Đề thi học sinh giỏi trại hè Hùng Vương lần thứ XI năm 2015 môn Tiếng Anh lớp 10

The Great Pyramid of Giza is probably the most famous of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It ___________ (1) built by King Khufu (known as Cheops to the Greeks) around 2450 BC, and its neighbor, ___________ (2) is a little smaller, was constructed later __________ (3) his son Khefren. By the time of the beautiful Queen Cleopatra, they _________ (4) already stood against the desert skyline through the reigns of more ___________ (5) a hundred kings or pharaohs. For centuries archaeologists have puzzled over the reasons for their construction. Now a new solution __________ (6) the mystery has been proposed, according to which Great Pyramid was intended as a focus for __________ (7) pharaoh’s complicated funeral ceremony. Astronomers think the narrow passages __________ (8) from the royal burial chambers were aligned with certain stars in the 26,000 - year cycle of the constellations, ___________ (9) that the dead king’s soul could be launched to the stars. The latest discovery is a hitherto unopened door in the depths of the Pyramid. Who can imagine what ___________ (10) behind it?

Some famous places are disappointing: dirty, cramped, and a bit of a cliché. But there are others (1) ______, even though you've seen every television program ever made about them, are every (2) ______ as wonderful as you'd imagined. The Grand Canyon is one of these and so, despite being next door to a main road, is Stonehenge. Another is Venice which, in its entirety, (3) ______ a great work of art, each decaying aspect revealing an (4) ______ glimpse of water or startling architecture, each individual building or piazza (5) ______ an exquisite sense of proportion. I return to Venice every two years in the course of my work and on each of these occasions I have found something new to (6) ______ at. Alarm cries about how (7) ______ this can last are sounded every now and then each time the water levels rise. But the fact that this city is (8) ______ into the sea seems to add to its romantic atmosphere. Far more serious is the depopulation, for it seems that just about every week another family leaves. Since 1945 more than half the population of Venice has moved to the mainland. The rich (9) ______ the great palazzos along the Grand Canal and visit every once in a while, but leave the windows dark for the rest of the time. Mass tourism threatens (10) ______ very structure of the city. It is a sad victim of its own success.

The modern comic strip started out as ammunition in a newspaper war between giants of the American press in the late 19th century. The first full - color comic strip appeared in January 1894 in the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer. The first regular weekly full - color comic supplement, similar to today’s Sunday funnies, appeared two years later, in William Randolph Hearst’s rival New York paper, the morning Journal.

Both were immensely popular, and publishers realized that supplementing the news with comic relief boosted the sale of papers. The Morning journal started another feature in 1896, the “Yellow Kid,” the first continuous comic character in the United States, whose creator, Richard Outcault had been lured away from the “World” by the ambitious Hearst. The “Yellow Kid’ was in many ways a pioneer. Its comic dialogue was the strictly urban farce that came to characterize later strips, and it introduced the speech balloon inside the strip, usually placed above the characters’ heads.

The first strip to incorporate all the elements of later comics was Rudolph Dirks’s “Katzenjammer Kids,” based on Wilheim Busch’s Max and Moritz, a European satire of the nineteenth century. The “Kids” strip, first published in 1897, served as the prototype for future American strips. It contained not only speech balloons, but a continuous cast of characters, and was divided into small regular panels that did away with the larger panoramic scenes of earlier comics.

Newspaper syndication played a major role in spreading the popularity of comic strips throughout the country. Though weekly colored comics came first, daily black - and - white strips were not far behind. They first appeared in the Chicago American in 1904. it was followed by many imitators, and by 1915 black - and - white comic strips had become a staple of daily newspapers around the country.

A. There is a legend that St Augustine in the fourth century AD was the first individual to be seen reading silently rather than aloud, or semi - aloud, as had been the practice hitherto. Reading has come a long way since Augustine’s day. There was a time when it was a menial job of scribes and priests, not the mark of civilization it became in Europe during the Renaissance when it was seen as one of the attributes of the civilized individual.

