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《学术文本品鉴》

课程讲义

（2018 年春季学期）

内部课程资料，请勿翻印

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Academic Lecture:

Business Values

☆Four business values:

- collaboration

- hard work theoretical concepts

- creativity

- excellence may result in ____11____

Example:

Senior managers:

Need to understand and deal with the potential

____12____ that may result

☆Collaboration

Example 1:

A management training course:

- task for groups: to build ____13____

- other teams: experienced ____14___ from trying

to collaborate

- the speaker’s team: won from reducing collaboration

Example 2:

Poor sales of a smartphone:

- director 1: aiming at the business market

- director 2: targeting ____15_____

Company tried to involve both, but failed.

☆Industriousness

- Hard work: valuable, but only when ____16_____

- Laziness: to avoid ____17 ______

☆Creativity

Should be used as a response to a particular ___18____

- attention-grabbing commercial increased sales

- memorable but not boosting sales commercial

Consumers remembering the adverts instead of the

______19______

Example: a chocolate bar advertisement

☆Excellence

- Being first with a produce is more profitable than

having the best product.

Example:

According to one study, on average, pioneers had a

______20 ____ far higher than that of followers.

- Aiming at excellence may miss opportunities.

11. A. good preparation

B. happy result

C. unexpected damage

D. honorable intention

12. A. backfires

B. side effects

C. destruction

D. consequences

13. A. construction

B. group

C. bridge

D. block

14. A. confusion

B. descend

C. challenge

D. inconsistency

15. A. companies

B. profits

C. products

D. consumers

16. A. properly targeted

B. most valued

C. well organized

D. effectively managed

17. A. grouping different people

B. doing unnecessary tasks

C. having irrational determination

D. making rushing decisions

18. A. idea

B. feeling

C. profits

D. problem

19. A. campaigns

B. researches

C. products

D. pleasures

20. A. business spirit

B. first version

C. better product

D. market share

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Summaries

Exercise 1

Direction: Study the stages of summary writing below, which have been mixed up. Put them in

the correct order (1-5).

a. Write the summary from your notes, reorganising the structure if needed.

b. Make notes of the key points, paraphrasing where possible.

c. Read the original text carefully and check any new or difficult vocabulary.

d. Mark the key points by underlining or highlighting.

e. Check the summary to ensure it is accurate and nothing important has been changed or lost.

Exercise 2

Direction: Reading the following text and the summaries that follow. Which is best? Give reasons.

Mechanical Pickers

Although harvesting cereal crops such as wheat and barley has been done for many years by

large machines known as combine harvesters, mechanizing the picking of fruit crops such as

tomatoes or apples has proved more difficult. Farmers have generally relied on human labour to

harvest these, but in wealthy countries it has become increasingly difficult to find people willing

to work for wages farmers are able to pay. This is partly because the demand for labour is

seasonal, usually in the autumn, and also because the work is hard. As a result, in areas such as

California part of the fruit harvest is often unpicked and left to rot.

There are several obvious reasons why developing mechanical pickers is challenging. Fruit such as

grapes or strawberries comes in a variety of shapes and does not always ripen at the same time.

Outdoors, the ground conditions can vary from dry to muddy, and wind may move branches

around. Clearly each crop requires its own solution; machines may be towed through orchards by

tractors or move around by themselves, using sensors to detect the ripest fruit.

The new generation of fruit harvesters is possible due to advances in computing power and

sensing ability. Such devices will inevitably be expensive, but will save farmers from the difficulty

of managing a labour force. In addition, the more intelligent pickers should be able to develop a

database of information on the health of each individual plant, enabling the grower to provide it

with fertilizer and water to maintain its maximum productivity.

1. Fruit crops have usually been picked by hand, as it is difficult to mechanise the process. But

in rich countries it has become hard to find affordable pickers at the right time, so fruit is

often wasted. Therefore, intelligent machines have been developed that can overcome the

technical problems involved, and also provide farmers with useful data about the plants.

2. Developing machines that can pick fruit such as tomatoes or apples is a challenging task, due

to the complexity of locating ripe fruit in an unpredictable outdoor environment, where

difficult conditions can be produced by wind or water. But recent developments in computing

ability mean that growers can now automate this process, which should save the money and

increase their profits.

3. Strawberries and grapes are the kind of crops that have always been hand-picked. But many

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farmers, for example in California, now find it increasingly difficult to attract enough pickers

when the fruit is ripe. However, computing advances have produced a solution to this

problem that will save farmers from worrying about the pickers, and also collect vital data.

1) ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

2) _____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

3）____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 3

Direction: Read the following text and complete the notes of the key points below.

Wealth and Fertility

For most of past century an inverse correlation between human fertility and economic

development has been found. This means that as a country got richer, the average number of

children born to each woman got smaller. While in the poorest countries women often have eight

children, the rate fell as low as 1.3 children per woman in some European countries such as Italy,

which is below the replacement rate. Such a low rate has two likely negative consequences: the

population will fall in the long-term, and a growing number of old people will have to be

supported by a shrinking number of young.

But a recent study by researchers from Pennsylvania University suggests that this pattern may be

changing. They related a country’s fertility rates to its human development index (HDI), a figure

with a maximum value of 1.0 which assesses life expectancy, average income and education level.

Over 20 countries now have an HDI of more than 0.9, and in a majority of these the fertility rate

has started to increase, and in some is approaching two children per woman. Though there are

exceptions such as Japan, it appears that rising levels of wealth and education eventually

translate into a desire form more children.

Complete the notes of the key points below:

1) Falling levels of fertility have generally been found __________________________________

2) In some, number of children born _______________________________________________

3) Two results: smaller populations and _____________________________________________

4) Recent research claims that ____________________________________________________

5) Comparison of HDI (human development index: life expectancy/income/education) with

fertility rate found that in most highly rated (+0.9) countries, _________________________

___________________________________________________________________________.

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Join the notes together and expand them to make the final summary. Check that the meaning is

clear and no important points have been left out. Find a suitable title.

Title:_________________________________________________________________

Summarise the summary in no more than 20 words.

Exercise 4

Direction: Summarise the following text in about 50 words.

The Last Word in Lavatories?

Toto is a leading Japanese manufacturer of bathroom ceramic ware, with annual worldwide sales

of around $5 bn. One of its best-selling ranges is the Washlet lavatory, priced at up to $5,000 and

used in most Japanese homes. This has features such as a heated seat, and can play a range of

sounds. This type of toilet is successful in its home market since many flats are small and

crowded, and bathrooms provide valued privacy. Now Toto hopes to increase its sales in Europe

and America, where it faces a variety of difficulties. European countries tend to have their own

rules about lavatory design, so that different models have to be make for each market. Although

Toto claims that its Washlet toilet uses less water than the average model, one factor which may

delay its penetration into Europe is its need for an electrical socket for installation, as these are

prohibited in bathrooms by most European building regulations.

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Introductory Paragraphs

Introductions and Conclusions

An effective introduction explains the purpose and scope of the paper to the reader. The

conclusion should provide a clear answer to any question asked in the title, as well as summarising

the main points.

1. Introduction contents

Introductions are usually no more than about 10 per cent of the total length of the assignment.

Therefore, in a 2, 000-word essay, the introduction would be about 200 words.

Exercises:

(a) What is normally found in an essay introduction? Look at the list below, and choose the

points you think might be included.

