Practice 3

Practice 3
WRAP UP YOUR VISIT WITH THE PERFECT GIFT
    1. "It is better to give than to receive", "Never look a gift horse in the mouth", "Beware of Greek bearing gifts". Gifts are fundamental element in culture and our lives as social creatures.
    2. There are occasions when giving a gift surpasses spoken communication, since the message it offers can cut through barriers of language and cultural diversity. Present a simple gift to your host in a foreign country and the chances are he or she will understand you perfectly, though you may not understand a single word of each other's languages. It can convey a wealth of meaning about your appreciation of their hospitality and the importance you place upon the relationship. Combine the act of giving with some knowledge and sensitivity to the culture of the recipient and you have an invaluable chance to earn respect and lay the foundations of a durable and mutually beneficial business relationship.
    3. For all countries, take account of climate, especially in regard to clothing. Some gifts can be ruined by extremely hot or humid climates, possibly causing their receiver considerable anguish. Consider the kinds of products that are abundant in the country concerned and try for something that is uncommon there. Think about the level of language skills: a book with hundreds of pages of English text may be at best useless, at worst embarrassing, to a person with limited English. Inform yourself as much as possible about local customs, rules and etiquette, especially to do with wrapping, presenting, superstitions, taboos and importantly customs and quarantine regulations.
    4. Hongkong Chinese greatly appreciate simple greeting cards, though obviously they will not refuse small tokens of friendship in the form of gifts.
    5. Books with plenty of illustrations are most appreciated in Indonesia. Inappropriate items: alcohol, products made from pigs, warm clothing. Ties and cufflinks are not commonly worn.
    6. In Iran, short-sleeved shirts and any visual representation of naked or partially dressed people, male or female, are highly inappropriate. Don't bother with ties, videos or records. As in all Islamic countries, there is a strict taboo on any pork products.
    7. Respecting the Arab tradition, gifts should endeavour to praise the recipient in Iraq and should never be of an order that cannot reasonably be reciprocated.
    8. Avoid certain colour combinations: red, white and black (colours of the Nazy flag); and red, green and black (the Palestinian flag) in Israel.
    9. Gifts are normally exchanged at the beginning of meetings with Japanese and should be given and received with both hands. It is seen as impolite to give an unwrapped gift 'The emphasis should be on high quality, though not necessarily expensive items.
    10. When in Jordan, it is preferable, but not vital, to avoid green in packaging. Do not give books, videos, etc. that mention Israel. Normal Arab customs apply, so no alcohol, pork, women's clothing etc. Arabs generally do not greatly appreciate handcrafts in wood, fabric or pottery. Gifts should ideally appear valuable.
    11. Again the exchange should be made with both hands in Korea. Also, similar to Japan, is the emphasis on presentation. Do not use red ink to write the names of the recipients. It is worth remembering that it is customary for a gift given to a company to be shared out around the office concerned, so items that lend themselves to this practice - like a bottle of good whisky - are very well received.
    12. Laos has virtually no cultural taboo items. It would be difficult to offend with virtually any gilt.
    13. Business contacts in the People Republic of China are keen recipients of good Scotch whiskey and American cigarettes, to the point where it is almost obligatory to take some along when you go there.
    14. Do not open gifts in the presence of the giver in the Philippines. Not recommended are items alluding to religion. Many people are Catholic and many others Moslems. This also means literature and art with any possible sugestions of lewdness or racism are to be strictly avoided
    15. For Thailand, gifts should not be wrapped or packaged in black. Modest gifts like ties, scarves and key rings, are much appreciated. Traditionally, sharp objects like knives or even letter openers are not given as gifts.
    16. No special gift-giving customs in Vietnam, but the Vietnamese are enthusiastic gift givers and like very much to receive them as well.
(By Gibson, Rusek, Swan)

I. UNDERSTANDING TEXT ORGANIZATION
    The following sentences are missing from the passage, decide where they should go.
1. They are also an important part of our business relationship.

2. The following is a brief account of the etiquettes of gift - giving of some countries of Asia and the Middle East.

3. Or if not obligatory, it certainly helps to warm relations.

4. Liquor and wine can be problematic for reasons pertaining to Vietnamese tastes rather than morality or religion.

     Suggestions:
- Find what the personal pronouns and the demonstrative pronouns in the given sentences refer to.
- Pay attention to repetition in consecutive sentences.

Answer Key:

II. DEALING WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS
    Match the words and phrases from paragraphs 1 - 7 with their meanings.
 1. never look a gift horse in the mouth (para. 1)
a. indecency, rudeness
 2. beware of Greeks bearing gifts (para. 1)
b. mentioning indirectly
 3. anguish (para. 3)
c. prohibition for cultural, religious or customary reasons
 4. taboo (para. 3)
d. mental pain
 5. reciprocated (para. 7)
e. never be too critical of anything you have received as a gift
 6. alluding to ( para. 14)
f. given in return
 7. lewdness ( para. 14 )
g. gifts given by certain people are meant to offend or bring dangers

Answer Key:

III. CHECKING COMPREHENSION
    Read the following statements. Write T if the statement is true, F if the statement is false and IE if there is insufficient evidence, according to the passage.
 1. Differences in culture and language can be overcome by gifts.
 2. Overseas visitors are advised to give gifts to their bosses.
 3. Climate should not be considered when giving gifts.
 4. To present a gift in a tropical country might create hostility.
 5. Whiskey would be a welcome gift in Laos.
 6. A silk scarf is an appropriate gift for a Jordanian host's wife.
 7. Umbrellas are popular gifts in Hong Kong.
 8. An Israeli business manager would undoubtedly appreciate the gift of a black, white and red striped tie.
 9. It is recommended to give wine to Vietnamese.
 10. An inexpensive pigskin wallet would probably be appreciated in Japan, Vietnam and Laos.

