1 MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ENGLISH PROFICIENCY EXAM CAREFUL READING AND VOCABULARY PART PRACTICE MATERIAL MAY 2024 SET I
2 TEXT I A The concept of “Asian values”, once championed by leaders across the region, went out of vogue after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The idea that East and South-East Asia’s disciplined governments had a unique economic edge over the immoral West suddenly seemed less convincing. Today, in prosperous East Asia, those praised values are looking even more uncertain. In China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Asians’ supposed commitment to conservative family life is collapsing. Millions of young people are opting for looser, often lonelier and less male-dominated arrangements. In a region that is home to over a fifth of humanity, the socioeconomic and demographic implications will be vast, potentially destabilizing and will shape millions of lives. B In Japan, where the shift first became evident, married couples with at least one child accounted for 42% of households in 1980, and single people 20%. That has reversed. In 2020 couples with children accounted for 25% of households, and singletons 38%. And the decline is continuing. Last year 17% of Japanese men and 15% of women aged 18-34 said they would not marry, up from 2% and 4% in the early 1980s, and China recorded its lowest-ever number of marriages, half as many as a decade ago. C In some ways young Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese and South Koreans are following a path mapped in rich countries elsewhere. __________. To many people, marriage seems increasingly outdated and unaffordable. Across East Asia it is still widely understood in Confucian terms, as the union of a dominant man and submissive woman. In South Korea a married woman is referred to as Jip-saram, or “home person”, and her husband as Bakat-yangban, or “man outside”. D If most of this sounds familiar, two things make East Asia’s great social change distinct and hugely troublesome. First, the taboo against having children outside marriage remains as rigid as ever. Across the OECD (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an international organization of 38 countries committed to democracy and market economy.), 40% of births are outside wedlock. In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan less than 5% are. The result is a plummeting fertility rate. South Korea’s, at 0.78, is the lowest recorded anywhere and Taiwan’s only slightly higher. Japan’s and China’s are just above half the replacement rate, which refers to the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next. In developed countries, replacement level fertility requires an average of 2.1 children per woman. China’s cruel one-child policy, now replaced by panicked officials with calls to have three, worsened the drop in population. But as the regional picture shows, it would have happened anyway. The total population of the four East Asian countries is predicted to shrink by 28% between 2020 and 2075. E The second problem is that the region’s governments are making the situation worse. None seriously proposes the only policy guaranteed to revive East Asia’s declining demography: mass immigration. Their main response is to try to revive marriage with economic benefits—including tax breaks and sponsored weddings—with little success. South Korean government officials admit that the country has, in essence, wasted 280trn won ($215bn) on such policies. Worse, the
3 governments in China and Japan too are strengthening their commitment to the conservative approach that their citizens increasingly object to. South Korea’s previous administration sought to extend benefits to single parents and unmarried couples. The current president Mr Yoon, who blames the low fertility rate on feminism, has put a stop to that. Under Xi Jinping, China promises its citizens a Confucian revival and arrests gay-rights activists. Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party is also against reforming marriage, including by refusing to make it available to gay couples, although most voters want to see that change. F There are pockets of progress, notably in Taiwan, which recently took a more liberal course. It has legalized same-sex marriage and last year permitted gay couples to adopt children. But the region as a whole is stuck between modernity and tradition, suffering some of the worst effects of both. East Asians are free to despise traditional family roles, but not to redefine them. That is why millions resort to childlessness and solitude. Governments should try to complete this revolution. Even if they cannot fully understand the social change, they can at least stop resisting it. To make family life more attractive, they need to deal with its gender imbalances as well as its costs by, for example, making paternity leave routine. They should look beyond heterosexual marriage, as their citizens have, and extend legal recognition to cohabiting, gay and other nontraditional arrangements—and give them the support married couples now enjoy, especially over child-rearing. It is self-defeating and outrageous that China prevents single women from freezing their eggs, or that Japan makes it nearly impossible for gay couples to foster children. G Such policies would not fix the region’s demography, but they would have a more positive effect on it than the current ones. More important, they would leave millions freer to lead the lives they choose, especially women and gay people. East Asian governments have overseen the greatest-ever economic boom. Now they must attend to their citizens’ happiness and liberty. From: www.theeconomist.com 1. What is the main idea of paragraph A? a) Asian governments can no longer convince the public to adopt conservative family values. b) Western societies are morally much more corrupt than the Eastern ones. c) The economic power of some Asian countries allows their governments to establish strong family values. 2. Which one is true about the demographic trends in East Asia described in paragraph B? a) The number of single parents has been increasing steadily since the 1980s. b) Proportionally, there are now fewer married couples in China than in Japan. c) There has been a sharp decline in the number of married couples with children.
