Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 36 to 43.
Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the scholars of the classical and medieval worlds, while during the fifteenth century the term “reading” undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century did silent reading become commonplace.
One should be wary, however, of assuming that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud was a distraction to others. Examinations of factors related to the historical development of silent reading have revealed that it became the usual mode of reading for most adults mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a steady gradual increase in literacy and thus in the number of readers. As the number of readers increases, the number of potential listeners decline and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the flourishing of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, railway carriages and offices, where reading aloud would cause distraction to other readers.
Towards the end of the century, there was still considerable argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully and over whether the reading of materials such as newspapers was in some mentally weakening. Indeed, this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its virtues, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and periodicals for a specialized readership on the other.
By the end of the twentieth century, students were being recommended to adopt attitudes to books and to use reading skills which were inappropriate, if not impossible, for the oral reader.
The social, cultural and technological changes in the century had greatly altered what the term “reading” implied
The writer of this passage is attempting to______
A. show how reading methods have improved
B. encourage the growth of reading
C. explain how reading habits have developed
D. change people’s attitudes to reading
Đáp án C
Giải thích: Cả bài đọc giải thích về việc văn hóa đọc dã chuyển từ đọc to thành đọc thầm như thế nào, nguyên nhân và các yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến quá trình ấy. Do đó, điều mà tác giả đã cố gắng diễn tả (hay ý chính của bài) là phương án C. explain how reading habits have developed = giải thích thói quen đọc sách đã phát triển như thế nào.
A. show how reading methods have improved = cho thấy các phương pháp đọc sách đã được cải thiện như thế nào.
Trong bài đọc không đề cập đến sự phát triển của phương pháp đọc sách.
B. encourage the growth of reading = khuyến khích sự phát triển của việc đọc.
Bài đọc không hề đưa ra lời khuyến khích sự tiếp tục phát triển của việc đọc.
D. change people’s attitudes to reading = thay đổi thái độ đọc của mọi người.
Bài đọc không hề kêu gọi hay khuyến khích mọi người thay đổi thái độ của mình với việc đọc sách.