Answer Key: 

IV. WRITING SUMMARIES
    Complete the table below with the information from the passage.
Countries Recommended Not recommended
Israel


Vietnam


Indonesia


Korea


Thailand


Jordan


Hongkong


Philippines


People's Republic Of China


Laos



Answer Key: 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF FOOD PRODUCTION
    A. Agriculture transformed Homo Sapiens from a rare to an abundant species because the need for the labour of even the very young provided an incentive to produce numerous offspring. An increased population, however, brought with it epidemics, famine, conquest and unremitting warfare... As humans increasingly lived together in crowded settlements, in towns, and later in cities, new health hazards appeared. Cultivated plots of land which humans walked on over and over again to produce crops became a focus for disease spreading rats, fleas, and mosquitoes. The birds that humans had domesticated, or which were attracted to the fields, spread bacteria, protozoa, viruses, helminths and other parasites. Even cattle presented a health hazard.
    B. The high-carbohydrate, low-protein diet of agriculturists brought with it beriberi, pellagra, rickets, and other diseases caused by vitamin and amino-acid deficiencies. A liking for sweets is an ancient trail which humans share with other primates. A cave painting in Spain, dating from perhaps 20,000 years ago, shows people using ropes to reach a beehive with its store of honey. This carbohydrate, though, existed in only small quantities in the pre-agricultural environment. It was usually so difficult to obtain that it could not do much damage to human health until the practice of agriculture made it abundant ...
    C. Food production both caused and accompanied drastic changes in political, social, and economic life. Without this adaptation, complex societies - the state, the empire, and later the industrialized nations - could not have developed. This adaptation also brought with it a new attitude toward material objects and possessions. Since some people were able to obtain more land than others, the egalitarian society of the hunter-gatherers gave way to increasingly greater differences in wealth, power, and status. For the first time, societies became divided into the rulers and the ruled, the rich and the poor. Wealth and power did not merely appear for the first time; they also became hereditary.
    D. In contrast to the diversity of skills possessed by every hunter-gatherer, the food-producing adaptation compartmentalized skills into highly specialized occupations. This adaptation soon contributed techniques that altered the internal properties of natural substances. Clay, earth and ore were modified to produce pottery, glazes, and metals. If clay, for example, is heated to a high temperature, it is transformed into pottery, and ceramics, substances that can no longer be returned to their original state. The humans' new ability to change the very nature of matter must have profoundly enhanced their intellectual awareness and their confidence in being able to serve their own needs. Domestication, after all, involved simply guiding normal biological processes, whereas the new technology involved a control over matter itself.
    E. People in our threatening century often tend to look back with envy on the seemingly idyllic past of leisured hunter-gatherers or simple agriculturists. But since turning back is impossible, we must live today with all the consequences - whether good, evil, or neutral - of innovations stemming from the development of food production. The population explosion, the shortage of resources, the pollution of the environment, exploitation of one human group by another, famine, and war - all have their roots in that great adaptive change from foraging to production.
    F. On the other hand, it was food production that permitted the cultural potentiality of the human species to develop freely. Having become liberated from the limitations and constraints dictated by the environment, the innate capacities of our species could now be expressed much more fully...
(By Peter Farb)

I. UNDERSTANDING TEXT ORGANIZATION
    The following sentences have been removed from the passage. Decide where they should go in the passage.
1. The new diet also produced obesity and widespread dental decay because of the intake of sugar.

2. They thus gave certain people in the society political authority and social privileges that had little reference to their abilities.

3. Had such specializations been absent, the technological achievements that developed as part of this adaptation would have been impossible.

4. Our path today is still laid out for us by those innovations made so many thousands of years ago.

     Suggestions:
- Find what personal pronouns in the given sentences refer to.
- Focus your attention to the clue words: also, such ..., those.., thus.

Answer Key: 

II. EXTRACTING MAIN IDEAS
    Below are the main ideas of the paragraphs. Match the ideas with the paragraphs.
 1. However, the invention of agriculture also freed human beings to develop technologically and culturally.
 2. Agriculture brought about inequalities in wealth and power among human beings, and these inequalities became hereditary.
 3. The adoption of agriculture resulted in a population increase and, as a result, new diseases and health problems appeared.
 4. Many of the problems in the world today are consequences of the invention of agriculture, but we cannot return to the way the world was before the invention of agriculture.
 5. Agriculture changed the diet of human beings, which brought about various diseases caused by certain deficiencies in their diet, as well as obesity and tooth decay.
 6. Instead of everyone having many skills, agriculture brought about the specialization of individuals in one skill, which gave rise to the beginning of technology.

Answer Key: 

III. CHECKING COMPREHENSION
    1. Decide whether each of the following sentences is true (T) or false (F) or doesn't say (DS). Write the letter T or F or DS before the sentences.
 1. Agriculture increased the rate of development of the human species.
 2. The increase in population occurred because parents had more time to take care of their children.
 3. Various diseases were caused by a lack of vitamins and amino - acids.
 4. In pre- agricultural lime, people did not eat much honey because they knew that too much honey was bad for their health
 5. The more developed the society, the easier for the human beings to catch diseases.
 6. Wealth and power resulted in equalities among human beings.
 7. It was not necessary for everyone in agricultural societies to have many skills.
 8. Agriculture produced not enough food than was immediately necessary.
 9. Technology, like domestication, can alter the properties of natural substances.
 10. Human beings like the pre- agricultural lifestyle more than their present one.

Answer Key: 

    2. Complete the following table using information form the passage.
CAUSE RESULT
1. The need for the labour of the very young.

