rewrite the following sentences using adjectives or adverbs showing degree of change

1 the school facilities have been improved a lot within the last three years

->there have been..............................................................

2 there is a minor increase in the number of children going to school this year

-> the number.......................

3 the number of nuclear families in the countryside has risen little by little

-> the number...........................................

4 there has been puite a large reduction in the number of poor families in the countryside

->there has been ..........................

5 the number of students attending university in viet nam has grown very much in recent years

-> there has been.........................

6 though the pace of life in the countryside has not changed as rapidly as in the city , the changes seem significant

->in spete of.............................

  39. The raising level of air pollution has caused concern among _________________.  (conserve)

40. There have been many ________________in the field of electrical engineering.   (innovate)

41. The total energy  __________________ in 2005 was over 150 million tons. (consume)

42. The judge told him it was ..................................to drink and drive, and banned him for a year. (responsible) 

    An air pollutant is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or materials adversely. Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled – a far cry from the extensive list of harmful subtances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions.

    Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and notrigen oxides, are found in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentration of these pollutants was altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis, nature’s output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities.

          However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as as city. In such a region, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need not be large for a subtance to be a pollutant; in fact, the numerial value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over ther concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm), which is about 400 times its natural level. Carbon monoxide, however, has a natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm.

For which of the following reasons can natural pollutants play an important role in controlling air pollution ?

A. They function as part of a purification process

B. They occur in greater quantities than oher pollutants

C. They are less harmful to living beings than other pollutants

D. They have existed since the Earth developed

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.

  The air above our head is becoming cleaner. A breath of fresh air has been running right round the planet for the past five years. The planet is apparently purging itself of pollution. Paul Novell of the University of Colorado, the co-author of a report on this phenomenon says, “It seems as if the planet’s own cleaning service has suddenly got a new lease of life. Suddenly, there are a lot of changes going on up there”.

  Estimates of the death toll from urban smog have been steadily rising, so the new cleaner trend could have significant consequences for life expectancy in cities as well as for the planet itself. The sudden and unexpected reversal of several decades of worsening pollution extends from the air in city streets to the remotest mid-Pacific Ocean and Antarctica.

   Among the pollutants which have begun to disappear from the atmosphere are carbon monoxide, from car exhaust and burning rain forests, and methane from the guts of cattle, paddy fields, and gas fields. Even carbon dioxide, the main gas behind global warning, has fallen slightly.

   There are two theories about why pollution is disappearing. First that there is less pollution to start with due to laws to cut down urban smogs and acid rain starting to have a global impact. Second, that the planet may be becoming more efficient at cleaning up.

   The main planetary clean-up agent is a chemical called hydroxyl. It is present throughout the atmosphere in tiny quantities and removes most pollutants from the air by oxidizing them. The amount of hydroxyl in the air has fallen by a quarter in 1980s. Now it may be reviving for two reasons: ironically, because the ozone hole has expanded, letting in more ultraviolet radiation into the lower atmosphere, where it manufactures hydroxyl. Then the stricter controls on vehicle exhausts in America and Europe may have cut global carbon monoxide emissions, thereby allowing more hydroxyl to clean up other pollutants.

Question: The word “purging” in line 2 is closest in meaning to __________.

A. refining

B. ridding

C. destroying

D. rising

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.

  The air above our head is becoming cleaner. A breath of fresh air has been running right round the planet for the past five years. The planet is apparently purging itself of pollution. Paul Novell of the University of Colorado, the co-author of a report on this phenomenon says, “It seems as if the planet’s own cleaning service has suddenly got a new lease of life. Suddenly, there are a lot of changes going on up there”.

  Estimates of the death toll from urban smog have been steadily rising, so the new cleaner trend could have significant consequences for life expectancy in cities as well as for the planet itself. The sudden and unexpected reversal of several decades of worsening pollution extends from the air in city streets to the remotest mid-Pacific Ocean and Antarctica.

   Among the pollutants which have begun to disappear from the atmosphere are carbon monoxide, from car exhaust and burning rain forests, and methane from the guts of cattle, paddy fields, and gas fields. Even carbon dioxide, the main gas behind global warning, has fallen slightly.

   There are two theories about why pollution is disappearing. First that there is less pollution to start with due to laws to cut down urban smogs and acid rain starting to have a global impact. Second, that the planet may be becoming more efficient at cleaning up.

   The main planetary clean-up agent is a chemical called hydroxyl. It is present throughout the atmosphere in tiny quantities and removes most pollutants from the air by oxidizing them. The amount of hydroxyl in the air has fallen by a quarter in 1980s. Now it may be reviving for two reasons: ironically, because the ozone hole has expanded, letting in more ultraviolet radiation into the lower atmosphere, where it manufactures hydroxyl. Then the stricter controls on vehicle exhausts in America and Europe may have cut global carbon monoxide emissions, thereby allowing more hydroxyl to clean up other pollutants.

