1. READING SKILL 5: NEGATIVE FACT QUESTIONS
(Câu hỏi thông tin phủ định)
Phương pháp trả lời câu hỏi:
- Dùng kỹ thuật loại suy
- Tìm câu không phải là paraphrase đúng của câu đã cho
Practice 1:
The strongest part of every human body is the heart. The heart is an
amazing muscle. Unlike other muscles, the heart never gets tired, and it never
stops during your lifetime. How strong is the human heart? Well, get a tennis
ball and squeeze it. Your heart squeezes this hard to push blood through your
body. How many times can you squeeze that tennis ball? Your heart does this
100,000 times each day!
The heart has four "rooms," or chambers. Each "room" has a "door,"
or valve. The upper rooms are atria, and the bottom rooms are ventricles. The
basic job of the heart is to move blood through the body. Blood first moves
into the heart from the right atrium. Then, it moves down into the right
ventricle and out into the lungs. Blood comes back into the heart by the left
atrium and then moves down into the left ventricle. Finally, the heart pumps
the blood back out into the body.
According to the passage, all of the following are true EXCEPT__
(A) The human heart is a muscle.
(B) The human heart has five chambers.
(C) The human heart never gets tired.
(D) The human heart beats 100,000 times a day.
Practice 2:
Many countries have more than one language. For example, Spanish
is common in the United States in addition to English. Many people in
Europe speak several languages, like German and French. Do you know what
country has the most languages in the world? The island of Papua New
Guinea has over 700 languages! This is more than 25% of all the languages
in the world. Why does one country have so many languages? Papua New
Guinea has many small tribes, and each tribe has its own language. In
addition, the country has very high mountains. For many years, the people of
different tribes did not see each other that much because they did not often
cross the mountains. As a result, their languages did not have a chance to mix
together.
All of the following are true of Papua New Guinea EXCEPT___
(A) It has over one quarter of the World's languages
(B) It is an island nation.
(C) It has 25% more languages than the rest of the world.
(D) It is very mountainous.
Practice 3: CĐ 2008
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the American educational
system was desperately in need of reform. Private schools existed, but only
for the very rich. There were very few public schools because of the strong
sentiment that children who would grow up to be laborers should not waste
their time on education but should instead prepare themselves for their life’s
work. It was in the face of this public sentiment that educational reformers
set about their task. Horace Mann, probably the most famous of the
reformers, felt that there was no excuse in a republic for any citizen to be
uneducated. As Superintendent of Education in the state of Massachusetts
from 1837 to 1848, he initiated various changes, which were soon matched in
other school districts around the country. He extended the school year from
five to six months and improved the quality of teachers by instituting teacher
education and raising teacher salaries. Although these changes did not bring
about a sudden improvement in the educational system, they at least
increased public awareness as to the need for a further strengthening of the
system.
According to the passage, which sentence is NOT TRUE?
A. Horace Mann began raising teachers’ salaries.
B. Horace Mann suggested schools prepare children for their life’s work.
C. Horace Mann brought about changes in many schools in the United States.
D. Horace Mann was a famous US educational reformer.
Practice 4: ĐH 2010
Some people fear going back to school because they worry that their
brains have got rusty. But the joy is that, although some parts have rusted up,
your brain has learnt all kinds of other things since you were young. It has
learnt to think independently and flexibly and is much better at relating one
thing to another. What you lose in the rust department, you gain in the
maturity department.
In some ways, age is a positive plus. For instance, when you’re
older, you get less frustrated. Experience has told you that, if you’re calm
and simply do something carefully again and again, eventually you’ll get the
hang of it. The confidence you have in other areas – from being able to drive
a car, perhaps – means that if you can’t, say, build a chair instantly, you
don’t, like a child, want to destroy your first pathetic attempts. Maturity tells
you that you will, with application, eventually get there.
All of the following are true about adult learning EXCEPT ______.
A. adults think more independently and flexibly than young people
B. young people usually feel less patient than adults
C. experience in doing other things can help one’s learning
D. adult learners have fewer advantages than young learners
Practice 5: CD 2012
One of the factors contributing to the intense nature of twenty-firstcentury stress is our continual exposure to media – particularly to an
overabundance of news. If you feel stressed out by the news, you are far
from alone. Yet somehow many of us seem unable to prevent ourselves from
tuning in to an extreme degree.

