Đề số 38 - Đề thi thử THPT Quốc Gia môn Tiếng Anh:  In the United States, the first third of the twentieth century saw the workweek move from 60 hours per week to just under 50 hours by...

(225228) Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

According to anthropologists, people in pre-industrial societies spent 3 to 4 hours per day or about 20 hours per week doing the work necessary for life. Modern comparison of the amount of work performed per week, however, began with the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) when 10 to 12-hour workdays with six workdays per week were the norm. Even with extensive time devoted to work, however, both incomes and standards of living were low. As incomes rose near the end of the Industrial Revolution, it became increasingly common to treat Saturday afternoons as a half-day holiday. The half- day holiday had become standard practice in Britain by the 1870s, but did not become common in the United States until the 1920s.

 In the United States, the first third of the twentieth century saw the workweek move from 60 hours per week to just under 50 hours by the start of the 1930s. In 1914 Henry Ford reduced daily work hours at his automobile plants from 9 to 8. In 1926 he announced that henceforth his factories would close for the entire day on Saturday. At the time, Ford received criticism from other firms such as United States Steel and Westinghouse, but the idea was popular with workers.

 The Depression years of the 1930s brought with them the notion of job sharing to spread available work around; the workweek dropped to a modem low for the United States of 35 hours. In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act mandated a weekly maximum of 40 hours to begin in 1940, and since that time the 8-hour day, 5-day workweek has been the standard in the United States. Adjustments in various places, however, show that this standard is not immutable. In 1987, for example, German metalworkers struck for and received a 37.5-hour workweek; and in 1990 many workers in Britain won a 37-hour week. Since 1989, the Japanese government has moved from a 6 to a 5-day workweek and has set a national target of 1,800 work hours per year for the average worker. The average amount of work per year in Japan in 1989 was 2,088 hours per worker, compared to 1,957 for the United States and 1,646 for France.

Question 1: What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. Why people in preindustrial societies worked few hours per week

B. Changes that have occurred In the number of hours that people work per week

C. A comparison of the number of hours worked per year in several industries

D. Working conditions during the Industrial Revolution

Question 2: Compared to preindustrial times, the number of hours in the workweek in the nineteenth century

A. remained constant

B. decreased slightly

C. decreased significantly

D. increased significantly

Question 3: The word "henceforth” in line 11 is closest in meaning to

A. in the end

B. for a brief period

C. from that time on

D. on occasion

Question 4: The "idea” mentioned in line 13 refers to

A. the 60-hour workweek

B. the reduction in the cost of automobiles

C. the reduction in the workweek at some automobile factories

D. the criticism of Ford by United States Steel and Westinghouse

Question 5: What is one reason for the change in the length of the workweek for the average worker in the United States during the 1930’s?

A. Several people sometimes shared a single job.

B. Labor strikes in several countries influenced labor policy in the United states.

C. Several corporations increased the length of the workweek.

D. The United States government instituted a 35-hour workweek.

Question 6: Which of the following is mentioned as one of the purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Art of 1938?

A. To discourage workers from asking for increased wages

B. To establish a limit on the number of hours in the workweek      

C. To allow employers to set the length of the workweek for their workers

D. To restrict trade with countries that had a long workweek

Question 7: The word "immutable” in line 18 is closest in meaning to

A. unmatched                B. irregular

C. unnecessary              D. unchangeable

Mark the tetter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is CLOSEST in meaning to the sentence(s) given in each of the following questions.

Question 8: "You should have returned the book to me before I asked you to”, the girl said to her younger brother.

A. The girl blamed her younger brother for returning the book late.

B. The girl advised her younger brother to return the book early.

C. The girl told her younger brother to return the book when she asked.

D. The girl wanted to have the book returned to her younger brother soon.

Question 9: You are breaking up a bit. I will call you back.

A. I can’t understand why you’re breaking up a bit, so I will call back.

B. I will call back to know why you two are breaking up.    

C. I will call you back because I can’t hear you clearly.

D. I will call back to say goodbye.

Question 10: It’s my shout this time! Waitress!

A. I will shout at the waitress.

B. I will pay for the drinks.

C. I have to call the waitress loudly.

D. The waitress does not seem to hear me well.

Question 11: Our company holds the monopoly over the import of these chemicals.

