Listening Comprehension Test
for 8th Form Students Text
From “The Colony” by QL Pierce
Andrea’s mother opened the curtains. “Time to get up,
sleepyhead!” she announced cheerfully. Blinking her eyes, Andrea flung her
hands over her head and happily stretched her long, lean body. The sunlight
streaming through the now open sliding glass doors of the motel balcony had the
opposite effect on her older sister, Claire. Claire pulled her covers over her
head.
“Morning, Mom,”
Andrea said, sliding out of bed and stepping out on the balcony. “Morning,
grouch,” she called to her sister, still hiding from the day.
The family had been vacationing in the Florida Keys
for three days, and Andrea was still awed by the spectacular view. The motel
was nestled at the inner edge of a beautiful white sand beach. Beyond were the
placid, azure waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
“Your dad and I have already had breakfast and your
brother is already down at the beach,” her mom told her. Andrea dropped her
gaze and immediately spotted Brandon wading along the shore, snorkeling gear in
hand.
“He is not going in the water without me!” Andrea
squealed, racing to get ready. “Come on, Claire,” she urged, pulling on her
still damp swimsuit. “Are you going to sleep all day? Brandon’s outside already
having fun. Let’s go!”
“I’ll be down in few minutes,” Claire mumbled. Moments
later, Andrea sprinted across the warm sand and charged into the water up to
her knees. Seeing her brother father out with his mask and snorkel on, floating
face down to the surface, Andrea watched as he curled down in a shallow dive.
Seconds later he popped up just a few feet away, blowing a stream of water from
his snorkel. Then tugging off his mask, he began sloshing towards her.
“Look at this!” Brandon said proudly when he reached
her. He held up a cone- shaped, brown- and – white shell that was as large as
his hand. “Wow, it’s beautiful,” Andrea declared.
“Hey you guys! What have you got?” Claire asked,
joining them in the water. “It’s a cool shell,” Brandon answered. “It’s the
only neat one I’ve found so far,” he added.
“You’re just not looking in the right place,” Claire
said, matter-of-factly.
“Oh, really?” Brandon shot back. “And since when did
you become the expert?”
“Since I talked to that guy up there.” She gestured
towards a tall man walking up the beach carrying two large red plastic buckets.
“He had lots of really pretty shells. I asked him where they came from and he
said he’d collected them along a cove about half a mile from here, closer to
the Atlantic side. It’s overgrown and it does not have a nice beach, so people
rarely go there.”
“That won’t bother me,” Andrea responded with a big
smile.
“Let’s check it
out”.
Listening Comprehension Test
for 8th Form Students Assignments
Task 1.Put “+” if
the statement is true, put “–“ if it is false.
1. Claire likes
the morning more than Andrea.
2. The family
hotel is on a beach on the Gulf of Mexico.
3. The view from
the motel was not very interesting.
4. Mom and Dad
are about to eat breakfast when Andrea wakes up.
5. Andrea’s
brother Brandon was the first to the beach in the morning.
6. Andrea went
snorkeling.
7. Brandon
showed Andrea the small shell he found.
8. Clair came to
the beach after Andrea and Brandon.
9. Claire knows
where to find good shells.
10. The beach
where they can find pretty shells is overgrown.
Task 2. Circle the correct letter A, B, C or D
11. Andrea’s
mother woke her up:
A.
repeatedly B. cheerfully C. angrily D. indifferently
12. The view
from the motel was:
A. sparse B. spectacular C. empty D. uninteresting
13. Andrea was
so excited for the beach that she ____ to get ready.
A. raced B. marched C. squealed D. walked
14. The waters
of the Gulf of Mexico were:
A. placid and
murky B. rough and murky C. rough and azure D. placid and azure
15. Brandon
floated face down in the water because:
A. he was
snorkeling
B. he had died
C. he wanted to scare Andrea D. he was a bad
swimmer
16. The shell
Brandon found was:
A.
cone-shaped B. brown and white C. beautiful D. all of the above
17. How did
Claire tell Brandon and Andrea that they “were not looking in the right place”
for shells?
A. with irritation B. matter-
of- factly C. rudely
D. like a know – it – all
18. Who did
Claire learn from about the place to find shells?
A. a man who
also collects shells
B. her parents
C. an old woman
at the motel D.her boyfriend
19. People
rarely go to the beach Claire talks about because it is:
A. closer to the
Atlantic B. far away
C. scary D. overgrown
20. How does
Andrea feel about looking for shells on the beach?
