TIPs for READING

Các bạn hiểu thế nào mà một bài Biography?

Biography là tiểu sử về một ai đó. Dạng này thường được lấy làm đề IELTS Reading rất nhiều. Thông tin về nhân vật sẽ đi theo trình tự thời gian, từ khi sinh ra, hồi nhỏ thế nào, lớn lên làm gì, con đường sự nghiệp ra sao, kết hôn với ai, bố mẹ làm gì…, những người có ảnh hưởng đến cuộc đời nhân vật, thành tựu của nhân vật, những năm cuối đời thế nào. Các mốc thời gian cũng xuất hiện rất nhiều. Đây là một bài đọc dễ, khi đọc nhiều và nắm được cấu trúc của một bài Biography, bạn sẽ dễ dàng lược bớt các đoạn không liên quan đến câu hỏi.

Bẫy True/False/Not Given

Một trong những bẫy T/F/NG thường gặp là câu hỏi sẽ được paraphrase rất nhiều khiến thí sinh không tìm thấy từ giống trong bài, song song đó cho các từ giống ở câu khác để thí sinh nhầm lẫn, rồi chọn hoặc là NG, hoặc nhầm giữa F hoặc T. Tìm keyword chỉ giúp bạn khoanh vùng vị trí chứa câu trả lời, còn bạn cần đọc kĩ xem ý của câu đó là gì, đừng vội chọn NG nếu không tìm thấy keyword, rất có thể keyword đã được paraphrase, thậm chí không đơn giản chỉ là keyword, mà cấu trúc câu cũng được thay đổi để bẫy thí sinh.

Tip: Chỉ nên tin tưởng các keyword như tên riêng, mốc thời gian, từ chuyên ngành, không nên tìm từ giống nhau giữa câu hỏi và bài đọc.

Alexander Henderson (1831-1913)

Born in Scotland, Henderson emigrated (di cư) to Canada in 1855 and become a well-known landscape photographer.

Alexander Henderson was born in Scotland in 1831 and was the son of a successful merchant⁹ (nhà buôn). His grandfather, also called Alexander, had founded the family business, and later became the first chairman (chủ tịch) of the National Bank of Scotland. The family had extensive landholding (sở hữu nhiều đất đai) in Scotland. Besides its residence (nơi ở) in Edinburgh, it owned Press Estate, 650 acres of farmland about 35 miles southeast of the city (it = the family). The family often stayed at Press Castle, the large mansion (lâu đài, dinh thự) on the northern edge of the property (khối tài sản đó), and Alexander spent much of his childhood in the area,¹ playing on the beach near Eyemouth or fishing in the streams (dòng suối) nearby.

Even after he went to school at Murcheston Academy on the outskirts (ngoại ô) of Edinburgh, Henderson returned to Press at weekends. In 1849 he began a three-year apprenticeship (học việc, học nghề) to become an accountant (kế toán viên). Although he never liked the prospect (viễn cảnh, cảnh tượng) of a business career, he stayed with it (it=công việc kinh doanh) to please (chiều lòng) his family². In October 1855, however, he emigrated to Canada with his wife Agnes Elder Robertson and they settled (định cư) in Montreal.

Henderson learned photography in Montreal around the year 1857 and quickly took it up (take sth up = bắt đầu làm một công việc gì đó) as a serious amateur (nhiếp ảnh gia nghiệp dư). He became a personal friend and colleague (đồng nghiệp) of the Scottish – Canadian photographer William Notman. The two men made a photographic excursion (chuyến đi chụp) to Niagara Falls in 1860 and they cooperated on experiments (cùng làm thí nghiệm) with magnesium flares (từ chuyên ngành không cần biết) as a source of artificial light (ánh sáng nhân tạo) in 1865³. They belonged to the same societies and were among the founding members of the Art Association of Montreal (Họ trong cùng nhiều hiệp hội và là thành viên sáng lập của…). Henderson acted as chairman (chủ tọa, người đứng đầu) of the association’s first meeting, which was held in Notman’s studio on 11 January 1860.

In spite of their friendship, their styles of photography were quite different.⁴ While Notman’s landscapes were noted (be noted = nổi tiếng, đáng chú ý) for their bold realism (từ chuyên ngành), Henderson for the first 20 years of his career produced romantic images (chuyên ngành), showing the strong influence (sự ảnh hưởng mạnh mẽ) of the British landscape tradition. His artistic and technical progress (tính nghệ thuật và kĩ thuật) was rapid and in 1865 he published his first major collection of landscape photographs. The publication had limited circulation (only seven copies have ever been found) (ông chỉ xuất bản số lượng có hạn), and was called Canadian Views and Studies. The contents of each copy vary (thay đổi) significantly and have proved (được minh chứng) a useful source for evaluating Henderson’s early work.