Components:

(i)A definition of any unfamiliar terms in the title Yes/No

(ii) Your opinions on the subject of the essay Yes/No

(iii) Mention of some sources you have read on the topic Yes/No

(iv) A provocative idea or question to interest the reader Yes/No

(v) Your aim or purpose in writing Yes/No

(vi) The method you adopt to answer the question (or an outline) Yes/No

(vii) Some brief background to the topic Yes/No

(vii) Any limitations you set yourself Yes/No

(b) Read the extracts below from introductions to articles and decide which of the components

listed above(i-vii) they are examples of.

(A) In the past 20 years, the ability of trial juries to assess complex or lengthy cases has been

widely debated.

(B) The rest of the paper is organised as follows. The second section explains why corporate

governance is important for economic prosperity. The third section presents the model

specification and describes the data and variables used in our empirical analysis. The fourth

section reports and discusses the empirical results. The fifth section concludes.

(C) The purpose of this paper is to investigate changes in the incidence of extreme warm and cold

temperatures over the globe since 1870.

(D) There is no clear empirical evidence sustaining a managerial myopia' argument Pugh et al.

(1992) find evidence that supports such a theory, but Meulbrook et al. (1990), Mahoney et al.

(1997), Garvey and Hanka (1999) and a study by the office of the Chief Economist of the

Securities and Exchange Commission(1985)find no evidence.

(E) “social cohesion” is usually defined in reference to common aims and objectives, social order,

social solidarity and the sense of place attachment.

(F) This study will focus on mergers in the media business between 1995 and 2010 since with

more recent examples an accurate assessment of the consequences cannot yet be made.

2 Introduction structure

Not every introduction will include all the elements chosen above.

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Exercises:

Decide which are essential and which are optional.

There is no standard pattern for an introduction, since much depends on the type of research you

are conducting and the length of your work, but this is a common structure:

(a) Definition of key terms, if needed

(b) Relevant background information

(c) Review of work by other writers on the topic

(d) Purpose or aim of the paper

(e) Your research method

(f) Any limitations you imposed

(g) An outline of your paper

Study the extracts below from the introduction to an essay titled “Evaluate the experience of

e-learning for students in higher education”.

(a) Certain words or phrases in the title may need clarifying because they are not widely

understood:

There is a range of definitions of this term, but in this paper e-learning refers to any type of

learning situation where content is delivered via the Internet.

(b) It is useful to remind the reader of the wider context of your work. This may also show the

value of the study you have carried out:

Learning is one of the most vital components of the contemporary knowledge-based economy.

With the development of computing power and technology, the Internet has become an

essential medium for knowledge transfer.

(c) While a longer article may have a separate literature review, in a shorter essay it is still

important to show familiarity with researchers who have studied this topic previously. This

may also reveal a gap in research that justifies your work:

Various researchers (Webb and Kirstin, 2003; Honig et al., 2006) have evaluated e-learning

in a health care and business context, but little attention so far bas been paid to the reactions

of students in higher education to this method of teaching.

(d) The aim of your research must be clearly stated so the reader knows what you are trying to do

The purpose of this study was to examine students'experience of e-learning in a higher

education context

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(e) The method demonstrates the process that you undertook to achieve the aim given before:

A range of studies as first reviewed, and then a survey of 200 students as conducted to assess

their experience of e-learning.

(f) You cannot deal with every aspect of this topic in an essay, so you must make clear the

boundaries of your study:

Clearly, a study of this type is inevitably restricted by various constraints, notably the size of

the student sample, and this was limited to students of Pharmacy and Agriculture.

(g) Understanding the structure of your work will help the reader to follow your argument:

The paper is structured as follows. The first section presents an analysis of the relevant

research, focusing on the current limited knowledge regarding the student experience. The

second part presents the methodology of the survey and an analysis of the findings, and the

final section considers the implications of the results for the delivery of e-learning

programmes.

The complete introduction is as follows:

EVALUATE THE EXPERIENCE OF E-LEARNING FOR STUDENTS

IN HIGHER EDUCATION

There is a range of definitions of this term, but in this paper 'e-learning refers to any type of

learning situation where content is delivered via the Internet. Learning is one of the most vital

components of the contemporary knowledge-based economy. With the development of computing

power and technology, the Internet has become an essential medium for knowledge transfer.

Various researchers(Webb and Kirstin, 2003; Honig et al., 2006) have evaluated e-learning in a

health care and business context, but little attention so far has been paid to the reactions of

students in higher education (HE) to this method of teaching. The purpose of this study was to

examine students' experience of e-learning in an HE context.

A range of studies was first reviewed, and then a survey of 200 students was conducted to assess

their experience of e-learning. Clearly, a study of this type is inevitably restricted by various

constraints, notably the size of the student sample and this was limited to students of Pharmacy

and Agriculture. The paper is structured as follows. The first section presents an analysis of the

relevant research, focusing on the current limited knowledge regarding the student experience.

The second part presents the methodology of the survey and an analysis of the findings, and the

final section considers the implications of the results for the delivery of e-learning programmes.

(225 words)

Guidelines for Introductory Paragraphs

The first paragraph in an essay is called the introductory paragraph. Without an Introductory

paragraph, your essay may start too abruptly. You need to lead readers to the subject of the essay

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in an interesting way and show them that reading your essay is worth their time. As a result, the

purpose of the introductory paragraph is twofold: to get the readers' attention and to introduce the

subject of the essay to them -- in that order.

Types of Introductory Paragraphs

There are many ways for a writer to get the readers' attention in an introductory paragraph. Four of

the most common ways are discussed here.

Anecdote

An anecdote is a brief story that illustrates your topic. You can either base this anecdote on your

own experience or invent a story about someone else. Model Paragraph 1 is an example of a

personal anecdote, while Model Paragraph 2 demonstrates the use of a third-person anecdote.

Model paragraph 1

My younger brother was a good student until our parents got divorced. Then, while my parents'

lives became a war zone over property and emotions, my brother withdrew into himself and felt

abandoned and unloved. He needed to feel that he was a part of something. That's when he got

involved with a gang at his high school. The gang he joined became his family and was more

important to him than anything. My parents didn't notice until my brother got badly hurt in a gang

fight. I am convinced that gangs are a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.

Model paragraph 2

The teenager hated to be at home. His parents were always fighting -- at least on the rare

occasions that both of them were at home at the same time. His mother was on drugs, and his

father was an alcoholic. He felt totally alone at home, but when he was with his fellow gang

members, he felt as if he belonged. He loved being with the members of his gang and would do

anything for them and with them. This all-too-common example illustrates why I think that gangs

are a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.

Interesting Facts or Statistics

Another way to introduce your essay is with interesting facts or statistics. To write this kind of

introduction, you need to be aware of commonly known information. You can expand your

knowledge of facts and statistics by carefully reading newspapers and journals. Here is an

example of an introductory paragraph using facts and statistics.

Model paragraph 3

It is estimated that there are nearly 5,000 gangs in the United States with a total of almost 250,000

members. In fact, in inner cities, where gangs are most common, 7 percent of all teenagers are

gang members. Why are all these young adults choosing to be gang members? In my opinion,

gangs are a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.

Historical Introduction

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You may also choose to write a brief historical introduction to your essay. Naturally, this is not

meant to be a comprehensive account; it simply provides general historical background.

Model paragraph 4

Gangs have existed in the United States for at least 100 years. At the turn of the twentieth century,

there were many gangs in big East Coast cities. These gangs were mostly made up of members of

the same ethnic group and primarily protected the neighborhood where their families lived.

Nowadays, however, gang members have little to do with protecting their relatives. It's my belief

that gangs are a direct result of the breakdown of the traditional family.