A. hesitant B. sad C. enthusiastic D. scared
Listening Comprehension Test
for 9th Form Students
We Have Simple Lives
Most Americans would die without a
car (or at least they think they would). The Amish don’t have cars, they use
horses. They don’t have television either. In fact, they don’t have electricity.
They don’t need it because they don’t have radios, computers or anything
electrical at all. Some people might feel sorry for them or think they are mad
but this is the way that the Amish have chosen to live. They think we are the
weird ones. Amish people try to be as simple as possible. Modesty, family and
community are the most important things to them. They don’t want to be a part
of the modern world because it is too complicated and corrupt. They live
independently in their own community.
They even have
their own schools which only have one or two classrooms. They learn reading,
writing, math and morals. The big difference from regular American schools is
that they learn nothing about the world outside their community and they do not
continue their education beyond the eighth grade. The Amish do not think their
children need more school education after age of 13 because they will either do
farm work, carpentry or help with the family business. In 1972, the US Supreme
Court allowed them to stop school at 13.
Amish people are
not easy to interview. They are very private people and they don’t like people taking
their photograph. They say photographs steal their souls and are a sign of
vanity.
The biggest Amish community in the USA is in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania where there are 18,000 Amish people. In the summer it is visited
by millions of people. One Amish teenager said he felt like an animal in a zoo.
Some visitors shout things such as “Why are you so backward?”, laugh at their
clothes or knock their hats off as a joke. They must feel angry when they are
teased but demonstrating anger and violence are against Amish beliefs.
The Amish are a religious group that
was started in the 1720s. They are united by their beliefs. Many people can respect
that but can’t understand how the Amish can live the way that they do. They are
frequently asked why they make life harder for themselves and when they will
modernize themselves. In truth, most Amish communities do now have one
telephone box for emergencies and perhaps one tractor for very heavy work.
Communities often have meetings to discuss whether to accept a particular
aspect of the modern world and what effect it will have on them. The young
Amish are inevitably curious about things outside the community. Some
occasionally listen to the music or even try in-skating (using a bicycle is
forbidden because they travel too fast), but when they confirm their beliefs at
age 13, they promise to accept Amish rules and reject such things. Only one in
five people leaves the Amish community. The Amish say this shows that people
enjoy living the way that they do.
Task 1. Put
“+” if the statement is true, put “–“ if
it is false.
1. The Amish
cannot live without electricity.
2. The Amish
chose the way they lived because they were mad.
3. The motto of
Amish people is simplicity in everything.
4. It is only
the family that is important for them.
5. The Amish
schools have many classrooms.
6. The Amish
children do not need higher education to do farm work.
7. They to be
photographed because they are ambitious.
8. Even children
understand that the Amish are of particular interest to tourists.
9. The Amish
religious group was started in the 18th century.
10. They quite
consciously reject the good things of life.
Task 2. Circle the correct letter A, B, C or D
11.
The Amish…
A. respect
modern culture. B. try to follow the
customs of modern world.
C. have much in
common with modern people. D. are the
complete opposite of modern people.
12.
Amish people…
A. live in modest circumstances. B. boast about their
possessions.
C. own all the
latest technology. D. suffer the period of stagnation.
13.
The Amish…
A. envythe
people in the modern world. B.
live their own lives.
C.try to
complicate their lives.
D. do their best to improve their living conditions.
14.
They…
A. get higher
education. B. are trained to
modern specialties.
C. suffer from
ignorance. D. master the basis of
a few subjects.
15.
The life of Amish people is…
A. hardly accessible to curious ones. B. as open to the others as that of
civilized people.
C. dull and boring D. full of
excitement.
16.
The visitors to Amish communities…
A. treat them
with respect. B. study their
way of life.
C. may tease and
offence them D. believe in their
better life.
17.
The Amish culture is based on…
A. religion.B.
the American traditions.
C. the European
life style.D. the culture of Indians.
18.
The signs of modernization are…
A. rarely seen
in the community.B. usually seen in the community.
C. forbidden to
demonstrate. D. believed to be
harmful.
19.
The aspects of modern world are discussed by the Amish…
A. in the
presence of visitors.B. with their children.
C. at the
meetings.D. outside the community.
20.
The Amish children are…
A. interested in
the things of the modern world.
B. indifferent
to the things they have never seen before.
C. very
talkative with people visiting their communities.
D. curious about
the photograph taking.
