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 following questions.
It’s often said that we learn things at the wrong time. University students frequently do the minimum of work because they’re crazy about a good social life instead. Children often scream before their piano practice because it’s so boring. They have to be given gold stars and medals to be persuaded to swim, or have to be bribed to take exams. But the story is different when you’re older.
Over the years, I’ve done my share of adult learning. At 30,1 went to a college and did courses in History and English. It was an amazing experience. For starters, I was paying, so there was no reason to be late - I was the one frowning and drumming my fingers if the tutor was late, not the other way round. Indeed, if I could persuade him to linger for an extra five minutes, it was a bonus, not a nuisance. I wasn’t frightened to ask questions, and homework was a pleasure not a pain. When I passed an exam, I had passed it for me and me alone, not for my parents or my teachers. The satisfaction I got was entirely personal.
Some people fear going back to school because they worry that their brains have got rusty. But the joy is that, although some parts have rusted up, your brain has learnt all kinds of other things since you were young. It has learnt to think independently and flexibly and is much better at relating one thing to another. What you lose in the rust department, you gain in the maturity department.
In some ways, age is a positive plus. For instance, when you’re older, you get less frustrated. Experience has told you that, if you’re calm and simply do something carefully again and again, eventually you’ll get the hang of it. The confidence you have in other areas - from being able to drive a car, perhaps - means that if you can’t, say, build a chair instantly, you don’t, like a child, want to destroy your first pathetic attempts. Maturity tells you that you will, with application, eventually get there.
I hated piano lessons at school, but I was good at music. And coming back to it, with a teacher who could explain why certain exercises were useful and with musical concepts that, at the age of ten, I could never grasp, was magical. Initially, I did feel a bit strange, thumping out a piece that I’d played for my school exams, with just as little comprehension of what the composer intended as I’d had all those years before. But soon, complex emotions that I never knew poured out from my fingers, and suddenly I could understand why practice makes perfect.
It is implied in the last paragraph that when you learn later in life, you __________.
A. should expect to take longer to learn than when you were younger
B. find that you can recall a lot of things you leamt when younger
C. can sometimes understand more than when you were younger
D. are not able to concentrate as well as when you were younger
Đáp án C.
Keywords: implied, last paragraph, learn later in life.
Clue: “at the age of ten, I could never grasp.. .suddenly I could understand why practice makes perfect”: ở tuổi lên mười, tôi không bao giờ có thế nắm bắt... đột nhiên tôi có thể hiểu tại sao thực hành làm cho hoàn hảo.
- to grasp: nắm chặt, thấu hiểu vấn để
Ex: He grasped my hands: Anh ấy đã nắm chặt tay tôi.
How can I grasp this hard thing: Sao tôi có thể hiểu được điều khó khăn này.
Đoạn văn nói về việc tác giả tập đàn piano lúc nhỏ, và dần lớn lên bỗng hiểu được sâu hơn những bài học, thực hành đó.
Đáp án đúng là C. can sometimes understand more than when you were younger: thi thoảng có thể hiểu được nhiều hơn lúc còn nhỏ.
Các đáp án còn lại là sai.
A. should expect to take longer to learn than when you were younger: thường nghĩ là sẽ phải mất thời gian lâu hơn khi còn nhỏ để học hỏi.
B. find that you can recall a lot of things you learnt when younger: thấy rằng bạn có thể nhớ lại rất nhiều điều bạn đã học được khi còn nhỏ.
D. are not able to concentrate as well as when you were younger: không thể tập trung cũng như khi bạn còn trẻ.