INSTRUCTION : Read the articles below and answer the following questions.
1 Over the past few years, two Japanese companies have become household names in video games. In fact, most households in Britain have video games produced by them. The soaring popularity of these games has come under fire and led to heated arguments among teachers, parents and people who work in the industry on the effect the games have on children.
2 Children are usually totally engrossed when they play video games. They become mentally, emotionally and physically involved. This brings about implications to their social behaviour and to their health. Playing these games could lead to anti-social behaviour, make children aggressive and affect their emotional stability, not to mention their health too.
3 According to a survey conducted in a school in Manchester, boys were more addicted to video games than girls. These boys who played video games often displayed more aggressive behaviour than other boys who did not. The survey reported that this was probably because games such as ‘Super Mario’ and ‘Street Fighter’ had been claimed to encourage violence. The general conclusion, therefore, is that games which illustrate violence tend to influence similar traits in children who play these games.
4 Video games have also brought about deterioration in social communication skills. It has been observed that children who play video games hardly ever talk or communicate with other children. All they do is to sit glued to the screen in front of them. This has discouraged the development of social skills among these children. Moreover, video games have also infiltrated the lives of families. Children hardly have any time to communicate with their parents any more as they are so immersed in their video games. Parents and children no longer know how to communicate with one another, which of course can lead to many other social problems eventually.
5 In addition to social implications, playing video games have negative medical effects too. Research has shown that the ‘flashing light’ effect of the screen triggers medical problems. Too much of video games do not only cause eye-strain but epilepsy as well. Excessive exposure to the flashing light of video screens causes the eyes to become ‘photo-sensitive’ which could lead to epilepsy.
6 After all that has been said of the negative effects of video games, it cannot be denied that it does help inculcate some useful things. For one, it helps improve computer skills and hand-eye coordination and it enables children to come to terms with new technology. Video games which set difficult tasks can also help to promote problem-solving skills. The difficult tasks in video games are replicas of the real-life situation which is full of innumerable problems and which needs constant problem-solving. Thus, video games can help in the personal development of a child.
7 To conclude, it must be said that too much of anything is not good. Parents therefore have an important role to play in setting the limits for their children as to how long they can play video games. The authorities can also play an effective role in reducing the negative effects of video games by reviewing the type of video games being sold and enforcing more stringent rules in the production of video games.
1. Why do teachers and parents criticise the excessive playing of video game?
2. It has been found that boys who often play video games are more
3. Children who play video games are considered to be anti-social because they
4. One advantage of playing video games is that it promotes
5. Regarding setting limits for their children in playing video games, what roles do parents play?
6. Boys like to play ‘Super Mario’ and ‘Street Fighter’ because they
7. We can infer from the passage that the writer ________ the use of video games.
INSTRUCTION : Read the articles below and answer the following questions.
1 The term culture shock was originally coined to explain the intense stress felt by people who had moved abroad − people such as diplomats or international students. Thus, when we talk about people experiencing culture shock, the picture that comes to mind is that of immigrants moving to a new country. However, not everyone who experiences culture shock is a foreigner in a strange country.
2 For example, shopping or even finding a place to stay becomes a majoroblem. In addition, there will be a deep sense of loneliness and at the same time reticence to reach out, socialize, and develop relationship with others. The victim will also experience unreasonable suspicion of other people and their motives. He will feel that others are out to take advantage of him. In some cases there may be a predictable set of physical symptoms. These include a stomach ache, insomnia, headache, feelings of tiredness and a general lack of enthusiasm for life.
Over the time, the term has expanded to encompass other types of experiences people have when they cross cultural boundaries even within the same country. Culture shock may even be used to explain a reaction or response to a new and unfamiliar experience. This includes going away to college, getting married, losing a job, or even moving from a big city to small village.
3 What are some of the signs that a person is experiencing culture shock? He will experience feelings of frustration and helplessness at being unable to do simple things to meet everyday needs.
4 lf an individual is equipped with the knowledge of what culture shock is and how frequently it is experienced and if he is taught effective coping strategies, he can reduce the stress that leads to culture shock.
1. The original meaning of culture shock was restricted to
2. Over time, the meaning of the term culture shock has
3. Which of the following is not the cause of culture shock?
4. The stress of culture shock can be reduced if one has all of the following except
5. The victim will also experience unreasonable suspicion.... (paragraph 3).
The suspicion is 'unreasonable' because..
6. In the last paragraph, the writer is
1 When a ferry sank off the Philippines in late 2009, rescuers witnessed a gory scene: large squids feeding on the victims. The sighting was proof that the man-sized Humboldt squids do attack humans, but it also raised one pertinent question: the squids have never been sighted in that area before, so why were they there? Whatever the explanation, the sighting in the Philippines reaffirms the fact that the cephalopod, which can grow to over two metres long, is invading many of the world’s seas. Once confined to the Pacific coast of South America, they have in recent years spread as far north as North America and Alaska, across the Bering Sea to Russia, and now they have worked their way over to Asian waters.
