练习题-2（附答案）_雅思模拟题
part Ⅲ reading tasks
true／false／not given exercises
unit2
when was the last time you saw a frog? chances are, if you live in a city, you have
not seen one for some time. even in wet areas once teeming with frogs and toads, it is
becoming less and less easy to find those slimy, hopping and sometimes poisonous
members of the animal kingdom. all over the world, and even in remote parts of australia,
frogs are losing the ecological battle for survival, and biologists are at a loss to explain
their demise. are amphibians simply oversensitive to changes in the ecosystem? could it
be that their rapid decline in numbers is signaling some coming environmental disaster for us all?
this frightening scenario is in part the consequence of a dramatic increase over the
last quarter century in the development of once natural areas of wet marshland; home not
only to frogs but to all manner of wildlife. however, as yet, there are no obvious reasons
why certain frog species are disappearing from rainforests in australia that have barely
been touched by human hand. the mystery is unsettling to say the least, for it is known that
amphibian species are extremely sensitive to environmental variations in temperature and
moisture levels. the danger is that planet earth might not only lose a vital link in the
ecological food chain (frogs keep populations of otherwise pestilent insects at manageable
levels), but we might be increasing our output of air pollutants to levels that may have
already become irreversible. frogs could be inadvertently warning us of a catastrophe.お
an example of a species of frog that, at far as is known, has become extinct, is the
platypus frog. like the well-known australian mammal it was named after, it exhibited
some very strange behaviour; instead of giving birth to tadpoles in the water, it raised its
young within its stomach. the baby frogs were actually born from out of their mother s
mouth. discovered in 1981, less than ten years later the frog had completely vanished from
the crystal clear waters of booloumba creek near queensland s sunshine coast.
unfortunately, this freak of nature is not the only frog species to have been lost in australia.
since the 1970s, no less than eight others have suffered the same fate.
one theory that seems to fit the facts concerns the depletion of the ozone layer, a well
documented phenomenon which has led to a sharp increase in ultraviolet radiation levels.
the ozone layer is meant to shield the earth from uv rays, but increased radiation may be
having a greater effect upon frog populations than previously believed. another theory is
that worldwide temperature increases are upsetting the breeding cycles of frogs.
true／false／not given
1.frogs are disappearing only from city areas.
2.frogs and toads are usually poisonous.
3.biologists are unable to explain why frogs are dying.
4.the frogs natural habitat is becoming more and more developed.
5.attempts are being made to halt the development of wet marshland.
6.frogs are important in the ecosystem because they control pests.
7.the platypus frog became extinct by 1991.
8.frogs usually give birth to their young in an underwater nest.
9.eight frog species have become extinct so far in australia.
10.there is convincing evidence that the ozone layer is being depleted.
11.it is a fact that frogs breeding cycles are upset by worldwide in creases in temperature.
practice 3
almost everyone with or without a computer is aware of the latest technological
revolution destined to change forever the way in which humans communicate,
namely, the information superhighway, best exemplified by the ubiquitous
internet. already, millions of people around the world are linked by computer
simply by having a modem and an address on the `net , in much the same way
that owning a telephone links us to almost anyone who pays a phone bill. in
fact, since the computer connections are made via the phone line, the internet
can be envisaged as a network of visual telephone links. it remains to seen
in which direction the information superhighway is headed, but many believe
it is the educational hope of the future.
the world wide web, an enormous collection of internet addresses or sites,
all of which can be accessed for information, has been mainly responsible for
the increase in interest in the internet in the 1990s. before the world wide
web, the `net was comparable to an integrated collection of computerized
typewriters, but the introduction of the `web in 1990 allowed not only text
links to be made but also graphs, images and even video.
a web site consists of a `home page , the first screen of a particular site
on the computer to which you are connec
ted, from where access can be had to
other subject related `pages (or screens) at the site and on thousands of other
computers all over the world. this is achieved by a process called `hypertext .
by clicking with a mouse device on various parts of the screen, a person
connected to the `net can go traveling, or surfing through a of the screen,
a person connected to the `net can go traveling, or `surfing through a web
of pages to locate whatever information is required.
anyone can set up a site; promoting your club, your institution, your company s
products or simply yourself, is what the web and the internet is all about.
and what is more, information on the internet is not owned or controlled by
any one organization. it is, perhaps, true to say that no one and therefore
everyone owns the `net . because of the relative freedom of access to
information, the internet has often been criticised by the media as a
potentially hazardous tool in the hands of young computer users. this
perception has proved to be largely false however, and the vast majority of
users both young and old get connected with the internet for the dual purposes
for which it was intended - discovery and delight.
true／false／not given
1.everyone is aware of the information superhighway.
