Read the following passage and mark the letter (A, B, C or D) on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each for the questions.
The National Automobile Show in New York has been one of the top auto shows in the United States since 1900. On November 3 of that year, about 8,000 people looked over the “ horseless carriages”. It was opening day and the first opportunity for the automobile industry to show off its wares to large crowd; however, the black-tie audience treated the occasion more as a social affair than as sales extravaganza. It was also on the first day of this show that William Mckinley became the first U.S Present to ride in a car.
The automobile was not invented in the United States. That distinction belongs to Germany. Nikolaus Otto built the first practical internal-combustion engine there in 1876. Then, German engineer Karl Benz built what are regarded as the first modern automobiles in the mid-1880s. But the United States pioneered the merchandising of the automobile. The auto show proved to be an effective means of getting the public excited about automotive products.
By happenstance, the number of people at the first New York show equaled the entire car population of the United States at that time. In 1900, 10 million bicycles and an unknown number of horse-drawn carriages provided the prime means of personal transportation. Only about 4,000 cars were assembled in the United States in 1900, and only a quarter of those were gasoline powered. The rest ran on steam or electricity.
After viewing the cars made by forty car makers, the show’s audience favored electric cars because they were quiet. The risk of a boiler explosion turned people away from streamers, and the gasoline-powered cars produced smelly fumes. The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, which launched the American auto industry in 1895, offered a fragrant additive designed to mask the smells of the naphtha that is burned. Many of the 1900 models were cumbersome – the Gas mobile, the Franklin, and the Orient, for example, steered with a tiller like a boat instead of with a steering wheel. None of them was equipped with an automatic starter.
These early model cars were practically handmade and were not very dependable. They were basically toys of the well-to-do. In fact, Woodrow Wilson, then a professor at Princeton University and later President of the United States, predicted that automobiles would cause conflict between the wealthy and the poor. However, among the exhibitors at the 1900 show was a young engineer named Henry Ford. The cars he exhibited at the 1900 show apparently attracted no special notice. But before the end of the decade, he would revolutionize the automobile industry with his Model T Ford. The Model T, first produced in 1909, featured a standardized design and a steamlined method of production – the assembly line. Its lower costs made it available to the mass market.
Cars at the 1900 show ranged in price from 1,000 dollars to 1,500 dollars, or roughly 14,000 dollars to 21,000 in today’s prices. By 1913, the Model T was selling for less than 300 dollars , and soon the price would drop even further. “I will build cars for the multiudes,” Ford said, and he kept his promise
The passage implies that the audience viewed the 1900 National Automobile Show primarily as a(n)
A. formal social occasion
B. chance to buy automobiles at low prices
C. opportunity to learn how to drive
D. chance to invest in one of thirty-two automobile manufacturers
Giải bởi qa.haylamdo.com
Đáp án là A.
Bài đọc ngụ ý rằng khán giả đã xem Buổi trưng bày ô tô quốc gia 1900 như là 1
A. dịp lễ xã hội quan trọng
B. cơ hội mua xe hơi giá rẻ
C. cơ hội học lái xe
D. cơ hội đầu từ 1 trong 32 nhà sản xuất ô tô.
Dẫn chứng: It was opening day and the first opportunity for the automobile industry to show off its wares to large crowd; however, the black-tie audience treated the occasion more as a social affair than as sales extravaganza
Read the passages and the questions or unfinished sentences. Then choose the answer (A, B, C or D) that you think fits best.
THE VIDEO LOGGERS
One rather unlike word that has recently entered the language is “blog”, a shortened form of “web log”. A blog is a diary on the Internet by the person writing it – the “blogger” – who presumably expect other people to read it. Modern technology is being used to (31)________new life into such an old-fashioned form as the personal journal. And now, as the technology behind video camera is making them easier to use, we have the video log, or “vlog”. Vlogging does not require (32)________sophisticated equipment: a digital video camera, a high-speed Internet connection and a host are all that is needed. Vloggers can put anything that takes their fancy onto their personal web site. Some vloggers have no ambition (33)________than to show films they have shot while on holiday in exotic places. However, vlogs can also serve more ambitious purposes. For instance, amateur film-makers who want to make a (34)________for themselves might publish their work on the Internet, eager to receive advice or criticism. And increasingly, vlogs are being used to publicize political and social issues that are not noteworthy enough to earn coverage by the mass media. It is still too early to predict whether vlogging will ever (35)________off in a major way or if it is just a passing fad, but its potential is only now becoming apparent
Điền vào ô số 35
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
What _________at 10 o’clock last night?
Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions
That smoking has a bad effect on our health has been proved
Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions
It’s the first time I’ve been to a flower show
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Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
The woman looked _________the photos carefully to identify the pickpocket, but there were so many that it was soon hard to distinguish one_________another
Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to each of the following questions
His comment bears little relation to the topic
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
At _________time did I ever promise you a pay rise
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
Greg has, to all intents and _________, finished his degree course, with the exception of his final dissertation
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
A pet could_________a very special purpose in our life, as a companion
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
Derek was wearing _________at the party
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
The young man objects _________to do all the work himself
Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to show the underlined part that needs correction in each of the following questions.
Tim is different from John in that the first is smart and the latter rather unintelligent
Mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word (s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word (s) in the following question.
In about one-third of all cases of hepatitis B, it is unknown how the patient contracted the virus
Mark the better A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word from the four words or phrases (A, B, C or D) choose the one that best completes the sentence
Their army invaded the neighbouring country’s _________
