Page 5 - 67 READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS - ENGLISH 9

8. Read the following passage and choose the best answers.

BLUE JEANS.

Levi Strauss, a young (1) …….… from Germany, arrived in San Francisco in 1850. California was
in the middle of the Gold Rush, thousands of men were coming to California to dig for gold. And Levi
Strauss came to sell canvas to these (2) …….…. Canvas is heavy fabric. So Levi Strauss thought the
miners could use the canvas for tents.
One day Strauss heard a miner (3) …….… that he couldn’t find clothes (4) …….… for the work
he was doing. Strauss got an idea. He quickly took some of his canvas and made it (5) …….… pants.
These are pants were (6) …….… the miners needed. In on day Strauss sold all the pants he had made.
Strauss wanted to improve his pants. He wanted to make them event better. He bought a fabric that
was softer than canvas but just as strong. This fabric came from Nimes, a city in France, and was called
serge de Nimes. The miners liked this fabric. They called it “denim” (from de Nimes) and bought even
more pants from Strauss.
However, denim had (7) …….… Because of this the denim pants did not look interesting and they
got dirty easily. To solve these problems, Strauss made the denim blue.
Strauss continued to improve his jeans. Today, the company he started is known around the world.
and jeans are considered not just practical but very fashionable as well.
1. A. immigrate B. immigrant C. immigrated D. migrate
2. A. gold mines B. gold mining C. gold miners D. mining gold
3. A. complain B. tell C. ask D. talk
4. A. enough strong B. strong enough C. strength D. strength enough
5. A. from B. for C. into D. to
6. A. that B. what C. which D. No word is needed
7. A. colorful B. colorless C. no color D. color
8. The word “to improve” means________.
A. to make better B. to find more C. to take care D. to look after
9. The phrase “around the world” means_________.
A. outside the world B. the world over C. near the world D. worldwide
10. People like jeans because they are__________.
A. practical B. fashionable C. colorful D. A and B
9. Read the passage. Write T for true sentences, F for false sentences and

N for the sentences containing no information.
It is great to have pen pals. In my opinion, friendship is among the meaningful relations in our life.
Many of my friends have pen pals and they correspond regularly. A friend of mine once got a letter from
the school mailbox and told me a lot of interesting things about her pen pal. That made me excited and I
was eager to have one. Therefore, I got online and did some chatting. I was lucky to get to know a very
nice Australian girl. Her name's Jenny. She and I are the same age and we have a lot of things in common.
Although my English was not very good at first, we were able to understand each other quite well.
My English has improved a lot. Jenny has never been to Viet Nam. However, she thinks well of our
country and our people. When she comes to Viet Nam, I will take her to some interesting places,
especially our World Heritage Sites, such as Ha Long Bay, Hoi An Ancient Town, My- Son Tower.
Through her mail, she tells me about her country. Thanks to Jenny, I know more and more about
Australia. I hope to be an exchange student in Australia some day and we will be able to meet.
1. The writer's English is now better than before. _____
2. The writer has 'never been to Australia. _____
3. Australia doesn't have as many World Heritage Sites as Viet Nam. _____
4. The pen pal mentioned is as old as the writer. _____
5. They correspond in Vietnamese. _____