General to Specific

This is perhaps the most common type of Introduction. It begins with a general statement of the

larger topic, and then each sentence narrows it down until you get to the specific thesis statement.

The trick is to start out general, but not too general. Remember to keep the introduction relevant.

Here is an example of a general-to-specific introduction.

Model paragraph 5

It's difficult to grow up in this society. A teenager can get into all kinds of trouble with school,

moking, drugs, and dating. One of the worst kinds of trouble that a teenager can get into is getting

involved with a gang. Gang members commit crimes and get hurt or killed all too often. Why do

teenagers get involved in gangs? I think that gangs are a direct result of the breakdown of the

traditional family.

As you can see, any of the above paragraphs could introduce an essay about the reasons gangs

exist In your essays, try to develop the skill of writing different types of introductions, so your

essays do not become boring and predictable.

Exercise

Evaluating Introductory Paragraphs

Read the thesis statement and the four introductory paragraphs that follow. Decide whether or not

each paragraph is a good introductory paragraph. If it is, check off which kind of introduction it is.

If it isn't, check off the reason(s) why it isn’t. Look back to page 78 if you need help.

Thesis statement: Heredity plays a more important role in a child’s personality development than

environment does.

1. A man meets a woman, and they fall in love. Then, they get married, buy a house, and settle

down. After a while, they decide to have children. The woman gets pregnant, and nine months

later a baby is born. In this case, heredity plays a more important role in a child’s personality

development than environment does.

a. Is this a good introductory paragraph?

口 Yes 口 No

b. If it is good, which kind of Introduction is it?

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口 Anecdote(personal or third person) 口 Historical

口 Facts and/or statistics 口 General to specific

c. If it isn't good, check off why.

口 Some content are not relevant to thesis statement. 口 Too short

口 Previews content of the body 口 Too general

2. As you will see below, there are lots of studies of twins and of adopted children that indicate

that genes are important in a child’s development. When twins who were separated at birth are

reunited in adulthood, they find many likes and dislikes in common. Also,when adopted children

are reunited with their biological parents, they often find similar personality attributes. I believe

that heredity plays a more important role in a child's personality development than environment

does.

a. Is this a good introductory paragraph?

口 Yes 口 No

b. If it is good, which kind of Introduction is it?

口 Anecdote(personal or third person) 口 Historical

口 Facts and/or statistics 口 General to specific

c. If it isn't good, check off why.

口 Some content are not relevant to thesis statement. 口 Too short

口 Previews content of the body 口 Too general

3 I witnessed a child's birth recently and began thinking about what kind of person she would

become. Would she be kind or cruel, generally happy or chronically depressed, a giver or a

taker? I can predict that she will be a kind, generally happy giver because that's the way her

sister is, despite her abusive parents. I also believe that heredity plays a more important role in

a child’s personality development than environment does.

a. Is this a good introductory paragraph?

口 Yes 口 No

b. If it is good, which kind of Introduction is it?

口 Anecdote(personal or third person) 口 Historical

口 Facts and/or statistics 口 General to specific

c. If it isn't good, check off why.

口 Some content are not relevant to thesis statement. 口 Too short

口 Previews content of the body 口 Too general

4. Many people think that the environment that a child is raised in is important. I think heredity

plays a more important role in a child's personality development than environment does.

a. Is this a good introductory paragraph?

口 Yes 口 No

b. If it is good, which kind of Introduction is it?

口 Anecdote(personal or third person) 口 Historical

口 Facts and/or statistics 口 General to specific

c. If it isn't good, check off why.

口 Some content are not relevant to thesis statement. 口 Too short

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口 Previews content of the body 口 Too general

Exercise

Evaluate the following introductory paragraphs:

When Silvia Geraci goes out to dinner with friends, she has a flash of anxiety when the check

comes. She can pay her share—her parents give her enough money to cover all her expenses. It’s

just that others in her circle make their own money now. “I know I haven’t earned what I have. It’s

been given to me,” says Geraci, 22, who returned to her childhood home is suburban New York

after graduating from college last year. “It’s like I’m stuck in an in-between spot. Sometimes I

wonder if I’m getting left behind.” Poised on the brink of what should be a bright future, Geraci

and millions like her face a thoroughly modern truth: it’s hard to feel like a Master of the Universe

when you’re sleeping in your old twin bed.

Whether it’s reconverting the guest room back into a bedroom, paying for graduate school, writing

a blizzard of small checks to cover rent and health-insurance premiums or acting as career

counselors, parents across the country are trying to provide their twenty-somethings with the tools

they’ll need to be self-sufficient—someday. In the process, they have created a whole new breed

of child—the adultolecsent.

For their part, these overgrown kids seem content to enjoy the protection of their parents as they

drift from adolescence to early adulthood. Relying on your folks to light the shadowy path to the

future has become so accepted that even the ultimate loser move—returning home to live with

your parents—has lost its stigma. According to the 2000 Census, nearly 4 million people between

the ages of 25 and 34 live with their parents. And there are signs that even more moms and dads

will be welcoming their not-so-little-ones back home. Last week, in an online survey by

Monster-TRAK.com, a job-search firm, 60% of college students reported that they planned to live

at home after graduation—and 21% said that they planned to remain there for more than a year.

Unlike their counterparts in the early 1990s, adultolecsents aren’t demoralized slackers lining up

for the bathroom with their longing-to-be-empty-nester parents. Iris and Andrew Aronson, two

doctors in Chicago, were happy when their daughter, Elena, 24, a Smith graduate, got a

modest-paying job and moved back home last year. It seemed a natural extension of their

parenting philosophy—make the children feel secure enough and they’ll eventually strike out on

their own. “When she was an infant, the so-called experts said letting babies cry themselves to

sleep was the only way to teach them to sleep independent of their mother,” says Iris. “But I never

did that either.” Come fall, Elena is heading off to graduate school. Her sister, who will graduate

from Stanford University this spring, is moving in. Living at home works, Elena explains, because

she’s knows she’s leaving. “Otherwise, it’ll feel too much like high school,” says Elena. “As it is,

sometimes I look around and think, ‘OK, now it’s time to start my homework.’”

Topic Sentences and Concluding Sentences in Body Paragraphs

You have learned that individual paragraphs start with a topic sentence and end with a concluding

sentence. This is usually true for stand-alone paragraphs, but it is not always true for body

paragraphs in an essay.

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Sometimes you may not need a topic sentence for each body paragraph. This can happen when the

thesis statement for the essay has a predictor and clearly shows what the topic for each paragraph

will be.

Example

There are three actions anyone can take to help decrease our garbage problem: reduce the

amount you throw away, reuse items that are still good, and recycle things that can be recycled.

The thesis statement in the example indicates by its predictor that there will be three body

paragraphs in this essay and that they will deal with reducing, reusing, and recycling. Those three

body paragraphs will come in the order mentioned in the thesis statement. It is important to

maintain the unity of each body paragraph when you are not using a topic sentence.

If it is not a topic sentence, the first sentence of a body paragraph may function as a connection, or

bridge, between one paragraph and another. If the first sentence is a bridge, then the second

sentence may or may not be a topic sentence. In addition, concluding sentences in body

paragraphs are not always required. The last sentence of a body paragraph may also function as a

bridge to the following paragraph.

Exercise

Read the following paragraph. Consider these questions.

1. What is the function of the first sentence? Is it a topic sentence? Is it a bridge?

2. What is the purpose of the last sentence? Is it a bridge?

Too much, perhaps, has been said of his silence; too much stress has been laid upon his reserve.

