Bài nghe Tiếng Anh 12 (Theo chương trình cải cách)

E.12 LISTENING
Unit 1: HOME LIFE
PAUL: So, Andrea, you’re going home for the holiday?
ANDREA: I am sure. I’ve booked a flight for tomorrow afternoon and I can’t wait.
PAUL: That’s sounds great.
ANDREA: What about you? Going home too?
PAUL: I haven’t decided yet. I’m still considering 
ANDREA: Haven’t decided yet? Oh, you are never going to get a flight out of here. All the seats have been reserved by now I’m sure. It’s the holiday season, after all.
PAUL: Well, it’s not very important to me. My family lives about 180 kms from here. I usually take the train or the coach.
ANDREA: You don’t sound excited about it.
PAUL: Well, we are not really a very close-knit family. I have three brothers, and they’ve spread out all over the place. We rarely get together as a family any more.
ANDREA: Well, try to get home as soon as possible. We’re a big family – there are six of us – children – so it’s always a lot of fun.
PAUL: Six kids?
ANDREA: Yes. And we’re really close. My brothers are married, so it makes for a very crowded home over the holiday. And there are too many people to cook for, so we end up going out to dinner a lot. That’s also fun.
PAUL: Well, at my home, my mother loves to cook, so when we get home she often cooks big meals. We have leftovers for days.
Unit 2: CULTURAL DIVERSITY
TOURIST: Can you tell me about wedding ceremonies in VN?
TOURIST GUIDE: Well, wedding is very important to the Vietnamese, not only to the couple involved, but also for the both families. The wedding day is usually chosen carefully by the groom’s parents.
TOURIST: What does the groom’s family usually do on the wedding day?
TOURIST GUIDE: On the wedding day, the groom’s family and relatives go to the bride’s house bringing gifts wrapped in red paper. The people who hold the trays of gifts are also carefully chosen.
TOURIST: Do you have someone in charge of the ceremony? And what does he do during the wedding ceremony?
TOURIST GUIDE: Yes, we have Master of Ceremonies who introduces the groom, the bride, the parents, the relatives and guests of the two families. The wedding ceremony starts in front of the altar. The bride and the groom would pray, asking their ancestors’ permission to get married. The Master of Ceremonies gives the wedding couple advice on starting a new family. The groom and the bride then exchange their wedding rings.
TOURIST: Where is the wedding banquet held?
TOURIST GUIDE: Well, it depends. Often the wedding banquet is held at the groom and bride’s home or at the hotel or a restaurant and all close relatives, friends, and neighbours are invited.
TOURIST: What kind of food and drinks are served?
TOURIST GUIDE: Traditional food and beer or vine are served. During the reception, the groom, bride, and their parents stop by each table to thank their guests. The guests in return, will give envelopes containing wedding cards and money to the newly wedded couples along with their blessing.
TOURIST: Oh. That’s very interesting. Thank you.
TOURIST GUIDE: You’re welcome!
Unit 3: WAYS OF SOCIALISING
The Telephone – Potential Family Battleground
Hello, everyone. In today’s talk I’m going to give you some pieces of advice on how to use the telephone in the most decent way so as to avoid unnecessary disagreements between you and members of your family.
The telephone, as you know, is a marvelous instrument, but it may cause arguments between you and your parents – arguments that could be easily avoided if you would sit down, talk it over, and agree to a few simple regulations.
The most obvious problem, of course, is what everyone considers a reasonable length of time for a call. The exact duration must be worked out with your parents, but ten minutes should be an absolute maximum. That’s certainly long enough to say almost anything in five different ways, and yet it isn’t so long that other members of the family will become angry. Even when your parents are out, the length of your call should be limited, because they, or someone else, may be trying to reach your home for a very important reason.
Calling hours should be agreed upon. If your parents object to your leaving the dinner table to take calls, tell your friends to avoid calling that hour; if someone does phone, ask him to call back, or offer to call him when dinner’s over.
A serious calling problem is calling very late at night, or very early in the morning. This particular mistake is made mostly by young people who consider 10 or 11 p.m., when a lot of tired adults are happily sleeping, the shank of the evening. So please tell your friends not to call after ten o’clock. The shock of waking out of a sound sleep and the fright of that instant thought – “There’s an accident” - are enough to give your parents a heart attack. Weekend morning calls aren’t startling, but it’s the one time your parents can sleep late.
