BANKING UNIVERSITY- HCM CITY Studenf”s name:
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IGB:.ND(1 ¿¿bscisccbniigA552155565409505688 FINAL TEST
Subject: Reading-Writing 7 Semester: II School year: 2019-2020
Time allotted: 60 minutes Date: 07/07/2020
Trang 2PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions I-13, which are based on Reading Passage I below THIRD CULTURE KIDS
In a world where international careers are becoming commonplace, the phenomenon of third culture kids (TCKs) - children who spend a significant portion of their developmental years in a culture outside their parents’ passport culture(s) - is increasing exponentially Not only is their number increasing, but the cultural complexity and relevance of their experience and the adult TCKs (ATCKs) they become, is also growing
When Ruth Hill Useem, a sociologist, first coined this term in the 1950s, she spent a year
researching expatriates in India She discovered that folks who came from their home (or first) culture and
moved to a host (or second) culture, had, in reality, formed a culture, or lifestyle, different from either the
first or second cultures She called this the third culture and the children who grew up in this lifestyle ‘third culture kids’ At that time, most expatriate families had parents from the same culture and they often remained in one host culture while overseas
This is no longer the case Take, for example, Brice Royer, the founder of TCKid.com His father is a half-French/half-Vietnamese UN peacekeeper, while his mom is Ethiopian Brice lived in seven countries before he was eighteen including France, Mayotte, La Réunion, Ethiopia, Egypt, Canada and England He writes, ‘When people ask me “Where are you from?” I just joke around and say, “My mom
32
says I’m from heaven.”’ What other answer can he give?
ATCK Elizabeth Dunbar’s father, Roy, moved from Jamaica to Britain as a young boy Her mother, Hortense, was born in Britain as the child of Jamaican immigrants who always planned to repatriate ‘one day’ While Elizabeth began life in Britain, her dad’s international career took the family to the United States, then to Venezuela and back to living in three different cities in the U.S She soon realised that while racial diversity may be recognised, the hidden cultural diversity of her life remained invisible
Despite such complexities, however, most ATCKs say their experience of growing up among different cultural worlds has given them many priceless gifts They have seen the world and often learnt several languages More importantly, through friendships that cross the usual racial, national or social barriers, they have also learned the very different ways people see life This offers a great opportunity to become social and cultural bridges between worlds that traditionally would never connect ATCK Mikel Jentzsch, author of a best-selling book in Germany, Bloodbrothers - Our Friendship in Liberia, has a German passport but grew up in Niger and then Liberia Before the Liberian civil war forced his family to leave, Mikel played daily with those who were later forced to become soldiers for that war Through his eyes, the stories of those we would otherwise overlook come to life for the rest of us
Trang 3creative thinking for doing business and living in our globalising world But that same thinking can create fear for those who see the world from a more traditional world view Neither the non-ATCKs nor the ATCKs may recognise that there may be a cultural clash going on because, by traditional measures of diversity such as race or gender, they are alike
In addition, many people hear the benefits and challenges of the TCK profile described and wonder why they relate to it when they never lived overseas because of a parent's career Usually,
however, they have grown up cross-culturally in another way, perhaps as children of immigrants, refugees,
bi-racial or bi-cultural unions, international adoptees, even children of minorities If we see the TCK
experience as a Petri dish of sorts - a place where the effects of growing up among many cultural worlds accompanied by a high degree of mobility have been studied - then we can look for what lessons may also be relevant to helping us understand issues other cross-cultural kids (CCKs) may also face It is possible we may discover that we need to rethink our traditional ways of defining diversity and identity For some, as for TCKs ‘culture’ may be something defined by shared experience rather than shared nationality or ethnicity In telling their stories and developing new models for our changing world, many will be able to recognise and use well the great gifts of a cross-cultural childhood and deal successfully with the
challenges for their personal, communal and corporate good
Questions 1-6
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 There is a close connection between careers and the number of TCKs 2 An increasing number of people describe themselves as TCKs 3 Ruth Hill Useem studied children in several countries
4 Ruth Hill Useem defined the third culture as a mixture of two parents’ original cultures 5 Brice Royer feels that he has benefited greatly from living in many different countries 6 Elizabeth Dunbar felt that she had a culture that was different from most people’s
Questions 7-13
Complete the table below
Trang 4THIRD CULTURE KIDS — ADVANTAGES AND RESULTS
Area Advantage for ATCKs Possible result
Friendships know how different people can act as bridges between worlds
7 that are usually separate
Business creative thinking - may cause 8
among certain people - can lead to 9 despite similarities
Whole experience | knowledge of many cultural worlds - can teach us about problems faced
and a great deal of by 11 of all kinds
10 - current ideas of what both 12 mean may be considered wrong - belief that culture depends on 13 PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 below Dawn of the robots
They're already here - driving cars, vacuuming carpets and feeding hospital patients They may not be walking, talking, human-like sentient beings, but they are clever and a little creepy
A At first sight it looked like a typical suburban road accident A Land Rover approached a Chevy Tahoe estate car that had stopped at a kerb; the Land Rover pulled out and tried to pass the Tahoe Just as it started off again There was a crack of fenders and the sound of paintwork being scraped, the