In 1866, he gave up (bỏ) his business to open a photographic studio⁵, advertising (quảng cáo) himself as a portrait and landscape photographer (nhiếp ảnh gia chân dung và phong cảnh). From about 1870 he dropped (bỏ) portraiture to specialize in (tập trung chuyên môn) landscape photography and other views⁶. His numerous photographs of city life revealed (xuất hiện) in street scenes, houses, and markets are alive (đồng hành, sống cùng) with human activity, and although his favourite subject was landscape he usually composed (tạo nên) his scenes around such human pursuits (n, công việc, thường không coi là nghề) as farming the land, cutting ice on a river, or sailing down a woodland stream. There was sufficient (=enough) demand (nhu cầu) for these types of scenes and others he took depicting (tả) the lumber trade, steamboats and waterfalls to enable him to make a living (việc chụp những bức ảnh như trên giúp ông trang trải cuộc sống). There was little competing hobby (thú vui nổi bật) or amateur photography before the late 1880s because of the time-consuming techniques (thao tác tốn thời gian) involved and the weight of equipment ¹⁰(độ nặng của thiết bị). People wanted to buy photographs as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts ¹¹, and catering (cung cấp) to this market, Henderson had stock photographs on display (lưu giữ ảnh để trưng bày) at his studio for mounting (giá), framing (khung), or inclusion in albums (trong bộ sưu tập).

Henderson frequently exhibited (triển lãm) his photographs in Montreal and abroad, in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Philadelphia. He met with greater success (meet with sth = trải qua thứ gì) in 1877 and 1878 in New York when he won first prizes in the exhibition held by E and H T Anthony and Company for landscapes using the Lambertype process. In 1878 his work won second prize at the world exhibition in Paris.

In the 1890s and 1880s Henderson travelled widely throughout Quebec and Ontario, in Canada, documenting (ghi lại tư liệu) the major cities of the two provinces and many of the villages in Quebec. He was especially fond of (be fond of sth/Ving = thích thú thứ gì/làm gì) the wilderness (nơi hoang dã) and often travelled by canoe on the Blanche, du Lièvre, and other noted eastern rivers¹². He went on several occasions to the Maritimes and in 1872 he sailed (trèo thuyền) by yacht along the lower north shore (bờ biển) of the St Lawrence River. That same year, while in the lower St Lawrence River region, he took some photographs of the construction (n, xây dựng) of the Intercolonial Railway. This undertaking (việc chụp ảnh này) led in (dẫn đến) 1875 to a commission (sự đặt hàng, yêu cầu) from the railway to record the principal structures (ghi lại cái trúc chính along the almost-completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax. Commissions from other railways followed. In 1876 he photographed bridges on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway between Montreal and Ottawa. In 1885 he went west along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as far as Rogers Pass in British Columbia, where he took photographs of the mountains and the progress of construction ¹³(quá trình xây dựng).

In 1892 Henderson accepted a full-time position (vị trí toàn thời gian) with the CPR as manager of a photographic department which he was to set up and administer (khoa nhiếp ảnh mà ông thành lập và đứng đầu). His duties (trách nhiệm) included spending four months in the field each year. That summer he made his second trip west, photographing extensively along the railway line as far as Victoria. He continued in this post until 1897, when he retired completely from photography. (retire from sth = nghỉ hưu, thôi làm nghề đó nữa)

When Henderson died in 1913, his huge collection of glass negatives (bộ sưu tập âm bản) was stored (lưu trữ) in the basement (tầng hầm) of his house. Today collections of his work are held (được lưu giữ) at the National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and the McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal.

Questions 1-8

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE               if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE              if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN    if there is no information on this

1   Henderson rarely (hiếm khi) visited the area around Press estate when he was younger. Đoạn văn nói spent much of his childhood in the area -> F (was younger = childhood; rarely >< spent much)

2   Henderson pursued (theo đuổi) a business career because it was what his family wanted. (he stayed with it = pursued; it was what his family wanted = to please his family. -> T

3   Henderson and Notman were surprised by the results of their 1865 experiment. Đoạn experiment có được nhắc, nhưng không nhắc đến chuyện surprised. -> NG.

4   There were many similarities between Henderson’s early landscapes and those of Notman. Họ là bạn nhưng khác nhau về phong cách chụp ảnh -> F

5   The studio that Henderson opened in 1866 was close to his home. Có nhắc đến studio nhưng không nhắc đến vị trí gần nhà –> NG (Có thể bạn nào nhầm khi thấy có nói đến his business, nhưng đó là ông bỏ công việc kinh doanh của gia đình thôi)

6   Henderson gave up portraiture so that he could focus on taking photographs of scenery. gave up = dropped; focus on = specialize; lanscape = scenery -> T (Có thể bạn nào đó thấy gave up business ở câu trên sẽ hoang mang và chọn sai, nhưng cần nhớ từ trong bài càng giống câu hỏi càng là bẫy).

7   When Henderson began work for the Intercolonial Railway, the Montreal to Halifax line had been finished. Trong bài, sau khi Henderson chụp ảnh Intercolonial Railway, ông mới được yêu cầu chụp lại cấu trúc cơ bản của hai cái đường tàu kia, nên hai cái đó không thể hoàn thành xong trước đó –> F

8   Henderson’s last work as a photographer was with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Có thể bạn nào đó thấy Canadian Pacific Railway xuất hiện rồi sau đó có một đoạn văn nữa nói ông làm trưởng khoa rồi ra cánh đồng chụp ảnh… nhưng Canadian Pacific Railway chính là CPR và các công việc trong đoạn sau đều liên quan đến CPR –> T

Questions 9-13

Complete the notes below
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

Alexander Henderson