Our obsession with recording every detail of our happiest moments could

be 0__________ our ability to remember them, according to new research.

Dr Linda Henkel, from Fairfield University, Connecticut, described this as the
‘photo-taking impairment effect’. She said, ‘People often whip out their cameras
almost mindlessly to 1__________ a moment, to the point that they are missing
what is happening 2__________ in front of them. When people rely on
technology to remember for them — 3__________on the camera to record the
event and thus not needing to 4__________ to it fully themselves — it can have
a negative 5__________ on how well they remember their experiences.
In Dr Henkel’s experiment, a group of university students were 6__________ on
a tour of a museum and asked to either photograph or try to remember objects
on display. The next day each student’s memory was tested. The results showed
that people were less 7__________ in recognising the objects they had
photographed 8__________ with those they had only looked at.
Example:

0 A interfering B upsetting C damaging D intruding

1 A seize В grasp C capture D snatch

2 A quite В right C merely D barely

3 A counting В settling C assuming D swearing

4 A engage В apply C attend D dedicate

5 A result В aspect C extent D impact

6 A steered В run C led D conveyed

7 A accurate В faithful C exact D factual

8 A measured В compared C matched D confronted

Founded in 1972, the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award is celebrated in

27 countries. Veuve Clicquot has now introduced a new award 0 to complement
its Business Woman of the Year category. Called The New Generation
Award, 9 recognises the best young female talent across business and
corporate life.
The first winner of the award, Kathryn Parsons, 10 innovative start-up
company, Decoded, teaches people to code in a day, has joined the judging
panel to help find this year’s winner. The importance of these awards
cannot 11 overestimated’ she says. ‘Women need role models that
prove to 12 that they can do it, too.’
The New Generation Award is open to entrepreneurial
businesswomen 13 the ages of 25 and 35. They can run 14
own businesses or hail from corporate life. This award isn’t about how much
money you’ve made or how long you’ve been in business, it’s about recognising
young women 15 a mission and a vision’ says Parsons. ‘We want to
meet women who are working to 16 the world a better place.

If you are thinking of leaving your job, you may think that handing in your letter
of 0 resignation is the end of the matter. But an increasing number of
companies now conduct ‘exit interviews’ with staff.
For the employee, an exit interview may feel like an ideal opportunity to rant and
rave about every little 17 that has troubled them since they got the job.
But, 18 in mind that you will probably still need a 19 from these
people, it is best to avoid getting angry or 20 , and just answer the
questions as calmly and with as much 21 as possible.
For employers, the exit interview is a rare opportunity to gather some valuable
information about the way staff perceive the company. Existing employees may
not wish to cause 22 to the boss or damage their chances of promotion,
so are unlikely to 23 their real feelings about the company. However,
someone who has already resigned is more likely to be 24 when giving
their opinions.
0. RESIGN
17. ANNOY
18. BEAR
19. REFER
20. EMOTION
21. HONEST
22. OFFEND
23. CLOSE
24. TRUE
1. The wind-lashed workers who battle the Atlantic in winter
2. Even at this stormy time of year in Britain there are thousands of oil
workers and fishermen offshore, as well as a scattering of seafarers
manning the container ships and tankers that bring us almost everything
we need. So it was that in the depths of bitter winter, hoping to learn what
 modern sailors’ lives are like, I joined the Maersk Pembroke, a container
freighter, on her regular run from Europe to Montreal. She looked so
dreadful when I found her in Antwerp that I hoped I had the wrong ship.
3. 41
4. Trade between Europe and North America is a footnote to the great west-
east and north-south runs: companies leave it to older
vessels. Pembroke is battered and rusty, reeking of diesel and fishy
chemicals. She is noisy, her bridge and stairwells patrolled by whistling
drafts which rise to howls at sea. Her paintwork is wretched. The Atlantic
has stripped her bow back to a rusted steel snarl.
5. 42
6. It felt like a desperate enterprise on a winter night, as the tide raced us
down the Scheldt estuary and spat us out into the North Sea. According to
the weather satellites, the Atlantic was storms from coast to coast, two
systems meeting in the middle of our course. On the far side, ice awaited.
We were behind schedule, the captain desperate for speed. “Six-metre
waves are OK; any bigger you have to slow down or you kill your ship” he
said. “Maybe we’ll be lucky!”
7. 43
8. Soon enough, we were in the midst of those feared storms. A nightmare in
darkness, a north Atlantic storm is like a wild dream by day, a region of
racing elements and livid colour, bursting turquoise foam, violent sunlight,
and darkening magenta waves. There is little you can do once committed
except lash everything down and enjoy what sleep you can before it
becomes impossible. Pembroke is more than 200 m long and weighs more
than 38,000 tons, but the swells threw her about like a tin toy.
9. 44
10. When they hit us squarely, the whole ship reared, groaning and
staggering, shuddered by shocking force. We plunged and tottered for
three days before there was a lull. But even then, an ordinary day involved
unpleasant jobs in extreme conditions. I joined a welding party that
descended to the hold: a dripping, tilting cathedral composed of vast tanks
of toxins and organophosphates, where a rusted hatch cover defied a
cheap grinder blade in a fountain of sparks. As we continued west, the
wind thickened with sleet, then snow as the next storm arrived.
11. 45
12. All was well in that regard and, after the storms, we were relieved to
enter the St Lawrence River. The ice was not thick enough to hinder us;
we passed Quebec City in a glittering blue dawn and made Montreal after
sunset, its downtown towers rising out of the tundra night. Huge trucks
came for our containers.
 13. 46
14. But without them and their combined defiance of the elements there
could be nothing like what we call ‘life’ at all. Seafarers are not sentimental,
but some are quite romantic. They would like to think we thought of them,
particularly when the forecast says storms at sea.

