘thoroughgoing land animals later turned
around, abandoned their hard-camed
terrestrial retooling, and retumed to.
{he water again. Scals have only gone
part way back. They
intermediates
the way to extreme cases such as whales
‘and dugongs. Whales (including the small
‘whales we call dolphins) and dugongs
With their close cousins the manatees,
ceased to be land creatures altogether
ed to the fll marine habits of

w us what the

ight have been like, on

their remote ancestors, They dontew
‘came ashore to breed. They do, how
stil breathe air, having never developed
anything equivalent to the gils of their
‘earlier marine incarnation, Turtles went
back to the sea avery long time ago and,
like al vertebrate returnees to the water,
breathe air. However, they are in one

es.

lence that all modem
cd from a terrestrial
à before most of the

called Proganochelys quenstedti and
talampayensis dating
hich appear

turtles and tortoises. You might wonder
san tell whether fossil animals

its obvious. Ichthyosaurs were reptilian
contemporaries ofthe dinosaurs, with fins
and streamlined bodies, The fossils look
like dolphins and they surely lived lke
dolphins, in the water, With turtles itis a
Little less obvious. One way to tell is by
measuring the bones oftheir forelimbs
ter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier,
at Yale University, obtained three
‘measurements in these particular bones

32. You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on

Reading Passage 1 below

The megafires of California

Drought, h

ousing expansion, and oversu)

oply of tinder make for

bigger, hotter fires in the western United States

Wildfires are becoming an increasing
menace in the western United States,

ith Southern California being the
hardest hit area. There's a reason fre
squads battling more frequent blazes
in Southern California are having such

the flames, despite

better preparedness than ever and
deca fighting fi
fanned by the ‘Santa Ana Winds". The
‘wildfires themselves, experts say, are
generally hotter, faster, and spread more
‘erratically than in the past.

the size of the average forest fre of
Years ago. Some recent wildfires are
among the biggest ever in California in
terms of acreage burned, according to
state figures and news reports

‘One explanation for the trend to
more superhot fires is that the region,
which usually has dry summers, has had

normal precipitation

ickly as possible.

‘Tho unintentional consequence has

been to halt the natural eradication of
underbrush, now the primary fuel for
megañres.

"Three other factors contribute to the
trond, they add. First is climate change,
marked by a 1-degree Fahrenheit rise in
average yearly temperature across the
western states. Second is fre seasons
that on average are 78 days longer
than they were 20 years ago. Third.
is increased construction of homes in
‘wooded areas.

‘We are increasingly building our
homes in fre-prone ecosystems,’ says
Dominik Kulakowski, adjunct professor
of biology at Clark University Graduate
School of Geography in Worcester,
Massachusetts. ‘Doing that in many
of the forests of the western US is like
building homes on the side of an active
volcano.

In California, where population
growth has averaged more than 600,000
a year for at least a decade, more
residential housing is being built. What
‘once was open space is now residential
homes providing fuel to ma)
burn with greater intensity,’ says Terry
McHale of the California Department

Forestry firefighters’ union,

36. You should spend about 20 minutos on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading

Passage 2 below.

THE FALKIRK WHEEL

A unique engineering achievement

Falkirk Wheel in Scotland is the
10005 first and only rotating boat lift.
Opened in 2002, itis contralto the
ambitious £84.5m Millennium Link project
to restore navigabilty across Scotland by
connecting the historic waterways of the
‘orth & Clyde and Union Canals

The major challenge of the project lay in

fact that the Forth & Clyde Canal is
situated 35 metres below the level of the
Union Canal, Historically, the two canals
had been joined near the town of Falkirk
by a sequence of 11 locks = enclosed

tions of canal in which the water level
could be raised or lowered - that stepped
down across a distance of 1.5 km. This had
been dismantied in 1933, thereby breaking
the link. When the project was launched
in 1994, the British Waterways authority
wore keen to create a dramatic twenty-first.
century landmark which would not only be
a fiting commemoration of the Millennium,
but also lasting symbol of the economic
regeneration of the region.

Numerous dens were submited forthe
project, mcvdng concepts ranging for
fling 60919 tin tanks fom slot soe
sano lo orethead monorails The eventual
Sinner asa plan forthe huge ovat
Sea boot which wast become The
Falk Wheel The ungue hope othe
sucre le daimad to have ben inspred
natural mos! neably a Cl double

headed axe, but also the vast turning
2 hip, the ribcage of a thal

‘one giant toy bu

Engineerings Steck y
some 400 km from Falkirk. teom there
carefully assembled the 1,200 tonnes

of steel, painstakingly fiting the pieces
together to an accuracy of ust 10 mm to
ensure a perfect final fit In the summer of
2001, the structure was then dismantled
‘and transported on 35 lorries to Falkirk,
before al being bolted back together
again on the ground, and finaly ed into
position in five 1

Wheel would need to withstand immense
‘and constantly changing stresses as it
rotated, so to make the structure mere
robust, the steel sections were bolted
rather than violded together. Over 45,000
bolt holes were matched with their bots,
and each bolt was hand-tightened,

The Wheel consists of two sets of opposing
axe-shaped arms, attached about 25
metres apart to a fixed central spine.

Two dismetvcally opposed water il
‘gondolas’, each with a capacity of 260.000
litres, are fitted between the ends of the
arms. These gondolas always weigh the
same, whether or not they are camping
boats, This is because, according
Archmedes' pincpl ofdeplacement

40. Questions 1-13, which aro bas

Raising the Mary Rose

of Wight. Among
rship by the

(gy Rose, Built in Portsmouth
years earlier, she had had à lo
hling career, and was

ig Henry Vill Accounts

crew. What
that the Mary
into the Solent that day, t

atleast 500 men with her. After the batle。

recover the ship,

board (right) side
atan angle of approximately 60 0

The hul (Ihe body of the ship) acted as
2 Wap for the sand and mud carried by
Solent currents. As a

side filed rapidly, leaving the

Port (let) side to be eroded by marine
organisms and mechanical degradation.
Because of the way the ship sank, nearly

recovered from the seabed

all of the starboard half survived intact
During the seventeenth and eighteenth
Centuries, the entire site became cover
wath a layer of hard grey clay, which

Then, on 16 June 1836, some fishermen
in the Solent found that their equipment
‘was caught on an underwater obstruction,
which turned out to be the Mary Rose.
Diver John Deane happened to be
exploring another sunken ship nearby
‘and the fishermen approached him,
asking him to free their gear. Deane dived
down, and found the equipment caught
on a timber protruding slightly from the
ring further, he uncovered
ral other timbers and a bronze
gun. Deane continued diving on the
site intermittently unt 1840, recovering
several more guns us, various.
timbers, part of a pump and various other
small finds.

then faded into obscurity
rs. But in 1965,

hile on paper
plan to examine a number of
known wrecks in the Solent, what McKee