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Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1. One of the characteristics of the postal service before the 1840s was that
A. postmen were employed by various organisations.
B. letters were restricted to a certain length.
C. distance affected the price of postage.
D. the price of delivery kept going up.
2. Letter writers in the 1830s
A. were not responsible for the cost of delivery.
B. tried to fit more than one letter into an envelope.
C. could only send letters to people living in cities.
D. knew all letters were automatically read by postal staff.
3. What does the text say about Hill in the 1830s?
A. He was the first person to express concern about the postal system.
B. He considered it would be more efficient for mail to be delivered by rail.
C. He felt that postal service reform was necessary for commercial development.
D. His plan received support from all the important figures of the day.
The Penny Black
It might not have looked very impressive, but the Penny Black, now 170 years old, was the first stamp to be created and it launched the modem postal system in Britain.
Before 1840 and the arrival of the Penny Black, you had to be rich and patient to use the Royal Mail. Delivery was charged according to the miles travelled and the number of sheets of paper used; a 2-page letter sent from Edinburgh to London, for example, would have cost 2 shillings, or more than £7 in today’s money. And when the top-hatted letter carrier came to deliver it, it was the recipient who had to pay for the postage. Letter writers employed various ruses to reduce the cost, doing everything possible to cram more words onto a page. Nobody bothered with heavy envelopes; instead, letters would be folded and sealed with wax. You then had to find a post office - there were no pillar boxes - and hope your addressee didn't live in one of the several rural areas which were not served by the system. If you were lucky, your letter would arrive (it could take days) without being read or censored.
The state of mail had been causing concern throughout the 1830s, but it was Rowland Hill, an inventor, teacher and social reformer from Kidderminster, who proposed a workable plan for change. Worried that a dysfunctional, costly service would stifle communication just as Britain was in the swing of its second industrial revolution, he believed reform would ease the distribution of ideas and stimulate trade and business, delivering the same promise as the new railways.
Hill’s proposal for the penny post, which meant any letter weighing less than half an ounce (14 grams) could be sent anywhere in Britain for about 30p in today’s money, was so radical that the Postmaster General, Lord Lichfield, said, 'Of all the wild and visionary schemes which I ever heard of, it is the most extravagant.’ Lord Lichfield spoke for an establishment not convinced of the need for poor people to post anything. But merchants and reformers backed Hill. Soon the government told him to make his scheme work. And that meant inventing a new type of currency.
Hill quickly settled on 'a bit of paper covered at the back with a glutinous wash which the user might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of a letter’. Stamps would be printed in sheets of 240 that could be cut using scissors or a knife. Perforations would not arrive until 1854. The idea stuck, and in August 1839 the Treasury launched a design competition open to ‘all artists, men of science and the public in general’. The new stamp would need to be resistant to forgery, and so it was a submission by one Mr Cheverton that Hill used as the basis for one of the most striking designs in history. Cheverton, who worked as a sculptor and an engineer, determined that a portrait of Queen Victoria, engraved for a commemorative coin when she was a 15-year-old princess, was detailed enough to make copying difficult, and recognisable enough to make fakes easy to spot. The words ‘Postage’ and ‘One Penny’ were added alongside flourishes and ornamental stars. Nobody thought to add the word ‘Britain’, as it was assumed that the stamps would solely be put to domestic use.
With the introduction of the new postal system, the Penny Black was an instant hit, and printers struggled to meet demand. By the end of 1840, more than 160 million letters had been sent - more than double the previous year. It created more work for the post office, whose reform continued with the introduction of red letter boxes, new branches and more frequent deliveries, even to the remotest address, but its lasting impact on society was more remarkable.
Hill and his supporters rightly predicted that cheaper post would improve the ‘diffusion of knowledge’. Suddenly, someone in Scotland could be reached by someone in London within a day or two. And as literacy improved, sections of society that had been disenfranchised found a voice.