4 3. Which of the following best completes the blank in paragraph C? a) High property prices have become an obstacle to setting up a marital home, so alternative domestic arrangements are becoming more accepted. b) Between 1960 and 2010 Europe’s marriage rate fell by half, for many of the reasons that are now driving down East Asian rates. c) East Asia’s overall record on female empowerment is poor and has been worsening since 2020. 4. It can be concluded from paragraph D that the social change experienced in East Asia is expected to _________. a) improve democracy and market economy in the region b) reduce the harmful effects of one-child policy c) increase the shrinking rate of the size of the population 5. According to paragraph E, what is East-Asian governments’ approach to the problem of decreasing population? a) Promoting the traditional family by providing financial support b) Reforming marriage by giving rights to marginal groups c) Loosening immigration laws to allow young people into the country 6. What is the writer’s suggestion to East-Asian governments in paragraph F? a) They should financially promote large families that have many children. b) They should legally recognize non-traditional families’ rights as well. c) They should extend financial support to solitary and childless people. 7. According to the writer, what should the governments’ priority in the development of East-Asian countries? a) Citizens’ freedom of choice and well-being b) The continuation of the economic boom c) Promoting births in order to change the demography 8. What does the word “rigid” in the text mean? a) rare b) inflexible c) well-known 9. What does the word “overseen” in the text mean? a) supervised b) encouraged c) recognized
5 TEXT II A The Gila monster is a poisonous North American lizard that measures around 50 centimetres and has a distinctive coat of black and orange scales. This lethargic reptile, which mostly dwells underground and eats just three to four times a year, is the unlikely inspiration for one of pharmaceutical companies’ biggest successes: a new generation of weight-loss drugs that cause great excitement among patients and investors. Originally made for diabetes, evidence is growing that they also have benefits in diseases of the heart, kidney, liver and beyond. B Since the late 1980s scientists believed that a hormone called glucagon1 (glp-1), which is produced by the intestines after a meal, could help treat diabetes. glp-1 increases the production of insulin (a hormone that lowers blood-sugar levels) and reduces the production of glucagon (which increases blood-sugar levels). But glp-1 is broken down by enzymes in the body very quickly, so it sticks around for only a few minutes. If it were to be used as a drug, therefore, patients would have faced the unwelcome prospect of needing glp-1 injections every hour. C In 1990 John Eng, a researcher at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centre in New York, discovered that exendin-4, a hormone found in the venom of the Gila monster, was similar to human glp-1. Crucially, the exendin-4 released after one of the monster’s rare meals is more resistant to enzymatic breakdown than glp-1, staying in its body for hours. It took more than a decade before exenatide, a synthetic version of the lizard hormone, created by Eli Lilly, an American pharmaceutical giant, and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a biotech firm, was approved to treat diabetes in America. This breakthrough spurred other firms to develop more effective and longer-lasting glp-1 medications as a treatment option for diabetes, beyond injections of insulin. D Scientists had also been aware that glp-1 had another side-effect: it slowed the rate of “gastric emptying”, which allows food to stay in the stomach for longer and suppresses appetite. But the potential weight-loss benefits were not seriously pursued at first. It was only in 2021 that Novo Nordisk, a Danish firm, showed data from a clinical trial where overweight or obese patients were put on a weekly dose of its glp-1-based diabetic drug, semaglutide, which was then being marketed under the name Ozempic, for 68 weeks. The results were dramatic—participants had lost 15% of their body weight, on average. E The medicines that imitate the glp-1 hormone then had great commercial success. With close to half of the