Đề thi học kỳ 2 môn Tiếng Anh lớp 11 có đáp án - Đề 2

The Space Race
In 1957, Russia launched a small metal ball, Sputnik, into space. As it circled the Earth, it did nothing but send a simple radio message back to Earth. That message, however, was enough to frighten the Americans badly. The Russians were winning the space race. But what was the space race? Very simply, it was a race to see which country could get into space first. Both Russia and the United States wanted to win very much. With Sputnik, Russia won the first part of the race, but the next stage, putting a man into space, was far more important to both countries. The American program to put a man into space was the Mercury program. The Americans chose Alan Shepard, a Navy test pilot, to be their first astronaut. They called his mission Mercury Freedom 7. Shepard went through months of training for his mission. Meanwhile, the engineers and scientists tested every part of his spaceship to make sure it was safe. Finally, in 1961, after the Americans safely sent a monkey into space, they were ready to send Shepard. In the last week of February, Shepard’s Redstone rocket was on the launch pad, but a last minute problem meant that they could not launch. They rescheduled the launch for May 5. Then on April 12, the Americans received terrible news. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian, was in space. The Russians had beaten the Americans again.

Few people now question the (21)______ of global warming and its effects on the world's climate. Many scientists put the blame for recent natural disasters on the increase in the world's temperatures and are convinced that, more than ever before, the Earth is at (22)_________ from the force of the wind, rain and sun. According to them, global warming is making extreme weather events; such as hurricanes and droughts, even more (23)_________ and causing sea levels all around the world to rise. Environmental groups are putting pressure on governments to take action to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide which is given (24)_________ by factories and power plants, thus attacking the problem at its source. They are in favor of more money being spent on research into solar, wind and wave energy devices, which could then replace existing power stations. Some scientists, however, believe that even if we stopped (25) ______ carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere tomorrow, we would have to wait several hundred years to notice the results. Global warming, it seems, is to stay.