Tristram Hunt, an historian, values the ‘flourishing of correspondence’ that followed the arrival of stamps. ‘While I was writing my biography of Friedrich Engels I could read the letters he and Marx sent between Manchester and London,’ he says. ‘They wrote to each other three times a day, pinging ideas back and forth so that you can almost follow a real-time correspondence.’
The penny post also changed the nature of the letter. Weight-saving tricks such as cross-writing began to die out, while the arrival of envelopes built confidence among correspondents that mail would not be stolen or read. And so people wrote more private things - politically or commercially sensitive information or love letters. ‘In the early days of the penny post, there was still concern about theft,’ Hunt says. ‘Engels would still send Marx money by ripping up five-pound notes and sending the pieces in different letters.’ But the probity of the postal system became a great thing and it came to be expected that your mail would not be tampered with.
For all its brilliance, the Penny Black was technically a failure. At first, post offices used red ink to cancel stamps so that they could not be used again. But the ink could be removed. When in 1842, it was determined that black ink would be more robust, the colour of the Penny Black became a sort of browny red, but Hill’s brainchild had made its mark.
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
1. One of the characteristics of the postal service before the 1840s was that
A. postmen were employed by various organisations.
B. letters were restricted to a certain length.
C. distance affected the price of postage.
D. the price of delivery kept going up.
2. Letter writers in the 1830s
A. were not responsible for the cost of delivery.
B. tried to fit more than one letter into an envelope.
C. could only send letters to people living in cities.
D. knew all letters were automatically read by postal staff.
3. What does the text say about Hill in the 1830s?
A. He was the first person to express concern about the postal system.
B. He considered it would be more efficient for mail to be delivered by rail.
C. He felt that postal service reform was necessary for commercial development.
D. His plan received support from all the important figures of the day.
Complete the sentences with the verbs in parentheses
1. he'll be late for the bus if he ( not start) doesn't start at once
2. jim isn't at home right now. if he( be) were at home, i (visit) would visit him
4. fred failed the test because he didn't study. however, if he (study) had studied for the test, he (pass) would have passed it
5. if i (know) had known that there was a test yesterday, i (study) would have studied
6. if you have enough time, please (paint) paint the chair before you leave
7. i (accept) will accept if they invite me to the party
8. had we know your address, we ( write) would have written you a letter
9. if you(do) had done as i told you, you ( succeed) would have succeeded
10. if you come here in spring, you ( have) will have a chance to go to the village fair
11. i could understad the frech teacher if she ( speak) spoke more slowly
12. we could go for a drive if today (be) were sunday
13. if your mother ( buy) buys that motorcycle for you, will you be happy?
14. if i (see) had seen the movie last night, i (tell) would have told you about it
15. i will ring the bell once more. if he doesn't answer, i think he ( must go) must have gone out
16. if i make a prmise, i (keep) will keep it
17. he described the accident as if he ( see) had seen it himself
18. we're going to play tennis this afternoon if it (stop) stops raining
19. if i had asked you, would you (accept) have accepted?
20. if he (come) comes, please ( tell) tell me
21. you were late last night. if you (arrive) had arrived ten minutes earlier you (get) would have got a seat
22. if i (realize) had realized that the traffic light were red. i(stop) would have stopped
