Cái chết của một cây cổ thụ - Bài học nghe 3 tốc độ

Cây cổ thụ già nhất thế giới mang tên Prometheus chết vào năm 1964. Chỉ khi chặt hạ nó xuống, chàng trai 30 tuổi mới hoảng hồn nhận ra mình đã giết chết cây hơn 5.000 tuổi, thực thể sống thọ nhất thế giới tính đến trước khi nó bị chặt. Một làn sóng phản đối dữ dội của dư luận dâng lên mạnh mẽ khiến chàng trai không bao giờ dám nghiên cứu về cái cây nào nữa.

Đó là câu chuyện về cái chết của một cây cổ thụ. Bạn có thể nghe câu chuyện với bất cứ tốc độ nào phù hợp - chậm, vừa hoặc nhanh, sau đó làm bài tập điền từ dưới đây. Nếu trong bài tập tuần trước, bạn đã luyện tập với tốc độ chậm, lần này có thể đẩy nhanh lên một nhịp.

Trong khi nghe, bạn hãy làm bài tập điền từ sau đây và có thể nghe thêm vài lần sau đó để kiểm tra và so sánh với đáp án:

The oldest tree in the world died one day in ______(1). Its name was Prometheus, and Donald Currey cut it down. It was not only the oldest tree, but the oldest living thing ever ______(2). Currey wasn’t an un-caring logger or farmer making room for ______(3). He was a 30-year-old graduate student doing research into climate change ______(4) history.

Trees are windows into the past. By studying the ______(5) between the rings that form each year, we can learn something about the experience of each tree ______(6) that period of its life. Was it warmer or colder? Was it wetter or drier? In this way, trees are ______(7) of earth history.

Currey wasn’t planning on killing any trees. He had a special ______(8) to remove samples from trees without cutting them down. That was the plan, but his drill got ______(9) in the first tree that he found. This was an ______(10) drill from Sweden, and without it, his research would have to stop. Currey didn’t know what to do and went looking for help. A local park ranger told him, don’t worry, there are ______(11) of these trees in the park. We’ll just cut it down and remove your drill. Neither Currey nor the park ranger knew that Prometheus was a special tree when they killed the oldest life ______(12) known on earth. At the time, they had no idea just how old it was.

After retrieving his drill, Currey took a look at the rings ______(13). Each ring corresponded to a year of the tree’s life. By the end of the day, he had counted 1,000 years back in ______(14). By the middle of the 2nd day, he had counted to 2,000 and he ______(15) even half-way finished. By the end, he counted a grand total of ______(16) rings. This tree had lived to nearly 5,000 years.

Currey was ______(17). He was responsible for killing the oldest living tree in the world. There was an ______(18) around the country and people called him a ______(19). Currey was apparently so disturbed, he stopped studying trees or anything living for that matter. He spent the rest of his career studying ______(20) flats.

Currey probably never let go of the past or ______(21) himself for what he had done. More than 20 years later, he was being interviewed by a TV reporter about his salt flat research, when he was asked, "______(22) you the Currey who cut down the oldest tree in the world?" Mid-interview, Currey turned his back and ran.

Thanh Bình (theo DeepEnglish)

• Nhìn bằng tai, nghe bằng mắt - Bài luyện nghe 3 tốc độ