Đề luyện thi vào lớp 10 - Đề 7

The year was 1931. The top selling book in the United States was The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. The following year, Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for the best novel by an American writer. In 1938, Buck became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She wrote more than one hundred books. She also wrote short stories, poetry, plays, essays, and children’s books. But most people remember Pearl Buck for her novels about China. She knew the country and its people very well. For nearly 40 years, China was her home. Early life Pearl’s parents were Caroline and Absalom Sydenstricker. They were religious workers in China. Pearl’s education began at home. Her mother taught her many of the things she would have learned in an American school. A Chinese teacher taught Pearl other subjects. In 1910, Pearl went back to the United States to study philosophy at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. After graduation, she returned to China. Three years later, she met John Lossing Buck. He was a religious worker who studied agriculture. They were married and moved to a small village in the north of China. Their life among the poorest people provided the subject matter for many of the books she later wrote. The Good Earth The Good Earth is the story of a poor Chinese man named Wang Lung. His wife is O-Lan. They work very hard together and finally make enough money to buy some land for a farm. After a time, they grow enough crops to feed their family well, with some left over to sell. Their lives get much better, and they are happy. But the good times do not last. After almost 40 years in China, the writer moved back to the United States. She bought Green Hills Farm in eastern Pennsylvania. She began to write articles for newspapers and magazines. She expressed her opinions on war, politics, religion, equal rights for all people and many other subjects. She also gave many speeches. Buck talked to young people about the importance of a good education. She also told them they needed to know more about other people around the world. Pearl Buck died in 1973 at the age of 80.

Our story today is called “The Open Boat.” It was written by Stephen Crane and is based on what really happened to him in eighteen ninety-six. Crane was traveling from the United States to Cuba as a newspaper reporter. One night, his ship hit a sandbar. It sank in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida. Most of the people on board got into lifeboats. Crane was among the last to leave. There were three others with him: the ship’s captain, the cook, and a sailor. These four men climbed into the only remaining lifeboat. The boat was so small that no one believed it could stay afloat for very long. None of the four men thought he would ever reach the shore. But the men fought the seas bravely, with all their strength. Would they finally reach land? Here is Shep O’Neal with the first part of the story. The small lifeboat bounced from wave to wave in the rough seas of the Atlantic. The four men in the boat could not see the sky. The waves rose too high. The waves with their white tops pushed at the open boat with angry violence. Every man thought each wave would be his last. Surely, the boat would sink and he would drown. The men thought that most adults would need a bathtub larger than the boat they were sailing. The waves were huge, and each created a problem in guiding the direction of the boat. For two days, since the ship sank, the four men had been struggling to reach land. But there was no land to be seen. All the men saw were violent waves which rose and came fiercely down on them. The men sat in the boat, wondering if there was any hope for them. The ship’s cook sat in the bottom of the boat. He kept looking at the fifteen centimeters which separated him from the ocean. The boat had only two wooden oars. They were so thin – it seemed as if they would break against the waves. The sailor, named Billie, directed the boat’s movement with one of the oars. The newspaper reporter pulled the second oar. He wondered why he was there in the boat.

INTENSIVE ENGLISH COURSE Location: Bibury School, Malvern School, Trent College Dates: 30th June – 25th August 2024 Ages: 7 – 18 years old Overview: Welcome to our Intensive English Programme – the perfect choice for students looking to achieve specific language learning goals and (26)_____ rapid progress in their English proficiency! Our Intensive English Programme offers an additional 12 hours of English language instruction per week on top of our regular (27)_____ English course. These extra classes are held in small groups of three or four, allowing for a personalised learning experience that is tailored to (28)_____ student's individual needs. Highlights: * Residential accommodation * Full-board * 12 hours of intensive English (29)_____ small groups * A variety of indoor and outdoor (30)_____ * Two excursions per week