WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING GENERALIZATIONS ARE SUPPORTED BY THE PASSAGE
Câu 25: Which of the following generalizations are supported by the passage?
A. Water is the basis of life
B. All living things adjust to their environments
C. Healthy animals live longer lives
D. Desert life is colorful
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your sheet to indicate the correct answer to
each of the question from 26 to35.
For many year, scientists have speculated that the cataclysmic impact of an asteroid with the earth was responsible for
the demise of the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago. Previous discoveries and results have hinted that an asteroid
two kilometers in diameter struck the Yucatan peninsula in Eastern Mexico. This impact, stronger than one thousand nuclear
explosions, is speculated to have cast a cloud of dust and debris into the atmosphere, covering the entire surface of the earth
and blocking out the sun and consequently lowering the surface temperature of the earth.
With such a radical change in the earth s environment, scientists believe that over 90% of all animal and plant species were
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eradicated. Only after millions of years did plants and animals even begin to recover. But, the reign of the dinosaurs had ended
and the age of mammals had begun.
The crucial link that has held this theory together has been the element iridium. Iridium is not commonly found on either the
surface of the earth or inside the crust. It is more commonly found in asteroids or meteorites throughout the solar system.
Scientists have hypothesized that after the asteroid impacted the earth, an even layer of iridium sediment settled over the global
and eventually became part of its surface. The theory, of course, has depended on the discovery of such an existing layer of
iridium.
Unfortunately, scientists have never been able to offer absolute proof that this asteroid impact ever occurred. Recently, however,
a discovery may go a long way toward validating these scientists theories. In 1996, a team of marine biologists excavated
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samples of rock from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Bermuda. Found thousands of meters below the sea,
these samples contain iridium similar to those found in the Yucatan peninsula thousands of kilometers away. At first, scientists
were skeptical whether the samples were from the same time period. But sissnce carbon dating placed them to 65 million years
ago, their doubts were quickly alleviated. Since then, many of the other theories for the demise of the dinosaur have been finally
laid to rest