Đề luyện thi vào lớp 10 - Đề 13

​ Our story today is called "Rappaccini’s Daughter." It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We will tell the story in two parts. Here is Kay Gallant with the first part of our story. Many years ago, a young man named Giovanni Guasconti left his home in Naples to study in northern Italy. He rented a small room on the top floor of a dark and ancient palace. Long ago, the building had belonged to a noble family. Now, an old woman, Signora Lisabetta, rented its rooms to students at the University of Padua. Giovanni’s room had a small window. From it he could see a large garden that had many plants and flowers. “Does the garden belong to you?” he asked Signora Lisabetta one day. “Oh no!” she said quickly. “That garden belongs to the famous doctor, Giacomo Rappaccini. People say he uses those plants to make strange kinds of medicine. He lives in that small brown house in the garden with his daughter, Beatrice.” Giovanni often sat by his window to look at the garden. He had never seen so many different kinds of plants. They all had enormous green leaves and magnificent flowers in every color of the rainbow. Giovanni’s favorite plant was in a white marble vase near the house. It was covered with big purple flowers. One day, while Giovani was looking out his window, he saw an old man in a black cape walking in the garden. The old man was tall and thin. His face was an unhealthy yellow color. His black eyes were very cold. The old man wore thick gloves on his hands and a mask over his mouth and nose. He walked carefully among the plants, as if he were walking among wild animals or poisonous snakes. Although he looked at the flowers very closely, he did not touch or smell any of them. When the old man arrived at the plant with the big purple flowers, he stopped. He took off his mask and called loudly, “Beatrice! Come help me!” “I am coming, Father. What do you want?” answered a warm young voice from inside the house. A young woman came into the garden. Her thick, dark hair fell around her shoulders in curls. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were large and black.

Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company that sells beauty products. One woman started the business in the 1960s with an investment of $5,000. Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in 1918. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a restaurant. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was 17 years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children. She began selling different kinds of products. One night, Mary Kay was showing products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Ms. Spoonemore began giving her guests some homemade skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and liked them. She bought the rights to Heath’s skin care products and started her own company. She paid $500 for the legal rights to the products. And in 1963, The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Independent sales representatives bought beauty products from the company and sold them at higher prices. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other saleswomen into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to train new ones. By 1965, the company was selling almost one million dollars in products. Mary Kay Cosmetics became one of the most successful direct sellers of skin care products in America. It continues to have sales offices and representatives in many different countries. Mary Kay aimed to grow sales based on the idea that it is best to compete against yourself. That means every individual is trying to beat their own sales records. Prizes for high sales marks included special paid holidays and jewelry. Until a few years ago, a pink Cadillac was a top prize. After her third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in 1980, she wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research.

Scientists say they might have identified the mineral on Mars that is responsible for making the planet appear red. New data collected on Mars through several methods suggests the substance, called ferrihydrite, is likely found in dust and rock material across wide areas of the planet. The team carrying out the research describes ferrihydrite as an “iron oxide mineral.” The mineral appears reddish in color and can form in water-rich environments. The scientists said discovering large amounts of it on Mars adds to existing evidence that the planet might have held a large supply of liquid water in the past. The research was carried out by an international team led by America’s Brown University and the University of Bern in Switzerland. The findings recently appeared in a study published in Nature Communications. The researchers noted that scientists have long wondered about the exact substance that gives Mars – which is also known as the Red Planet – its deep red color. Past studies had suggested a mineral called hematite might be the cause. The study is based on Martian data collected by several spacecraft. These include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, operated by the American space agency NASA. In addition, information was captured by instruments aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA's) Mars Express and Trace Gas orbiters. Some data also came from exploring vehicles, called rovers, operating on Mars. In their examinations, the researchers also used manmade, or synthetic, material designed to look and feel similar to real Martian dust. Adomas Valantinas currently works as a researcher at Brown University’s Department of Earth, Environment & Planetary Sciences. He helped write the study. Valantinas noted the mystery of why Mars is red had been considered “for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.” Valantinas recognized his team was not the first to consider ferrihydrite as a possible reason for the coloring of Mars. But he noted, “it has never been proven as we have now, using observational data and novel laboratory methods…” Valantinas noted the discovery of widespread ferrihydrite suggests Mars once held liquid water that would have made it possible for the planet to support some form of life. "Our study reveals that ferrihydrite formation on Mars required the presence of both oxygen…and water capable of reacting with iron,” he added. “These conditions were very different from the dry, cold environment of Mars today."