Đề cương ôn tập giữa học kỳ 1 Tiếng Anh 12 (năm học 2026-2027) – Đề số 1, 2, 3

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a South African-born entrepreneur known for his significant contributions to technology and space (1), as as his involvement in electric vehicles. Born on June 28, 1971, Musk emigrated to Canada in 1988 and later (2) education in business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He co-founded Zip2, an online content publishing company, which was sold for nearly $350 million, providing him (3)_________ the capital to invest in various ventures. Musk gained prominence as a key figure in the development of PayPal, which was acquired by eBay, leading to (4)_________financial returns.

He is best known as the CEO and founder of SpaceX, which has revolutionized space travel with projects like the Falcon 9 rocket and the Starlink satellite internet service, and as the driving force behind Tesla, Inc., which focuses on electric vehicles and (5). In recent years, Musk made headlines for acquiring Twitter, now rebranded as X, which has seen a significant transformation under his leadership. Additionally, Musk has initiated several innovative projects, including Neuralink, aimed at (6) brain-computer interface technologies. His personal life, characterized by relationships and philanthropy, reflects his complex persona as a public figure. Musk's work has earned him various awards, but he has also faced scrutiny for his management style and public statements.

The Remarkable Journey of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla, a name synonymous with innovation and ingenuity, embarked on a journey that would change the world. His life story is one of perseverance, brilliance, and an unwavering dedication to his vision.

Early Life and Education: Born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, Tesla exhibited a (7) ______ intellect and curiosity from a young age. He pursued studies in physics and engineering, laying the foundation for his future inventions.

Path to Greatness: After moving to the United States in 1884, Tesla began working for Thomas Edison. However, he soon decided to (8) ______ on his own, driven by his unique vision for electrical power.

Innovations and Challenges: Tesla's work, including the development of alternating current (AC), (9) ______ the scientific community. However, his relentless pursuit of innovation also led him to face numerous obstacles.

Legacy and Impact: (10) ______ the intense rivalry with Edison, Tesla's inventions laid the groundwork for modern electrical systems. His contributions to science and technology continue to (11) ______ in numerous ways.

Reflections: Tesla's life is a testament to the power of creativity and resilience. By embracing his story, we can (12) ______ the importance of perseverance and innovation in our own lives.

Lee Kuan Yew's Language Legacy

The founding father of modern Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, passed away on Monday, March 23, 2015 at the age of 91. Leading Singapore before "self-government" from Britain in 1959, Lee served as Prime Minister until 1990, and stayed in the cabinet until 2011. Under his influence, the resource-poor country adapted to a modern globalized environment through unique economic models and an emphasis on bilingual education. The Minister of State for Education and Communications and Information Sim Ann says bilingualism was the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's most bold, radical and controversial policy, but it paid off.

Lee is widely credited for mandating in 1966, the year after Singapore gained independence from Malaysia, that all students learn a "mother tongue" – a language associated with their ethnicity. English is used as the main language of instruction, but students also learn one of the other three official languages; Mandarin, Malay, or Tamil. The policy was not only a tool for stronger social and national ties among a diverse population, but for better economic cohesion with China and the West.

Lee created the Prime Minister's Book Prize to encourage students who did well in both English and their Mother Tongue. In his later years, he started the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism to help young children build a foundation for learning English and the Mother Tongue languages. His life's work in this area was encapsulated in his book, My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey.

Lee's philosophy about bilingualism was closely connected to Singapore's identity and future. "If we were monolingual in our mother tongues, we would not make a living. Becoming monolingual in English would have been a setback," Lee wrote in his memoirs. "We would have lost our cultural identity, that quiet confidence about ourselves and our place in the world."

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dinh was born on March 15, 1920 in Ben Tre province. At 16 years old, she was guided by her brother to participate revolutionary activities. In 1938, she became a member of the Indochina Communist Party.