B. Modern nations are now seriously affected by their levels of literacy. While the Western world has seen a noticeable decline in these areas, other less developed countries have advanced and, in some cases, overtaken the West. India, for example, now has a large pool of educated workers. So European countries can no longer rest on their laurels as they have done for far too long; otherwise, they are in danger of falling even further behind economically.

C. It is difficult in the modern world to do anything other than a basic job without being able to read. Reading as a skill is the key to an educated workforce, which in turn is the bedrock of economic advancement, particularly in the present technological age. Studies have shown that by increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of primary school children in the UK, the benefit to the economy generally is in billions of pounds. The skill of reading is now no more just an intellectual or leisure activity, but rather a full - fledged economic force.

D. Part of the problem with reading is that it is a skill which not appreciated in most developed societies. This is an attitude that has condemned large swathes of the population in most Western nations to illiteracy. It might surprise people in countries outside the West to learn that in the United Kingdom, and indeed in some other European countries, the literacy rate has fallen to below that of so called less developed countries.

E. There are also forces conspiring against reading in our modern society. It is not seen as cool among a younger generation more at home with computer screens or a Walkman. The solitude of reading is not very appealing. Students at school, college or university who read a lot are called bookworms. The tern indicates the contempt in which reading and learning are held in certain circles or subcultures. It is a criticism, like all such attacks, driven by the insecurity of those who are not literate or are semi - literate. Criticism is also a means, like all bullying, of keeping peers in place so that they do not step out of line. Peer pressure among young people is so powerful that it often kills any attempts to change attitudes to habits like reading.

F. How should people be encouraged to read more? It can easily be done by increasing basic reading skills at an early age and encouraging young people to borrow books from schools. Some schools have classroom libraries as well as school libraries. It is no good waiting until pupils are in their secondary school to encourage an interest in books’ it needs to be pushed at an early age. Reading comics, magazines and low brow publications like Mills and Boon is frowned upon. But surely what people, whether they be adults or children, read is of little import. What is significant is the fact that they are reading. Someone who reads a comic today may have the courage to pick up a more substantial tome later on.

G. But perhaps the best idea would be to stop the negative attitudes to reading from forming in the first place. Taking children to local libraries brings them into contact with an environment where they can become relaxed among books. If primary school children were also taken in groups into bookshops, this might also entice them to want their own books. A local bookshop, like some local libraries, could perhaps arrange book reading for children which, being away from the classroom, would make the reading activity more of an adventure. On a more general note, most countries have writers of national importance. By increasing the standing of national writers in the eyes of the public, through local and national writing competitions, people would be drawn more to the printed word. Catch them young and, perhaps, they just might then all become bookworms.

You see, I started the job with the highest of hopes. I mean, I’d never really thought of fund - raising as a career, but at the end of the day it’s a job, isn’t it? It pays the bills. Well, it would have done if they hadn’t kept ____________ (1).That was the trouble. First they wanted me to phone their precious sponsors, then they said I should forget them and concentrate on ____________ (2). And of course, I was having to input everything on this all - singing, all - dancing computer - you wouldn’t believe the things it could do! I wasn’t getting on well with my boss either - you could tell I just wasn’t her flavor of the month. Who knows why? ____________ (3). But when she discovered I hadn’t raised any money at all in the whole three months I’d been there it all went pear - shaped and I found myself out on my ear. Well, I never liked it much there anyway. Being unemployed isn’t ____________ (4). I’ve got enough money to tide me over till about September. I’m still looking around for something else, but if there’s absolutely nothing and push comes to shove, I might try and ____________ (5) on the internet. It can’t be that difficult, can it?

A. I must have raised a lot of money to please her
B. the end of the world
C. I must have done something to upset her
D. the end of the tunnel
E. moving the goalpost
F. go on business
G. attracting new donors
H. set up my own business