Nhằm giúp các bạn có tài liệu ôn tập những kiến thức cơ bản, kỹ năng giải các bài tập nhanh nhất và chuẩn bị cho kì thi sắp tới được tốt hơn. Hãy tham khảo IELTS Academic Reading Sample 86 - A Silent Force để có thêm tài liệu ôn tập. | You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 16-22 which are based on Reading Passage 86 on the following pages. A SILENT FORCE A There is a legend that St Augustine in the fourth century AD was the first individual to be seen reading silently rather than aloud or semi-aloud as had been the practice hitherto. Reading has come a long way since Augustine s day. There was a time when it was a menial job of scribes and priests not the mark of civilization it became in Europe during the Renaissance when it was seen as one of the attributes of the civilized individual. B Modern nations are now seriously affected by their levels of literacy. While the Western world has seen a noticeable decline in these areas other less developed countries have advanced and in some cases overtaken the West. India for example now has a large pool of educated workers. So European countries can no longer rest on their laurels as they have done for far too long otherwise they are in danger of falling even further behind economically. C It is difficult in the modern world to do anything other than a basic job without being able to read. Reading as a skill is the key to an educated workforce which in turn is the bedrock of economic advancement particularly in the present technological age. Studies have shown that by increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of primary school children in the UK the benefit to the economy generally is in billions of pounds. The skill of reading is now no more just an intellectual or leisure activity but rather a fully-fledged economic force. D Part of the problem with reading is that it is a skill which is not appreciated in most developed societies. This is an attitude that has condemned large swathes of the population in most Western nations to illiteracy. It might surprise people in countries outside the West to learn that in the United Kingdom and indeed in some other European countries the literacy rate has fallen to below that of so-called less .