Listening Comprehension Test
for 10th Form Students
This story is about love and loss. I was lucky – I
found what I loved to do early in life. We started Apple in my parents’ garage
when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the
two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We
had just released our finest creation – the Macintosh – a year earlier, and I
had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company
you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very
talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went
well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had
a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I
was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life
was gone, and it was devastating.
I really did not know what to do for
a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs
down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with
David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I
was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away. But something
slowly began to down on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at
Apple had got changed that bit. I had been rejected but I was still in love.
And so I decided to start over.
I did not see it then, but it turned
out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever
happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness
of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one
of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I
started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love
with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went to create the
world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most
successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple
bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at
the heart of Apple’s current reinaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful
family together.
I am pretty sure none of this would
have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine,
but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a
brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going
was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is true
for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part
of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe
is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you
haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the
heart, you’ll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just
gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.
Don’t settle.
Listening Comprehension Test
for 10th Form Students
Assignments
Task 1. Put
“+” if the statement is true, put “–“ if
it is false.
1. The narrator
is probably connected with growing or selling apples.
2. The business
seemed to be quite profitable.
3. The person
telling the story had to retire at an early age.
4. There always
was a complete unity of opinion in the company.
5. One of the
events in the company became widely known all over.
6. The narrator
eventually lost the sense of life.
7. It is easier
to start something new than to run something existing.
8. The firing
brought the narrator more good than evil.
9. The narrator
was one of the fathers of a new technology.
10. As a whole,
the story is rather discouraging.
Task 2. Circle the correct letter A, B, C or D
11. The narrator
started his own business:
A. alone B. with a friend C. with 20 workers D. with 4000 workers
12. As his best
creation the narrator views:
A. a sort of
fruit B. a sort of garage C. A sort of computer D. a sort of raincoat
13. The conflict
between the narrator and the management was growing for about:
A. 10 months
B. 12 months C. 10 years
D. 30 years
14. The narrator
must have felt somehow:
A. guilty B. proud
C. surprised D. encouraged
15. The
narrator’s resignation must have received:
A. a big press
B. a great failure C. a great
support D. little attention
16. The narrator
was considering:
A. starting
another business B.
returning to the old company
C. inventing a new technology D. moving somewhere else to
live
17. The narrator
regarded getting fore from the business as:
A. the saddest
event B. the complete crash of dreams
C. his own fault D. a
lucky chance
18. It can be
inferred from the story that:
A. a failure is
always good B. life
is always unfair
C. owing a big
business is very hard
D. it is good to let the people down
19. What does
the narrator feel about his personal life?
A. He was
happy. B. He was indifferent. C. He was upset. D. He was furious.
20. The story
can let one believe that the narrator is:
A. trying to
accept being guilty.
B. not interested in his future
C. currently
working in his original company
D. looking for a new job.
From “Escape from Katmandu” by Kim Stanley Robinson
Then a movement across the pool
caught my eye, there in the shadow of two gnarled oak trees. I froze, but I was
right out in the open for anyone to see. There under one of the oaks, in shadow
darker for the sunlight, a pair of eyes watched me. They were about my height
off the ground, I thought it might be a bear, and was mentally reviewing the
trees behind me for climbability, when it moved again, it blinked. And then I
saw that the eyes had whites visible around the iris. A villager, out hunting?
I didn’t think so. My heart began to hammer away inside me, and I could not
help swallowing. Surely, there was some sort of face there in the shadows? A
bearded face?
Of course I had an idea what I might
be trading glances with. The yeti, the mountain man, the elusive creature of
the snows. The Abominable Snowman, for God’s sakes! My heart never pounded
faster. What to do? The whites of its eyes… baboons have white eyelids that
they use to make threats, and if you look at them directly they see the white
of your eyes, and believe you are threatening them; on the off-chance that this
creature had a similar code, I tilted my head down and looked at him
indirectly. I swear it appeared to nod back at me.
Then another blink, only the eyes
did not return. The bearded face and the shape below it was gone. I started
breathing again, listened as hard as I could, but never heard anything except
for the chuckle of the stream…
I rounded a big boulder that stood
on the bank and almost ran straight into a yeti coming the other way, as if we
were on a busy sidewalk and had veered the same direction to avoid each other.