He loved clear thinking; he hated sentimentality and gush; but this by no means meant that he was

cold and unemotional, perpetually critical and condemnatory in daily life. On the contrary, it was

his power of feeling strongly and of expressing his feeling with vigor that made him sometimes so

alarming as a companion. A lady, for instance, complained of the wet summer that was spoiling

her tour in Cornwall. But to my father, though he never called himself a democrat, the rain meant

that the corn was being laid; some poor man was being ruined; and the energy with which he

expressed his sympathy—not with the lady—left her discomfited. He had something of the same

respect for farmers and fishermen that he had for climbers and explorers. So, too, he talked little of

patriotism, but during the South African War—and all wars were hateful to him—he lay awake

thinking that he heard the guns on the battlefield. Again, neither his reason nor his cold common

sense helped to convince him that a child could be late for dinner without having been maimed or

killed in an accident. And not all his mathematics together with a bank balance which he insisted

must be ample in the extreme could persuade him, when it came to signing a check, that the whole

family was not “shooting Niagara to ruin,” as he put it. The pictures that he would draw of old age

and the bankruptcy court, of ruined men of letters who have to support large families in small

houses at Wimbledon (he owned a very small house at Wimbledon), might have convinced those

who complain of his understatements that hyperbole was well within his reach had he chosen.

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Conclusions

Conclusions tend to be shorter and more varied in format than introductions. Some articles may

have a “summary” or “concluding remarks”. But student papers should generally have a final

section that summarises the arguments and makes it clear to the reader that the original question

has been answered.

(A)Which of the following are generally acceptable in conclusions?

(a) A statement showing how your aim has been achieved.

(b) A discussion of the implications of your research.

(c) Some new information on the topic not mentioned before.

(d)A short review of the main points of your study.

(e) Some suggestions for further research.

(f) The limitations of your study.

(g) Comparison with the results of similar studies.

(h) A quotation that appears to sum up your work.

(B) Match the extracts from conclusions below with the acceptable components above.

Example:(a)=(vi).

(i) As always, this investigation has a number of limitations to be considered in evaluating its

findings.

(ii) These results suggest that the risk of flooding on this coast has increased significantly and so

further coastal development may be at risk.

(iii) Another line of research worth pursuing further is to study the importance of language for

successful expatriate assignments.

(iv) Our review of 13 studies of strikes in public transport demonstrates that the effect of a strike

on public transport ridership varies and may either be temporary or permanent.

(v) These results of the Colombia study reported here are consistent with other similar studies

conducted in other countries (Baron and Norman 1992.

(vi) This study has clearly illustrated the drawbacks to family ownership of retail businesses.

(C)The following sentences form the conclusion to the essay titled “Evaluate the experience

of e-learning for students in higher education”, whose introduction was given above, but

they have been mixed-up. Put them into a logical order(1-5).

(a) This finding was clear, despite the agreed convenience of e-learning.

(b) Given the constraints of the small and limited sample, there is clearly room for further research

in this field.

(c) However, our survey of nearly 200 students found a strong preference for traditional classroom

teaching.

(d) But, in general, it would appear that e-learning is unlikely to be acceptable as a primary

teaching method in higher education.

(e) This study found that little relevant research on the he student experience of e-learning has

been conducted, and the research that has been reported indicates a mixed reaction to it.

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Selected Readings

Advantages of Public Transport

A

A new study conducted for the World Bank by Murdoch University's Institute for Science and

Technology Policy (ISTP) has demonstrated that public transport is more efficient than cars. The

study compared the proportion of wealth poured into transport by thirty-seven cities around the

world. This included both the public and private costs of building, maintaining and using a

transport system.

B

The study found that the Western Australian city of Perth is a good example of a city with

minimal public transport. AS a result, 17% of its wealth went into transport costs. Some European

and Asian cities, on the other hand, spent as little as 5%. Professor Peter Newman,ISTP Director,

pointed out that these more efficient cities were able to put the difference into attracting

industry and jobs or creating a better place to live.

C

According to Professor Newman, the larger Australian city of Melbourne is a rather unusual city

in this sort of comparison. He describes it as two cities: “A European city surrounded by a

car-dependent one”, Melbourne's large tram network has made car use in the inner city much

lower, but the outer suburbs have the same car-based structure as most other Australian cities.

The explosion in demand for accommodation in the inner suburbs of Melbourne suggests a

recent change in many people's preferences as to where they live.

D

Newman says this is a new, broader way of considering public transport issues. In the past, the

case for public transport has been made on the basis of environmental and social justice

considerations rather than economics. Newman, however, believes the study demonstrates that

“the auto-dependent city model is inefficient and grossly inadequate in economic as well as

environmental terms”.

E

Bicycle use was not included in the study but Newman noted that the two most “bicycle friendly”

cities considered - Amsterdam and Copenhagen - were very efficient, even though their public

transport systems were “reasonable but not special”.

F

It is common for supporters of road networks to reject the models of cities with good public

transport by arguing that such systems would not work in their particular city. One objection is

climate. Some people say their city could not make more use of public transport because it is

either too hot or too cold. Newman rejects this, pointing out that public transport has been

16

successful in both Toronto and Singapore and, in fact, he has checked the use of cars against

climate and found “zero correlation”.

G

When it comes to other physical features, road lobbies are on stronger ground. For example,

Newman accepts it would be hard for a city as hilly as Auckland to develop a really good rail

network. However, he points out that both Hong Kong and Zurich have managed to make a

success of their rail systems, heavy and light respectively, though there are few cities in the world

as hilly.

H

In fact, Newman believes the main reason for adopting one sort of transport over another is

politics: “The more democratic the process, the more public transport is favored.” He considers

Portland, Oregon, a perfect example of this. Some years ago, federal money was granted to

build a new road. However, local pressure groups forced a referendum over whether to spend the

money on light rail instead. The rail proposal won and the railway worked spectacularly well. In

the years that have followed, more and more rail systems have been put in, dramatically

changing the nature of the city. Newman notes that Portland has about the same population as

Perth and had a similar population density at the time.

I

In the UK, travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries, with people avoiding

situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work. Trains and cars

initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their

destination. However, public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl, causing

massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.

J

There is a widespread belief that increasing wealth encourages people to live farther out where

cars are the only viable transport. The example of European cities refutes that. They are often

wealthier than their American counterparts but have not generated the same level of car use. In

Stockholm, car use has actually fallen in recent years as the city has become larger and

wealthier. A new study makes this point even more starkly. Developing cities in Asia, such as

Jakarta and Bangkok, make more use of the car than wealthy Asian cities such as Tokyo and

Singapore. In cities that developed later, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank

discouraged the building of public transport and people have been forced to rely on cars -

creating the massive traffic jams that characterize those cities.

K

Newman believes one of the best studies on how cities built for cars might be converted to rail

use is The Urban Village report, which used Melbourne as an example. It found that pushing

everyone into the city centre was not the best approach. Instead, the proposal advocated the

creation of urban villages at hundreds of sites, mostly around railway stations.

17

L

It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in

the population as people were no longer forced into cities. However, the ISTP team's research

demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the

1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place

people working in related fields together. “The new world will largely depend on human creativity,

and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.”