2.
New health hazards appeared.
3. Honey was very difficult to obtain.

4. Some people were able to obtain more land than others.

5.
Certain people have wealth and power not because of their abilities.

Answer Key: 

Practice 2

Practice 2

Action, Adventure and the Environment

    Tourism in Nepal started in the Annapurna area, before Everest was climbed. The spectacular view of the Dhulagiri and Annapurna ranges from Pun Hill; the mountain heights and valley depths of the Annapurna sanctuary; the vast Tibetan plateau in the Northern Annapurna: all this has helped to make the area the most popular trekking destination in Nepal. This year's visitors are due to the top 40,000 trekkers who visited in 1992.
   But the years of booming tourism brought problems. Lodges for trekkers proliferated - there are now over 650 in the area and our rhododendron and bamboo forests were cleared to make way for them. Rapid deforestation resulted in landslides and soil erosion. Rubbish accumulated and water became polluted. The social life of local residents began to change beyond recognition and in response to this we campaigned to make the region Nepal's first conservation area. In 1986 the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation, Nepal's leading environmental organization, succeeded in launching the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP). ACAP's approach is 'putting the local interest first'. Unlike national parks and reserves in Nepal, it didn't drive local residents off the land or seek military assistance. It invested in people.
    Local representative committees were encouraged to participate in all areas affecting them: health, education, infrastructure improvements, tourism, forestry and agriculture. In 1988 the project was granted permission to collect entry fees from visiting trekkers. The revenue has been used to create an endowment fund for future projects. Above all, ACAP invested in conservation education and extension programmes. The project emphasized changing attitudes among local residents, managers, workers and, not least, the trekkers themselves.
    At the end of May. When the spring trekking season ends, Lodge Management committees of all villages in the Annapurna Area meet and discuss their plans. They control every aspect of lodge management from menu pricing to sanitation and send their plans to ACAP. Today the villages of Southern Annapurna are full of committees and groups for virtually everything. Each winter they decide on community works: bridges, schools, drinking water systems and trails. In midsummer they deal with forest and agricultural programmes. Women's groups raise money by singing and performing dances in honour of visitors. Their funds are invested in community programmes and projects aimed at improving women's standing in their communities.
    The villagers in the Southern Annapurna no longer hunt or collect more fuel-wood and timber than they require. The forests no longer belong to the Government, but to their own communities. ACAP's success has earned them management rights for another ten years. After that, ACAP hopes that local people will be able to manage their lands and affairs by themselves, without much help from either their Government or other agencies.

I. UNDERSTANDING TEXT ORGANISATION

1. The underlying structure of this text is that problems → their solution. Using paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 for reference, complete the following summary:
(a) Tourism in Nepal started (when, where and in what form?)
(b) The success of trekking led to the building of , which meant that
(c) This led to some specific problems:
(i)  
(ii) 
(iii)
(d) The main steps taken to solve the problem were:
(i)  
(ii) 
(iii)

Answer Key:

II. CHECKING COMPREHENSION

1. The success of ACAP may be largely due to its policy of 'putting the local interest first'. Fill in the gaps in the table bellow to show what goes on at local level and when.

Time of year	Group	What they do
(a)	Lodge Management Committees	e.g. menu pricing and sanitation
(b)	Village committees	(c)
mid - summer	(d)	(e)
?	(f)	raise money by singing and dancing for visitors

Answer Key:

2. The writer of this article refers to himself and others as “we” (line 23). Which of the following probably best describes the writer?

(i) Company executive of Trekking Unlimited, a major adventure tour operator
(ii) Conservation Officer for the Annapurna Conservation Area Project
(iii) Chairperson of an Annapurna Lodge Management Committee
(iv) Director of the King Mahandra Trust for Nature Conservation

Answer Key:

3. In the text there are several examples of cause and effect (a situation which leads naturally to a particular result) and action and purpose (something which is done intentionally in order to achieve a particular result). Complete the following tables using information in the text.

Cause	Effect
Spectacular views, mountain heights and valley depths (para.1)	(i)
(ii)	landslides and soil erosion (para. 2)
creation of national parks and reserves (para.3)	(iii)

Action	Purpose
(i)	Make room for trekking lodges (para. 2)
collect entry fees from visiting trekkers (para 3)	(ii)
(iii)	To improve women's standing in local communities (para. 4)

Answer Key:

III. DEALING WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS

1. Find words and expressions in the text with the opposite meaning to those listed below.

Word or expression	Word or expression meaning the opposite
(a) solutions (para.graph 2)
(b) failed (paragraph 2)
(c) discouraged (paragraph 3)
(d) denied (paragraph 3)
(e) expenditure (paragraph 3)
(f) destroy (paragraph 3)
(g) almost nothing (paragraph 4)
(h) still (paragraph 4)

Answer Key:

2. Find three words in paragraph 2 which refer to an increase in quantity or amount.

Answer Key:

TOURISM'S CHALLENGE: SPREADING THE TOURIST LOAD

    1. Many though certainly not all, problems produced by modern travel, can be explained by two well-known phenomena: the tremendous concentration of holidays and travel into just a few weeks and weekends, and the congestion it produces: everybody at the same time for the same reason, in the same places. The flight from the mass into the mass. The concentration of holidays in time and space is responsible for the huge plague of travellers, who are sometimes perceived as a burden and a threat both by tourists themselves and their hosts. The over-exploitation of recreational areas can be explained by these reasons too. Despite that, it is debatable whether many travellers would want to be quite alone on their trip. Even if they did, moving so many thousands of people, all at the same time, to their holiday homes and back again, can never be done in smaller units. So it looks as though massivity is here to stay. What we should try to do is control and reduce its scale. The question of tolerable numbers must be a central issue for the planning of tourism in the tourist destination area.
    2. Efforts must therefore be made to break clown the travel periods by staggering school and. works holidays. Information about the advantage of staggered holidays should be made available at all levels. This question must be given a new priority in international organizations (e.g. the World Tourism Organization, the OECD, the EU etc.) and take its place in national policies as well
    3. Tourist facilities in holiday areas should be more rationally distributed to follow the principle of "decentralized concentration". The tourist infrastructure should be expanded to a larger number of centres and small-scale projects should be promoted so that less developed areas get a share of the economic benefit produced by tourism.
    4. That the holiday period should be staggered as a matter of urgency is now generally accepted. But there is also widespread resignation about the fact that decades of political discussions about the subject have produced no tangible results. People seem to have resigned themselves to the holiday rush, accepting it as an immutable fact of life. But renewed efforts to change this situation must be made, for their success would significantly improve the preconditions for the well-being of all participants in tourism and for the preservation of recreational areas. If people were given more say in the organization and scheduling of their working and leisure time, every person would have a much greater possibility of avoiding the holiday peaks and bottlenecks; whether he or she would use the chance is less certain.
    5. The second demand, namely that tourism should be decentralized and its scale thus reduced, is not so uncontroversial. The honey pot theory, as it is called, has many advocates: the best solution, they claim, is to set up large "honey pot" - i.e. holiday centres, in which tourists will assemble in their thousands like insects looking for food, while all other areas will be kept free of the "tourists plague". Though other formulations are not always so extreme, growing resistance to tourists development which is engulfing the whole country, can be observed in many areas.
    6. According to this view, tourism should be allotted certain zones and the rest of the country protected from it (see the proposition relating to artificial holiday centres). We should point out that our own demand for more decentralization at the over concentration would be replaced by dispersion. Such a development would have dubious consequences both for the environment and society. What is needed is a middle - of - the road solution in which the costs and benefits will be better distributed from the point of view of all participants.

