SỞ gd- đt vĩnh phúc trưỜng thpt liễn sơN

Some time ago, scientists began experiments to find out (31)______ it would be possible to set up a “village” under the sea. A special room was built and lowered (32)______ the water of Port Sudan in the Red Sea. For 29 days, five men lived (33)______ a depth of 40 feet. At a (34)______ lower level, another two divers stayed for a week in a smaller “house”. On returning to the surface, the men said that they had experienced no difficulty in breathing and had (35)______ many interesting scientific observations. The captain of the party, Commander Cousteau, spoke of the possibility of (36)______ the seabed. He said that some permanent stations were to be set up under the sea, and some undersea farms would provide food for the growing population of the world. The divers in both “houses” spent most of their time (37)______ the bottom of the sea. On four occasions, they went down to 360 feet and observed many extraordinary (38)______ of the marine life, some of which had never been seen before. During their stay, Commander Cousteau and his divers reached a depth of 1,000 feet and witnessed a gathering of an immense (39)______ of crabs which numbered, perhaps, hundreds of millions. They also found out that it was (40)______ to move rapidly in the water in a special vessel known as a “diving saucer”.

Laura: “______” A. Of course not. You bet! B. Well, that’s very surprising.

It’s often said that we learn things at the wrong time. University students frequently do the minimum of work because they’re crazy about a good social life instead. Children often scream before their piano practice because it’s so boring. They have to be given gold stars and medals to be persuaded to swim, or have to be bribed (hối lộ) to take exams. But the story is different when you’re older. Over the years, I’ve done my share of adult learning. At 30, I went to a college and did courses in History and English. It was an amazing experience. For starters, I was paying, so there was no reason to be late – I was the one frowning (khó, chau mày, nhăn) and drumming (bấm móng tay) my fingers if the tutor was late, not the other way round. Indeed, if I could persuade him to linger for an extra five minutes, it was a bonus, not a nuisance (phiền toái). I wasn’t frightened to ask questions, and homework was a pleasure not a pain. When I passed an exam, I had passed it for me and me alone, not for my parents or my teachers. The satisfaction I got was entirely personal. Some people fear going back to school because they worry that their brains have got rusty (cáu, tức). 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 (thất vọng). 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 (chin chắn, trưởng thành) tells you that you will, with application, eventually get there. I hated piano lessons at school, but I was good at music. And coming back to it, with a teacher who could explain why certain exercises were useful and with musical concepts that, at the age of ten, I could never grasp, was magical. Initially, I did feel a bit strange, thumping (đấm, thụi) out a piece that I’d played for my school exams, with just as little comprehension of what the composer intended as I’d had all those years before. But soon, complex emotions that I never knew poured out from my fingers, and suddenly I could understand why practice makes perfect.