Exercise 1

Direction: Choose the correct heading for paragraphs H to L from the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i Avoiding an overcrowded centre

ii A successful exercise in people power

iii The benefits of working together in cities

iv Higher incomes need not mean more cars

v Economic arguments fail to persuade

vi The impact of telecommunications on population distribution

vii Increases in travelling time

viii Responding to arguments against public transport

Supplementary Reading:

Air Traffic Control in the USA

A An accident that occurred in the skies over the Grand Canyon in 1956 resulted in the

establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to regulate and oversee the operation

of aircraft in the skies over the United States, which were becoming quite congested. The

resulting structure of air traffic control has greatly increased the safety of flight in the United

States, and similar air traffic control procedures are also in place over much of the rest of the

world.

B Rudimentary air traffic control (ATC) existed well before the Grand Canyon disaster. As early

as the 1920s, the earliest air traffic controllers manually guided aircraft in the vicinity （proximity）

of the airports, using lights and flags, while beacons and flashing lights were placed along

cross-country routes to establish the earliest airways. However, this purely visual system was

useless in bad weather, and, by the 1930s, radio communication was coming into use for ATC. The

first region to have something approximating today's ATC was New York City, with other major

metropolitan areas following soon after.

C In the 1940s, ATC centres could and did take advantage of the newly developed radar and

improved radio communication brought about by the Second World War, but the system

remained rudimentary. It was only after the creation of the FAA that full-scale regulation of

America's airspace took place, and this was fortuitous, for the advent of the jet engine suddenly

resulted in a large number of very fast planes, reducing pilots' margin of error and practically

demanding some set of rules to keep everyone well separated and operating safely in the air.

D Many people think that ATC consists of a row of controllers sitting in front of their radar

18

screens at the nation's airports, telling arriving and departing traffic what to do. This is a very

incomplete part of the picture. The FAA realised that the airspace over the United States would at

any time have many different kinds of planes, flying for many different purposes, in a variety of

weather conditions, and the same kind of structure was needed to accommodate all of them.

E To meet this challenge, the following elements were put into effect. First, ATC extends over

virtually the entire United States. In general, from 365m above the ground and higher, the entire

country is blanketed by controlled airspace. In certain areas, mainly near airports, controlled

airspace extends down to 215m above the ground, and, in the immediate vicinity of an airport,

all the way down to the surface. Controlled airspace is that airspace in which FAA regulations

apply. Elsewhere, in uncontrolled airspace, pilots are bound by fewer regulations. In this way, the

recreational pilot who simply wishes to go flying for a while without all the restrictions imposed

by the FAA has only to stay in uncontrolled airspace, below 365m, while the pilot who does want

the protection afforded by ATC can easily enter the controlled airspace.

F The FAA then recognised two types of operating environments. In good meteorological

conditions, flying would be permitted under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), which suggests a strong

reliance on visual cues to maintain an acceptable level of safety. Poor visibility necessitated a set

of Instrumental Flight Rules (IFR), under which the pilot relied on altitude and navigational

information provided by the plane's instrument panel to fly safely. On a clear day, a pilot in

controlled airspace can choose a VFR or IFR flight plan, and the FAA regulations were devised in a

way which accommodates both VFR and IFR operations in the same airspace. However, a pilot

can only choose to fly IFR if they possess an instrument rating which is above and beyond the

basic pilot's license that must also be held.

G Controlled airspace is divided into several different types, designated by letters of the

alphabet. Uncontrolled airspace is designated Class F, while controlled airspace below 5,490m

above sea level and not in the vicinity of an airport is Class E. All airspace above 5,490m is

designated Class A. The reason for the division of Class E and Class A airspace stems from the

type of planes operating in them. Generally, Class E airspace is where one finds general aviation

aircraft (few of which can climb above 5,490m anyway), and commercial turboprop aircraft.

Above 5,490m is the realm of the heavy jets, since jet engines operate more efficiently at higher

altitudes. The difference between Class E and A airspace is that in Class A, all operations are IFR,

and pilots must be instrument-rated, that is, skilled and licensed in aircraft instrumentation. This

is because ATC control of the entire space is essential. Three other types of airspace, Classes D, C

and B, govern the vicinity of airports. These correspond roughly to small municipal, medium-sized

metropolitan and major metropolitan airports respectively, and encompass an increasingly

rigorous set of regulations. For example, all a VFR pilot has to do to enter Class C airspace is

establish two-way radio contact with ATC. No explicit permission from ATC to enter is needed,

although the pilot must continue to obey all regulations governing VFR flight. To enter Class B

airspace, such as on approach to a major metropolitan airport, an explicit ATC clearance is

required. The private pilot who cruises without permission into this airspace risks losing their

license.

19

20

Academic Listening:

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

THE URBAN LANDSCAPE

Two areas of focus:

· the effect of vegetation on the urban climate

· ways of planning our 31 ......................................... better

Large-scale impact of trees:

· they can make cities more or less 32 .........................................

· in summer they can make cities cooler

· they can make inland cities more 33 .........................................

Local impact of trees:

· they can make local areas

- more 34 .........................................

- cooler

- more humid

- less windy

- less 35 .........................................

Comparing trees and buildings

Temperature regulation:

· trees evaporate water through their 36 .........................................

· building surfaces may reach high temperatures

Wind force:

· tall buildings cause more wind at 37 ......................................... level

· trees 48 ......................................... the wind force

Noise:

· trees have a small effect on traffic noise

· 39 ......................................... frequency noise passes through trees

Important points to consider:

· trees require a lot of sunlight, water and 40 ......................................... to grow

21

Is There Anybody Out There?

The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence

This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial

intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been

searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the

level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby

stars for any sign of life.

A

The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity — the same curiosity about the natural world

that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to

know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something

very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that we see around us on

the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all

questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually

pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested

in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a

few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have

told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe

ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if

other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years.

Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves.

The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives

us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the

benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global

pollution, and other threats that we haven't yet discovered.

B

In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs

(Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists don't consider the

evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also

important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future).

Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty

well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite

apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are

looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us

in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet

orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on

carbon and water.

C

Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely

limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do

22

not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when

we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe,

it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact,

the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for

carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a

life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light

years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms.

D

An alien civilisation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy,

but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while

traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of

transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest

distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this

frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the

world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until

now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched.

The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress

voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct a thorough search for extra-terrestrial

life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed

to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search

using the world's largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto

Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest

1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz. The

other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower

sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network.

E

There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien

civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the

impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of

ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply

could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much

older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds

of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few

hundred years for our reply to reach them. It's not important, then, if there's a delay of a few

years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps

carefully drafts a reply.

Exercise 1

Direction: Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of headings below.

Example Answer

Paragraph A v

23

List of Headings

i Seeking the transmission of radio signals from planets

ii Appropriate responses to signals from other civilisations

iii Vast distances to Earth's closest neighbours

iv Assumptions underlying the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence

v Reasons for the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence

vi Knowledge of extra-terrestrial life forms

vii Likelihood of life on other planets

Exercise 2

Direction: Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

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

1 Alien civilisations may be able to help the human race to overcome serious problems.

2 SETI scientists are trying to find a life form that resembles humans in many ways.

3 The Americans and Australians have co-operated on joint research projects.

4 So far SETI scientists have picked up radio signals from several stars.

5 The NASA project attracted criticism from some members of Congress.

6 If a signal from outer space is received, it will be important to respond promptly.

Supplementary Reading:

Venus in Transit

June 2004 saw the first passage, known as a 'transit' of the planet Venus

across the face of the Sun in 122 years. Transits have helped shape our view

of the whole Universe, as Heather Cooper and Nigel Henbest explain

A On 8 June 2004, more than half the population of the world were treated to a rare

astronomical event. For over six hours, the planet Venus steadily inched its way over the surface

of the Sun. This 'transit' of Venus was the first since 6 December 1882. On that occasion, the

American astronomer Professor Simon Newcomb led a party to South Africa to observe the event.