23. She won’t open the door unless she (know) knows who it is.
24.I (not lend) wouldn't have lent him the money if you (tell) told me that he never paid his debts
25.If I (can) could speak two languages last year, i (get) would have got a good job
26.If there (be) were no sunshine, we would all (die) die soon
27. You shouldn't believe it if you (not see) didn't see it with you own eyes
28. I (not do) wouldn't do that if I (be) were you
21. Of => in
22. He should => should he
23. Were => had been
24. Unless => if
25. Will be => is
26. Have => had
27. Buying => to buy
28. Not => not to
29. Drinking => drink
30. Quietly => quiet
31. Not => X
32. Would => will
33. Has => had
– buys– Do – go– washes– catches– is– drink– don’t– Are– shines– is– migrate– uses.– am reading– Is – coming– Are growing– is watering– is cleaning– are sitting – having– is increasing– is staying– am reading.– been– Have– worked– has lived– visited– having– have – been– has seen– have – lived– has been learning– have been waiting– has been thinking– has been increasing– has been rising– has been working– has been reading– have been chatting.– visited– travelled– was– went– spent– went – didn’t like.– did– moved.– was swimming– were relaxing / were playing– was staying– was having– were sleeping– was trying– was declining– were you going– was watching– had heard– had landed– hadn’t cared– had helped– had gone– had known– hadn’t earned– had worked– had studied– Had – ended– had been waiting– had been working– had been talking– had been having– had been stopping– had been waiting– had been preparing– will try– will help– won’t stay– will bring– won’t tell– Will– will come– Will– will go– Shall– will have learnt– will have finished– will have spent– will be started– will have become– will have done
Sửa lỗi sai:
Question 26. He said that his mother (would) be very (upset) when she (had learned) that he had (lost) his job. => learnt
Question 27. What are you trying (to tell) me by (saying) that you are (better) than (mine)? => I
Question 28. (Her book), her first mature (experience) in writing, (settles) the question of (her ability) to write.
Question 29. The team agreed (yesterday) to (resign) him to the one-year ($6.5-million salary) an (arbitrator) set this week.
Question 30.
The population, which was almost (stationery) through much of the (century), was about 20,000 in (the) years immediately (before) the War of
Independence.
Chọn đáp án đúng:
Question 43. He is so flabby. He doesn’t go by bike more often.
A. If only he were so flabby, he went by bike more often.
B. It’s time he goes by bike more often.
C. He wishes that he were so flabby so that he could go by bike more often.
D. If he went by bike more often, he would not be so flabby.
Question 44. He wants to go to the cinema. He doesn’t have money.
A. If he wanted to go to the cinema, he would have needed some money.
B. He goes to the cinema as if he had money.
C. If only he had had some money so that he could have gone to the cinema.
D. If only he had some money so that he could go to the cinema.
Question 45. He promised me to come to the party. He doesn’t come.
A. He doesn’t come to the party as though he didn’t promise me.
B. If he promised me to come to the party, he would come to the party.
C. It’s high time he promised to come to the party.
D. He didn’t come to the party as though he hadn’t promised me.
Question 46. She took a taxi. She wasn’t late for the conference.
A. If she had taken a taxi, she would not have been late for the conference.
B. She wishes she hadn’t been late for the conference.
C. She took a taxi as if she had been late for the conference.
D. She took a taxi, otherwise she would have been late for the conference.
Question 47. Richard scarcely reached the stage. The audience started screaming.
A. Had Richard reached the stage, the audience would have started screaming.
B. Scarcely had the audience started screaming when Richard reached the stage.
C. Scarcely had Richard reached the stage when the audience started screaming.
D. Only when the audience started screaming did Richard reach the stage.
Question 48. He didn’t score the goal. His team lost.
A. Had he scored the goal, his team would have won the match.
B. No sooner had he scored the goal than his team would have won the match.
C. Hardly had he scored the goal when his team would have won the match.
D. Not until did he scored the goal that his team lost.
Question 49. My teacher graded my paper poorly. I realized that there was a mistake.
A. Not until did my teacher grade my paper poorly that I realized that there was a mistake.
B. Not until did my teacher graded my paper poorly that I realized that there was a mistake.
C. Had my teacher graded my paper poorly, I would have realized that there was a mistake.
D. Hardly had I realized that there was a mistake when my teacher graded my paper poorly.
Question 50. It was a beautiful day. We could not just stay inside the house.
A. Such a beautiful day was it that we could not just stay inside the house.
B. So beautiful day was it that we could not just stay inside the house.
C. Had it been a beautiful day, we would have stayed inside the house.
D. Should it is a beautiful day, we will not stay inside the house.