I. UNDERSTANDING TEXT ORGANISATION

1. Which of the following (a) or (b), represents the underlying structure of this text?

(a)	(b)

2. What do the followings refer to?
a) these reasons (para. 1)

b) this question (para. 2)

c) this situation (para. 3)

d) this view (para. 5)

Answer Key:

II. COMPREHENSION

1. What is decentralized concentration?

2. Imagine the author is addressing an audience. Using words from the text, complete her proposals for dealing with the problems caused by massivity.
If we showed people the resulting (i) , they would agree to stagger works and (ii) holidays, that is, have holidays for different people at different times. (iii) policies should deal with this important issue, as should international organisations such as (iv) (v) and the (vi) . We should not only (vii) tourist facilities to more centres but we should also encourage them on a smaller scale in (viii) areas which could benefit (ix) from tourism.
3. If staggering holidays is such a good idea, why isn't it practised more?

4. What does the author mean when she calls for a 'middle-of-the-road' solution to the problem of massivity?

Answer Key:

III. VOCABULARY

1. A number of two-word expressions are used in the text. Match the word in column. A with one in column B and check you understand the meaning of the expressions you make.

A	B
(a) central (paragraph 1)	(i) issue
(b) tourist (paragraph 1)	(ii) efforts
(c) national (paragraph 2)	(iii) polices
(d) tangible (paragraph 4)	(iv) consequences
(e) renewed (paragraph 4)	(v) results
(f) dubious (paragraph 6)	(vi) destination

2. The prefix "over" attached to a word often conveys the sense of more than what is desirable or suitable. In the text find examples of words thus prefixed and check you understand the meaning of each.

3. What is the singular of 'phenomena' (para. 1)?


Answer Key: 

Practice 1

Practice 1

Who Said It? Identifying a Person's Voice

    It is sometimes of crucial importance in a court case to identify recordings of voices on tape. A defendant whose voice is supposed to have been recorded will argue that it was not of really his or her voice while the prosecutors will do their best to establish that it was his or her voice. This is precisely where the contribution of the forensic linguist is so vital. Forensic linguists are often asked to judge whether a recording is genuine or not. Their task is far from easy, and there must always exist some doubt, however small, about their decision.
    It is especially difficult to identify with any degree of certainty a certain voice on a tape, especially a voice heard in a recorded telephone conversation. As yet, there is scarcely anything in a voice which can be regarded as unique to an individual. Unlike fingerprints, which are different for each individual, there is no such thing as a "voice print”. Consequently, it is impossible to express the results of identifying someone's voice with complete certainty. The problems are numerous - some people are mimics while others change their voice either consciously or subconsciously as a result of psychological factors such as stress. A number of people even change their voice according to whom they are addressing. Voice identification becomes even less certain when recordings of telephone calls are compared with the live voice of a particular individual or even with other recordings made under studio conditions.
    Fortunately, there are types of auditory tests which are reasonably accurate when conducted by qualified phoneticians. Such tests usually include a study of the so-called hesitation features of speech - the pauses, the clearing of the, throat, and the "ums" and "ers" all of which are so common to native speakers of a language and all of which often vary among social groups and regions as well as from one individual to another.
    When forensic phoneticians examine a particular voice, they compare it with known samples of the speech of the individual, one section at a time. Detailed notes are taken of speech patterns as well as the rhythm of speech.
    First of all, the phoneticians will probably listen to the way in which the vowel and consonant sounds are pronounced, using a special phonetic alphabet. This phonetic alphabet contains far more symbols than the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet, with which people are familiar. Its use makes it possible, for example, not only to note that someone pronounced the consonant "t", but also to record what kind of "t" it was, i.e., how far advanced in the mouth the tongue was when it articulated the mouth the tongue was when it articulated the sound, whether the end of the tongue was curled back, and whether it was pronounced with the actual tip of the tongue or not. Next, intonation (the rise and fall in voice pitch), voice quality, and the resonance of the speech (whether it is clear, deep, etc.) are all carefully examined. Finally, the samples of speech which have been examined are played side by side with known samples of the person's speech.
    It is important to note, however, in the case of recorded telephone conversations, that the voices recorded must first be passed through filters to reproduce the way high frequencies are lost over the telephone before any analysis can be attempted.
    Increasingly the world of high-technology is being used to play an important part in voice identification. A useful feature today is the use of the computer to analyze the average pitch of the voice, making it possible to compare the sample under examination with the known sample. Research conducted by the German police has shown that a person has a relatively stable pitch which can help in identifying their voice.
    One of the most important techniques for analyzing samples of voice recordings, however, is the speech spectrogram - A recording of someone's spectrogram, showing the amount and duration of voice energy in a given frequency band. These so-called voice prints were used in the United States during the 1960s but unfortunately at that time too much faith was attached to such voice prints. Today such voice prints are considered useful if used with other tests.