They were based at a girls' school, where—it is alleged—the combined forces of three

schoolmistresses outperformed the professionals with the accuracy of their observations.

B For centuries, transits of Venus have drawn explorers and astronomers alike to the four

corners of the globe. And you can put it all down to the extraordinary polymath Edmond Halley.

In November 1677, Halley observed a transit of the innermost planet, Mercury, from the desolate

island of St Helena in the South Pacific. He realised that, from different latitudes, the passage of

the planet across the Sun's disc would appear to differ. By timing the transit from two

24

widely-separated locations, teams of astronomers could calculate the parallax angle— the

apparent difference in position of an astronomical body due to a difference in the observer's

position. Calculating this angle would allow astronomers to measure what was then the ultimate

goal: the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This distance is known as the 'astronomical unit' or

AU.

C Halley was aware that the AU was one of the most fundamental of all astronomical

measurements. Johannes Kepler, in the early 17th century, had shown that the distances of the

planets from the Sun governed their orbital speeds, which were easily measurable. But no-one

had found a way to calculate accurate distances to the planets from the Earth. The goal was to

measure the AU; then, knowing the orbital speeds of all the other planets round the Sun, the

scale of the Solar System would fall into place. However, Halley realised that Mercury was so far

away that its parallax angle would be very difficult to determine. As Venus was closer to the Earth,

its parallax angle would be larger, and Halley worked out that by using Venus it would be possible

to measure the Sun's distance to 1 part in 500. But there was a problem: transits of Venus, unlike

those of Mercury, are rare, occurring in pairs roughly eight years apart every hundred or so years.

Nevertheless, he accurately predicted that Venus would cross the face of the Sun in both 1761

and 1769—though he didn't survive to see either.

D Inspired by Halley's suggestion of a way to pin down the scale of the Solar System, teams of

British and French astronomers set out on expeditions to places as diverse as India and Siberia.

But things weren't helped by Britain and France being at war. The person who deserves most

sympathy is the French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil. He was thwarted by the fact that the

British were besieging his observation site at Pondicherry in India. Fleeing on a French warship

crossing the Indian Ocean, Le Gentil saw a wonderful transit —but the ship's pitching and rolling

ruled out any attempt at making accurate observations. Undaunted, he remained south of the

equator, keeping himself busy by studying the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar before setting

off to observe the next transit in the Philippines. Ironically after travelling nearly 50,000

kilometres, his view was clouded out at the last moment, a very dispiriting experience.

E While the early transit timings were as precise as instruments would allow, the

measurements were dogged by the 'black drop' effect. When Venus begins to cross the Sun’s disc,

it looks smeared not circular —which makes it difficult to establish timings. This is due to

diffraction of light. The second problem is that Venus exhibits a halo of light when it is seen just

outside the Sun's disc. While this showed astronomers that Venus was surrounded by a thick

layer of gases refracting sunlight around it, both effects made it impossible to obtain accurate

timings.

F But astronomers laboured hard to analyse the results of these expeditions to observe Venus

transits. Johann Franz Encke, Director of the Berlin Observatory, finally determined a value for the

AU based on all these parallax measurements: 153,340,000 km. Reasonably accurate for the time,

that is quite close to today's value of 149,597,870 km, determined by radar, which has now

superseded transits and all other methods in accuracy. The AU is a cosmic measuring rod, and the

basis of how we scale the Universe today. The parallax principle can be extended to measure the

25

distances to the stars. If we look at a star in January—when Earth is at one point in its orbit—it

will seem to be in a different position from where it appears six months later. Knowing the width

of Earth's orbit, the parallax shift lets astronomers calculate the distance.

G June 2004's transit of Venus was thus more of an astronomical spectacle than a scientifically

important event. But such transits have paved the way for what might prove to be one of the

most vital breakthroughs in the cosmos—detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars.

Academic Listening:

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

ANTARCTICA

GEOGRAPHY

· world’s highest, coldest and windiest continent

· more than 31 ...................... times as big as the UK

· most of the area is classified as 32 ......................

RESEARCH STATIONS

· international teams work together

· 33 ...................... is integrated with technical support

· stations contain accommodation, work areas, a kitchen, a 34 and a gym

· supplies were brought to Zero One station by sledge from a 35 ...................... at the edge of

the ice 15 km away

· problem of snow build-ups solved by building stations on 36 ...................... with adjustable

legs

FOOD AND DIET

· average daily requirement for an adult in Antarctica is approximately 37 ......................

kilocalories

· rations for field work prepared by process of freeze-drying

RESEARCH

The most important research focuses on climate change, including

- measuring changes in the ice-cap (because of effects on sea levels and 38 ...................... )

- monitoring the hole in the ozone layer

- analysing air from bubbles in ice to measure 39 ...................... caused by human activity

WORK OPPORTUNITIES

Many openings for 40 ...................... people including

- research assistants

- administrative and technical positions

26

27

Do Literate Women Make Better Mothers?

Children in developing countries are healthier and more likely to survive past the age of five

when their mothers can read and write. Experts in public health accepted this idea decades ago,

but until now no one has been able to show that a woman's ability to read in itself improves her

children's chances of survival.

Most literate women learnt to read in primary school, and the fact that a woman has had an

education may simply indicate her family's wealth or that it values its children more highly. Now a

long-term study carried out in Nicaragua has eliminated these factors by showing that teaching

reading to poor adult women, who would otherwise have remained illiterate, has a direct effect

on their children's health and survival.

In 1979, the government of Nicaragua established a number of social programmes, including a

National Literacy Crusade. By 1985, about 300,000 illiterate adults from all over the country,

many of whom had never attended primary school, had learnt how to read, write and use

numbers.

During this period, researchers from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Central

American Institute of Health in Nicaragua, the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and

the Costa Rican Institute of Health interviewed nearly 3,000 women, some of whom had learnt to

read as children, some during the literacy crusade and some who had never learnt at all. The

women were asked how many children they had given birth to and how many of them had died

in infancy. The research teams also examined the surviving children to find out how

well-nourished they were.

The investigators' findings were striking. In the late 1970s, the infant mortality rate for the

children of illiterate mothers was around 110 deaths per thousand live births. At this point in

their lives, those mothers who later went on to learn to read had a similar level of child mortality

(105/1000). For women educated in primary school, however, the infant mortality rate was

significantly lower, at 80 per thousand.

In 1985, after the National Literacy Crusade had ended, the infant mortality figures for those who

remained illiterate and for those educated in primary school remained more or less unchanged.

For those women who learnt to read through the campaign, the infant mortality rate was 84 per

thousand, an impressive 21 points lower than for those women who were still illiterate. The

children of the newly-literate mothers were also better nourished than those of women who

could not read.

Why are the children of literate mothers better off? According to Peter Sandiford of the Liverpool

School of Tropical Medicine, no one knows for certain. Child health was not on the curriculum

during the women's lessons, so he and his colleagues are looking at other factors. They are

working with the same group of 3,000 women, to try to find out whether reading mothers make

28

better use of hospitals and clinics, opt for smaller families, exert more control at home, learn

modern childcare techniques more quickly, or whether they merely have more respect far

themselves and their children.