He was a little shorter than me; dark fur covered his body and head, but left
his face clear – a patch of pinkish skin that in the dim light looked quite
human. His nose was as much human as primate –broad, but protruding from his
face, like an extension of the occipital crest that ridged his skull fore –to-
aft. His mouth was broad and his jaw, under its ruff of fur, very broad, but
nothing that took him outside the parameters of human possibility. He had thick
eyebrow crests bent high over his eyes, so that he had a look of permanent
surprise, like a cat I once owned.
At this moment I/m sure he really
was surprised. We both were as still as trees, swaying gently in the wind of
our confrontation, but no other movement. I was not even breathing. What to do?
I noticed he was carrying a small smoothed stick, and there in the fur on his
neck were some objects on a cord. His face –tools- ornamentation: a part of me,
the part outside the shock of it all, was thinking (I suppose I am still a
zoologist at heart), “They aren’t just primates, they’re hominid”.
As if to confirm this idea, he spoke
to me. He hummed briefly; squeaked; sniffed the air hard a few times; lifted his
lip (quite a canine was revealed) and whistled very softly. In his eyes there
was a question, so calmly, and intelligently put forth that I could hardly
believe I couldn’t understand and answer it.
I raised my hand, very slowly, and
tried to say “Hello.” I know, stupid, but what do you say when you meet a yeti?
Anyway, nothing came out but a strangled “Huhn.” He tilted his head to the side
inquisitively, and repeated the sound. “Huhn.Huhn.Huhn.”
Suddenly he jacked his head forward
and stared past me, upstream. He opened his mouth wide and stood there
listening. He stared at me, trying to judge me. I swear I could tell these
things.
Upstream there was a crash of
branches, and he took me by the arm, and suddenly, we were atop the stream
bank, and in the forest. Hoppety-hop through the trees and we were down on our
bellies behind a big fallen log, lying side-by-side in squishy wet moss. My arm
hurt.
Phil Adrakian appeared down in the
streambed, looking considerably the worth for wear. He had scraped through some
brush and torn the nylon of his jacket in several places, so that fluffy white
down wafted away from him as he walked. And he had fallen in mud somewhere. The
yeti squinted hard as he looked at him, clearly mystified by the escaping down.
“Nathan!” Phil cried. He was still
filled with energy, it seemed. “I saw one. Nathan, where are you, dammit1” He
continued downstream, yelling, and the yeti and I lay there and watched him
pass by.
I don’t know if I’ve ever
experienced a more satisfying moment. When he had disappeared around a bend in
the stream, the yeti sat up and sprawled back against the log like a tired
backpacker. The sun rose, and he only squeaked, whistled, breathed slowly,
watched me. What was he thinking? At this point I did not have a clue. It was
even frightening me; I could not imagine what might happen next.
His hands, longer and skinner than
human hands, plucked at my clothes. He plucked at his own necklace, pulled it
over his head. What looked like fat seashells were strung on a cord of braided
hemp. They were fossils, of shells very like scallop shells – evidence of the
Himalayas’ days underwater. What did the yeti make of them? No way of knowing.
But clearly they were valued, they were part of
a culture.
For a long time he just looked at
this necklace of his. Then, very carefully, he placed this necklace over my
head, around my neck. My skin burned in an instant flush, everything blurred
through tears, my throat hurt, and I felt just like God had stepped from behind
a tree and blessed me, and for no reason, you know? I did not deserve it.
Without further ado he hopped up and
walked off bowleggedly, without a glance back. I was left alone in the morning
light with nothing except for the necklace, which hung solidly on my chest. And
a sore arm. So it had happened, I hadn’t dreamed it. I had been blessed.
Listening Comprehension Test
for 11th Form Students
Assignments
Glossary: gnarled – сучкуватий, викривлений, boulder – валун, брила,
fore-to-aft – спереду назад
Task 1. Put
“+” if the statement is true, put “–“ if
it is false.
1. In the
beginning of the text the narrator was well hidden while looking for the yeti.
3. The yeti
didn’t react to the narrator’s indirect gaze like baboons do when threatened by
staring.
4. The yeti’s
first sound was whistling.
5. The narrator
always predicted the yeti’s next move.
6. The yeti was
curious about this stranger in its woods.
7. Phil Adrakian
was visibly dirty.
8. The yeti
responded to the narrator’s greeting in good English.
9. The Himalayas
were once covered by water.
10. Nathan sat
up and sprawled back against the log like a tired backpacker.
Task 2. Circle the correct letter A, B, C or D
11. The story is
told from the perspective of:
A. Phil Adrakian B. the yeti C. Nathan D. another character
12. The yeti was
also called all of the following EXCEPT…
A. the
boogeyman.B. the mountain man.