If your mother and father out of kindness, have installed a separate phone for you, remember that you’re still a member of a family. So try to stick to your family’s regulations.
That’s all for my talk today. Thank you for listening.
Unit 4: SCHOOL EDUCATION SYSTEM
JENNY: Look, these questions about how you got on at school. Shall we just go through them?
GAVIN: Yes, let’s.
JENNY: Oh, so, did you always work very hard?
GAVIN: Well I certainly worked pretty hard at the subjects I enjoyed. Yes, I did. What about you?
JENNY: Yes, I did actually, I think I worked very hard, yeah. Now let’s come to the next question.
GAVIN: Did, yeah, did you always listen carefully to your teachers?
JENNY: No I don’t think I did. No, I think I was quite disruptive, actually. What about you?
GAVIN: Well I think I did listen to the teachers certainly when I got to the level where I was doing the subjects I enjoyed.
JENNY: Yeah, OK, the next question is, did you always behave well?
GAVIN: I don’t think I always behaved well. I was, a bit, er, a bit of a tearaway.
JENNY: Um. Well, I think I was pretty well-behaved on the whole, so I’d say yes, yeah.
GAVIN: Good for you! Did you pass your exams easily?
JENNY: No I can’t say I did, no, I, I found them quite a struggle, actually. What about you?
GAVIN: I didn’t pass them that easily, though I worked hard I found it very difficult to answer all that long questions in a short time.
JENNY: Yeah, yeah, exactly. What about this one, then? Did you always write slowly and carefully?
GAVIN: Quite slowly. Essays took a long time to write and I suppose I took a bit of care, yes.
JENNY: Yes, I agreed. I was also, I was very careful and erm, yeah, yeah I was quite methodical.
GAVIN: And did you think your school days were the best days of your life?
JENNY: Um, no, no I can’t say they were. What about you?
GAVIN: No, I went away to a boarding school when I was quite young and I didn’t like that. No, they weren’t the best days of my life.
Unit 5: HIGHER EDUCATION
JOHN: Now, David, can I get this right: You’ve just completed a Msc course on which a large proportion of the students were international students? Is that right?
DAVID: That’s it. Yes, I was in AERD – that’s the department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development.
JOHN: And how do you think the students from the other countries got along on that course?
DAVID: Pretty well.
JOHN: What advice would you give to students, particularly international students, based on your experience as a student here?
DAVID: I think the most basic thing is to make use, full use, of the tutors and lecturers. Maybe some of the overseas students are a bit shy to take questions or problems to tutors.
JOHN: What do you think they should do?
DAVID: I think they should find out at the beginning of the course the times at which the tutor is going to be available for tutorial appointments, and then make full use of them.
JOHN: So, any problems, they should tell the tutor as soon as possible? Let’s move on, what about the amount of reading that you have to do as a university student?
DAVID: Yes! It looks pretty daunting at first, with those long reading lists. Don’t think that students have to read everything that’s listed. Try to find out which are the most important items on the list – ask the lecturer or tutor if necessary, and then, if your time is limited, spend it reading those books thoroughly.
JOHN: OK, that’s very helpful, David. Thank you very much.
DAVID: No, not at all.
Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS
Let’s look at some of the recent changes in the US job market and see if we can make some predictions for future jobs.
A good way to begin is to look at the American workforce and how it is changing. The most important change has been the shift from manufacturing jobs to service jobs.
Manufacturing jobs are jobs in which people make something or produce things. For example, people produce cars. Service jobs are those in which workers provide services, or we may say, they do something, like washing people’s cars. Generally, service jobs are grouped into five categories: 
One: Transportation companies. 
Two: Wholesale companies. 
Three: Retail companies. 
Four: Finance companies. 
Five: Personal services, such as hotels, cars repair, accounting, education and medicine.
Now the point here is that people have change from manufacturing jobs to service jobs. For example, 100 years ago, 80% of workers produced goods, today only 30% do. Economists predict by the year 2020, nine out of every ten workers will work in service jobs.