2.using the internet costs the owner of a telephone extra money.
3.internet computer connections are made by using telephone lines.
4.the world wide web is a network of computerised typewriters.
5.according to the author, the information superhighway may be the future hope of education.
6.the process called`hypertext requires the use of a mouse device.
7.the internet was created in the 1990s.
8.the `home page is the first screen of a `web site on the `net .
9.the media has often criticised the internet because it is dangerous.
10. the latest technological revolution will change the way humans communicate.
practice 4
the australian political scene is dominated by two major parties that have
quite different political agendas. however, the policies of the australian
labor party and the liberal party have become much more difficult to tell apart
in recent years. in fact, it would be true to say that both parties consist
of conservative, moderate and radical elements, and therefore the general
public is often perplexed about which party to vote for. nonetheless, it is
usual to find that an australian will lean towards supporting one of these
two parties and remain faithful to that party for life.
the labor party was formed early in the twentieth century to safeguard
the interests of the common working man and to give the trade unions political
representation in parliament. the party has always had strong connections with
the unions, and supports the concept of a welfare society in which people who
are less fortunate than others are financially, and otherwise, assisted in
their quest for a more equitable slice of the economic pie. the problem is
that such socialist political agendas are extremely expensive to implement
and maintain, especially in a country that, although comparatively wealthy,
is vast and with a small working and hence taxpaying population base. welfare
societies tend towards bankruptcy unless government spending is kept in check.
the liberal party, on the other hand, argues that the best way to ensure a
fair division of wealth in the country is to allow more freedom to create it.
this, in turn, means more opportunities, jobs created etc., and therefore more
wealth available to all. just how the poor are to share in the distribution
of this wealth (beyond being given, at least in theory, the opportunity to
create it) is, however, less well understood. practice, of course, may make
nonsense of even the best theoretical intentions, and often the less
politically powerful are badly catered for under governments implementing free-for-all policies.
it is no wonder that given the two major choices offered them, australian
voters are increasingly turning their attention to the smaller political
parties, which claim to offer a more balanced swag of policies, often based
around one major current issue. thus, for instance, at the last election there
was the no aircraft noise parry, popular in city areas, and the green party,
which is almost solely concerned with environmental issues.
true／false／not given
1.policies is support of the concept of a welfare society are costly.
2.australians usually vote for the party they supported early in life.
3.the labor party was formed by the trade unions.
4.radical groups are only found within the labor party.
5.the liberal party was formed after the labor party.
6.welfare-based societies invariably become bankrupt.
7.ac
cording to the author, theories do not always work in practice.
8.some australian voters are confused about who to vote for.
9.the no-aircraft-noise party is only popular in the city.
10.the smaller parties are only concerned about the environment.
practice 5
para 1.玊he need for a satisfactory education is more important than ever
before. nowadays, without a qualification from a reputable school or
university, the odds of landing that plum job advertised in the paper are
considerably shortened. moreover, one s present level of education could fall
well short of future career requirements.お
para 2.獻t is no secret that competition is the driving force behind the
need to obtain increasingly higher qualifications. in the majority of cases,
the urge to upgrade is no longer the result of an insatiable thirst for
knowledge. the pressure is coming from within the workplace to compete with
ever more qualified job applicants, and in many occupations one must now battle
with colleagues in the reshuffle for the position one already holds.お
para 3.玈triving to become better educated is hardly a new concept. wealthy
parents have always been willing to spend the vast amounts of extra money
necessary to send their children to schools with a perceived educational edge.
working adults have long attended night schools and refresher courses.
competition for employment has been around since the curse of working for a
living began. is the present situation so very different to that of the past?
