Buổi 52: Luyện tính giờ – Reading 3 bài, 40 câu, 60 phút

The return of the night train

(Bài đọc tự viết; nội dung ở mức phổ thông.)

A For much of the late twentieth century, overnight passenger trains seemed to be heading for extinction. Cheap flights and faster daytime rail services drew away their customers, and operators in several countries withdrew sleeper routes that had run for decades. The trains were expensive to staff, used valuable track at night when maintenance work was often scheduled, and carried relatively few passengers per carriage, since beds take up far more space than seats.

B In recent years, however, a number of routes have been revived and new ones announced. Part of the explanation is environmental: travellers concerned about the emissions associated with flying have looked for alternatives, and for journeys of around a thousand kilometres, a night train can be competitive in overall travel time once airport transfers and security checks are taken into account. A traveller who boards in the evening and arrives in a city centre the next morning also saves the cost of a hotel night.

C The revival has not been straightforward. Sleeper carriages are specialised and costly to build, and some operators have had to run older rolling stock while waiting for new trains. Crossing borders adds further complications, since each country may have different technical standards, staffing rules and track charges. Tickets can also be more expensive than budget flights, which limits demand among price-sensitive travellers.

D Supporters argue that governments should treat night trains as part of a wider transport strategy rather than expecting them to compete on equal terms with aviation. They point out that the costs imposed by different forms of transport – on the climate, for instance – are not always reflected in ticket prices. Critics respond that public money might achieve greater reductions in emissions if spent elsewhere, such as on improving local public transport used by far more people every day.

E What seems clear is that night trains will not replace flying on a large scale. Their capacity is too limited for that. But for a particular type of journey – medium distance, between major cities, by travellers who value arriving rested – they appear to have found a lasting niche.

Two languages, one mind

(Bài đọc tự viết; nội dung ở mức phổ thông, có rào đón.)

A More than half of the world’s population is often said to use more than one language in daily life, although such figures are difficult to verify. What is not in doubt is that bilingualism is normal in much of the world, and that the view of it as a special or unusual condition reflects the experience of a minority of largely monolingual societies.

B For much of the twentieth century, some educators believed that learning two languages in early childhood would confuse children and slow their development. Later research did not support this fear. Bilingual children may, for a time, know fewer words in each language than monolingual children, but their total vocabulary across both languages tends to be comparable.

C From the 1990s onwards, attention shifted to possible advantages. Several studies reported that bilingual people performed better on tasks requiring them to ignore distractions or switch between activities, and suggested that constantly managing two languages trains the brain’s control systems.

D These claims attracted enormous public interest, but later and larger studies produced mixed results. Some found small advantages; many found none. Researchers have debated whether early positive findings reflected genuine effects, differences between the groups being compared, or a tendency for surprising results to be published more readily than unsurprising ones.

E The debate has encouraged more careful research. Bilingualism is now increasingly seen not as a single category but as a range of experiences, varying in how early languages were learnt, how often each is used and in what settings. It may be that some kinds of bilingual experience have measurable effects on thinking while others do not.

F For families, the practical message is reassuringly simple. Raising children with more than one language does not appear to harm them, and the social, cultural and economic benefits of speaking several languages do not depend on any hidden advantage in attention. Whether or not bilingualism makes us better at ignoring distractions, it makes it possible to talk to more people.

Why good ideas spread slowly

(Bài đọc tự viết; quan điểm là của tác giả bài viết, nội dung ở mức phổ thông.)

A It is tempting to assume that a genuinely useful invention will be adopted quickly. History suggests otherwise. Many innovations that now seem obviously beneficial took decades to spread, while others of doubtful value were taken up almost immediately. Understanding why is not merely of historical interest: it bears directly on how new medical practices, farming methods or energy technologies reach the people who might benefit from them.

B One factor is visibility. An innovation whose benefits can be seen quickly and clearly – a new tool that obviously saves time – tends to spread faster than one whose benefits are delayed or invisible. Preventive measures face a particular difficulty here: when they work, the result is that nothing happens, and an absence is hard to notice.

C A second factor is compatibility with existing habits and values. People are more willing to adopt something that fits the way they already live and work. An innovation that requires users to abandon familiar routines, or that conflicts with their sense of how things should be done, may be resisted even when its practical advantages are considerable.

D Social networks matter at least as much as the innovation itself. Most people do not evaluate new ideas independently; they look to others they trust. For this reason, early adopters who are respected within their communities can play a disproportionate role. Conversely, if the first people to adopt an idea are regarded as outsiders, others may be slow to follow.

E Cost and risk are obvious barriers, but their effects are not always straightforward. A cheap innovation may still spread slowly if trying it carries a risk of embarrassment or failure, while an expensive one may spread quickly among groups that can afford to experiment. Allowing people to try something on a small scale before committing fully often seems to speed adoption.

F None of this means that slow adoption is always a mistake. Caution can protect people from innovations that turn out to be harmful, and some of the resistance that looks irrational in hindsight was entirely reasonable given what was known at the time. The challenge for anyone introducing a new idea is therefore not to overcome resistance at any cost, but to understand it – and to design the innovation, and the way it is introduced, with that understanding in mind.