I. INFERRING

    Decide whether the following statements about the reading text are TRUE or FALSE. When there is not enough information to decide, put a question mark.
1. Voices in telephone conversations which have been recorded can never be identified with complete certainty.
2. Attempts are made to use voice prints as evidence in courts in the same way as fingerprints are used.
3. Forensic linguists have no difficulty in deciding when a person is mimicking someone else.
4. Stress can be one factor in causing changes to someone's voice.
5. Hesitation features are very useful for voice identification in a few cases as they offer a means of identifying learners of English at various stages.
6. Forensic linguists will concentrate on the actual words someone has spoken rather than on so-called hesitation features.
7. Speech patterns and rhythm can vary among social groups and regions.
8. There are more symbols in the phonetic alphabets used by forensic linguists than there are letters in the Roman alphabet.
9. It is important for phoneticians to write down not only the consonants and vowels used by a person but also the different way the same consonant or vowel has been produced.
10. Intonation is the name given to the clarity and depth of the voice.
11. Voice quality can sometimes be influenced by a person's intonation.
12. It is necessary to eliminate the high frequencies of voices in recordings of telephone. Conversations so that the voices can be compared more easily with someone's known voice.
13. One of the difficulties in using a computer is in determining the average pitch of a voice.
14. Spectrograms are very useful in voice identification when used with other tests.

Answer Key:

II. SUMMARISING

    1. Put the following events in their correct order according to the text. Type the number in the box before each sentence.
a. They carefully examine intonation, voice quality and speech resonance.
b. They compare speech samples by playing them side by side.
c. They pass the recorded voices through a special kind of filter.
d. They study the pronunciation of vowel and consonant sounds, using a special phonetic alphabet.

Answer Key:

    2. Several words have been omitted from the following text. First read the text as quickly as you can in order to understand the general meaning. Then read the text carefully and complete each blank with the most appropriate word.
    Phoneticians are increasingly becoming involved as witnesses in (1) cases. As a result, a new science - the science of forensic linguistics - has been (2) . These linguists are now frequently asked to examine a (3) of someone's voice and provide evidence concerning the (4) of the person whose voice is on the tape. When they analyze a voice, they are concerned just as much by hesitation features as the actual (5)  spoken. Recorded samples of (6) are played section by section and compared with other samples spoken by people who are known. Speech patterns and rhythms are (7) as the way in which (8) and consonants are pronounced. A special phonetic alphabet has been devised to (9) different ways of pronouncing the same consonant, etc. Such an (10) contains far more symbols than the 26 (11) in the Roman alphabet. Unfortunately, it is often very (12) to identify voices recorded in conversations, and special filters are (13) to overcome the lack of high frequencies in such recordings. All kinds of modern (14) is now used, chiefly in the form of computers and spectrograms. The former device is (15) of analyzing the average pitch of someone's (16) while the (17) device shows the amount of voice energy used for certain frequencies. These voice prints, as they are often (18) are extremely valuable when used together with other tests.

Answer Key:

Shielding Brooke

I. UNDERSTANDING TEXT ORGANIZATION

    The following passage is taken from an article about the American film actress, Brooke Shields. There are a number of sentences missing from the passage. Read it through and decide where the following sentences should go.
    Suggestions:
    - Find the main ideas of the paragraphs, then put the relevant given sentences into the paragraphs.
    - Find what the personal pronouns (he, she, it, they, him, her, them) refer to.
    Base on the stylistic device called parallel construction or parallelism (the repetition of identical or similar syntactical structure in two or more sentences in close succession). The writer uses this stylistic device in order to achieve some effects: in this passage, the writer wants to emphasize diversity and contrast of ideas.

a) A serious student or a movie star ? b) She is also introspective. c) Or will she stay inside the image her mother has created for her and remain a sexy model, a pretty face which will fade in time? d) And that famous face! e) The marriage only lasted a few weeks after Brooke was born. f) She looks like a housewife. g) Now they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. h) Brooke's height and looks come from her father's side.

   He's a tall girl, almost gangling (5ft 1 lins). She walks into the room, looking straight ahead and sits down gracefully on a French chair and smiles. At eighteen, she already has a presence. (1) A complexion like honey and cream, green eyes skillfully made up, that gaze at you bright and clear, the dark eyebrows accentuating her bone structure.
    Her mother, Teri Shields, 49, hovers nearby, as always, gleaming with pride. She stage-manages the interview, interrupting when she thinks it's necessary. At five feet four inches, she is cheerfully large big breasted, plump and dressed casually in slacks and suede shirt, without makeup. (2) In fact she has built up he daughter's career since she was eleven months old and appeared in a soap commercial.
    Who is the real Brooke Shields? Sexy teenage siren or a sweet romantic girl? (3) All of these? Or none? There are two keys to Brooke's personality: her looks and her mother.
    (4) She inherited the Shields looks and athleticism, being an excellent rider and an all all-round athlete. Her father is now an executive with a consulting firm, living in Manhattan with his second wife Didi.
    Brooke's mother, born Ten Schmon, is from a poor and devout Roman Catholic background. At 31 she was managing a small restaurant when handsome Frank Shields walked in one night. (5)
    Teri Schmon Shields has worked all her life, and so has Brooke, (6) Since 1980 their average yearly income has been $1 million. Brooke Shields and Company has only one product: Brooke Shields.
    Not surprisingly, Brooke is shy with strangers. She is serious about her studies at Princeton, and quite brainy, (7)
    Brooke is unwavering in her ambition to become an even better film star. When she talks about acting she gets interested and comes across as a very nice girl who would really like to get to grips with her profession.
    At eighteen, will Brookie, as her friends call her, now come out of her shell, assert her own personality which is really very appealing - and then go on to real acting, unafraid to show her emotions? (8)

(Rosemary Wittman Lamb in the Sunday Express magazine)

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II. EXTRACTING MAIN IDEAS

    Choose a suitable heading for each paragraph from the list below. Type the number of the paragraph in the box.
a) Mother's roots
b) Behind the facade
c) Mothering Brooke
d) What next for Brooke?
e) First impressions
f) Brooke on acting.
g) A split personality?
i) The family business

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III. DEALING WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS

Suggestions:
    You can understand the general sense or the passage as a whole without knowing what every word means. These techniques may help you:
- Decide whether you need to understand the exact meaning of the unfamiliar word in order to understand the general sense or the passage.
- Decide what part of speech the word is.
- Look in the context for clues to its general sense.
- Read on and confirm or revise your guess.
1. The following sentences are taken from the passage, but in each, there is one word missing. Without looking back at the passage, think of suitable words to fill the blanks. Write down any word which you think might fill in the blank.
Example : a) skin, texture, complexion
a) 'And that famous face! A like honey and cream.'
b) 'Green eyes skillfully made up that at you bright and clear.'
c) 'Who is the real Brooke Shields? Sexy teenage or a sweet romantic girl?'
d) 'Brooke's height and looks come from her father's side. She the Shields looks and athleticism.'
e) 'She is serious about her studies and quite .'
f) 'Will Brookie (...) now come out of her , assert her own personality?'