para 4. 玊he difference now is that the push is universal and from without
as well as within. a student at secondary school receiving low grades is no
longer as easily accepted by his or her peers as was once the case. similarly,
in the workplace, unless employees are engaged in part-time study, they may
be frowned upon by their employers and peers and have difficulty even standing
still. in fact, in these cases, the expectation is for careers to go backwards
and earning capacity to take an appreciable nosedive.お
para 5.獳t first glance, the situation would seem to be laudable; a positive
response to the exhortation by a former prime minister, bob hawke, for
australia to become the `clever country . yet there are serious ramifications
according to at least one educational psychologist. dr brendan gatsby has
caused some controversy in academic circles by suggesting that a bias towards
what he terms `paper excellence might cause more problems than it is supposed
to solve. gatsby raises a number of issues that affect the individual as well
as society in general.お
para 6.獸irstly, he believes the extra workload involved is resulting in
abnormally high stress levels in both students at secondary school and adults
studying after working hours. secondly, skills which might be more relevant
to the undertaking of a sought_after job are being overlooked by employers
interviewing candidates without qualifications on paper. these two areas of
concern for the individual are causing physical and emotional stress respectively.
para 7.獹atsby also argues that there are attitudinal changes within society
to the exalted role education now plays in determining how the spoils of
working life are distributed. individuals of all ages are being driven by
social pressures to achieve academic success solely for monetary
considerations instead of for the joy of enlightenment. there is the danger
that some universities are becoming degree factories with an attendant drop
in standards. furthermore, our education system may be rewarding doggedness
above creativity; the very thing australians have been encouraged to avoid.
but the most undesirable effect of this academic paper chase, gatsby says,
is the disadvantage that `user pays higher education confers on the poor, who
invariably lose out to the more financially favoured.お
para 8.玁aturally, although there is agreement that learning can cause stress,
gatsby s comments regarding university standards have been roundly criticised
as alarmist by most educationists who point out that, by any standard of
measurement, australia s education system overall, at both secondary and
tertiary levels, is equal to that of any in the world.
true／false／not given
1.it is impossible these days to get a good job without a qualification from a respected institution.
2.most people who upgrade their qualifications do so for the joy of learning.
3.in some jobs, the position you hold must be reapplied for.
4.some parents spend extra on their children s education because of the prestige attached to certain schools
5.according to the text, students who performed bally at school used to be accepted by their classmates.
6.employees who do not undertake extr
a study may find their salary decreased by employers.
7.australians appear to have responded to the call by a former prime minister to become better qualified.
8.australia s education system is equal to any in the world in the opinion of most educationists.
reading passage 1 below.
right and left-handedness in humans
why do humans, virtually alone among all animal species, display a distinct
left or right handedness? not even our closest relatives among the apes possess
such decided lateral asymmetry, as psychologists call it. yet about 90 per
cent of every human population that has ever lived appears to have been
right-handed. professor bryan turner at deakin university has studied the
research literature on left-handedness and found that handedness goes with
sidedness. so nine out of ten people are right-handed and eight are
right-footed. he noted that this distinctive asymmetry in the human population
is itself systematic. `humans think in categories: black and white, up and
down, left and right. it s a system of signs that enables us to categorise
phenomena that are essentially ambiguous.
research has shown that there is genetic or inherited element to handedness.
but while left-handedness tends to run in families, neither left nor right
handers will automatically produce off-spring with the same handedness; in
fact about 6 per cent of children with two right-handed parents will be
left-handed. however, among two left-handed parents, perhaps 40 per cent of
the children will also be left-handed. with one right and one left-handed
parent, 15 to 20 per cent of the offspring will be lefthanded. even among
identical twins who have exactly the same genes, one in six pairs will differ
in their handedness.
what then makes people left-handed if it is not simply genetic? other factors
must be at work and researchers have turned to the brain for clues. in the
1860s the french surgeon and anthropologist, dr paul broca, made the
remarkable finding that patients who had lost their powers of speech as a
result of a stroke (a blood clot in the brain) had paralysis of the right half
of their body. he noted that since the left hemisphere of the brain controls
the right half of the body, and vice versa, the brain damage must have been
in the brain s left hemisphere, psychologists now believe that among right
handed people, probably 95 per cent have their language centre in the left
hemisphere, while 5 per cent have right-sided language, left-handers, however,
do not show the reverse pattern but instead a majority also some 30 per cent
have right hemisphere language.
