Đề luyện thi vào lớp 10 - Đề 14

This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer the following question from a listener. Dear teacher, Could you please say more about the meaning of “appeal?” Thank you. Like many words in English, “appeal” has more than one meaning. It can also be more than one part of speech. A part of speech means the grammatical function a word has, such as a noun, verb, adverb or adjective. Let’s look at the many ways we can use the word “appeal.” As a verb, “appeal” means to make a request, often in official situations or involving important things. Generally, we do not use “appeal” for normal, everyday requests. For example, we would not say: I appeal for you to get some milk at the store. But we would say something like: The earthquake victims appealed to the government for more aid. Appealing We can change the meaning of “appeal” by making it an adjective. One way to do this is to use the -ing ending. This forms the word “appealing,” which describes something that has a pleasing quality. Consider the following examples: That job is really appealing to me. Her dress looks really appealing. The nice weather makes that city so appealing. That argument is appealing to many voters. As shown in these examples, we can use the adjective “appealing” to describe many different things. The word “appeal” can also be used as a noun. One meaning as a noun describes a formal or urgent request, as shown in the following examples: Their appeal for help was not answered. The employees made an appeal to reduce the number of hours of work. The second example above shows that we often use the verb “make” before the noun “appeal.” The word “appeal” can also be used as a noun to describe a quality that creates interest, sympathy, or attraction. Here are some examples of that usage: The museum’s design has a lot of appeal. The appeal of that music is its simplicity. Using “appeal” in the law “Appeal” is also often used in legal matters – both as a noun or a verb. As a noun, it means a formal request to a court to review a decision by another court. If one court accepts the other’s request, we can say the court “granted” the appeal. If the court rejects the appeal, we can say the court “denied” it.

The men who created America’s Constitution are often called the nation’s “founders.” But only one of those men, James Madison, is widely considered “the father of the Constitution.” Madison was elected president of the United States in 1808. He served for two terms. But many Americans remember Madison more for the work he did to strengthen the national government before he served as president. Madison was one of the writers of the state constitution in his home state of Virgina in 1776. Later, he proposed a more structured national government after the Revolutionary War. That conflict resulted in the American colonists separating from Britain. Madison imagined a three-part American government – one with an executive, a legislature, and an independent Supreme Court. His ideas became the basis for the U.S. Constitution. Tom Howard has served as an educator at Madison’s home in southern Virginia. He said Madison did not receive as much attention as some of America’s other founding members. “He’s not somehow historically as well-known as other…founding statesmen,” Howard said. “But he’s certainly every bit as important…We are not even sure there would be a Constitution had it not been for James Madison,” he added. Howard noted how James Madison used his own library to prepare for the nation’s Constitutional Convention. “He went up there and studied for months, and that’s having just a light breakfast and then studying throughout the entire day – before he finally took a break to rest up, to go back at it the next day.” Historians say Madison took very detailed notes during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “He sat behind George Washington taking notes, and trying to determine how the debates were going in discussions that he could prepare for the next day, and how he would influence that.” Madison understood his notes were important not only for him. He knew they would also be interesting for historians and other people who wanted to know what happened at the meeting. He included information on speeches and ideas expressed by other delegates. After a new constitution was created at the convention, the legislatures of each state had to ratify, or vote to approve, the document. Madison and other supporters of the proposed government eventually succeeded in persuading the states to ratify the Constitution.

Bees play an important part in the growth of crops. About 4,000 wild bee species are native to North America. Other bee species on the continent were imported from Europe to produce honey. Bees also serve as crop pollinators. These pollinators carry material from one plant to another. This helps the plants produce seeds. Farmers became dependent on this bee activity. But for the past 40 years, the native bee population has been decreasing. Since the winter of 2006, many honeybees have disappeared. Scientists call this “Colony Collapse Disorder.” VOA recently went to the town of Lockeford, in the Central Valley of California. Researchers there are mixing plants to try to bring back the bees. Margaret Smither-Kopperl is a botanist, a scientist who studies plants. She leads the Lockeford Plant Materials Center. It is one of more than 24 centers around the country operated by the United States Department of Agriculture. The centers are working to rebuild and support healthy ecosystems. For the past several years, Ms. Smither-Kopperl has planted different kinds of flowers, grasses and other plants. She is trying to create a combination of plants that bees will like. “On the right I have a planting of native grasses. And, then, in the other field, where you can see that it’s green, we’ve planted eight different commercial pollinator mixes.” Life is not easy for bees. They must deal with pesticides and smaller animals that live on or in them, such as bee mites. But the biggest difficulty is the destruction of areas where they live and eat. Jessa Kay Cruz works at The Xerces Society, a conservation group. She says growth in agriculture industries and the growth of cities have left bees too few natural areas where they seek their food: Pollen and nectar. These two plant substance make up 100 percent of a bee’s food. So, Ms. Cruz says, bees are totally dependent on some kinds of flowers for their survival. Ms. Cruz also says humans need bees to help crops grow. “About 85 percent of the world’s flowering plants require a pollinator basically in order to reproduce. In our agricultural ecosystems, about one in every three bites of food or drink that we consume requires pollinators.”