In 1939, she married her revolutionary comrade Nguyen Van Bich, a member of the Ben Tre Provincial Party Committee. Three days after she gave birth to her son, her husband was detained and sentenced to 5 years exile on the prison island of Con Dao. He died shortly after. In 1940, she and her 7-month-old son were secretly arrested and detained in Ben Tre. Before being sent to Ba Ra Prison by the French colonial authorities in, she sent her son to her grandmother to be taken care of.

[I] In 1944, she was released from the prison and continued her revolutionary activities. [II] During the 1945 "struggle for authority", she was the leader of thousands of people who came to take over power in Ben Tre Town. [III] In March 1946, she joined the delegation of Southern cadres as they crosssed the sea to the North in order to report to the Central Committee and Uncle Ho about the situation of the Southern battlefield and to ask for heavy arms for the South. [IV]

She soon became the head of the Provincial Women's Union and leader of the Dong Khoi Movement in 1960. Her name was associated with the Dong Khoi Movement and the birth of the women's "long-haired Army". After its success, she held several key positions in major political and military organizations. In 1974, she was promoted to major general and became the first female general of the Vietnamese People's Army.

After national liberation, she was elected a member of the 4th, 5th and 6th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the 6th, 7th and 8th National Assembly. She concurrently held several senior government and organizational positions such as Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and so on. She also made contributions to the comprehensive renovation of the Communist Party of Vietnam, especially the activities of the National Assembly and the State Council. In 1995, she was awarded the title the Heroine of People's Army Forces. She died on in 1992 at the age of 72.

My favourite film from the last few years is About Time. It's a British film (1) _______ by Richard Curtis and stars Bill Nighy and Rachel McAdams. It (2) _______ in 2013. I saw it at the cinema, but you can get the DVD or watch it online today.

About Time is a romantic comedy, like Richard Curtis' (3) _______ famous films – Notting Hill and Love Actually. It's about a young man who can travel back in time and try to change what happens in his life. His ability to travel through time causes a large (4) _______ of problems and of course he makes lots of mistakes. However, in the end he meets and falls in love with a beautiful girl.

Personally, I love this film because it's clever, and it made me laugh and cry! It teaches us how to be happy with our lives even when things go wrong. I think the music in it is fantastic, too. It also shows us a lot of (5) _______ in London, including a restaurant where you eat in complete darkness! In my opinion, it's good for a film to be both (6) _______ and informative. I would recommend About Time to everyone.

Getting Ready for the Message – From Your College Experience

Listening in class is not like listening to a TV programme, listening to a friend, or even listening to a speaker at a meeting. The difference, of course, is that what is said in class is vital to your success in the class.

Here are six strategies that will help you be a more effective listener in class:

1. Listen to the main concepts and central ideas, not just to facts and figures. Although facts are important, they will be easier to remember when you place them in a (7) _______ of concepts, themes, and ideas.

2. Listen for new ideas. (8) _______ you are an expert on the topic, you can still learn something new.

3. Really hear what is said. Listening involves (9) _______ what the speaker wants you to receive, to understand, and to learn.

4. Repeat mentally. Think about what you hear and make an active effort to (10) _______ it by repeating it silently to yourself.

5. Think. Decide whether you think what you have heard is important. Reflect (11) _______ the new information.

6. Sort, organise, and categorise. When you listen, try to match what you are hearing with your previous knowledge. (12) _______ an active role in deciding how you want to recall what you are learning.

Saying Tamara Blackmore experienced culture shock when she arrived here last September is an understatement. It was more like culture trauma for this adventurous student who left Melbourne's Monash University to spend her junior year at Boston College (BC). Blackmore, 20, (18) _______. Like the thousands of exchange students who enroll in American colleges each year, Blackmore discovered firsthand there is a sea of difference between reading about and experiencing America firsthand. She felt the difference as soon as she stepped off the plane.

As soon as she landed in Boston, Blackmore could feel the tension in the air. (19) _______. "Driving in Boston is crazy," says Blackmore. "It took me a while to get used to the roads and the driving style here."

