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 28 to 34.
One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wage. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and teacher have is many years of training in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years, when they were studying instead of earning money, should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.
Another factor we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is, regardless of the talents he may bring to it. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling secondhand cars or improving the taste of toothpaste by adding a red stripe to it. Yet it is almost certain that the used car salesman earns more than the nurse, and that research chemist earns more than the schoolteacher.
Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying monotony of his work. It is significant that that those jobs which are traditionally regarded as “vocations” - nursing, teaching and the Church, for example - continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.
Although the amount of money that people earn is in reality largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point for such an investigation would be to try to decide the ratio which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicate by two factors: firstly by the “social wage”, i.e, the welfare benefits which every citizen receives; and secondly, by the taxation system, which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Allowing for these two things, most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities become disillusioned, and might even end up by emigration (the so-called “brain-drain” is an evidence that this can happen). If it is more, the gap between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead social tensions and ultimately to violence.
(Adapted from: "How much is job worth? ")
According to the passage, the professional man, such as the doctor, should be well paid because _____________.
A. he knows more than other people about his subject
B. he has to work much harder than most other people
C. his work involves much great intelligence than, say, a bus conductor’s
D. he has spent several years learning how to do his job
1. B
The artist may creatively use leaves or small twigs to make further decorations. [1] The eyes of a monkey, for example, can be made by adding two black peas.
(Người nghệ sĩ có thể sử dụng một cách sáng tạo những chiếc lá hoặc cành cây nhỏ để trang trí thêm. [1] Ví dụ, mắt khỉ có thể được tạo thành bằng cách thêm hai hạt đậu đen.)
2. A
The artists usually travel through villages or come to local fairs and festivals selling toys to children and their artworks play an important role in folk decorations. [2] It is for passion, not for money that the artists work.
(Các nghệ sĩ thường đi khắp các làng hoặc đến các hội chợ và lễ hội địa phương để bán đồ chơi cho trẻ em và các tác phẩm nghệ thuật của họ đóng một vai trò quan trọng trong trang trí dân gian. [2] Các nghệ sĩ làm việc vì đam mê chứ không phải vì tiền.)
3. C
a to he artist can be found passionately creating little colourful toys for some young children. [3] Despite the popularity of some modern forms of entertainment, children are still attracted to to he.
(Người ta có thể thấy một nghệ sĩ đang say mê tạo ra những món đồ chơi nhỏ đầy màu sắc cho một số trẻ nhỏ. [3] Bất chấp sự phổ biến của một số hình thức giải trí hiện đại, trẻ em vẫn bị thu hút bởi nó.)