Mozart, who was born on January 27, 1756 in the Austrian city of Salzburg, was neither the first nor the last child prodigy, but he was certainly the greatest. He was born into a moderately prosperous family where his unmatched musical genius made itself known extremely early. Mozart began learning to play the harpsichord at three and his earliest known work was composed in 1761 when he was five, the age at which he also first appeared in p ublic. From the age of six, when his father took him on the first foreign tour, Mozart toured the courts and musical centres of Austria, Germany, France, England, Holland, Switzerland and Italy. It has been calculated that Mozart spent almost a third of his short life ( he died at the age of 35) travelling. As Mozart matured, he continued to tour and give concerts. Mozart also wrote a lot of operas. His first opera,
Mitridate, Re di Ponto, was perfomed in Milan when he was 14, and it was one of many successes in the life of the genius.
1.How rich was Mozart's family?->..........
2.When did he take the first step into the world of music as a composer?->........
3.What did he do on his tour to some major Europe countries?->............
4.Why is it possible to name Mozart'' A travelling composer''?->............
5.What expression in the passage means''an exceptionally clever child''?->...........
1. Read the passage and answer the questions below. (2ms)
William Shakespeare is probably the most famous playwright in history. He was born on 23 April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in England. He was one of eight brothers and sisters. His father, John Shakespeare, was a successful businessman. William went to school in Stratford and learnt Latin and Greek, but he didn’t go to university. At the age of fifteen he went straight to work in his father’s business. When he was eight, he met and fell in love with Anne Hathaway. She was eight years older than him. They got married in November 1582, and six months later their daughter Susanna was born. In 1585 they had twins, Hamnet and Judith. Little is known about the following seven years of his life. We only know that he moved to London, leaving Anne and the children in Stratford, and that by 1592 he was writing plays and working as an actor.
His plays were very popular and he made a lot of money. In 1597, he bought a big house in Stratford for his family, but he stayed in London for further 13 years. He continues to write and act and also bought a theater. In 1611, he finally retired and moved back to Stratford. In total, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets (fourteen-line poems). He died in Stratford on his birthday, on 23 April 1616, and was buried in the church where he had been christened 52 years earlier.
1. Apart from writing plays, what did Shakespeare also do? _____________________________________________
2. How many plays did Shakespeare write?
________________________________________________________________
3. Did he spend all his life in Stratford?
_________________________________________________________________
4. When did he die?
_________________________________________________________________
at sixteen, henry vincent was separated from his family as a result of the war. he wandered aimlessly from one country to another...1....... finally setting down in australia,.....2...... he was trained as an electronics engineer. he established his own business but it called for so much work that marriage was out of the.......3...
his retirement suddenly ......4...... him realize how lonely he was and he decided to....5..... up a hobby, with his interest in electronics, amateur radio seemed a natural choice. he installed his own equipment and obtained a licence and his call sign, which is the set of letters and numbers used to identify oneself when making radio contact ....6..... other radio amateurs all over the world.
soon henry had a great many contacts in far-off places. one in particular was a man in california with....7...... he had much in common. one night the man in california happened to mention the village in europe he had come from. suddenly, henry realised that this man was, in fact, his younger brother, peter. at firrst, the two brothers were at a .....8...... for words but then little by little they filled .....9....... the details ở their past lives and not long afterwards henry vincent flew to california to .........10...... reunited with his brother.
1 john ............ ( lose ) his job last month and since then he ..........(be) out of work - do you know why he .............( lose) his job ? - because he ................. (be) very rude to his boss 2 yesterday morning , when i ....... . ( arrive) at the airport , sophie ....... ..(wait ) for me . she ....... ...(wear) a pink dress and ... ...look very pretty cau 2 : 1 mark twain was born in missouri ..............(on/for/in )1835 2 fresh air is ............(of/about / in) great use to our health 3 he will not pass the exam ...............(if/unless/or) he works hard 4 my father often goes to church ............(with/at/on) sundays 5 surfing is one way..........(of/at/on) spending free time in australia 6 they are the children..............( whose /who/ whom ) won the match yesterday 7 tom has been living here .............. (for/since/in) six years 8 we would go camping ..............(although/if/ but) the weather were fine cau3 : pewrite the following sentences : 1 the remark was so unexpected that did not know what to say >> it was .................................................... 2 you are the worst guitarist in the world >> no one .................................................... 3 it is 3 years since i last saw nam >>>>> i have not ................................................................. 4 keeping the environment clean is very inportant >> it is .........................................................................
Supply the correct verb forms.
1. After (leave) school when she was 18, Laura (go) to Bristol university for three years. While she (be) at university, Laura (join) a university folk group and started singing. It was at this time that she (write) her famous song "The Price of Peace".
2. One of the first novels in history of literature (be) written in England in 1719. It (be) Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dofoe. He (bear) in London in a rich family. When Daniel (be) a schoolboy, he (begin) to write sstories. After (leave) school he (work) in his father's shop and (write) articles for newspapers. Dofoe (visit) many countries and (meet) many people. That helped him much in his writings.