Beyond the cars and traffic jams, Blackmore said it took a while to get used to so many people in one place, (20) _______. "There are only 18 million people in Australia spread out over an entire country," she says, "compared to more than six million people in the state of Massachusetts alone. We don't have the kind of congestion you have in Boston. There is a whole different perception of space."

(21) _______, Blackmore struggled to adapt. For this easygoing Australian, Americans seemed like perpetual-motion machines. "Americans are very time-oriented," Blackmore says. "Everything is done according to a schedule. They're always busy, which made me feel guilty about wanting to just sit around and occasionally watch television. Australians, on the other hand, value their leisure time. (22) _______."

A retired Finnish university professor called Tuomo Pekkanen started the radio programme where his wife, Virpi, reads the news every day on the national radio station... in Latin. The title of the programme is Nuntii Latini and it gives information about five or six short news items before the main news is read in Finnish. Professor Pekkanen started this in 1989 because he believes that understanding Latin is an important part of everyone's education. There are only one or two programmes like this in the world, but the Internet is making them available to lots and lots of people around the world. Thousands and thousands of people listen online and the programme receives a lot of letters from people in about 50 countries.

When he is making his news programme, there are sometimes words which are tough for Pekkanen to translate because, as you probably know, the Romans didn't have any modern technology like television, computers, emails or lasers. But Pekkanen says that he can talk about many stories on the news by inventing a few new Latin words if necessary.

But Professor Pekkanen doesn't just translate the news into Latin. He also translates the words for songs. And he isn't the only one. Dr Jukka Ammondt, another former university professor, loves Latin, too and he loves the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. So what does he do? He sings Elvis in Latin!

There is an important tradition of studying Latin in Finland. There was a Latin congress there recently and people had no issue talking in Latin. Nowadays, English is the language which people all over the world use to communicate. But before English it was Latin. Tuomo Pekkanen believes that around 15 million people in Europe speak or understand Latin today. That's not bad for a 'dead' language.

As part of a project called 'The Social Experiment', more than 600 students at Shoreline High School gave up texting, email, and networking sites for a week free of social media. [I] Under the rules, students could call each other on their phones, which many of them had never done before the experiment began. [II] The idea started with Trent Mitchell, a video-production teacher at the school. He wondered whether his students, who often walked into class heads down, typing away on their phones, could cut themselves off from social media. [III] Mitchell thought his students wouldn't be able to tear themselves away. [IV]

Mitchell and a colleague from another school, Marty Ballew, created The Social Experiment. The theme was 'What was life like in 1995?' Students documented the process through video interviews with students and staff, some of whom also volunteered to cut themselves off. Some students went to extremes to make sure they didn't break the rules. Five students even handed over their cell phones to Ballew. One girl gave him her Facebook password and asked him to change it for the week to help her avoid temptation.

Last year, El ZeinIt was sending or receiving 200 texts per day, or about 6,000 per month. It was too much for her parents, who confiscated her phone for a week. This year, she said, she has averaged 20 to 50 a day, until the experiment week, that is. It was 'weird' not checking her email, texts and social network sites as soon as she woke. But each day got easier. Cole Sweeten found it tough. He deleted texts as they came in, but found it hard to remember not to answer text messages. On the second day, he heard the familiar buzz and grabbed his phone, ready to hit the button to read the new text message, when he remembered. 'No!' he shouted, and dropped the phone to the floor.

Ed Wytovicz did chores during his free time, an idea that sounds like it came from his parents, but he claims he wanted to do it. He also figured out that activities such as practising basketball are better distractions than ones that take 10 or 15 minutes. 'You had to do something that filled time in large segments,' he says.

LearnPro Hub: Your Gateway to Endless Learning

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Your next big achievement starts here, on LearnPro Hub!

Why Go Organic?

Organic food is beneficial for both your health and the environment.

Problems with conventional food: Consuming regular food products can present a(n) (7) _______ of health issues because you are possibly exposed to pesticides and artificial additives. (8) _______, these products may contribute to soil pollution, degradation and (9) _______ negative impacts on the environment. This is leading many people to rethink their choices.