world’s population expected to be obese or overweight by 2030, according to the World Obesity Federation, demand for these drugs is surging—Bloomberg, a data provider, estimates that these medications will hit $80billion in yearly sales by then. The market is projected to grow by 26% per year in the next five years, compared with 16% per year for oncology drugs and 4% per year for immunology medicines, the two other biggest areas. F So far only three glp-1 drugs have been approved to treat obese or overweight individuals: liraglutide and semaglutide, developed by Novo; and tirzepatide, made by Lilly. But the market has already attracted a wave of competitors. Bloomberg tracks close to 100 drug candidates in
6 the development pipeline. Most new therapies hope to outdo semaglutide and tirzepatide by developing drugs that are easier to take, cause fewer side-effects or result in more effective weight loss. One issue is convenience. (I) Both semaglutide and tirzepatide are injections that need to be taken weekly. (II) If you stop the dose most of the weight returns within a year. (III) Besides irritating injections, a bigger concern is that patients on these drugs do not just get rid of fat, they also lose muscle mass. Amgen, a large American biotech firm, is developing an antiobesity drug that relies on doses once a month, and hopes the weight-loss effects will last even after treatment ends. Switching from injections to pills would also make the drugs a lot more tolerable for those who dislike needles. Novo is working on an oral version of semaglutide that works just as well as its shots. But the pill requires 20 times the amount of the active ingredient as the injection, and must be taken daily. With semaglutide in short supply, Novo has had to push back the oral version’s launch. G Another drawback of glp-1-based medicines is the nausea and vomiting that frequently accompanies their use. Zealand Pharma, a Danish biotech firm, is developing a drug that is based on a different hormone called amylin, produced in the pancreas along with insulin in response to food intake. But unlike glp-1, which suppresses appetite, amylin induces the feeling of fullness after a meal. Adam Steensberg, boss of Zealand, says that in most people a hormone, leptin, is released from fat tissue that signals to the brain that the body is full. Obese individuals are insensitive to that hormone. Clinical studies have shown that analogues of amylin can make people sensitive to leptin again, helping them to stop eating earlier. Feeling full, rather than lowering appetite, may also reduce the feeling of nausea. Mr Steensberg says that results from early-stage trials suggest that Zealand’s drug could achieve similar weight loss as glp-1 drugs, but with less nausea and vomiting. H The slimming drugs aren’t just for losing weight. Because obesity is linked to over 200 health issues, including strokes, kidney problems and fatty liver, glp-1 drugs are proving useful in many other areas of medicine. Though a lot of focus has been on the action of these medicines on improving metabolic health, scientists are now uncovering that these drugs also engage with the brain and immune system, by interacting with glp-1 receptors in the brain. For some scientists, this suggests that these drugs might be useful for treating brain disorders that are characterized by inflammation, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Since 2021, Novo has been conducting a clinical trial involving more than 1,800 patients to test whether its glp-1 drug semaglutide helps patients with early stages of Alzheimer’s. This study is expected to be completed by 2026. Dr Daniel Drucker, a diabetes researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, sees the anti-inflammatory qualities of glp-1 medications as key to their versatility. He notes that, besides Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, chronic inflammation is a factor in many complications for people with type-2 diabetes and obesity, and affects organs like the kidneys, heart, blood vessels, and liver. If these drugs eventually help in treating these conditions, Dr Drucker believes that their inflammation-reducing properties could explain part of their success. From: www.theeconomist.com