Answer Key:

    Look at the passage to check whether you guessed correctly. If the word you guessed wasn't exactly the word in the passage, read on and decide whether it means more or less the same.
2. There may be other words in the passage which you don't understand. Use the four techniques to guess their general meaning.

IV. INFERRING

    Work in pairs. Discuss what evidence there is in the passage for the following statements.
a) The writer thinks Brooke is attractive.

Example:

a) The writer thinks Brooke is attractive because he describes her as 'a sexy teenage siren.'

b) Brooke's looks do not come from her mother.

c) Brooke's mother is a competent business woman.

d) Brooke does not live with her father.

e) Brooke is not quite grown up yet.

f) Brooke is firmly controlled by her mother.

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Unit 3:Understanding Text Organization

    Understanding text organisation means being able to achieve successful comprehension of a passage and being able to recognize how a passage is organized, how sentences are joined together to make paragraphs, how paragraphs are combined into text, and how this organisation is signaled. These will help students to read faster, to look for the information easier as they can predict what is likely to follow
    This ability can be checked by different tasks
- completing the outline of a passage
- rearranging paragraphs
- inserting sentences into a passage

A. COMPLETING THE OUTLINE OF A PASSAGE

    EXERCISE 1
    Tsal Chih Chung is one of Taiwan's most famous cartoonists, and his cartoons are enjoyed by people in many different countries in Asia. His books of cartoons have now become bestsellers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and even Japan.
    As soon as he could hold a pencil or brush, Tsal Chih Chung lived only for drawing. Everyday he practiced drawing people and things around him as well as characters and scenes from his favorite stories. When he was only fifteen years old, he left home to work for a publisher in Taipei. At first he was happy there as he worked hard to illustrate different kinds of books. He soon began to realize, however, that he enjoyed drawing cartoons far more than drawing illustrations for books. Consequently, two years later he decided to leave his job as a book illustrator and to concentrate on drawing cartoon strips. He was determined to succeed as a cartoonist even if it meant "living on instant noodles" in order to establish himself.
    Now approaching the age of fifty, Tsal Chih Chung has achieved something unusual for a modern cartoonist. He has become outstandingly successful at transforming Chinese literature and philosophy into humorous comic stories. In this way, he has made the Chinese classics familiar to thousands of people.
    In recognition of his great achievement, several years ago Tsal Chih Chung was given an award as one of the Ten Outstanding Young People of Taiwan. Since then, he had won many prizes, and his cartoons have become popular in counties throughout Asia, America and Europe. So far, he has published more than twenty comic books. Ten of these are about ancient Chinese philosophers, and the remainder are based on Chinese historical and literary classics.
    Many of Tsal Chih Chung's books of cartoons and comics have now been published in English in countries like Singapore. His books have been translated into several other languages, including Japanese, Korean and Thai. Even publishers in countries like France and Indonesia have recently signed agreements for permission to publish his cartoon strips.
    Complete the following notes on the text

TSAL CHIH CHUNG 1. Early life   Loved Left 2. First job Got job in Taipei as after 2 years 3. His cartoons Draws cartoons based on 4. His achievements   Awarded Cartoons popular in  into English and other languages Has brought to

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EXERCISE 2

    1. The habits of those who constantly play video games are of great interest to people working in the video game industry. If video games are going to be one of the most attractive features of future interactive television systems, it is important for manufacturers to know what types of games to produce, how best to present such games on interactive video, and how to ensure that such games maintain these fascination for people. Above all, it is essential to build up detailed profiles of people who are addicted to video games.
    2. Until recently, the chief market for video games has been boys aged eight to fifteen. The fascination for interactive video games is seen in its purest form in this group. Video games appeal to some deep instinct in boys, who find it impossible to tear themselves away from them. Schoolwork is neglected, health is damaged, and even eating habits are affected. Girls of the same age, however, are entirely different, demonstrating far greater freedom from the hold of video games. Quite simply, they can take video games in their stride, being able to play them when they want and then leave them alone.
    3. A few psychologists feel that video games may serve chiefly as a refuge for boys, who develop at a far slower rate than girls do in their early teens. As a result, young teenage boys often feel embarrassed and anxious in their dealings with girls of their age and tend to withdraw into sports, clubs, hobbies - and above all video gaming.
    4. Aware of the reliance on boys of such a relatively narrow age group, some video games manufacturers have tried to attract younger boys while others have concentrated on providing an older audience with an excuse to extend its game-playing habits into adulthood. These attempts have certainly had some success, though, it must be admitted, of a fairly limited nature in comparison with the huge success of the eight to fifteen age group.
    5. No one has yet succeeded, however, in making video games attractive to the largest market of all: Young adult women. These women buy more novels and watch more films and television dramas than any other single section of the population - but few show interest in video games. Since Hollywood has undoubtedly the best experience and expertise in bringing stories to life on the screen, several large video game companies now feel it is time to join forces with the film industry. They feel that video games made by top-rate film directors and film stars must inevitably succeed in attracting women. Already well-known actors are being recruited to serve as models for the behavior and actions of the cartoon characters in video games. But, of course, such developments cannot guarantee the essential ingredient of any game: namely that it is such fun to play that it is irresistible.
Complete the following notes with the information from the reading text. Write one word or several words in each blank.
Important for manufacturers to know (1)
Chief market now = (2)
Dangers = (3)
But not (4)
Reasons for popularity with boys = (5)
Attempts to expand markets to include (6)
and (7)
Largest future market = (8)
To succeed here, it is necessary to (9)
But chief ingredient of video games = (10)

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B. REARRANGING PARAGRAPHS

    EXERCISE 1
    Put the following paragraphs in the right order to make a complete passage and then write a heading for each paragraph. The first has been done as an example.