3. A friend of mine, Judith Nelson, (presently, work) in theinternational sales division at an electronics firm. She (just, return) from a trip to Japan. She (be) asked to go there because she can speak Japanese. For four years, she (never have) the opportunity to use her Japanese until she (go) to Tokyo last month. While she (be) there, she (speak) Japanese everyday and (enjoy) very much of it.
4. Ever since the day i (decided) to move to London, I (worry) whether the decisior. I (take) was the right one. As I (already sell) my house and (arrange) a new job, it is too late to change my mind. However, since then I (hear) a lot of negative things about living in the Capital and lately some of them (begin) to bother me. I (grow) up in a small town and have spent all my life there.
5. Mary (have) to go to New York last week, but she almost (miss) the plane. She (stand) in the queue at the check-in desk when she suddenly (realize) that she (leave) her passport at home. Fortunately, she (not live) very far from the airport so she (have) time to go back home to get the passport. She (get) back to the airport just in time for her flight.
6. Rob Fellow (come) from England. He (come) to Paris six months ago to learn French. He (start) learning French at school in England when she was eleven so he (learn) it for nearly 10 years. He just (take) an exam. If he passes, he ( move) into the next class. He (be) excited today because his parents (come) tommorow to stay with him for a few days.
7. (Bear) in Scotland in 1847, Alexander Bell (become) interested very early in the methods of human communication. He (influence) by his father and grandfather, who (spend) years working with deaf people and those with faulty speech. Bell's father even (go) so far as to develop as system of so-called"visible speech" for the deaf. He (use) sketches of the different positions of the lips and tongue. This science of visible speech (form) the foundation of young Bell's knowledge of the mechanics of human speech. But the young boy's knowledge of other subjects (not/advance) quite as rapidly.
IV. Read the following passage and choose the best answer from A,B, C or D:I had feared that my companion would talk, but it was soon plain (rõ ràng) that there was no such danger. Two days passed during which we did not exchange a single word. He seemed, indeed, absolutely unaware of my presence. He neither read nor wrote, but spent most of his time sitting at the table and looking out of the window across the pleasant parkland that surrounded the house. He sometimes talked to himself and said things half under his breath. He bit his nails and once he produced a penknife and dug holes in the furniture until one of the attendants (nhân viên) took it from him. I thought at first that perhaps he was mentally ill. During the second day I even began to feel a little nervous of him. He was extremely large, both broad and tall, with very wide shoulders and enormous hands. His huge head was usually sunk low between his shoulders. He had dark, rather untidy hair and a big shapeless mouth which open very now and then. Once or twice he began singing to himself, but broke off abruptly (bất ngờ) on each occasion - and this was the nearest he seemed to get to noticing my presence.
By the evening of the second day I was completely unable to go on with my work. Out of a mixture of nervousness and curiosity, I sat, too looking out of my window and blowing my nose, and wondering how to set about establishing the human contact which was by now becoming an absolute necessity. It ended of with my asking him for his name. He had been introduced to me when he arrived, but I had paid
no attention then. He turned towards me a very gently pair of dark eyes and said his name: Huge Belfounder. He added:" I thought you didn't want to talk." I said that I was not at all against talking, that I had just been rather busy with something when he arrived, and I begged his pardon if I had appeared rude.
It seemed to me, even from the way he spoke, that he was not only mentally ill, but was highly intelligent; and I began, almost automatically, to pack up my papers. I knew that from now on I should do no more work. I was sharing a room with a person of the greatest fascination.
1. How did Huge spend the first two days?
A. He worked as if the writer was not there.
B. He talked and sang to himself from time to time.
C. He spent his time making holes in the furniture.
D. He kept annoying the attendants.
2. On the second evening the writer
A. tried in vain to start a conversation.
B. was feeling bored.
C. began to fell frightened of his companion.
D. could not concentrate on his work.
3. Huge didn't talk to the writer at first because
A. he didn't realise the writer wished to.
B. he thought the writer was rude.
C. he was feeling ill.
D. he was too busy.
4. The writer's attitude to Huge changed from
A. fear to nervousness.
B. nervousness to interest.
C. curiosity to nervousness.
D. nervousness to unfriendliness
VIII. Fill in each gap in the sentence with the correct form of the word in capital letters:1. Alice had a ……………..… day at work and went to bed early. ( TIRE )
2. Food and clothing are ................................................ of life ( NECESSARY )
3. His dream is to be an ...............................like his father when he grows up. (economy)
4. Japan is an ………………………country. (industry)
5. She can find no ................................................ to her financial troubles. ( SOLVE )
6. The instructions are very..................................... I am not clear what I should do.( confuse)
7. The large dog is perfectly …………….........and he has never been known to attack anyone. (harm)
8. The party is …….…………, so you don’t have to dress up for it. ( FORM )
9. Travelling in big cities is becoming more ………….....…… everyday. ( TROUBLE )
10. We should learn all the new words by heart in order to ……..…………. our vocabulary. (rich)