Đề thi tuyển sinh vào lớp 10 môn Tiếng Anh năm học 2016 - 2017 trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, Nam Định

In the world today, particularly in the two most industrialized areas, North America and Europe, recycling is the big news. People are talking about it, practicing it, and discovering new ways to be sensitive to the environment. Recycling means finding ways to use products a second time. The motto of the recycling movement is “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.

The first step is to reduce garbage. In stores, a shopper has to buy products in blister packs, boxes and expensive plastic wrappings. A hamburger from a fast food restaurant comes in lots of packaging: usually paper, a box and a bag. All that packaging is wasted resources. People should try to buy things that are wrapped simply, and to reuse cups and utensils. Another way to reduce waste is to buy high-quality products. When low-quality appliances break, many customers throw them away and buy new ones - a loss of more resources and more energy. For example, if a customer buys a high-quality appliance that can be easily repaired, the manufacturer receives an important message. In the same way, if a customer chooses a product with less packaging, that customer sends an important message to the manufacturers. To reduce garbage, the throw-away must stop.

The second step is to reuse. It is better to buy juices and soft drinks in returnable bottles. After customers empty the bottles, they return them to the stores. The manufacturers of the drinks collect bottles, wash them, and then fill them again. The energy that is necessary to make new bottles is saved. In some parts of the world, returning bottles for money is a common practice. In those places, the garbage dumps have relatively little glass and plastic from throw-away bottles.

The third step being environmentally sensitive is to recycle. Spent motor oil can be cleaned and used again. Aluminum cans are expensive to make. It takes the same amount of energy to make one aluminum can as it does to run a color TV set for three hours. When people collect and recycle aluminum (for new cans), they help save one of the world’s precious resources.

There can be no doubt at all that the Internet has made a huge difference to our lives. Parents are worried that children spend too much time playing on the Internet, hardly (1) ______ doing anything else in their spare time. Naturally, parents are (2) ______ to find out why the Internet is so attractive and they want to know if it can be harmful for their children. Should parents worry if their children are spending that much time (3) ______ their computers?

Obviously, if children are bent over their computers for hours, (4) _____ in some game, instead of doing their homework, then something is wrong. Parents and children could decide how much use the child should (5) ______ of the Internet, and the child should give his or her word that it won’t interfere with homework. If the child is not holding to this arrangement, the parent can take more drastic (6) ______. Dealing with a child’s use of the Internet is not much different from negotiating any other sort of bargain about behavior.

Any parent who is seriously alarmed about a child’s behavior should make an appointment to (7)______ the matter with a teacher. Spending time in front of the screen does not necessarily affect a child’s performance at school. Even if a child is (8) ______ crazy about using the Internet, he or she is probably just going through a phase, and in a few months there will be something else to worry about!

A. Famous for its beautiful setting, San Francisco is built on a series of steep hills located on the northern tip of a peninsula at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. The bay and its extensions, constitute one of the great natural harbors of the world, embracing nearly 1,200 sq km of water. Because of this, San Francisco was once the major Pacific Coast seaport of the United States. Today the city is an important center for finance, technology, tourism, and culture.

B. San Franciscans, and in some cases their counterparts in the Bay Area, have successfully undertaken mammoth construction projects such as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Since at least the 1950s, San Franciscans have also earned a reputation for tolerance of and respect for diversity.

C. The most serious social problems facing the city are not unique to San Francisco, but some have taken on greater dimensions in the city than they have elsewhere. One such problem is homelessness. From 1988 to 1992, the plaza in front of city hall became an encampment for homeless people, rendering other use impossible and raising public health concerns. The problem of homelessness persists despite the efforts of city agencies and private charities to provide shelter, health care, and drug, alcohol, and mental health treatment. In the mid-and late 1990s mayors Frank Jordan and Willie Brown both sought to discourage homeless people from living in public space in the downtown area and, in Brown’s case, in Golden Gate Park. However, residents of other areas complained that because of these projects, the displaced homeless had moved into their neighborhoods.

D. In other areas the city has made some progress toward addressing social problems. As was true across much of the nation, the crime rate in San Francisco dropped in the 1990s, as did the rate of drug-related violence. In addition, some public housing projects in San Francisco that were especially prone to violence and drug-related activity were razed and rebuilt with designs considered less likely to encourage those activities. Other public housing projects received stepped up security patrols.
E. Some social critics have pointed to an increasing economic and social polarization of San Francisco’s population. Those who work in finance or high-tech fields are increasingly affluent, pushing rents and home prices to among the highest levels in the nation. At the same time, people who labor in the service sector often work for the minimum wage, cannot share the affluent lifestyles around them, and are hard-pressed to afford rising rents. This economic polarization coincides in part with ethnic and educational patterns. Workers in the low-wage end of the service sector are likely to have limited English proficiency and a high-school education or less; many workers in those areas are also disproportionately African American and Hispanic. By contrast, those people who work in the finance and high-tech sectors are more likely to be white or Asian American and to have one or more college degrees.

Everyone wants to reduce pollution. But the pollution problem is as complicated as it is serious. It is complicated because much pollution (1) ________________ caused by things that benefit people. For example, exhaust (2) ___________________ automobiles causes a large percentage of all air pollution. But the automobiles provide transportation for millions of people. Factories (3) ___________________ much of the material which pollutes air and water, but factories give employment to a large number of people.

Thus, to end or greatly reduce pollution immediately, people would have to stop using many things (4) ___________________ benefit them. Most of the people do not want to do that, of course. But pollution can be gradually reduced in several ways. Scientists and engineers can work to find ways to lessen the (5) ___________________ of pollution that such things as automobiles and factories cause. Governments can pass and enforce laws that require businesses and individuals to stop, or cut (6) ___________________ on certain polluting activities.