Thousands of women have served as intelligence agents for the United States and its allies since the nation began. Virginia Hall was one of the bravest and most successful spies for the Allies during World War II. Hall was born in 1906 to a rich family in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied foreign languages in college. In 1931, Virginia Hall took a job at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Then she served in embassies in Estonia, Austria and Turkey. While in Turkey, Virginia Hall suffered a tragic accident. Her gun accidentally fired while she was hunting. The bullet severely wounded her leg. Doctors removed it to save her life. After that, she wore a wooden leg to walk. She resigned from the State Department as a result. But her injury did not stop her from serving the Allies. Virginia Hall was in Paris, France when World War II began. She joined the French Army and drove a medical vehicle. Before long, however, she had to leave to escape the invading German soldiers. Later, in England, she was invited to join a secret British organization created to organize resistance. It helped form military teams in German-occupied areas of Europe. Hall learned weaponry, communications and security. Then she was sent to occupied France. She established communications with the French Resistance movement in Lyon. She successfully plotted the escape of many allied airplane crews and prisoners of the Germans. She saved many lives. Later she escaped from France over the Pyrenees Mountains in the southern part of the country during the winter. After a time in Spain, however, Hall again spied in France. This time she was working for the United States Office of Strategic Services. Hall dressed as a farm worker to hide her identity. She reported German troop movements and organized Resistance groups. By now, the Germans knew who she was. Some called her the most dangerous enemy agent in occupied Europe. The Resistance fighters she organized gained great success. As the Germans withdrew from France, the fighters killed many enemy soldiers. They took hundreds of prisoners. They exploded four bridges. They destroyed communication lines. The United States honored Virginia Hall with a Distinguished Service Cross medal when the war ended. She was the only female civilian in the war to receive this medal.

Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories. Today we talk about a color found all throughout nature – green! Green is also very common in American English. Let’s hear Warren Scheer read a story about these colorful expressions! Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants. Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today - a person who is new in a job. About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west. Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east. The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country. Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early 1900s. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died. The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs. Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy. The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William Shakespeare in his play "Othello."

About five kilometers from the White House in Washington, D.C., stands an historic building closely linked to one of America’s most famous presidents: Abraham Lincoln. The building, known as President Lincoln's Cottage, is where Lincoln spent about one-fourth of his time while in office. And he made some very important decisions while there. Summertime can get very hot in Washington, D.C. So, President Lincoln used a country house to escape the worst of the heat. Each morning and evening, Lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback, unguarded. The trip took about thirty minutes. The large house he rode to was on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home. The house stood on much higher ground than the White House, so the wind kept it cooler. It was also quiet -- a place to think. Lincoln spent much of his time there writing. That work included early versions of what would become one of the most important documents in American history: The Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation came during the Civil War in the United States. The proclamation declared people held as slaves in the rebellious states were free. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865. Troops remained at the Soldiers' Home to protect President Lincoln during the war. At first, Lincoln did not welcome the soldiers. He did not think he needed their protection. But he began to enjoy talking to them. In fact, much of what historians know about the president's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers. One night in 1864, President Lincoln survived a murder attempt. He was alone and on horseback near the country house when someone shot at him. His tall hat flew off his head. Soldiers found the hat and saw that a bullet had torn through it. The president was not injured in the attack. After that, the War Department increased protection for Lincoln. But it was not enough to save his life. Records show that he visited his country house for the last time on April 13, 1865. The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. President Lincoln’s Cottage opened to the public in 2008.

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."