2. The further back we go in human history, the longer news took to travel
from place to place, and the less news we had of distant people and lands
altogether. The printing press obviously changed all that, as did every
subsequent development in transportation and telecommunication.
When television came along, it proliferated like a population of rabbits.
In 1950, there were 100,000 television sets in North American homes; one
year later there were more then a million. Today, it’s not unusual for a home
to have three or more television sets, each with cable access to perhaps over a
hundred channels. News is the subject of many of those channels, and on
several of them it runs 24 hours a day.
What’s more, after the traumatic events of September 11, 2001, live
newscasts were paired with perennial text crawls across the bottom of the
screen – so that viewers could stay abreast of every story all the time.
Needless to say, the news that is reported to us is not good news, but
rather disturbing images and sound bytes alluding to disaster (natural and
man-made), upheaval, crime, scandal, war, and the like. Compounding the
problem is that when actual breaking news is scarce, most broadcasts fill in
with waistline, hairline, or very existence in the future. This variety of story
tends to treat with equal alarm a potentially lethal flu outbreak and the bogus
claims of a wrinkle cream that over promises smooth skin.
Question 71: According to the passage, which of the following has
contributed to the intense nature of twenty-first-century stress?
A. An overabundance of special news
B. The degree to which stress affects our life
C. Our inability to control ourselves
D. Our continual exposure to the media
Question 72: In the past, we had less news of distant people and lands
because ______.
A. means of communication and transportation were not yet invented.
B. the printing press changed the situation to slowly
C. printing, transportation, and telecommunications were not developed
D. most people lived in distant towns and villages
Question 73: The pronoun “them” in paragraph 3 refers to _________.
A. TV channels B. television sets C. TV news
D. cable access
Question 74: The word “traumatic” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning
to__. A. boring
B. fascinating
C. upsetting D. exciting
Question 77: Which of the following is NOT true, according to the passage?
A. The news that is reported to us is not good news.
B. Many people are under stress caused by the media.
C. Many TV channels supply the public with breaking news.
D. The only source of stress in our modern life is the media.
Practice 6: DH 2012- A1
Most journeys in Britain and the US are made by road. Some of
these are made on public transport but most are by private car.
In Britain many people rely on their cars for daily local activities,
e.g. getting to work, doing the shopping, and visiting friends. People living in
urban areas may use buses, trains or, in London, the Underground, to get to
city centres, mainly because traffic is often heavy and it is difficult to find
anywhere to park a car. Some places in the country may have a bus only two
or three times a week so people living there have no choice but to rely on
their cars.
In the US large cities have good public transportation systems. The
El railroad in Chicago and the underground systems of New York, Boston,
San Francisco and Washington, DC are heavily used. Elsewhere, most
Americans prefer to use their cars. Families often have two cars and, outside
major cities, have to drive fairly long distances to schools, offices, shops,
banks, etc. Many college and even high-school students have their own cars.
Long-distance travel in Britain is also mainly by road, though
railways link most towns and cities. Most places are linked by motorways or
other fast roads and many people prefer to drive at their own convenience
rather than use a train, even though they may get stuck in a traffic jam. Longdistance coach/bus services are usually a cheaper alternative to trains, but
they take longer and may be less comfortable. Some long-distance travel,
especially that undertaken for business reasons, may be by air. There are
regular flights between regional airports, as well as to and from London. A
lot of freight is also distributed by road, though heavier items and raw
materials often go by rail.
Question 71: In Britain and the US most people travel by ______.
A. sea
B. rail
C. road
D. air
Question 72: According to the passage, people in London may prefer the
Underground to their own cars due to ______.
A. cheap tickets B. air pollution C. long distances D. heavy traffic
Question 73: It is mentioned in paragraph 3 that the public transportation
systems in the US are good in ______.
A. some states B. all cities
C. large states D. large cities
Question 74: Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Few college students in the US have their own cars.
B. Families in the US often have more than one car.
C. Most Americans prefer to drive their cars outside large cities.
D. The underground systems are popular in some major US cities.
Question 75: The phrase “at their own convenience” in paragraph 4 is
closest in meaning to ______.
A. at the latest time and nearest place
B. at an appropriate time and place
C. at an early time and nearby place
D. at the fastest time and nearest place
Question 76: Which of the following is true about transport in Britain?
A. Long-distance travel in Britain is only by road.
B. There are no regular flights between regional airports.
C. Trains are usually cheaper than long-distance coach services.
D. Heavier items and raw materials are often transported by train.