2 The squid invasion has puzzled the scientists for years, with some attributing the phenomenon to warming seas. However, ocean activist and researcher Scott Cassell, who has studied the squids for over fifteen years, points to another environmentally tragic cause for the squid invasion. He said the squids have grown in size and become more widespread because their natural predators, sharks and tuna, have been fished out. Each female Humboldt squid produces some 20 million eggs, and with fewer predators to keep them in check, a massive explosion has occurred. As we continue to remove sharks and other predatory fish from the sea, they are replaced by a different species.
3 One of the squid’s primary predators is the hammerhead shark, which gives birth to just twenty pups on average per litter. With these statistics, one can understand how ecologically and economically devastating a continued Humboldt squid population explosion can be. These creatures are voracious eaters. They eat fish, jelly fish, coral shrimp and even sea lions. They vacuum up everything they encounter. They have caused declines in catches of food species like salmon, hake and anchovies.
4 In contrast to the devastating nature of the Humboldt squids, sharks are vital to the health of the oceans. As apex predators, they keep fish populations in balance. The disappearance of sharks will send ripples throughout the marine food chain. Scott Cassell warns that when shark numbers drop, ecosystems can collapse. Scott Cassell explains, “If we eat one shark, there are fifty other animals in the reef will die because of the imbalance. The death of those fifty animals will cause the death of hundred more. In effect, one shark’s death causes thousands of deaths in the marine food chain directly beneath it. The population explosion of the Humboldt squid coupled with the overfishing of sharks sends a message about the sea’s fragility and the intricate interdependency of the global food chain.”
1. The main idea of paragraph 1 is that Humboldt squids
2. The word 'gory' (in paragraph 1) is similar in meaning to
3. Scientists have been puzzled over the _______________ of the Humboldt squids
4. A Humboldt squid population explosion can be economically devastating because they
5.
i cause the shark population to decline
ii are natural predators that reproduce rapidly
iii cause the decline in food fish species like salmon
6. Humboldt squids are mainly eaten by
7. Which of the following is implicated in the dwindling population of sharks?
1 You know that you are doing something big when your company name becomes a verb. Ask Xerox. In 1959, they created the first plain paper copy machine. It was one of the most successful products ever. The company name Xerox grew into a verb that means ‘to copy’, as in “Bob, can you Xerox this for me?” Around 50 years later, the same thing happened to Google. Their company name grew into a verb that means ‘to do an internet search’. Now everyone knows what it means ‘to Google it’.
2 Unlike Xerox, Google wasn’t the first company to invent their product, not by a long shot. Lycos released their search engine in 1993. Yahoo! came out in 1994. AltaVista began serving results in 1995. Google did not come out until years later, in 1998. Though a few years difference may not seem like much, this is a major head start in the fast moving world of tech. So how did Google do it? How did they overtake their competitors who had such huge leads in time and money? Maybe one good idea made all the difference.
3 There are millions and millions of sites on the Internet. How does a search engine know which ones are relevant to your search? This is a question that great minds have been working on for decades. To understand how Google changed the game, you need to know how search engines worked in 1998. Back then, most websites looked at the words in your query. They counted how many times those words appeared on each page. Then, they might return pages where the words in your query appeared the most. This system did not work well and people often had to click through pages and pages of results to find what they wanted.
4 Google was the first search engine that began considering links. Links are those blue underlined words that take you to other pages when you click on them. Larry Page, cofounder of Google, believed that meaningful data could be drawn from how those links connect. Page figured that websites with many links pointing at them were more important than those that had few. He was right. Google’s search results were much better than their rivals. They would soon become the world’s most used search engine.
5 It wasn’t just the great search results that led to Google becoming so well liked. It also had to do with the way that they presented their product. Most of the other search engines were cluttered. Their home pages were filled with everything from news stories to stock quotes. But Google’s homepage was, and still is, clean. There’s nothing on it but the logo, the search box, and a few links. It almost appears empty. In fact, when they were first testing it, users would wait at the home page and not do anything. When asked why, they said that they were waiting for the rest of the page to load. People couldn’t imagine such a clean and open page as being complete. But the fresh design grew on people once they got used to it.
6 These days Google has its hands in everything from self-driving cars to helping humans live longer. Though they have many other popular products, they will always be best known for their search engine. The Google search engine has changed our lives and our language. Not only it is a fantastic product, it is also a standing example that one good idea (and a lot of hard work) can change the world.
1. What is the author’s main purpose in writing this article?
2. Which of the following statement is TRUE?
A.Google was the world’s first and best search engine.
B. Google changed the world by solving an old problem in a new way.
C. Google became successful because its founders were well-connected.
D. Google's other products are now more important to its success than search.
3. How did Google improve search quality in 1998?
4. What is the main idea of the fourth paragraph?
5. Which best explains why the author discusses Xerox in this text?
6.What is the best title for this text?