1. The increase in the life expectancy throughout the world.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

    A. One way of increasing lifespan may be by means of genetic engineering. Scientists have doubled the life of a certain type of fly from 25 to 50 days by using the files that live the longest for breeding. It is thought that the flies have over 100 genes which control the process of aging. Humans probably have more than 1,000 such genes which control the processing of ageing.Humans probably have more than 1, 000 such genes. If some of these can be identified and treated in some way, it may be feasible to delay the ageing process.
    B. The main reason for this increase in average life expectancy over the last 150 years are higher standards of living and improvements in medicine and health care. Nowadays, fewer children die at an early age, doctors can kill many diseases which used to be fatal, and nutritional standards have improved. Many doctors think that future developments in the fight against diseases such as cancer will further raise life expectancy.
    C. However, despite the rise in average life expectancy, there does not seem to have been an increase in maximum lifespan. In other words, more people are living longer today than in the past, but the longest time that anyone lives has not changed much over many centuries. The longest that a human is known to have lived is 120 years; this figure compares with the maximum life expectancies of 150 years for a tortoise and three-and-a-half years for a mouse. The age of 120 years seems to be a limit for human life. The challenge for scientists is to raise this limit.
    D. If you don’t want to bother with these rather unusual ways of increasing your lifespan, you could simply pay attention to the advice given by most doctors, which is to have a balanced diet with lots of fruits an vegetables and to take regular exercise to keep your body fit. In the end, of course, a balanced diet and plenty of exercise may not prolong your life very much, but they should help to ensure that you enjoy it by staying fit and healthy until the end!
    E. People are getting older – an obvious truth, isn’t it? Everyone ages with the passing of time. But there is another meaning to this unavoidable fact. It is that people’s life expectancy is increasing and there are a growing number of people in the world who live longer than ever before. In 1900 there were between 10 and 17 million people aged 65 or older, they made up less than 1% of the world’s population. Now there are about 345 million people in this age group, constituting over 6% of the world's population. Average life expectancy has increased from 26 years 2,000 years ago, to 49 years at the beginning of the twentieth century and to 76 years in many countries today. The Japanese have longest life expectancy, with women living to an average age of 82.5 years and men to 76.2.
    F. Another way in which diet may promote long life is through the intake of vitamin E. This vitamin helps to protect the body from attack by free radicals, which speed up the ageing process. Scientists studying people over 100 years old found that they had high levels of vitamin E in their bodies, while in an experiment people who took extra vitamin E had 40 % less risk of suffering from heart disease than others.
    G. It may also be possible to increase lifespan by altering diet in various ways. In experiments on rats and other animals, scientists have found that reducing the number of calories taken in by the animals actually increases their lifespan. Although this may seem strange, it is supported by the evidence of a small group of people who lived in a specially- constructed environment in order to see how people can adapt to living on another planet such as Mars. These people grew their own food inside the place where they lived, but because of problems with food production their diet was very restricted for several months. Surprisingly, their blood pressure and cholesterol levels fell and the immune systems of their bodies functioned more efficiently than before. There is obvious a limit to the reduction of calorie intake and most people would probably not be very happy restricting their diet in this way, but scientists may discover a way of producing the effects of calorie restriction without causing feelings of hunger.

Answer Key:

EXERCISE 2

Put the following paragraphs in the right order to make a complete passage

Theodore Dreiser

 A. Dreiser first tried his hand at fiction by writing short stories rather than novels, and the first four short stories that he wrote were published. It was rather unusual for a novice writer to achieve so much so quickly. Based on this, he was encouraged to write a novel that would accurately depict the harsh life of the city, and the novel Sister Carrie was the result of his effort. This novel chronicles the life of Carrie Meeber, a small-town girl who goes to Chicago in a quest for fame and fortune. As Carrie progresses from factory worker to Broadway star by manipulating anyone in her path, Dreiser sends a clear message about the tragedy of life that is devoted purely to the quest for money.
    B. After the failure of the novel that was so meaningful to him, Dreiser suffered a nervous breakdown; he was depressed, stricken with severe headaches, and unable to sleep for days on end. Having sunk to a point where he was considering suicide, he was sent by his brother to a sanatorium in White Plains, New York, where he eventually recovered. After leaving the sanatorium, he took a position as an editor for Butterick’s. This company was one that published magazines to promote sewing and the sale of clothing patterns. He was successful in this position, and was eventually able to purchase a one-third interest in a new publishing company, B. W. Dodge, which republished Dreiser’s novel Sister Carrie. This new release of the novel proved considerably more successful than the first release had been. In its first year, the reissued version of Sister Carrie sold 4,500 copies, with strong reviews, and the next year it sold more than 10,000 copies. The recognition that accompanied the success of the novel was based not only on the power of the description of the perils of urban life but also on the new trend in literature that Dreiser was credited with establishing.
    C. Dreiser was born in 1871 into a large family whose fortunes had in the recent past taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Before Theodore’s birth, his father had built up a successful factory business only to lose it to a fire. The family was rather abruptly thrust into poverty, and Theodore spent his youth moving from place to place in the Midwest as the family tried desperately to reestablish itself financially. He left home at the age of sixteen. At this young age, he moved alone to Chicago and supported himself by taking odd jobs. After earning some money he spent a year at Indiana University but left school and returned to Chicago, yearning for the glamour and excitement that it offered. At the age of twenty-two, he began work as a reporter for a small newspaper in Chicago, the Daily Globe, and later worked on newspapers in Pittsburgh, Cleverland, Saint Louis, and New York City. In his work as a reporter, he was witness to the seamier side of life and was responsible for recording events that befell the less fortunate in the city, the beggars, the alcoholics, the prostitutes, and the working poor.
    D. Theodore Dreiser, the American author best known for the novel Sister Carrie (1912), introduced a powerful style of writing that had a profound influence on the writers that followed him, from Steinbeck to Fitzgerald and Hemingway. It was in Sister Carrie that Theodore Dreiser created a fictional account that laid bare the harsh reality of life in the big city and in which Dreiser established himself as the architect of a new genre. This forceful first novel set a new path for American novels at the turn of the last century.
    E. Sister Carrie, unfortunately for Dreiser, did not achieve immediate success. The novel was accepted for publication by Doubleday, but Dreiser was immediately asked to make major revisions to the novel. These changes were intended to tone down some of the starker and more scandalous descriptions. When Dreiser refused to make the revisions, Doubleday published only a limited number of copies of the book and refused to promote or advertise it. Published in limited release and without the backing of the company, the novel was a dismal failure, selling fewer than 500 copies.