Unit 7: ECONOMIC REFORMS
The inhabitants of Tango, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, discovered a plant which contained a powerful drug. They grew the plant all over the island and they took the drug every day. This made it more difficult for them to think rationally - it stopped them worrying about the future and enabled them to forget all their problems. At the same time, it made it much easier for them to relax and enjoy themselves. And because of the drug, the whole population of the island stopped working and spent all their time singing and dancing and looking at the sea.
Unfortunately this had very bad effects on the country's economy. The workers and farmers became lazy, the children didn't want to go to school and the whole population began to run short of food. This, however, didn't discourage people from taking the drug. The Prime Minister made speeches on the TV warning them about the drug, but nobody took any notice, and before long the economy of the country was in ruins. This forced the Government to take measures. They introduced a law to make the drug illegal. But that only made the situation worse. The law couldn't prevent the people from taking the drug. On the contrary, the fact that the drug was illegal encouraged people to take it more. They put the drug-takers into prison. But this did not have any effect, there were not enough prisons for them. Eventually, the Government found a solution: they exported the drug to other countries. This saved the islanders from having to work more than one day a week and allowed them to spend the rest of their time sitting in the sun without any care in the world.
Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE
Interviewer: Many scientists predict that in the 21st century people will be living into the incredible age of 130. What do you think about this?
Dr. Davis: Well, I quite agree with them. They have reasons to be confident about that.
Interviewer: What are the reasons?
Dr. Davis: In fact, their prediction is based on research and on the fact that the centenarian population is mushrooming as our general health improves.
Interviewer: Can you explain this further?
Dr. Davis: A century ago average life expectancy in Europe was 45. Today, providing we look after ourselves, eat more healthily, cut down on things like butter, alcohol and cigarettes, we can add nearly 35 years to that figure.
Interviewer: So these are the factors that help people live longer?
Dr. Davis: Yes. But the most important factor is the development in medical science.
Interviewer: What do you mean?
Dr. Davis: Nobody dies from old age, just from diseases that affect people when they get older.
Interviewer: So scientists are trying to find cures for fatal diseases like cancer and Aids?
Dr. Davis: Right. Nowadays, about 50% of cancers are curable, and I really believe that within 30 years this will increase to 80%. And in ten years' time Aids will also be brought under control, too.
Interviewer: That sounds interesting. What about living forever?
Dr. Davis: So far, eternal life is just science fiction. But with the advance of science, it's not impossible.
Unit 9: DESERTS
Hello everyone. In today's talk, I'm going to tell you something about deserts, what they are and how they are formed.
A desert is a hot, dry, sandy place. A desert is also a beautiful land of silence and space. The sun shines, the wind blows, and time and space seem endless. Nothing is soft. The sand and the rocks are hard, and many of the plants, such as the cactus, have hard needles instead of leaves.
The size and location of the world's deserts are always changing. Over millions of years, as climates change and mountains rise, new dry and wet areas develop. But within the last 100 years, deserts have been growing at a frightening speed. This is partly because of natural changes, but the greatest desert makers are humans.
In the 19th century some people living in English colonies in Australia got rabbits from England. Today there are millions of rabbits in Australia, and they eat every plant they can find. The great desert that covers the centre of Australia is growing.
Farming first began in the Tigris-Euphrates, but today the land there is a desert. In dry areas, people can plant crops on dry and poor land. When there are one or two very dry years, the plants die, and the land becomes desert.In developing countries, 90 percent of the people use wood for cooking and heat. They cut down trees for firewood. But trees are important. They cool the land under them and keep the sun off smaller plants. When leaves fall from a tree, they make the land richer. When the trees are gone, the smaller plants die, and the land becomes desert.
Humans can make deserts, but humans can also prevent their growth. Algeria planted a green wall of trees across the edge of the Sahara to stop the desert sand from spreading. Mauritania planted a similar wall around its capital. Iran puts a thin covering of petroleum on sandy areas and plant trees. Other countries build long canals to bring water to the desert areas.
Well, that's all for my talk. Thank you for listening.
Unit 10: ENDANGERED SPECIES
For a long time the image most people had of a gorilla was a dangerous-looking animal with big, bared teeth. But researchers studying gorillas show a very different picture of mountain gorillas. The animals are peaceful, gentle, sociable, and mainly plant-eating creatures.
