Bộ Đề Thi Mẫu Đọc Hiểu Tiếng Anh B1 B2 VSTEP - ĐỌC HIỂU PART 1 - Đề số 6

Bộ Đề Thi Mẫu Đọc Hiểu Tiếng Anh B1 B2 VSTEP - ĐỌC HIỂU PART 1 - Đề số 6

1. Cấu trúc đề thi tổng quát

2. Đề Viết B1 B2 VSTEP: ĐỌC HIỂU PART 1 - Đề số 6
Question 1-10
You should spend about 15 minutes on this task.

Humanitarian Dorothea Dix was born in the tiny village of Hampden, Maine, in 1802. An avid reader and fast learner, she was taken in by her grandmother, who lived in Boston, and was educated there. When only nineteen years old, she established the Dix Mansion School for girls in Boston. There was no lack of students, and the school provided a good source of income for her and her two brothers, whom she had brought to Boston to live with her. She also wrote and published the first of many books for children in 1824. In 1836, however, her health failed. She suffered most of her life from "lung trouble" (probably tuberculosis) and depression. She was forced to stop teaching and had to close her school.

Later that same year, having partially recovered, Dix set off for Italy to rest and recover her health in the warm Italian sunshine. She never made it to Italy, however. By the time her ship arrived in England, she was too ill to continue. She was taken care of by a kind British friend, William Rathbone. During her time in England, she became friends with Samuel Tuke, who directed the York Retreat for the Mentally Disordered. From Tuke, she learned new, more humane methods for taking care of the mentally ill.

Returning to the United States, Dix volunteered to teach classes at a prison for women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the objections of the jailer, she went to the lower level of the jail where the mentally ill were housed. She was shocked to see that they were treated far worse even than ordinary criminals and were forced to live in filthy, miserable, brutal conditions. She vowed to spend the rest of her life improving conditions for the mentally ill.

For the next eighteen months, Dix toured Massachusetts prisons, poor houses, and local jails where other mental patients were confined. She reported on the terrible conditions that she found to the Massachusetts legislature, which soon passed laws to improve conditions. After that, she turned her attention to neighboring New England states and then to the West and South. She traveled thousands of miles by train, coach, carriage, and riverboat, systematically gathering facts in order to convince those in power.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Dix was nearly sixty years old. However, she volunteered to form the Army Nursing Corps. At first, military authorities, who were not accustomed to female nurses, were skeptical, but she convinced them that women could perform this work acceptably. She recruited over 3,000 women and raised money for medical supplies for the troops. Under her leadership, army nursing care greatly improved.

After the war, Dix returned to her life's work and resumed her travels. She saw special hospitals for the mental ill built in fifteen states. She asked the federal government to use the income from public lands to help poor mental patients, and although both houses of Congress approved this bill, President Pierce vetoed it. Even though this plan failed, Dix was able to arouse concern for the problem of mental illness all over the United States as well as in Canada and Europe. Dix's success was due to her independent and thorough research, her gentle but persistent manner, and her ability to convince powerful and wealthy patrons to help her.

1. Why was the Dix Mansion school closed?

A. because Dix was in poor health

B. because Dix could not attract enough students

C. because Dix decided to travel to Europe

D. because Dix had to take care of her brothers

2. Who taught Dix new ideas about caring for the mentally ill?

A. Her grandmother

B. William Rathbone

C. Samuel Tuke

D. A jailer at a prison in Cambridge

3. Why did Dorothea Dix first go to the women's prison in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

A. She was sent there by the Massachusetts legislature.