7 10. What is the function of paragraph A? a) To give an example of how animals and plants provide valuable sources in the production of drugs b) To signal the importance of a type of lizard in the development of new drugs against a variety of diseases c) To draw attention to the use of reptile poison in the new generation drugs produced by big pharmaceutical companies 11. According to paragraph B, what is a limitation of the hormone glp-1 when used as a drug? a) It increases blood-sugar levels when it is taken in large quantities. b) It is difficult to transform it into a drug that can be injected. c) It is thrown away from the body too quickly to be effective. 12. According to paragraph C, which one of the following is true about exendin-4? a) After it is released, exendin-4 stays in its body much longer than glp-1. b) As soon as exendin-4 was discovered, it was turned into a drug to treat diabetes. c) Exendin-4 was used in the treatment of diabetes together with insulin injections. 13. How does paragraph D relate to paragraph E? a) Paragraph D presents some side-effects of the glp-1 hormone and paragraph E describes drug companies’ plans to deal with these side-effects in the future. b) Paragraph D introduces new research findings on glp-1 based drugs and paragraph E gives the implications for the future of weight-loss drugs. c) Paragraph D describes a new clinical trial with obese patients and paragraph E explains the need for further investment on research on obesity 14. Which sentence does NOT belong in paragraph F? a) (I) b) (II) c) (III) 15. According to paragraph G, what is different in Zealand Pharma’s approach to drug development? a) They are using a different hormone to lower the patient’s appetite more quickly. b) They are working on a drug that helps reduce nausea by decreasing the release of leptin. c) They are working on increasing the feeling of fullness rather than controlling the appetite.
8 16. According to paragraph H, what is the key feature of the glp-1 drugs that researchers have noted? a) They are more effective in treating brain disorders than improving metabolic health. b) Patients with heart, kidney and liver problems benefit from these drugs after losing weight. c) They have the potential to treat a variety of diseases because of their ability to reduce inflammation. 17. What does the word “induces” in the text mean? a) decreases b) generates c) regulates 18. What does the word “versatility” in the text mean? a) The quality of being sensitive b) The ability to be used for different purposes c) The state of being able to proceed without difficulty TEXT III A A conflict between the US and China over computer chips – or semiconductors – has been escalating in recent years. In particular, the US has taken steps to limit China’s access to advanced chip technology in the middle of heightened international competition in the area. The US recently tightened export controls to weaken China’s access to high-end chip manufacturing equipment and has banned the US top talent from working for Chinese semiconductor firms. Beijing retaliated by banning US chip maker Micron from operating in China. B __________.It has a huge share of the global semiconductor industry, but is also the focus of tensions between Beijing and Washington over its political status. Taiwan has, for the most part, been independent since the middle of the 20th century, but Beijing believes it should be reunited with the rest of China – possibly by force. In April 2023, China conducted extensive military drills near Taiwan, simulating an encirclement of the island. So, what might happen to the chip industry were China to invade? A US act passed in 1979 requires Washington to help defend Taiwan. Providing for the island’s security also fits with wider US objectives on technology and economic security. US politicians have often stated in a clear and direct way that a Chinese invasion would be met with a swift military response. A Democratic congressman recently said that if China invades, “We’re going to blow up TSMC” – this being the acronym for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s most valuable semiconductor company. Because of Taiwan’s dominant position in the chip industry, its economy has been described as the “most indispensable” in the world. TSMC - - is the cornerstone of what’s been described as Taiwan’s “silicon shield”. The idea is that a huge global reliance on its semiconductors protects Taiwan from invasion by China.