15. A Others felt the same. We were ‘the only idiots out here’, as several
men remarked. We felt our isolation like vulnerability; proof that we had
chosen obscure, quixotic lives.
16. В Going out on deck in such conditions tempted death.
Nevertheless, the ship’s electrician climbed a ladder out there every four
hours to check that the milk, cheese and well-travelled Argentine beef we
carried were still frozen in refrigerated containers.
17. C But it does not take long to develop affection for a ship, even the
Pembroke — the time it takes her to carry you beyond swimming distance
from land, in fact. When I learnt what was waiting for us mid-ocean I
became her ardent fan, despite all those deficiencies.
18. D There were Dutch bulbs, seaweed fertilizer from Tanzania, Iranian
dates for Colombia, Sri Lankan tea bags, Polish glue, Hungarian tyres,
Indian seeds, and much besides. The sailors are not told what they carry.
They just keep the ships going.
19. E Hoping so, we slipped down the Channel in darkness, with the
Dover coastguard wishing us, “Good watch, and a safe passage to your
destination.” The following evening we left the light of Bishop Rock on the
Scilly Isles behind. “When we see that again we know we’re home” said
the second mate.
20. F Huge black monsters marched at us out of the north-west, striped
with white streaks of foam running out of the wind’s mouth. The ocean
moved in all directions at once and the waves became enormous, charging
giants of liquid emerald, each demanding its own reckoning.
21. G That feeling must have been obvious to the Captain. “She’s been
all over the world”, proud Captain Koop, a grey-bristled Dutchman, as
quick and confident as a Master Mariner must be, told me. “She was
designed for the South Pacific” he said, wistfully.

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 questions from 33 to 40.Early peoples had
no need of engineering works to supply their water. Hunters and nomads camped near
natural sources of fresh water, and populations were so sparse that pollution of the water
supply was not a serious problem. After community life developed and agricultural villages
became urban centers, the problem of supplying water became important for inhabitants of
a city, as well as for irrigation of the farms surrounding the city. Irrigation works were known
in prehistoric times, and before 2000 BC the rulers of Babylonia and Egypt constructed
systems of dams and canals to impound the flood waters of the Euphrates and Nile rivers,
controlling floods and providing irrigation water throughout the dry season. Such irrigation
canals also supplied water for domestic purposes. The first people to consider the sanitation
of their water supply were the ancient Romans, who constructed a vast system of
aqueducts to bring the clean waters of the Apennine Mountains into the city and built basins
and filters along these mains to ensure the clarity of the water. The construction of such
extensive water-supply systems declined when the Roman Empire disintegrated, and for
several centuries local springs and wells formed the main source of domestic and industrial
water. The invention of the force pump in England in the middle of the 16th century
greatly extended the possibilities of development of water-supply systems. In London, the
first pumping waterworks was completed in 1562; it pumped river water to a reservoir about
37 m above the level of the River Thames and from the reservoir the water was distributed
by gravity, through lead pipes, to buildings in the vicinity.Increased per-capita demand has
coincided with water shortages in many countries. Southeast England, for example,
receives only 14 percent of Britain's rainfall, has30 percent of its population, and has
experienced declining winter rainfall since the 1980s. In recent years a great deal of
interest has been shown in the conversion of seawater to fresh water to provide drinking
water for very dry areas, such as the Middle East. Several different processes, including
distillation, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, and direct-freeze evaporation, have been
developed for this purpose. Some of these processes have been used in large facilities in
the United States. Although these processes are successful, the cost of treating seawater is
much higher than that for treating fresh water.From A. Briggs’ article on culture,
Microsoft® Student 2008
Câu 1: The word “disintegrated” in paragraph 1 is closet in meaning to _______.

A. emerged

B. failed

C. distorted

D. thrived
Câu 2: What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. the water pumping system

B. the fresh water shortage

C. the results of water shortages

D. the development of water supply

Câu 3: According to the passage, which of the following can be inferred about London’s
water supply in the middle of the 16th century?

A. It was facilitated since the advent of the force pump.

B. It contributed to the River Thames’ flow considerably.

C. It was conducted through canals.

D. It circulated throughout the buildings.

Câu 4: Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a process of conversing seawater to
freshwater?

A. purification method

B. dissolving chemicals

C. water evaporation

D. streaming and cooling

Câu 5: The word “impound” in paragraph 1 is closet in meaning to _______.

A. supply

B. irrigate

C. provide

D. drain
Câu 6: Early peoples didn’t need water supply engineering works because _______.

A. they had good ways to irrigate their farms

B. their community life had already developed

C. there was almost no dry season in prehistoric times

D. natural sources of fresh water nearby were always available

Câu 7: The word “that” in the last paragraph refers to ________.

A. the cost

B. treating seawater

C. the United State

D. this purpose
Câu 8: Clean water supply was first taken into consideration by _______.

A. the US people

B. the English people

C. the ancient Romans

D. the Egyptians