C. the
Abominable Snowman.D. the elusive creature of the snows.
13. What was the
first human characteristic the narrator noticed about the yeti?
A. its bearded
face B. the
whites of his eyes
C. its working
hands D. its
pinkish skin
14. The yeti had
similarities with all of the following animals EXCEPT…
A. a bear B. a cat
C. a rabbit D. a baboon
15. Where did
Nathan and the yeti hide together?
A. in a
tree B. in moss C. on a fallen log D. between two gnarled oak trees
16. The yeti had
all of the following with him EXCEPT…
A. a
necklace B. smooth stick C.
fossils D. a boulder
17. In what way
was the yeti different from human?
A. He was
carrying tools B. He had long skinny
hands
C. He used
spoken language
D. He was wearing ornamentation
18. What
convinced the narrator that the yeti was part human?
A. the
necklace B. its face C. the small smooth stick D. all of the above
19. According to
the text the yeti could best be described as:
A. animated and
active B.
scary and frightening
C. secretive and
cautious D.
wild and crazy
20. In the text
the narrator was never specifically mentioned feeling:
A.
frightened B. satisfied
C. blessed D. happy
Writing Comprehension Test
for 11th Form Students
Is Google Autocomplete Evil?
“Women shouldn’t have rights.” “Women shouldn’t vote.”
“Women shouldn’t work.” How prevalent are these beliefs? According to a resent
United Nations campaign, such sexism is dispiritingly common, and it is why
they published these sentiments on a series of posters. The source? These
statements were the top suggestions offered by Google’s “instant search tool
when words “women should not…” were typed into its search box. Google Instant
is an “autocomplete” service – which, as the name suggests, automatically
suggests letters and words to complete a query, basedon the company’s knowledge
of the billions of searchers performed across the world each day.
The argument behind the UN campaign is that this
algorithm offers a glimpse into our collective psyche – and a disturbing one at
that. Is this really true? Not in the sense that the campaign implies.
Autocomplete is biased and deficient in many ways, and there are dangers ahead
if we forget that. In fact, there is a good case that you should switch it off
entirely.
The greatest danger is the degree to
which an instantaneous answer – generator has the power not only to reflect but
also to remould what the world believes - and
to do so beneath the level of conscious debate. Autocomplete is coming
to be seen as a form of prophecy, complete with a self-fulfilling invitation to
click and agree. Yet by letting an algorithm finishing our thoughts we
contribute to a feedback loop that portentously reinforces untruths and
misconceptions for future searchers.
Consider the case of a Japanese man
who earlier this year, typed his name into Google and discovered autocomplete
associating him with criminal acts. He won a court case compelling the company
to modify the results. The Japanese case echoed a previous instance in Australia
where, effectively, the autocomplete algorithm was judged to be guilty of libel
after it suggested the word “bankrupt” be appended to a doctor’s name. And
there are plenty of other examples to pick from.
Do you know you can turn
autocomplete off just by changing one setting? I’d recommend you give it a try, if only to
perform a simple test: does having a computer whispering in your ear change the
way you think about the world? Or, of course, you can ask Google itself. For
me, typing “is Google autocomplete… “
offered the completed phrase “is Google autocomplete a joke?”
Unfortunately, the answer is anything but.
Google
autocomplete system can subconsciously impact our thought patterns. And so
could the mass media. You are to write an essay of that mass media effect on
people. The following questions can help guide your thought.
Mass Media
consists of radio, television, newspapers, magazines, movies, books and
internet.
-
Is
there any information that you have seen in the last year that you think should
not be in the mass media?
-
What
do you think should be done about this and why?
-
Should
there be laws against certain types of information being spread? If so, which
types? If not, why?
The minutes before midnight, the coloured lights on
the Empire State Building winked off. There was a nattering sound at our backs,
from Staten Island – a string of firecrackers – followed by a boom: somebody
must have lit an M-80.
Then a red carnation blossomed over Brooklyn –
fireworks in Prospect Park – and fireworks went off over Manhattan. But the
amateurs dominated the evening. We heard firecrackers going off in streets and
waves everywhere in New York. We also heard sirens in Brooklyn – they could
have been police cars, ambulances, or fire engines.
Precisely at the turn of the year,
it seems, a small fraction of the people in New York City commit a crime of
violence, get a fire going, or need an ambulance. A Staten Island Rapid Transit
train rattled by. There were no passengers in it, but the driver was leaning on
the horn. A party on an empty train.