A. Our company is one of the few companies allowed to import these chemicals.

B. Ours is the only company allowed to import these chemicals.

C. All companies but ours are allowed to import these chemicals.

D. These exported chemicals are held by our company, which is monopoly.

Question 12: "Go on, Susan! Apply for the job,” the father said.

A. The father forced Susan to apply for the job.

B. The father asked Susan to applying for the job.

C. The father wanted Susan not to apply for the job.

D. The father encouraged Susan to apply for the job.

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.

Question 13:

A. cursed                      B. ragged

C. sacred                      D. compiled

Question 14:

A. desperate                  B. irritate

C. grateful                     D. frustrate

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to choose the word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks.

Since the time of Nostradamus, meteorologists have been trying to decipher the mystery of climatic changes. Their objective has been to be able to precisely (15)______ the weather for the days to come. In the past, meteorologists looked skywards to find hints in the clouds. At present, their eyes are directed at the spots (16)______the most intriguing climatic transformations (17)______ about, namely, the ultimate depths of the oceans where swirls, whirlpools and waves generate the patterns for the future weather.

The most efficient way of (18)_____ hold of the ever changing map of the swirling currents circulating their heat around the planet is from space. Weather satellites equipped (19)_____complicated instruments examine the surface and the bottom of the oceans and determine the exact height of water. The impressive advantage offered by satellite scanning is that measurements can be (20)_____even in the most inaccessible parts of the oceans and can provide daily pictures of the water surface together with the calculated wave height and wind speed.

Question 15:

A. unravel                     B. perceive

C. forecast                    D. explore

Question 16:

A. when                        B. where 

C. what                         D. why

Question 17:

A. come                        B. turn

C. bring                         D. get

Question 18:

A. getting                      B. coming

C. finding                       D. making

Question 19:

A. by                            B. with

C. in                             D. of

Question 20:

A. done                      B. formed

C. fulfilled                   D. taken

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three in the position of the primary stress in each of the following questions.

Question 21:

A. emotional               B. capacity 

C. opinion                   D. instrument

Question 22:

A. documentary             B. contemporary 

C. complementary         D. contradictory

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Question 23: A good auditorium will ensure that the sound is able to be heard.

A. illegitimate             B. inedible

C. inaudible                D. illegible

Question 24: In spite of his being tortured, the captured soldier did not reveal the location of the camp.

A. divert                      B. conceal 

C. digress                    D. divulge

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions.

The Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States was responsible for sweeping changes in attitudes toward the decorative arts, then considered the minor or household arts. Its focus on decorative arts helped to induce United States museums and private collectors to begin collecting furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, and textiles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fact that artisans, who were looked on as mechanics or skilled workers in the eighteenth century, are frequently considered artists today is directly attributable to the Arts and Crafts Movement of the nineteenth century. The importance now placed on attractive and harmonious home decoration can also be traced to this period, when Victorian interior arrangements were revised to admit greater light and more freely flowing spaces.

The Arts and Crafts Movement reacted against mechanized processes that threatened handcrafts and resulted in cheapened, monotonous merchandise. Founded in the late nineteenth century by British social critics John Ruskin and William Morris, the movement revered craft as a form of art. In a rapidly industrializing society, most Victorians agreed that art was an essential moral ingredient in the home environment, and in many middle- and working-class homes, craft was the only form of art. Ruskin and his followers criticized not only the degradation of artisans reduced to machine operators, but also the impending loss of daily contact with handcrafted objects, fashioned with pride, integrity, and attention to beauty.

In the United States as well as in Great Britain, reformers extolled the virtues of handcrafted objects: simple, straightforward design; solid materials of good quality; and sound, enduring construction techniques. These criteria were interpreted in a variety of styles, ranging from rational and geometric to romantic or naturalistic. Whether abstract, stylized, or realistically treated, the consistent theme in virtually all Arts and Crafts designs is nature.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was much more than a particular style; it was a philosophy of domestic life. Proponents believed that if simple design, high-quality materials, and honest construction were realized in the home and its appointments, then the occupants would enjoy moral and therapeutic effects. For both artisan and consumer, the Arts and Crafts doctrine was seen as a magical force against the undesirable effects of industrialization.

Question 25: The passage primarily focuses on nineteenth-century arts and crafts in terms of which of the following?      