Question: Based on information in the passage, all of the following information referring to hydroxyl is true EXCEPT __________.

A. oxidization of pollutants is carried out by hydroxyl.

B. ultraviolet radiation increases production of hydroxyl.

C. there is difficulty in destroying carbon dioxide by hydroxyl.

D. the reduction in the ozone layer is beneficial to hydroxyl.

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.

  The air above our head is becoming cleaner. A breath of fresh air has been running right round the planet for the past five years. The planet is apparently purging itself of pollution. Paul Novell of the University of Colorado, the co-author of a report on this phenomenon says, “It seems as if the planet’s own cleaning service has suddenly got a new lease of life. Suddenly, there are a lot of changes going on up there”.

  Estimates of the death toll from urban smog have been steadily rising, so the new cleaner trend could have significant consequences for life expectancy in cities as well as for the planet itself. The sudden and unexpected reversal of several decades of worsening pollution extends from the air in city streets to the remotest mid-Pacific Ocean and Antarctica.

   Among the pollutants which have begun to disappear from the atmosphere are carbon monoxide, from car exhaust and burning rain forests, and methane from the guts of cattle, paddy fields, and gas fields. Even carbon dioxide, the main gas behind global warning, has fallen slightly.

   There are two theories about why pollution is disappearing. First that there is less pollution to start with due to laws to cut down urban smogs and acid rain starting to have a global impact. Second, that the planet may be becoming more efficient at cleaning up.

   The main planetary clean-up agent is a chemical called hydroxyl. It is present throughout the atmosphere in tiny quantities and removes most pollutants from the air by oxidizing them. The amount of hydroxyl in the air has fallen by a quarter in 1980s. Now it may be reviving for two reasons: ironically, because the ozone hole has expanded, letting in more ultraviolet radiation into the lower atmosphere, where it manufactures hydroxyl. Then the stricter controls on vehicle exhausts in America and Europe may have cut global carbon monoxide emissions, thereby allowing more hydroxyl to clean up other pollutants.

Question: The word “it” in paragraph 5 refers to ______.

A. the ozone hole

B. clean-up agent

C. acid rain

D. urban smog

    An air pollutant is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or materials adversely. Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled – a far cry from the extensive list of harmful subtances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions.

    Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and notrigen oxides, are found in nature. As the Earth developed, the concentration of these pollutants was altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis, nature’s output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities.

          However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as as city. In such a region, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need not be large for a subtance to be a pollutant; in fact, the numerial value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over ther concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm), which is about 400 times its natural level. Carbon monoxide, however, has a natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm.

According to the passage, human-generated air pollution in localized regions ________.

A. can be dawrfed by nature’s output of pollutants

B. can overwhelm the natural system that removes pollutants

C. will damage areas outside of the localized regions

D. will react harmfully with natural pollutants

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.

  The air above our head is becoming cleaner. A breath of fresh air has been running right round the planet for the past five years. The planet is apparently purging itself of pollution. Paul Novell of the University of Colorado, the co-author of a report on this phenomenon says, “It seems as if the planet’s own cleaning service has suddenly got a new lease of life. Suddenly, there are a lot of changes going on up there”.

  Estimates of the death toll from urban smog have been steadily rising, so the new cleaner trend could have significant consequences for life expectancy in cities as well as for the planet itself. The sudden and unexpected reversal of several decades of worsening pollution extends from the air in city streets to the remotest mid-Pacific Ocean and Antarctica.

   Among the pollutants which have begun to disappear from the atmosphere are carbon monoxide, from car exhaust and burning rain forests, and methane from the guts of cattle, paddy fields, and gas fields. Even carbon dioxide, the main gas behind global warning, has fallen slightly.

   There are two theories about why pollution is disappearing. First that there is less pollution to start with due to laws to cut down urban smogs and acid rain starting to have a global impact. Second, that the planet may be becoming more efficient at cleaning up.

   The main planetary clean-up agent is a chemical called hydroxyl. It is present throughout the atmosphere in tiny quantities and removes most pollutants from the air by oxidizing them. The amount of hydroxyl in the air has fallen by a quarter in 1980s. Now it may be reviving for two reasons: ironically, because the ozone hole has expanded, letting in more ultraviolet radiation into the lower atmosphere, where it manufactures hydroxyl. Then the stricter controls on vehicle exhausts in America and Europe may have cut global carbon monoxide emissions, thereby allowing more hydroxyl to clean up other pollutants.

Question: The passage supports which of the following conclusion?

A. An expansion in hydroxyl has enlarged the ozone hole.

B. The decrease of methane has enabled ultraviolet radiation to enter the atmosphere.

C. The reduction in carbon dioxide has produced a cleaner atmosphere.

D. The beneficial effect of hydroxyl has aided the cleaning process.