We never did hear the Manhattan
sound wave. Maybe the firecrackers drowned it out, or maybe the glass buildings
that had grown up in the financial district blocked it, or maybe we were not
paying enough attention. Yet my father is still certain that he heard Manhattan
more than once. “I was overwhelmed by the miraculous phenomenon of that sound
coming from so far away, from such a distance,” he said to me on New Year’s
morning. “We felt it was a sound of joy, sort of.”
Every country
has a number of national holidays. Sometimes the new holidays replace the old
ones. You are to write an essay about a national holiday. The following
questions can help guide your thought.
You have been
called upon to create a new national holiday for Ukraine.
-
What
person or event do you choose to honor, and why?
-
When
would you have the holiday, and how would this affect the celebration?
-
What
traditions will be associated with this holiday?
-
Why
will this holiday appeal to citizens around the country?
Writing Comprehension Test
for 9th Form Students
Is Your Obsession with
Celebrities Unhealthy?
Jennifer Lawrence is not your best friend. Anne
Hathaway is not your enemy. I know, the truth hurts.
Whether we love them or hate them, we tend to magnify celebrities’
places in our lives. The fact is, feeling closer to the stars is not unhealthy,
at least for a majority of us. Through the media, reality shows and social
networking, it’s easier than ever to keep up with celebs in real time. What
kind of access creates what is known as “the illusion of intimacy”, says Cooper
Lawrence the author of “The Cult of Celebrity”.
The direct access that many celebs
provide makes us privy to many details of their lives. And as Lawrence points
out, many stars aren’t exactly shy about sharing what outfits they are wearing,
what food they are eating or what they are doing. We no longer have to rely
solely on information from a star’s publicists, but are given a virtual
front-row seat to their fears, heartbreaks, successes and failures.
Most of the time, this behavior is
harmless. As Lawrence points out, the more common problem is with what she
refers to as “celebrity worshippers”. Intense levels of adoration for a
celebrity can be linked to depression and anxiety, she says.
You are to write
an essay about the celebrities’ influence on young people. The following
questions can help guide your thought.
-
Famous
people are often idolized by young people. How do you feel about this?
-
Do
you think they are good examples to follow? Why or why not?
-
Do
you think that famous people have a responsibility to be good role models?
-
Do
you have an idol? What qualities make a good idol?
Writing Comprehension Test
for 10th Form Students
Weird Science or a Wave of
the Future?
Three years after scientists in a Texas laboratory
successfully cloned the first house cat, a company in California is now selling
the same technology to pet owners who want a carbon copy of their cat or dog.
For &50,000
Genetic Savings & Clone can take a cat’s DNA and create an exact genetic
duplicate. They hope to do the same with a dog next year. So far they have five
clients who soon will be among the first owners of the newest type of kitten: a
clone.
GSC, the first company to offer pet cloning
commercially, has already successfully cloned three cats of its own. Kittens
named Tabouli and Baba Ganoush made their debut last month at a Manhattan cat
show. Its third clone, Peaches, appeared recently at the Cat Fanciers’
Association Cat Show in Houston.
While delighting some of the feline fanciers, the
introduction of cloned pets has raised the hacles of some animal welfare
groups. Many wonder: Is it just weird science for the rich or a glimpse into
the future of America’s pet industry?
But what it means for the moment is that a few pet
owners will be able to transfer the genetic characteristics of their pet into a
new cat or dog. They aren’t guaranteed an exact copy but something almost
indistinguishable from the original pet with the same traits as their sell
donors. That promise has led many people to have tissue samples of their pets
sent to GSC to be frozen in its liquid nitrogen “gene banks”.
“People are attracted to their particular animal and
this is a way for their pet to keep on living after its death; it’s a false
promise,” says Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United
States.
“We do not need a new production scheme when there are
plenty of healthy and adoptable pets,” he says. –“We’ve gotten along fine for
thousands of years without tinkering with creating life”.
You are to write an essay about science progress. The following
questions can help to guide your thought.
Science, technology and medicine are progressing very
quickly. Everything from new medicines, solar powered cars and video games to
cloning techniques has been invented. Some people argue that the steady progression
in technology is unnatural, leads to laziness and negative influences.
-
In
which ways does the steady progression of technology influence our world?
-
What
do you feel are the negative and positive effects of technology?
-
Do
you think that we should control this progression? If so, how and why? If not,
why and what will you say to those who argue the other side?
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