BBOI DUONG HS 9

PRETEST 7 – GIFTED STUDENTS

Use the verb in parentheses in their correct tense forms:

My daughter, Jane, never dreamed of (1.receive)………..a letter from a girl of her own age in Holland. Last year, we (2.ravel)…………across the Channel and Jane (3.put)……. …..a piece of paper with her name and address on it into a bottle. She (4.throw)………. the bottle into the sea. She (5.never think)………… of it again, but ten months later, she (6.receive)………..a letter from a girl in Holland. Both girls (7.write)…………to each other regularly now. However, they (8.decide)………..to use the post office. Letters (9. cost)………… a little more, but they certainly (10.travel)…………..faster.

Read the passage and choose the best answer:

Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteenth century the term "reading" undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century did silent reading become commonplace.
One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud `is a distraction to others. Examination of factors related to the historical development of silent reading reveals that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, so the number of potential listeners declined, and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.
Towards the end of the century there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening, Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialised on the other.
By the end of the century students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use skills in reading them which were inappropriate if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term "reading" implied.
1. Why was reading aloud common before the nineteenth century?
Silent reading had not been discovered. B. There were few places available for private reading.
C. Few people could read for themselves. D. People relied on reading for entertainment.
2. The development of silent reading during the nineteenth century indicated
a change in the status of literate people. B. a change in the nature of reading.
C. an increase in the number of books. D. an increase in the average age of readers.
3. Educationalists are still arguing about
the importance of silent reading.
the amount of information yielded by books and newspapers.
the effects of reading on health. D. the value of different types of reading material.
4. The emergence of the mass media and of specialized periodicals showed that
A. standards of literacy had declined. B .readers` interests had diversified.
C. printing techniques had improved. D. educationalists` attitudes had changed.
5.What is the writer of this passage attempting to do?
A. explain how present-day reading habits developed. B. change people`s attitudes to reading.
C. show how reading methods have improved. D. encourage the growth of reading.

III. Read the passage and answer following questions:
Few men have influenced the development of American English to the extent that Noah Webster did. He was born in west Hartford, Connecticut. In 1758, his name has become synonymous with American dictionaries. Graduated from Yale in 1778, he was admitted to the bar in 1781 and thereafter began to practise law in Hartford. Later, when he turned to teaching he discovered how inadequate the available schoolbooks were for the children of a new and independent nation. In 1807 Noah Webster began his greatest work, An American Dictionary of the English language. In preparing the manuscript, he devoted ten years to the study of English and its relationship to other languages, and seven more years to the writing itself. Published in two volumes in 1828, An American Dictionary of the English language has become the recognized authority for usage in the United States. Webster`s purpose in writing it was to demonstrate that the American language was developing distinct meanings, pronunciations, and spellings from those of British English. He is responsible for advancing simplified spelling forms develop instead of the British form develope, theater and center instead of theatre and centre