A. Their naturalistic themes

B. Their importance in museum collection

C. Their British origin

D. Their role in an industrialized society

Question 26: It can be Inferred from the passage that the Arts and Crafts Movement would have considered all of the following to be artists EXCEPT

A. creators of textile designs

B. people who produce handmade glass objects

C. operators of machines that automatically cut legs, for furniture

D. metalworkers who create unique pieces of jewelry

Question 27: The word "revered” in line 12 is closest in meaning to

A. respected                   B. described

C. avoided                       D. created

Question 28: According to paragraph 2, the handcrafted objects in the homes of middle- and working-class families were usually

A. made by members of the family.

B. the least expensive objects in their homes.

C. regarded as being morally uplifting.

D. thought to symbolize progress.

Question 29: The word "extolled” in line 18 is closest in meaning to

A. exposed                      B. praised

C. believed                       D. accepted

Question 30: The author mentions all of the following as attributes of handcrafted objects EXCEPT

A. the pride with which they were crafted 

B. the complexity of their designs

C. the long time that they lasted

D. the quality of their materials

Question 31: According to the passage, which of the following changes occurred at the same time as the Arts and Crafts Movement?

A. The creation of brighter and more airy spaces inside homes

B. The rejection of art that depicted nature in a realistic manner

C. A decline of interest in art museum collections

D. An increase in the buying of imported art objects

Question 32: Which of the following statements is supported by the passage?

A. Private collectors in the nineteenth century concentrated on acquiring paintings.

B. The Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States, unlike the one in Britain, did not react strongly against mechanized processes.

C. Handcrafted objects in the United States and Britain in the nineteenth century did not use geometric designs.

D. The Arts and Crafts Movement believed in the beneficial effect for people from being surrounded by beautiful objects.

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.

Question 33: I can’t believe what a narrow escape it was when the car went off the road and passed within a few feet of us.

A. lost cause                           B. first-rate

C. close call                            D. takeaway

Question 34: Because she was a few minutes late, she walked quietly into class and sat in the back of the room.

A. rambled                             B. tiptoed 

C. stumbled                           D. crawled

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer in each of the following questions.

Question 35: Here they sell oranges ________.

A. by dozens                   B. by a dozen

C. by the dozen               D. for dozens

Question 36: Study harder ________.

A. and you will pass the exam                                   

B. unless you will pass the exam

C. if you will pass the exam                                      

D. or you will pass the exam

Question 37: She________her essay for a third time to make sure there weren’t any mistakes.

A. went off                      B. made out 

C. came across                D. went through

Question 38: ________the warnings her doctor gave her, Carol continues to smoke.

A. In spite of                      B. Although

C. Because                         D. Because of

Question 39: Are you paying in cash or_______cheque?

A. with                              B. on

C. in                                  D. by

Question 40: A: Could I speak to Susan please?       B: _______.

A. Talking                         B. Speaking

C. Calling                          D. Answering

Question 41: This book will show you ______ can be used in other contexts.

A. how you have observed                                        

B. that you have observed

C. how what you have observed                               

D. how that you have observed

Question 42: When the lights ______, we couldn’t see anything.

A. went out                       B. switched off

C. put off                           D. extinguished

Question 43: TV keeps us ______ of what is going on all over the world.

A. to inform                       B. inform 

C. informing                       D. informed

Question 44: Either you or Daisy ______ the vase.

A. has broken

B. have broken

C. has been broken

D. have been broken

Question 45: Of the ten beauty spots my brother visited, ______ left a lasting impression on him.

A. none of which                                                       

B. not one of them

C. which none                                                            

D. and none of them

Question 46: Jane wasn’t in when I arrived. I suppose she ______ I was coming.

A. can’t have forgotten                                              

B. should have forgotten

C. may forget                                                             

D. must have forgotten

Question 47: - Pete: Let me pay for the meal.    - Margaret: ______.

A. It’s on me                                                              

B. It’s my round

C. I’ll make it                                                             

D. Never remind me

Question 48: ______ broken into while we were away on holiday.

A. We had our house                                                 

B. Thieves had our house

C. It was our house                                                    

D. They have

Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.

Question 49: Weather (A) and geographical (B) conditions may determine the type of (C) transportation using in (D) a region.

Question 50: Commercial airliners do not fly in the vicinity (A) of volcanic eruptions because even a small amount (B) of volcanic ash (C) can damage its (D) engines.