kind of minor mishap that occurs on roads thousands of times every day Normally drivers get out, gesticulate, exchange insurance details and then drive off But not on this occasion No one got out of the cars for the simple reason that they had no humans inside them; the Tahoe and Land Rover were being controlled by computers competing in November's DARPA (the U.S Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge
B The idea that machines could perform to such standards is startling Driving is a complex task that takes humans a long time to perfect Yet here, each car had its on-board computer loaded with a digital map and route plans, and was instructed to negotiate busy roads; differentiate between pedestrians and stationary objects; determine whether other vehicles were parked or moving off; and handle various parking manoeuvres, which robots turn out to be unexpectedly adept at Even more striking was the fact that the collision between the robot Land Rover, built by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Tahoe, fitted out by Cornell University Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts, was the
Trang 5only scrape in the entire competition Yet only three years earlier, at DARPA's previous driverless car race, every robot competitor - directed to navigate across a stretch of open desert - either crashed or seized up before getting near the finishing line
C It is a remarkable transition that has clear implications for the car of the future More importantly, it demonstrates how robotics sciences and Artificial Intelligence have progressed in the past few years - a point stressed by Bill Gates, the Microsoft boss who is a convert to these causes The robotics industry is developing in much the same way the computer business did 30 years ago,’ he argues As he points out, electronics companies make toys that mimic pets and children with increasing
sophistication ‘I can envision a future in which robotic devices will become a nearly ubiquitous part of our day-to-day lives,’ says Gates “We may be on the verge of a new era, when the PC will get up off the desktop and allow us to see, hear, touch and manipulate objects in places where we are not physically present.’
D What is the potential for robots and computers in the near future? ‘The fact is we still have a way to go before real robots catch up with their science fiction counterparts,’ Gates says So what are the stumbling blocks? One key difficulty is getting robots to know their place This has nothing to do with class or etiquette, but concerns the simple issue of positioning Humans orient themselves with other objects in a room very easily Robots find the task almost impossible ‘Even something as simple as telling the difference between an open door and a window can be tricky for a robot,’ says Gates This has, until recently, reduced robots to fairly static and cumbersome roles
E For a long time, researchers tried to get round the problem by attempting to re-create the visual processing that goes on in the human cortex However, that challenge has proved to be singularly exacting and complex So scientists have turned to simpler alternatives: ‘We have become far more pragmatic in our work,’ says Nello Cristianini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bristol in England and associate editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research ‘We are no longer trying to re-create human functions Instead, we are looking for simpler solutions with basic electronic sensors, for example.’ This approach is exemplified by vacuuming robots such as the Electrolux Trilobite The Trilobite scuttles around homes emitting ultrasound signals to create maps of rooms, which are remembered for future cleaning Technology like this is now changing the face of robotics, says philosopher Ron Chrisley, director of the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex in England
Trang 6country like Japan where 22 per cent of the population is 65 or older Over US$1 billion a year is spent on research into robots that will be able to care for the elderly ‘Robots first learn basic competence - how to move around a house without bumping into things Then we can think about teaching them how to interact with humans,’ Chrisley said Machines such as these take researchers into the field of socialised robotics: how to make robots act in a way that does not scare or offend individuals ‘We need to study how robots should approach people, how they should appear That is going to be a key area for future
research,’ adds Chrisley
Questions 14-19
The Reading Passage 2 has six paragraphs A-F
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below Write your answers in boxes 14-19 on your answer sheet
14 Paragraph A i Tackling the issue using a different approach
15 Paragraph B ii A significant improvement on last time
16 Paragraph C iii | How robots can save human lives
17 Paragraph D iv Examples of robots at work
18 Paragraph E Y Not what it seemed to be
19 Paragraph F vi | Why timescales are impossible to predict
vii |The reason why robots rarely move
viii Following the pattern of an earlier development
ix The ethical issues of robotics
Questions 20-23
Look at the following statements (Questions 20-23) and the list of people below Match each statement with the correct person, A, B or C
Write the correct letter in boxes 20-23 on your answer sheet NB — You may use any letter more than once
A Bill Gates B Nello Cristianini
C Ron Chrisley
20 An important concern for scientists is to ensure that robots do not seem frightening 21 We have stopped trying to enable robots to perceive objects as human do
22 It will take considerable time for modern robots to match the ones we have created in films and books 23 We need to enable robots to move freely before we think about trying to communicate with them Questions 24-26
Complete the notes below
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet
Robot features
DARPA race cars: 24, provides maps and plans for route Electrolux Trilobite: builds an image of a room by sending out 25 Robot Kitchen humanoids: have a 26 to take orders
Trang 7PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below
Reading in a whole new way
As technology improves, how does the act of reading change?