7. Which was cited as a reason why Google became so popular?
8.Which event happened last?
9.Which of the following statement is NOT TRUE?
A. Google was not the first search engine, but it was the best.
B. Part of Google's success is due to the design of their homepage
C. Google succeeded by following examples of others in their field.
D. Google's success may not have been possible without Larry Page.
10. What is the main idea of the third paragraph?
Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow.
Even Jules Verne or Aldous Huxley could not have imagined such a world- a complete city that could accommodate more than 50000 people totally beneath the earth’s surface. Science fiction? No, today’s reality. Faced with nowhere to expand and yet a mushrooming population, Asian cities, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, have had to squeeze taller and taller buildings into less and less space. But one Oriental city has been experimenting with a different method and the result is the largest underground urban complex in the world – Osaka’s Rainbow Town.
Deep beneath the earth is a completely controlled environment in which hundreds of thousands of people go about their daily business oblivious to the world above. Some, like the shop workers and sales personnel, never see the sun except on weekends. They arrive early each morning by subway and do not surface until after sunset. Rainbow Town is so complex and huge that one can actually get lost. For this reason, I was fortunate to have the town’s mayor as my guide. The subterranean metropolis took eight years to construct, he explained, as we strolled down the main boulevard which was crowded with shoppers. The project was designed as a municipal undertaking in the hope of redeveloping the highly congested and polluted southern district of Osaka by connecting all parts of the city to it by subway.
This was aimed at solving the traffic problem, overcoming the pollution and permitting a vast shopping complex which would easily be accessible to millions of people. It also would provide a vast area on the surface which would be free for recreational development. The idea paid off, and for more than a decade, between 500,000 and a million people have visited Rainbow Town on weekends. Nearly all are transported by subway. The city is not only unaffected by surface climatic changes and temperature, but also temporal ones. Open 365 days a year, it has no night, being perpetually illuminated. In the winter, the temperature remains electronically-controlled 25degrees Celsius and in summer, 20 degrees.
Why the name ‘Rainbow’? I asked the mayor. “Rainbows, like towns, were once found only above the ground,” he answered with a broad smile. “But we created one here to be a symbol of how man has no limits to his creative powers. In fact, we have two different kinds of rainbow here.”
The first is immediately visible as one descends into this futuristic world. The motion of the crowds passing through the entrance tunnel triggers special photo-electronic cells which activate electronic music and a polychrome, neon rainbow effect on the ceiling and walls. The second is an equally complex electronic affair. Located in the heart if the city’s main plaza, it is comprised of 2000 nozzles which project streams of water three meters into the air. This waterfall-in-reverse is illuminated by means of intricate ‘rainbow’ lenses- a tribute to man’s genius.
As we continued along the main boulevard, the mayor told me this broad, car-free street, lined with brightly-lit shops- stretched for 1000 meters and would be expanded. Off the main street, numerous side lanes, each with a different floral name, branched out as far as one could see. There were almost 400 stores along these lanes which catered to man’s every material need. What impressed me was how so many stores selling identical items were able to successfully compete. Just in our ten minute walk, we must have passed a dozen shoe stores, a dozen candy shops and two dozen clothing stores.
“We have a 100% occupancy rate and business is booming,” said the mayor. “The combined sales from all the different privately owned stores is US$1.6 million a year. Some people warned us that the novelty of the town would wear off but that was 12 years ago and we are still going strong. We are even expanding.”
## Extracted from “City Beneath the Earth” by Earl Vinecour. (Asia Magazine, Aug 1 1982)
1. What is the main idea in the first paragraph?
A Jules Vern’s version of an underground world
B A city beneath the earth’s surface
C A world faced with mushrooming pupolation
D A city of skyscraper
2. Which of the following statements is true about the Rainbow Town?
A It is cut off from the world above
B It has its own type of vegetation
C It has its own skyscrapers
D It is not affected by weather
3. The expression ‘subterranean metropolis’ (line 14) means
A extraordinary city
B complex city
C underground city
D artificial city
4. Why does the writer say that Rainbow Town has no night? (line 26)?
A It has rainbows throughout the year
B It is well lit throughout the year
C It is built underground
D It has no sun throughout the year
5. What do you think makes possible the futuristic world (line 29)?
A The endless crowd
B The waterfall-in-reverse
C The rainbow effect on the ceiling and walls
D The high level of technology
6. What conclusion could you draw from the 6th paragraph?
A Rainbow Town is a haven for shoppers
B Rainbow Town is a complex car-free metropolis
C Rainbow Town is a maze of roads and streets
D Man’s every material need is never adequate
7. In what way is the warning, in the last paragraph, “that the novelty of the town would wear off” unfounded?
A The total sales reach US$1.6 million a year
B The town is still going strong after 12 years
C Business is booming
D There is a 100% occupancy rate
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