9 C The author Chris Miller tells the story of how Taiwan reached this dominant position in his book Chip War. It turns out to have been largely the result of strategic geopolitics and the individual leadership of several chip industry “godfathers”, including Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC. Semiconductors are produced by a remarkably global supply chain, with design often stemming from US, Japanese or European firms, and manufacturing taking place in Taiwan and South Korea. However, Taiwan alone manufactures more than 60% of the world’s semiconductors -— and crucially, 90% of the most advanced ones. D There are fears the silicon shield might not hold forever, and an invasion by China would threaten the global economy with collapse. However, if TSMC were to build new manufacturing facilities elsewhere it would reduce the world’s reliance on Taiwan for chip production. A practice called “friendshoring” could concentrate manufacturing and the sourcing of materials outside Taiwan in countries friendly to the US. This would reduce risks to the US and its partners from an invasion. However, such a shift would take years to complete and would be challenging to implement. In 2021, TSMC announced its plan to build a multi-billion-dollar facility in Arizona. But the plant will only be ready from 2025, and will probably not be capable of producing chips with cutting-edge technology, which are still mainly produced in Taiwan. Moving chip production outside Taiwan could reduce the risk to global supplies in the event that manufacturing was somehow disrupted, but this process could take years to have a meaningful impact. E Generally speaking, the smaller the chip, the more transistors can fit on it. This enables the development of faster, more powerful electronic devices. (I) The Arizona facility is expected to produce chips at the 5 nanometer (nm) scale, and, at some stage, 3nm. (II) This wouldn’t undermine Taiwan’s leadership, however, because TSMC is already working at 3nm in Taiwan and is likely to be further advanced by 2025. (III) Chip factories are increasingly being built outside Asia, which is something that has the potential to reduce over-reliance on a few supply chains. The Arizona branch of TSMC branch may also face a challenge in attracting enough skilled employees to run its US operation. F There is already a shortage of semiconductors, which began with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 and has affected many industries and products. In 2021, global car production slumped 26% and consumer electronic product launches have been delayed largely as a result. In a bid to boost chip supplies, the US and the EU have tried to improve supply chain resilience by encouraging production closer to home. The 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, for instance, offers more than US$50 billion for semiconductor research and development, manufacturing and workforce development in the US. Yet, these policies run counter to trade war tactics. Export controls and other downward pressures on global “friends” working with Chinese firms have meant that additional supply cannot come from Chinese manufacturers. Under current chip war conditions, low supply is likely to continue, which means price increases and product delays. G The military response to an invasion of Taiwan could see manufacturing of semiconductors on the island halted overnight. This would place marked pressure on the price of the chips manufactured outside Taiwan. The increase in chip prices would unleash massive inflation on a range of products and services, including cars, phones and healthcare equipment such as
10 ultrasounds and vital sign monitors. The reduction in semiconductor supply would also affect national security. A Taiwanese invasion would mean a halt to the availability of the advanced chips used in satellites and supercomputers. China’s ambition of having a “fully modern” military by 2027 and its Made in China 2025 plan both hold semiconductor capabilities at the core. Having access to TSMC know-how and supplies would be essential for delivering on these goals. www.theconversation.com 19. According to paragraph A, which of the following is a counter-attack against the US policies on advanced chip technology? a) banning American experts from working for Chinese chip firms b) China obtaining high-tech chip manufacturing equipment from other markets c) banning US chip maker company Micron from operating in China 20. Which sentence fits best as the first sentence in paragraph B? a) Taiwan’s dominance in the chip manufacturing industry is notable. b) Taiwan plays a critical role in this struggle between the US and China. c) Taiwanese chip industry is an area of concern for the whole world. 21. We can understand from paragraph B that in case of an invasion of Taiwan by China the US will ________. a) respond by using military force against China b) conduct military drills near Taiwan c) provide a special protecting shield for TSMC in Taiwan 22. Based on the information in paragraph C we can conclude that Taiwan ________. a) produces the great majority of the most technologically developed chips b) controls the global supply chain by both designing and manufacturing chips c) engaged in a chip war with other countries after Morris Chang founded TSMC 23. According to paragraph D, what is a disadvantage of moving TSMC manufacturing facilities outside Taiwan? a) The new factory will need a long time to produce chips in an efficient way. b) The new factory may be placed in a country not friendly to the US and its partners. c) There could be a shortage of materials and man power in new sites.
