X. Read the passage carefully, then do the tasks.

The very first, simple, text message was sent on December 3rd, 1992. It was sent by software engineer Neil Papworth to his boss  at the British mobile phone operator Vodafone. It read simply, “Merry Christmas”. Little did they know that their simple mode of communication would take the world by storm. SMS (Short Message Service) is today a multi-billion-dollar industry covering every corner of the globe. An estimated nine trillion text messages are sent globally each year. Everyone from presidents to schoolchildren to villagers in remote parts of developing countries relies on it to communicate.

SMS is now an integral part of daily life for most of us. It is the preferred method of communication between family members. One study showed that the average American teenager sends up to 60 texts a day. However, SMS has also been blamed for a decline in language ability and an increase in traffic accidents. A new sub-language has spread worldwide as texters find shortcuts to write their messages as quickly as possible using the fewest possible characters. Texting shorthand such as LOL (laugh out loud) and OMG (oh my god) has even entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

A. Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. age                           a. faraway

2. mode                       b. held responsible

3. remote                     c. decrease

4. relies                        d. method

5. integral                    e. era

6. blamed                    f. depends

7. decline                     g. essential

B. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1. The first text message was sent to engineer Neil Papworth in 1992.

2. The first text message simply said “Merry Christmas”.

3. Today SMS is a widely used form of communication.

4. Around nine billion text messages are sent worldwide every year.

5. An average US teen supposedly sends more than 60 text messages a day.

6. People blame SMS for a decline in writing standards.

7. An abbreviated, shorthand language has been created by texters.

8. The texting acronym “LOL” is in the dictionary as “Lots of Love”.

C. Answer the questions.

1. On what day was the first text message sent?

_______________________________________________________________

2. Who was the first text message sent to?

_______________________________________________________________

3. How many words were there in the very first text message?

_______________________________________________________________

4. What does “SMS” mean?

_______________________________________________________________

5. What does everybody rely on SMS to do?

_______________________________________________________________

6. What two problems has texting been blamed for?

_______________________________________________________________

7. What did texters find to write messages more quickly?

_______________________________________________________________

8. What does “LOL” mean in a text?

_______________________________________________________________

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I saw an accident. A boy was run over by a taxi when he was riding his bicycle. The boy's leg was broken and it was bleeding badly. Someone there tried to stop the bleeding. They put pressure on it and held it tight. A man used his mobile phone to call the emergency service. Some minutes later, an ambulance arrived and sent the boy to the hospital. Two policemen came to the scene immediately. Some people told the police that the taxi driver was driving at a very high speed when the accident happened. Some others began talking about the traffic accidents these days and blamed the increasing number of accidents on the roads for careless driving and drunk drivers.

Question. The boy was sent to the hospital by _________.

A. a police

B. a car

C. an ambulance

D. a passenger

II. Read the text carefully, then do the tasks.

THE FIRST ELECTRIC TRAFFIC LIGHTS

In the early 1900's, the world was developing at a very rapid pace, and with the growth of industrialization, cities became more crowded. Furthermore, with the invention automobiles, the traffic on the roads increased significantly, so there was a need for a better traffic system.

In 1912, an American policeman, Lester Wire, who was concerned with the increasing traffic, came up with the idea of the first electric traffic light. Based on Wire's design, the lights were first installed in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 5, 1914, at the corner of 105th and Euclid Avenue
The first electric traffic light had only red and green lights; it did not have a yellow light like modern- day traffic signals. Instead of a yellow light, it had a buzzer sound that was used to indicate that the signal would be changing soon.

In the year 1920, a policeman named William Potts in Detroit, Michigan invented the first four-way and three-coloured traffic lights. Apart from red and green, a third colour - amber (or yellow) - was introduced. Detroit became the first city to implement the four-way and three-colored traffic lights. In the 1920's, several automated traffic signals were installed in major cities around the world. The modern traffic light still uses this famous T-shaped model with three different colors.
A. Decide whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F).
1. Due to the invention of cars, the traffic on the roads increased rapidly.
2. The first electric traffic light was invented in 1914 by Lester Wire.
3. The first electric traffic light had red, green and amber lights.
4. The yellow light didn’t exist until the 1920s.
5. Detroit was the first city to use the red, yellow, and green lights to control road traffic.
6. The modern traffic light works on the same principle as Wire’s original light.
B. Answer the questions
1. When was the first electric traffic light invented?
_______________________________________________
2. Who invented the first electric traffic light?
_______________________________________________
3. How many colours did the first electric traffic light have?
_______________________________________________
4. Where were the lights first installed?
_______________________________________________
5. What was used instead of yellow light to warn everyone of a signal change?
________________________________________________
6. When was the yellow light added?
________________________________________________

cho tớ xin dẫn chứng với ạ

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I saw an accident. A boy was run over by a taxi when he was riding his bicycle. The boy's leg was broken and it was bleeding badly. Someone there tried to stop the bleeding. They put pressure on it and held it tight. A man used his mobile phone to call the emergency service. Some minutes later, an ambulance arrived and sent the boy to the hospital. Two policemen came to the scene immediately. Some people told the police that the taxi driver was driving at a very high speed when the accident happened. Some others began talking about the traffic accidents these days and blamed the increasing number of accidents on the roads for careless driving and drunk drivers.