dr brinkman, a brain researcher at the australian national university in
canberra, has suggested that evolution of speech went with right-handed
preference. according to brinkman, as the brain evolved, one side became
specialised for fine control of movement (necessary for producing speech) and
along with this evolution came righthand preference. according to brinkman,
most left-handers have left hemisphere dominance but also some capacity in
the right hemisphere. she has observed that if a left-handed person is
brain-damaged in the left hemisphere, the recovery of speech is quite often
better and this is explained by the fact that left-handers have a more
bilateral speech function.in her studies of macaque monkeys, brinkman has
noticed that primates (monkeys) seem to learn a hand preference from their
mother in the first year of life but this could be one hand or the other. in
humans, however, the specialisation in function of the two hemispheres results
in anatomical differences; areas that are involved with the production of
speech are usually larger on the left side than on the right. since monkeys
have not acquired the art of speech, one would not expect to see such a
variation but brinkman claims to have discovered a trend in monkeys towards
the asymmetry that is evident in the human brain.
two american researchers, geschwind and galaburda, studied the brains of human
embryos and discovered that the left-right asymmetry exists before birth. but
as the brain develops, a number of things can affect it. every brain is
initially female in its organisation and it only becomes a male brain when
the male foetus begins to secrete hormones. geschwind and galaburda knew that
different parts of the brain mature at different rates; the right hemisphere
develops first, then the left. moreover, a girl s brain develops somewhat
faster than that of a boy. so, if something happens to the brain s development
during pregnancy, it is more likely to be affected in a male and the hemisphere
more likely to be involved is the left. the brain may become less lateralised
and this in turn could r
esult in left-handedness and the development of certain
superior skills that have their origins in the left hemisphere such as logic,
rationality and abstraction. it should be no surprise then that among
mathematicians and architects, left-handers tend to be more common and there
are more left-handed males than females.
the results of this research may be some consolation to left-handers who have
for centuries lived in a world designed to suit right-handed people. however,
what is alarming, according to mr. charles moore, a writer and journalist,
is the way the word `right reinforces its own virtue. subliminally he says,
language tells people to think that anything on the right can be trusted while
anything on the left is dangerous or even sinister. we speak of left-handed
compliments and according to moore, `it is no coincidence that left-hand,
often develop a stammer as they are robbed of their freedom of speech . however,
as more research is undertaken on the causes of left handedness, attitudes
towards left-handed people are gradually changing for the better. indeed when
the champion tennis player indeed when the champion tennis player ivan lendl
was asked what the single thing improve his game, he said he would like to
become a left-hander.
geoff maslen
questions 1-7
use the information in the text to match the people ( listed a-e ) with the opinions ( listed 1-7 ) below. write the appropriate letter ( a-e ) in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. some people match more than one opinion.
a dr broca
b dr brinkman
c geschwind and galaburda
d charles moore
e professor turner
example answer
monkeys do not show a species specific preference for b
left or right-handedness.
1 human beings started to show a preference for right-handedness when
they first developed language.
2 society is prejudiced against left-handed people.
3 boys are more likely to be left-handed.
4 after a stroke, left-handed people recover their speech more quickly
than right-handed people.
5 people who suffer strokes on the left side of the brain usually lose
their power of speech.
6 the two sides of the brain develop different functions before birth.
7 asymmetry is a common feature of the human body.
question 8-10
using the information in the passage, complete the table below. write your answer in boxes 8-10 on your answer sheet.
percentage of children left-handed
one parent left-handedone parent right-handed …(8)…
both parents left-handed …(9)…
both parents right-handed …(10)…
question 11-12
choose the appropriate letters a-d and write them in boxes 11 and 12 on your answer sheet.
11 a study of monkeys has shown that
a monkeys are not usually right-handed.
b monkeys display a capacity for speech.
c monkey brains are smaller than human brains.
d monkey brains are asymmetric.
12 according to the writer, left-handed people.
a will often develop a stammer.
b have undergone hardship for years.
c are untrustworthy.
d are good tennis players.