11 24. Which sentence does NOT belong in paragraph E? a) (I) b) (II) c) (III) 25. According to paragraph F, which one of the following is a strategy used with the aim of finding a solution to the shortage of microchips? a) The US and the EU have signed an agreement to act together to improve their semiconductor supply chains. b) The US administration has made important investments in order to boost the domestic production of semiconductors c) The US administration has encouraged its allies to increase their semiconductor trade with Chinese firms. 26. Which one can be inferred from paragraph G about the result of an invasion of Taiwan by China? a) The US would use additional supply chains to obtain the technological tools at lower prices. b) China would reach its aim to modernize its army and improve its high-tech products. c) It would have disastrous economic and technological consequences for both the US and China. 27. What does the word “escalating” mean in the text? a) Inviting to engage in a competition b) Becoming more intense c) Striking back 28. What does the word “resilience” mean in the text? a) response b) creation c) strength TEXT IV A The definition of a “gifted child” in psychology is as follows: any child who naturally has a high degree of general mental ability or extraordinary ability in a specific sphere of activity or knowledge. Most experts reserve the term “gifted” for children who demonstrate three characteristics. First, gifted children begin to master a particular discipline – a language, maths or chess – much younger than most. They do so easily, and thus they also progress much faster than their peers. Secondly, this mastery is achieved largely on their own, rather than as a result of parental urging. A third characteristic of gifted children is that their interests often seem nearobsessive. They have what is sometimes called “a rage to master”. Let us consider the example of Jesse who is five. When he was one and crawling, his father Richard says, he would do anything to avoid having his nappy changed. “We found that the only way we could keep him
12 still was to give him things to take apart and put back together again. We had a yellow torch with a built-in bulb, and he would take the battery out, put it back in, and test whether it worked. If he’d put the battery in the wrong way round, he’d persist until he got it right.” B A child’s surroundings and socio-economic background certainly affect their speed of development: there is a close correlation between the number of words a child’s parents have spoken to them by the time they’re three and the child’s academic success aged nine. Studies suggest that children born into professional families may have heard some 4 million more words by then than the offspring of parents with lower educational backgrounds. Such families often have higher incomes to provide more educational opportunities too. But Lyn Kendall, a consultant on gifted children at Mensa – an international organization founded in Britain in 1946 to nurture the country’s most intelligent people – insists that reading Nietzsche to your fiveyear-old, or forcing them to do three hours of extra homework, cannot “make” a genius. C Many children who have extremely high IQs show signs of extraordinary ability even as tiny babies, before pushy parenting is able to have much impact. “From a very early age – prelanguage – these children understand what is going on around them, understand what people say but cannot respond,” says Kendall. Most toddlers appear to explore the world as they encounter it, distracted by passing cars or the arrival of a new toy. By contrast, Kendall describes gifted children of that age as “driven”: “They never stop and they set themselves incredibly high standards.” We often associate the early years of childhood with taking joy in simple things, living in the present and an inability to think through the consequences of actions. Instead, says Kendall, watching gifted toddlers, “it’s almost as if someone has taken an 18-year-old and put them in a newborn body.” D The first IQ tests to measure intelligence were developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in the early 20th century. They evaluated short-term memory, analytical thinking and mathematical ability. Though the tests have changed since then, the basic skills they attempt to measure have remained the same. Today, the so-called “intelligence” tests abound online. Many children take aptitude tests at school. Most of these can be gamed or, at least, children can be trained to excel at them. Mensa does its best to make its tests “culture fair”. In other words, it aims to identify intelligence that is intrinsic rather than taught. “The original gifted children will have invented the wheel and discovered fire,” says Kendall. But even Kendall, who is in the business of evaluating children, admits that “testing IQ is not like measuring height”. No assessment is completely