Reading and writing, like all technologies, are constantly changing In ancient times, authors often dictated their books Dictation sounded like an uninterrupted series of words, so scribes wrote these down in one long continuous string, justastheyoccurinspeech For this reason, text was written without spaces between words until the 11th century
This continuous script made books hard to read, so only a few people were accomplished at reading them aloud to others Being able to read silently to yourself was considered an amazing talent; writing was an even rarer skill In fact, in 15th-century Europe, only one in 20 adult males could write After Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in about 1440, mass-produced books changed the way people read and wrote The technology of printing increased the number of words available, and more types of media, such as newspapers and magazines, broadened what was written about Authors no longer had to produce scholarly works, as was common until then, but could write, for example,
inexpensive, heart-rending love stories or publish autobiographies, even if they were unknown
In time, the power of the written word gave birth to the idea of authority and expertise Laws were compiled into official documents, contracts were written down and nothing was valid unless it was in this form Painting, music, architecture, dance were all important, but the heartbeat of many cultures was the turning pages of a book By the early 19th century, public libraries had been built in many cities
Today, words are migrating from paper to computers, phones, laptops and game consoles Some 4.5 billion digital screens illuminate our lives Letters are no longer fixed in black ink on paper, but flitter on a glass surface in a rainbow of colors as fast as our eyes can blink Screens fill our pockets, briefcases, cars, living-room walls and the sides of buildings They sit in front of us when we work - regardless of what we do And of course, these newly ubiquitous screens have changed how we read and write
The first screens that overtook culture, several decades ago - the big, fat, warm tubes of television
- reduced the time we spent reading to such an extent that it seemed as if reading and writing were over Educators and parents worried deeply that the TV generation would be unable to write But the
interconnected, cool, thin displays of computer screens launched an epidemic of writing that continues to swell As a consequence, the amount of time people spend reading has almost tripled since 1980 By 2008, the World Wide Web contained more than a trillion pages, and that total grows rapidly every day
Trang 8Screens engage our bodies, too The most we may do while reading a book is to flip the pages or
turn over a corner, but when we use a screen, we interact with what we see In the futuristic movie
Minority Report, the main character stands in front of a screen and hunts through huge amounts of information as if conducting an orchestra Just as it seemed strange five centuries ago to see someone read silently, in the future it will seem strange to read without moving your body
In addition, screens encourage more utilitarian (practical) thinking A new idea or unfamiliar fact will cause a reflex to do something: to research a word, to question your screen ‘friends’ for their opinions or to find alternative views Book reading strengthened our analytical skills, encouraging us to think carefully about how we feel Screen reading, on the other hand, encourages quick responses, associating this idea with another, equipping us to deal with the thousands of new thoughts expressed every day For
example, we review a movie for our friends while we watch it; we read the owner’s manual of a device
we see in a shop before we purchase it, rather than after we get home and discover that it can’t do what we need it to do
Screens provoke action instead of persuasion Propaganda is less effective, and false information
is hard to deliver in a world of screens because while misinformation travels fast, corrections do, too On
a screen, it is often easier to correct a falsehood than to tell one in the first place Wikipedia works so well
because it removes an error in a single click In books, we find a revealed truth; on the screen, we
assemble our own truth from pieces What is more, a screen can reveal the inner nature of things Waving the camera eye of a smartphone over the bar code of a manufactured product reveals its price, origins and even relevant comments by other owners It is as if the screen displays the object’s intangible essence A popular children’s toy (Webkinz) instills stuffed animals with a virtual character that is ‘hidden’ inside; a screen enables children to play with this inner character online in a virtual world
In the near future, screens will be the first place we’ll look for answers, for friends, for news, for
meaning, for our sense of who we are and who we can be
Questions 27-31
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D Write your answers in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet 27 What does the writer say about dictation?
A It helped people learn to read B It affected the way people wrote C It was not used until the 11th century D It was used mainly for correspondence
28 According to the writer, what changed after the invention of the printing press? A Romance became more popular than serious fiction
Trang 929 In the third paragraph, the writer focuses on the A legal concerns of authors
B rapid changes in public libraries C growing status of the written word D recognition of the book as an art form
30 What does the writer say about screens in the fourth paragraph? A They are hard to read
B They are bad for our health C They can improve our work D They can be found everywhere
31 According to the writer, computers differ from television because they A encourage more reading
B attract more criticism
C take up more of our leisure time D include more educational content
Questions 32-36
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 32-36 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this 32 Screen reading has reduced the number of books and newspapers people read 33 Screen literacy requires a wider range of visual skills than book-based literacy 34 Screen reading is more active than book reading
35 Screens and books produce similar thought patterns in their readers 36 People are easily persuaded,to believe lies on the screen
Questiorts 37-40 —— '~
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below Write your angwers in boxes 37-40 on your
answer sheet.’ A the accuracy of its information Ha
37 The film Minority Report illustrates
38 Our behaviour when we watch a film shows 39 Wikipedia’s success relies on
40 Webkinz is an example of
B_ people’s ability to concentrate C_ the global use of the Internet