answer keys
unit 2
1.f 2.f 3.t 4.t 5.ng 6.t 7.t 8.ng 9.f 10.t 11.f
unit 3
1.f 2.ng 3.t 4.f 5.t 6.t 7.f 8.t 9.f 10.t
unit 4
1.t 2.ng 3.ng 4.f 5.ng 6.f 7.t 8.t 9.ng 10.f
unit 5
1.f 2.f 3.t 4.ng 5.t 6.ng 7.t 8.t
passage1
1-7.bdcbace
8. 15-20%
9. 40%
10. 6%
11. d
12. b
true／false／not given exercises
unit2
when was the last time you saw a frog? chances are, if you live in a city, you have
not seen one for some time. even in wet areas once teeming with frogs and toads, it is
becoming less and less easy to find those slimy, hopping and sometimes poisonous
members of the animal kingdom. all over the world, and even in remote parts of australia,
frogs are losing the ecological battle for survival, and biologists are at a loss to explain
their demise. are amphibians simply oversensitive to changes in the ecosystem? could it
be that their rapid decline in numbers is signaling some coming environmental disaster for us all?
this frightening scenario is in part the consequence of a dramatic increase over the
last quarter century in the development of once natural areas of wet marshland; home not
only to frogs but to all manner of wildlife. however, as yet, there are no obvious reasons
why certain frog species are disappearing from rainforests in australia that have barely
been touched by human hand. the mystery is unsettling to say the least, for it is known that
amphibian species are extremely sensitive to environmental variations in temperature and
moisture levels. the danger is that planet earth might not only lose a vital link in the
ecological food chain (frogs keep populations of otherwise pestilent insects at manageable
levels), but we might be increasing our output of air pollutants to levels that may have
already become irreversible. frogs could be inadvertently warning us of a catastrophe.お
an example of a species of frog that, at far as is known, has become extinct, is the
platypus frog. like the well-known australian mammal it was named after, it exhibited
some very strange behaviour; instead of giving birth to tadpoles in the water, it raised its
young within its stomach. the baby frogs were actually born from out of their mother s
mouth. discovered in 1981, less than ten years later the frog had completely vanished from
the crystal clear waters of booloumba creek near queensland s sunshine coast.
unfortunately, this freak of nature is not the only frog species to have been lost in australia.
since the 1970s, no less than eight others have suffered the same fate.
one theory that seems to fit the facts concerns the depletion of the ozone layer, a well
documented phenomenon which has led to a sharp increase in ultraviolet radiation levels.
the ozone layer is meant to shield the earth from uv rays, but increased radiation may be
having a greater effect upon frog populations than previously believed. another theory is
that worldwide temperature increases are upsetting the breeding cycles of frogs.
true／false／not given
1.frogs are disappearing only from city areas.
2.frogs and toads are usually poisonous.
3.biologists are unable to explain why frogs are dying.
4.the frogs natural habitat is becoming more and more developed.
5.attempts are being made to halt the development of wet marshland.
6.frogs are important in the ecosystem because they control pests.
7.the platypus frog became extinct by 1991.
8.frogs usually give birth to their young in an underwater nest.
9.eight frog species have become extinct so far in australia.
10.there is convincing evidence that the ozone layer is being depleted.
11.it is a fact that frogs breeding cycles are upset by worldwide in creases in temperature.
practice 3
almost everyone with or without a computer is aware of the latest technological
revolution destined to change forever the way in which humans communicate,
namely, the information superhighway, best exemplified by the ubiquitous
internet. already, millions of people around the world are linked by computer
simply by having a modem and an address on the `net , in much the same way
that owning a telephone links us to almost anyone who pays a phone bill. in
fact, since the computer connections are made via the phone line, the internet
can be envisaged as a network of visual telephone links. it remains to seen
in which direction the information superhighway is headed, but many believe
it is the educational hope of the future.
the world wide web, an enormous collection of internet addresses or sites,
all of which can be accessed for information, has been mainly responsible for
the increase in interest in the internet in the 1990s. before the world wide
web, the `net was comparable to an integrated collection of computerized
typewriters, but the introduction of the `web in 1990 allowed not only text
links to be made but also graphs, images and even video.
a web site consists of a `home page , the first screen of a particular site
on the computer to which you are connec
ted, from where access can be had to
other subject related `pages (or screens) at the site and on thousands of other
computers all over the world. this is achieved by a process called `hypertext .
by clicking with a mouse device on various parts of the screen, a person
connected to the `net can go traveling, or surfing through a of the screen,
a person connected to the `net can go traveling, or `surfing through a web
of pages to locate whatever information is required.
anyone can set up a site; promoting your club, your institution, your company s
products or simply yourself, is what the web and the internet is all about.
and what is more, information on the internet is not owned or controlled by
any one organization. it is, perhaps, true to say that no one and therefore
everyone owns the `net . because of the relative freedom of access to
information, the internet has often been criticised by the media as a
potentially hazardous tool in the hands of young computer users. this
perception has proved to be largely false however, and the vast majority of
users both young and old get connected with the internet for the dual purposes
for which it was intended - discovery and delight.
true／false／not given
1.everyone is aware of the information superhighway.