Gorillas live in family groups. A typical group is led by the biggest and strongest grown-up male gorilla. He is called a silverback because the hair on a male's back turns from black to silvery grey as he grows up. A silverback's group usually includes one or two sub-adult males and a few females and their young.
Mountain gorillas spend much of their time eating. Their food includes a variety of plants, along with a few kinds of insects and worms. At night the animals make a nest to sleep in. Many lightweight gorillas nest in trees. The heavier ones may nest in grasses on the ground. Babies sleep with their mothers at night.
Life for mountain gorillas is not always peaceful. They are endangered and threatened by civil wars in the smaller parts of Africa. Hunters kill them for food. Their forests are cut down for farmland, fuel, and housing. But many scientists, forest rangers and other concerned people are working hard to protect mountain gorillas and their habitats.
Unit 11: BOOKS
I recently read The Incredible Journey by Sheila Bumford, a book about three animal friends who travel across the Canadian wilderness looking for their owners. It is a fascinating story that describes some of the incredible things animals can do.
When a Canadian family goes to England for a long trip, they leave their three pets with a friend who lives 300 miles away. Though well treated by the friend, the pets miss their family. One day, they are able to leave the friend's house unnoticed and begin the long journey to find their owners. The central theme of the book, a problem the animals must resolve, is how to survive life in the wilderness in order to arrive home. They never could have completed the journey alone, but they take care of one another, and all the three make it and are reunited with their owners.
Each animal has a distinct personality, but they care for one another almost as if they were a family. The most impressive of them is the old dog. The journey was the most difficult for him, hut amazingly he found the strength to make it.
The author didn't try to turn the animals into people, speaking and acting like humans. Instead she was faithful to her characters as animals and showed us their journey through animal eyes. That made the book interesting and unbelievable.
I would recommend the book to anyone who likes animals. I think that anyone who has ever had a pet or wanted one would enjoy it.
Typed by Le Ngoc Thach, Thong Linh High School.
Unit 12: WATER SPORTS-SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING
The great Australian swimmer, Annette Kellerman, student at the University of Wisconsin, planted the first seed of what was to become synchronized swimming when she performed a water ballet in a glass tank in New York in 1907.
Katherine Curtis, an American woman, was very inspired by the new water sport. So she tried to get synchronized swimming added to the physical education programme for female students. In 1923 she founded a water ballet club at the University of Chicago and sixty swimmers of the club attracted national and international publicity.
The sport quickly became popular among young women in Chicago. Curtis developed the competition rules, based essentially on the scoring methods used in gymnastics and diving.
The first recorded competition was held on May 27, 1939, between Chicago Teacher's College coached by Curtis and Wright Junior College of Illinois.
Shortly afterwards, the Central Association of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) staged the first multi-team competition on March 1, 1940. The following year, the AAU officially accepted synchronized swimming as a competitive sport for team events. In 1946 the first formal national championships were conducted by the AAU.
Synchronized swimming became an Olympic event at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
Unit 13: THE 22nd SEA GAMES
The first newspaper article:
Only Amnat won a gold in the Southeast Asian Games Pole Vaulting yesterday. Nobody else could clear the bar. While he was the only one who stood alone on the podium, Amnat was among the Thai athletes who won 10 gold medals in early events yesterday. He won the gold in the Pole Vaulting Final after clearing 4.80 m. Meanwhile four other pole-vaulters missed their attempts at the heights ranging from 4.40m to 4.80m. Amnat has proved a lonely winner in this event, but his points were still below the SEA Games record of 5.05m. The second newspaper article:
The Vietnamese Milk Company (Vinamilk) has offered jobs to the 27 members of Vietnam's Women's Football Team after they won the Games' second title. Perhaps they are going to be milkmaids when they retire. It is not an odd proposal because the majority of the footballers will become unemployed when the Games are over. And they now have to struggle to make ends meet Vinamilk has promised to train their new employees as soon as the deal is signed. The goalkeeper of Vietnam's Women's Football Team is dreaming to run a café after doctors have said her injuries would stop her from playing ever again. At the moment, she is short of mone