PASSAGE 05
🚩 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 1 to 10.
Probably the most famous film commenting on the twentieth-century technology is Modern Times, made in 1936. Charlie Chaplin was motivated to make the film by a reporter who, while interviewing him, happened to describe the working conditions in industrial Detroit. Chaplin was told that healthy young farm boys were lured to the city to work on automotive assembly lines. Within four or five years, these young men's health was destroyed by the stress of work in the factories.
The film opens with a shot of a mass of sheep making their way down a crowded ramp. Abruptly, the film shifts to a scene of factory workers jostling one another on their way to a factory. However, the rather bitter note of criticism in the implied comparison is not sustained. It is replaced by a gentle note of satire. Chaplin prefers to entertain rather than lecture.
Scenes of factory interiors account for only about one-third of Modern Times, but they contain some of the most pointed social commentary as well as the most comic situations. No one who has seen the film can ever forget Chaplin vainly trying to keep pace with the fast-moving conveyor belt, almost losing his mind in the process. Another popular scene involves an automatic feeding machine brought to the assembly line so that workers need not interrupt their labor to eat. The feeding machine malfunctions, hurling food at Chaplin, who is strapped in his position on the assembly line and cannot escape. This serves to illustrate people's utter helplessness in the face of machines that are meant to serve their basic needs.
Clearly, Modern Times has its faults, but it remains the best film treating technology within a social context. It dose not offer a radical social message, but it dose accurately reflect the sentiment of many who feel they are victims of an over-mechanized word.
(Đề tuyển sinh đại học năm 2009)
Question 1: According to the passage, Chaplin got the idea for Modern Times from ___________.
A. a conversation
B. a movie
C. fieldwork
D. a newspaper
Question 2: The young farm boys went to the city because they were____________.
A. attracted by the prospect of a better life
B. forced to leave their sheep farm
C. promised better accommodation
D. driven out of their sheep farm
Question 3: The phrase "jostling one another" in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to " __________ ".
A. running against each other
B. pushing one another
C. hurrying up together
D. jogging side by side
Question 4: According to the passage, the opening scene of the film is intended ____________.
A. to reveal the situation of the factory workers
B. to produce a tacit association
C. to introduce the main characters of the film
D. to give the setting for the entire plot later
Question 5: The word "vainly" in the fourth paragraph is closed in meaning to "_________".
A. effortlessly
B. recklessly
C. hopelessly
D. carelessly
Question 6: The word "This" in the fourth paragraph refer to __________.
A. the situation of young workers in a factory
B. the scene of an assembly line in operation
C. the scene of the malfunction of the feeding machine
D. the malfunction of the twentieth- century technology
Question 7: According to the author, about two - thirds of Modern Times
A. is more critical than the rest
B. is rather discouraging
C. was shot outside a factory
D. entertains the audience most
Question 8: The author refers to all of the following notions to describe Modern Times EXCEPT "_______".
A. entertainment
B. satire
C. criticism
D. revolution
Question 9: Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage ?
A. The working conditions in the car factories of the 1930s were very stressful.
B. The author dose not consider Modern Times as perfect film.
C. Modern Times depicts the over- mechanised world from a social viewpoint.
D. In Modern Times, the factory workers's basic needs are well met.
Question 10: The passage was written to _____________.
A. review one of Chaplin's popular films
B. explain Chaplin's style of acting
C. discuss the disadvantages of technology
D. criticize the factory system of the 1930s
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