2.using the internet costs the owner of a telephone extra money.
3.internet computer connections are made by using telephone lines.
4.the world wide web is a network of computerised typewriters.
5.according to the author, the information superhighway may be the future hope of education.
6.the process called`hypertext requires the use of a mouse device.
7.the internet was created in the 1990s.
8.the `home page is the first screen of a `web site on the `net .
9.the media has often criticised the internet because it is dangerous.
10. the latest technological revolution will change the way humans communicate.
practice 4
the australian political scene is dominated by two major parties that have
quite different political agendas. however, the policies of the australian
labor party and the liberal party have become much more difficult to tell apart
in recent years. in fact, it would be true to say that both parties consist
of conservative, moderate and radical elements, and therefore the general
public is often perplexed about which party to vote for. nonetheless, it is
usual to find that an australian will lean towards supporting one of these
two parties and remain faithful to that party for life.
the labor party was formed early in the twentieth century to safeguard
the interests of the common working man and to give the trade unions political
representation in parliament. the party has always had strong connections with
the unions, and supports the concept of a welfare society in which people who
are less fortunate than others are financially, and otherwise, assisted in
their quest for a more equitable slice of the economic pie. the problem is
that such socialist political agendas are extremely expensive to implement
and maintain, especially in a country that, although comparatively wealthy,
is vast and with a small working and hence taxpaying population base. welfare
societies tend towards bankruptcy unless government spending is kept in check.
the liberal party, on the other hand, argues that the best way to ensure a
fair division of wealth in the country is to allow more freedom to create it.
this, in turn, means more opportunities, jobs created etc., and therefore more
wealth available to all. just how the poor are to share in the distribution
of this wealth (beyond being given, at least in theory, the opportunity to
create it) is, however, less well understood. practice, of course, may make
nonsense of even the best theoretical intentions, and often the less
politically powerful are badly catered for under governments implementing free-for-all policies.
it is no wonder that given the two major choices offered them, australian
voters are increasingly turning their attention to the smaller political
parties, which claim to offer a more balanced swag of policies, often based
around one major current issue. thus, for instance, at the last election there
was the no aircraft noise parry, popular in city areas, and the green party,
which is almost solely concerned with environmental issues.
true／false／not given
1.policies is support of the concept of a welfare society are costly.
2.australians usually vote for the party they supported early in life.
3.the labor party was formed by the trade unions.
4.radical groups are only found within the labor party.
5.the liberal party was formed after the labor party.
6.welfare-based societies invariably become bankrupt.
7.ac
cording to the author, theories do not always work in practice.
8.some australian voters are confused about who to vote for.
9.the no-aircraft-noise party is only popular in the city.
10.the smaller parties are only concerned about the environment.
practice 5
para 1.玊he need for a satisfactory education is more important than ever
before. nowadays, without a qualification from a reputable school or
university, the odds of landing that plum job advertised in the paper are
considerably shortened. moreover, one s present level of education could fall
well short of future career requirements.お
para 2.獻t is no secret that competition is the driving force behind the
need to obtain increasingly higher qualifications. in the majority of cases,
the urge to upgrade is no longer the result of an insatiable thirst for
knowledge. the pressure is coming from within the workplace to compete with
ever more qualified job applicants, and in many occupations one must now battle
with colleagues in the reshuffle for the position one already holds.お
para 3.玈triving to become better educated is hardly a new concept. wealthy
parents have always been willing to spend the vast amounts of extra money
necessary to send their children to schools with a perceived educational edge.
working adults have long attended night schools and refresher courses.
competition for employment has been around since the curse of working for a
living began. is the present situation so very different to that of the past?
para 4. 玊he difference now is that the push is universal and from without
as well as within. a student at secondary school receiving low grades is no
longer as easily accepted by his or her peers as was once the case. similarly,
in the workplace, unless employees are engaged in part-time study, they may
be frowned upon by their employers and peers and have difficulty even standing
still. in fact, in these cases, the expectation is for careers to go backwards
and earning capacity to take an appreciable nosedive.お
para 5.獳t first glance, the situation would seem to be laudable; a positive
response to the exhortation by a former prime minister, bob hawke, for
australia to become the `clever country . yet there are serious ramifications
according to at least one educational psychologist. dr brendan gatsby has
caused some controversy in academic circles by suggesting that a bias towards
what he terms `paper excellence might cause more problems than it is supposed
to solve. gatsby raises a number of issues that affect the individual as well
as society in general.お
para 6.獸irstly, he believes the extra workload involved is resulting in
abnormally high stress levels in both students at secondary school and adults
studying after working hours. secondly, skills which might be more relevant
to the undertaking of a sought_after job are being overlooked by employers
interviewing candidates without qualifications on paper. these two areas of
concern for the individual are causing physical and emotional stress respectively.
para 7.獹atsby also argues that there are attitudinal changes within society
to the exalted role education now plays in determining how the spoils of
working life are distributed. individuals of all ages are being driven by
social pressures to achieve academic success solely for monetary
considerations instead of for the joy of enlightenment. there is the danger
that some universities are becoming degree factories with an attendant drop
in standards. furthermore, our education system may be rewarding doggedness
above creativity; the very thing australians have been encouraged to avoid.
but the most undesirable effect of this academic paper chase, gatsby says,
is the disadvantage that `user pays higher education confers on the poor, who
invariably lose out to the more financially favoured.お
para 8.玁aturally, although there is agreement that learning can cause stress,
gatsby s comments regarding university standards have been roundly criticised
as alarmist by most educationists who point out that, by any standard of
measurement, australia s education system overall, at both secondary and
tertiary levels, is equal to that of any in the world.
true／false／not given
1.it is impossible these days to get a good job without a qualification from a respected institution.
2.most people who upgrade their qualifications do so for the joy of learning.
3.in some jobs, the position you hold must be reapplied for.
4.some parents spend extra on their children s education because of the prestige attached to certain schools
5.according to the text, students who performed bally at school used to be accepted by their classmates.
6.employees who do not undertake extr
a study may find their salary decreased by employers.
7.australians appear to have responded to the call by a former prime minister to become better qualified.
8.australia s education system is equal to any in the world in the opinion of most educationists.
reading passage 1 below.
right and left-handedness in humans
why do humans, virtually alone among all animal species, display a distinct
left or right handedness? not even our closest relatives among the apes possess
such decided lateral asymmetry, as psychologists call it. yet about 90 per
cent of every human population that has ever lived appears to have been
right-handed. professor bryan turner at deakin university has studied the
research literature on left-handedness and found that handedness goes with
sidedness. so nine out of ten people are right-handed and eight are
right-footed. he noted that this distinctive asymmetry in the human population
is itself systematic. `humans think in categories: black and white, up and
down, left and right. it s a system of signs that enables us to categorise
phenomena that are essentially ambiguous.
research has shown that there is genetic or inherited element to handedness.
but while left-handedness tends to run in families, neither left nor right
handers will automatically produce off-spring with the same handedness; in
fact about 6 per cent of children with two right-handed parents will be
left-handed. however, among two left-handed parents, perhaps 40 per cent of
the children will also be left-handed. with one right and one left-handed
parent, 15 to 20 per cent of the offspring will be lefthanded. even among
identical twins who have exactly the same genes, one in six pairs will differ
in their handedness.
what then makes people left-handed if it is not simply genetic? other factors
must be at work and researchers have turned to the brain for clues. in the
1860s the french surgeon and anthropologist, dr paul broca, made the
remarkable finding that patients who had lost their powers of speech as a
result of a stroke (a blood clot in the brain) had paralysis of the right half
of their body. he noted that since the left hemisphere of the brain controls
the right half of the body, and vice versa, the brain damage must have been
in the brain s left hemisphere, psychologists now believe that among right
handed people, probably 95 per cent have their language centre in the left
hemisphere, while 5 per cent have right-sided language, left-handers, however,
do not show the reverse pattern but instead a majority also some 30 per cent
have right hemisphere language.