Advantages of choosing organic: • Stop (10) _______ harmful chemicals and enjoy cleaner and healthier meals. • Experience fresh, nutrient-dense foods that support a healthier (11) _______. • Organic farming benefits the environment, promoting eco-friendly and sustainable practices. • Organic choices often come from (12) _______ sources that prioritise animal welfare and fair practices.

Overall, choosing organic is a step towards better health and a more sustainable planet.

The Great Wall of China, standing as one of the most remarkable wonders of the world, is a testament to ancient engineering and human perseverance. The Wall, built over several dynasties, (18) _______. Initially constructed to protect against invasions and raids, it now symbolizes the strength and unity of the Chinese people. The Wall winds through rugged mountains, forests, and deserts, (19) _______.

Designed with an intricate network of watchtowers, gates, and fortresses, (20) _______. This massive structure reflects the combined efforts of countless workers and artisans who dedicated their lives to its construction. Today, the Wall's sections remain well-preserved and mostly intact. Therefore, (21) _______.

Visiting the Great Wall offers more than just a view of its grandeur. Tourists can experience the culture, history, and stories of bravery linked to its existence. Infused with centuries of history, (22) _______, qualities that continue to inspire people worldwide.

In various cultures around the world, there are lots of customs and taboos, especially those related to physical contact and shoe removal. Understanding those practices is crucial for cultural sensitivity. In many Eastern cultures, such as Japan and South Korea, there is a taboo against physical contact, especially between individuals of the opposite sex or those not closely related. Instead, greetings are typically expressed through respectful bows or nods with a respectful distance. Conversely, in some Latin American and Mediterranean countries, physical contact is more common and often perceived as a natural part of social interaction. Hugs and kisses on the cheek are popular customs of warmth and friendliness when it comes to greetings. However, it's essential to remember that many people within the same culture might have different attitudes towards physical contact.

Another typical custom observed in various parts of Asia, including Japan, South Korea, and parts of the Middle East, is the removal of shoes before entering someone's home or certain sacred spaces like temples or pagodas. This practice is rooted in the belief that shoes carry dirt from the outside world, and removing them symbolises leaving behind worldly concerns. In contrast, in many Western cultures, it's customary to keep shoes on when entering someone's home, unless specifically requested otherwise. However, it's essential to be aware of individual preferences, as some households may prefer guests to remove their shoes to maintain cleanliness.

In conclusion, respecting those cultural taboos is essential for promoting cross-cultural interaction. By being mindful of those customs and preferences, people can contribute to a harmonious global community.

Smartphone cameras have been integrated with AI to produce better photos since around 2017. In the beginning, AI was used to improve the recognition of faces and image stabilisation in smartphone cameras. As AI algorithms advanced and computational power increased, they started incorporating more AI-based features like portrait mode and scene recognition. In portrait mode, AI algorithms analyse the scene to detect the subject and create a blurred background effect similar to the depth-of-field of a professional camera. Scene recognition is a valuable AI-powered function. AI can identify objects, scenes or specific scenarios like landscapes, food or pets and automatically adjust camera settings, such as brightness, light exposure and colour balance to produce the optimal image quality.

Although not many people take photos with a smartphone camera, they still use a search engine now and then. Using different algorithms, AI enables search engines to personalise search results based on users' location. To illustrate, if you want to shop for gadgets like a pair of earphones, search engines will ask for your current location and show the shops near your current position so that you can reach them easily.

[I] In other words, by understanding users' background behaviour and users' preferences, AI can deliver more tailored and relevant search results. [II] For example, once users search for any product like clothing items or household products in a shopping app or browse through a video-sharing website for some videos, the AI algorithms integrated into those platforms can precisely analyse your preferences and behaviour and show the best results. [III] Similar results will then be suggested once you reopen the shopping apps or go back to the video-sharing website for you to buy or watch conveniently. [IV]