The Nicaraguan study may have important implications for governments and aid agencies that

need to know where to direct their resources. Sandiford says that there is increasing evidence

that female education, at any age, is 'an important health intervention in its own right'. The

results of the study lend support to the World Bank's recommendation that education budgets in

developing countries should be increased, not just to help their economies, but also to improve

child health.

'We've known for a long time that maternal education is important,' says John Cleland of the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 'But we thought that even if we started

educating girls today, we'd have to wait a generation for the pay-off. The Nicaraguan study

suggests we may be able to bypass that.'

Cleland warns that the Nicaraguan crusade was special in many ways, and similar campaigns

elsewhere might not work as well. It is notoriously difficult to teach adults skills that do not have

an immediate impact on their everyday lives, and many literacy campaigns in other countries

have been much less successful. 'The crusade was part of a larger effort to bring a better life to

the people,' says Cleland. Replicating these conditions in other countries will be a major

challenge for development workers.

Exercise 1

Direction: Complete the summary using the list of words, A-J, below.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

The Nicaraguan National Literacy Crusade aimed to teach large numbers of illiterate.......................

to read and write. Public health experts have known for many years that there is a connection

between child health and ....................... However, it has not previously been known whether

these two factors were directly linked or not. This question has been investigated

by ....................... in Nicaragua. As a result, factors such as ....................... and attitudes to

children have been eliminated, and it has been shown that....................... can in itself improve

infant health and survival.

A child literacy B men and women C an international research team

D medical care E mortality F maternal literacy

G adults and children H paternal literacy I a National Literacy Crusade

J family wealth

29

Exercise 2

Direction: Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage?

Write YES if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

1 About a thousand of the women interviewed by the researchers had learnt to read whenthey

were children.

2 Before the National Literacy Crusade, illiterate women had approximately the same levels of

infant mortality as those who had learnt to read in primary school.

3 Before and after the National Literacy Crusade, the child mortality rate for the

illiteratewomen stayed at about 110 deaths for each thousand live births.

4 The women who had learnt to read through the National Literacy Crusade showed

thegreatest change in infant mortality levels.

5 The women who had learnt to read through the National Literacy Crusade had thelowest

rates of child mortality.

6 After the National Literacy Crusade, the children of the women who remained illiterate were

found to be severely malnourished.

Supplementary Reading:

Alternative Medicine in Australia

The first students to study alternative medicine at university level in Australia began their

four-year, full-time course at the University of Technology, Sydney, in early 1994. Their course

covered, among other therapies, acupuncture. The theory they learnt is based on the traditional

Chinese explanation of tins ancient healing art: that it can regulate the flow of ‘Qi’ or energy

through pathways in the body. This course reflects how far some alternative therapies have come

in their struggle for acceptance by the medical establishment.

Australia has been unusual in the Western world in having a very conservative attitude to natural

or alternative therapies, according to Dr Paul Laver, a lecturer in Public Health at the University of

Sydney, ‘We’ve had a tradition of doctors being fairly powerful and I guess they are pretty loath

to allow any pretenders to their position to come into it.’ In many other industrialised countries,

orthodox and alternative medicine have worked ‘hand in glove’ for years. In Europe, only

orthodox doctors can prescribe herbal medicine. In Germany, plant remedies account for 10% of

the national turnover of pharmaceuticals. Americans made more visits to alternative therapists

than to orthodox doctors in 1990, and each year they spend about $US12 billion on therapies

that have not been scientifically tested.

Disenchantment with orthodox medicine has seen the popularity of alternative therapies in

Australia climb steadily during the past 20 years. In a 1983 national health survey, 1.9% of people

30

said they had contacted a chiropractor, naturopath, osteopath, acupuncturist or herbalist in the

two weeks prior to the survey. By 1990, this figure had risen to 2.6% of the population. The

550,000 consultations with alternative therapists reported in the 1990 survey represented about

an eighth of the total number of consultations with medically qualified personnel covered by the

survey, according to Dr Laver and colleagues writing in the Australian Journal of Public Health in

1993. ‘A better educated and less accepting public has become disillusioned with the experts in

general, and increasingly sceptical about science and empirically based knowledge,’ they said.

‘The high standing of professionals, including doctors, has been eroded as a consequence.’

Rather than resisting or criticising this trend, increasing numbers of Australian doctors,

particularly younger ones, are forming group practices with alternative therapists or taking

courses themselves, particularly in acupuncture and herbalism. Part of the incentive was financial,

Dr Laver said. ‘The bottom line is that most general practitioners are business people. If they see

potential clientele going elsewhere, they might want to be able to offer a similar service.’

In 1993, Dr Laver and his colleagues published a survey of 289 Sydney people who attended eight

alternative therapists’ practices in Sydney. These practices offered a wide range of alternative

therapies from 25 therapists. Those surveyed had experienced chronic illnesses, for which

orthodox medicine had been able to provide little relief. They commented that they liked the

holistic approach of their alternative therapists and the friendly, concerned and detailed

attention they had received. The cold, impersonal manner of orthodox doctors featured in the

survey. An increasing exodus from their clinics, coupled with this and a number of other relevant

surveys carried out in Australia, all pointing to orthodox doctors’ inadequacies, have led

mainstream doctors themselves to begin to admit they could learn from the personal style of

alternative therapists. Dr Patrick Store, President of the Royal College of General Practitioners,

concurs that orthodox doctors could learn a lot about bedside manner and advising patients on

preventative health from alternative therapists.

According to the Australian Journal of Public Health, 18% of patients visiting alternative

therapists do so because they suffer from musculo-skeletal complaints; 12 % suffer from digestive

problems, which is only 1% more than those suffering from emotional problems. Those suffering

from respiratory complaints represent 7% of their patients, and candida sufferers represent an

equal percentage. Headache sufferers and those complaining of general ill health represent 6%

and 5% of patients respectively, and a further 4% see therapists for general health maintenance.

The survey suggested that complementary medicine is probably a better term than alternative

medicine. Alternative medicine appears to be an adjunct, sought in times of disenchantment

when conventional medicine seems not to offer the answer.

31

32

Academic Listening:

Monosodium Glutamate(MSG)

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

31 The speaker says the main topic of the lecture is

A the history of monosodium glutamate.

B the way monosodium glutamate works.

C where monosodium glutamate is used.

32 In 1908, scientists in Japan

A made monosodium glutamate.

B began using kombu.

C identified glutamate.

33 What change occurred in the manufacture of glutamate in 1956?

A It began to be manufactured on a large scale.

B The Japanese began extracting it from natural sources.

C It became much more expensive to produce.

Questions 34-40

Complete the notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

MSG contains

- glutamate (78.2%)

- sodium (12.2%)

- 34........................(9.6%)

● Glutamate is found in foods that contain protein such as 35........................and

36........................

● MSG is used in foods in many different parts of the world.

● In 1908 Kikunae Ikeda discovered a 37.........................

● Our ability to detect glutamate makes sense because it is so 38........................ naturally.

● John Prescott suggests that:

- sweetness tells us that a food contains carbohydrates.

- 39........................tells us that a food contains toxins.

- sourness tells us that a food is spoiled.

- saltiness tells us that a food contains 40........................ .

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The History of the Tortoise

1. If you go back far enough, everything lived in the sea. At various points in evolutionary history,

enterprising individuals within many different animal groups moved out onto the land,

sometimes even to the most parched deserts, taking their own private seawater with them in

blood and cellular fluids. In addition to the reptiles, birds, mammals and insects which we see all

around us, other groups that have succeeded out of water include scorpions, snails, crustaceans

such as woodlice and land crabs, millipedes and centipedes, spiders and various worms. And we

mustn't forget the plants, without whose prior invasion of the land none of the other migrations

could have happened.