dr brinkman, a brain researcher at the australian national university in
canberra, has suggested that evolution of speech went with right-handed
preference. according to brinkman, as the brain evolved, one side became
specialised for fine control of movement (necessary for producing speech) and
along with this evolution came righthand preference. according to brinkman,
most left-handers have left hemisphere dominance but also some capacity in
the right hemisphere. she has observed that if a left-handed person is
brain-damaged in the left hemisphere, the recovery of speech is quite often
better and this is explained by the fact that left-handers have a more
bilateral speech function.in her studies of macaque monkeys, brinkman has
noticed that primates (monkeys) seem to learn a hand preference from their
mother in the first year of life but this could be one hand or the other. in
humans, however, the specialisation in function of the two hemispheres results
in anatomical differences; areas that are involved with the production of
speech are usually larger on the left side than on the right. since monkeys
have not acquired the art of speech, one would not expect to see such a
variation but brinkman claims to have discovered a trend in monkeys towards
the asymmetry that is evident in the human brain.
two american researchers, geschwind and galaburda, studied the brains of human
embryos and discovered that the left-right asymmetry exists before birth. but
as the brain develops, a number of things can affect it. every brain is
initially female in its organisation and it only becomes a male brain when
the male foetus begins to secrete hormones. geschwind and galaburda knew that
different parts of the brain mature at different rates; the right hemisphere
develops first, then the left. moreover, a girl s brain develops somewhat
faster than that of a boy. so, if something happens to the brain s development
during pregnancy, it is more likely to be affected in a male and the hemisphere
more likely to be involved is the left. the brain may become less lateralised
and this in turn could r
esult in left-handedness and the development of certain
superior skills that have their origins in the left hemisphere such as logic,
rationality and abstraction. it should be no surprise then that among
mathematicians and architects, left-handers tend to be more common and there
are more left-handed males than females.
the results of this research may be some consolation to left-handers who have
for centuries lived in a world designed to suit right-handed people. however,
what is alarming, according to mr. charles moore, a writer and journalist,
is the way the word `right reinforces its own virtue. subliminally he says,
language tells people to think that anything on the right can be trusted while
anything on the left is dangerous or even sinister. we speak of left-handed
compliments and according to moore, `it is no coincidence that left-hand,
often develop a stammer as they are robbed of their freedom of speech . however,
as more research is undertaken on the causes of left handedness, attitudes
towards left-handed people are gradually changing for the better. indeed when
the champion tennis player indeed when the champion tennis player ivan lendl
was asked what the single thing improve his game, he said he would like to
become a left-hander.
geoff maslen
questions 1-7
use the information in the text to match the people ( listed a-e ) with the opinions ( listed 1-7 ) below. write the appropriate letter ( a-e ) in boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet. some people match more than one opinion.
a dr broca
b dr brinkman
c geschwind and galaburda
d charles moore
e professor turner
example answer
monkeys do not show a species specific preference for b
left or right-handedness.
1 human beings started to show a preference for right-handedness when
they first developed language.
2 society is prejudiced against left-handed people.
3 boys are more likely to be left-handed.
4 after a stroke, left-handed people recover their speech more quickly
than right-handed people.
5 people who suffer strokes on the left side of the brain usually lose
their power of speech.
6 the two sides of the brain develop different functions before birth.
7 asymmetry is a common feature of the human body.
question 8-10
using the information in the passage, complete the table below. write your answer in boxes 8-10 on your answer sheet.
percentage of children left-handed
one parent left-handedone parent right-handed …(8)…
both parents left-handed …(9)…
both parents right-handed …(10)…
question 11-12
choose the appropriate letters a-d and write them in boxes 11 and 12 on your answer sheet.
11 a study of monkeys has shown that
a monkeys are not usually right-handed.
b monkeys display a capacity for speech.
c monkey brains are smaller than human brains.
d monkey brains are asymmetric.
12 according to the writer, left-handed people.
a will often develop a stammer.
b have undergone hardship for years.
c are untrustworthy.
d are good tennis players.
answer keys
unit 2
1.f 2.f 3.t 4.t 5.ng 6.t 7.t 8.ng 9.f 10.t 11.f
unit 3
1.f 2.ng 3.t 4.f 5.t 6.t 7.f 8.t 9.f 10.t
unit 4
1.t 2.ng 3.ng 4.f 5.ng 6.f 7.t 8.t 9.ng 10.f
unit 5
1.f 2.f 3.t 4.ng 5.t 6.ng 7.t 8.t
passage1
1-7.bdcbace
8. 15-20%
9. 40%
10. 6%
11. d
12. b