1	2	3	4	5

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C. INSERTING SENTENCES INTO A PASSAGE

Remember the following tips and hints when do this type of exercises

     EXERCISE 1

Popcorn

    One method of popping corn involved skewering an ear of corn on a stick and roasting it until the kernels popped off the ear. Corn was also popped by first cutting the kernels off the cob, throwing them into a fire, and gathering them as they popped out of the fire. In a final method for popping corn, sand and unpopped kernels of corn were mixed together in a cooking pot and heated until the corn popped to the surface of the sand in the pot.
    This Traditional Native American dish was quite a novelty to newcomers to the Americas. Columbus and his sailors found natives in the West Indies wearing popcorn necklaces, and explorer Hernando Cortes described the use of popcorn amulets in the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs. According to legendary descriptions of the celebratory meal, Quadequinna, the brother of Chief Massasoit, contributed several deerskin bags of popcorn to the celebration.

    Insert the following sentences into the two paragraphs above

1. Native Americans have been popping corn for at least 5,000 years, using a variety of different methods.
Before the sentence
2. A century after these early explorers, the Pilgrims at Plymouth may have been introduced to popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
Before the sentence

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EXERCISE 2

Lions

    Something unusual about lions is that they hunt in groups. Group hunting is beneficial to lions because it means that much larger prey can be captured by the lions. It also means that individual lions expend much less energy during a hunt.
    There is a standard pattern to the process of hunting in groups. The process is initiated by a single female, who stations herself a raised elevation to serve as a lookout to spot potential prey. When prey is spotted, a group of young lionesses advances on the herd and pushes the herd in the direction of a different lioness who has hidden herself downwind. It is up to this concealed female to choose the weakest member of the herd for the kill.
    As can be seen from this description of the process, it is the females rather than the male or males in the pride that take part in the kill. The younger and stronger females are the ones who go on the attack. While the females are on the attack, the males stay behind to protect the rest of the pride from attack by predators such as hyenas.
    Insert the following sentences into the three paragraphs above:
1. Other cats do not.
Before the sentence
2. This is usually accomplished by knocking their prey to the ground and breaking its neck.
After the sentence
3. Thus, the males have a defensive rather than an offensive role.
After the sentence

Answer Key:

EXERCISE 3

Accidental Inventions

    A number of products that we commonly use today were developed quite by accident. Two of many possible examples of this concepts are the leotard and the Popsicle, each of which came about when an insightful person recognized a potential benefit in a negative situation.
    The first of these accidental inventions is the leotard, a close-fitting, one-piece garment worn today by dancers, gymnasts, and acrobats, among others. In 1828, a circus performer named Nelson Hower was faced with the prospect of missing his performance because his costume was at the cleaners. Instead of canceling his part of the show, he decided to perform in his long underwear. Soon, other circus performers began performing the same way. When popular acrobat Jules Leotard adopted the style, it became known as the leotard.
    Another product invented by chance was the Popsicle. In 1905, eleven-year-old Frank Epperson stirred up a drink of fruit-flavored powder and soda water and then mistakenly left the drink, the spoon in it, out on the back porch overnight. As the temperature dropped that night, the soda water froze around the spoon, creating a tasty treat. Years later, remembering how enjoyable the treat had been, Epperson went into business producing Popsicles.
    Insert the following sentences into the three paragraphs above:
1. They enjoyed the comfort of performing in underwear rather than costumes.
After the sentence
2. It was a taste sensation that stayed on his mind.
After the sentence

Answer Key:

EXERCISE 4

Uranium

    Uranium, a radioactive metal named after the planet Uranus, is a primary source of energy in nuclear power plants and certain nuclear weapons. It occurs naturally in three different isotopes, which differ in their facility in undergoing nuclear fission.
    The three naturally occurring isotopes of uranium are U-234, U-235 and U-238. Each of these isotopes has the same atomic number of 92, which is the number of protons in the nucleus. However, each has a different number of neutrons and thus has a different atomic mass, which is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons.
    Of these three naturally occurring isotopes of uranium, U-238 is by far the most common, while U-235 is the most capable of undergoing nuclear fission. More than 99 percent of all naturally occurring uranium is U-238, while U-234 and U-235 each makes up less than 1 percent. Nuclear fission can occur when a U-235 nucleus is struck by a neutron, and the nucleus splits, releasing energy and releasing two or more neutrons. However, nuclear fission rarely involves a U-238 or a U-234 nucleus because it is unusual for either of these nuclei to break apart when struck by a neutron.
Insert the following sentences into the three paragraphs above:
1. U-234 has 92 protons and 142 neutrons for an atomic mass of 234, U-235 has 92 protons and 143 neutrons for a total of 235, and U-238 has 92 protons and 146 neutrons for a total of 238.
After the sentence
2. These neutrons can create a chain reaction by causing other U-235 nuclei to break up.
After the sentence

Answer Key: