Section 1: Keep a watchful eye on the bridges

A. Most road and rail bridges are only inspected visually, if at all. Every few months, engineers
have to clamber over the structure in an attempt to find problems before the bridge shows
obvious signs of damage. Technologies developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New
Mexico, and Texas A&M University may replace these surveys with microwave sensors that
constantly monitor the condition of bridges.

B. ” The device uses microwaves to measure the distance between the sensor and the bridge,
much like radar does,” says Albert Migliori, a Los Alamos physicist “Any load on the bridge
– such as traffic – induces displacements, which change that distance as the bridge moves up
and down.” By monitoring these movements over several minutes, the researchers can find out
how the bridge resonates. Changes in its behavior can give an early warning of damage.

C. The Interstate 40 bridge over the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque provided the researchers
with a rare opportunity to text their ideas. Chuck Farrar, an engineer at Los Alamos, explains:
“The New Mexico authorities decided to raze this bridge and replace it. We were able to mount
instruments on it, test it under various load conditions and even inflict damage just before it
was demolished.” In the 1960s and 1970s, 2500 similar bridges were built in the US. They
have two steel girders supporting the load in each section. Highway experts know that this
design is “fracture critical” because a failure in either girder would cause the bridge to fail.

D. After setting up the microwave dish on the ground below the bridge, the Los Alamos team
installed conventional accelerometers at several points along the span to measure its motion.
They then tested the bridge while traffic roared across it and while subjecting it to pounding
from a “shaker”, which delivered precise punches to a specific point on the road.

E. ―We then created damage that we hoped would simulate fatigue cracks that can occur in
steel girders,‖ says Farrar. They first cut a slot about 60 centimeters long in the middle of one
girder. They then extended the cut until it reached the bottom of the girder and finally they cut
across the flange – the bottom of the girder‘s “I” shape.

F. The initial, crude analysis of the bridge‘s behavior, based on the frequency at which the
bridge resonates, did not indicate that anything was wrong until the flange was damaged. But
later the data were reanalyzed with algorithms that took into account changes in the mode
shapes of the structure – shapes that the structure takes on when excited at a particular
frequency. These more sophisticated algorithms, which were developed by Norris Stubbs at
Texas A&M University, successfully identified and located the damage caused by the initial
cut.

G. “When any structure vibrates, the energy is distributed throughout with some points not
moving, while others vibrate strongly at various frequencies,” says Stubbs. “My algorithms use
pattern recognition to detect changes in the distribution of this energy.” NASA already uses
Stubbs‘ method to check the behavior of the body flap that slows space shuttles down after
they land.

H. A commercial system based on the Los Alamos hardware is now available, complete with
the Stubbs algorithms, from the Quatro Corporation in Albuquerque for about $100,000. Tim
Darling, another Los Alamos physicist working on the microwave interferometer with Migliori,
says that as the electronics become cheaper, a microwave inspection system will eventually be
applied to most large bridges in the US. “In a decade I would like to see a battery or solar-
powered package mounted under each bridge, scanning it every day to detect changes,” he says.

Questions 1 – 4
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.

1 How did the traditional way to prevent damage of the bridges before the invention of
new monitoring system

A Bridges has to be tested in every movement on two points.

B Bridges has to be closely monitored by microwave devices.
C Bridges has already been monitored by sensors.
D Bridges has to be frequently inspected by professional workers with naked eyes.

2 How does the new microwave monitors find out the problems of bridges

A by changeling the distance between the positions of devices

B by controlling the traffic flow on the bridges
C by monitoring the distance caused by traffic between two points
D by displacement of the several critical parts in the bridges

3 Why did the expert believe there is a problem for the design called ―fracture critical‖

A Engineers failed to apply the newly developed construction materials.

B There was not enough finance to repair the bridges.
C The supporting parts of the bridges may crack and cause the bridge to fail.
D There was bigger traffic load conditions than the designers had anticipated.

4 Defect was not recognized by a basic method in the beginning

A until the mid of faces of bridges has fractures.

B until the damage appears along and down to the flanges.
C until the points on the road have been punched.
D until the frequency of resonates appears disordered.

Questions 5 – 8
Filling the blanks in the diagram labels.
Write the correct answer in boxes 5 – 8 on your answer sheet.
Questions 9 – 13
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A – H.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A – H, in boxes 9 – 13 on your answer sheet.

9 how is the pressure that they have many a great chance to test bridges
10 a ten-year positive change for microwave device
11 the chance they get a honorable contract
12 explanation of the mechanism for the new microwave monitoring to work
13 how is the damage deliberately created by the researchers

Section 2: London Swaying Footbridge

A. In September 1996 a competition was organized by the Financial Times in association with
the London Borough of Southwark to design a new footbridge across the Thames. The
competition attracted over 200 entries and was won by a team comprising Amp (engineers),
Foster and Partners (architects) and the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro.

B. The bridge opened to the public on 10 June 2000. Up to 100,000 people crossed it that day
with up to 2000 people on the bridge at any one time. At first, the bridge was still. Then it
began to sway, just slightly. Then, almost from one moment to the next, when large groups of
people were crossing，the wobble intensified. This movement became sufficiently large for
people to stop walking to retain their balance and sometimes to hold onto the hand rails for
support. It was decided immediately to limit the number of people on the bridge, but even so
the deck movement was sufficient to be uncomfortable and to raise concern for public safety
so that on 12 June the bridge was closed until the problem could be solved.

C. The embarrassed engineers found the videotape that day which showed the center span
swaying about 3 inches side to side every second. The engineers first thought that winds might
be exerting excessive force on the many large flags and banners bedecking the bridge for its
gala premiere. What‘s more, they also discovered that the pedestrians also played a key role.
Human activities, such as walking, running ，dumping, swaying, etc. could cause horizontal
forces which in turn could cause excessive dynamic vibration in the lateral direction in the
bridge. As the structure began moving, pedestrians their gait to the same lateral rhythm as the
bridge. The adjusted footsteps magnified the motion – just like when four people all stand up
in a small boat at the same time. As more pedestrians locked into the same rhythm, the
increasing oscillations led to the dramatic swaying captured on film.

D. In order to design a method of reducing the movements, the force exerted by the pedestrians
had to be quantified and related to the motion of the bridge. Although there are some
descriptions of this phenomenon in existing literature, none of these actually quantifies the
force. So there was no quantitative analytical way to design the bridge against this effect. An
immediate research program was launched by the bridge‘s engineering designers Ove Arup,
supported by a number of universities and research organizations.

E. The tests at the University of Southampton involved a person walking “on the spot” on a
small shake table. The tests at Imperial College involved persons walking along a specially
built, 7.2m-long platform which could be driven laterally at different frequencies and
amplitudes. Each type of test had its limitations. The Imperial College tests were only able to
capture 7-8 footsteps, and the “walking on the spot” tests, although monitoring many footsteps,
could not investigate normal forward walking. Neither test could investigate any influence of
other people in a crowd on the behavior of the individual being tested.

F. The results of the laboratory tests provided information which enabled the initial design of
a retro – fit to be progressed. However, the limitations of these tests was clear and it was felt
that the only way to replicate properly the precise conditions of the Millennium Bridge was to
carry out crowd tests on the bridge deck itself. These tests done by the Arup engineers could
incorporate factors not possible in the laboratory tests. The first of these was carried out with
100 people in July 2000. The results of these tests were used to refine the load model for the
pedestrians. A second series of crowd tests was carried out on the bridge in December 2000.
The purpose of these tests was to further validate the design assumptions and to load test a
prototype danger installation. The test was carried out with 275 people.

G. Unless the usage of the bridge was to be greatly restricted, only two generic options to
improve its performance were considered feasible. The first was to increase the stiffness of the
bridge to move all its lateral natural frequencies out of the range that could be excited by the
lateral footfall forces, and the second was to increase the damping of the bridge to reduce the
resonant response.

Questions 14 – 17
Choose FOUR letters, A – H. Write the correct letters in boxes 14 – 17 on your answer sheet.
Which FOUR of the following situation were witnessed on the opening ceremony of the
bridge

A The frequency of oscillation increased after some time.

B All the engineers went to see the ceremony that day.
C The design of the bridge astonished the people.
D Unexpected sideways movement of the bridge occurred.
E Pedestrians had difficulty in walking on the deck.
F The bridge fell down when people tried to retain their balance.
G Vibration could be detected on the deck by the pedestrians.
H It was raining when the ceremony began.
Questions 18 – 22
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage, using NO MORE
THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer. Write your answers in
boxes 18 – 22 on your answer sheet.

After the opening ceremony, the embarrassed engineers tried to find out the reason of the
bridge‘s wobbling. Judged from the videotape, they thought that 18 ___________ and 19
___________ might create excessive force on the bridge. The distribution of 20 ___________
resulted from human I activities could cause 21 ___________ throughout the structure. This
swaying prompted people to start adjusting the way they walk, which in turn reinforced the 22
___________

Questions 23 – 26
Complete the table below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading
Passage 2 for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23 – 26 on your answer sheet.

Section 3: Language Strategy in Multinational Company

A. The importance of language management in multinational companies has never been greater
than today. Multinationals are becoming ever more conscious of the importance of global
coordination as a source of competitive advantage and language remains the ultimate barrier to
aspirations of international harmonization. Before attempting to consider language
management strategies, companies will have to evaluate the magnitude of the language barrier
confronting them and in doing so they will need to examine it in three dimensions: the
Language Diversity, the Language Penetration and the Language Sophistication. Companies
next need to turn their attention to how they should best manage language. There is a range of
options from which MNCs can formulate their language strategy.

B. Lingua Franca: The simplest answer, though realistic only for English speaking companies,
is to rely on ones native tongue. As recently as 1991 a survey of British exporting companies
found that over a third used English exclusively in dealings with foreign customers. This
attitude that “one language fits all” has also been carried through into the Internet age. A survey
of the web sites of top American companies confirmed that over half made no provision for
foreign language access, and another found that less than 10% of leading companies were able
to respond adequately to emails other than in the company‘s language. Widespread though it
is however, reliance on a single language is a strategy that is fatally flawed. It makes no
allowance for the growing trend in Linguistic Nationalism whereby buyers in Asia, South
America and the Middle East in particular are asserting their right to “work in the language of
the customer”. It also fails to recognize the increasing vitality of languages such as Spanish,
Arabic and Chinese that overtime are likely to challenge the dominance of English as a lingua
franca. In the IT arena it ignores the rapid globalization of the Internet where the number of
English-language ecommerce transactions, emails and web sites, is rapidly diminishing as a
percentage of the total. Finally, the total reliance on a single language puts the English speaker
at risk in negotiations. Contracts, rules and legislation are invariably written in the local
language, and a company unable to operate in that language is vulnerable.

C. Functional Multilingualism: Another improvised approach to Language is to rely on what

has been termed “Functional Multilingualism”. Essentially what this means is to muddle
through, relying on a mix of languages, pidgins and gestures to communicate by whatever
means the parties have at their disposal. In a social context such a shared effort to make one
another understand might be considered an aid to the bonding process with the frustration of
communication being regularly punctuated by moments of absurdity and humor. However, as
the basis for business negotiations it appears very hit-and-nuts. And yet Hagen‘s recent study
suggests that 16% of international business transaction; are conducted in a “cocktail of
languages.” Functional Multilingualism shares the same defects as reliance on a lingua franca
and increases the probability of cognitive divergence between the parties engaged in the
communication.

D. External Language Resources: A more rational and obvious response to the language
barrier is to employ external resources such as translators and interpreters, and certainly there
are many excellent companies specialized in these fields. However, such a response is by no
means an end to the language barrier. For a start these services can be very expensive with a
top Simultaneous Interpreter, commanding daily rates as high as a partner in an international
consulting company. Secondly, any good translator or interpreter will insist that to be fully
effective they must understand the context of the subject matter. This is not always possible.
In some cases it is prohibited by the complexity or specialization of the topic. Sometimes by
lack of preparation time but most often the obstacle is the reluctance of the parties to explain
the wider context to an “outsider”. Another problem is that unless there has been considerable
pre-explaining between the interpreter and his clients it is likely that there will be ambiguity
and cultural overtones in the source messages the interpreter has to work with. They will of
course endeavor to provide a hifidelity translation but in this circumstance the interpreter has
to use initiative and guess work. This clearly injects a potential source of misunderstanding
into the proceedings. Finally while a good interpreter will attempt to convey not only the
meaning but also the spirit of any communication, there can be no doubt that there is a loss of
rhetorical power when communications go through a third party. So in situations requiring
negotiation, persuasion, humor etc. the use of an interpreter is a poor substitute for direct
communication.

E. Training: The immediate and understandable reaction to any skillsshortage in a business is

to consider personnel development and certainly the language training industry is well
developed. Offering programs at almost every level and in numerous languages. However,
without doubting the value of language training no company should be deluded into believing
this to be assured of success. Training in most companies is geared to the economic cycle.
When times are good, money is invested in training. When belts get tightened training is one
of the first “luxuries” to be pared down. In a study conducted across four European countries,
nearly twice as many companies said they needed language training in coming years as had
conducted training in past years. This disparity between “good intentions” and “actual
delivery”, underlines the problems of relying upon training for language skills. Unless the
company is totally committed to sustaining the strategy even though bad times, it will fail.
F. One notable and committed leader in the field of language training has been the Volkswagen
Group. They have developed a language strategy over many years and in many respects can be
regarded as a model of how to manage language professionally. However, the Volkswagen
approach underlines that language training has to be considered a strategic rather than a tactical
solution. In their system to progress from “basics” to “communications competence” in a
language requires the completion of 6 language stages each one demanding approximately 90
hours of refresher course, supported by many more hours of self-study, spread over a 6-9 month
period. The completion of each stage is marked by a post-stage achievement test, which is a
pre-requisite for continued training. So even this professionally managed program expects a
minimum of three years of fairly intensive study to produce an accountant. Engineer, buyer or
salesperson capable of working effectively in a foreign language. Clearly companies intending
to pursue this route need to do so with realistic expectations and with the intention of sustaining
the program over many years. Except in terms of ―brush-up‖ courses for people who were
previously fluent in a foreign language, training cannot be considered a quick fix and hence
other methods will have to be considered.

Questions 27-32

Summary

Complete the following summary of the Whole Paragraphs of Reading Passage, choosing
A-L words from the following options.

Write your answers in boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet.

MNCs often encounter language barrier in their daily strategy, then they seek several
approaches to solve such problems. First, native language gives them a realistic base in a
different language speaking country, but problem turned up when they deal with oversea 27
___________. For example, operation on translation of some key 28 ___________, it is
inevitable to generate differences by rules from different countries. Another way is to rely on
a combination of spoken language and 29 ___________, yet a report written that over one-
tenth business 30 ___________ processed in a party language setting. Third way: hire
translators. However, firstly it is 31 ___________, besides if they are not well-prepared, they
have to take 32 ___________ work.

A gestures B clients C transaction

D assumption; E accurate; F documents; G managers
H body language; I long-term; J effective; K rivals; L costly

Questions 33-39
Answer the questions below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A
NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

33 What understandable reaction does Training pay attention to according to the author?
34 In what term does the writer describe training during economy depression?
35 What contribution does Volkswagen Group do for multinational companies?
36 What does Volkswagen Group consider language training as in their company?
37 How many stages are needed from basic course to advanced in training?
38 How long does a refresher course need normally?
39 At least how long is needed for a specific professional to acquire a foreign language?
Questions 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes 40 on your answer sheet.

40 What is the Main function of this passage?

A to reveal all kinds of language problems that companies may encounter

B to exhibits some well-known cases in dealing with language
C difficulties
D to evaluate various approaches for language barrier in
E multinational companies
F to testify that training is only feasible approach to solve language problem
1. D 14 A 27. B
2. C 15 D 28. F
3. C 16 E 29. A
4. B 17 G 30. C
5. microwave 18 winds 31. L
6.
19 the (pedestrians) 32. D
Accelerometers
33. personnel
7. steel girders 20 Horizontal forces
development
21 (excessive dynamic
8. flange 34. luxury
vibration)
9. C 22 motion 35. model/set a model
10. H 23 Imperial College 36. strategic solution
11. G 24 normal forward walking 37. 6 stages
12. B 25 (the) Arup engineers 38. 90 hours
13. E 26 (the) design assumptions 39. three years
40. C