2. Moving from water to land involved a major redesign of every aspect of life, including

breathing and reproduction. Nevertheless, a good number of thorough going land animals later

turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial re-tooling, and returned to the water

again. Seals have only gone part way back. They show us what the intermediates might have

been like, on the way to extreme cases such as whales and dugongs. Whales (including the small

whales we call dolphins) and dugongs, with their close cousins the manatees, ceased to be land

creatures altogether and reverted to the full marine habits of their remote ancestors. They don't

even come ashore to breed. They do, however, still breathe air, having never developed anything

equivalent to the gills of their earlier marine incarnation. Turtles went back to the sea a very long

time ago and, like all vertebrate returnees to the water, they breathe air. However, they are, in

one respect, less fully given back to the water than whales or dugongs, for turtles still lay their

eggs on beaches.

3. There is evidence that all modem turtles are descended from a terrestrial ancestor which lived

before most of the dinosaurs. There are two key fossils called Proganochely squenstedti and

Palaeochersist alampayensis dating from early dinosaur times, which appear to be close to the

ancestry of all modern turtles and tortoises. You might wonder how we can tell whether fossil

animals lived on land or in water, especially if only fragments are found. Sometimes it's obvious.

Ichthyosaurs were reptilian contemporaries of the dinosaurs, with fins and streamlined bodies.

The fossils look like dolphins and they surely lived like dolphins, in the water. With turtles it is a

little less obvious. One way to tell is by measuring the bones of their forelimbs.

4. Walter Joyce and Jacques Gauthier, at Yale University, obtained three measurements in these

particular bones of 71 species of living turtles and tortoises. They used a kind of triangular graph

paper to plot the three measurements against one another. All the land tortoise species formed a

tight cluster of points in the upper part of the triangle; all the water turtles cluster in the lower

part of the triangular graph. There was no overlap, except when they added some species that

spend time both in water and on land. Sure enough, these amphibious species show up on the

triangular graph approximately half way between the 'wet cluster' of sea turtles and the 'dry

cluster' of land tortoises. The next step was to determine where the fossils fell. The bones of P.

quenstedti and P. talampayensis leave us in no doubt. Their points on the graph are right in the

thick of the dry cluster. Both these fossils were dry-land tortoises. They come from the era before

our turtles returned to the water.

34

5. You might think, therefore, that modern land tortoises have probably stayed on land ever since

those early terrestrial times, as most mammals did after a few of them went back to the sea. But

apparently not. If you draw out the family tree of all modern turtles and tortoises, nearly all the

branches are aquatic. Today's land tortoises constitute a single branch, deeply nested among

branches consisting of aquatic turtles. This suggests that modern land tortoises have not stayed

on land continuously since the time of P. quenstedti and P.talampayensis. Rather, their ancestors

were among those who went back to the water, and they then re-emerged back onto the land in

(relatively) more recent times.

6. Tortoises therefore represent a remarkable double return. In common with all mammals,

reptiles and birds, their remote ancestors were marine fish and before that various more or less

worm-like creatures stretching back, still in the sea, to the primeval bacteria. Later ancestors lived

on land and stayed there for a very large number of generations. Later ancestors still evolved

back into the water and became sea turtles. And finally they returned yet again to the land as

tortoises, some of which now live in the driest of deserts.

Exercise

Direction:

Complete the flow-chart below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from

the passage for each answer.

Method of determining where the ancestors of

turtles and tortoises come from

Step 1

71 species of living turtles and tortoises were examined and a total of ....................

were taken from the bones of their forelimbs.

Step 2

The data was recorded on a ...................... (necessary for comparing the

information).

Outcome: Land tortoises were represented by a dense ...................... of points

towards the top.

Sea turtles were grouped together in the bottom part.

35

Step 4

Bones of P. quenstedti and P. talampayensis were examined in a similar way and the

results added.

Outcome: The position of the points indicated that both these ancient creatures

were ........................

Supplementary Reading:

What Do Whales Feel? An examination of the functioning of the senses in cetaceans, the

group of mammals comprising whales, dolphins and porpoises

Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for granted are either reduced or

absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. For example, it appears from their brain

structure that toothed species are unable to smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to

have some related brain structures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has been

speculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head, the neural

pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed. Similarly, although at least

some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves serving these have degenerated or are rudimentary.

The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but this view is probably

mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on their animals’

responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive and free-ranging cetacean

individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves, or members of the same subgroup)

appear to make frequent contact. This contact may help to maintain order within a group, and

stroking or touching are part of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the

blowhole is also particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to being touched

Step 3 The same data was collected from some living ...................... species and added to

the other results.

Outcome: The points for these species turned out to be positioned

about ...................... up the triangle between the land tortoises and the sea turtles.

36

there.

The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species. Baleen species studied

at close quarters underwater - specifically a grey whale calf in captivity for a year, and

free-ranging right whales and humpback whales studied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii -

have obviously tracked objects with vision underwater, and they can apparently see moderately

well both in water and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field of vision in

baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision.

On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoises suggests that they

have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye position in freshwater dolphins, which often

swim on their side or upside down while feeding, suggests that what vision they have is

stereoscopic forward and upward. By comparison, the bottie nose dolphin has extremely keen

vision in water. Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it can apparently

see fairly well through the air-water interface as well. And although preliminary experimental

evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, the accuracy with which dolphins leap high to

take small fish out of a trainer’s hand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

Such variation can no doubt be explained with reference to the habitats in which individual

species have developed. For example, vision is obviously more useful to species inhabiting clear

open waters than to those living in turbid rivers and flooded plains. The South American boutu

and Chinese beiji, for instance, appear to have very limited vision, and the Indian susus are blind,

their eyes reduced to slits that probably allow them to sense only the direction and intensity of

light.

Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, and vision in water appears

to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more than compensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed

acoustic sense. Most species are highly vocal, although they vary in the range of sounds they

produce, and many forage for food using echolocation 1. Large baleen whales primarily use the

lower frequencies and are often limited in their repertoire. Notable exceptions are the heady

song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the complex, haunting utterances of the

humpback whales. Toothed species in general employ more of the frequency spectrum, and

produce a wider variety of sounds, than baleen species (though the sperm whale apparently

produces a monotonous series of high-energy clicks and little else). Some of the more

complicated sounds are clearly communicative, although what role they may play in the social life

and ‘culture’ of cetaceans has been more the subject of wild speculation than of solid science.

37

38

Academic Listening:

Sharks in Australia

Complete the notes below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Length largest caught: 16 metres

Weight heaviest: 31 .................... kg

Skeleton cartilage

Skin texture rough barbs

Swimming aids fins and 32 ....................

Food gathered from the ocean 33 ....................

sharks locate food by using their 34 ....................

Questions 35-38

Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

35 Shark meshing uses nets laid

A along the coastline.

B at an angle to the beach.

C from the beach to the sea.

36 Other places that have taken up shark meshing include

A South Africa.

B New Zealand,

C Tahiti.

37 The average number of sharks caught in nets each year is

A 15.

B 150.

C 1,500.

38 Most sharks are caught in

A spring.

B summer.

C winter.

Questions 39 and 40

Choose TWO letters A-G.

Which TWO factors reduce the benefits of shark nets?

A nets wrongly positioned

B strong waves and currents

C too many fish

D sharks eat holes in nets

E moving sands

F nets too short

G holes in nets scare sharks