objective. Most tests look only at particular types of intelligence, such as mathematical and verbal reasoning. That reflects how narrow society’s notions of giftedness are. Many other types of skills and characteristics are missed, such as great curiosity or the ability to make intellectual connections. The tests are unlikely to identify future novelists or poets, or children who may be exceptionally good at sports or music. We don’t yet have a way to measure creative, artistic or emotional intelligence. The sorts of children we rate as “geniuses” tend to be only those who fall into the standard categories. E Some countries value extremely high intelligence more than others and offer specific educational provision for such children. Yet even if your genius is prized, admired and cultivated, social and psychological issues that often accompany great ability may make it an unwelcome gift. __________. This view is supported by many gifted children’s parents who find
13 their children’s gifts to be a source of anxiety, even distress. Many of these parents face two main difficulties. One is how to cater to the advanced intellectual development of their child. The second dimension is more rarely voiced but may cause just as many problems: exceptionally intelligent children are often socially isolated, even disruptive. Gifts that are admired in the abstract often seem less welcome in person. F In the early 20th century American psychologist Leta Hollingworth talked about “socially optimal intelligence”, which she associated with an IQ of between 125 and 155. Increase the score beyond that, and what Norman Geschwind, an American behavioural neurologist, termed a “pathology of superiority” can creep in: the dominance of one bit of the brain can affect the development of other parts. We don’t yet know why this is, or whether it’s down to nature, nurture or both. Others argue that because some gifted children are so different from their peers at school, and may interact little with them in the classroom, they may do so less in the playground too. Though in some ways their aptitudes are very adult, many find themselves unable to play games that we often refer to as “childish”: their social development is more restricted. If an exceptionally able five-year-old spends her free time doing algebra, says Andrea Anguera from the National Association for Gifted Children, she often doesn’t want to spend time with a peer who prefers to play with cars. Yet once a child is left out of some social situations, her opportunity to catch up or learn these skills diminishes. www.theeconomist.com 29. Which quality of gifted children does Jesse’s behavior described in paragraph A demonstrate? a) Being extremely motivated to learn in the area of their giftedness b) Learning a new skill at a much younger age than their peers c) Getting their parents’ help in discovering how objects work 30. What can be inferred from paragraph B about gifted children? a) Exposure to a wide range of vocabulary at a very young age contributes to the development of genius. b) Well-educated parents are more likely to raise gifted children with extraordinary abilities. c) Genius appears independently from parents’ efforts and the quality of the learning environment. 31. Which main feature of gifted children is emphasized in paragraph C? a) They learn to speak before their peers. b) They are ambitious and goal-oriented. c) They constantly explore their surroundings.
14 32. What is the main point of paragraph D about intelligence tests? a) Organizations like Mensa have improved their tests by including measures of creativity and artistic intelligence. b) Although there have been changes in IQ tests, they are still limited to measuring mathematical and verbal skills. c) Today IQ tests cannot be used to measure intelligence, because children can practice them at school and get excellent results. 33. Which sentence best completes the blank in paragraph E? a) Gifted children can use their great potential if they have the right social and psychological support. b) Certain types of parents take pride in having a “gifted child” to show off. c) From the inside genius can feel more like a curse than a blessing. 34. It can be concluded from paragraph F that children who score above 155 in IQ tests have _________. a) extraordinary development in all the parts of their brain b) sufficient social skills that enable them to interact with their peers c) difficulty in playing games with other children in the playground 35. What does the word nurture in the text mean? a) Do research on b) Take care of c) Evaluate the skills of 36. What does the word intrinsic in the text mean? a) natural b) advanced c) individual
15 CAREFUL READING AND VOCABULARY SET I ANSWER KEY TEXT I 1 A 2 C 3 B 4 C 5 A 6 B 7 A 8 B 9 A TEXT II 10 B 11 C 12 A 13 B 14 C 15 C 16 C 17 B 18 B TEXT III 19 C 20 B 21 A 22 A 23 A 24 C 25 B 26 C 27 B 28 C TEXT IV 29 A 30 C 31 B 32 B 33 C 34 C 35 B 36 A