Question. What part of his body was hurt? – His _________.

A. arm

B. leg

C. head

D. shoulder

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I saw an accident. A boy was run over by a taxi when he was riding his bicycle. The boy's leg was broken and it was bleeding badly. Someone there tried to stop the bleeding. They put pressure on it and held it tight. A man used his mobile phone to call the emergency service. Some minutes later, an ambulance arrived and sent the boy to the hospital. Two policemen came to the scene immediately. Some people told the police that the taxi driver was driving at a very high speed when the accident happened. Some others began talking about the traffic accidents these days and blamed the increasing number of accidents on the roads for careless driving and drunk drivers.

Question. How was the driver driving when the accident happened? – Very ________.

A. slowly

B. fast

C. carefully

D. well

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I saw an accident. A boy was run over by a taxi when he was riding his bicycle. The boy's leg was broken and it was bleeding badly. Someone there tried to stop the bleeding. They put pressure on it and held it tight. A man used his mobile phone to call the emergency service. Some minutes later, an ambulance arrived and sent the boy to the hospital. Two policemen came to the scene immediately. Some people told the police that the taxi driver was driving at a very high speed when the accident happened. Some others began talking about the traffic accidents these days and blamed the increasing number of accidents on the roads for careless driving and drunk drivers.

Question. What did the writer see yesterday?

A. A fire

B. An accident

C. A fighting

D. A crash

Read the text and then choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I saw an accident. A boy was run over by a taxi when he was riding his bicycle. The boy's leg was broken and it was bleeding badly. Someone there tried to stop the bleeding. They put pressure on it and held it tight. A man used his mobile phone to call the emergency service. Some minutes later, an ambulance arrived and sent the boy to the hospital. Two policemen came to the scene immediately. Some people told the police that the taxi driver was driving at a very high speed when the accident happened. Some others began talking about the traffic accidents these days and blamed the increasing number of accidents on the roads for careless driving and drunk drivers.

Question. The accident happened between a taxi and _________.

A. a bus

B. a car

C. a bicycle

D. motorbike

Yesterday, on the way home from school, I saw an accident. A boy was run over by a taxi when he was riding his bicycle. The boy's leg was broken and it was bleeding badly. Someone there tried to stop the bleeding. They put pressure on it and held it tight. A man used his mobile phone to call the emergency service. Some minutes later, an ambulance arrived and sent the boy to the hospital. Two policemen came to the scene immediately. Some people told the police that the taxi driver was driving at a very high speed when the accident happened. Some others began talking about the traffic accidents these days and blamed the increasing number of accidents on the roads for careless driving and drunk drivers.

Question 3: The boy was sent to the hospital by _________.

A. a police

B. a car

C. an ambulance

D. a passenger

Read the passage carefully, and then answer the questions below.

Getting In Touch Through The Ages

Nobody knows who wrote the first letter or when, but we know that 4,000 years ago in Ancient Egypt people carried letters by hand over hundreds of kilometers. Very few people could write, so there were special people, called scribes, who wrote letters for everyone else.

The first stamp didn’t appear until 1840 and it cost just one penny. Nowadays one of the original stamps cost €375. Letter writing was so popular in the 1840s that people delivered the post several times a day.

An American company - Remington and Sons - made the first typewriter in 1871. All the letters in the word "typewriter" were on the top line of the keyboard so that salesmen could demonstrate the machine more easily. Amazingly, the letters are still in the same place on the modern computer keyboard!

In 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated a fantastic new invention called the telephone, nobody was very interested in it. The first fax machine appeared at around the same time, but it was so enormous that no one wanted one - in fact, fax machine didn’t become popular for another hundred years.

Then there was the walkie-talkie, a small two-way radio first used by the US army in the 1930s. However, since they weighed around 13.5 kilos, the talking was perhaps easier than the walking! After World War Two, they became popular with police officers.

Nowadays, we can send messages and pictures around the world in a few seconds using computers and mobile phones. It is hard to believe that e-mail was only invented in 1971, and the first text message was sent in 1992. Today we send over a billion text messages around the world every single day, and an incredible thirty-six billion e-mails.

1. How did people deliver letters in Ancient Egypt?

2. How much did the first stamp cost?

3. How often did they deliver letters in the 1840s?

4. How are the letters arranged on a modern computer keyboard?

5. When did the first fax machine appear?

6. Why was it difficult to walk with the first walkie-talkies?

7. When was the first text message?

8. How many e-mails do we send every day?